Civilian Reader

“Fables” Deluxe Volume 3 (Vertigo)

2012-06-01T19:26:00.001+01:00

Writer: Bill Willingham | Artists: Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Tony Atkins & Jimmy Palmiotti | Colours: Daniel Vozzo

When Little Red Riding Hood suddenly reappears, she’s welcomed as a miraculous survivor by nearly everyone except her old nemesis, Bigby Wolf, who smells espionage and subversion. But will he be able to prove his case before disaster strikes?

Coming back for a third Deluxe collection of Willingham’s Fables, and I am once again impressed, entertained and hooked throughout. The book wasn’t quite as good as the first or second collection, but it was still very strong. This series goes from strength to strength, and I really love the world Willingham et al have created. Another great addition to the series.

There are two storylines included in this deluxe hardcover – “Cinderella Libertine” and the epic “March of the Wooden Soldiers”. Both are pretty awesome.

“Cinderella Libertine”: In which we learn about Cinderella’s true role in Fabletown. It’s not what you might expect, as are the things she’s willing to do for the job. This is a very cool interpretation and portrayal of the character. In addition, the chapters have the start of Fabletown political machinations, as characters start manoeuvring to run for Mayor.

“March of the Wooden Soldiers” (Ch. 1-8): Back at Fabletown, Prince Charming’s plans to run for mayor continue apace. And an old friend, long thought lost (dead, even), appears seeking asylum. This is a great, expansive story, that builds to a climactic battle on the streets of Fabletown, as an army sent by the Adversary lays siege to the Fable community. Gepetto has apparently been making wooden soldiers for the Adversary, who have been sent to Fabletown to install their own leader. They’re ready for war, and they are presented as rather amusing soulless, characterless, inflexible Government Agent-types. After the huge, climactic battle, we share in the Fables’ losses, and also their victory. It’s really brilliant.

I wanted to avoid mentioning politics, but there are a couple of interesting moments in this book. I won’t spell them out (it would spoil a couple of the jokes), but there’s a lot of all-purpose political humour sprinkled throughout this book, which was a nice surprise and should please all readers. Also, a sensible, surprising support for the three-day waiting period after purchasing a gun…

Buckingham’s artwork is great, and I particularly like how he draws Snow White and Bigby (in both human and wolf guises) – these two are great characters, and I like how their relationship is developing as the series continues. The peripheral characters are also getting fleshed out and made complete. It’s nice that almost every character has developed over the series – none of them are standing still, regardless of the importance of their role in the story.

This series is superb.

Collects: Issues #19-27

“Redshirts” by John Scalzi (Tor/Gollancz)

2012-06-01T06:34:00.001+01:00

You’re an Extra. You are not long for this universe… [Or: “All your lives are belong to us…”]

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory.

Life couldn’t be better… until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces, (2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations, and (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.

Not surprisingly, a great deal of energy below decks is expended on avoiding, at all costs, being assigned to an Away Mission. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely transforms his and his colleagues’ understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is…and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives.

I really have no idea how to review this novel… The potential for spoilers is just too great. Which is a pity, as the novel is filled with quotable passages. I’d been really looking forward to this ever since it was first announced – it sounded like an endearing parody of the tropes of old sci-fi movies and fiction. As it turned out, that is exactly what a lot of this novel is. I certainly enjoyed it, and read it at near-record speed (for me), but I do have mixed feelings about the book as a whole.

I was rather wary at the start, and a little concerned, as I thought the prologue was a bit lacklustre (I chuckled, but it didn’t feel as polished as expected). However, the story got rapidly much, much better and certainly more funny as the new crew’s experiences just get more strange. The novel is very fast-paced, and Scalzi writes stripped-down prose and a lot of quippy, very natural dialogue. It’s amusing, sarcastic, cynical, and full of witty asides.

The main characters are quite fun, and I liked that they are as bemused and amused as we are about how ridiculous their situation is. As one character mentions, when discussing their situation and what they’ve observed on the ship:

“Of course, none of it even begins to make sense if you think about it.”

He’s absolutely right, but that’s kinda why we keep watching and (in this case) reading. Because it’s absolutely daft, but a lot of fun. There are unsettling mortality rates, strange goings-on, the Box, melodrama, and a pressing need to “Avoid the Narrative.”

Readers are effectively asked to suspend their disbelief – there are some pretty silly things in here. You’ll have to suspend your disbelief as much as you would have to watch early Star Trek or another early/classic/vintage sci-fi show or movie that never really made any sense. (Which, in my mind, is an awful lot of them.) Redshirts shares some of the humour and tone of Galaxy Quest, poking a lot of good-natured fun at the tropes of shows like Star Trek and old conventions of science-fiction.

The one thing I will “spoil”, though, is that I was rather surprised when the novel’s main story abruptly finished roughly two-thirds of the way into the book. There are three “Coda” that make up the final 100~ pages of the book. They’re pretty interesting, and they were certainly an interesting inclusion. I’d be lying if I hadn’t been disappointed that there weren’t 100 more pages of Redshirts spoofing, though. The first Coda went on for just a little too long, but I liked that Scalzi managed to talk about writing within the framework of the novel’s premise. The second and third coda were much better – they are both completely different style to the main novel (which makes them an excellent showcase of what Scalzi can do, if you’re new to his work), and they both finish on a rather emotional note. [Scalzi has, actually addressed the Coda in a blog post.]

So. In sum, this is a rather difficult and awkward book to write about without spoiling. I wish I could go on at more length, sharing some of the gems, but also going into more detail about the things that concerned me. It was fun, and I frequently chuckled at the quips and witticisms. I do wish the Coda had taken up less of the book, and the novel’s main story had been longer.

I am sure I didn’t get all of the jokes or references (despite my fondness for science fiction, I’m not well-versed in Star Trek and other history), but it was good fun. If you’re looking for an amusing, endearing parody of classic science-fiction TV, then Redshirts should do the trick.

***

Redshirts will be published in the US on June 5th, and in the UK on November 15, 2012 (Gollancz).

***

You can find my previous, less-serious “review” of Redshirts (with pictures!), here.

“Injustice: Gods Among Us”

2012-05-31T17:47:00.001+01:00

Just a quick news post: DC Comics has a new computer game coming out soon, and it looks kinda cool. Here’s the game trailer:

Injustice is made by the creators of Mortal Kombat, so this could actually end up a pretty decent fighting game… I am intrigued.

“Redshirts” by John Scalzi (Tor/Gollancz) - the Mark Lawrence Method

2012-05-31T07:21:00.001+01:00

Ok, this is one of two “reviews” I’m going to post for John Scalzi’s latest novel, Redshirts. This one came about because I sent Scalzi a tweet telling him that I was irked about how difficult it was going to be to review the book. [Spoilers could so easily abound!] Mark Lawrence caught the tweet, and suggested that I

“perhaps use a series of animal pictures wherein the expressions of kittens, elephants, etc., convey your thoughts?”

To which I, naturally, replied: “Done.”

So, here it is. As a dog lover, but also someone familiar with internet memes, I have provided (where possible) a parallel dog and cat (or, “kitteh”) review of various emotions I went through while reading Redshirts. This is far from exhaustive, of course.

[This is a one-time thing. Probably.]

At first, during the prologue, I was a little sceptical.

However, as the novel progressed, and I got to know the characters a little better, I started to find things rather amusing. The early chapters were filled with plenty of knowing, endearing asides and elements that are sure to please every fan of classic sci-fi television.

There were scenes that would make me grin like a fool, and others that would make me laugh at the absurdity of the crew’s situation, or a well-placed witticism.

After a while (roughly two-thirds of the way into the book), I became a little confused, as everything changed.

Perhaps even sceptical, again.

Nevertheless, despite the complete shift in gears, style and content in the final third of the book, it would be a lie to say I didn’t enjoy reading the main story of the novel. It’s fun, endearing, nostalgic science-fiction fun. It’s not perfect, but I can’t imagine any fan of sci-fi TV and novels not enjoying the wry poking-of-fun at some of the genre’s classic tropes, niggles and mores. In sum:

Just remember, whatever you do, if you find yourself on a space-ship wearing a red shirt, make sure you do one thing:

“Avoid the Narrative.”

Comics Round-Up (May 30)

2012-05-31T04:59:00.001+01:00

A few catch-ups and one really early review of a new series by one of my favourite comics’ writers. This was another pretty busy week, so while I tried to get as many of the comics reviewed as I could, some nevertheless had to be culled from the list. Some of these I was sent for review, so they will be read and reviewed at a later date. I just wanted to get the reviews of these issues up ASAP.

This is also one of the last weeks I’ll be reviewing individual DC issues for a while (I may do a couple more next week), as I’m heading back to the UK mid-June. I’m still working on coming back to the US if possible – Alyssa’s here for another four years, so my desperate quest for employment in or around New York continues! I’m almost at the point of begging, but that would be rather unseemly and undignified.

[*cough* … Please help … *cough*]

Anyway, on with the reviews!

Reviewed: Avengers vs. X-Men #4, AvX VS #2, Batman: The Dark Knight #9, Batwoman #9, BPRD: Hell on Earth – Transformation of J.H. O’Donnell, Call of Wonderland #1, The Defenders #6, Massive #1, Snake Eyes & Storm Shadow #13, Star Wars: Blood Ties – Boba Fett is Dead #1-2, Superman #9, Wolverine & the X-Men #10

Avengers vs. X-Men #4/12 (Marvel)

Writer: Jonathan Hickman (script) & Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction | Artist: John Romita Jr. | Inks: Scott Hanna | Colours: Laura Martin

All across the globe – in the Savage Land, in Wakanda, in Tabula Rasa and more – Avenger battles X-Man for the fate of the world! Hope has a suicide mission to propose to Wolverine! While in space, the Avengers’ away team meets the Phoenix head on!

