Audiobook Review: Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige
Posted on February 1, 2016 18 Comments
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Imaginative Retelling
Series: Dorothy Must Die #1
Publisher: HarperCollins (April 1, 2014)
Information: Twitter | Goodreads
Tiara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars
Narrator: Devon Sorvari | Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins | Audiobook Publisher: Harper Audio (April 1, 2014) | Whispersync Ready: Yes
This is a long review, but you know I don’t usually write short reviews, especially not about the YA books. I’m getting better at them, though. Longer than normal reviews usually means a metric ton of bitching on my end. In my defense, this one is actually a favorable review, which brings my “better than decent” YA book count up to three for 2016. I’ll give The Girl from the Well a “VALIANT EFFORT” star for its time, and I don’t want to talk about Thirteen Reasons Why (contemporary YA). The more I think about that the book the more I think I actually really did dislike that one, but just didn’t want to say so because of the awareness message. I mean, who wants to be THAT PERSON that frowns at a book that seems to be trying to get out a genuine message? Out of a total of the five YA books (I don’t even normally read five YA books in one year much less one month), three of them have been positive experiences. Two of them, including this one, have been extraordinary experiences. One book, this one, gets the distinction of actually throwing me for a such a loop that it changed my whole perception of some things in the book. So, I’ll show my kind side for a while and gush about a book for a change. Also, there will be Kill Bill gifs, plenty of Kill Bill gifs. To the review!
I have always been fascinated with the idea that Dorothy Gale wasn’t the great, special, caring girl she was from the movie. Her sweetness always felt too sickly sweet. Wicked came out when I was in college working in the university print shop. I would read it around cutting out negatives and burning prints. I loved that in the Wicked Witch’s story, Dorothy was just some bumbling girl that happened to stumble into Oz and start screwing things up. Dorothy Must Die, which I lovingly refer to as “Kill Dorothy Vol. 1,” takes the idea even further by making Dorothy evil and ambitious. Dorothy’s story exists in this book. It’s treated as the same fictional story about the same fictional girl that we know. In this book, people don’t realize there’s a part two to that story and that it’s far from fiction.
Featuring The Bride as Amy Gumm.
Enter Amy Gumm. Amy is the product of a broken home. Her father left her and her mother for another woman when she was younger, and her mother became hooked on pills and alcohol to the point that Amy takes care of her more than the other way around. Amy lives in a trailer park and deals with ridicule from her peers. Salvation Amy, they call her because mean teenagers aren’t typically very clever. She knows Dorothy’s story well, and as a girl living miserably in Kansas herself, she doesn’t understand why Dorothy would choose to come back to such mediocrity. On the cusp of a tornado, Amy’s mom decides it’s more important to attend a tornado party with her friend than stay and make sure her daughter is safe, and yep, she gets scooped up by a tornado and taken to the wonderful world of Oz. However, things are wrong.
The Deadly Vipers as the Tin Man, the Lion, Glinda, and the Scarecrow
Dorothy continues on with the pretense of sweetness and friendliness while punishing the inhabitants for things such as Extreme Sass and Smuttiness. A fickle nature and a thirst for power make her cruel. Amy’s arrival disturbs her. It shatters Dorothy’s thin illusions of grandeur. Dorothy decrees Amy must stand trial for treason, which will certainly end in her death or worse. Before Amy is to be executed, she’s rescued by the Wicked Witches who have banded together to oppose Dorothy. As they train Amy to become one of the Wicked, one thing becomes clear: Dorothy must die.
And Amy must be the one to kill her.
Bill… Dorothy… same thing.
Book Review: A Criminal Magic by Lee Kelly
Posted on February 1, 2016 24 Comments
A review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Saga Press (February 2, 2016)
Length: 432 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
The year is 1926. In our real world, America would have been in the throes of the “Prohibition era”, a time in the twenties to early-thirties marked by a nationwide ban on the sale, production and importation of alcohol. But in the world of A Criminal Magic, it is sorcery and its related activities and products that are ruled illegal by the passing of the 18th Amendment.
However, the attempt to clamp down on the “evils” of magic only resulted in creating new types of crime—and lots more of it. Activity in the criminal underworld has exploded, with smugglers transporting magical contraband into the country from overseas. Gang bosses have also set up secret dens in the cities where customers can indulge in clandestine magic shows while guzzling the “shine”, an ensorcelled beverage with euphoric but highly addictive effects. In the middle of this are two young people who come from very different beginnings, but both end up walking the path that leads them to working for the notorious Washington D.C. criminal organization known as the Shaw Gang.
Speaking of which, their story brings to mind that old adage about the road to hell being paved with good intentions. Both Joan Kendrick and Alex Danfrey are on this journey for similar reasons, hoping to atone for past sins—except the former is in it to do right by her family, while the latter is seeking redemption and revenge. To keep her cousin and little sister fed and sheltered, Joan agrees to work as an entertainer in the Shaws’ finest club, the Red Den. Alex’s history on the other hand is much more complicated, being the son of a businessman who was convicted for racketeering for the mob. A trainee in the Federal Prohibition Unit, Alex was well on his way to becoming just another apathetic and dirty cop when he is suddenly offered the opportunity to turn his life around by acting as a mole to infiltrate the Shaws.
A Criminal Magic offers genuine entertainment. The atmosphere, the suspense and the gorgeous magic is all there, and for the most part it was a smashing hit with me. I am always crazy for alternate history because it is such a thrill seeing what authors can do with the time period, and I just love having new experiences in general. In that sense, this book was everything I wanted and definitely took me on a wild ride. So many of the ideas here electrified me, from the sorcerer’s shine to magical teamwork! It’s an ambitious novel to be sure, but while a thousand and one things could have gone wrong, Kelly pulled it all together beautifully. It was an absolute joy to read her elegant prose and storytelling.
Was the book perfect? No, though I have to say it was damned nearly so. I was most disappointed that the Roaring Twenties didn’t come through as fully as it could have, falling just short of being convincing or immersive. Aside from the occasional mention of men in fedoras and awkward insertions of “dame” in the dialogue, this novel could have taken place anywhere and anytime else. I was able to also foresee most of the story because of its rather shallow plot involving the same old power struggles and betrayals, a timeworn scenario considering how predictably it features in every other gangster movie ever made. If mob films happen to be your thing, you might find portions of the novel overly simplistic and not particularly original (like Alex’s recruitment before graduation and his subsequent stint in prison to increase his credibility, for example, which was plot point a straight out of The Departed.)
Character development also felt a little thin for supporting characters, though Joan and Alex were written very well. Still, they were hard to embrace wholeheartedly because I found both to be so naïve and, in Joan’s case, so self-absorbed. It’s interesting how my feelings for them at the end of the book were a complete turnaround from how I felt about them at the beginning. I loathed Alex with every fiber of my being when he was first introduced, but by the final chapters he had become a favorite. Meanwhile, my opinion of Joan started high but fell with every wrong move and weak excuse she made. Their romance didn’t feel right to me either, almost like forces outside the fourth wall were pushing them into the relationship instead of letting it occur naturally.
Of course, these are all minor issues. None of them are even close to deal breaking, and the book’s magic and stunning climax and conclusion also made up for a lot of them.
A Criminal Magic is an example of great storytelling, with an extraordinarily unique vision. While it didn’t quite meet all my expectations, it’s still a solid novel that I would recommend to others without hesitation. My first book by Lee Kelly was a great experience, and now it’s got me eyeing my copy of her debut City of Savages with hungry curiosity!
