Jamie Mckelvie
The Wicked + The Divine, ongoing series at @imagecomics. Did a bunch of stuff at Marvel, including designing Captain Marvel and Ms Marvel. I love my cat.
Book Recommendations:
Recommended by Jamie Mckelvie
“Mike has worked extremely hard on this book, and it's going to be great. Pre-order it now! https://t.co/ev9b9S0G7N” (from X)
by Michael Molcher·You?
by Michael Molcher·You?
An in-depth examination of the ways in which the comic strip Judge Dredd, published in 2000 AD, has predicted the changing face of policing in Britain over the last 45 years. He is the law - and you better believe it! Judge, jury and executioner, Judge Dredd is the brutal comic book cop policing the chaotic future urban jungle of Mega-City One, created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra and launching in the pages of 2000 AD in 1977. But what began as a sci-fi action comic quickly evolved into a searing satire on hardline, militarised policing and ‘law and order’ politics, its endless inventiveness and ironic humour acting as a prophetic warning about our world today - and with important lessons for our future. Blending comic book history with contemporary radical theories on policing, I Am The Law takes key Dredd stories from the last 45 years and demonstrates how they provide a unique wake up call about our gradual, and not so gradual, slide towards authoritarian policing. From the politicisation of policing to ‘zero tolerance’, from violent suppression of protest to the rise of the surveillance state, I Am The Law examines how a comic book warned us about the chilling endgame of today's 'law and order' politics.
Recommended by Jamie Mckelvie
“Oh. Well, love this book (and the book it is a sequel to). https://t.co/X5XsBIzcZX” (from X)
by Adrian Tchaikovsky·You?
by Adrian Tchaikovsky·You?
In Adrian Tchaikovsky's The Expert System's Champion, sometimes the ones you hate are the only ones that can save you. It's been ten years since Handry was wrenched away from his family and friends, forced to wander a world he no longer understood. But with the help of the Ancients, he has cobbled together a life, of sorts, for himself and his fellow outcasts. Wandering from village to village, welcoming the folk that the townships abandon, fighting the monsters the villagers cannot―or dare not―his ever-growing band of misfits has become the stuff of legend, a story told by parents to keep unruly children in line. But there is something new and dangerous in the world, and the beasts of the land are acting against their nature, destroying the towns they once left in peace. And for the first time in memory, the Ancients have no wisdom to offer...
Recommended by Jamie Mckelvie
“Agree, great book. ending a bit abrupt/crammed, perhaps, but overall a solid recommend. https://t.co/YoJYcnqJTt” (from X)
by Xiran Jay Zhao·You?
by Xiran Jay Zhao·You?
An instant #1 New York Times bestseller! A USA Today bestseller! Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid's Tale in this blend of Chinese history and mecha science fiction for YA readers. The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn't matter that the girls often die from the mental strain. When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it's to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected—she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead. To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way—and stop more girls from being sacrificed.
Recommended by Jamie Mckelvie
“@DMaddenwoop Love that book but it's about double the length I'm after at the minute” (from X)
by Emily St. John Mandel, Vincent Chong·You?
by Emily St. John Mandel, Vincent Chong·You?
On stage during a snowstorm King Lear collapses, and the actor playing him, Hollywood star Arthur Leander, never gets up. Young Kirsten Raymonde, child actress, watches from the wings as Arthur dies. A former paparazzo-turned-EMT in the audience tries to save him, leaving to discover the early stages of a fast-spreading flu have descended on the city and the world. Arthur's former wife reflects on their time together and the graphic novel that is her great work of art. Fifteen years after Arthur's death, the Traveling Symphony tours the Great Lakes region of a sparsely populated, greatly altered United States. Time is marked as before and after the flu, and life—like the remnants of civilization—is still ever-fragile. An actress with the company, Kirsten bears an inscription from Star Trek on her arm—“Because survival is insufficient”—that is echoed on a Symphony caravan. In the town of St. Deborah by the Water, the Traveling Symphony provokes a local tyrant, a crisis that follows them onto the road. Emily St. John Mandel's New York Times bestselling Station Eleven is at once a gripping post-apocalyptic page turner and a hopeful, elegiac masterpiece that explores the connections that bind humanity. Shortlisted for the National Book Award and winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, among many other honors and accolades, Station Eleven has joined the classic pantheon of imagined futures.
