SIMANTOV – Asaf Ashery

Posted by Daniel on June 21, 2021
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Simantov and Bitton are detectives with the Soothsayer task Force who are looking to make sense of a series of strange crimes and disappearances. What the team of mystics agents come to learn is that there’s a battle brewing in the heavens between the Daughters of Lilith and the Nephilim and humans are getting caught in the crossfire. But more dangerous is that this may be signaling the beginning of the apocalypse.

I really appreciate the opportunity to read works from other countries.  While humans are pretty much the same wherever we go, the way in which we look at things and how we allow outside forces to affect us does differ. Sometimes that can be reflected in art and literature.

There is, here, what I presume to be a mythology that is Israeli (I know nothing about this culture, history, or its mythology). On the surface, I was quite interested in reading this and getting something new. But as I admit I know nothing about this, I don’t know where common mythology of the culture ends and the author’s imagination begins.

But more importantly … I didn’t care.

Our main characters (police investigators who use tarot readers and mystics in their work) are dull, lifeless, and uninteresting. The angels (daughters of Lilith and the Nephilim) are only slightly more interesting.

It was easy to get lost and not know what was happening because it was easy to lose focus with this book. But with a book like this, it could be a cultural difference, but it could also be a translation issue. But no matter what is at the root, this book is not something I can recommend.

Looking for a good book? Simantov by Asaf Ashery is a paranormal fantasy translated from Hebrew that does not hold the average American reader’s interest.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

Simantov

author: Asaf Ashery

translator: Marganit Weinberger-Rotman

publisher: Angry Robot

ISBN: 9780857668387

paperback, 392 pages

MYTHBREAKER – Stephen Blackmoore

Posted by Daniel on June 18, 2021
Posted in: Dark Fantasy/Horror, MYTHOLOGY, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

21412497

I’ll be honest … what got me interested in picking up this book is the note that this book is “the follow-up to Chuck Wendig’s Unclean Sprits.”  Now, I haven’t read Wendig’s Unclean Spirits, but I am a fan of Wendig’s writing, so this very much caught my interest.

Being a god isn’t what it used to be.  Worshippers. Sacrifices. Having one’s way with the mortals. But without recognition and worship the gods’ abilities to be gods, begin to fade.  Enter Louie “Fitz” Fitzsimmons.  As an orphan child, Fitz always thought he could see and hear people who weren’t really there. This only got worse as he grew older and he’s turned to getting as high as he can to hopefully cancel out his strange visions.  To pay for his drugs, Fitz works as a drug runner for the mob where he tries to stay clean so as not to bring down the wrath of the mob on himself.

But in the Heavens, a war has raged with a new crop of gods kicking the old gods out and to Earth and the gods, both old and new, are looking for Fitz. Fitz has the skill of being a storyteller. A useful skill to gods who want to be relevant again. Both sides want Fitz to bring them to life among men so that they might find their worshippers once again. But Fitz also has to keep his mortal bosses happy.  There might be a way to make everyone happy, but he’s going to have to live long enough to make it happen.

There’s a fun concept here, and just as with a Chuck Wendig book, it’s dark and gritty and most of these characters are not people one would want to hang around with.  But author Stephen Blackmoore isn’t Wendig, and we don’t get that sense of character that draws us to a story because we’re so enamored with someone.

There is a lot of action here, which keeps us turning the pages, and we’ve got a large cast of characters with all the different gods fighting amongst themselves which slows us down just a bit in order to keep the players straight.

I enjoyed this read enough to be on the lookout for other books either in the series or other books by Stephen Blackmoore, but I was never pulled completely in to this book and therefore never fully invested in the action.

