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All posts for the month August, 2013

A BOY AND A GIRL

Posted by Daniel on August 24, 2013

Posted in: GRAPHIC NOVEL, Uncategorized, YA. Tagged: Book Reviews, Books, Graphic Novels, Reviews, Young Adult. Leave a comment

I have to admit that I’ve been enjoying reading graphic novels on my Samsung tablet, lately. Having a variety of review copies to read has also been nice. This time around it’s a graphic novel by a company I’m not familiar with, by a writer and artist I’m not familiar with and doesn’t have anything to do with any previous story or feature (that I’m aware of). Wow. Something totally new!

What we have is a futuristic Romeo and Juliet story. Set in a realistic future, boy, Travis, meets girl, Charley, at a party and they immediately hit it off. Unfortunately, it’s Charley’s last night in town, but we don’t know where she’s headed after this. Travis, not knowing much other than her name, spends his hours searching for her, to convince her to stay, with him.

Charley’s best friend, Emily, reminds Charley of her duty, and watches over her as they try to enjoy a last night on the town. Travis’s best friend, Gregor, tries to get Travis to focus on anything other than Charley. Emily and Gregor don’t hit it off and seem to be the opposing ends of the magnet of Travis and Charley’s attracting ends.

Because it’s set in the future, there is a theme of Artificial Intelligence that runs throughout the story and plays a key role in the plot. And because it’s set in a not-too-distant future where people haven’t change much, there is also a little illegal syndicate action on the side.

The story is nicely told, though there isn’t anything that comes as a surprise. The ‘twist’ ending wasn’t really such a twist (for me). There is a little social theology at play , a bit of ethics regarding what makes a human, human. It does make one pause for a bit, though any avid sci-fi reader will have faced these issues time and time again. Which probably brings in to question, “Who is this graphic novel for?”

This is clearly not for the aging hippie, the over-weight, grey-haired-in-a-ponytail stereotype of a comics reader. This is for that new graphic novel audience, the teens that grew up with Manga-style art and maybe aren’t as familiar with Shakespeare’s Romeo&Juliet or Asimov’s robot novels. Given that, this is a pretty nice book. The art is not quite Manga, but clearly has a Manga feel to it. It’s monochrome look, probably really for cost purposes, serves the book suitably well.

I, personally, am not a fan of this style of art, and at times, I wasn’t sure which girl was which, due to their drawn similarities, and that’s a major detraction for me, in a graphic novel.

The simple story seemed drawn out unnecessarily so, particularly with the Gregor sections (though admittedly, the book ies up the loose ends with Gregor nicely).

Looking for a good book? This is a good choice for graphic novel reading teens.

* * * * * *

A Boy and A Girl

author: Jamie S. Rich

artist: Natalie Nourigat

publisher: Oni Press

ISBN: 1620100894

paperback, 168 pages

TO THE 5TH POWER by Shirin Dubbin

Posted by Daniel on August 23, 2013

Posted in: ROMANCE, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: Book Reviews, Books, Reviews, Romance, SF/Fantasy. Leave a comment

Well… there’s definitely been a recurring theme of reading about superheroes lately, and as this looked to be a short read (it is), and about superheroes (it is), with a sexy looking superheroine (or super villian?) on the cover (there is and she is!) I thought, ‘why not toss it in to my mix of reading materials?’

Surprise!

There is a strong element of super-hero-ness to this. Zola Noite is a superhero by the name of The Watcher. I’m not quite sure what her super power is, with a name like that, but she is not afraid to mix in when the fighting gets going. Unfortunately, The Watcher retired after having to watch her partner being brutally murdered while she lay helpless. To get her through the pain of this, Zola sees super-hero physchologist Dr. Arturo Forte, aka ‘Fort.’ There’s something going on between Fort and Zola…something inappropriate, and steamy, despite the doctor/patient relationship. But even a little romance doesn’t get her out of her deep funk.

What does get her roaring again, is the need to stave off an attack by three of her most arch nemeses who have escaped from prison. She fights recklessly, and …well… you’d have to read the book to understand what happens when she faces these three villians.

What doesn’t happen is ‘buy in.’ There isn’t much for us to get excited about. We’re supposed to identify or support Zola, the heroine of the tale, but mostly all she does is mope about and fret over her feelings for Forte. I’m a novice to the romance genre… is this typical romance behavior?

Most of the time I felt as though I were reading a classic YA novel (see my review of The Huaca for ‘classic YA’) … that constant sense of struggle to get through the day because everything is falling apart and no one understands and there’s a really cute guy that is too dangerous to like but she does anyway… but then there’s the sex scenario, which completely takes this book out of the YA range (that, or I need to have a better understanding of the books my 17 year old daughter is reading!)

