Review: The Dark Game by Paul B. Janeczko

Nominated for the 2011 YALSA award for excellence in nonfiction

I've never been much of a fan of spy/mystery stories. I don't have anything against them, it's just that in the huge number of stories that are published every year, other things pique my interest first. Janeczko says in his introduction that he guesses the reader of the book has an interest in spies that "may run as deeply as [his]." Well that's not the case for me, but I still found this to be an incredibly interesting book.

Janeczko covers spying in America and by Americans from the Revolutionary War through early 2001. He picks out a few individual spies or campaigns for the major wars (plus the cold war) the US has engaged in, as well as highlights some of the evolving technology that's important in spy work (such as cameras, naturally). Some of these stories are absolutely amazing - like the tunnel the US and British dug from West to East Berlin in order to tap into Soviet telegraph cables.

Janeczko definitely has a flair for drama, as often these are tales of agents or governments crossing and double-crossing each other. For example, in the case of the Berlin tunnel, just when you think the story has ended and all is well for the US...Janeczko reveals a major twist in the story, illustrating that even the best laid plans can go awry, and sometimes you won't even know it.

I also have to say I'm really impressed that Janeczko highlights female spies, without ghettoizing them into a "lady spy" section. He covers the glamorous Mata Hari as well as Virginia Hall - a woman with a wooden leg who aided the French Resistance in WWII. Women spies also played important roles in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.

Janeczko clearly has a deep interest in the technical side of spying. Not only are advances in technology highlighted in each chapter, but he often goes into detail about various codes that spies use. I'll admit a lot of these codes went over my head, but me and numbers just don't get along (and many of these codes rely on number substitutions), so I'm willing to be that's more of a problem on my part. It's still interesting to see the variety of codes used and how they've changed - with a highlight for me being the Choctaw Code Talkers in WWI, who were able to foil the Germans who were evesdropping on US communications by using an utterly foreign language.

This isn't an exhaustive biography of any one spy - rather this is an overview of how spying has affected US policies by looking at a few of the most influential individuals (both those who spied for the US and those who spied against us). I don't know how well known some of the people and events would be to someone who has a hard core interest in spies - I, for example, knew about the women mentioned in the Civil War from my reading on women's roles during that war - but it's certainly an enlightening and entertaining read for someone totally new to the subject.

Sci Fi Friday Review: Sons of Liberty by Alexander and Joseph Lagos

Found via: MoCCA Event 6/10

If I were caught up in my blogging, this post would actually have gone up last weekend, since it's more thematically appropriate with the fourth of July rather than the week after... But sometimes, I just can't be that organized (I blame the brain melting heat last week. It wasn't as bad as this week - hello 103 degree Tuesday - but clearly my brain wasn't functioning).

But here we are - finally with my review of the exciting historical super hero graphic novel Sons of Liberty. That combination of adjectives right there is what intrigued me - so much going on! Could it all actually work?

Graham and Brody are young slaves on the run from a cruel master. They've been advised to run north and seek safety with Benjamin Lay - who it turns out is an eccentric abolitionist who lives in a cave. But he is kind and firmly believes in the rights of all humans, and works to ensure the two young men can work as free men and earn a living as printers apprentices.

But all isn't sunshine and happiness along the way. Slave catchers are after Graham and Brody, and then there's the issue of William Franklin - son of the famous Benjamin Franklin. William shares some of his fathers' scientific interests, but is far from an abolitionist. When he comes across Graham and Brody, he attacks them, hoping to "teach a lesson." When the boys awake from their trauma, they discover they've been gifted with extraordinary powers - the ability to leap across a river in a single bound, and to go from being practically illiterate to reading every book Benjamin Lay keeps in his humble cave. The question the young men now face, is what to do with these new abilities? Graham wants to return to Africa, where he was born, but Brody has only ever known life in America - should they fight for the right to stay? Or to go?

This is definitely just the first part of the story - the writers teased so much more during the event last month that in some ways this book felt like a let down to me because I was expecting more. But that's my fault, not the fault of the book, unless you want to fault the entire graphic novel/comic book genre for being hooked on serial stories. So there's lots to be excited for in the next book (or three, since at the moment the series is scheduled to be at least four books long).

I love the idea of super heroes in a historical fiction setting. It's definitely an interesting twist on the superhero genre, and I know from the panel discussion that the writers and artists have put in a ton of research in order to truly bring the Revolutionary War period to life. This part of the story is still firmly in the origin story phase, so we don't get to see much of the actual war (just a teaser at the beginning, showing Brody and Graham facing a troop of Redcoats), but the setting definitely informs the path the story takes so far.

I'm not a big visual person, so it's hard for me to critique the artwork, but I remember at the panel praise was heaped upon Oren Kramek, the colorist, specifically for the way he uses light in this book. Maybe I noticed it because I had essentially been told to look for it, but the lighting definitely stands out. Rays of sunlight shine through windows and doorways with a truly warm glow. There's definitely an organic feeling to the colors, it's all very natural, which is a stark contrast to most graphic novels which are set in our highly artificial modern (or future) world.

I was less enamored with the drawings themselves - specifically the faces. Whenever a character had an extreme reaction (pain, anger, terror...not much happiness in the story so far), the faces were exaggerated almost to the point of being grotesque and unrecognizable as the same character seen in the previous panel. It was a little distracting, especially for someone like me who doesn't read comics/graphic novels all that often anyway.

The story, however, is enough to keep me going, and I definitely plan on checking out the second book in the series when it comes out next spring!

What science fiction have you read this week?