Looking for a good book? Mythbreaker, the second book in the Gods & Monsters series, by Stephen Blackmoore is an adventurous tale with gods fighting among themselves and looking for human help and a fun beach read, but nothing to take too seriously.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)-emptyJava-icon (1)-empty

* * * * * *

Mythbreaker

author: Stephen Blackmoore

series: Gods & Monsters #2

publisher: Abaddon

ISBN: 9781781082553

paperback, 272 pages

THE DARK ARCHIVE – Genevieve Cogman

Posted by Daniel on June 16, 2021
Posted in: SF/FANTASY. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

52222430

Irene is a Librarian, which is to say that she is a spy for the Library – gathering special books from other locations, including alternate worlds and realities. Irene has been doing this for a number of years and is now teaching an assistant, a Fae, the ins and outs of being a Librarian. Due to Irene’s success as a spy, however, there are many, many others out there looking to assassinate her.  She and her assistant, Catherine, only narrowly escape an assassination attempt (it doesn’t hurt that Irene’s boyfriend, Kai, is a Dragon) and Irene decides that Catherine might as well learn this part of being a Librarian first-hand.
A good defense is knowledge and Irene and Catherine (and Kai) will do what they do best being Librarians … research. They must uncover who it is who is looking to have them killed, and why. But in doing so, Irene will have to dig into her own past, which is something she has avoided until now.

This is the 7th book in the Invisible Library series, and before you even think about reading this volume you really probably should have a better of understanding of the characters and the world this is set in.

I found this book to be a little … ‘off’ … from the rest of the series that I’ve read.  There was still a lot of action and adventure and cool fantasy things going on (let’s face it, use of The Language is a really great concept) but the story here didn’t have the feel of being a part of a larger story arc the way most of the other books did.  This felt like it could easily have been any fantasy story that was slightly adapted with these characters and world in mind, whereas my recollection is that the other books felt uniquely suited to the Invisible Library.

The character of Catherine has a lot of potential. She’s the niece of Lord Silver and while a teenager and maybe not as enthusiastic about training with Irene as one would hope, this feels very much like a set-up for future books and she certainly makes a nice counterpart to the ambitious Irene and her partner, the Dragon Kai. But this feels a lot like establishing the character so that she can be used more efficiently in future books.

We’re seven books in to the series now, and this is a series that I’ve recommended successfully to others, but this is probably my least favorite of the Invisible Library books that I’ve read. But how do you not read it if you are reading the series? If you skipped this one, you might wonder who Catherine is in the next one?

This is not a book to recommend on its own, but I do recommend the series.

Looking for a good book? The Dark Archive is the seventh book in Genevieve Cogman’s Invisible Library series. This volume appears to act as a ‘reset’ for a future storyline and as part of the series it’s worth reading.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)-emptyJava-icon (1)-empty

* * * * * *

The Dark Archive

author: Genevieve Cogman

series: The Invisible Library #7

publisher: Ace

ISBN: 9781984804785

paperback, 336 pages

SEA OF CRISES – Marty Steere

Posted by Daniel on June 14, 2021
Posted in: MYSTERY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

13623054

1976. Communication is lost with the astronauts of Apollo 18 after a moonwalk and commander Bob Cartwright utters the words, “That shouldn’t be here.”  A few days later a rescue mission is in place when Mission Control recognizing the unmistakable reentry burn of a capsule.  Communication is still out. But when rescuers arrive to the capsule in the ocean, they discover three bodies, burned beyond recognition from the heat of reentry due to a failed heat shield. The mystery, then, of Cartwright’s last words will remain a mystery unless, or until, another mission is sent to the moon.

But 36 years later, the sons of Bob Cartwright learn that the bodies in the capsule … the body they buried … didn’t actually belong to their father or the other astronauts on the Apollo 18 mission.  But this new information was never meant to be uncovered and now the Cartwright boys are on the run, looking to protect themselves while searching for answers.

Despite the space/NASA elements of the book, this is primarily an action/mystery/thriller.

I did find the story quite easy and exciting to read. I really liked the setting. The concept of a NASA Apollo mission – the last one (for those who don’t know, Apollo 17 was the last mission to the moon) – made this quite intriguing for me and the whole cover-up and uncovering the cover-up was quite spot on.

But what I missed here was a purpose.  I never really got a sense of why we were in this thriller.  We don’t know why this happened, or why it’s still so important enough to kill, three and a half decades later. And with the ending in mind (I don’t want to reveal it), how has this been going on for this long?!

I liked author Marty Steere’s writing and would look forward to another thriller.

