User Profile

But I liked it. It was moving and beautiful. The drawings were uniquely alive. I think many people in my social circles would enjoy it tremendously.

When you stop to think about it, Superman's need to be "just a normal guy" is an extremely strange one. What Moore does here is bring depth to the extremely one-dimentional character of Superman. I havn't read much of Superman because I always thought it to be the worst of all comics (I still think so) but this short story is beautifully drawn and masterfully told.

I cannot, in all honesty, say this is a very heady reading. It's quite shallow, the manga equivalate of an action movie. It's really sexist, sometimes quite misogynistic, and always it's very consistently violent. Things progress very rapidly. In comparison to other classics of the genre (like Berserk) I found it equally exciting but depressingly hollow.

An incredibly sweet book. Calm. Gentle. Insightful, like Thich Nhat Hanh or Nagajuna in Sci-Fi form (lots of Buddhist streaks in this one). You can't get Chambers' realist optimism in nearly any book these days, which makes this a big contribution not only to the literary field but to the ongoing debate about climate catastrophe and radical social change.

I really enjoyed this book for variety of reasons: Firstly, what a wonderful puzzle of a book, a book written by an intelligent author for intelligent readers. You constantly try to piece together the solution to the riddle, and it makes it a very fun read. Secondly, the treatment of sex and gender was incredible. It was queer in a brilliant, unapologetic, illuminating, kind of way (I have rarely read anything like it). Thirdly, I felt like the narrative was captivating and super emotion-driven. It wasn't bland in any kind of it. The style reminded me a lot of early Salman Rushdie or canonical Ursula Le Guin. Lastly, there are some brand new ideas in this book - ideas about life, love, ecology, religion.
Anyway, I'd definitely want to read whatever Byrne writes next.