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Top 10,the police station in the science-hero and science-villain populated city of Neopolis, is actually the 10th precinct in a police force in a series of alternate Earths. This was mentioned in the previous book, but wasn't significant to the plot until this one, where it plays a huge role and is part of the mind-blowing answer to one of the bigger investigations that spans both books. I tore through this because there was so much fascinating stuff going on, but there is a lot of richness that is worth coming back to-- I'm sure when I read it again, I'll find that I missed things.

It was fun to get the answers to one of the bigger investigations that started right away in book 1-- and while I was pretty surprised & taken aback, the resolution made perfect sense. Pretty much all aspects of the writing-- plot, characters, language-- are excellent. Some highlights from this one: there are some fun visual jokes I noticed (I wouldn't be surprised if these were in the first book and I just didn't see them). One of the detectives goes to Grand Central (the main earth in the series of alternates), and the stargate team is sitting in the waiting area in the alternate-earth transportation center. Grand Central is a Roman-centric world (where the Roman empire never fell), and when Corbeau is fighting as a gladiator, I'm pretty sure that I saw agreat rendition of Asterix & Obelix in the crowd looking on.

There's a new cop character who shows up about half-way through book 2-- an AI robot named Joe Pi. I really enjoyed the stuff with this character-- he was believably written, and the human reactions and interactions were really great (and some of them were quite hilarious). Really, all the characters are so diverse and have depth-- all of them have their own stories, even if we only get hints and glimpses of those stories.

I hope there's more Top 10 being written, because I would love to read more of this stuff.

Title:	Top 10 (Book 2)
Author:	Alan Moore
Date published:	2003
Genre:	Graphic Novel
Number of pages:	144

Categories: graphic novel, alan moore,

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This is the first time I actually finished this book. I've read the beginning before and got caught up in something else. Anyway, this is probably one of Lewis' most famous novels. The premise is that Screwtape has a young nephew, Wormwood, with whom he corresponds about life. And both of them happen to be in the service of 'Our Father Below'. Wormwood has a 'patient' who he is supposed to corrrupt and keep from joining the service of the 'Enemy' aka God. Lewis takes the opportunity to imagine what demons might reason about various things, to give a fresh perspective to the reader about sin and choices and what it means to serve God.

Wormwood and Screwtape have a few discussions about prayer. About what it means to corrupt prayer and make the prayers of this patient useless. Which raises plenty of good questions. If you are praying to someone who is not God, but simply your idea of God, does the real God still hear your prayers and answer them? Does praying simply mean thinking good thoughts? By praying, is it better to be vague and nebulous or to ask for specific things and bring up specific questions to God? Prayer is a vital part of knowing God, and so easy to get sidetracked from. Prayer can become a rote piece of the day instead of remembering that prayer is really a conversation that brings humans into the presence of the Most High God, which is not something to be taken lightly. Perhaps all the prayers that are said without real intent and focus behind them are not really said to God at all? And yet -- I know that grace is extended to each of us more often and in greater measures than we could ever deserve. So -- God must extend some grace to us in our prayers and hear us even when we are quite unsure of what we are praying or who we are praying to, as long as we are generally aimed toward Him and not from Him. Perhaps. Still in process on this...

Title:	The Screwtape Letters
Author:	C. S. Lewis
Date published:	1941
Genre:	Religious Fiction
Number of pages:	134

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If you look at the comic book shelf or see all the superhero movies that have been made or are in progress, it seems like there are an awful lot of different superheroes and villains, maybe too many. Well, Moore takes that idea and imagines a world where there were so many superbeings that a city was created just for them-- Neopolis. While this might solve some problems, obviously it causes others-- the major one being, how do you keep some semblance of order in a society of elite, powerful beings? Precinct 10 (affectionately known as Top 10) is the police team that does just that, and all of the cops have the kind of powers necessary to do their jobs in Neopolis.

