Iron Man 2 (the novelization, not the movie)

I got an advance  copy of the Iron Man 2novelization by Alexander Irvine.  I really didn't expect too much from this book; it's the novelization of a superhero movie, and novelizations generally suck. This one doesn't quite suck, but it isn't exactly a great book either.

I'm going to guess that most of this isn't Irvine's fault. I mean he is pretty much stuck with the plot and dialogue from the movie, so he can't really take much in the way of creative liberties with that stuff. He is essentially stuck with whatever crap the studio churned out, and believe me, much of this is crap.

The plot itself is OK. It moves pretty fast, and didn't have many gapingly obvious holes. There's plenty of fight scenes and explosions, and all the sort of things that makes the movie seem guaranteed to be a blockbuster. It also tends to make the book fairly exciting.

The dialogue is another matter entirely. Even Irvine seemed to realize this, as he refers to the very lame attempts at humor as frat boy style jokes. Here's a prime example, "So you're telling me you're proud of the fact that Hammer filled your vacuum?" Ha ha, isn't that funny? Assuming you're either really drunk or high, it is. Otherwise, it's lame, as is most of the dialogue.

The characters all come across as lame and two dimensional, except Tony Stark. He comes across as lame, two-dimensional, and an unlikeable jerk. I kept hoping the bad guy would kick his ass, but was sadly disappointed.

Horns

I was lucky enough to get a freee review copy if Joe Hill's Horns. I've read Hill's other novel and the short story collection, and enjoyed them, so I was very happy to get a free copy of this. After I read it, I was even happier. This is a great book. It's part horror, part mystery, part tale of revenge, and part part philosophy on morality. It's about a guy named Ig Perrish, who grows a set of horns.

These horns give him some unusual powers. People feel compelled to share their darkest secrets with him. He can make them act out their secret desires. By touching people, he can know their whole story.

Ig soon realizes how useful this would be, because he's a man with a problem. One year ago, his love, Merrin Williams, was brutally raped and murdered. Despite his innocence, Ig was the only suspect. Unfortunately, the physical evidence was destroyed in a lab fire, and Ig was never cleared. Now Ig would have the chance to find out who the killer was.

On the way, Ig learns quite a lot about the nature of good and evil. He develops a philosophy about the place  of the devil in creation. He comes up with a new take on morality. OK, and he kicks some ass, eventually.

Seriously, this is an awesome book. Read it. Read it NOW!