Short & Sweet YA Weekend: The Day Boy and the Night Girl by George MacDonald
Posted on January 31, 2016 4 Comments
The Day Boy and the Night Girl by George MacDonald
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Fantasy and Horror Classics (first published in 1882)
Memorable Quote: “No, of course – you can’t be a girl: girls are not afraid – without reason. I understand now: it is because you are not a girl that you are so frightened.”
Narrator: Paul Eggington | Length: 1 hr and 33 mins | Audiobook Publisher: ChristianAudio.Com (January 6 2009) | Whispersync Ready: Yes
TL;DR Review:
Credit: Moonflowers
Tiara’s Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars. I wasn’t sure what I was getting into to, but I loved it. I just wished it had been a longer story.
MacDonald has been credited with being the inspiration for other “Christian Mythmakers” such as Tolkien and L’Engle. Thid story in particular is seen as some of his best work. Despite the publisher, this is not a book that is about religion (but you can catch some religious themes as with the works with all the authors mentioned). The Day Boy and the Night Girl is a fairy tale of sorts, and I’ve heard that this is quoted in Ann Aguirre’s Enclave. Two women, a beautiful noblewoman named Aurora from the king’s court, and a blind, widowed woman named Vesper, are the unwitting guests of Watho, a witch, who aspires to know everything. She allows Aurora to live in the sunlight and have free range of the castle while she hides away the blind woman in the tombs, believing her to know no difference given her condition. Watho finds both women beautiful. Aurora in her vibrance and Vesper in her tragedy. Aurora soon births a son, Photogen. Immediatey upon his birth, he is spirited away from his mother. She’s told he is dead, and she leaves the mansion in despair. Not too long after, Vesper births a daughter named Nycteris and presumably Vesper died after her birth. Watho begins an experiment with the children. She only allows Photogen to see the sunlight, living as his mother had, and she allows Nycteris to see only the dark, living in the tombs as her mother had. Photogen is schooled in many arts while Nycteris is largely kept ignorant save for learning music. Photogen knows nothing of the night while Nycteris knows nothing of the day.
When Photogen decides that he has the courage to face the night after learning about it, he’s seized with a fear he’s never known, only helped through his fear by Nycteris who is ignorant of the sunlight and finds no fear in the dark. In fact, Nycteris is very much in tune with her surroundings. When Nycteris discovers the sun, she believes she is burning. However, unlike Photogen, she is more open to experience despite her naivety, and quickly comes to realize that, despite her fear of the sun, both the light and the dark live together to form a harmony. This harmony is something that both the boy and the girl find in each other, as they learn to balance this realization that there is more to their lives than the small world Watho has condemned to them for her personal knowledge. This is a beautifully crafted tale that’s aged well. There’s a simplicity to the story that kids can appreciate, but at the same time, there’s a depth that adults can admire. Photogen’s resolve to be brave in the face of the unknown and Nycteris’ quiet wisdom are shown beautifully, simply. They complement each other and navigate a world together that they’d been hidden from. Because this is a children’s story, things do wrap up very neatly for the characters, but there is still something affecting about it. Eggington’s narration was great. It wasn’t too over the top, and it wasn’t too boring. He read it just as you’d expect a fairy tale to be narrated. I will admit the story seems to give more weight to the boy’s story, but this could be to show how naive he truly is and how Nycteris offsets that by being compassionate. It made me think of Digory and Polly from C.S. Lewis’ The Magician’s Nephew, but Nycteris is much milder than Polly.
Yays!
– A touching fairytale that can lead to awesome discussion
– A great story for children and adults
Nays!
– Short, easy to see this story in a longer format
– Can feel like the author gave Photogen’s story more merit
Story: 
| Performance: 
| Overall:
YA Weekend: Burning Midnight by Will McIntosh
Posted on January 31, 2016 21 Comments
A review copy was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Burning Midnight by Will McIntosh
Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Delacorte Press (February 2, 2016)
Length: 320 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Burning Midnight is Will McIntosh’s first Young Adult novel, and even though it didn’t hit me emotionally as hard as his adult books Defenders or Love Minus Eighty (which is one of my favorite books ever!) I nonetheless found it incredibly entertaining and addictive. It even disrupted my nightly ritual of reading to calm my mind before bed, because all this book did was make me even more wide awake with my blood pumped up and heart pounding.
I also loved the unique concept behind Midnight Burning. Imagine going to sleep one day and waking up the next to find that everything has changed, thanks to the sudden appearance of strange, colorful marble-sized spheres all over the world. You can find them anywhere there is human activity, but they are always hidden well–inside storm drains, fountains, crawlspaces, discarded bottles, etc. And when you put a matched set of the same color to your temples (in a process called “burning” the spheres) they can permanently enhance your features and abilities. Burning a pair of Chocolate browns can make you stronger, for example, and Cranberries can make you better looking. Aquamarines will grant you quick healing, Vermillions allow you to sleep less (that’s one I could TOTALLY use), and Ruby reds give you perfect teeth…basically, there are dozens upon dozens of sphere colors and their effects.
Of course, some colors are rarer than others, and there’s a lot more demand for the desirable traits. As a result, a whole industry has sprung up around the spheres. Some businessmen made a fortune dealing in spheres, like the shady industry mogul Alex Holliday, but also on the other side of the spectrum are those like our protagonist David “Sully” Sullivan, a high school student who buys and sells them out of a modest little stall at the local flea market on weekends. Desperate for money after his mom loses his job, Sully decides to join forces with Hunter, a girl with a natural talent for finding spheres. Together, they hope to strike it rich soon with one big find, and then one day, they get lucky—really lucky. Sully and Hunter find a Gold, a color that no one has ever seen before, so it’s a mystery what a pair of them will even do. But it doesn’t matter, because it’s possibly the rarest sphere in the world, and when Holliday catches wind of it, Sully knows the evil billionaire will do anything in his power to possess it.
In the acknowledgements, I found out Burning Midnight was actually expanded from a short story by Will McIntosh called “Midnight Blue”, and it would be really interesting to see how that might have influenced the structure of the plot, since I noticed a distinct shift between the first half of the novel and its second half. The pivotal point, of course, was when Sully and Hunter find the Gold—which happens almost exactly halfway through the book. Before this, the story was definitely slower, focusing more on the world building and developing the characters and their relationships. On the other hand, the second half was where all the action was! In truth, this turned out really well, with the more gradual pacing in the beginning acting as a nice long fuse to work up to the explosive ending. I was practically burning with anticipation (sorry, pun unavoidable) to find out the mystery behind the spheres and how everything would play out.
I have to say, the answers were surprising. I won’t spoil the end, but it’s safe to say I didn’t see the twist coming at all. Throughout the entire book is this disconcerting feeling that the spheres are too good to be true, and McIntosh even encourages the suspicion by including a character who wisely suggests that there’s “no free lunch”. Things in the book did wrap up a little too quickly and neatly for my tastes, but my mind is still blown by the revelations which I can only describe as pretty unexpected and far out there.
Ultimately, it was really refreshing to get away from magic and dive into something strange, weird and mysterious like the spheres. One has to wonder if the story was in any way inspired by collectible card games or other hobbies that involve hunting for rare items (assigning a value to spheres based on its rarity, listing/buying spheres on eBay, hitting up sphere dealers for the best price to complete a set, etc.…all these activities inevitably reminded me of my days of scouring hobby store displays to find those rare cards I needed to build my Magic deck.) Whichever way you look at it though, the story was tons of fun and the originality alone makes this book worth checking out.
