Waiting on Wednesday 04/02/14
Posted on April 2, 2014 Leave a Comment
“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that lets us feature upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!
But the dream is all too real; the people of Earth need him. As Zack soon discovers, the videogame he’s been playing obsessively for years isn’t just a game; it’s part of a massive, top-secret government training program, designed to teach gamers the skills they’ll need to defend Earth from a possible alien invasion. And now…that invasion is coming.
As he and his companions prepare to enter their ships and do battle, Zack learns that the father he thought was dead is actually a key player in this secret war. And together with his father, he’ll uncover the truth about the alien threat, race to prevent a genocide, and discover a mysterious third player in the interplanetary chess game he’s been thrown into.”
April Book Club Read: Rat Queens vol.1 Sass and Sorcery
Posted on April 1, 2014 Leave a Comment
I have been remiss in recommending books for my little book club to vote on for this month, so I will just abuse my leadership privileges and arbitrarily select a title at random. Hmmm… how about… Rat Queens! #notsorry
Rat Queens, Vol. 1: Sass & Sorcery by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch
Who are the Rat Queens?
A pack of booze-guzzling, death-dealing battle maidens-for-hire, and they’re in the business of killing all god’s creatures for profit.
It’s also a darkly comedic sass-and-sorcery series starring Hannah the Rockabilly Elven Mage, Violet the Hipster Dwarven Fighter, Dee the Atheist Human Cleric and Betty the Hippy Smidgen Thief. This modern spin on an old school genre is a violent monster-killing epic that is like Buffy meets Tank Girl in a Lord of the Rings world on crack!
Collecting Rat Queens #1-5!
Graphic Novel Review: Catwoman vol.2: No Easy Way Down by Ed Brubaker
Posted on April 1, 2014 2 Comments
Catwoman Vol. 2: No Easy Way Down by Ed Brubaker
Publisher: DC Comics
Publication Date: June 2013
Wendy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
As much as I enjoyed the New 52 Catwoman, despite the controversy surrounding her angry sex with Batman, I was intrigued by the overwhelming feeling I got from fans of her previous incarnations that felt this new version of Selina Kyle was not the “lady” they had known and loved. Consequently, I’ve been slowly working my way through some of the older Catwoman stories, and as a result, have come to understand the loss of this lady.
This particular book was recommended to me recently and I grabbed it on one of my monthly trips to the not-so-local comic store. It was described to me as the definitive Catwoman, and with this quote alone, I can see why:
“She’s a creature of instinct and planning, of rigid desire and unpredictable contingencies, shifting between them the way the rest of us breathe.”
It is a character based noir story that gives us a lot of details about Selina’s past. Her origins have changed over the years, depending on the era and who is writing her, but the consensus seems to involve a tough life on the streets, fighting to survive by whatever means necessary. No Easy Way Down takes Catwoman back to Alleytown, the home of Gotham’s underprivileged and forgotten. But Brubaker makes it clear that Selina does not forget her roots or her friends as she performs some Robin Hood-esque feats to take care of them. Even Bruce recognizes the good she does and turns a blind eye to the source of some of her funding.
But in the process of trying to do good, her enemies attack her where she is most vulnerable: her friends and family – and it breaks her. She goes on a self-destructive spiral that, I believe, the New 52 Catwoman books tries to emulate, though the new Selina lacks the level of class and sense of responsibility that the original Catwoman has. Brubaker’s Catwoman falls and Batman intervenes, but he knows that she doesn’t need him to pick her up. Catwoman is and always has been a strong, fiercely independent woman and, when she’s laid low, the only person who can bring her back is herself.
This is truly Catwoman at her finest, which is to say, at her most flawed and therefore her most perfect. She was created to be Batman’s foil as much as a love interest. A villain, yes, but one who toes the line as much as Batman does. Eventually, she earns her title of “anti-hero” and teeters on the edge of Batman’s trust, though she will always have his love. And mine.
Book Review: Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen
Posted on March 31, 2014 2 Comments
Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Series: Book 1 of The Malediction Trilogy
Publisher: Strange Chemistry (April 1, 2014)
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Stolen Songbird was my top anticipated young adult novel coming out from Strange Chemistry this year, and I have to say all the lusting and the pining has been worth it. Author Danielle L. Jensen opens up a whole new world for readers who love magic, romance, and enchanted lands.
