T-shirts and hoodies adorned with Alex Solis‘ “Monkey Business” (aka the cover to The Apes of Wrath) are now available.

I’ve ordered a shirt. So should you. (But a word of advice, best not to wear your hoodie in Florida.)

The Apes of Wrath cover shirts & hoodies now available was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

T-shirts and hoodies adorned with Alex Solis‘ "Monkey Business" (aka the cover to The Apes of Wrath) are now available.

I’ve ordered a shirt. So should you. (But a word of advice, best not to wear your hoodie in Florida.)

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

Unterzakhn
by Leela Corman

Promo copy:

A mesmerizing, heartbreaking graphic novel of immigrant life on New York’s Lower East Side at the turn of the twentieth century, as seen through the eyes of twin sisters whose lives take radically and tragically different paths.

For six-year-old Esther and Fanya, the teeming streets of New York’s Lower East Side circa 1910 are both a fascinating playground and a place where life’s lessons are learned quickly and often cruelly. In drawings that capture both the tumult and the telling details of that street life, Unterzakhn (Yiddish for “Underthings”) tells the story of these sisters: as wide-eyed little girls absorbing the sights and sounds of a neighborhood of struggling immigrants; as teenagers taking their own tentative steps into the wider world (Esther working for a woman who runs both a burlesque theater and a whorehouse, Fanya for an obstetrician who also performs illegal abortions); and, finally, as adults battling for their own piece of the “golden land,” where the difference between just barely surviving and triumphantly succeeding involves, for each of them, painful decisions that will have unavoidably tragic repercussions.

I reviewed this back in February. The best graphic novel I’ve read so far this year.

The McSweeney’s Book of Politics and Musicals
Edited by Chris Monks

Promo copy:

Ever since John Hancock broke into song after signing the Declaration of Independence, American politics and musicals have been inextricably linked. From Alexander Hamilton’s jazz hands, to Chester A. Arthur’s oboe operas, to Newt Gingrich’s off-Broadway sexscapade, You, Me, and My Moon Colony Mistress Makes Three, government and musical theater have joined forces to document our nation’s long history of freedom, partisanship, and dancers on roller skates pretending to be choo choo trains.

To celebrate this grand union of entrenched bureaucracy and song, the patriots at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency (“The Iowa Caucus of humor websites”) offer this riotous collection (peacefully assembled!) of monologues, charts, scripts, lists, diatribes, AND musicals written by the noted fake-musical lyricist, Ben Greenman. On the agenda are…

Fragments from PALIN! THE MUSICAL

Barack Obama’s Undersold 2012 Campaign Slogans

Atlas Shrugged Updated for the Financial Crisis

Your Attempts to Legislate Hunting Man for Sport Reek of Class Warfare

A 1980s Teen Sex Comedy Becomes Politically Uncomfortable

Donald Rumsfeld Memoir Chapter Title Or German Heavy Metal Song?

Noises Political Pundits Would Make If They Were Wild Animals and Not Political Pundits

Ron Paul Gives a Guided Tour of His Navajo Art Collection

Classic Nursery Rhymes, Updated and Revamped for the Recession, As Told to Me By My Father

And much more!

Angels of Vengeance
by John Birmingham
Cover by Mike Bryan

Promo copy:

When an inexplicable wave of energy slammed into North America, millions died. In the rest of the world, wars erupted, borders vanished, and the powerful lost their grip on power. Against this backdrop, with a conflicted U.S. president struggling to make momentous decisions in Seattle and a madman fomenting rebellion in Texas, three women are fighting their own battles—for survival, justice, and revenge.

Special agent Caitlin Monroe moves stealthily through a South American jungle. Her target: a former French official now held prisoner by a ruthless despot. To free the prisoner, Caitlin will kill anyone who gets in her way. And then she will get the truth about how a master terrorist escaped a secret detention center in French Guadeloupe to strike a fatal blow in New York City.

Sofia Peiraro is a teenage girl who witnessed firsthand the murder and mayhem of Texas under the rule of General Mad Jack Blackstone. Sofia might have tried to build a life with her father in the struggling remnants of Kansas City—if a vicious murder hadn’t set her on another course altogether: back to Texas, even to Blackstone himself.

Julianne Balwyn is a British-born aristocrat turned smuggler. Shopping in the most fashionable neighborhood of Darwin, Australia—now a fantastic neo-urban frontier—Jules has a pistol holstered in the small of her lovely back. She is playing the most dangerous game of all: waiting for the person who is hunting her to show his face—so she can kill him first.