Overall, Midnight Burning was a very quick and enjoyable read, with one of the coolest concepts I’ve ever seen. I devoured it in about two sittings, after I finally gave up on trying to go to sleep and admitted to myself I’d so much rather be reading this book. Will McIntosh is one of my favorite authors and I’ll read any book he writes, and I am thrilled that he made such a great debut into YA fiction.
Rosemary and Rue Read-Along Week No.4
Posted on January 30, 2016 12 Comments
This Read-Along of Rosemary and Rue was arranged by Lisa at Over the Effing Rainbow. This book has been sitting on my TBR pile forever, and I figured now was a good time to read it along with other people! This is the final week’s questions, but there are plans to continue to the next book. If you’re interested in joining this Read-Along, visit the SF/F Read-Along group for more information and to join the discussion.
And oh, yes, there will be blood… er… spoilers…
Week 1: Saturday 9th January, Chapters 1-6, hosted by Over the Effing Rainbow
Week 2: Saturday 16th January, Chapters 7-14, hosted by Lynn at Lynn’s Books
Week 3: Saturday 23rd January, Chapters 15-20, hosted by Anya at On Starships and Dragonwings
Week 4: Saturday 30th January, Chapters 21-End, hosted by Over the Effing Rainbow
1. On the way to finding Evening’s killer at last, we get to meet the Luidaeg in person. What are your impressions of her, and what do you think of the sneaky ‘deal’ Toby managed to make with her?
I like her, but I usually do like those kind of characters. I just finished The Bees last night, and the Spiders in that book made me think of her, which should probably be pretty scary. It seems more like she’s terrifying because others are terrified of her and what she represents for their people. I’m not going to say she’s probably not a scary person, but it seems much of the fear is rooted in hate and prejudiced which she responds to by being, I don’t want to say antagonistic… Maybe upfront, uncaring about what they think, and truthful are better words. There’s no reason to soften who you are in her case because she already knows the score. I think the deal was really smart of Toby and shows how she thinks quick on her feet, but with her former occupation, that’s a requirement, I suppose. I always think things like this will probably bite characters in the ass, so… I liked the dynamics between the Luidaeg and Toby as well. The glimpses of their kin’s histories was fascinating. I can’t wait to see where that goes.
2. Next stop is the Court of Cats, where we see Tybalt in his role as a king, followed by another visit to Lily to finally learn the truth. We get some more evidence of the regard they both have for Toby; in light of previous discussions about Toby’s friendships, what do you make of this new evidence?
The Court of the Cats seems… fun… LOL. Before kids, those would’ve been my kind of people… sort of… Toby has good friends looking after her whether she thinks she deserves them or not. Obviously, given how she’s treated from the highest court to a cabbie, people have plenty of respect for her, and she seems to have endeared herself more than she thinks with the magic community. Some of those relationships run deeper than she thinks. I know she’s going through a rough time, but people can only be in your corner for so long before you have to get the help you need, open your eyes, and accept that they’re with you on this journey. You’re not alone, and their is no reason to think that. Toby is pretty independent, but look how quickly she ran back to the unhealthy relationship to seek help over some of the others. There’s an argument to be made that she was just working under “the end justifies the means” logic with him. However, there’s no reason for me to believe that Devin’s life meant any less to her than any of the others’ lives, and it was pretty obvious where her feelings were. It seemed to be okay for her to lean on him in a destructive relationship like that, but less okay to lean on people who probably mostly have your best interests at heart.
Also… you just happened to have some cats, huh, Toby? That could take you to Tybalt. She came back to you, huh, Tybalt? She came back to YOU.
I see you two!
3. Now for the final reveal! Devin ‘fesses up, and Dare is killed defending Toby… Was any of this finale what you’d expected? What do you make of Devin’s reasons for killing Evening?
There weren’t too many leads on who it could be. I know there was Ray acting as the red herring, I suppose. I never much suspected Ray, so I figured it was going to be the obvious choice or it was going to be the least-obvious choice. In my mind, that boiled down to two people, in order of obvious and least-obvious, Devin and Connor. Devin because he seemed cutthroat enough to do it it. Connor because he just comes off as a great big ol’ man baby. I had to think about Devin’s reason for killing her. On one hand, I was thinking, “That’s it?” On the other, people have manipulated others and killed for less, and it didn’t really seem out of character for him from Toby’s previous description. I don’t know if I’d expected him to be so fanciful and fanatical about the idea because he seemed more practical than that, a man that would deal in absolutes rather than maybes. However, I guess, when faced with certain realities you’d rather not face, you can get lost in your head. Poor Dare. I really liked her and her brother. I really wanted both of them to have their happy ending, especially her because she seemed to be willing to do anything to make sure they ended up safe and protected.
4. The hope chest is given over to the Queen at the end of the story. In light of what we’ve seen of her and the potential power that the hope chest has (regardless of what it does), do you think this was the right thing for Toby to do?
Well, going on Toby’s logic, it was the right thing to do. In this case, though, since she really does want to keep it away from herself and it’s obvious she isn’t in any ambiguous possible romantic precursor period as she is with a certain Cat king, it probably is the best choice since the Queen really does seem to dislike her greatly. I don’t know if that was the smartest decision (only time will tell), but it was probably the right decision for this current situation.
Please stand by as I sob quietly to myself about my Tybalt/Toby ship sailing. I will go down with this ship. I won’t put my hands up and surrender. There will be no white flag above my door. I’m singing that in my best Dido voice, which isn’t very good.
I will go down with this ship. Now let’s see how long it takes to break my heart.
With these words “Who did I know that would start barking like a seal if you hurt him?” Connor was officially put into “delicate precious baby 90% of the time” category, even if he did save her life. She did say his people were mostly gentle right. I bet he keeps his skin smooth with Johnson & Johnson’s Lavender Scented Baby Lotion. This could change, and I’m not faulting him for being gentle. It’s just the way she wrote him was gentle in a chuckle-worthy way. Again, nothing wrong with gentle men at all, but there’s a fine line between gentle men and seemingly mocking gentleness in a man. I’m hoping it doesn’t go over into mocking because right now it’s just amusing. That end scene, though, with the Connor and the water confirmed my suspicion that she is acting much like a trauma victim. I was literally (yes, literally) arguing with the narrator when Toby forgot that Connor was a selkie. (I’m glad she pointed out she forgot… Otherwise…) Which brings me to my next rambling point, I loved that she used the fact that selkies have seductive power over human women and Toby’s humanness to show a little of how that relationship probably really happened, even though Connor is supposed to be cute and all.
Poor twins. Poor, poor twins.
So she’s back again, said Tybalt’s voice, soft in my mind’s ears. Lost and gone for so long, and now she’s come back to us, now she’s come back to me . . .
My heart can’t handle it right now.
Rosemary and Rue Read-Along Week No.1
Rosemary and Rue Read-Along Week No.2
Rosemary and Rue Read-Along Week No.3
Mogsy’s Bookshelf Roundup: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads
Posted on January 30, 2016 39 Comments
Bookshelf Roundup is a feature I do every other weekend which fills the role of several blog memes, like Stacking the Shelves where I talk about the new books I’ve added to my library or received for review, as well as It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? where I round up what I’ve read since the last update and what I’m planning to read soon. Mostly it also serves as a recap post, so sometimes I’ll throw in stuff like reading challenge progress reports, book lists, and other random bookish thoughts or announcements.
