J. Michael Straczynski/Oliver Coipel Thor

A while back, I caught a preview of the new series of Thor, where the God of Thunder had a few words with Iron Man over certain actions taken during Marvel’s Civil War series. I never saw the conclusion, so when I spotted this collection of the first six issues of J. Michael Straczynski’s Thor relaunch, I grabbed it immediately.

JMS is obviously spending most of these six issues putting his pieces on the board; Thor and his erstwhile alter ego Donald Blake decide they’re bored of being dead and return to Earth, recreating Asgard in – or, more accurately, slightly above – Oklahoma. Then, in a manner slightly reminiscent of Camelot 3000, Thor has to go in search of the reincarnated souls of the Asgardians he wishes to join him and release them from their mundane lives. Also reminiscent of Camelot 3000 is the gender-switch of one of the major players – in this case, Loki, Thor’s long-time enemy. Naturally, as this is the beginning of a new series, not all of Thor’s plans turn out quite as he wished, and there are indications of future troubles in paradise, with the intervention of a quite unexpected foe.

Not a lot actually happens here, as this is six issues of setup and introduction, but the characters are engagingly written and the artwork is lovely. The exploration of Thor’s new situation is engaging, and certainly makes me want to pick up the next collection if it should happen my way.

Ken Follett Code To Zero

I recently read The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, two novels set in medieval England and centred around the building of a cathedral. Reading the Author’s Notes at the end, it appears that Ken Follett had made his living writing thrillers and the like, so I was interested to pick up one of his previous works to compare.

Code to Zero starts with an interesting situation – a man wakes up in a men’s toilets in a railway station with no memory of who he is, or how he got here. As with all amnesia thrillers, the fun is watching the hero gradually discover the person he was before, and Follett doesn’t disappoint.

Extra interest comes with the book’s setting – mere hours before the scheduled launch of America’s answer to Sputnik, Explorer 1. There is Cold War intrigue aplenty here, with a view of just how political the Space Race really was. Today, we tend to look back on it as a scientific push for discovery, but at the time it really did seem like a life and death struggle.

This is an interesting thriller in an interesting time – recommended.

Jeff Lindsay Darkly Dreaming Dexter

I first came across Dexter as a TV series. The basic premise is this: the hero is a serial killer who only kills other killers. Despite what that sounds like, Dexter is a fantastic dark comedic thriller, with an outstanding performance by Michael C. Hall in the lead role. I was actually rather suprised to discover that it was based on a novel, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, and I decided to order it at the library.

The TV series seems to be a faithful adaption, as the novel felt very familiar – certain details are different, with some characters in slightly different jobs, but it’s all minor stuff. It’s as dark as dark can be, as you’d expect when the narrator is a prolific serial killer. Yet there are moments that are laugh-out-loud funny, all due to the character of Dexter, a strangely loveable monster.

It’s been a truism for a long time that the movie adaption is never as good as the original novel. However, I think it may not apply to the TV series of a novel – it’s rare that I finish a full novel and think it’s been far too short, but you get to spend so much more time with Dexter in the series. However, this is still a great novel.