Green Lantern Corps: Ring Quest. By Peter Tomasi

This book picks up where the Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Wars leaves off for the Green Lantern Corps. Green Lanterns now have the ability to kill yellow lanterns.  Kyle and Guy decide to move to Oa full time and open a new 'watering hole' on Oa called Warriors.  Most of this book revolves the green lanterns collecting yellow rings and imprisoning them on Oa.  But unfortunately, one of the rings has ended up in the hands of Mongul Jr.  Mongul figures if one ring is good, more must be better, so he goes and collects as many rings as he can for himself.  He uses the rings as an opportunity to restore the reputation and power base that his dead father once commanded.  But of course Kyle, Guy and the other Lanterns are there to stand in is way.  We get more back ground on the plant that Mongul uses as a weapon.  Not only are two of the lanterns taken by the plants, but so has Hal in other stories. We find out the plant isn't as evil as we are lead to believe. All in all this was a solid book.  It isn't necessarily a must have, but is an entertaining lantern story in and of it self.

Catching Fire. By Suzanne Collins

After finishing The Hunger Games last week, I couldn't help myself and I read the next book in the trilogy, Catching Fire.  I was lucky enough not to have to purchase this book, as it was a free book to check out for Prime members on Amazon.  Again, just like the first book, I was able to finish this in two days.  This book picks up where the Hunger Games left off.  There is growing unrest in the districts and Katniss finds out that she is a key figure in a movement against the Capitol.  Everyone we know from the end of the first book is back in the second.  We really begin to see how the Capitol controls everyone life.  But just like in real life, History is written by the victors.  And we find out the same thing here.  We all know how the Hunger Games began, but was the war really won as they say it was.  The capital controls all communication in and outside of each of the districts.  There is no communication or traveling to other districts outside of Capitol sanctioned reasons.  As this story goes on, you really begin to despise all things about the capital and those that live in the capital.  This book really ramps up the story telling.  We all know that Peeta has a natural way with the crowds, but he takes the cake in this one.  His undying love for Katniss is still here and as noble as ever.  This book is slightly more violent then the previous one.  There a number of big reveals that I won't spoil.  Just like the Hunger Games this book is defiantly worth reading.  Now I just have to wait a couple more days so that I can check out the final book, Mockingjay, from Amazon.

Amazon's Kindle Fire

Well now that I've had a kindle fire for couple of months now, I think I can be objective about it.  This is not the new Fire HD's that just come out, but is the original kindle fire.  I must state up front, I love technology, but I am not the type that thinks the tablets are the be all, end all in gadgets.  I think they have there use.  I am not a huge fan of the iPad.  It's my phone, only bigger.  The hand full of apps that are written specifically for the iPad and have a different feature set over the iPhone are NOT worth paying the Apple premium to have a really big version of your iPhone.  In my opinion the iPad (not the ipad mini) is to big to comfortably hold in one hand as a e-reader solely.  With that being side, I really do love the size of the kindle fire.  It fits very comfortably in my hand.  No need to actually hold it with two.  While holding with one hand I do not have that uneasy feeling that I might drop it.  It is a good weight.  Not too heavy, not too light. I find myself using it for two things mainly, reading e-book and watching movies.  The movies look fine.  I'm not expecting it to look like my home HDTV, but for all the Netflix streaming and Amazon Prime streaming, everything looks great.  As an e-reader this it where it really impressed me.  My wife has a kindle touch and the e-ink is so nice to read off of.  With the kindle I was afraid that the back light would hurt my eyes reading after a while. Not the case at all.  I've read 5 or 6 full book on it now and love it.  It doesn't hurt my eyes at all.  As far as the other tablet function, I don't really use them.  Like the iPad, the apps feel just like my phone apps only bigger.  Since I always have my phone on me, I don't always carry the kindle unless I'm in the process of reading a book.  The amazon app store is limited.  It is not the full android store.Another benefit you get with having a kindle is that you can check out book (like a library) for free if you have a prime account.  So even if you have Prime you can't use the cloud reader to check books out, but only if you have a kindle device. (at least that is what my experience has been so far.)  So I would recommend this device to based on  the fact that you read a lot of e-book AND have an amazon prime account.  The movies are nice but not a must, and the price point is a lot better then an iPad.  I can't really compare it to another Android tablet as I have not had any time to play with one. I give the Kindle Fire a thumbs up.