This series is a bit like Swords of Haven, in that it takes regular mysteries (or incidents of the kind that cops would have to investigate) and adds an extra wrinkle-- in that case, magic; here, it is a world of superpowers, monsters, and aliens. The world of Neopolis is a richly realized one (and I thought the artwork was really fantastic); there is so much detail to take in and enjoy, and it makes the city feel real. The ads on the train, the billboards and trucks on the city streets, the music-- all truly belong to this world of heroes and monsters. Among these many delightful details, there's a boy band named "Sidekix", and just in passing you see a middle-aged mother in her cape & tights with a whiny young teenage daughter in tow who's begging for the new prismatic cape that all the other girls have.

The stories focus somewhat on Robyn Slinger (aka Toy Box), a new cop who has just joined Top 10-- but they don't stick just to her experiences, and there is always plenty going on, so there are several different stories going on at once. All of the cops felt like real characters, with a wide array of gifts and personalities. I particularly liked the power of the pathologist, whose nickname is Micro Maid: she wears a suit that can shrink her, so she can go spelunking in the arteries of corpses and really see what went wrong. This power also comes in pretty handy when the drunk has-been movie monster Gograh (a Godzilla type) comes looking for his son and causing all kind of wreckage.

This is delightful stuff, and I can't wait to read more.

Title:	Top 10 (Book 1)
Author:	Alan Moore
Date published:	2001
Genre:	Graphic Novel
Number of pages:	208
Notes:	recommended by GeeksOn

Categories: graphic novel, alan moore

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This is a different man than the one whose music fills 5 of my cd's, in case you were wondering. A good story. Which is high praise! I like stories and have a hard time slogging through boring or repetitive stories. But this one is real life in a microscope. Typically, we don't get opportunities to hear others' experiences as honestly as this -- even if we are friends, so this book is a gift from Rice to anyone who reads it. To be so honest is dangerous in any context, let alone when so many people might judge.

As a young man, Rice moves down to Jackson, Mississippi, to be part of Voice of Calvary Church, in a largely African American community. Rice is white, and stepped out of his comfort zone in many ways to join this community. (Although he was brought up in Korea, so he was a third culture kid, meaning he had to live in more than one culture and know how to adjust between them, so connects with others who have had to adjust in similar ways. Perhaps this gave him better ability to learn, enjoy, and flex with the African American culture he joined). One thing that he learned throughout his many years in Mississippi is that for reconciliation to take place, everyone has to leave their comfort zone and reach toward the other to find some sort of similar ground, similiar pain, similar joys, similar humanity.

Partway through his time there, Chris gets to become friends with Spencer Perkins (oldest son of John Perkins, who is well known in this field of reconciliation and community development). They both have expectations that aren't met, but they decide to stick together and work through all the problems and issues which arise. Of which there are many. They become yokefellows -- not just friends or coworkers, but two who together can pull a heavier burden than one, to further God's Kingdom. Along with some others, they move into a communal house and get to enjoy and be frustrated by what it means to live in intense community, especially with others who are from another culture and race. Spencer and Chris get to speak in many venues, where their biggest witness is that they get up to speak together (both standing the whole time) as friends who are connected and strong together. Which is what 1 John says -- that as Christians we will be known by our love for one another. A big challenge to live up to, but so sweet when it happens in the power of the Spirit and by the grace of God.

Title:	Grace Matters : A Memoir of Faith, Friendship, and Hope in the Heart of the South
Author:	Chris P. Rice
Date published:	2002
Genre:	Biography
Number of pages:	300
Notes:	Borrowed from Jude

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So, apparently I waited too long between finishing Dragons of Winter Night and beginning this book. Unlike that one, this book picks up almost immediately where the last one left off-- with the companions separated and almost all of them in trouble. It took me a while to remember what everyone had been up to, and to remember not to pay so much attention to the writing-- but once I did, I actually got pretty caught up in the story and was interested to see how things would end. To the red dragons of the first book and the blue dragons of the second, this one finally adds the gold, bronze, and other metal-colored good dragons who help fight the war-- along with the fabled dragonlances that were discovered in the last volume.