This starts off with a... Well, a rather shocking, gruesome and (sadly) ingenious way to protect oneself from the cold: Wolverine, who has been dumped in the Antarctic, has been using a polar bear as a cloak. Not its pelt – a full-on dead polar bear. Then, Hope finds him, and tries to convince him that killing her isn’t the answer. So, off they go, and he helps her find a much bigger ship. His allegiance in this Avengers vs. X-Men war is also properly revealed, and must admit I was a little disappointed.

Thor accidentally kills a planet.

Then, everyone goes to the Moon! Which, apparently, has a “blue side”, which has an artificial atmosphere... Just as the Avengers and the X-Men are squaring off against each other, the fight is interrupted by a surprise arrives, as does the Phoenix Force.

Overall, I still think this is whole event is being stretched out. The escalation of hostilities is also still unfathomable for someone not steeped in Avengers and X-Men lore.

Still, things are starting to happen and develop, so it is still rather fun.

AvX VS #2/6 (Marvel)

Captain vs. Gambit – Writer: Steve McNiven | Artist: Steve McNiven | Inks: John Dell | Colours: Morry Hollowell

Spider-Man vs. Colossus – Writer: Kieron Gillen | Artist: Salvador Larroca | Colours: Jim Charalampidis

Avengers vs. X-Men tie-in – featuring the fights that couldn’t fit in the main series.

SPIDER-MAN vs. COLOSSUS & CAPTAIN AMERICA vs. GAMBIT

If you’ve read Avengers vs. X-Men #4, then you know the outcome of the first bout (I believe this issue was released first, but I was slow getting around to it). Also, there’s just no way Captain America was going to lose, so... Yeah. Gambit does give him an absolute kicking, first, and I liked that he was central for a bit again. Haven’t read anything of him since Zero Tolerance.

In the second bout, we get another inconclusive “victory”, this time for Colossus – as Spider-Man books when Daredevil informs him that Hope’s not there. So, another example of “Don’t hold your breath for anything ‘shocking’ to happen in this series”...

Batman: The Dark Knight #9 (DC)

Writer: Judd Winick | Artist: David Finch | Inks: Richard Friend | Colours: Sonia Oback

Night of the Owls: Red Robin is back in Gotham City just in time to face off against Talon and The Court Of Owls!

This issue is guest-written by Judd Winick (one of my favourite comics writers, who is handling Catwoman for the New 52 titles), and starts pretty explosively, as the Talon pursues his objective: killing mayoral candidate Lincoln March. Things don’t go well, as Batman crashes the party.

The synopsis is probably the most misleading one I’ve ever read. This is because, despite Red Robin gracing the cover so prominently, he appears in only one panel, and in it he isn’t fighting the Talon. I don’t know how this particular thread is going to be tied off, actually... March and Batman’s storyline are also in Batman #9, which I’ve reviewed previously, and is set after this issue, but it didn’t give us much of that story either.

Instead, this issue is almost entirely about the Talon, one who made mistakes in the past and was forcibly retired by the Court. I really liked this perspective, just as I’ve enjoyed the other issues that have focused (or at least included) the histories of the Talons in questions – for example, Gail Simone wrote a great, Japanese Talon in Batgirl #9.

It is a very good issue, and one that is very well written. I really enjoyed it, and Finch’s artwork is excellent throughout. Another great addition to the Night of the Owls mini-event.

[As of issue #9, Batman: Dark Knight will be written by author Gregg Hurwitz – which bodes very well, as I thought this series had started to lose steam, a little.]

Batwoman #9 (DC)

Writer: J.H. Williams III & W. Haden Blackman | Artist: Trevor McCarthy | Colours: Guy Major

The next chapter in “To Drown The World.”

An unconventional spy thriller of six interweaving lives with only one thing in common: Batwoman.

Right from the start, we’re thrown back into Batwoman’s on-going battle with the psychotic Falchion.

The issue jumps around in P.O.V.’s again – Batwoman, Maro, Maggie, Chase. It once again makes the story feel a little messy and jumbled, especially as the panels aren’t uniform, either. That being said, I do really like that they’re doing something innovative and unusual with the page layouts, rather than the obvious, easy, linear panel progressions. It’s just unfortunate that it sometimes makes the pages look very busy:

At other times, though, the artwork looks amazing, and the gothic atmosphere is really brought to the fore:

At the end of the issue, Batwoman’s fidelity is tested, and circumstance may lead her to be found wanting...

A good issue, but I really think this series will benefit from being read all at-once, rather than in monthly instalments.

BPRD: Hell on Earth – Transformation of J.H. O’Donnell (Dark Horse)

Writer: Mike Mignola & Scott Allie | Artist: Max Fiumara | Colours: Dave Stewart

Twenty-four years ago, Hellboy took mild-mannered Professor O’Donnell to the secret library of a recently dead necromancer. Since that day, O’Donnell has been the Bureau’s expert on the powerful ancient forces intent on ending the age of man. Find out what O’Donnell saw in this supernatural thrill ride.

I’m a newcomer to the world of BPRD – I’ve watched and enjoyed the Hellboy movies, but beyond that, last week was the first time I read a BPRD comic (Hell on Earth – the Devil’s Engine #1).

O’Donnell – who we are introduced to in the first couple of pages as a bit of a crazy old man – was sent to collect the library of a newly-dead Necromancer, back in 1987, with Hellboy in tow.

I must say, I really like the feel of this series – it’s gothic, with plenty of action, has an Urban Fantasy horror/supernatural premise, a touch of good humour, and is very well written. I’m really going to have to try out more BPRD, Hellboy and Baltimore. Definitely recommended.

Call of Wonderland #1 (Zenescope)

Writer: Dan Wickline (with Raven Gregory, Joe Brusha & Ralph Tedesco) | Artist: Matt Triano & Nacho Arranz | Colours: Stephen Downer & Thomas Bonvillain

The Jabberwocky has been defeated, the Queen of Hearts is dead and Wonderland is in a state of chaos. But the one called the Red Knight is back and he’s about to unleash a deadly, ancient force long thought to be gone. Meanwhile on earth, a literary student researching Lovecraft discovers a long forgotten secret linking Wonderland to the famous author known for his stories of horror. It’s a secret that could very well damn all of mankind.

This was an unexpected surprise. The story seems to have far more to do with H.P. Lovecraft than it does Wonderland, despite the fleeting appearance of the character on the cover. Julie, the student, is given Lovecraft’s diary, which supposedly reveals some of the secrets of where he came up with his ideas. Weird things start to happen the more she reads, though, and the story ends on a bit of a cliff-hanger.

Not at all what I was expecting, but a very good opening shot for this mini-series. I’m definitely interested to know where it goes in the future.

The Defenders #6 (Marvel)

Writer: Matt Fraction | Artist: Victor Ibanez | Inks: Tom Palmer & Terry Pallot | Colours: Chris Sotomayor

Who is trying to kill the Immortal Weapons and can Iron Fist stop them? Why did the world forget about the Confederates of the Curious? How does the Concordance Engine tie all these threads together?

This is a very wordy issue, with lots of exposition. This isn’t a bad thing, as we get a fair bit of background on Iron Fist and the other members of the Immortal Weapons. Including, for example, this big fella:

Immortal Iron Fist (“Danny” to his friends), is researching the strange devices the Defenders have been finding in various parts of the world (in mountains and underwater, actually), and discovers a link with the line of Immortal Weapons. Then he is forced to confront a former team-mate/friend about it.

An interesting issue, but I do wish I’d managed to read issue #5, as I felt like I’d missed something rather important. Still, it’s a pretty good series, but it does also seem to be one that has ups and downs and is just a little inconsistent.

The Massive #1 (Dark Horse)

Writer: Brian Wood | Artist: Kristian Donaldson | Colours: Dave Stewart

In a post-war, post-crash, post-disaster, post-everything world, the environmental-action trawler Kapital scours the earth’s oceans for its mysteriously missing sistership, The Massive.

Captain Callum Israel, a man who has dedicated his life to the ocean, now must ask himself — as our planet dies — what it means to be an environmentalist after the world’s ended. Callum and his crew will come up against pirates, rebels, murderers, and thieves as they struggle to remain noble toward their cause. Can you save a planet that’s already doomed?

This is a pretty tantalising introduction to Wood’s new series. Long-time readers of the site will know that I’m a huge fan of Wood’s DMZ series, and pretty much think he can do no wrong. With The Massive, he returns to politics and current events (more so the latter), and we learn about the devastating climatic events that have sent the world into turmoil and upheaval. The crew of the Kapital are searching for their sister ship, in the frigid northern waters, when they are attacked by pirates.

This issue lays the groundwork for the rest of the series, introducing us to the key players and also giving us their background and background on what’s been going on globally.

The artwork is great, and it’s nice to see Wood reunited with Donaldson, who sometimes worked on issues of DMZ. It’s very clear, crisp, while also being stylish and distinctive. Really nice-looking comic. The issue also has a couple of extras at the end, presented in Wood’s distinctive graphic-design-style.

I really enjoyed this, and I hope it continues to live up to my expectations. Early signs suggest it will, though. Definitely recommended.

[The Massive #1 will be released June 6th.]

Snake Eyes & Storm Shadow #13 (IDW)

Writer: Chuck Dixon | Artist: Robert Atkins | Inks: Juan Castro | Colours: Simon Gough

“Serpent’s Shadow” Part 1! Snake Eyes returns to Japan to re-join the Arashikage clan to team with Storm Shadow. Their target: the new Cobra Commander! Will the most dangerous Joe turn his back on his loyalties and his friends just to bring down the new Cobra leader? Only he knows!