So, as you might have heard, our area got a bit of snow last week…
We’re in northeastern Maryland, and winter storm Jonas kicked us hard in the ass. Official numbers put snow accumulation in our town at around 28-29 inches, which sounds about right. When I opened the door to our yard on Sunday morning, some of the drifts were more than three feet high (my daughter, in the above photo, is about 41 inches tall) and we were pretty much snowed in the whole weekend, despite all our efforts shoveling and snow blowing. The plows were still working overtime trying to get the roads clear and most businesses were closed, which meant nowhere to go and nothing to do but stay at home for days. Yes, you can bet I spent a lot of that downtime reading.
RECEIVED FOR REVIEW
Before the blizzard hit though, some great books showed up in the mail. Some were titles I requested, but as usual there were more than a few happy surprises. I would like to thank the publishers and authors for sending me these wonderful review copies:
Snakewood by Adrian Selby – One of my most anticipated releases for this spring! I was very excited when this ARC arrived. My thanks to Orbit for the chance to read this dark fantasy story about a band of mercenaries who use strange alchemy and magical brews to escape a killer hunting them.
Starborn by Lucy Hounson – A squee-inducing book, courtesy of the good folks across the pond at Tor UK. A YA fantasy adventure about a young woman on the run until she is rescued by two strangers, leading to a chain of events that awakens her own power within her. I cannot wait to start this.
The Damned by Andrew Pyper – Last week I got an unsolicited package from Simon & Schuster, and my jaw literally fell open when I opened it up to see this inside. HOW DID THEY KNOW I WANTED TO READ THIS ONE BADLY?! Apparently, the paperback release is next month, complete with a brand new cover. Like I said in a recent Top Ten Tuesday, The Damned is a top 2015 release that I meant to read last year, but was sad that I didn’t get to do so. Its serendipitous arrival was no doubt telling me that it was time, so I dove into the book that very same night and devoured it. My thanks to the publisher for sending me this most excellent horror novel. Review to be posted soon!
The Dragon Round by Stephen S. Power – The awesomesauce of S&S does not end there. Last year before the holidays I also got a nice email from the publicist working on Simon 451 titles letting me know they saw my Waiting for Wednesday post about The Dragon Round, and asked if I would be interested in a review copy. I told her that I had been approved for the eARC already, but they said they were more than happy to send a print copy along as well. It came earlier this month, and I love having a physical copy. I know it’s just the proof version, but I still look at that cover and get a bit of vertigo from that stunningly gorgeous image. The high seas and dragons! My thanks again to Simon & Schuster, I am even more excited to read this now.
The Lyre Thief by Jennifer Fallon – This book first landed on my radar late last year, and the more I learn about it, the more delicious it looks. A story about stolen music, the quest for a tiny lyre, and a powerfully compelling female protagonist. This epic fantasy sounds right up my alley. With thanks to Tor Books.
Poseidon’s Wake by Alastair Reynolds – My thanks to Ace Books for sending me the finished hardcover, which was a surprise arrival like the ARC I got last month. I guess they really want me to read this! And believe me, I really want to read it too! Priority will always go to requested books of course, but I’ve also been looking into my library to see if they have the audio of the first book Blue Remembered Earth. When my reading schedule clears a little, I’d like to start this series. I’ve heard great things about it, and Alastair Reynolds is an author I really NEED to read.
Kingfisher by Patricia A. McKillip – Speaking of authors I really need to read, lately I’ve been hearing all sorts of praise for Patricia A. McKillip’s latest novel. I was also in a Twitter discussion earlier this week about which books of hers are our favorites, and of course I had to sheepishly admit I’ve never read her. I hope to remedy that next month when I dive into Kingfisher, a book of ancient magic and knights, enchantresses and fae. My thanks again to Ace Books.
Ex-Isle by Peter Clines – Paperback, with thanks to Broadway Books. This was a surprise arrival, but a very welcome one! I’ve been following Clines’ superheroes meets zombie apocalypse Ex-Heroes series for a while now. Still, it’s hard to believe this is already book 5! Good thing I’m caught up so I can dive right in.
Doom of the Dragon by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman – My thanks to Tor for this finished copy of the latest book in the Dragonships of Vindras sequence. My guess is that I won’t be able to read it as a standalone as it is the fourth and final volume, but it’s definitely getting bumped up the list of unsolicited-books-or-series to try out if time allows! I hear folks talk about the authors’ Dragonlance books all the time, and I feel like I owe it to myself to check out their writing.
Dragon Hunters by Marc Turner – Hey, look at all these covers of dragons harassing ships! Dragons, dragons, dragons! This update seems to be all about dragons, but that, my friends, is what I call a happy problem. Tor Books was also kind enough to send along this gorgeous finished copy of the sequel to When the Heavens Fall. It was a surprise arrival as well, but seeing as I already had every intention of continuing the series, book two’s arrival couldn’t have been more perfect!
The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone – 2016 is shaping up to be a great year for Horror. I swear, every time I turn around I see another new title that catches my eye. This one showed up on Edelweiss the other week, and it was on my watchlist so I couldn’t resist requesting. Thanks to Atria/Emily Bestler Books for approving me. It sounds like an eco-horror type story from its description, but from the blurb on the Canadian edition, I think I also caught the mention of — brace yourselves — carnivorous spiders. Ruh oh!
Squid’s Grief by DK Mok – I read DK’s epic fantasy novel Hunt for Valamon last year and had a great time with it. So when she emailed me to ask if I would be interested in a review copy of her upcoming book Squid’s Grief, I said absolutely! I believe this one is sci-fi, but the description hints at a dynamic and quirky team-up, the same kind I enjoyed so much from her last book. And hey, any mention of a heist, I’m there.
The Fireman by Joe Hill – I also read Joe Hill for the first time last year, and I promised myself that it wouldn’t be the last. NOS4R2 rocked my socks, so here’s hoping The Fireman will as well! eARC courtesy of William Morrow via Edelweiss.
The Emperor’s Railroad by Guy Haley and The Jewel and her Lapidary by Fran Wilde – More goodies from the wonderful team at Tor.com! I have to say, I’m getting more curious about The Emperor’s Railroad by the second and I know Tiara is excited to read it. And I didn’t even know about the Fran Wilde novella until I got the email with the eARC! I love discovering new stuff.
KICKSTARTER REWARDS
I was also happy to at long last receive my physical copy of The Death of Dulgath from Michael J. Sullivan’s Kickstarter campaign for this third book of the Riyria Chronicles. I really didn’t mind the wait, and I appreciate how he and his wife have worked ’round-the-clock getting our goodies out and keeping us updated on the shipping process. The project was a wild success with a lot of rewards to mail out, and I am excited the book (signed, plus lots of bookmarks!) is in my hands now, along with a Rose and Thorn t-shirt.
REVIEWS
Here are all my reviews since the last update, gathered together and listed here for your convenience and viewing pleasure. My first five-star rating of 2016 went to Robert Jackson Bennett’s City of Blades. Have you read this amazing book yet?
City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett (5 of 5 stars)
Winterwood by Jacey Bedford (4.5 of 5 stars)
Dreaming Death by J. Kathleen Cheney (4 of 5 stars)
The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson (4 of 5 stars)
The Drowning Eyes by Emily Foster (3.5 of 5 stars)
The King’s Justice by Stephen R. Donaldson (3.5 of 5 stars)
Truthwitch by Susan Dennard (3.5 of 5 stars)
The Rogue Retrieval by Dan Koboldt (3.5 of 5 stars)
Owl and the City of Angels by Kristi Charish (3.5 of 5 stars)
AUTHOR SPOTLIGHTS
My thanks to the authors who stopped by these last couple of weeks!
