Eradication: A Fable by Jonathan Miles. Doubleday, 2026. 980385551915. 159pp.
Adi, a teacher, takes a strange job. He’ll live on a remote island trying to save its plants and animals by killing as many of the invasive goats that are destroying the ecosystem. He lies to get the job, though; he’s never fired a gun in his life. And he’s still dealing with a few personal issues.
Grabbed this because it was short, and it was one of the Seattle Public Library’s Peak Picks. It’s dark, twisted, and I loved the ending. I’m planning to seek out more work by Miles.
The Wrong Case by James Crumley. Knopf, 1985. 9780394735580. 288pp.
An alcoholic private detective whose business is crumbling takes a job looking into the death of a young man, though what happened is already fairly clear. He falls for the sister who hired him, bounces around town, and has the crap beaten out of him. It’s got everything I need in a dark crime story, from great writing to characters that deserve their own novels. Spectacular. Thanks to my friend Tom for loaning me a copy.
Dalgoda Omnibus by Jan Strnad and Dennis Fujitake. About Comics, 2025. 9781949996821. 359pp.
Dalgoda (that’s him, the alien dog-man on the cover) arrives on Earth seeking help to save his planet from an alien menace, the Nimp. He brings faster-than-light technology, but outfitting the few ships the Earth can put at his disposal may not help much. Plus, there are factions on our planet that would rather kill him than help him.
I read parts of this story when I was a kid visiting my comic shop every Wednesday in the early 1980s. This was a nostalgic read for me, with its echoes of the pulpiest science fiction of the 1970s and 1980s. (Plus I had no memory of how adult some of it is.) Recommended if you enjoyed early Usagi Yojimbo stories, the original Star Trek, or if you’re a comic fan of a certain age.
Contains all eight issues of the original Dalgoda series, Doomsday Squad #1, Flesh & Blood #1-4, and A1 issue 4, originally published from 1984 to 1990. Republished in glorious black and white (though I believe many if not all of these were originally published in color).