Buried deep within the Forsaken Mountain lies Trollus, a city forgotten by time. It is said that monstrous trolls live there, bound by a witch’s curse. However, on the night before Cécile de Troyes is about to embark on her journey to become a famous singer, she is kidnapped and taken to Trollus, where she discovers there is far more to what she thinks she knows about the trolls and their city. For one thing, they’re not all hideous monsters. The troll prince she is supposed to marry is actually pretty good looking! But one thing the legends got right is that trolls are talented magic users — the more pure their blood is, the stronger their ability. Even all the magic in Trollus cannot break the curse and set the trolls free, however. Cécile and Prince Tristan’s union was supposed to be the key, but the plan ends up failing, leaving Cécile a prisoner in Trollus, biding her time and waiting for the perfect moment to escape.
But over the weeks, Cécile inevitably falls for Tristan. How I just loved the way their relationship developed! Instead of the usual formula of treating each other horribly but then falling head over heels in love anyway (a trope which is a big pet peeve of mine), Cécile finds out that the prince really isn’t such a bad troll after all. In fact, he’s secretly championing the rights of the half-bloods, who are part troll and part human, treated as nothing more than slaves and property by the arrogant pure-bloods. So while Cécile and Tristan may at each other’s throats in public, it’s actually all a part of a brilliant plan they’ve hatched up to throw off suspicion. What a delightful little twist to the usual YA romance.
The story also has just enough of that “Forbidden Love” vibe to it so that I just can’t help myself. I like romances a lot more when they are hindered by outside forces rather than internal ones like misunderstandings between the lovers (Tristan and Cécile aren’t completely innocent of this, but at least it was kept to a minimum) and the relationships usually emerge stronger and more compelling to me. Of course, the author also leaves their relationship mercilessly hanging in the first book, making you wonder what will become of the hero and heroine, but this meant she succeeded in building a lot of interest in these two characters.
There are also plenty of little surprises all over this book. One thing that is sort of a “twist”, but not really — and I’m sorry if I’m being vague but I think it would be best if it comes as a surprise to others the same way it did for me — is the nature of the trolls.
It did occur to me as I was making my way through the story to wonder the creatures are called trolls in the first place. They are smart, quick, have super strength and magic powers, but apart from a few exceptions in the royal family, they appear mostly human. And that’s when the author began to drop certain clues and I had one of those “AHA!” moments where I realized where she’s going with all this. Well played, Ms. Jensen, well played! Like I said, I don’t think it’s meant to be some big twist because once you start catching the hints it becomes pretty obvious what she has in mind, but in that moment of clarity I started to get really excited about the future of this series.
In fact, Stolen Songbird is an excellent start all around, the first of a trilogy that builds a good framework and promises even bigger things to come. I would like to know what happens to Tristan and Cécile, but I’m especially pumped for more about the troll origins story. It goes without saying, I’m all in for book two!
Graphic Novel Reviews: Joker and Lex Luthor: Man of Steel by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo
Posted on March 30, 2014 2 Comments
Joker by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo
One of my major reasons for wanting to read Brian Azzarello’s Joker is that I’m a fan of Harley Quinn. A friend described the portrayal of the usually bouncy and obnoxious character and I was immediately intrigued. She doesn’t appear often, and when she does, she is utterly silent and not at all bouncy, but every appearance is powerful and solidifies her place at Joker’s side. Not as his crazy, obsessed girlfriend who tolerates his abuse because she is crazy and obsessed, but as his partner. Where she was once the needy one in an cruel relationship, this depiction makes her Joker’s equal, with one moment implying just how much he needs her in his life.
I love this book for Harley alone, but, as per the title, this is about the Joker first and foremost. It begins with Azzarello confirming Arkham Asylum’s questionable revolving door policy by releasing Joker with absolutely no explanation. Joker’s first priority as he gets into the car with Jonny Frost is to take back control of his assets from all those who had divvied up his turf and funds during his incarceration. Jonny has a few problems of his own, but catering to the Joker’s whims, unsurprisingly, takes priority. The result is a brutal, mayhem-filled romp through Gotham as the Joker hunts down his prey.