Interview with Lawrence M. Schoen, Author of Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard
WHAT I’VE READ SINCE THE LAST UPDATE
This is what happens when snow keeps you stuck indoors for four-and-a-half days (though to be fair, a couple of these are very short novellas). I did a lot of cleaning, polished off a lot of books, and listened to even more audiobooks while leveling in World of Warcraft with my husband.
Have you heard of or read any of the books featured this week? What caught your eye? Any new discoveries? Nothing makes me happier than sharing my love for books, so let me know what you plan on checking out. I hope you found something interesting for a future read! Until next time, see you next Roundup! 🙂
The Road to Civil War: The Road is Dark and Full of Terror
Posted on January 29, 2016 9 Comments
(Author’s Note: I’ll normally be posting these weekly on Friday, but this last week I got caught up in a whirlwind of various dramatic things. I will try to stick to a schedule, though.)
SPOILERS! SPOILERS EVERYWHERE! ALL SPOILERS EVERYTHING!
I explored my general sentiment in my last Civil War post. It’s been some years since I read these books mainly because I probably hated everything about Civil War. Part of me wants to say that maybe I never gave it a fair chance with it coming hot off the heels of events like Secret Invasion and House of M. Wait a minute, you ask, why are those stories important? Let’s back up a moment. Civil War didn’t just suddenly happen. It was the culmination of work over about three events, which was actually excellent in theory, but it was flaky on the execution. I don’t know if they thought this was where they were going to go when they started all this. Maybe it was just an organic progression of events until someone said, “Guys, we should totally have a superwar!” How can you go wrong with that?
It all seemed to start with Avengers Disassembled in 2004. In this event, the Avengers are savagely attacked on various fronts that have psychological and physical consequences for the players on the team as they try to sort out the mess their lives have become. This event occurred around the height of Tony’s alcoholism, which is really brought front and center here. In the end, the Avengers learn that Scarlet Witch orchestrated the attacks on them. They appear random, but Scarlet Witch is actually having a breakdown because she believes that her children–children made with magic–have been taken from her. Using her powers doesn’t help matter and only pushes her closer to the brink. In the end, she blames the Avengers for her missing children. This leads to a fight. She’s put in a trance and given to her father, Magneto, because that’s always worked out well for her. The end result: no more Avengers. HOWEVER… from this, we got 90,000 Avengers spin-offs, so there’s that.
Avengers Disassembled spiraled into House of M in 2005 after everyone made the great decision to give a mentally torn Scarlet Witch to her dad. Nothing bad could come from that, right? Not even by extension? Magneto loves his daughter so much. Professor X is there. What could go wrong? Oh, the fact that there was talk of killing Wanda and then her twin brother, Quicksilver, gives her the extra push she needs to completely lose it and warp reality to the point where there was a significant drop in the mutant/hero population. We’re talking millions to only a handful. Many heroes/villains found themselves waking up to what their lives could have been if they were normal/powerless and they had no idea. The only person not affected? Wolverine. Yep, the irony in the man who couldn’t remember his own identity remembering everything in House of M isn’t lost on anyone. Unfortunately, when they finally get everything back in order, the mutant population never recovers. This is explored in an aftermath mini-arc known as Decimation. This event sparks the events leading up to what I like to call “Civil War 2”– the Avengers vs. X-Men arc. However, you can’t have Civil War 2 without Civil War.
Things calm down from that a little as we go into Secret Invasion where the Kree/Skrull war comes into play. Don’t know what a Kree or a Skrull is? Don’t worry about it. Not that important for this. Just know they are aliens. Skrulls can shapeshift which means many shenanigans when they’re around. These aliens hate each other. FIGHT! You can basically say this has been a thing since before I was born… literally. Secret Invasion takes place in 2008, a few years after House of M, when the aliens decide, “Let’s start kicking earth.” It’s all fun and games until they do that. Then, some of Earth’s mightiest heroes decide to band together to create an Illuminati (actual name… LOL) to say, “Screw you guys. Leave us alone or I swear to God…” Then, the aliens respond, “You know what? I want to know where ‘I swear to God’ takes us. Damn your planet.” Secret Invasion was the straw in the craw for heroes. Despite banding together to fight aliens, we’re faced with The Road to Civil War where Tony says that maybe heroes are at fault for what happened because nobody in the superhero community shares information with each other. He’s probably right.
Sit down, Namor. It’s not an illogical train of thought.
In The Road to Civil War, things actually start a few years before the Registration Act is to be introduced and moves to right before its introduction. Tony wants to start a congregation of heroes, so he invites Doctor Strange, Reed Richards, Professor X, Black Bolt, Namor, and Black Panther to a summit in Wakanda to propose such a plan. From the beginning, it’s poorly received by the others with some good reasoning. There were already seeds of Iron Man’s fanaticism rearing its head. I understand the sentiment, but the sentiment comes off a little misguided. The problem is these people trust each other, but they don’t trust the others’ teammates, families, or friends. This is something they don’t mind telling one another. T’Challa bows out before Tony can even get the words out of his mouth, calling everyone trash in the nicest way possible, especially the mutants, when–wait for it–he marries Storm during this event (some years after this scene takes place in the comic).
Read him for FILTH, Xavier! Definition: Read for Filth (v) – to respond to a remark in a sharp, cutting, witty manner.
Finally, after a hail of “Calm the fuck down, Namor!” remarks and a million reasons why this can’t work, they decide to do this thing. It’s not super effective.
They meet a few times over the years to fight angrily about things like Namor wilding out about every Avenger decision involving shooting someone into space. In this instance, it’s Hulk. Hulk is out of control (again) and someone needs to do something about it (again). Namor expresses anger when the idea of killing Hulk comes up. We can’t banish him to a different dimension. That didn’t work out so well last time. Let’s shoot him into space because that’s smart. “Imma let you finish, but…” Tony says to Namor, which ends in Namor trying to drown him because Namor gives likes zero actual damns. The final meeting comes when Tony tries to rally the team again to his cause because the Registration Act is coming. Everyone pretty much flounces except Reed. Professor X can’t flounce because he’s missing. Black Bolt has to flounce in sign language because if he speaks he kills everyone.
Shorter Namor: “Kill yourselves.”
Shorter Doctor Strange: “Ahahaha… no…”
Uh… Longer Black Bolt: “Don’t come for me because you’ll get bodied by a silent mf-er.”
Enter Spider-Man. Tony needs friends with him in Washington. He’s short on those these days, so he decides to take Spider-Man. Peter is working for Tony, but it can’t hurt to soften him up before asking him to take a trip to Washington. Give him a pretty suit to wear. Have dinner with him. Spider-Man’s a cheap date (I know the suit wasn’t cheap!), so he breaks down pretty quickly without knowing what Tony really wants him to do and not realizing he’s being manipulated and will continue to be manipulated during their portion of the story. I know it was supposed to be for a greater good and all that, but it was just “yuck!”
I’d probably say yes if I got this, too.