This is a pretty good issue, although Snake Eyes is singularly un-sneaky in his first attempt on Zartan’s life, not to mention rather easily out-foxed by his target. It was quite a nice change of scene, though – it takes place on a train.

The ‘present’ storyline is interspersed with flashbacks to Snake Eyes’ and Storm Shadow’s ninja training when they were younger. It’s interesting to see how the two ninjas’ relationship has been so intertwined for so long, only for them to frequently end up on opposite sides. Given their different ideologies, though, it’s not surprising that they should be enemies – their shared past, though, explains why they have so much difficulty in killing the other… At the very end of the issue, we also learn of how Snake Eyes got his unorthodox name (it used to be Heitai, which translates as “warrior”, not to be confused with hentai, which means… something entirely different and inappropriate).

The artwork is great, it’s very sharp and clear, as you can see from the samples. Another solid addition to the series, despite the niggles I have with the attempted assassination.

Star Wars: Blood Ties – Boba Fett is Dead #1-2 (Dark Horse)

Writer: Tom Taylor | Artist: Chris Scalf

#1 - The news spreads from one end of the galaxy to the other like wildfire: Boba Fett, the galaxy’s most feared bounty hunter, is dead. But when members of the team that killed Fett are themselves picked off one by one, Connor Freeman – the son of one of Jango Fett’s clones – gets pulled into the action in a most unexpected way!

#2 – Boba Fett is dead, and whoever hired the hit squad had better run – as fast and as far as possible! A mysterious avenger is on the trail of Boba Fett’s killers. Connor Freeman – a clone relation to Fett – has been drawn into the whodunit. Freeman, who feels like he could use some protection himself, has been recruited against his will to find and protect a particular bounty hunter on a distant world – in Mandalorian space!

This series kicks off with quite the arresting opening page:

This is a pretty cool revenge story – someone, as the synopsis states, is taking out the people who took part in Fett’s death (oddly, the death was reported on the news, complete with the members of the kill-team reported as well… Seems like a considerable oversight). The first issue ends on quite a momentous, violent note, as we learn that Connor Freeman is not, in fact, the revenge-killer.

The man who ordered the hit on Fett has expanded the remit of the hit to include everyone even remotely connected to Fett – which includes Connor Freeman. Freeman, however, appears to have a mysterious guardian, who turns up at the last minute to save his life. In the second issue, Freeman is dropped off on a random planet by his benefactor, while said guardian goes off to continue his vendetta against those who killed Fett.

The artwork is great, each panel looking more like a painting than comic art. There is, however, a rather strange continuity mistake on page five of the second issue (it’s to do with a prosthetic arm, but it’s important to the story, so I won’t ruin things).

I rather enjoyed this, and is another Star Wars title that does it right. I’m glad they’re getting good writers and artists to work on this series. For a while, there, the quality was starting to dip a little.

Recommended.

Superman #9 (DC)

Writer: Keith Giffen & Dan Jurgens | Artist: Dan Jurgens | Inks & Finishing: Jesus Merino | Colours: Tanya & Richard Horie

Superman faces new super-villainess Masochist! How can Superman fight an opponent he can’t touch? And Lois Lane faces a turning point in her career as a journalist.

This is a pretty packed issue, with plenty of things going on. First off, Superman rescues a Russian sub with mysterious mission, who want to hide their mission from their saviour. Lois Lane, the Executive Producer of PGNews (I like that she’s been promoted, finally), is approached by someone who claims to have information about Superman’s secret identity. Naturally, she thinks it’s a hoax, and passes on what could be a huge story.

After rescuing the sub, Superman heads back to Metropolis, is reamed out by Lois for forgetting to pick up her sister, and then the blogger’s exposé of Superman’s “real secret identity” is released! To much confusion and promise for future mess… On top of this, Superman gets beaten up by an untouchable bank robber... The way this issue ends bodes well for the future.

I’ve said it before, but I do really like that the evolution of journalism is so close to the centre of the story, and how it presents problems and obstacles for our hero.

Wolverine & the X-Men #10 (Marvel)

Writer: Jason Aaron | Artist: Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend, Jaime Mendoza, Al Vey & Victor Olazaba | Colours: Chris Bachalo

Cyclops comes to the Jean Grey School! Will Wolverine’s X-Men join Cyclops against the Avengers?

Nice to see Logan showing some emotion about the AvX situation and his choice of allegiance.

This issue starts off just after the brawl on the beaches of Utopia. Wolverine’s back at the school, beaten and bruised, recovering from the fight.

What I really liked about this issue is that Wolverine finally starts showing some emotion about the whole fiasco.

“Logan? I saw it all on TV. Are you all right?”

“I popped my claws, Kitty. And then I used ’em against people I once considered family. People who called me traitor to my face. So no, I definitely ain’t all right.”

Then Cyclops & the Utopia mutants appear, and there's a bit more of a confrontation.

Meanwhile, the School’s faculty members continue dealing with their ‘normal’ concerns, such as the state of Angel (who doesn’t appear to have any of Warren Worthington III’s mind or memories anymore), who seems convinced he’s a real honest-to-God Angel and wants to prove it. Evan “Genesis” is searching the ‘Super-Villain Database’, and researching Apocalypse (his dad), and he’s not happy with what he’s found out.

Cyclops and Wolverine go off and talk about the upcoming conflict, and their respective beliefs of how best to deal with the oncoming Phoenix Force. At one point, the leader of the Utopian mutants voices something I’ve been thinking ever since the Avengers vs. X-Men snafu kicked off:

“No matter our differences, no matter which side of the country you chose to live on or how many other teams you decide to join, I always thought that at the end of the day, when push came to shove... Nobody was more of an X-Man than Wolverine.”

The end of the issue is quite poignant and difficult, as the X-Men’s faculty discuss with Logan what to do. Most of them are not on his and the Avengers’ side:

Rachel Grey: “You’re not the only one who wants a piece of this fight.”

Wolverine: “Good. I’m sure the Avengers can use all the help they can get. So long as the school’s covered, you’re all welcome to come with me.”

Iceman: “Yeah, that’s the thing though… We won’t necessarily be fighting on your side.”

I thought this was a great issue, actually. Probably the best in the Avengers vs. X-Men cross-over issues, and shows Aaron really knows how to pull out all the stops, and can write a thoughtful and nuanced issue just as well as he can write more amusing, playful issues. Well worth reading.

***

Also Out This Week:

DC: Animal Man Annual #1, Batman Annual #1, Batman: Death By Design HC (review imminent), Batman: Prey TP, DC Nation #1, Diablo #4, Flash #9, Green Arrow Vol.1: Midas Touch TP, Ravagers #1, Starman Omnibus #1 TP, Wonder Woman Vol.1: Blood TP

Dynamite: Bionic Woman #2, Game of Thrones #8

Image: America’s Got Powers #2, Grim Leaper #1, Spawn Compendium Vol.1 TP, Xenoholics Vol.1 TP

Marvel/Icon: Daredevil Ultimate Collection 2 TP (Ed Brubaker & Michael Lark), Kick-Ass 2 HC, Supercrooks #3, Villains for Hire: Knight Takes King TP, Wolverine & the X-Men #11, X-Men: Phoenix Endsong/Warsong Ultimate Collection TP

Vertigo: Fables Deluxe Vol.5, New Deadwardians #3

Artwork: THE BLINDING KNIFE by Brent Weeks (Orbit)

2012-05-31T03:19:00.001+01:00

It’s done the rounds around the biblio-net, but I really wanted to share the cover for Brent Weeks’s next novel, The Blinding Knife, on here as well. I love Weeks’s novels – his Night Angel trilogy was one of the first fantasy trilogies I reviewed on the blog, it’s prequel novella was superb, and The Black Prism (book one in this latest series) I thought was also superb, with a pretty great, original magic system to boot.

Isn’t it awesome? Certainly eye-catching, and I like the colours in the sky, and the fact that it has a semi-Roman aesthetic. I don’t really know why. It’s probably the columns. I like columns. (*Cough* Uh, paging Dr. Freud…). Massive kudos to Lauren Panepinto & the Orbit art team who worked on this.

The Blinding Knife will be published by Orbit in September 2012.

The synopsis is below. [after the break. Warning: Contains a major spoiler for The Black Prism]:

Gavin Guile is dying.

He’d thought he had five years left – now he’s got less than one. With fifty thousand refugees, a bastard son and an ex-fiancée who may have learned his darkest secret, Gavin’s got problems on every side. As he loses control of his magic, all magic is running wild, threatening to destroy the Seven Satrapies. The old gods are being reborn. Their army of color wights is unstoppable, and the only salvation may be the brother whose freedom and life Gavin stole sixteen years ago.

“The Madness Within” by Steve Lyons (Black Library)

2012-05-30T19:23:00.001+01:00

Performed by: John Banks

Desperate and isolated, Sergeant Estabann and Brother Cordoba of the Crimson Fists Space Marines are hunting the daemon that destroyed their battle-brothers. Their only hope remains with a Librarian on the edge of sanity, a potentially tainted Astartes who they are forced to trust. His psychic abilities can lead them to the daemon, where Estabann and Cordoba can avenge their brothers’ deaths. But is the greatest threat a foul denizen of the warp, or the power contained within a psyker’s mind?

The Madness Within is a pretty solid, straight-up Warhammer 40,000 tale in audio-drama medium. It’s not the best audio-drama I’ve listened to from the publisher, but it does tick off all the right boxes that make for an action-packed and entertaining future-war story. If you love the genre and the setting, then you should enjoy this, too. I did like the twist at the end, though, which I hadn’t predicted and certainly added an extra note of originality to proceedings, and making it stand out a bit more.