Looking for a good book? Marty Steere’s Sea of Crises is an exciting thriller surrounding NASA and the Apollo missions.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)-1halfJava-icon (1)-empty

* * * * * *

Sea of Crises

author: Marty Steere

publisher: Penfield Publications

ISBN: 9780985401405

paperback, 312 pages

CAT TALE – Craig Pittman

Posted by Daniel on June 11, 2021
Posted in: NON-FICTION. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

45734780

The Florida panther was all but extinct, but with a little help from Texas and some dedicated individuals, the Florida felines have made a comeback.
Author Craig Pittman details the rise, fall, and rise again not just of the Florida panther, but also the people who were put in place to protect the Florida state animal.
Starting with the slightly unusual story of how the panther came to be the state animal, Pittman follows the plight of the panther and how human development and expansion has taken away the panther habitat and forced the cats to either live in smaller and smaller areas or begin moving into human territory.
Unfortunately it’s not an uncommon story.
But what is surprising is how the people who were put into positions to protect the panther threw them under the bus … almost literally … in favor of money and development. But a few individuals stood tough and fought for the panthers and, as they saying goes, thought outside the box.
Some of the panthers’ plight came not from human intervention but a genetic problem within the breed which was slowly killing them off and preventing them from reproducing healthy litters.  Cats, not panthers but in the same large cat family, from Texas were brought in to breed with the panther to restore the genetic line.
Pittman’s style is loose and conversational, full of whimsy and often finding the lighter side of each situation.  Sometimes this falls flat or feels a little forced or not appropriate for the situation, but it does make it much easier to read than a dry, academic report – which this could easily have become.
I wasn’t familiar with the plight of the panther, or its comeback, before reading this, and honestly, I found some things quite disturbing – particularly the individuals who, for the sake of greed, will look the other way or hide or falsify reports – essentially condemning an entire species of animal to extinction. This irks me and I have a hard time reading about such things, even in a light, familiar style such as Pittman’s.
Overall, though, I’m glad to have had a chance to read this and learn a little more about the Florida panther and I’d encourage anyone with an interest in non-fiction or nature books, to give this a read.
Looking for a good book? Cat Tale by Craig Pittman tells of the plight of the Florida panther and the hard work by some to rescue the species from almost certain extinction.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)-1halfJava-icon (1)-empty
* * * * * *
Cat Tale: The Wild, Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther
author: Craig Pittman
publisher: Hanover Square Press
 
ISBN: 9781335938800
hardcover, 336 pages

HAMNET – Maggie O’Farrell

Posted by Daniel on June 9, 2021
Posted in: OTHER, Uncategorized. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

43890641

When is the death of a child beautiful? When it’s a story written by Maggie O’Farrell.
It is 1585 and the woman Agnes settles with her husband in Stratford.  They have three children – a daughter, Susanna, and then fraternal twins, Hamnet and Judith. Her husband is gone more often than not, to London, where he works with some players.
In 1596 the boy, Hamnet, dies at age 11.  Agnes would like to curl up and disappear in her sadness, but still has her daughters to care for.  Her husband has been virtually estranged from the family, living and playing in the larger city, where he has even gained attention from royalty.  But word gets to him of something bad having happened and he hurries home to learn of his son’s death.  Grief hits him, just as it did Agnes at the time, and the reader experiences a parents grief over the loss of a child for a second time.
Four years later, Agnes sees her son’s name as the title of a play, Hamlet, written by her husband. So often the death of a child tears a family apart.  Can Agnes and her husband find forgiveness and repentance in the shadow of their son’s death and rebirth as what will become one of the most famous -theatre characters of all time?
Who we are talking about is pretty evident. If you are confused because you thought William Shakespeare’s wife’s name was Anne Hathaway, she was named “Agnes” in her father’s will.  Also, the names “Hamnet” and “Hamlet” are considered to be interchangeable.
Although the book is named for the young son who dies at age 11, this could just as easily be titled, Agnes, as it really focuses on her as wife, mother, and the holder-together-of-family while her younger husband is carousing and most likely living an adulterous life some distance away.
Author Maggie O’Farrell’s prose is hauntingly beautiful, and it’s this writing that will draw the reader in.  It is the recognition that we are reading about the family of William Shakespeare that will make us feel like we’re reading something pretty special, and it’s the reactions surrounding the death of a child that will bridge the divide between the modern reader and life in the 16th century.
And while I enjoyed my reading of the book, three days after I’ve finished it, I can’t tell you too much about the other characters or the motivation for the story.  Do we read a book like this to experience grief? To experience the skill of a writer’s prose? To catch a glimpse of life 400 years ago? To note that what it means to be human hasn’t changed much?  A little bit of all of these?
I enjoyed the read and I would recommend it, but ultimately this book is exactly what it seems to be on the surface and it’s the writing, not the story, that makes this a strong read.
Looking for a good book? Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell, is a poetic novel of a parent, a child, grief, and the ode to a child that will never let anyone forget the child’s name.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)-empty
* * * * * *
Hamnet
author: Maggie O’Farrell
publisher: Tinder Press
ISBN: 9781472223791
hardcover, 372 pages