But the beauty of this book is that Azzarello does not give us a giggling, insane Joker. “I’m not crazy anymore, just mad,” he explains to Jonny, who spends the book trying to understand the man. I am not a fan of writers who simply excuse antagonists as “evil” and “crazy.” Given the amount of research in and awareness of mental health problems these days, I consider it lazy writing. Even if something is not working quite right in their heads, villains are still people and I love stories that give us their humanity, even if what we see is still deplorable. Azzarello’s Joker even goes so far as to meticulously pick apart the mental states of his adversaries, including wonderful scenes of his dealings with Harvey Dent. Plural.
Right down to the scarred face, this is definitely Heath Ledger’s Joker, though where the movie failed to firmly connect the Joker with Batman, Azzarello makes it clear in just a few panels why the one cannot exist without the other and why the sick, twisted city of Gotham needs them both.
Lex Luthor: Man of Steel by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo
Upon finishing Joker, I learned that Azzarello and Bermejo had teamed up again on Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, another captivating character in the DC universe that is often poorly represented as simply a mad genius.
Where Joker is violent and unpredictable, Lex Luthor: Man of Steel reflects its main character’s cold, calculating subtlety. It lays out Luthor’s purpose right from the start, painting the undeniable picture of Superman as an alien. A monster with no understanding of humanity. Luthor despises the hero that Metropolis worships, but he is the only one who seems aware of how easily such a being could snap. In other words, that Man of Steel movie with the questionably violent Superman wreaking havoc and murdering bad guys in cold blood? That’s the Superman Luthor fears and wants to protect his city from. But Luthor is also intent on showing the world what Superman’s existence takes away from humanity. If Superman is there to do everything for us, what need is there for self-improvement?
These aspects of Superman are touched on in my other favourite Superman story, Superman: Red Son. The latter focuses on Superman himself, while Luthor is on the other side of the world thinking up bigger and better ways to defy Superman’s reign of perfection. The only problem I have with Red Son’s Luthor is that he is too cold and inhuman. Azzarello ensures that you never forget Luthor’s humanity as he works toward his ideal, which takes the form of a manufactured superhero Luthor aptly names, “Hope.” Luthor’s story culminates in his ultimate success and his ultimate failure in the most perfectly atypical way.
When I initially glanced at the issues of this series, I joked about Batman’s involvement since Bruce Wayne seems incapable of staying out of other people’s books. Yet it was when Luthor meets with Bruce Wayne to negotiate a business arrangement that this book went from five stars to simply delicious for me. Because if there is anyone who would appreciate Luthor’s hatred of Superman, it’s Bruce Wayne. The interactions between them are so intricate and delectable as they speak to each other in an intimate dance of words that reveals just how brilliant these two men are.
YA Weekend: Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
Posted on March 29, 2014 Leave a Comment
Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Series: Book 2 of The Grisha
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co. (June 4, 2013)
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
You might have noticed that I featured the third book of The Grisha earlier in the month in one of my Waiting on Wednesdays. It goes without saying, I continue to enjoy this series very much! Still, it’s only natural for readers to compare sequels with their predecessors, and the truth is I did not think Siege and Storm was as strong as Shadow and Bone.
Guest Post: More Than Your Average Zombies by Kenny Soward
Posted on March 28, 2014 Leave a Comment
What do you feel when you hear the term “Zombie Western”? Excited and intrigued, if you’re anything like me! Earlier this month I reviewed Those Poor, Poor Bastards from Ragnarok Publications, and as you can see I loved it. Today, co-author Kenny Soward joins us to talk about creating the world and characters of the Dead West series, where the west is wild and the zombies even wilder.
When Joe Martin and Tim Marquitz asked me to join them in writing a Wild West zombie series, I jumped at the chance. Not only could I write the type of gritty characters like those in Walking Dead and Deadwood, but I’d finally be able to draft them uniquely.
Characters aside, we realized we were about to write another zombie book…like the millions of other ones out there. So, what could we do to make our baby different from the rest? That’s when our collective pea brains began churning out the possibilities. Pulling from our love of old shows like Kung Fu, we began formulating a powerful antagonist, Liao Xu, a Daoist monk bent on twisting his religion – normally a peaceful, wise faith – into a malicious force to transform the good old U S of A into a living hell.
Daoism is a mystical and philosophical religion, and Liao Xu warps it to fit his malevolent goals…and he’s had hundreds of years to significantly develop his pure hatred of the living world. He wants to bring it all down, cleanse the landscape of the living and pave the way for his own foul minions to inherit the earth.