The Hunger Games. By Suzanne Collins

So with all the hype and even the movie, I didn't really know much about the hunger games other then the main character is a girl that has to play in a game for her life.  (Running man for kids.)  I accidently purchased it for kindle several months back, and Tuesday I decided to read it.  I finished it Wednesday.  This was a very entertaining book.  It might be goofy but I enjoy well written tween book like Harry Potter and the Inheritance books.  I would lump this book in the same batch.  This book was written very much like a Dan Brown book in the sense that each chapter you really didn't want to stop but just had to know what happened in the next chapter.  Though the chapters ended logically and were a good breaking point, they were written in such a way that you just had to read the next chapter and the next and the next.  To label this book as a gladiator match with kids I think is a little to harsh.  Though there was killing, that wasn't the main point in telling the story.  And when it did happen, there were no gory details and it didn't revel in the fact that kids were killing each other. It was more the emotion of what was going on.  The internal struggle to play the game, the politics, the unjust nature of the hunger games.  There was a very 1984 feel about this world.  Keep all the people busy and never let them see what is really going on.  Force feed them a game they are supposed to love, make it law, and celebrate it.  Almost like a Stockholm syndrome of falling in love with our captor.  There was even a love story element.  For some it might be cheesy, but from the guys point of view, I think its believable.  This book takes place in almost an anti-utopia for the majority of society.  I thought this book was very good. If you looking for an easy read that is exciting, thought provoking, and doesn't have to do with elves, goblins, or orges, then you just might like this book.  

Brightest Day Vol 3. By Geoff Johns

Brightest Day Volume 3 is the final book in the Brightest Day story line.  We already know that at the end of the Blackest Night, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Firestorm, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Deadman (Boston Brand), Jade, Osiris, Hawk, Captain Boomerang, and Zoom are now alive once again.  In this book we finally find out why they have been brought back and how they are all bound together for a greater purpose.  One very interesting concept that is brought up in this book is the challenge to common belief that life is good and death is bad.  Though it is never assumed that life is bad, it does bring up the question this since most people think that death is bad, then that must mean life is good.  The situation that this challenge is brought up in actually works and actually made me stop and think about it.  Now that the story is over, I think it was just OK.  Its ending was kind of ho hum.  The biggest thing I got out of the story was that I was introduced to several new characters that I had previously never known.  Some I liked, others not so much.  I found that I liked Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman and Hawkgirl.  I didn't really care for Firestorm, Deadman, Hawk or any of the others. All in all the story was ok.  If you have already read the first two, or you really loved the Blackest Night and want to learn more about the white lantern, then go ahead and pickup the trade paper back its only like $10 on amazon.  Otherwise you're not really missing much.  With the NEW 52 being released late last year, a lot of this story is kind of pointless in the greater DC universe.  I'm hoping to get some of the NEW 52 stories for my birthday and Christmas this year.