THE LIGHT YEARS – R.W.W. Greene

Posted by Daniel on June 7, 2021
Posted in: SF/FANTASY. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

45282206

It’s a little bit strange that this is a new book because it feels a lot like something I might have read in the 1970’s.

People have left Earth to establish colonies – the colonies are based on their cultures, and of course the Americans and the Middle Easterners got into a war and blew each other up, leaving a lot of refugees. Lost in that war was the American technology for lightspeed travel. Currently, anyone traveling between the colonies travels in standard relativity time.  This means that a trading ship might visit a colony, then head off for another colony and so on, and while only a year passes for those on the ship, it’s 24 years for those on the colonies.
The Hadjj are a family-owned trading ship.  The entire family stays together on the trading ship because it’s the only way to grow up with your family.
The captain of the Hadjj makes a contract with a young, poor couple to commit their children in marriage – the captain’s son, Adem Sadiq, and the couples’ unborn daughter (who will be named Hisako).  Only a year will pass for Adem on their trip, but the unborn daughter will be nearly 24 when they return.
For the young couple, it is a way to get their child out of a life of abject poverty and Adem will have a partner and mate – something difficult to find given his trade-ship life.  But for Hisako, she grows up knowing of this arranged marriage and has no say in it and will meet her fiancé on their wedding day.
The book is from the alternating viewpoints of Adem and Hisako.  Once you get past the establishing of the characters and the world that this is set in, there really isn’t much of interest about these two characters to keep the reader engaged.
The book felt heavy-handed with message and moral.  There’s a the uncle who wants to get rid of the ‘liberal’ views of the captain (they’ve been rescuing refugees) and become more profitable, and he’ll do it by taking control of the ship. There’s the 60s/70s ‘free love’ attitude that we shouldn’t have hang-ups about sex and who we choose for a partner at any given time. And there’s the sense of music over-coming all ills.  Both Adem and Hisako create music and post it to what constitutes social media in this future.
There is a little something that happens as we get to the end of the book, which has some interest, but because we’ve spent so much time with Adem and Hisako … who aren’t particularly interesting beyond their arranged marriage … the ending feels like a tacked-on short story to this book about Adem and Hisako.
I found the basic idea here interesting, and the writing decent, but the story was not well plotted.
Looking for a good book? The Light Years, by R.W.W. Greene was a bit slow and not particularly engaging.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)-1halfJava-icon (1)-emptyJava-icon (1)-empty
* * * * * *
The Light Years
author: R.W.W. Greene
publisher: Angry Robot
ISBN: 9780857668363
paperback, 400 pages

THE CIMMERIAN VOL. 2 – graphic novel

Posted by Daniel on June 4, 2021
Posted in: GRAPHIC NOVEL, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