With Joe’s research, Tim was able to put together a riveting outline, and I was given free rein to bust out the first draft of this unique world we were creating. The idea of combining mysticism and zombies took root in our brains, and knowing Liao Xu had a very controlling personality, we presented our ‘deaduns’ as an extension of Liao Xu’s spirit; his hands and eyes as his evil consumes and poisons the land.
But it only made sense that Liao Xu would have much more up his sleeve than hordes of rambling, dead flesh to command. From there began a natural progression into more bizarre monstrosities, creatures crawling out of nightmares, beautiful things twisted to Liao Xu’s will. Yes, deaduns are certainly Liao Xu’s fodder, but he saves his best for last.
Darkness breeds its own sort of mad creativity.
And in between all those monsters are the human ones, the ones that threaten with a look, bear grudges, and sometimes knock you down just because they feel like it. The kind of people you never want to go to sleep around…and if you must, always make sure to keep one eye open.
In “Dead West”, everything is out to get you, even the cold, harsh environment of the Sierra Nevada Mountains; it can freeze you clean in just a few hours, starve you, or bare you to the wolves.
There’s plenty of ways to die out there, zombies aside.
Joe, Tim, and I have been greatly pleased with the reviews for “Dead West” so far, and we hope that you’ll join us as we tear shit up in the American Weird West.
The first two books in the “Dead West” series by J.M. Martin, Tim Marquitz, and Kenny Soward are available now at Amazon.com. Kenny Soward is a writer of epic fantasy and horror, and is an avid YouTube vlogger.
Book Review: The Mad Scientist’s Daughter
Posted on March 27, 2014 2 Comments
The Mad Scientist’s Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: Stand alone
Publisher: Angry Robot (January 29, 2013)
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Mad Scientist’s Daughter ended up giving me all sorts of contradictory and inconsistent feelings. Even though I loved this novel, there were still a ton of things that drove me nuts about it, and yet I can’t help but suspect a lot of it was by design.
First of all, while I enjoyed this book, I also have to say it was also one of the most depressing stories I’ve ever read. Even though the tagline is “A tale of love, loss and robots”, I don’t actually think it was meant to be that depressing (in fact, it’s got a pretty happy ending) but here you have a main character who’s just so pitiful and tragic and even pathetic, I couldn’t even bring myself to hate her for her many, many flaws.
At its heart, The Mad Scientist’s Daughter is a deep analysis and portrayal of Caterina Novak, daughter of a brilliant yet a eccentric inventor and cybernetics expert, and we follow her character’s development from childhood to her adult years. Cat is five years old when she first meets Finn, the android her father brings home to be her tutor. But as Cat grows, she discovers Finn is different from other androids. With every year that passes their relationship becomes increasingly complicated, as Cat starts to see Finn as someone more than just a tutor and friend.
And yet, what Cat attributes to love for Finn, I see it more as an obsession. I wouldn’t really consider this book a love story or a true romance, and if it was meant to be, then it missed its mark completely. If you’re looking for romantic tension or chemistry between two characters, you’re not really going to find it here. For most of the book, Cat’s feelings are mostly one-sided, and for all the times we’re told Finn is sentient and one of a kind, the author still never manages to make him seem quite human enough.
So yeah, I pretty much just spent a lot of time feeling bad and really sorry for Cat. Like I said, depressing.
Still, the fact I am able to express any sympathy for her at all is an incredible achievement in itself. It’s like Cat is always in her own little world, with Finn being the only thing ever on her mind. She snaps at people, not understanding why they might not feel the same way about androids as she does. She marries a man (who turned out to be a grade-A dick but genuinely did love her) out of convenience. She donates to a charity that defends androids, but I’m not convinced she actually believes in the cause or if it’s more likely she’s driven by her guilt and Finn obsession.
By rights, such a self-absorbed and angst-ridden character should turn me right off, but somehow Cat manages to make me like her. Maybe it’s because we all know nobody’s perfect. Or that when it comes to that special someone, no one can help the way they feel. I felt Cat’s pain of loving someone she believed she could never have. I felt her helplessness of knowing she shouldn’t have those feelings but turning them off is also easier said than done. We’ve all been there. That I could relate to her made it easier to overlook her many faults.