Three women in three corners of a world plunged into electrifying chaos. Nation-states struggling for their survival. Immigrants struggling for new lives. John Birmingham’s astounding new novel—the conclusion to the series begun in Without Warning and After America—is an intense adventure that races from the halls of power to shattered streets to gleaming new cities, as humanity struggles to grasp its better angels—and purge its worst demons.

Part II

Books received 4/4/2012 Part I was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

Unterzakhn
by Leela Corman

Promo copy:

A mesmerizing, heartbreaking graphic novel of immigrant life on New York’s Lower East Side at the turn of the twentieth century, as seen through the eyes of twin sisters whose lives take radically and tragically different paths.

For six-year-old Esther and Fanya, the teeming streets of New York’s Lower East Side circa 1910 are both a fascinating playground and a place where life’s lessons are learned quickly and often cruelly. In drawings that capture both the tumult and the telling details of that street life, Unterzakhn (Yiddish for “Underthings”) tells the story of these sisters: as wide-eyed little girls absorbing the sights and sounds of a neighborhood of struggling immigrants; as teenagers taking their own tentative steps into the wider world (Esther working for a woman who runs both a burlesque theater and a whorehouse, Fanya for an obstetrician who also performs illegal abortions); and, finally, as adults battling for their own piece of the “golden land,” where the difference between just barely surviving and triumphantly succeeding involves, for each of them, painful decisions that will have unavoidably tragic repercussions.

I reviewed this back in February. The best graphic novel I’ve read so far this year.

The McSweeney’s Book of Politics and Musicals
Edited by Chris Monks

Promo copy:

Ever since John Hancock broke into song after signing the Declaration of Independence, American politics and musicals have been inextricably linked. From Alexander Hamilton’s jazz hands, to Chester A. Arthur’s oboe operas, to Newt Gingrich’s off-Broadway sexscapade, You, Me, and My Moon Colony Mistress Makes Three, government and musical theater have joined forces to document our nation’s long history of freedom, partisanship, and dancers on roller skates pretending to be choo choo trains.

To celebrate this grand union of entrenched bureaucracy and song, the patriots at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency (“The Iowa Caucus of humor websites”) offer this riotous collection (peacefully assembled!) of monologues, charts, scripts, lists, diatribes, AND musicals written by the noted fake-musical lyricist, Ben Greenman. On the agenda are…

Fragments from PALIN! THE MUSICAL

Barack Obama’s Undersold 2012 Campaign Slogans

Atlas Shrugged Updated for the Financial Crisis

Your Attempts to Legislate Hunting Man for Sport Reek of Class Warfare

A 1980s Teen Sex Comedy Becomes Politically Uncomfortable

Donald Rumsfeld Memoir Chapter Title Or German Heavy Metal Song?

Noises Political Pundits Would Make If They Were Wild Animals and Not Political Pundits

Ron Paul Gives a Guided Tour of His Navajo Art Collection

Classic Nursery Rhymes, Updated and Revamped for the Recession, As Told to Me By My Father

And much more!

Angels of Vengeance
by John Birmingham
Cover by Mike Bryan

Promo copy:

When an inexplicable wave of energy slammed into North America, millions died. In the rest of the world, wars erupted, borders vanished, and the powerful lost their grip on power. Against this backdrop, with a conflicted U.S. president struggling to make momentous decisions in Seattle and a madman fomenting rebellion in Texas, three women are fighting their own battles—for survival, justice, and revenge.

Special agent Caitlin Monroe moves stealthily through a South American jungle. Her target: a former French official now held prisoner by a ruthless despot. To free the prisoner, Caitlin will kill anyone who gets in her way. And then she will get the truth about how a master terrorist escaped a secret detention center in French Guadeloupe to strike a fatal blow in New York City.

Sofia Peiraro is a teenage girl who witnessed firsthand the murder and mayhem of Texas under the rule of General Mad Jack Blackstone. Sofia might have tried to build a life with her father in the struggling remnants of Kansas City—if a vicious murder hadn’t set her on another course altogether: back to Texas, even to Blackstone himself.

Julianne Balwyn is a British-born aristocrat turned smuggler. Shopping in the most fashionable neighborhood of Darwin, Australia—now a fantastic neo-urban frontier—Jules has a pistol holstered in the small of her lovely back. She is playing the most dangerous game of all: waiting for the person who is hunting her to show his face—so she can kill him first.

