Understanding Comics
This a serious discussion of the nature and potential of sequential art written in comic form.
It’s a very persuasive and powerful piece of work.
Probably for people who’d like to have some insight into the theory and practice of comics.
A Big Boy Did It And Ran Away
An essentially silly and massively enjoyable thriller.
It tells the story of Ray, a new father and a new teacher, and what happens when he sees an old university friend at an airport when the friend is meant to be very dead.
Littering the story with all sorts of references to pop culture makes this a very enjoyable read if rather unbelievable.
If you like big dumb action packed thrillers with a very Scottish voice, you’ll like this creation.
Night Watch
This is among the very best Discworld novels, along with the likes of
Small Gods.
A bit darker than normal, and with much less emphasis on the humour, this is an Ankh-Morpork Watch story.
Sam Vimes (who has grown to become perhaps my favourite Discworld character) is thrown into the past to hunt down a psychotic killer and finds he has to relive one of the formative experiences of his youth and take on the mantle of his mentor in order to heal time and get back to his present and his newborn child.
The plot is a device allowing Pratchett to really get under the skin of a character.
It’s a beautiful piece of writing.
24 Hour Party People
This is the novelization of the script of one my favourite films of
recent years.
It’s a very entertaining fictional acccount of the true story of Factory
Records.
The book is by Anthony Wilson who ran Factory Records and who fills the
book with asides that point out the bits of the film that are utterly
untrue, kind of true or just plain true. It’s an enjoyable read