Before this, I’d only read Cassandra Rose Clarke’s young adult novels and I was really keen to see what she could do with a longer, more mature story. In the end I was quite happy with the book The Mad Scientist’s Daughter turned out to be. It isn’t an exploration into the humanity of intelligent machines like Asimov’s Bicentennial Man or the movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence, or at least it isn’t its central focus; instead, the delineation of Cat’s personality takes center stage, and the plot takes a backseat to the dynamics in her relationships with Finn and, to a lesser extent, her mother and father. The premise is a cool idea, even if the story ultimately turned out to be a horribly heartbreaking one for me.
Comic Review Bites
Posted on March 27, 2014 Leave a Comment
In season 6 of Buffy, Willow delved deep into her magical abilities, becoming addicted to the power and eventually becoming “Dark Willow,” the big bad of the season. Since then, she’s been struggling with the balance of her power — suppressing her desire, while still aiding Buffy and the Scoobies in the saving of the world business. At least until season 8, when Buffy banished magic from earth. In Wonderland, Willow goes on a solo journey into dangerous, mystical dimensions in an attempt to restore it.
I haven’t been reading the Buffy comics since the beginning of season 9 and am surprised to see that Willow’s issues with magic still exist, however, it is something that needed to be addressed and I think this book did a reasonably good job of it, though some of it was a bit cliché and predictable. Willow’s self-deprecating wit occasionally popped up, but not enough for my liking.
The art was cute and did it’s job, but I would have loved it if David Mack had done more than just the gorgeous covers. His scattered imagery and painted style would have taken this story to an entirely new level, perfectly capturing the ethereal feel and the sense of loss that Willow suffers with.
Book Review: Lockstep by Karl Schroeder
Posted on March 26, 2014 Leave a Comment
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: Book 1
Publisher: Tor (March 25, 2014)
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Mogsy’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars
My brain does not feel fully equipped to handle Lockstep. Obviously, this is not a criticism of the book; rather it is one on my limitations in spatial-temporal thinking. For you see, the whole book revolves around a fascinating but sometimes confusing concept of coordinated hibernation cycles. With no warp drives and light-years between colonized planets, it’s the most efficient way to keep a civilization going in a huge galaxy.
In this Lockstep system, worlds are carefully timed on a “sleep-and-wake” schedule, and this also allows travelers to lie dormant during long trips between planets. Whole populations can go into cold sleeps for decades while only waking for a few weeks, but even after many cycles it could feel like hardly any time has passed at all. So in essence, there’s “real time” and then there’s “Lockstep time”. The main character Toby experiences this the hard way, having gone to sleep after being lost in space, then waking up 14,000 years later in real time. But in Lockstep time however, only about four decades have passed.
I’ve been noticing a lot more books featuring wild and innovative ideas dealing with space and time in recent years, and I think it’s totally awesome! The concept behind the Lockstep Empire is one of the best and most original yet. In spite of this, the book is not without its problems and for me they mainly stem from the confusing execution of those ideas.
First of all, the Lockstep system by itself is not a very difficult one to grasp, but the book will keep throwing factors into the mix making the story a lot more complicated. Take for instance, worlds that don’t operate on the Lockstep schedule, or are set at different intervals. Or how about different characters in different contexts, popping up with their ages all over the place relative to Toby and his friends’. Whenever the author states how much time has passed (presumably in Lockstep time) or whenever a character goes to sleep and wakes up again during space travel, I would always wonder when I actually am.
The creative plot line and world building notwithstanding, I also only felt lukewarm towards the story. I was drawn by the ideas in this novel and the intrigue of Toby’s messed up family, but I was never made to feel truly excited about where the book was going. I also won’t deny this might have played into my overall uncertainty of the Lockstep premise. It pretty much mirrors my experience with hard sci-fi. While I don’t really consider myself a big fan, I wouldn’t mind hard sci-fi novels as long as they “hook” me in some way, making it easier for me to wrap my head around technobabble and the more complicated ideas. I think the same can be applied to Lockstep, but in this case the storytelling, while ambitious and inventive, just didn’t really do it for me.
To sum things up, this book has lots of great ideas and world building, worth reading just to be hit with the awesomeness of the Lockstep system and learn about its ins-and-outs. The story could have been written in a way to make it easier to understand, but the concept is still nothing short of incredible. My main issue with the book isn’t so much that I found the Lockstep system confusing (like I said, that’s my problem, not the book’s) but the fact the story itself did not excite me. I enjoyed it, but could it have been more? I think so. Still, not bad, not bad at all.
The BiblioSanctum 