It’s a pretty interesting story: a depleted Crimson Fists squad is hunting a daemon on one of their recruitment worlds. The forces are slowly being whittled away by the protracted hunt, and they realise they have to mix things up. In order to improve their chances and replenish their forces, they bring back a Librarian who they believe had gone mad, and had been incarcerated in some form of Astartes punishment/torture device.

The stress of battle is taking its toll on the survivors, further exacerbated by the daemon’s tricks – they are getting paranoid and twitchy. Suspicion runs rampant among the battle brothers (more than I would have expected for a 41st Millennium squad of Astartes, as this put me in mind more of the Horus Heresy-era suspicions and biases against supernatural and psykers). That being said, the brotherhood that is instilled in the Space Marines through their training and shared combat experiences holds a strong sway over their actions. They overcome their suspicions, but only to a certain degree. Readers are left wonder if perseverance and unshakeable faith in the Emperor will win out in the end?

The performance is a little uneven – I like the narrator’s sub-patrician accent and voice, and I do hope they hire him to do more narration. Unfortunately, however, and unsurprisingly, certain things didn’t work quite as well – “howls of frustration”, “roars” of rage and battle-strain just don’t sound realistic. The dialogue veers perilously into the melodramatic-over-emotion arena, which sadly weakened the story’s impact for me. It’s a pity, as the ‘text’ is pretty good. The Madness Within is an interesting look at the place of and suspicions surrounding those who are warp-touched, even in the case of sanctioned psykers and librarians among the Emperor’s finest and most fervent warriors.

Nevertheless, despite my quibbles about certain performance issues, this is a good audio-drama, and one that should appeal to fans of Space Marines, WH40k in general, and other Black Library fiction.

An Interview with V.M. ZITO

2012-05-30T07:00:00.000+01:00

I’m a relatively new convert to the zombie-apocalypse genre, but I’ve found some really great new novels that are either doing something new or just very well. V.M Zito’s The Return Man, I thought, does both. It is also one of the surprise finds from last year. Read on for more about The Return Man, illicit childhood horror-reading, J.D. Salinger, Spider-Man and more.

As a debut novelist, I thought I’d start off this interview with something easy: Who is V.M. Zito?

Hmm... That might actually be a hard one! I’m almost 40, and I’m still trying to figure it out. I know for sure that I’m a writer from Connecticut. I’m also a lifelong horror fan, a football nut, a trail runner, a guy named Vincent, a coffee addict, a dad, a comic book nerd, and a creative director at an advertising agency.

Your debut novel, The Return Man is out now through Orbit Books (US) and Hodder (UK). How would you introduce the novel to a new reader?

The Return Man takes place in a fractured United States, four years after the zombie apocalypse. The western half is abandoned, inhabited only by the resurrected dead. Survivors live in the east, but many of their loved ones are still roaming the west as zombies. To help with their grief, they hire Henry Marco, the hero of the novel. He’s a professional corpse tracker who finds zombified friends and family, then mercifully re-kills them. Things get out of control when the new totalitarian government finds out what Marco is doing. They send him on a crazy suicide mission to find the zombie of a mysterious doctor... but they won’t tell him why.

Why zombies? Where did the inspiration for the story come from? And where do you draw your inspiration from in general?

I’ve been a zombie fan since I was a kid, so thirty years of daydreaming about the living dead finally culminated in an idea for a book. I’d always imagined, “What would it be like to survive the zombie apocalypse?” Then one day it occurred to me: What if I survived but my wife didn’t? What if she were a zombie, out there somewhere, shambling through the dead world? How would I be able to bear that knowledge? Those were the first few story questions that eventually led to The Return Man.

In general, anything can inspire me. Weird news stories, interesting facts in a book, bad dreams, places I travel, strange sights out the car window when I’m driving... they’ve all given me material to write about.

How were you introduced to genre fiction?

I started young. My parents had a bookshelf in the basement, stocked with Stephen King, Peter Straub, old anthologies of horror fiction and more. When nobody was paying attention, I’d sneak down for some scary age-inappropriate reading. The very first book I ever read was The Amityville Horror. The second book was almost The Shining, but my mother caught me and took it away before I could finish. Too late – I was hooked. (I made it as far as the naked old woman in the bathtub. I guess that was enough to scar me for life.)

How do you enjoy being a writer and working within the publishing industry? Do you have any specific working, writing, researching practices?

I have the typical love/hate relationship with writing. Some days it’s a source of joy and satisfaction, other days it punches me in the face – hard and repeatedly – until I vow I’ll never write again. And I always keep that vow until the next day. Working with the publisher has been great; my editor was so dialled into the book and was a fantastic help, especially in guiding me through the trials and tribulations of being a first-time novelist.

As for my writing practices, I’m a night writer. After my 9-to-5 job, after dinner, after homework with my daughter, I grab a large Dunkin Donuts coffee and head upstairs to write for a couple hours. I’m slow, so 500 to 700 words per night is a good haul for me. At that point, I’m half asleep, anyway.

When did you realize you wanted to be an author, and what was your first foray into writing? Do you still look back on it fondly?

In high school, I’d always enjoyed creative writing classes. But it wasn’t until junior year that I had such a profound experience as a reader that I truly decided I wanted to be a writer – to be able to generate that power myself. The book that did it to me? Okay, prepare for cliché, but it’s my personal truth, so I’ll fess up. It was the quintessential teenage angst novel, Catcher In The Rye.

Funny, I’m just now realizing that I’ve often been asked which writers influenced me, and so far I’ve overlooked J.D. Salinger. But it’s true, this book propelled me toward authorhood. Looking back, many of my early short stories have a narrative voice with an obvious Holden Caulfield vibe. Then I went to college and discovered Bret Easton Ellis, and that took it up another notch; I started channelling Ellis (who was channelling Salinger), and all my characters were variants of Holden with some really serious self-destruction and violent generational hopelessness. Today, I look back fondly on reading Salinger and Ellis, but the fiction I wrote under their influence is cringe-worthy bad, and I’d rather eat a live spider than read a story I wrote when I was twenty.

What’s your opinion of the genre today, and where do you see your work fitting into it?

I love horror more today than ever; I can’t walk through a bookstore without seeing five more books I want to add to my reading list. (Which is woefully backed up.) In the zombie subgenre, I do sense a bit of a mini-crisis brewing as fans like me get their fill of “classic” zombie story-telling and begin seeking out new twists and imaginative reinventions – only to discover that nothing beats the original. For me, The Return Man was purposely adherent to traditional zombie elements while giving fans a new angle that I hope they’ll enjoy.

What projects are you working on, and what do you have currently in the pipeline?

I’ve just started my next novel, a dark supernatural fantasy set in the haunted backwoods of Vermont. I’ve been researching and prepping, and now the fun begins.

What are you reading at the moment (fiction and/or non-fiction)?

I’m about 20 pages into The Snowman by Jo Nesbo, a serial killer crime novel. I just finished the horror-thriller Midnight by Stephen Leather, the second book in his Jack Nightingale series. (And I’m eagerly awaiting the third!)

What’s something readers might be surprised to learn about you?

I was an extra in the original Spider-Man movie, directed by Sam Raimi. In the outdoor festival scene, when Macy Gray is singing and the Green Goblin attacks, I’m in that fleeing crowd as the stage collapses. Well, I’m there somewhere. I’ve gone frame by frame through the DVD but goddamn it, I can’t find myself. But I’m there. Please believe me. If you ever meet Sam Raimi, just ask him. I’m sure he’ll remember me.

What are you most looking forward to in 2012?

In 2012, the New York Giants will defend their 2011 Super Bowl title. I’m a stark raving mad Giants fan, and I wish I could push a magical blue button and leap forward in time to the season opener. Until then, I guess I’ll just keep writing to entertain myself on Sundays.

Thanks for having me here at Civilian Reader, and thank you to everyone for checking out The Return Man!

Want to know more about V.M. Zito and his writing? Check out his website and follow him on Twitter.

“Wonder Woman, Vol.1: Blood” (DC New 52)

2012-05-29T07:00:00.000+01:00

Writer: Brian Azzarello | Artist: Cliff Chiang, Tony Akins (ch.5&6) | Inks: Dan Green (ch.6) | Colours: Matthew Wilson

Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, has kept a secret from her daughter all her life – and when Wonder Woman learns who her father is, her life will shatter like brittle clay. The only one more shocked than Diana by this revelation? Bloodthirsty Hera – so why is her sinister daughter, Strife, so eager for the truth to be told?

I took a gamble with this one. I’ve never read anything related purely to Wonder Woman (and only a few issues of Justice League), so have no history with the character. I’ve also not read much of Azzarello’s stuff – in fact, I’ve only read the first issue of Spaceman, which I thought was... well, not good. So, I figured I might be on safer ground here (I’ve also picked up volume one of 100 Bullets, which I’ll review pretty soon). Thankfully, I was not disappointed with this book, and I rather enjoyed it.

To be honest, this is a pretty strange comic. Part of this feeling is, of course, related to my lack of familiarity, but it’s weird in a pretty great way. There are a lot of connections with and content about the Greek gods, which I really liked, and once the details of who Wonder Woman is are dealt with, we discover that the eternally philandering Zeus has disappeared. This has left a power vacuum, and while some of the lesser gods and demi-gods just want to be left alone and keep on living and working as they always have, some are starting to make a play for the throne. Hera, Zeus’s eternally patient wife, has decided she wants the throne, as well as to rid the world of Zeus’s plentiful bastards. Wonder Woman and her companions – Zora, one of Zeus’s most recent conquests – who Diana saves at the beginning of the series; Hermes, messenger of the Gods and recently wounded while saving Zora; and the mysterious Lennox (who appears out of nowhere and is accepted by the group rather quickly, I thought).