So…it reads as a YA book, but with too much sex for YA; not enough sex or action for a romance; and a super hero who’s retired and her power is ‘watching.’ What that sums up to, I think, is a book that doesn’t quite hit the right marks.

Looking for a good book? This one doesn’t quite make the grade.

* * * * * *

To The 5th Power (Powers Trilogy #1)

author: Shirin Dubbin

publisher: Entangled: Ever After

ISBN: 162266180X

ebook, 122 pages

BEFORE WATCHMEN: OZYMANDIAS/CRIMSON CORSAIR by Len Wein and Jae Lee

Posted by Daniel on August 21, 2013

Posted in: GRAPHIC NOVEL, Uncategorized. Tagged: Book Reviews, Books, Graphic Novels, Reviews. Leave a comment

I come to this graphic novel; having already read one of the four collections; having read the original Watchmen comics (but not since they came out in the mid-to-late 1980’s; and having not spent much time with graphic novels since, until I started reviewing. And so I review and rate this based on it being a stand-alone collection.

And I kind of liked it.

I was not particularly familiar with the character of Ozymandias. I couldn’t have told you who any of the characters were in the original Watchmen series, but I accept that Ozymandias was one of those characters.

Writer Len Wein does a great job giving us the back story on the character — his search for knowledge, his use of said knowledge, and how he uses knowledge to make him a better fighter. Certainly the similarities to one of DC’s main staples, Batman, are painfully obvious. Perhaps a little too much so, down to the loss of parents. He’s more than a bit precocious, a downright jerk at times, and it’s easy to see how he might slip a little too far over the edge.

If the story was enthralling (I thought so), and kept me wanting to turn the page, then the art was down-right masterful. Jae Lee’s work on the Ozymandias story was beautiful. The panel lay-outs were unique to the story, had a sense of art-deco, which is perfectly suited for the story, and really helped move the action forward.

Clearly, I was completely taken in by this piece.

The Crimson Corsair, is another story (literally and figuratively). While the story takes place ‘before’ Watchmen, it had nothing to do with the Watchmen story except peripherally … there is something about a pirate story in Watchmen, if I recall.

The individual stories are short, just a few pages long each, and the over-all story arc is, well, predictable. I felt, all along, as if I were reading a Pirates of the Caribbean comic. It really didn’t do a whole lot for me one way or the other. It was a not-unpleasant way to pass some time. The art was fine, the story was fine. Nothing worth remembering.

A ‘bonus’ story is the short piece on “Dollar Bill” — the infamous character who dies by way of a cape accident (I hope I didn’t just give it away for anyone!). It was short, actually a rather fun read, and the artwork was fine. I wouldn’t buy a one-shot comic of this, but enjoyed it as an additional piece to the graphic novel.

I felt that this was worth it for the lengthy Ozymandias story. The Crimson Corsair and Dollar Bill stories were not necessary for filling in extra pages, but they didn’t detract too much. Still.. I would have liked more direct Watchmen connection than the Crimson Corsair provided.

Looking for a good book? This is a story worth following and great art.

* * * * * *

Before Watchmen: Ozymandias/Crimson Corsair

author: Len Wein (Ozymandias story)

artist: Jae Lee (Ozymandias story)

publisher: DC Comics

ISBN: 1401238955

hardcover, 256 pages

HOLES FOR FACES by Ramsey Campbell

Posted by Daniel on August 12, 2013

Posted in: Dark Fantasy/Horror, Uncategorized. Tagged: Book Reviews, Books, Horror/Dark Fantasy, Reviews. Leave a comment

If there is a better writer of psychological horror than Ramsey Campbell, let them step forward! This collection of short stories (mostly [but not all] reprints of fiction found in a variety of magazines) is a strong statement to the horror genre that Campbell still reigns supreme.

The fourteen stories in this collection are:

“Passing Through Peacehaven”
“Peep”
“Getting It Wrong”
“The Room Beyond”
“Holes for Faces”
“The Rounds”
“The Decorations”
“The Address”
“Recently Used”
“Chucky Comes to Liverpool”
“With the Angels”
“Behind the Doors”
“Holding the Light”
“The Long Way”

Starting off with “Passing Through Peacehaven” we immediately understand that we are in the hands of a master — one who can expose us to horror without resorting to copious amounts of blood and gore. Campbell expertly works on the psychology of the human mind and takes us to places that we can understand but generally don’t go.

Campbell creates characters that are all too real. Characters that are identifiable… often ourselves…and it’s that identification that scares the crap out of us…because we too could go to those dark places Campbell’s characters dwell.

If there is a theme that runs amongst these stories, it is youth and age. Our main characters in each story is either a youngster, or an aged person (is the working-class age group too busy to notice the horror around them?).