The world thinks Spider-Man is dead, but that’s okay. Because of anonymity Peter Parker can still live. However, he makes his reappearance in this suit, but no one knows it’s really him, especially not in that fancy dress. Tony takes Peter with him when he goes before a special senate that oversees human/superbeing affairs. It’s a contentious secret meeting, and Tony does have all intentions of trying to keep them from introducing the act. He’s almost succeeding after Titanium Man attacks and he’s pursued by Spider-Man who doesn’t know that Tony has actually hired the villain for just this purpose–to make the senate reconsider. While Titanium Man may not be Tony’s biggest fan either, he can’t turn down money. Villains are predictable in that way if nothing else.
After Tony almost has them reconsidering, after Spider-Man himself gives a special speech about them making the law softer by registering those more patriotic heroes while allowing vigilantes to do their things from the shadows (because sometimes you need an Iron Man and other times you need a Punisher and plausible deniability), we run into a big issue. They’re actually quite receptive to this idea until… until… SPEEDBALL! Cut to the Fantastic Four.
Now, we’re trailing the F4. Good thing. I was getting tired of Spider-Man’s puns. I can deal with punny. I can’t deal with excessive punny. Okay, the “moose and squirrel” joke still makes me laugh a little (Quoth the Titanium Man, “Amerikanski humor…”), but mostly, I can’t deal with Spider-Man’s puns.
Anyhow, Reed Richard receives an emergency call to come to a government facility in Colorado because they’re being attacked by Doombots. Reed isn’t sure why they’re being attacked because they wouldn’t tell him what was in that facility. The facility cropped up over a span of about six months. Reed figures it must be something there worth Latveria releasing the Doombots for because this is an act of war on American soil. It can’t be an attack by Doom because he’s trapped in Hell (or something) and has been for the last two years, right?
Let’s give it up for the real MVP of this book.
At this point, my head is already hurting, but Doom escaped Hell and I feel like a Kelly Clarkson song about this! OH, I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S HAPPENING TO ME! So, yes, Doom is behind the attack because he had a brief taste of greatness in Hell (or whatever) and saw Thor’s hammer. Doom can be anything he wants to be, so when the Thor’s hammer told Doom he could wield the shit out of it and slipped into a rift that led back to earth, of course, Doom followed. The facility is a house for the hammer, and finally, it’s true owner will hold it. BEHOLD! A GOD!
Thor’s hammer: “LOL, no. Just kidding.” Who knew Thor’s hammer was such a troll? At least, Doom sent up some kind of beacon. Who would need a thing like that for a missing hammer? The mysteries never stop.
This is where our story ends. Tony was kind of on the right track. Namor has trust issues and Spider-Man can be bought with food and a fancy dress. Villains can be bought with money–who knew? Politicians are sleazy. How do laws work? Speedball–who dat?–just messed EVERYTHING up! Doom is not a god, but he escaped Hell. Where the hell is Captain America?
Not as demoralizing as my initial read was, but I am old and battle-hardened. (Also, I barely remember this book… oops…) Being battle-hardened means LOLing in the face of adversity. Moose and squirrel. LOL. Besides, I just wanted to give a glance of what led up to Civil War. I’m sure my real ranting will come next time.
Coming Up: Civil War by Mark Millar
Book Review: Dreaming Death by J. Kathleen Cheney + Excerpt!
Posted on January 29, 2016 14 Comments
A review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Dreaming Death by J. Kathleen Cheney
Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Book 1 of Palace of Dreams
Publisher: Roc (February 2, 2016)
Length: 432 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Last year I read a wonderful novel called The Golden City, the first of a fantasy trilogy set in an alternate early 1900s Portugal featuring sirens and selkies. This was how I first came to discover the work of J. Kathleen Cheney. As you can imagine, I got pretty excited when I found out she was writing a new book! And this time, she’s transporting readers to a whole new world full of magic and amazing things to discover.
Indeed, Dreaming Death is a novel of ideas, and it is absolutely delightful. Imagine, if you will, a place rich with history and culture, and in the population, a subset of individuals called “sensitives” are gifted with augmented psychic senses that would allow them to feel others’ emotions. But for some, that gift is more of a curse. Shironne Anjir is a sensitive whose talents are even more responsive than most, and when she first came to her full power in her early teens, the constant barrage of emotions and sensations overwhelmed her and left her blind. However, her ability to pull information out of the objects or people she touches has made her an invaluable asset to the army, who frequently retains her as a consultant to help them solve crimes. For example, a recent string of brutal murders possibly connected to blood magic have left investigators baffled, and Shironne has been called in to see what she can glean from contact with the bodies.
Meanwhile, royal guard Mikael Lee has been affected by the killings in a whole different way. A powerful sensitive himself, Mikael is also “dreamer” whose ability causes him to dream the deaths of others. Lately, the suspected blood magic victims have made his dreams even more traumatic and intense, and Mikael lives with the constant fear that the next time he goes to sleep, he may not wake up again. But unknown to both Shironne and Mikael, who don’t even know each other, their strange powers might be linked, and that connection could be the key to solving the mystery before the murderer strikes again.
It’s no exaggeration when I say I could probably go on forever about the background of this book, because it is just that deep and rich. It did give Dreaming Death a rather slow start, because the first hundred pages are full of all the knowledge you have to absorb to get a sense of the setting and story. Within the first handful of chapters, I encountered the names of no less than three to four different factions/cultures and close to two dozen names of characters, both major and minor. I reviewed an advance reader’s copy of this book which did not contain any maps or dramatis personae detailing characters and their relationships, but I have to say both would be immensely helpful if they were to be included in the finished edition.
After finishing the book though, I was amazed. Once the story gathers steam, it becomes intensely addictive and hard to put down. Dreaming Death is by far the most impressive work from the author yet. She has crafted here a uniquely original world with an exciting blend of fantasy and mystery, complete with a light touch of political intrigue. The setting is truly breathtaking, and Cheney goes all out in providing the exquisite details readers need to bring this place to life in their minds.
The characters also deserve praise. While the two main protagonists are both written extremely well, I have to say the portrayal of Shironne is where the narrative especially shines, painting her as a capable heroine even though she can’t see. She may be aware of her limitations but at the same time she also recognizes her own worth, acknowledging that what she can do is more important than what she cannot. Taking in the world through Shironne’s perspective was also an interesting experience, since her chapters mostly use the senses of smell, touch, and sound to describe her surroundings. Because of her status as a sensitive, there’s also the cool twist of her power to read others’ emotions. Strong impressions of feelings are usually the first things that hit Shironne whenever someone enters her sensing range, thus it’s often the way she “meets” others.
Things get even better when Shironne and Mikael are introduced to each other for the first time. I simply love the relationship between these two. I also enjoyed the special way they communicate, as well as their playful banter. Though the plot might be hinting towards a possible romance, it is not a significant element in this story, but regardless, there’s no denying the powerful attraction they have for each other. Plus, the notable characters don’t stop at Shironne and Mikael either, and in fact the novel is made even better by the presence of a strong supporting cast.
Lastly, though Dreaming Death features a self-contained plot on its own, Cheney leaves a multiple dimensions to explore in future installments of the Palace of Dreams series. Personally, I would very much like to see more world-building in the sequel, because even though we get plenty of minute details about our immediate surroundings in this novel, I was given only a vague sense of how these linked puzzle pieces fit in the bigger picture. Things I wouldn’t mind learning more about include societal structure (who are these Elders who determine so much of life for the Families?) or how the magic works (like why are Mikael’s dreams of death particularly attuned to these murders but not any of the other violent or accidental deaths that must occur on a regular basis in a big city?) Generally, I would also like the next book cover more history, because while this one hints at a world with a long and storied past, I get the feeling we’ve only scratched the surface. Clearly, I’m looking forward to what else this series has in store!