Wonder Woman’s antagonists are an interesting bunch, also. There’s Hera, of course, but also the mysteriously-affiliated Strife – Diana’s half-sister and all-round trouble-maker (who has a pretty severe, intriguing goth-look). There are the gods as well, of course, and I really like the way Chiang’s realised them – they’re all very distinctive, interesting and originally interpretations. Poseidon, for example, looks like he’s inspired by a Studio Gibli creation:

I’m glad I waited for the collected edition with this series – I’m not entirely sure if it would have passed the Three Issue Test. The first three chapters of the book are interesting, but for this new reader, not entirely gripping. I liked the artwork, certainly, as well as the Amazon culture we spent a lot of time with, and the writing is pretty strong. That being said, it didn’t really start firing on all cylinders for me until the story starts developing a bit more, and Wonder Woman and company start getting involved with the divine machinations. Therefore, given how many of the New 52 I was reading, I’m not sure this wouldn’t have stood up on a month-by-month basis.

However, as a collected story, this is excellent, and I’ll definitely be picking up volume two, when it becomes available. I’m very glad I took a chance on this series – it’s very different to what I was expecting and other New 52 series I’ve been reading, very original and highly imaginative. I’d love to know where it’s going next.

Original Issue Cover Art

Not at all Book-Related… BBC Awesome Filming

2012-05-29T02:10:00.001+01:00

The BBC is one of the best things about the UK, and this is a great clip from Planet Earth Live.

“The 500” by Matthew Quirk (Headline/Little Brown)

2012-05-28T07:00:00.000+01:00

The darker side of Washington, DC, lobbying

Mike Ford was following his father into a life of crime, when he chose to go straight and instead worked his way through Harvard Law School. Now he’s landed the ultimate job with the Davies Group, a powerful political consulting firm run by the charismatic Henry Davies. Rubbing shoulders with Washington’s heavyweights and with more money and privileges than he’s ever imagined, Mike believes that everything has finally come right.

But he’s about to discover that power comes with a price. Henry Davies is looking for a protégé for a crucial deal and one that must go right no matter what. Mike soon learns that being on the side of the lawmakers doesn’t mean your work is legal. And there’s no place for a moral code when you’re on the devil’s payroll.

I stumbled across this book rather by accident, while hunting around for political thrillers. Luckily, it’s very good, so I’m very glad that I did. The novel takes a look at the seamier side of lobbying culture, adds in a dash of conspiracy theory, some international criminals, and plenty of action. It’s very enjoyable.

One thing I should mention at the outset, is that I’m not sure I liked the Prologue – it seemed to give a lot of the game away, thereby sapping some of the later events of their emotional impact. Nevertheless, it does give the reader some anticipation of “How does he get to here?” My initial reservations, however, did not prevent me from thoroughly enjoying the novel, and Quirk still managing to throw up a fair few surprises.

The novel starts with Mike still at Harvard, working like a dog on two degrees, with a part-time job bartending. He’s struggling to maintain the job and his school-work, he has scarily-large mounting student loans, and he’s on the hook for his mother’s $83k in outstanding medical fees from her unsuccessful cancer care. All except the latter make this quite the typical lower-income-made-it-to-the-Ivy-League survival story. While at an invitation-only seminar, he is spotted by Henry Davies, an extremely powerful Washington lobbyist, who offers him a job, thereby solving all of his money problems. It’s a dream come true. Until things start taking a turn for the dark.

Mike is something of a thriller archetype – he’s a recovering youthful transgressor. His father’s a crook, but Mike has decided he wants to live more-or-less legitimately, doing everything by the book. Until a particular make-or-break assignment comes along, and Mike goes… well, let’s just say the “extra mile” would be an understatement. What makes the novel and character different, though, is that his job is pure cynicism and political graft. We go along with him as he gets sucked into the wonderful world of lobbying, learning how to finesse clients and opponents, and the importance of “M.I.C.E.”.

The 500 doesn’t paint a nice picture of Washington politics and culture at all. The seamier side is on full display, exaggerated (I hope) somewhat for artistic effect. There are Congressmen getting into awkward and compromising positions, scandalised nuns in Statuary Hall, and plenty of spying and one-up-manship. I’m not sure if it’s Quirk’s or just his character’s cynicism creeping through, but members of Congress are painted in a particularly unflattering light – just “walking hairdos”, who need to be ushered hither and thither by socially awkward former debate-nerds (to paraphrase one particular examination). Washington is described as a “brothel of a city”, one “run by crooks”. Certainly, the story helps to reinforce this impression, as Mike’s work at the Davies group is all about leverage, influence-peddling and, of course, money. Lots and lots of money.

Overall, this is a break-neck-paced political thriller. As mentioned, it has a relentlessly negative portrayal of Washington, D.C., culture. But, it is meant to be entertainment, and political conspiracy and graft, mixed in with some murder and a well-done love story, are classic tropes of the thriller genre. The 500 fits perfectly within the genre, and should appeal to all fans of political thrillers, as well as political junkies. There are a lot of insider details (Quirk has been covering Washington for The Atlantic for years), and a few amusing moments and cynical observations to lighten the mood.

The 500 takes readers on a journey through the corridors of power, to the crack dens of Washington and gives us an intimate tour of the corrupt underbelly of American politics. Definitely recommended, this is a very fine thriller debut.

For fans of: David Baldacci, James Patterson, John Sandford, Stuart Woods, Phillip Margolin, Kyle Mills, Margaret Truman, Vince Flynn, Catherine Coulter

Music Video: “Burn It Down” by Linkin Park (Warner Bros.)

2012-05-27T19:37:00.001+01:00

I’m having a rather Linkin Park-themed day, with their music videos playing in the background on repeat, and thanks to IceBergInk’s Scott, I discovered that the video for their latest single, “Burn It Down” has finally been released! The song’s from their upcoming album, Living Things (released end of June), which I’m very much looking forward to.

“Superman: Birthright” (DC)

2012-05-27T18:53:00.001+01:00

The Origin of the Man of Steel

Writer: Mark Waid | Artist: Leinil Francis Yu | Inks: Gerry Alanguilan

Since his debut in 1938 Superman has become one of the most recognisable fictional characters in existence. Now, prepare for a fresh take on Superman... Imagine Superman comics were beginning again and you could read the first adventures of the Man of Steel – but reinvented from top to bottom to reflect today’s world and today’s sensibilities.

As can be expected from Mark Waid, this is a superb modern re-telling of the Superman origin story. It’s thoughtful, thought-provoking, endearing, funny and also quite sad. Certainly one of the best Superman origin stories I’ve read, I thoroughly enjoyed this.

At the start of the story, Clark Kent is travelling the world, trying to find himself. He’s working as a freelance journalist, and has been able to snag some truly amazing opportunities (not having to play for flights and travel expenses certainly gives him a leg-up on the competition…). This is, in effect, the super-hero equivalent of the semester abroad or Gap Year.

However, his travels have not been all joy and wide-eyed discovery. Because of who he is, and what he can do, he is experiencing all of the difficulties of a true outsider. His emotions about this are nicely conveyed, and he doesn’t come across as overly emo.

“Each time I think I’ve made a connection with someone, once they find out what I can do, whether its hours or days later, everything changes. Invariably they freak. They get retroactively paranoid, wondering what else Clark Kent is hiding from them. So I keep my distance. I report on events rather than get directly involved, and frankly, I’m getting disturbingly good at it... there’s got to be a way for me to USE my abilities and yet not feel totally isolated by them...”

I won’t go over the minutiae of the story, as much of this people will probably know. What really makes this book stand out, is what Waid chooses to focus on – and that is, alongside the sense of loneliness mentioned above, are the themes of responsibly, and also the generally sad state of human nature. For example, there is a moment when Clark saves the lives of everyone in an African village, but not a politician, and at the funeral he’s asked, “Why couldn’t you have stopped this?” After all he just did, saving the village and all of Kobe’s people, and uncovering the people behind Kobe’s assassination, it still wasn’t enough.

Unlike Superman: Earth One, Clark here is more ready to embrace a dual identity. He’s almost hungry for it, after his travels. Jonathan Kent is struggling with it, feeling inadequate as a father. Martha's rather enjoying it, though. It’s quite nice to see how Waid’s written the family dynamic, and how they deal with Clark’s decision to use his powers for good, rather than purely in secret and hidden. And the thought that went into designing his outfit and also his disguise.

“If I want people to trust me, they’ll have to be able to see my face.”

There’s a new, as-far-as-I’m-aware-original take on Clark and Lex Luthor’s history back in Smallville, which I thought was really interesting – we see Clark as effectively a good-natured nerd, and Lex the volatile, over-confident genius who doesn’t fit in, whose arrogance escalates to a deadly level when an experiment goes wrong. Later, when Superman comes out of the super-hero closet, Lex turns his sites squarely onto the new hero – Lex, you see, has been using his vast intellect and resources to study some Kryptonian artifacts. Lex actually knows more about Clark’s heritage than he does, which was another interesting development. I also liked that Clark wasn’t immune to some more-human emotions, like anger:

Yu’s artwork is interesting – it’s clear, certainly, but there are some strange colour decisions and techniques. It is, for the most part, eye-catching and serves the characters and story very well, but it is also inconsistent.

Waid’s love for, and knowledge of, the Superman mythos definitely comes through, and it adds a wonderful level of depth and empathy to the story. Waid’s writing is perfectly complemented and enhanced by Yu’s artwork – despite the occasionally strange panel.

Overall, this is a superb, substantial graphic novel (given its length, I’m surprised it’s not more than $19.99). There a great deal of story in here, which balances nuance, humour, and an intelligent examination of human nature and responsibility.

Very highly recommended.

Week In Review (May 26)

2012-05-26T22:44:00.000+01:00

Bit of a mix this week: an article about authors and Library eBook loans; Amazon & Waterstone’s; Special Needs in Strange Worlds (the series just keeps on going strong); a mini-article by S.G. Browne; a great review of Railsea by China Mieville; and an article by Sarah Pinborough.