Green Lantern Corps: The Dark Side of Green. By Dave Gibbons

I really enjoyed this one.  This book is definitely titled appropriately. For much of the green lantern corps existence  killing has never been an option. The rings simply will not allow it. This book deals with killing on multiple levels.  The first being given a secret assignment that calls for killing and also murders that actually take place within the corps among corp members.  I'm slowly beginning to like the different members of the green lantern corps.  I already liked Guy Gardner's character already because he played football at the University of Michigan and many times in the art, his constructs have wolverines or the block M in them.  But the thing I'm now starting to appreciate is he has his own moral compass outside of the green lantern corps.  Whether or not the guardians give him an order or refuse him an order, if they do not match up with his own morals, he will find a way to do what he feels is right, regardless of who gets in his way.  Some times that can come across as arrogant and other times just determined.  As lore would have it, it is said that Guy has some of the most raw will power in the corps, so much so that his ring is constantly emitting sparks just to restrain and control all of the will power guy has.  In this book Natu gets a new partner and we begin to see that she start to feel that she may not be all alone after all.  This is book is a very difficult find.  I was lucky enough to check out a comic shop on one of my recent work trips and found that the shop actually had a copy.  I bough this and Green Lantern Corps: Sins of the Star Sapphire.  Both are hard books to come by.  So if you are lucky enough to find this book at a reasonable price, snatch it up.  Its worth the read.

The Ultimates: Ultimate Collection. By Mark Millar

This was my very first Marvel story I have ever read.  Until this point I had only read DC characters. (Mainly because the Green Lantern is my favorite character.)  The Ultimates is an non-canon Avengers story.  This is story of each of the Avengers characters but with different spin.  Having loved the Avengers movie, I read that this was a very fun story involving the Avengers.  Captain America is still a man out of time, Thor is a hippy, Tony Stark is more selfless, Hank Pym and his wife have marital issues.  This avengers (or Ultimates) is more grounded in reality.  There is no past continuity that you need to know to jump into this book.  This is truly a Hollywood style comic book.  Nick Fury looks like Samuel L. Jackson, there is a huge alien invasion, and the art is fantastic.  If you are looking to get your feet web in the comic world, or Marvel world, and really liked the Avengers movie, look no further.  This book will get you hooked.

The Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus. By David Michelinie

Wow!  This took me a while. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow this big tome from my boss.  He spoke very highly of the Todd McFarlane art, and he was correct.  Todd McFarlane does indeed draw an excellent Spider-man.  This was my very first spider-man comic.  It was a lot take in. There was no origin story in this book.  It basically picks up where Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson (now Watson-Parker) are married.  Peter is still struggling with income as tries to pick up photo jobs where he can.  So from the marriage stand point its really interesting.  This omnibus is massive.  Over 800 pages worth of comics.  This is also the oldest comics I have read so far.  Though the early 90's isn't that long ago, story and art have seem to have come a long way.  Like I mentioned before Todd McFarlane draws spider-man so well, the non-super hero art (Peter Parker just walking around) I couldn't have cared less for and it just felt dated to me.  (what can I say, I like modern art)  But what really stood out to me was the story telling.  Unlike most comics today, each issue was a really good story in and off themselves.  Thought there was some carry over from issue to issue, not having read the one previously wasn't that big of a problem.  Each issue was very good and had a different antagonist. I actually enjoyed watching Mary Jane get into trouble and solve her own issues, without have spider-man always saving the day.  If you are already familiar with the spider-man origin story I would definitely recommend this book to you.  It is rather expensive, but the David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane team made this very entertaining.

Green Lantern Corps Vol 1: To Be a Lantern. By Dave Gibbons

Though I really love the idea of the green lantern corps and developing more of the corps mythos in the green lantern corps series, so far it just isn't as engaging as the Hal Jordan run.  This series still seems to be trying to introduce us to the main characters of this series, but is doing it really slowly.  To be a Lantern picks up where Recharge left off.  We get more background and foundation on who the new rookies are, mainly Soranik Natu, Vath Sarn and Isamot Kol.  Though the ground work is interesting, it just seems to be taking a too long.  I do enjoy watching the Soranik Natu character develop.  From hating everything green lantern (She basically inherited Sinestro's ring and had a dislike for all green lanterns) to becoming a green lantern and having her people completely disown her. Even her fellow doctors.  I think she is finally all in as a lantern now. The art was good and so was the story.  There wasn't really a "must have" moment book, so unless you want complete sets, i'd say pass on this one.