Caught up with a few lately.
MR MERCEDES by Stephen King was mostly OK, a nice enough crime thriller rather than horror, but still somehow lacking. It was somewhat slow and padded, and we know King can do better than that from the modern pulps he's done for Hard Case Crime, but worst of all, every twist - especially the fridging - was spectacularly obvious and predictable. So, always nice to read his writing, but could be way better.
THE LOVECRAFT ANTHOLOGY VOL. 1 is a graphic novel from Selfmade Hero, edited by Dan Lockwood. Doing HPL in a visual medium is always an iffy prospect, because the creatures are supposed to be so freaky that they will drive viewers mad, and any actual visual representation of them is just too twee- I mean, just look at the chibi Cthulhu's you can get. This set of seven adaptations starts off making exactly that mistake, and using the typical Cthulhu design, put edited versions of the narrations. It soon improves, however, after two or three stories. The art is variable, and experimental might be a kind word to use, yet all fits their stories, so I can't complain: it all does the job it's meant to. The collection does improve as it goes on, with The Shadow Over Innsmouth and The Rats In The Walls doing the best job at conveying the Lovecraft feel.
ADVENTURES WITH THE WIFE IN SPACE by Neil (and occasionally Sue) Perryman is a fun read, covering the life of a Dr Who fan, and how one of the best Dr Who blogs came about. Thankfully it's not just a compilation of the blog, but a memoir. It's a bit weird reading a memoir written by someone who's neither a celebrity nor a world changer in some field like science or military campaigning or whatever, but it is funny, sometimes touching, sometimes wince-inducing in an all too understandable way (I doubt it really will convey to non-fans just how vicious some of fandom is, but it has its moments) and ultimately reassuring that real people are actually just good people. Definitely recommended, and - a bit like About A Boy or something - I can kind of see this becoming a 90 minute TV docudrama someday. Maybe for the 75th anniversary...