The Guardian: “Pay us for Library eBook Loans say Authors” by Alison Flood [Article]

I am quite interested in this, actually, as I wasn’t sure how royalties worked with regards to library loans. I have no idea how it works in the United States, and this article only deals with the British situation.

“Authors are calling on the government to remunerate them when their ebooks are lent from libraries, calling it ‘patently unjust’ that digital titles are currently borrowed with no payment made to the writer.

“Authors are paid 6.05p every time their physical books are borrowed from the UK's public libraries, up to a maximum of £6,600, under the government-funded Public Lending Right scheme. But ebooks and audiobooks, a growing sector for library users, are not currently included in the scheme, even though the Digital Economy Act of 2010 paved the way for this to be done.”

Nicola Solomon, of the Society of Authors pointed out that

“It’s very important to understand that authors do rely on PLR – it’s not just a nice little bonus. Many authors get PLR who are not bestsellers but do very well in libraries. People borrow very different books from the book they buy… And authors can’t continue to write if they are not paid for their work.”

Flood also writes about the issue of lending eBooks period, outlining some of the arguments for and against:

“The issue of eBook lending from libraries is proving to be a thorny one for the books industry. Many publishers have yet to sign up to the practice, believing that libraries should ‘concentrate on delivering physical books to those least able to afford them, rather than offering eBooks to users who can afford eReaders’.”

This above point is, actually, something I agree with. Booksellers are also expressing concerns, arguing that eBook lending will be a “disruptive force” (James Daunt, Waterstone’s MD). Said Daunt, “If you can download a book for free and read it, why would you want to own it?” Some authors have also expressed more general fears that eBook lending “could undervalue retail pricing and increase piracy.” One thing that bothers me about this article is that Flood constantly refers to “authors” without naming a single one.

Amazon & Waterstone’s

Not a link to any article, as it was pretty widely reported, but I do find this really interesting. Daunt’s comments about eBook lending from last week (above) take on a bit more nuance when you couple them with Monday’s announcement that Waterstone’s has made a deal with Amazon to sell Kindles and eBooks through Amazon. I’m not sure how this is going to work in the long run, but I do have one pretty big question: what about people who bought ePubs through Waterstone’s? Will they have the option to convert them to Kindle editions? Will there be some kind of merging of the two eBook services? I bought quite a few books for my Sony Reader through Waterstone’s, and if they are now switching to Kindle, it would be nice to be able to do the same – that is, transfer my eBooks across.

“Sugar Paper on the Tongue” by Sarah Pinborough [Article]

Author Sarah Pinborough writes about… happiness.

“I’m not a naturally happy person. I’m prone to being an internal Eeyore and someone once told me that they thought my dopamine receptors were off – I never take a moment to stop and celebrate achievements but am always, always pushing on to the next thing.

“But you know, I don’t think that’s got anything to do with happiness. Maybe we’ve just forgotten what happiness actually is or should be.”

It’s a really nice article.

Bastard Books: “Lucky Bastard” by S.G. Browne [Guest Post & Giveaway]

I’ve only read one of Browne’s novels (Fated), which I thought was pretty good. His latest, Lucky Bastard (not about his host blogger’s fortune), sounds pretty interesting, too.

Staffer’s Musings: “Railsea” by China Mieville [Review]

I thought this was a particularly good review of Mieville’s latest novel, from a fan of the author’s work. The book didn’t really work for Justin, and I think the review is a good example of how to approach books that disappoint without a) frothing like a loon, or b) contorting oneself to make it seem like you still love the beloved author.

Bookworm Blues: “Special Needs in Strange Worlds” [Article Series]

Sarah has continued her excellent series of guest posts on the subject of special needs in fantasy and science fiction, and over the past week has posted articles and commentary by Jeff Salyards (author of Scourge of the Betrayer), Niall Alexander (the Speculative Scotsman), Sue Bricknell (blogger at Coffee, Cookies & Chili Peppers), M.D. Lachlan (author of Wolfsangel and Fenrir, and CR favourite), and Bryce Lee (Only the Best Sci-Fi and The Stamp of Approval)

And on Civilian Reader this week, it’s been pretty busy. Two book reviews – Ari Marmell’s False Covenant (Pyr) and Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s The Emperor’s Gift (Black Library); the usual comics round-up; an interview with author Rod Rees; and two graphic novel reviews – The Unwritten Volume 1 and Fables Deluxe Volume 2 (both Vertigo). In addition, Mieneke interviewed me for her excellent blog, The Fantastical Librarian.

Next week, there will also be plenty of posts and reviews – hopefully a couple of book reviews (The 500 by Matthew Quirk and Redshirts by John Scalzi), as well as a few graphic novel reviews (Superman: Birthright, Fables Deluxe Vol.3, and possibly American Vampire Vol.1), and an interview with author V.M. Zito.

Batfight!

2012-05-25T19:28:00.001+01:00

Sorry, I really couldn’t resist the pun… It looks like Batgirl will be facing off against Batwoman in Batgirl #12:

I rather liked the cover art, by Stanley Lau, so thought I’d share it on here. Both of these characters’ series are among my favourites of the New 52 (although, Batwoman isn’t holding up as well, this far in, which is a real pity – I think it would work better as a collected book, as it’s a big story that’s still connected nine issues in).

“The Emperor’s Gift” by Aaron Dembski-Bowden (Black Library)

2012-05-25T06:05:00.001+01:00

The Knights of Titan go to war

The Grey Knights are all that stands between mankind and the ravages of Chaos. Since their secretive beginnings during the Horus Heresy, these legendary Space Marine daemon hunters have journeyed into the dark realms of the warp – and beyond – in pursuit of their supernatural enemies. Through an intensive regime of psychic training, new recruits are brought to the clandestine fortress of Titan to join the hallowed and vaunted ranks of the 666th Chapter. More than ever, these legendary battle-brothers must be vigilant and ever ready to defend the Imperium for the forces of Chaos are never truly defeated, and Armageddon beckons…

The Emperor’s Gift takes a look at the most secretive Chapter of the Imperium’s Adeptus Astartes, the psychically-gifted Grey Knights. It’s a very different novel to what I was expecting – not in terms of quality, but in terms of content. This, in itself, should not have been a surprise, as the author has a tendency to go in directions we wouldn’t expect, and his novels are among the best Black Library publishes because of it. The Emperor’s Gift is a great, thoughtful and thought-provoking military science-fiction story.

One thing that is obvious from the get-go, is that this is going to be quite different to Dembski-Bowden’s Night Lords novels. For one thing, the Grey Knights are supposed to be the pinnacle of Imperial virtue and purity. The novel is also one of two clear halves: the first sets up the reader with background for Hyperion, our protagonist, and also inducts us into the methodology and ideology of the Grey Knights Chapter. The second half is… well, it’s when the shit hits the fan, to put it bluntly. It’s quite difficult to write about in any detail without spoiling things, so I’m going to keep my discussion of the plot to generalities – I was frequently surprised by the direction the narrative took, and I think other readers should experience the same.

Hyperion is a new Knight, having only recently been elevated to his squad (Castian). Through Hyperion’s introspection and self-analysis we learn of the ‘otherness’ of the Grey Knights – as with the Night Lords, they are super-human, but they stand apart for different and stranger reasons. They are secret, for a start – this was an interesting factor for me. I’m not as well-versed in some of the new canon, so for me much of the information and background for the Grey Knights and their place in the Imperial war machine was fascinating, as I thought it threw up some intriguing propositions about their deployment and how their covert status is maintained (more on that, below).

“Only Adeptus Astartes Chapter Masters could know we walked in the Imperium's shadows. So state the tradition, and so had it been since our Founding. Most Imperial Guard regiments we fought beside were simply executed. Mere men armed with cheap lasrifles were an inexhaustible commodity all too easily replaced in humanity’s empire.”

Hyperion’s squad is attached to Inquisitor Annika’s warband, and together they have been dealing with a planetary leadership’s corruption. The interaction between Hyperion and Annika’s retinue can be amusing, and has the effect of humanising the Grey Knight (who appears rather fascinated by humans), while also highlighting his otherness and inhumanity.

“I listened to their banter, watching in silence, unsure of what to say. Any words I spoke would jar the flow of their conversation, so I opted to say nothing at all. I rarely had the chance to witness humans interacting like this.”

Hyperion is a character of interesting duality, too – he is hyper-self-analytical, self-conscious and unsure at times, yet in battle he can be over-confident, assertive, and reckless. He therefore makes for an interesting guide to this secretive side of the WH40k cannon (the novel is presented as his log and recollections of events).

The first third of the novel has only a little action (a very short, but excellent scene when we’re introduced to the Grey Knights). Instead, the novel builds up to an extended confrontation that lasts for most of the second half. This, I think, is the strength and attraction of this novel and the Grey Knights: they fight very differently to other Space Marines or species in the WH40k universe. There’s an interesting synergy that goes beyond being well-drilled (like the Imperial Guard or Space Marines), and Dembski-Bowden does a great job of bringing the psychic talents of his characters to the fore. I really like the way he’s written the psychic and Chaotic elements of the novel – he doesn’t go over-the-top, for one, which is a pitfall that claims altogether too many authors writing WH/WH40k fiction, instead writing in sparse prose that allows the reader’s imagination to fill in the minute details.

As the novel progresses, and the Grey Knights’ deployment to Armageddon gets underway, we learn of some of the Inquisitions less-acceptable, more extreme containment measures. It’s not pretty, and it’s certainly not noble. In some ways, it’s monstrous. And it is through the Inquisitions orders that we see the existing tensions between the various Imperial forces arrayed at Armageddon snap, and the scene is set for the final act of the novel. As the Captain of Hyperion’s ship mutters,

“Mark my words, gentlemen... This is about to become quite the shitpit of curse words and short tempers.”