While the story was engaging and the conclusion fairly satisfying, I found the characterization inconsistent and troubling. For instance: Tanis, the half-elf and leader of the group, makes many bad decisions and acts out of character-- he's rash and easily angered, yelling at people and alienating them-- all things that he wouldn't normally do. It's supposed to be this big struggle between his human side and his elven side, which is exemplified in his love for a human woman and an elf maiden. But the human woman he loves is evil and selfish-- even her passionate love is really quite selfish; if Tanis still loved her now because of the woman he'd known in the past, still the reader never gets a glimpse of a woman that Tanis could believably fall in love with. Another inconsistent one is the kender, Tasslehoff. Kender are supposed to be fearless, and see even death as an adventure, but Tas is inconsistently brave and fearful. He does certainly encounter some pretty extreme situations, but in most cases his reactions aren't handled with the subtlety that would make his usual fearlessness believable (his delight at flying on the dragons was one enjoyable exception).

It's strange that sometimes it's very pleasing and satisfying to have correctly guessed certain outcomes in a story, but other times it's boring. For instance, I knew that Raistlin was pretty evil (for all that he wore the red robes of a neutral magician through most of the trilogy), and that there was some connection with the ancient wizard Fistandantilus-- so I wasn't that surprised or even that interested when he finally showed his true colors (literally). It worked well with the resolution of the plot, but it just wasn't that exciting. In contrast, from the first time I encountered the fumbling, forgetful old wizard Fizban, I knew there was much more to him than that (and there were plenty of hints for the reader as the stories went on)-- but I didn't guess who he really was, and it was quite a bit better than what I had thought of myself. Maybe that is why the one surprise was disappointing and the other delightful.

Title:	Dragons of Spring Dawning
Author:	Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Date published:	1985
Genre:	Fantasy
Series:	Dragonlance Chronicles
Number of pages:	381

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Borrowed this book for a month while I was on a trip. A friend believes that the movie the princess bride is not so much about Buttercup, Westley, and the others -- but instead about the relationship of the grandfather to the grandson. Which I had never thought about until he said so. But it does make sense. A story within a story. Something to ponder. In the meantime, the main characters of the inner story are Buttercup (the perfect woman), Westley (her true love), Fezzik (friendly powerful giant), Inigo (on a search for his father's murderer), Vizzini (almost a mastermind), Prince Humperdinck (evil troublemaker with too much power), Count Rugen (enjoys others' pain, friend to the prince), and Miracle Max (plays an important role involving undeath). And there you have it. A motley crew of characters who together create a beautiful, humorous story.

Grew up with this movie as a part of my family culture, so it was fun to finally read the book. An interesting mix of fact and fiction. I mean, it's all fiction, but Goldman refers to a book by S. Morgenstern which does not exist. And there are some references to meetings with Morgenstern's lawyers etc. which can be nothing but facetious if there is no such book. But it makes for some interesting questions about what really happened (that Goldman refers to) and what didn't happen at all. [reminds me of 'The Da Vinci Code' in which the author also mixes fact and fiction. But this seems much less dangerous, because the suggestions of truth aren't as vital to inner beliefs.]

As always, there are differences between the book and the movie. But one difference that I was glad for was the Zoo of Death. This is a location the Prince and the Count visit often, and only they (and one other) knows of it. The Prince loves to kill things, so he has collected a wide variety of things to kill with various challenges. Some are strong, some are poisonous, some are fast...whatever he may feel like on certain days. But the descriptions of that place were plenty for my imagination. Seeing it on screen would have drastically changed the movie for the worse. Did like the idea that they created 5 levels with each getting more dangerous. And the fifth level had remained empty until Humperdinck came upon Westley, who was honored by being taken to that level of the most dangerous, most worthy challenger of Humperdinck.

Title:	The Princess Bride
Author:	William Goldman
Date published:	1973
Genre:	Fantasy, Humor
Number of pages:	398
Notes:	Borrowed from Rikki

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