GRAPHIC NOVEL WEEK

57063447

What is it about Conan the Cimmerian that he endures and still engages readers? I’m glad that there’s still interest in reading his adventures.
This book contains two stories: “People of the Black Circle” and “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter.” People of the Black Circle, was adapted by Sylvain Runberg and illustrator, Jae Kwang Park, and “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter” was adapted (writer and artist) by Robin Recht.
“People of the Black Circle” (or “The People of the Black Circle”) is often considered to be one of the most iconic Conan stories due to a more in-depth look at magic and the magicians of the Hyborian worlds. The story centers around a princess who hopes to enlist Conan’s help to defeat the Black Seers of Yimsha, who have recently killed her brother, the king of Vendhya. But Conan has recently lost some of his men, killed by soldiers of Vendhya, so Conan takes things into his own hands (as he usually does), and kidnaps the princess while also taking on the mages of Yimsha.
The art here is fine, but not particularly outstanding.  It’s quite detailed – I felt, sometimes, too much so. Some of the panels seemed needless busy with detail, making it harder to enjoy. I’d have to admit that I grew up reading not only the collected stories of Robert E. Howard, but the fantastic Savage Sword of Conan magazine, which featured art by some of the really great comic artists of my time: Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema, Alfredo Alcala, Jim Starlin, Al Milgrom, Pablo Marcos, and Walter Simonson, so almost any art today will pale by comparison (though I’m always hoping to find the next great Conan artist).
(It doesn’t help that my ARC edition doesn’t enlarge well and the art looks generally a bit blurry (though the word balloons are sharp and in focus no matter what size I make PDF on my computer screen)).
This is a fairly elaborate story (for a Conan story) and it would be quite a challenge to put this into a 65 page graphic novel story and Runberg does a decent job.
“The Frost-Giant’s Daughter” has an interesting Robert E. Howard history (which you can look up for yourself).  As a story, I think I’ve liked this one more that “People of the Black Circle” myself, but I tend to like this kind of mind-game story.  It’s also prompted some pretty incredible art of the years.
Robin Recht does a really masterful job retelling this story.  This story alone is worth the price of the book.
There are the usual additional items at the end of the book – sketches of the different characters, variations on the covers of the individual comics, etc.  But what I liked the most here is the inclusion of the Robert E. Howard stories on which these graphic stories are based.  It would seem just a little bit bold and daring to include the original stories and let the reader compare or see who the team did in retelling these stories.  And while I likely have both of these stories, in multiple editions of the Conan books, I really appreciated having them right here, at hand, so that I didn’t have to dig for a different copy (which I would NOT have done).

Looking for a good book? The Cimmerian, Vol. 2 is a very well done graphic novel adaptation of two of Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories. Long-time readers of Conan will enjoy these new adaptations and new readers may look for more Conan based on this.  The inclusion of the original Robert E. Howard stories is a treat.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)-empty

* * * * * *

The Cimmerian, Vol. 2

authors: Robert E. Howard, Sylvain Runberg, Robin Recht

artists: Robin Recht, Jae Kwang PARK

publisher: Ablaze

ISBN: 9781950912346

hardcover, 169 pages

AVEREE – graphic novel

Posted by Daniel on June 3, 2021
Posted in: GRAPHIC NOVEL, Uncategorized, YA. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

Graphic Novel Week

55610052

Imagine a world where a social media platform has such power as to determine who should like whom, who has enough social rank to get the better jobs and even determine someone’s credit score simply based on their social rank.

In the graphic novel, Averee, it’s not just students who are on their phones constantly, checking their status on the powerful app, Ranked. You can be awarded points for good behavior, but just as easily you can find points stripped away for not conforming. When Averee’s rank plummets overnight, she quickly finds herself hassled at school, not allowed to park in the structure closest to school but one a few blocks away that allows for lower Ranks, and her mom even loses her job.

This is devastating for the teen, but fortunately she’s got a best friend, Zoe, who’s already bottom ranked because she refuses to give in to an app-based lifestyle. Add one cute guy, Luke, who’s willing to risk his Rank because he likes Averee, and a team of teens is ready to take on and take down the most powerful social app on the planet.  Fortunately they get a little help from the inside.

Overall, I really liked this.  The art by Marika Cresta is bold and clear. The inside art is in the same style as the cover as seen here (which isn’t always the case). Coloring by Andrew Dalhouse provides nice texture.

The story, by Stephanie Phillips and Dave Johnson, is a little bit simple and the metaphor just a bit too obvious for me, but I can easily see many teens – especially the nerds and geeks – really appreciating this and nodding with recognition of so many of their classmates.

