Friday, October 17, 2008

My latest read

I finished reading The Eldritch New Adventures of Becky Sharp by Micah Harris today. It's certainly a unique concept: the villainess of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1847 novel Vanity Fair serving as an agent of the Great Race of Yith from the works of the great H.P. Lovecraft. Obviously, this concept is a little oddball, but Micah makes it work to great effect, and Becky is a delightfully amoral protagonist. Plus, there are plenty of other crossovers appearances and references: Jules Verne's Professor Lidenbrock and Captain Nemo, Herman Melville's Queequeg and Ishmael, King Kong, Edgar Rice Burroughs' Pellucidar (plus Lord Eugenides, a Tarzan analog), Russell Thorndike's Captain Clegg, etc. Definitely recommended for fans of Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Family writings or Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novels.

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