Dreaming Death is a book of mystery, magic and overwhelming potential, and promises more good things to come from J. Kathleen Cheney. If she’s not on your radar yet, it’s time to remedy that! Now begins the countdown for the sequel, and I can scarcely wait to return to this strange and wonderful world and its charming characters.
EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT
from Dreaming Death by J. Kathleen Cheney, published February 2, 2016 by Roc.
Shironne woke that morning relieved that she’d had an uninterrupted night’s sleep. A message from the colonel told her that they hadn’t yet found the body from her dream, so she took her time over breakfast and getting dressed before asking Messine to escort her to Army Square.Messine helped her down from the family’s old coach, and then their driver drove back home so that her mother could take Perrin for a fitting for a new outfit. One of the army’s drivers could take them back home later. “So just working in Kassannan’s office today?” Messine asked.
She was at her best, her most useful, when she had a body or the site of a crime to examine. Although Captain Kassannan and his orderlies came up with much of the same information she did, she always found more. But they had actual crimes to work on only infrequently. She sometimes had to remind herself that was a good thing. “Yes. Unless they’ve found that body in the interim.”
She’d begun working for the army three years ago. Her maid’s lover had been murdered and the woman had poured out her distress while braiding Shironne’s hair. Shironne had sat befuddled, recognizing in the woman’s tale snippets of the nightmare she’d suffered a few nights before. Until that discussion, she’d tried to forget the dream. But after that, she rashly promised her maid she would help find out who’d killed the man, a sergeant in the army. Fortunately, her mother had supported her in her desire to find some way to do so. Without her husband’s permission, she’d taken Shironne to Colonel Cerradine’s office, and he had actually listened to her, no matter how far-fetched her story seemed.
In the years since, Shironne had worked hard to develop her odd powers into tools that could be used to find killers. She watched her dreams now with a more careful eye. She paid attention to everything she touched, knowing that each item she could label increased her effectiveness. “Yes, I’m sure the captain has things for me to identify,” she answered Messine. “He always does.”
“I’ll stay in the office, then,” Messine said. “Help Pamini look over the reports from Andersen.”
Ah, yes, the man missing out in Andersen Province. Shironne didn’t think she’d ever met the absent Paal Endiren, but the others were worried about the length of time he’d been gone. Messine walked her down to the army hospital’s basement and left her there with Captain Kassannan.
“The squads the colonel sent out to comb along the river’s banks haven’t found anything,” Kassannan said, getting down to business immediately. “They did, however, retrieve a bunch of soil samples for me.”
He was always finding new challenges for her. She’d spent the first few months working with him learning all the proper names for the anatomy and all the things that could go wrong in death. Then she’d moved on to learning minerals and metals, plants and woods and fabrics. Evidently this week’s visits would entail the study of soil samples . . . unless they found that body.
Sometime later, she sat on a tall bench before one of the worktables, Kassannan handing her samples and one of the orderlies silently taking notes. She dipped one finger gingerly into the small glass dish, the essences within sparkling into her inner vision on contact with her skin. Sand, hard and cool in her mind, washed by the familiar water of the Laksitya River, tiny bits worn down from granite: quartz, mica, and feldspar. She felt no stain of sewage on the grains, which told her the sample had been taken upstream of the city. Black soil, rich with humus, probably carried off from a farm farther upstream. Fibers from the stems of stiff plants like those used to make baskets. A scale from a fish nestled among the grains and silt, totally different in composition, with a shining durability she could only imagine now. A memory of the iridescent fish swimming in the clear pool in a garden somewhere drifted into her mind, evoking a smile. It had been summer, warm and green, the countryside, and she’d been a little girl.
Sanctum Sanctorum: Our Comic Collection
Posted on January 28, 2016 20 Comments
This year, we have plans to stir things up a little more with our posts. You’ll still get lots of our in depth reviews as well as our contribution to regular memes and lots of lists to help fill up your to-read piles, but we’ll also be adding a few more of our bookish thoughts in new and interesting ways.
Sanctum Sanctorum is our new monthly roundtable feature on topics that make us tick. Behind the scenes, we often have discussions on various topics and, even when we are all in agreement, we each approach these topics from very different and interesting angles!
We’d love to hear your thoughts on these topics too! Feel free to answer the questions in the comments!
How did you get into comics?
Tiara: I’m pretty much quoting myself from another source, but I started reading comics when I was five-years-old. (I started reading VERY early as a child.) The first comic I remember reading was Uncanny X-Men #159 where Storm was bitten by Dracula. (I have a lifelong love of vampires, too. Wonder why?) Much of it didn’t make much sense at the time because of my age, and I’m sure that my grandparents had a good time trying to explain some of the themes to my still budding mind. That comic remains one of my favorites to this day, and Storm is my favorite X-Woman of all time.
Wendy: My brother. He handed over his collection of Classic X-Men when I was about 10 years old and I dived right in.
Mogsy: This will probably come as no surprise, but I came to comics through my interest in art. As a kid, I was only really good at drawing animals, but I wanted to branch out and improve on drawing humans. I bought comics to study the art and emulate it, too young to realize superheroes and heroines probably aren’t the best subjects when it comes to learning human anatomy and proportions. Oh well. The stories were fun.
Make mine Marvel? Or Batman forever?
Tiara: Make mine Marvel. All Marvel everything, but I did start reading more DC over the years. I’ve always felt like DC was better at telling their stories, but Marvel was better at making you care about their characters on a personal level.
Wendy: Since Marvel’s X-Men was my first introduction, that perhaps coloured my opinion significantly, but even looking at the Big 2 now, I still lean toward Marvel. Their characters were far more approachable and relatable, and with the Classic X-Men stories that I started with, Chris Claremont so specifically wanted to make them human first, superheroes second. There are a lot of moments and characters in those books that have truly influenced who I am. That doesn’t mean I don’t read DC comics, though I tend to focus on their side stories that often fall outside of canon or some of their larger story arcs, such as Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia, Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, Joker, All-Star Superman, Superman: Red Son, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Batman: The Killing Joke, Batman: Knighfall, Catwoman: No Easy Way Down. The characters remain at a distance–gods to idolize, rather than relate to–but the stories are very good.
Mogsy: Marvel all the way. I’ve tried multiple times to get into DC comics, but for some reason it never sticks. Even when they did that whole One Year Later and other universe “resets”. I just don’t find their characters all that interesting, I guess. Honestly, I don’t even like Batman all that much. (*ducks and prepares for the barrage of rotten vegetables thrown my way*)
What does your current comic collection look like?
Tiara: Loads of indie stuff. I don’t know if it’s even fair to call most indie comics “indie” because they’re starting to make such a name for themselves. Yeah, there are still Marvel titles that I pick up from time to time, but I find that I’m enjoying most of the stuff that isn’t considered “mainstream” (whatever that means now). Image started this for me some years ago around the time they started publishing Chew. From there, I started seeking out different lines and stories to read that weren’t from the Big Two. Right now, I’m into a ton of excellent books like Saga and Rat Queens.
Wendy: A lot of Image comics like Saga, Sex Criminals, and Rat Queens are on my shelf. They are considered “indie” simply because they aren’t the Big 2, but Image really is pretty big and serves as a place for the writers and artists from DC and Marvel to tell the stories they want to tell, without being bound to established properties. I’ve been leaning more toward the Top Cow side of things lately, as they seem to make a bigger effort to find the new talent, such as Larime Taylor, while still being an outlet for their own staff like Stjepan Sejic. I’m also slowly discovering actual indie comics, some of which have begun online as webcomics, like Nimona or Hinges. The thing I like most about these indie comics is that they usually aren’t superhero comics, which seemed to be the only thing comics were about back in the day.