In “Peep” we experience what it must be like to be that older, slower grandfather, tasked with watching his grandchildren for the day, not being able to keep up. But one of my favorites in this collection is “Getting It Wrong.” This story hits every anxiety nerve just so, surprises a little, and truly gets under the skin. It definitely struck me that this could easily have been an Outer Limits or Twilight Zone episode … in a good way … as it was easy to visualize.

One of my other favorites (it’s actually quite hard to choose as they are all so good) was the last piece “The Long Way.” Although I’ve no experiences quite like this, I couldn’t help but think Campbell somehow knew me and wrote about my youth.

As the publisher’s website proclaims:

Holes for Faces collects many of his best tales from the first decade of this century. An attempt to avoid a haunted house leads into worse danger. The announcements at a railway station deal with stranger things than trains, and is that another railway station in the distance or a different kind of destination? A childhood game becomes a source of terror, and so does a radio quiz show. Even Christmas decorations may not be trusted, and beware of that Advent calendar! A hotel provides amenities you mightn’t welcome, and a visit to a tourist attraction attracts an uninvited follower. A train journey may never end, unless it already has, and a visit to a hospital brings back more than memories. A myth about a horror film has unwanted consequences. There are angels you mightn’t want to see too clearly, if that’s what they are. And you’ll have to decide if it’s better to stay in the dark or see what’s waiting there. You’ll find uncanny dread in these pages, and disquiet and terror, but also poignancy and comedy of paranoia.

If you are new to Ramsey Campbell… this is a great place to start. If you’ve read Campbell before, you won’t want to miss this collection. If you ever thought about read horror but don’t know where to start, this is a great introduction.

I can’t recommend this highly enough.

Looking for a good book? It doesn’t get any better than this.

* * * * * *

Holes for Faces

author: Ramsey Campbell

publisher: Dark Regions Press

ISBN: 9781937128449

hardcover

NORWEGIAN BY NIGHT

Posted by Daniel on August 7, 2013

Posted in: MYSTERY, OTHER, Uncategorized. Tagged: Book Reviews, Books, Mystery, Reviews, Thriller. Leave a comment

I was titillated by the title — a bold, brilliant title that didn’t tell me too much, but had me curious. Of course I wanted to read a book about someone who would only be Norwegian by night … whatever that meant.

This is a book about … well … it’s a book about many things. It’s a thriller. It’s about civil war. Genocide. Dementia. Love. Loss. Aging. Taking a stand and doing ‘what’s right.’ It’s about people.

Sound confusing? It really isn’t, but it does try to take on a little too much. Or maybe it’s that author Derek B. Miller does such a good job of making all his characters so interesting that none are fleshed out to their fullest potential. Whatever the case, it doesn’t quite hit the mark.

In Norwegian By Night, elderly Sheldon Horowitz moves to Norway to live with his grand-daughter, his only living relative. While there, he becomes entangled in a dispute between a Balkan war criminal and the man’s wife. Sheldon witnesses the woman’s murder and decides that it is up to him to rescue their young son. Sheldon takes off in a strange country, with a child who doesn’t speak English, and being searched for by the Balkan war criminal, the Norwegian police, and his grand-daughter and her husband. Sheldon’s old Marine buddies appear and speak and guide him along the way.

There were moments in the book that seemed to take forever… when we spent too much time at one place or on one person. There were other times when I couldn’t get enough… it was so interesting and moving so well that I was totally captivated. But then pages later, I might be completely and utterly confused as to why we switched view-points or who was doing the talking.

Sheldon’s grand-daughter, Rhea, and her husband, Lars, were mostly dull and un-interesting. They were necessary characters for getting Sheldon involved in the plot, but beyond that they didn’t seem to have much life in them.

Sheldon was a wonderful, colorful character. As you read along you are so sure that he’s crazy, addled with dementia, and then just a few pages later, author Miller has you convinced that Sheldon is more lucid and on-the-ball, than anyone else in the book. And then he’s talking to the ghosts of his Marine past (if, indeed, he did have a Marine past). This portion of the book, while a little confusing and even frustrating at first, becomes quite fun as you realize the author is playing with us.

The detectives, Sigrid and Petter, are a little stereotypical, but interesting enough that we don’t feel we know them well enough. This could have been a book about Sigrid, but isn’t, but if there were one character we’d like to read about again, it would be she.

The Balkan war criminal, Enver, is the biggest missing piece to the book. What is his story. Why is he here and doing what he’s doing, and why such insistence on finding the boy? None of these questions are really uncovered, and this is where the plot falls thin. Without knowing why it’s important (we trust that all will be answered by the end) we don’t understand why each character has struggled to do what they have done.

The boy himself is a foil, a tool for advancing the story, which is too bad. This was a missed opportunity.