I have a feeling some WH40k fans might not like the pacing and comparative lack of action of the first hundred pages of the novel. That’s ok, though. “Bolter-porn” (as it’s known) is not what Dembski-Bowden’s going for. This is an engaging and gripping investigation of the role and life of the Grey Knights. Personally, I thought it was very good. The author writes character-driven military sci-fi, rather than purely action-driven, and I personally prefer that. I would say The Emperor’s Gift is not as good as the Night Lords novels, but I think that’s because Aaron did such an amazing job with Talos and company, and they offered even more opportunity for nuance, conflict (warfare and internal), and complexity. This novel examines the lengths to which inflexible people in power will go to ensure others see their power, and how nobility of purpose can only be stretched so far before the acts you commit to prevent corruption can end up being almost more monstrous.

This is great, thought-provoking military-sci-fi with a difference. Highly recommended.

“Fables” Deluxe Volume 2 (Vertigo)

2012-05-24T16:54:00.001+01:00

Writer: Bill Willingham | Artists: Mark Buckingham, Lan Medina, Craig Hamilton, P.Craig Russell, Bryan Talbot, Linda Medley & Steve Leialoha | Colours: Daniel Vozzo & Lovern Kindzierski

Collecting Issues #11-18 and more. As Snow White recovers from a bullet to the brain, she and Bigby spend a lot of time in each other's company. But when they announce that they’ll be vacationing together, all of Fabletown is shocked. The twosome are about to leave New York City and cross paths with a ruthless enemy lurking in the woods.

In the second deluxe edition of Fables, readers will find six stories – all loosely connected, and all with very different, yet equally inspired, premises. The synopsis above is actually for the third story in the book. I read this book in one sitting and, except for the first story, I think it builds brilliantly on what has come before and reinforces my belief that Fables is an essential graphic novel series for any fan of the medium and also for fans of innovative storytelling as a whole.

Unfortunately, the first story, “Bag O’ Bones”, wasn’t the best, especially following the excellent previous two arcs. It was, therefore, probably not the wisest way to start this book, but not to worry. It’s has an interesting premise, but it didn’t pack as much punch as what had come before. As it’s adapted from the Mountain Jack Tales (which Willingham states in the title-text), perhaps one can conclude that Willingham should stick to creations more his own. He’s really very talented, but this just fell flat. It felt a little more in line with the raunchier Zenescope Grimm Fairy Tales than the previous two Fables arcs – there’s a real boy-wish-fulfilment element to it, as Jack takes the innocence of a formerly chaste woman and she loves it (crying out during insatiable sex that she wants him to call her “dirty”, etc.). Death was quite amusingly portrayed, though. It’s fine, but by no means essential, and I think could have been a lot better.

The second story, “A Sharp Operation” (a two-parter), involves a journalist who thinks the Fabletown community is actually made up of... a bunch of vampires. This is the story of how Bigby Wolf and company solve the problem and squash the story. Briar Rose is integral to the story and the unorthodox solution. It is ingenious, devious, and culminates in an ultimately vicious denouement which I hadn’t seen coming. The story packs quite a punch. As well as a few laughs. The story develops a few of the key characters more, and I was certainly starting to feel like I knew them rather well.

“Storybook Love”, the longest story in the book, is pretty great. It reunites us with a lot of the characters from “Animal Farm” (which formed the second half of the first Deluxe edition), including Snow White and Goldilocks – the latter had fled into hiding after her botched revolution at The Farm. She’s shacked up with Bluebeard, but is found out by a member of the Mouse Police, and she, Bluebeard and his minions put into motion a plan to conceal evidence, brainwash superiors, and do away with the people who could put them in jail for centuries. It’s great fun (though one death early on was really sad), and offers up a desperate hunt through the woods, some duelling, and a couple of pretty brutal, shocking deaths. We see some famous characters acting, well, very out of character, and also the seeds are sown for some future, inevitable conflict.

“Barleycorn Brides”: This is the story of the Lilliputians’ part in the war against the Adversary. It’s also about how the Lilliputian expeditionary force that made it through to our world was made entirely of men, which had obvious ramifications for its longevity. This, then, is the story of how the population of Smalltown (as they named their district on The Farm) were able to address their gender imbalance. It involves magic barleycorn, and the legacy of a certain, diminutive Fable. In some respects, it’s actually a tad creepy, but it works within the Fable-framework, and includes daring adventure behind enemy lines, and an eventual happy ending.

“The Last Castle”: This is a longer tale, still in a single issue (possibly an annual, originally?). It tells the story, as recounted by Boy Blue, of the last Fable stronghold to fall to the forces of the Adversary. It’s a great siege tale, one with a tragic ending, but also a heart-warming appreciation for those who have given their lives so that others might live on. It adds depth to Little Boy Blue, who up until now has just been a peripheral character, playing the role of assistant to Snow White in the Fabletown administrative office. This story establishes him as something more than a mere supporting cast member, and also suggests he will play a bigger role in the overall Fables story as it develops. This was a really great chapter.

The final chapter of the book is “A Wolf in the Fold”, a prose story that tells of how Wolf first met Snow White and Rose Red (as alluded to in “Storybook Love”), what Wolf was up to in the early years of the Adversary’s conquests, and also how he came to Fabletown and become Bigby Wolf, the Fable community’s sheriff. I really liked the story, as it offers a nice addition to our overall picture of two central characters and some of the events that have shaped their current ideology, position and connection. It also shows that Willingham is as deft writing prose as he is comic scripts.

Once again, this book is filled with delightful variations and spins on fairy tale characters famous, infamous and obscure. Willingham and company really have created something special, and I’m hooked (I’ve already read the next Deluxe book – which I started immediately after finishing this one – so expect a review of that very soon). The flying monkey, Bufkin, who is one of Snow White’s administrative assistants, is brilliant and makes me laugh nearly every time he’s on the page.

This is, frankly, essential reading. Absolutely superb.

Civilian Reader Abroad (A Bit of Self-Pimpage)

2012-05-23T18:38:00.001+01:00

Just a quick post: I’ve been interviewed elsewhere!

“Blogger Query” on A Fantastical Librarian

If you’re not already familiar with Mieneke’s blog, I heartily recommend it – I’ve been reading and following it pretty much since it started, after getting to know Mieneke through Twitter. Great reviews, articles, etc.

An Interview with ROD REES

2012-05-23T07:00:00.000+01:00

I heard of Rod Rees’s new series, The Demi-Monde quite a while ago. It has an intriguing and original premise and setting – a virtual reality “training” world that features some of the most difficult environments for warfare, populated by some of the worst of history’s psychopaths… Which is pretty cool. With the second book in the series now available, I thought it would be a good time to ask him some questions about his work. Turns out, he’s not a fan of the editing phases…

Who is Rod Rees?

I’m a guy who came to writing late in life after spending his career working all around the world. I’ve lived in Iran, Qatar and Russia, and travelled extensively in Africa and the Middle East. En route I’ve built pharmaceutical factories in Bangladesh, set up a satellite telecommunications system in Moscow, and established a successful countertrade organization in Africa. Right now I live in Daventry with my lovely wife, Nelli, where I write and try to keep track of my two daughters.

UK (Jo Fletcher) | US (William Morrow)

Your first two novels are now available in the UK. How would you introduce your Demi-Monde series to a new reader?

The publisher’s blurb says:

The Demi-Monde: Winter is the first of a four book series. Set in the near future of 2018 the Demi-Monde is the most advanced computer simulation ever devised. Created by the US Military to prepare soldiers – neoFights – for the nightmarish reality of urban warfare, it is a virtual world locked in eternal civil war. Its thirty million digital inhabitants living and dying in the Victorian cyber-slums of this make-believe world, Dupes programmed with a craving for blood and led by some of history’s most vicious tyrants: Reinhard Heydrich, the architect of the Holocaust; Beria, Stalin’s arch executioner; and Aleister Crowley, black magician and ‘the wickedest man in the whole world’. But something has gone badly wrong inside the Demi-Monde, and the US President’s daughter has become trapped in this terrible world. It falls to 18-year old Ella Thomas, black student and sometime jazz-singer, to rescue her, yet once Ella has entered the Demi-Monde she finds that everything is not as it seems, that its cyber-walls are struggling to contain the evil within and that the Real World is in more danger than anyone realises.

My blurb says:

It’s a rumbustious Sci-Fi/Fantasy thriller that examines the duality of human existence… and has fun while it’s doing it.

Where did the inspiration for the story come from?

Long answer: as an admirer of the writers of classic SF and fantasy, I have always thought that attempts to update have invariably been poor. But the nadir had to be the BBC’s Jekyll (I exclude James Nesbitt from this censure – he was good), which managed to eviscerate the Jekyll and Hyde story whilst simultaneously making it risible. Sitting watching this muddled mish-mash, I had the same feeling every would-be writer since the dawn of time has had at one time or another: I could do better than that! The result of that piece of hubris was a book called Dark Charismatic. Dark Charismatic must have had something because it got me an agent, but that ‘something’ wasn’t enough to entice any publishers to sign it (fools!). So I decided to try again but, having done so much research on the Victorian world and on psychotics, I was loath to leave this particular milieu.

Therefore I needed a story platform which encompassed both a Victorian feel and which allowed me to populate it with vicious madmen (or as they are in the Demi-Monde, Singularities). Of course, it also had to be convincing enough to allow the reader to suspend disbelief. The solution I came up with was for the Demi-Monde to be a virtual world, but again to make it credible this world had to have a purpose, and the one I set upon was that its function was to prepare US Army grunts (my ‘neoFights’) for the horrors of Asymmetric Warfare.

