Started Reading Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines a book about world where super-heroes are real and now live in a post zombie-apocalyptic world.  Not literary masterpiece but enjoyable so far.

I really enjoy Mark Millar’s writing.  He is able to take a simple idea and spin an entire story around it while taking his characters to the darkest of places and then elevating them back to happiness. Team Mark Millar up with the unique artwork of John Romita Jr. and fans are really in for a ride. Kick-Ass does just this in volume 1, collecting issue 1 through 8.

Dave Lizewski is a normal every day comic collecting geek trapped in high school. One day while reading a comic Dave asks himself and his friends later “Why hasn’t anyone tried dressing up in a costume and become a real life super-hero?”   Donning a scuba diving wet suit bought off Ebay Dave goes out on his first patrol and gets beat up so bad that he nearly dies, gets steel plates in his skull,  and spends months in rehabilitation.  This would be enough to stop most people from doing it again, but not Dave.  After he is all healed up he heads right back out and gets into another fight, this time to save a guy from getting beat up by a gang.  Dave still gets his ass kicked but manages to save the victim.  Some nearby onlooker managed to record the fight and post it to You-Tube, turning Dave into an over night sensation nick named Kick-Ass.  The story continues to follow Dave’s Peter Parker Style adventures as he uses MySpace to communicate with his fans and deal with copycat super-heroes along the way.

Kick-Ass Volume 1 on Amazon

I got a Kindle for my birthday last year and I have been really enjoying it by reading some great books with it.  One of these books is Old Man’s War by John Scalzi, a sci-fi adventure set in a future where man has spread out among the stars.  Problem is we are not alone and there doesn’t seem to be enough  real estate for everyone to live peacefully.

Old Man’s War follows John Perry whom on his 75th birthday visits his wife’s grave and then joins the Colonial Defense Forces, the space military.  The CDF takes those who have retired at the age of 75 to serve  for two years on the front lines. In exchange for serving,  if they survive, they get  a generous homestead on one of humanity’s colonies.  Recruits assume the CDF has a way to correct any medical problems someone of the age of 75 might have.  John Perry finds out how the CDF manages to repair a 75 year old and utilize his decades of experience.  Old Man’s War is a fantastic science fiction book that manages to stick with a serious story line while also making you smile at the witty and funny banter of the characters throughout the book.