Mogsy: My newest stuff is all on my shelves in the form of trade paperbacks, mostly indies and Image comics like the titles Wendy mentioned. I can’t afford to pick up single issues every week anymore, so I mostly wait around to see what’s good out there before buying the collected editions. The big part of my collection though is the old stuff, which is all in boxes in my closet. I have a ton of Marvel and DC from the days I used to work at a comic book store because I had to keep up with all the big titles (just part of the job…someone’s gotta do it! 😉 ). But the oldest stuff in my collection is very mixed. I had lots of stuff from Image Comics again because I thought they had the best artists (so titles like Fathom, Crimson, The Darkness, Witchblade, Danger Girl, Battle Chasers, etc.) as well as some smattering of Vertigo (like Y the Last Man, Preacher, Hellblazer, Fables). You know, in general lots of mid-90s to early 2000s stuff. Oh! I also had all of the early CrossGen titles. Round of hands, who remembers CrossGen!
Team Tony or Team Cap? Your thoughts on 2009 Marvel’s Civil War event in relation to the up coming Captain America movie (even though the directors have said they aren’t relying too closely on this particular source material):
Tiara: Team Cap, and it wasn’t mostly because I agreed with him. Marvel just made Tony really deplorable in that event like they made his character just so ridiculously unlikable, even for Tony Stark. It took me years to even read another Iron Man comic after that event, and I didn’t even disagree with some of Tony’s sentiment in Civil War. I thought much of it made sense, but Marvel made him so dislikable during that time. Even in later comics, Tony realized how much of an asshole he was and used himself as an example why people should calm the fuck down and think about things during Avengers vs. X-Men (even if he did have a “LOL Fuck Science!” moment in AvX). With Civil War, I wanted an event that really made me feel torn between these two ideas, where it was more gray and I could see the good/bad on both sides. Maybe some people did feel like that, but I never could. But this gif sums up my general feeling about the whole thing (and most other Marvel crossover events):
Wendy: I had quit reading Marvel comics because, after things returned to normal following the Age of Apocalypse event, things just went down the drain with the storytelling and resurrecting and silliness. When I came back, Civil War was where I decided to pick things up. Uuuuuugh. Such a painful story. I didn’t know much about the Avengers, much less the two characters in question, but I was quick to determine that Captain America was my preference since the writers did such a great job of burying Tony’s valid concerns under his sudden fascism that involved all sorts of questionable, utterly out of character behaviour. This got even worse in Avengers vs. X-Men, making me wonder why I still give Marvel any of my money when I know their new crossover events are just cash grabs filled with inconsistent writing and people punching each other for the sake of punching each other.
Still, I have some hope for the movie. The directors are the same ones who did Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which I loved, and they have already stated that the movie will not follow the comic plot too closely. The trailer still seems to be a whole lot of punching each other for the sake of punching each other, but hopefully the characters remain true to themselves and there’s a truly valid reason for all this punching. But mostly, I’m here for Falcon:
Mogsy: This is still a sore point for me, even after all these years since the Civil War event. I’m Team Iron Man, and I’ll give you the explanation I gave everyone back when folks and I used to have these huge epic discussions over this very question (it’s just what you naturally did when you worked in a comic book store, hang around and have these huge epic nerd discussions). Tony Stark/Iron Man has always been one of my favorite characters. Maybe not THE favorite, but I certain liked him more than Captain America. Then the Civil War event hit, and I swear every Civil War event writer and their mothers started demonizing Iron Man. He’s always been a bit of a jerk, but what galled me was that they went out of their way to make him worse than the guy who kicks puppies for fun.
In a matter of months, he went from lovable jerk to despicable jerk, making decisions which I thought were frankly out of character for him. You’d think I’d drop him like a hot potato at that point and support Cap, but nope. I believe in loyalty to your favorite characters, and it’s not gonna change just because a few writers decided to force Iron Man into a villainous role by poisoning his personality, simply to give the story “more twists” (uggggh). Especially when Tony’s position was perfectly logical. Most people I know actually started on his side because he made sense. Honestly, who didn’t shed a tear when Miriam Sharpe handed him a figure of Iron Man, her dead son’s favorite toy, to remind him what he was fighting for? But no, that’s too easy! So they took the least creative way of turning people against Tony–by quickly and clumsily transforming him into a fascist dick. I understood why people flocked to Cap’s side after that happened to Tony, as they did a really good job making people hate him. But don’t you see, that’s not really him. And regardless, the original reasons behind the Superhuman Registration Act are still quite sound, and I wasn’t about to abandon Iron Man just because a bunch of writers determined he was the guy they were going to throw under the bus.
But that’s okay; admittedly it was kind of a fun experience being on the side with less support. So fight the good fight, Tony. You may be an arrogant asshole, but you’re still my arrogant asshole.
Short & Sweet Comic Stack 01/27/16 – Star Wars, Vol 1: Skywalker Strikes by Jason Aaron, John Cassaday (Illustrations), Laura Martin (Illustrations)
Posted on January 27, 2016 4 Comments
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: Star Wars
Publisher: Marvel
TL;DR Review:
Tiara’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars. Definitely fanservice, but worthy fanservice. I loved all the Vader scenes!
After their greatest victory yet against the Empire by destroying the Death Star, Luke, Leia, Han, and friends decide to make another decisive move against the Empire by destroying a large arms factory on Cymoon 1. They arrive on the planet under the pretense of wanting to do business for the Hutts. They plant charges to destroy the base. However, they face a few miscalculations when they find slaves being kept on the planet, even thought the planet was supposedly only manned by electronic means, and Darth Vader makes a special guest appearance bringing him face to face with Luke Skywalker who hasn’t quite mastered his abilities. This takes place before Luke learns that his father is Darth Vader, and while Vader claims that all Jedi are dead, he can’t deny there is something special about Luke–who he hasn’t realized is his son. Vader sees the potential for a new pupil, and Luke leaves the rebels to find himself, to become they Jedi they need him to be.
Admittedly, this started somewhat slow for me. I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this after hearing that so much of the canon that had been built up for years in other comics and novels would now be considered dead to Disney. However, once the action picked up this wasn’t a bad book at all. The story was well paced with plenty of chuckle-worthy moments thanks to Han and his interactions with Leia, Chewbacca, and others.
This book works well for both the casual Star Wars fan and the hardcore fan. This will feel like a continuation to the original movies while adding some background story for those who are just getting into the Star Wars mania.Though you will need to have some knowledge of the original trilogy if you’re new in town. The characters haven’t quite settled into the capable characters that you eventually come to know and love. They’re trying to figure out how this rebel thing is supposed to work. Allegiances are being tested, and they’re learning to summon and temper the natural abilities they have to offer to the cause. Is this a bit of fanservice? Yes, it is, but what tie-in media in this vein typically isn’t fanservice? Enjoy the wonderfully lush artwork and the nonstop action that makes this really feel like a Star Wars story, which means there is a lot of shooting and lots of things blowing up. Some of the artwork gets a little wonky in places and some of the story can lull just a little, but overall, this was a fun comic. On that note, I’ll leave you with some panels to enjoy (click on them to enlarge):
The BiblioSanctum 