Recommended by Jamie Mckelvie
“It's a truly fantastic book. Congrats both! https://t.co/am7gopjzVC” (from X)
by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone·You?
by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone·You?
HUGO AWARD WINNER: BEST NOVELLA NEBULA AND LOCUS AWARDS WINNER: BEST NOVELLA ONE OF NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF 2019 Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters—and fall in love in this thrilling and romantic book from award-winning authors Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. In the ashes of a dying world, Red finds a letter marked “Burn before reading. Signed, Blue.” So begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents in a war that stretches through the vast reaches of time and space. Red belongs to the Agency, a post-singularity technotopia. Blue belongs to Garden, a single vast consciousness embedded in all organic matter. Their pasts are bloody and their futures mutually exclusive. They have nothing in common—save that they’re the best, and they’re alone. Now what began as a battlefield boast grows into a dangerous game, one both Red and Blue are determined to win. Because winning’s what you do in war. Isn’t it? A tour de force collaboration from two powerhouse writers that spans the whole of time and space.
Recommended by Jamie Mckelvie
“Love this book! https://t.co/BthHwunCiT” (from X)
by Johnnie Christmas, Jack Cole·You?
by Johnnie Christmas, Jack Cole·You?
“DATE NIGHT IN HELL”Tilde and Klinzu face a new impossible foe—the most dangerous threat they've faced so far. When the smoke clears, not everyone will make it out alive.Includes a new installment of “LIFE,” a backup story by STEPHANIE COOKE and MEGAN HUANG, exclusively in single issues.
Recommended by Jamie Mckelvie
“@TheBurnham @RonDanChan I love this book. It's so oddly written - like a video game. And his art progression from the density of Blame! to this has been amazing.” (from X)
From acclaimed mangaka Tsutomu Nihei, the creator and artist behind BLAME! and Knights of Sidonia, comes his newest Science Fiction epic. This story takes place on the frigid, massive artificial planet known as Aposimz. Eo, Biko and Etherow, residents of the White Diamond Beam, are in the middle of combat training when suddenly a girl appears, Rebedoan Empire soldiers in hot pursuit. The girl asks for their help in keeping safe a “code” and seven mysterious “bullets.” This chance encounter marks a major shift in the fate of the entire planet...
Recommended by Jamie Mckelvie
“From this book, btw. Does a great job of going through the discoveries in astronomy over time, while working to restore the names of women scientists whose contributions have been uncredited in the past. https://t.co/FT2Ov3LYUh” (from X)
by Jo Dunkley·You?
by Jo Dunkley·You?
Jo Dunkley combines her expertise as an astrophysicist with her talents as a teacher and writer in this lively and exceptionally clear introduction to the structure and history of the universe and its enduring mysteries. Most of us have heard of black holes and supernovas, galaxies and the Big Bang. But few of us understand more than the bare facts about the universe we call home. What is really out there? How did it all begin? Where are we going? Jo Dunkley begins in Earth’s neighborhood, explaining the nature of the Solar System, the stars in our night sky, and the Milky Way. She then moves out past nearby galaxies―and back in time―to the horizon of the observable universe, which contains over a hundred billion galaxies, each with billions of stars, many orbited by planets, some of which may host life. These visible objects in space sit in a web of dark matter, mysterious stuff we cannot see or yet understand. Dunkley traces the evolution of the universe from the Big Bang fourteen billion years ago, past the birth of the Sun and our planets, to today and beyond. She explains cutting-edge debates about such perplexing phenomena as the accelerating expansion of the universe and the possibility that our universe is only one of many. Our Universe conveys with authority and grace the thrill of scientific discovery and a contagious enthusiasm for the endless wonders of space-time.
Recommended by Jamie Mckelvie
“@uzionmain Fucking love that book” (from X)
by Ursula K. Le Guin·You?
by Ursula K. Le Guin·You?
A classic science fiction novel by one of the greatest writers of the genre, set in a future world where one man's dreams control the fate of humanity. In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. He seeks help from Dr. William Haber, a psychiatrist who immediately grasps the power George wields. Soon George must preserve reality itself as Dr. Haber becomes adept at manipulating George's dreams for his own purposes. The Lathe of Heaven is an eerily prescient novel from award-winning author Ursula K. Le Guin that masterfully addresses the dangers of power and humanity's self-destructiveness, questioning the nature of reality itself. It is a classic of the science fiction genre.