The book is direct, with hardly any subplots (it’s told in five chapters [ie comic book issues]), but I think that’s to its benefit.  Trying to pad this with subplots would have drawn the story out too much and many readers would likely have gotten bored.

I enjoyed this and I recommend it to students who enjoy reading over social media trolling.

Looking for a good book? Averee is a science fiction graphic novel by Stephanie Phillips, Dave Johnson, Marika Cresta, and Andrew Dalhouse that speaks to teen anxiety and social pressures that have been set in place by corporations controlling social media. It is a quick but enjoyable read with very nice art.

I received a digital copy of this book directly from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)-empty

* * * * *

Averee

authors: Stephanie Phillips and Dave Johnson

artist: Marika Cresta

publisher: A Wave Blue World

ISBN13: 9781949518122

paperback, 136 pages

MIRKA ANDOLFO’S MERCY – graphic novel

Posted by Daniel on June 2, 2021
Posted in: GRAPHIC NOVEL, Uncategorized. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

GRAPHIC NOVEL WEEK

49770805

It is the late 1800’s and the Klondike Gold Rush is on. A stunning, elegant woman of some means arrives  in Woodsburgh, a small mining town close to the Canadian border. This was once home to the Swanson Mine, but it’s been closed for awhile – ever since a terrible accident caused the loss of many, many lives.

Lady Hellaine clearly doesn’t fit in. Her dignity, grace, and beauty is a sharp contrast to the poor citizens who are more likely to be doing something illegal than making a legitimate life.

The town’s other lady – Lady Swanson – doesn’t trust the new-comer (who doesn’t seem to have any real reason to be there).

And something dark is happening in town. An unknown creature is attacking townsfolk who let their guard down, then wreaking havoc on the bodies. Is there a connection between what’s happening to the people and Lady Hellaine’s arrival?

I started off really getting into this book.  The art is delicious and the first part of the story was quite interesting. But as we get further into the story and everything … the story, the characters, their appearances … begins to get darker and twisted, I lost interest. The more horrific and twisted things got, the less I cared.

Typically, I enjoy horror and dark fantasy, and I really appreciate when a story builds to the most horrific parts (Grady Hendrix does this extremely well), but I wonder if the first part of this was set up so nicely that the dark parts just can’t compare to the beginning.

While I understand the desire to strongly contrast the beautiful Lady Hellaine with the darker creatures later in the book, the creatures/monsters are formless and ‘gross’ with strange tendrils everywhere for no apparent reason other than that it’s a contrast. I was more confused as to ‘why’ this look and I’m really not sure the answer other than it was gross to look at and therefore made it dark and evil.

It’s too bad.  Even now as I look back through it, I think the art is mostly quite stunning, but the story wasn’t holding my interest and I likely won’t both with any future volumes.

Looking for a good book?  Mirka Andolfo’s Mercy is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel but the story loses traction just as the book gets dark.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)-1halfJava-icon (1)-emptyJava-icon (1)-empty

* * * * * *

Mirka Andolfo’s Mercy: The Fair Lady, the Frost, and the Fiend

author: Mirka Andolfo

artist: Mirka Andolfo

publisher: Image Comics

ISBN: 1534316582

paperback, 176 pages

SWING, VOL. 3 – graphic novel

Posted by Daniel on June 1, 2021
Posted in: GRAPHIC NOVEL. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

GRAPHIC NOVEL WEEK

48933311

Putting the ‘graphic’ back in ‘graphic novel.’

Married couple, Dan and Cathy, love each other very much. Dan will do anything to make his wife happy. Cathy wants to live the Swingers lifestyle.  Dan isn’t convinced of this and Cathy is aware of Dan’s reticence and she’s willing to take it slow to get him acclimated to the world.

Dan works hard to remain positive, even despite Murphy’s Law – if something bad can happen, it will.  He thinks at one point: “How can I say no to this woman? I love her so much. I’m upset, but I’m sure this has happened many times in the swinger lifestyle.”

I’m not going to define what happened – if you’re interested, you should read the book. But I do wonder … if something ‘bad’ happens, even if it happens a lot due to the lifestyle, does that make it okay?

I’m not entirely sure what to make of this book.