Three women in three corners of a world plunged into electrifying chaos. Nation-states struggling for their survival. Immigrants struggling for new lives. John Birmingham’s astounding new novel—the conclusion to the series begun in Without Warning and After America—is an intense adventure that races from the halls of power to shattered streets to gleaming new cities, as humanity struggles to grasp its better angels—and purge its worst demons.

Part II

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

Amped
by Daniel H. Wilson

Promo copy:

Technology makes them superhuman. But mere mortals want them kept in their place. The New York Times bestselling author of Robopocalypse creates a stunning, near-future world where technology and humanity clash in surprising ways. The result? The perfect summer blockbuster.

As he did in Robopocalypse, Daniel Wilson masterfully envisions a frightening near-future world. In Amped, people are implanted with a device that makes them capable of superhuman feats. The powerful technology has profound consequences for society, and soon a set of laws is passed that restricts the abilities—and rights—of “amplified” humans. On the day that the Supreme Court passes the first of these laws, twenty-nine-year-old Owen Gray joins the ranks of a new persecuted underclass known as “amps.” Owen is forced to go on the run, desperate to reach an outpost in Oklahoma where, it is rumored, a group of the most enhanced amps may be about to change the world—or destroy it.

Once again, Daniel H. Wilson’s background as a scientist serves him well in this technologically savvy thriller that delivers first-rate entertainment, as Wilson takes the “what if” question in entirely unexpected directions. Fans of Robopocalypse are sure to be delighted, and legions of new fans will want to get “amped” this summer.

Caine’s Law (Acts of Caine: Act of Atonement, Book 2)
by Matthew Stover
Cover by Nara Osga

Promo copy:

SOME LAWS YOU BREAK. SOME BREAK YOU.
AND THEN THERE’S CAINE’S LAW.

From the moment Caine first appeared in the pages of Heroes Die, two things were clear. First, that Matthew Stover was one of the most gifted fantasy writers of his generation. And second, that Caine was a hero whose peers go by such names as Conan and Elric. Like them, Caine was something new: a civilized man who embraced savagery, an actor whose life was a lie, a force of destruction so potent that even gods thought twice about crossing him. Now Stover brings back his greatest creation for his most stunning performance yet.

Caine is washed up and hung out to dry, a crippled husk kept isolated and restrained by the studio that exploited him. Now they have dragged him back for one last deal. But Caine has other plans. Those plans take him back to Overworld, the alternate reality where gods are real and magic is the ultimate weapon. There, in a violent odyssey through time and space, Caine will face the demons of his past, find true love, and just possibly destroy the universe.

Hey, it’s a crappy job, but somebody’s got to do it.

Atlantis Mystery: Blake & Mortimer, Vol. 12
by Edgar P. Jacobs

Promo copy:

Deep under Sao Miguel island, rumoured to be the last emerging part of Atlantis, Professor Mortimer has discovered samples of a mysterious radioactive metal. Could it be the Atlanteans’ legendary orichalcum? When he and his friend Blake set out on an expedition into the depths to find out, sabotage occurs in the form of their old opponent Olrik. And soon, all three will be embroiled in a power struggle far bigger in scope than they could have imagined.

This will be my first exposure to Blake & Mortimer and legendary artist Jacobs. I’m really looking forward to reading it.

Part I

Books received 4/4/2012 Part II was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

Amped
by Daniel H. Wilson

Promo copy:

Technology makes them superhuman. But mere mortals want them kept in their place. The New York Times bestselling author of Robopocalypse creates a stunning, near-future world where technology and humanity clash in surprising ways. The result? The perfect summer blockbuster.

As he did in Robopocalypse, Daniel Wilson masterfully envisions a frightening near-future world. In Amped, people are implanted with a device that makes them capable of superhuman feats. The powerful technology has profound consequences for society, and soon a set of laws is passed that restricts the abilities—and rights—of "amplified" humans. On the day that the Supreme Court passes the first of these laws, twenty-nine-year-old Owen Gray joins the ranks of a new persecuted underclass known as "amps." Owen is forced to go on the run, desperate to reach an outpost in Oklahoma where, it is rumored, a group of the most enhanced amps may be about to change the world—or destroy it.

Once again, Daniel H. Wilson’s background as a scientist serves him well in this technologically savvy thriller that delivers first-rate entertainment, as Wilson takes the "what if" question in entirely unexpected directions. Fans of Robopocalypse are sure to be delighted, and legions of new fans will want to get "amped" this summer.