All in all, it took me too long to get involved in the book and to learn to make sense of the jumping around from points of view, but when I did, I mostly enjoyed what was there.,

Looking for a good book? This one has a lot to offer if you’re willing to put in the effort.

* * * * *

Norwegian by Night

author: Derek B. Miller

publisher: Scribe

ISBN: 1921844884

paperback, 304 pages

THE HIGH WAYS

Posted by Daniel on August 3, 2013

Posted in: GRAPHIC NOVEL, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: Book Reviews, Books, Graphic Novels, Reviews, SF/Fantasy. Leave a comment

Probably the most obvious reason to read this particular graphic novel is because of the author/artist, John Byrne. Byrne’s name is nearly synonymous with comic books to anyone who spent much time with comics in the ’70’s and ’80’s. Seeing Byrne’s name on a comic, particularly as artist, was usually a sign that it was a comic worth reading.

And now we jump forward thirty- forty years, and I discover that Byrne is still writing and drawing comics. Clearly a blessing to have a younger generation of comic/graphic novel readers discover one of the greats.

Except maybe not so great or such a blessing … ?

The artwork is solid … crisp, classic, and despite the detail Byrne puts in to his work, it never gets so muddy or so complex that you can’t enjoy each panel. I personally found the artwork refreshing, but it might be seen as ‘simple’ or even comic-book-ish as it doesn’t have the slick, glossy smoothness or gritty realism that much of today’s books have. Again…I personally find this to be an asset to the work.

But the story is another matter. This book tries to tell too much story. So much, that it jumps about quickly and takes such unexpected turns that the reader has to simply accept the leaps because nothing is developed. When writing a storyline for an established series, the characters are pretty well developed and only deviant behavior needs to be explained. But in a one-shot series like this, where we don’t know who the characters are, the change in behavior is annoying — even if the change in behavior is the purpose of the story. When nearly all the major characters change as much as they seem to here, it only confuses the reader and muddles the story.

One character changes so drastically (I’m trying hard not to give too much away) that even the way the character is drawn changes, which only created disbelief to this reader. Disbelief that the character could have gotten away with the disguise in the first place.

There’s nothing wrong with a grand scope … trying to take on some powerful ideas … but in doing so, Byrne left too many unanswered questions, and a wave of head-spinning twists that take some thinking.

Over-all, not bad. I’m glad I read it. It had a nostalgic feel (there is a bit of a Forbidden Planet feel to it). Anyone my age (50’s) who knows comics would likely enjoy it. My graphic-novel-reading-kids? Maybe not so much.

Looking for a good book? This is not too bad.

* * * * * *

The High Ways

author: John Byrne

artist: John Byrne

publisher: IDW Publishing

ISBN: 1613776799

paperback, 104 pages

VAMPIRELLA STRIKES

Posted by Daniel on August 3, 2013

Posted in: Dark Fantasy/Horror, GRAPHIC NOVEL. Tagged: Book Reviews, Books, Graphic Novels, Horror/Dark Fantasy, Reviews. Leave a comment

When I was a teenaged boy, I loved the Vampirella comic … for some very obvious reasons! I can recall stuffing in between my superhero comics so that my parents wouldn’t see it. Now…well, it’s a little embarassing to have a copy out. Thank you Kindle for allowing me the privacy to read without showing the world what I’m reading!

So…maybe it’s been thirty-plus years since I’ve read a Vampirella comic. I remember the girl, and the outfit, and the kick-ass nature of it all. Most of this hasn’t changed. There’s still the girl (finally…a reason for a heroine not to have aged!); still the outfit (though it took too long for her to reveal it); and still a lot of kicking ass. And yet… there was something missing…

I mentioned, in a recent review, how great it is to have stories that are larger than life. The greater the conflict the more powerful the story, typically, and you can’t get much more powerful than the struggle between good and evil with the Christian god’s angel army at the fore-front.

It took a little while to actually get in to the story and to be able to follow the story arc. Author Tom Sniegoski works to construct the story, starting streetwise and building to a crescendo with the angels and arcangels, which is a great goal, but the story meanders a little too much and becomes confusing at times. Toss in a little role-reversal and the story is muddier than it needs to be. Still, once I was able to really get a grip on the story, I enjoyed the story portion. Had I been reading single issue comics, rather than a graphic novel, I might not have stayed through to the end.

The artwork was the biggest hurdle for this reviewer. Realism-based, but not quite consistent. Characters occassionally took on a cartoon-y look — not at all appropriate for this genre of story. The art is so important in a graphic novel, and this art felt rushed and cluttered. In a story of such a dark nature, muddying it with extra inks and lots of detail creates a claustophobic atmosphere — and not in a good way. The constant dingy colors didn’t help much.

It’s nice to see that Vampirella is still alive, but she deserves a little more care than she’s currently getting.

Looking for a good book? You might want to pass on this one.