The artwork by Yishan Li is nice.  It’s got a modern style to it – not perfectly realistic but stylized with sharp, angular faces. There’s plenty of nudity and sexual positioning and group sex (with some homosexual scenes). If that troubles you, then you might want to pass on this (and maybe don’t consider reading anything about ‘swingers’). If the idea excites you, just calm down a bit. It’s still tamer than anything you might see on HBO or Starz.

The story by Matt Hawkins, felt unrealistic. Maybe it’s because I don’t know anyone in the swinger lifestyle (at least I don’t know anyone who admits to it). Something about a young couple and this didn’t come up earlier in their relationship, but suddenly one is ready to jump in and experience it all while the other has to be coerced (gently, so as not to seem like he’s being coerced) felt like wishful thinking. I really couldn’t get behind the story and it was quite one-dimensional – girl wants to be more playful sexually, with others, boy goes along because it’s what girl wants.

Mostly my reaction was – “Eh.”

The book includes a 20+ pages worth of Special Previews for other graphic novels (I’m not sure what they’re called) that were more traditional sorts of fantasy with elves and fairies and the like.  I think I enjoyed these more than the main book because they seemed to be going somewhere with a story.

Looking for a good book? Swing, Vol. 3 by Matt Hawkins and Yishan Li is a nice-looking graphic novel with a story about a couple who ‘swing’ – one of them reluctantly. I’m not sure what tot take from this, but if it sounds interesting to you, then check it out.

I received a digital copy directly from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)-emptyJava-icon (1)-empty

* * * * * *

Swing, Volume 3

author: Matt Hawkins

artist: Yishan Li

series: Swing by Matt Hawkins #3

publisher: Image Comics

ISBN: 1534316108

paperback, 128 pages

DISASTER INC. – graphic novel

Posted by Daniel on May 31, 2021
Posted in: GRAPHIC NOVEL. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

GRAPHIC NOVEL WEEK

56657225

Some people prefer to take the ‘off the beaten path’ tours and see some unconventional sites. That’s what happens here in the graphic novel Disaster, Inc., written by Joe Harris and illustrated by Sebastián Píriz.

In 2011 one of the worst earthquakes in Japan history caused three of the four nuclear reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi power plant to melt down, releasing enough radioactive material into the air and ground that the area may be a hot zone for the rest of time. So a tour to the area is not officially authorized or sanctioned, but a daring few can’t resist the lure of visiting the place.

What they didn’t realize until it was too late was that the Fukushima Daiichi area was once home to the samurai, who patrolled and protected the region.  The leaked radiation has awakened the long-dead samurai who are still looking to protect their territory. This doesn’t bode well for those who’ve intruded in the area.

Ghost/zombie samurai? A radioactive hot zone? Heck yeah!  What a great place for a horror story. And the story…?  It’s not very good.

Ghost/zombie samurai make a great character to build a story around, but in the 120 pages here, we don’t really get a lot of story.

There’s something going on with our leading (living) character, Abby. She may be running from something, or to something. What’s important, I guess, is that she’s got a secret and we want to keep reading in order to find out more. And the samurai are killing people around her, now that they’ve been awakened.  But at the moment she appears to be a survivor. Is there a connection? Who knows? Keep reading, I guess.

I understand the nature of comic books and how a storyline is drawn out over the course of many months (or years) in the books.  But typically (I think) a graphic novel pulls together a set of comic books that provides one complete story – there may still be a larger story arc that would include more than one graphic novel. This graphic novel has no end.  The book closes just as any comic book issue might finish … with a little bit of a cliff-hanger to get you interested in buying the next issue.

That’s not likely to happen here, for me.

The art is fine.  It’s nothing extraordinary and it didn’t make me cringe. It served the purpose of helping to tell the story.

Looking for a good book? Disaster, Inc is a graphic novel by Joe Harris and Sebastián Píriz that is left unfinished and because of the slow pace at revealing any details about what is happening isn’t something that I can recommend.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)Java-icon (1)-emptyJava-icon (1)-emptyJava-icon (1)-empty

* * * * * *

Disaster, Inc.

author: Joe Harris

artist: Sebastián Píriz

publisher: Aftershock Comics

ISBN: 1949028534

paperback, 120 pages