Caine’s Law (Acts of Caine: Act of Atonement, Book 2)
by Matthew Stover
Cover by Nara Osga

Promo copy:

SOME LAWS YOU BREAK. SOME BREAK YOU.
AND THEN THERE’S CAINE’S LAW.

From the moment Caine first appeared in the pages of Heroes Die, two things were clear. First, that Matthew Stover was one of the most gifted fantasy writers of his generation. And second, that Caine was a hero whose peers go by such names as Conan and Elric. Like them, Caine was something new: a civilized man who embraced savagery, an actor whose life was a lie, a force of destruction so potent that even gods thought twice about crossing him. Now Stover brings back his greatest creation for his most stunning performance yet.

Caine is washed up and hung out to dry, a crippled husk kept isolated and restrained by the studio that exploited him. Now they have dragged him back for one last deal. But Caine has other plans. Those plans take him back to Overworld, the alternate reality where gods are real and magic is the ultimate weapon. There, in a violent odyssey through time and space, Caine will face the demons of his past, find true love, and just possibly destroy the universe.

Hey, it’s a crappy job, but somebody’s got to do it.

Atlantis Mystery: Blake & Mortimer, Vol. 12
by Edgar P. Jacobs

Promo copy:

Deep under Sao Miguel island, rumoured to be the last emerging part of Atlantis, Professor Mortimer has discovered samples of a mysterious radioactive metal. Could it be the Atlanteans’ legendary orichalcum? When he and his friend Blake set out on an expedition into the depths to find out, sabotage occurs in the form of their old opponent Olrik. And soon, all three will be embroiled in a power struggle far bigger in scope than they could have imagined.

This will be my first exposure to Blake & Mortimer and legendary artist Jacobs. I’m really looking forward to reading it.

Part I

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

Jack of Ravens (Kingdom of the Serpent, Book 1)
by Mark Chadbourn
Cover by John Picacio

Promo copy:

A quest of epic reach spans the globe under the mythologies of five great cultures

Jack Churchill, archaeologist and dreamer, walks out of the mist and into Celtic Britain more than two thousand years before he was born, with no knowledge of how he got there. All Jack wants is to get home to his own time where the woman he loves waits for him. Finding his way to the timeless mystical Otherworld, the home of the gods, he plans to while away the days, the years, the millennia, until his own era rolls around again…but nothing is ever that simple. A great Evil waits in modern times and will do all in its power to stop Jack’s return. In a universe where time and space are meaningless, its tendrils
stretch back through the years…. Through Roman times, the Elizabethan age, Victoria’s reign, the Second World War, and the Swinging Sixties, the Evil sets its traps to destroy Jack. Mark Chadbourn gives us a high adventure of dazzling sword fights, passionate romance, and apocalyptic wars in the days leading up to Ragnarok, the End-Times: a breathtaking, surreal vision of twisting realities where nothing is quite what it seems.

False Covenant
by Ari Marmell
Cover by Jason Chan

Promo copy:

The thief Widdershins returns in a new adventure!
It’s been over half a year, now, since the brutal murder of Archbishop William de Laurent during his pilgrimage to the Galicien city of Davillon. During that time, the Church of the Hallowed Pact has assigned a new bishop to the city—but it has also made its displeasure at the death of its clergyman quite clear. Davillon’s economy has suffered beneath the weight of the Church’s disapproval. Much of the populace—angry at the clergy—has turned away from the Church hierarchy, choosing private worship or small, independent shrines. And the bishop, concerned for his new position and angry at the people of Davillon, plans to do something about it.

But a supernatural threat is stalking the nighttime streets—a creature of the other world has come to infiltrate the seedier streets of Davillon, to intertwine its tendrils through the lower echelons of society. Faced with both political upheaval and a supernatural threat to its citizenry, the local representatives of the Church are paralyzed and the Guardsmen are in over their heads.

And then there’s Widdershins. Who’s tried, and failed, to stay out of trouble since taking over Genevieve’s tavern. Who’s known to the Church and the Guard both, and trusted by neither. Who may, with some of her Thieves’ Guild contacts, have unwittingly played a part in the bishop’s plans. And who, along with her personal god Olgun, may be the only real threat to the supernatural evil infesting Davillon.

Burning Man (Kingdom of the Serpent, Book 2)
by Mark Chadbourn
Cover by John Picacio

Promo copy:

A quest of epic reach spans the globe under the mythologies of five great cultures

After a long journey across the ages, Jack Churchill has returned to the modern world, only to find it in the grip of a terrible, dark force. The population is unaware, mesmerized by the Mundane Spell that keeps them in thrall. With a small group of trusted allies, Jack sets out to find the two “keys” that can shatter the spell.

