My Top Ten Surprisingly Enjoyable Reads of 2009 -- Part 1

Note: The works mentioned in this list weren’t necessarily published in 2009. In fact, I’m pretty sure that only one or two came out this year. The only qualifying factor the works share is that I picked them up some time over the past year and enjoyed them more than I thought I would.

Also, my reasonings got a bit windier than I'd originally anticipated, so I'm breaking this into two separate posts.  Stay tuned for numbers five through one.

10. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown – Allow me to explain this choice a little before you start booing and hissing. There were two reasons a Dan Brown novel made my list. First, to paraphrase my boss, this is a popcorn book. It’s the prosaic version of a grindhouse film, minus most of the gore and sex. It’s stupid, it’s illogical, it’s mindless fun. Second, I loved how bad the writing, plot and characters were. I mean, come on. It’s almost the exact same plot as The DaVinci Code! For instance: A mysterious murder occurs, dealing with a subject Robert Langdon has just published a book about. The killer is a secretive badass hired by a mysterious villain with nefarious plans that aren’t what they seem. The victim’s daughter is conveniently an expert on certain fields essential to Landgon’s investigation, and they end up fooling around after the big “twist” at the end. Oh, and one of the main characters is disabled. So did I just describe DaVinci or Demons? Or both? You’ll just have to suffer through these bad boys yourself to find out.

9. Rising Stars by J. Michael Straczynski – Fresh of his legendary “Babylon 5” run, one of Straczynski’s first stabs at the comic book industry came in the form of a 24-issue series chronicling the lives of 113 characters, called the “Specials.” All 113 Specials were conceived around the time a mysterious white light illuminated the sky around an Illinois city; as a result, all 113 developed some form of super power as children. The story takes off twenty-something years after the phenomenon. The Specials grew up reluctant celebrities, their powers and identities well-known among society. What begins as a murder mystery quickly metamorphs into something else entirely. And then that something else is switched around, and so on. The scope of Rising Stars changes more than the lousy artists. Honestly, this isn’t Straczynski at his finest; his artists were awful, his characters two dimensional. The appealing part of this read though, is the insight into the younger, fresher mind of Straczynski. All of the signature themes of his later, greater work are visible; the intimate narration, the benevolent collective consciousness. The seeds of his greatness are planted in Rising Stars. [Fun fact: Straczynski recently wrote the screenplay for “The Changeling,” staring Angelina Jolie and directed by Clint Eastwood. Who says comic book writers never amount to anything? Of course, he then went on to write the screenplay for “Ninja Assassin,” so…]

8. Don’t Know Much About the Bible by Kenneth C. Davis – I decided to give this hefty tome a try after reading a favorable review posted by my friend Christian. Generally I steer clear of Bible-related reading, but the lure of potential theological trivia drew me in. Thankfully so. Davis’ book is exhaustively thorough, covering every book in both the new and old testaments. I especially liked the bits about the five (was it five?  I think so) different narrative voices of the Old Testament, the chronology of Moses and his people’s flight from Egypt, and an explanation of who probably came first in the New Testament gospels. For such a big book, this was actually a really quick and pleasant read.

7. Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston – Ladies and gentlemen, pulpy noir is alive and well, and this book is evidence of it. I can’t remember who recommended this one to me, but whoever it was, I owe you one. I picked up the audiobook copy of Stealing soon after landing my first temp job in Washington; it was a thirty minute drive one way, and as a rule I’ll partake in ritual mutilation before I’ll listen to top-forty radio. So, presto. Book on CD, recommended by a mystery somebody. It’s hard to nail down the most appealing aspect of this book. It could be the protagonist Hank, a loveable young down-on-his-luck Sam Malone-esque loser with a drinking problem who was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. It could be the reader, who gave each character their own distinctive sound and did it without being incredibly annoying. Or it could be the inordinate amount of shit that Huston hurls on Hank to transform him into something else entirely by the time the book ends.

6. The Three of Swords by Fritz Leiber – Fantasy prose isn’t usually a genre I muck around in much these days. I paid my dues, I read my allotments of Tolkien and Howard, even made it through a Terry Brooks novel once. But these days if there’s a fantastic adventure in ancient lands to be had, I’ll just as soon read it in the form of a comic book, thank you very much. Which is how I first stumbled onto Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Leiber’s iconic creations. Howard Chaykin and Mike Mignola did six comic book adaptations of Fafhrd and Mouser tales, and they were really good. Good enough to prod me into taking the plunge and try some of the original prose out firsthand. Three of Swords is a collection of the first three Fafhrd and Mouser books penned by Leiber; those three books are all comprised of short stories (I’m not sure, but I don’t think Leiber ever wrote a full-length novel about Fafhrd and Mouser).  The stories are great fun, most notably because Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are both such shits. They’re petty, they bicker, they lie, cheat, womanize and steal. They screw stuff up as often as they get it right, and they’re better characters for it. The ingenuity Leiber shows in creating the world of Lankmar its supporting cast is second to none.  He's got more original content and thought packed into his cities and temples than most fantasy books have orcs.   Don't let the god-awful covers on any of the Leiber books scare you away from a highly enjoyable fantasy read.  If anything, just get a fake book jacket and indulge your inner dungeon-lover incognito.