Things Could Have Turned Out Very Differently

Finished The Rook

This was definitely one of my favorite books I read in 2016. It had all kinds of pieces that I enjoyed – magic, monsters, mystery, discovery, betrayal, even a bit of horror – it’s got it all.

I had some idea of who was behind some of the betrayals, but the whole picture was out of my reach – O’Malley did a good job sprinkling in foreshadowing but not giving too much away.

I’m looking forward to the followup novel – Stiletto, but I’ve got other books in my queue before I can get to it.

I could totally see this becoming a TV series or movie and would love to get more stories set in this world.

Starting Grace of Kings by Ken Liu

I really love the first chapter of this book. The concept of a medieval oriental setting where someone flies in and tries to assassinate the Emperor from a kite is pretty cool. I’m looking forward to see if there’s any aerial combat like in the Temeraire books or if this is just a lone assassin.

Amazing Fantasy #15

This comic book contains the origin story of one of the most well known and popular superheroes in the world. Spider-man sees his debut in this book and goes through the standard origin that is familiar to everyone…bit by a radioactive spider, avoid stopping a criminal who later kills Uncle Ben, capture criminal and realize that with great power comes great responsibility.

That last part shows up in the last panel of the story, but up to that point, it could be argued that Peter could go the super villain route. If you look at how he’s treated by his peers in school – no one likes him, classmates make fun of him, even the science teacher laughs at him. It’s so bad that we see him vow revenge on them.

Then, when the police officer confronts him about not helping stop a thief, Peter (now dressed in the spider-man costume) expresses that he’s done being pushed around and instead is gonna focus on personal gain, looking out only for himself.

Sure, he turns things around after Uncle Ben is murdered, but what if Peter blamed society for Ben’s death? What if he was upset that the police didn’t do their job, protecting the citizens, and went after them with his new powers? What if he realized that since the cops couldn’t stop a two-bit thief, they’d never be able to handle a super villain?
Things could have turned out very differently.
There are other stories in the book, but this is the one that makes it a classic.
I give this an A+ – definitely give this a read.