But the keys are people—one with the power of creation, one the power of destruction—and they are hidden somewhere among the world’s billions. As the search fans out across the globe, ancient powers begin to stir. In the bleak north, in Egypt, in Greece, in all the Great Dominions, the old gods are returning to stake their claim. The odds appear insurmountable, the need desperate…. This is a time for heroes.

Books received 4/3/12 Pyr edition was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

Jack of Ravens (Kingdom of the Serpent, Book 1)
by Mark Chadbourn
Cover by John Picacio

Promo copy:

A quest of epic reach spans the globe under the mythologies of five great cultures

Jack Churchill, archaeologist and dreamer, walks out of the mist and into Celtic Britain more than two thousand years before he was born, with no knowledge of how he got there. All Jack wants is to get home to his own time where the woman he loves waits for him. Finding his way to the timeless mystical Otherworld, the home of the gods, he plans to while away the days, the years, the millennia, until his own era rolls around again…but nothing is ever that simple. A great Evil waits in modern times and will do all in its power to stop Jack’s return. In a universe where time and space are meaningless, its tendrils
stretch back through the years…. Through Roman times, the Elizabethan age, Victoria’s reign, the Second World War, and the Swinging Sixties, the Evil sets its traps to destroy Jack. Mark Chadbourn gives us a high adventure of dazzling sword fights, passionate romance, and apocalyptic wars in the days leading up to Ragnarok, the End-Times: a breathtaking, surreal vision of twisting realities where nothing is quite what it seems.

False Covenant
by Ari Marmell
Cover by Jason Chan

Promo copy:

The thief Widdershins returns in a new adventure!
It’s been over half a year, now, since the brutal murder of Archbishop William de Laurent during his pilgrimage to the Galicien city of Davillon. During that time, the Church of the Hallowed Pact has assigned a new bishop to the city—but it has also made its displeasure at the death of its clergyman quite clear. Davillon’s economy has suffered beneath the weight of the Church’s disapproval. Much of the populace—angry at the clergy—has turned away from the Church hierarchy, choosing private worship or small, independent shrines. And the bishop, concerned for his new position and angry at the people of Davillon, plans to do something about it.

But a supernatural threat is stalking the nighttime streets—a creature of the other world has come to infiltrate the seedier streets of Davillon, to intertwine its tendrils through the lower echelons of society. Faced with both political upheaval and a supernatural threat to its citizenry, the local representatives of the Church are paralyzed and the Guardsmen are in over their heads.

And then there’s Widdershins. Who’s tried, and failed, to stay out of trouble since taking over Genevieve’s tavern. Who’s known to the Church and the Guard both, and trusted by neither. Who may, with some of her Thieves’ Guild contacts, have unwittingly played a part in the bishop’s plans. And who, along with her personal god Olgun, may be the only real threat to the supernatural evil infesting Davillon.

Burning Man (Kingdom of the Serpent, Book 2)
by Mark Chadbourn
Cover by John Picacio

Promo copy:

A quest of epic reach spans the globe under the mythologies of five great cultures

After a long journey across the ages, Jack Churchill has returned to the modern world, only to find it in the grip of a terrible, dark force. The population is unaware, mesmerized by the Mundane Spell that keeps them in thrall. With a small group of trusted allies, Jack sets out to find the two "keys" that can shatter the spell.

But the keys are people—one with the power of creation, one the power of destruction—and they are hidden somewhere among the world’s billions. As the search fans out across the globe, ancient powers begin to stir. In the bleak north, in Egypt, in Greece, in all the Great Dominions, the old gods are returning to stake their claim. The odds appear insurmountable, the need desperate…. This is a time for heroes.

Due to looming deadlines, there will be no April edition. I just haven’t had the time. Busy finishing up The Apes of Wrath.

For info on forthcoming and expiring Netflix selections check out FeedFliks and Instantwatcher.

But fear not, the Impending Geekgasm will return next month.

Impending Geekgasm on Netflix Instant Watch – Not April ed was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Due to looming deadlines, there will be no April edition. I just haven’t had the time. Busy finishing up The Apes of Wrath.

For info on forthcoming and expiring Netflix selections check out FeedFliks and Instantwatcher.

But fear not, the Impending Geekgasm will return next month.