Concept decided upon before I began to write, I needed to define the parameters of this virtual world and I did this by producing THE DEMI-MONDE®: A Product Description Manual: a faux brochure written by the company constructing the Demi-Monde (ParaDigm CyberResearch Limited) when it pitched the Demi-Monde to the US Armed Forces. This defined the purpose of the Demi-Monde, set out all its parameters and described its idiosyncrasies (you can read it on the Demi-Monde website). It was my constant reference throughout the writing of the book. The Product Description and the design of the Demi-Monde map took me a month, background research on the ‘Pre-Lived’ characters, fascism, and other bits and pieces another month, so it was two months from ‘idea’ to writing the first line.

How were you introduced to genre fiction?

“Introduced” is too strong a word. I sorta stumbled into it when I was a kid, progressing from The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm to The Invisible Man (which scared the crap outta me!), and thence to the works of people like Asimov, Farmer, Ballard and Dick.

How do you enjoy being a writer and working within the publishing industry?

The worst aspect of writing is the editing. Publishing contracts should come with a health warning. Just like cigarettes, there should be a sticker on them somewhere which says something like:

SIGN THIS AND THE REST OF YOUR LIFE WILL BE SPENT EDITING YOUR BOOKS

The Rees Coefficient of Editing states that for every hour you spend writing, you’ll spend at least six editing.

Now, I ain’t moaning (I’m just so pleased that I’ve won the Great Prize in Life that is getting a publishing contract) but it’s something every novice writer should be prepared for. You write your book (and by the time it’s finished I bet it’s gone thru at least four iterations: edits #1, 2, 3 & 4), and you’ve had your beta-readers plough thru it (it’s a great book but...), and given their two-pennyworth (which you’ve dutifully incorporated as edit #5). Then your agent gives his opinion (which you listen to ’cos he/she will be selling the bloody thing), and so you do another edit (that’s #6). Then a publisher buys the thing and you think... phew... great... that’s it... what am I gonna write next? That’s when the publisher comes back and says something like “great book, but wouldn’t it be better if this character was a woman, and you brought this chapter to the beginning, and what do you think about flashbacks, and could we crop it by 20,000 words, and, by the way, how do you feel about a new title...?”

That’s edits #7, 8 & 9. And they’re BIG edits, BIG time-consuming edits, edits you take MONTHS over. But you do them and then the book goes off and you think... phew... great... what am I gonna write next? And that’s when you get the copy edit where the publisher lets the Copy Proof editor (whose sole purpose in life is to protect the English language from philistines like you) have a go at your book and he corrects the grammar/spelling/impression you had that you were literate, covering your opus in Rain Forest destroying quantities of red ink in the process. That’s edit #10.

But it ain’t over! Once this is done, it goes off to be typeset, which is the process that takes your gibberish and makes it look like a book. And you’ve got to edit that – CAREFULLY – because this is absolutely the last chance you’ll have to make sure that you haven’t done something stupid (and you have, betcha money on it!), so that’s edit #11.

You do that and then you think, phew... great... what am I gonna write next? And then your agent phones and says “Great news, the book’s sold to the Americans!” And you think “WOW!” and then you get an e-mail from New York which starts “Great book, but...”

Do you have any specific working, writing, researching practices?

Once my research is over – and I do a LOT of research – I aim to average 2,000 words per day, so if it’s a 100,000 word book, like the one I’m writing now, it’ll take me two months to get a beta-version of the book bashed out. That’s 100,000 words of crap. I then spend three months plowing through it, tweaking and changing until at the end of five months I have, hopefully, something I’m half-way happy with. I then hand it over to my beta-reader (aka, my wife, Nelli) and she critiques it.

What’s your opinion of the genre today, and where do you see your work fitting into it?

I’m the last person you should ask. I have a very short boredom span with fiction. I don’t suppose I’ve read a new book from beginning to end (except for those I’ve reviewed and some of those were a real trial) in the last ten years.

The other reason I don’t read fiction is that I think it’s quite a corrosive occupation for a writer. There was a piece by Chris Hall in The Guardian a while back about JG Ballard, in which Will Self commented that “For a fiction writer it’s quite inimical to your own work to be saturated in someone else’s.” I agree.

As to where my work fits in… I guess I write for anyone who wants to be entertained, provoked and affronted. It’s a niche market.

What projects are you working on, and what do you have currently in the pipeline?

I’m currently struggling with a book that has the working title Tesla vs. The Martians. It’s an expansion of the short story of mine called, “Alternate Currents”, NewCon published in March 2012 in its Dark Currents anthology, though I’ve shifted the story forward ten years to the Russia of 1906. (The idea of setting the action in the midst of the First Russian Revolution was too big a temptation to resist. I get to pit Tesla against Lenin, Stalin and Rasputin!)

The Demi-Monde: Summer, book three of the series, is out in the UK in August and the final book, The Demi-Monde: Fall in 2013.

What are you reading at the moment (fiction and/or non-fiction)?

Loads of stuff regarding the first Russian Revolution of 1905 and about Nikolai Tesla. Ones I’d recommend are: A People’s Tragedy by Orlando Figes, The Revolution of 1905 by Abraham Ascher, Empires of Light by Jill Jonnes.

What’s something readers might be surprised to learn about you?

That I’m surprisingly unsurprising.

What are you most looking forward to in 2012?

Finally getting my head around a story I’ve been playing with for a while called “Locusts”. It’s an examination of the concept of privacy but more than that I ain’t saying!

Upcoming: “LONDON FALLING” by Paul Cornell (Tor)

2012-05-22T18:25:00.001+01:00

Some of you may know Paul Cornell through his comics work (Demon Knights, Saucer Country, Stormwatch to name but three of his most recent), but you may not know that he has a novel coming out in December 2012:

Here’s the synopsis, to further whet your appetite:

Detective Inspector James Quill is about to complete the drugs bust of his career. Then his prize suspect Rob Toshack is murdered in custody. Furious, Quill pursues the investigation, co-opting intelligence analyst Lisa Ross and undercover cops Costain and Sefton. But nothing about Toshack’s murder is normal.

Toshack had struck a bargain with a vindictive entity, whose occult powers kept Toshack one step ahead of the law – until his luck ran out. Now, the team must find a ‘suspect’ who can bend space and time and alter memory itself. And they will kill again.

As the group starts to see London’s ancient magic for themselves, they have two choices: panic or use their new abilities. Then they must hunt a terrifying supernatural force the only way they know how: using police methods, equipment and tactics. But they must all learn the rules of this new game – and quickly. More than their lives will depend on it.

It looks like it should appeal to fans of Ben Aaronovitch, China Mieville, Benedict Jacka, and pretty much any other Urban Fantasy author you could name. I’m rather looking forward to this. Here’s what the aforementioned Ben Aaronovitch has to say about the novel:

“An irresistible blend of guns, gangsters, cops and monsters that grabs you by the eyeballs and never lets go. Start this book early in the day people, because you ain’t going to get no sleep until it’s done.”

“Save the Date”, a Landmark: ASTONISHING X-MEN #51

2012-05-22T17:29:00.001+01:00

Wrap-Around Cover, by Dustin Weaver

Astonishing X-Men #51 will be released next month, and it promises to be pretty interesting, significant issue: it will include the first gay marriage in Marvel comics – between Northstar and Kyle.

I’ve not been following this series, but it is one I’ve been wanting to read for some time. The first 24 issues were written by Joss Whedon (now collected into two large TPB as well as a fantastic, if pricey, hardcover omnibus), and as far as I’m aware his run, as well as the issues that have followed, have received a good deal of praise from readers.

Northstar was first introduced in Uncanny X-Men #120 (1979), a member of the super hero team Alpha Flight. The French-Canadian “gold medal winning Olympian and successful businessman” hero became one of the most popular members of Alpha Flight when its on-going series launched in 1983. Northstar became the first openly gay super hero when he announced his sexual identity through national media, in Alpha Flight #106 (1992). Since then, he has not only joined the X-Men but become one of their most popular new members. Northstar and his rather-mundanely-named-partner Kyle have been a couple since 2009.

Said writer Marjorie M. Liu,

“The story of Northstar and Kyle is universal, and at the core of everything I write: a powerful love between two people who have to fight for it against all odds... This is the quintessential Marvel story, one that blends the modern world with the fantasy of super heroes in order to tell an exciting story that begins with a wedding—and continues in ways you can’t imagine.”

I think this is a pretty cool development for the series, and it will certainly be interesting to see how fans react. Personally, I think this is an important step forward for comics in general, and can only help the cause of equality (even if just a little bit) going forward.

Astonishing X-Men #50 is released tomorrow, and includes the proposal (below):

Comics Round-Up (May 23)

2012-05-22T16:24:00.001+01:00

Another busy week – with some new series and also the end to one of my favourites. There were also some surprisingly good issues, too – not because I was expecting bad issues necessarily, but they just exceeded my expectations.

Reviewed: Catwoman #9, Cobra #13, Grimm Fairy Tales #72 & #73, Guild Fawkes (One-Shot), Irredeemable #37, Justice League #9, Magic: The Gathering #4, Mind MGMT #1, Neverland: Hook #5, Nightwing #9, Resident Alien #1, Smoke & Mirrors #3, Star Wars: Darth Vader & the Ghost Prison #1, Wolverine & the X-Men #9

Catwoman #9 (DC)

Writer: Judd Winick | Artist: Guillem March | Colours: Tomeu Morey

Night of the Owls: Catwoman and Spark are forced to defend The Penguin against the Court of Owls!

This issue picks up nicely from the end of #8, which set up Catwoman and Spark’s stakeout of the Penguin’s lair. They are after a complete set of five antique knives, of which they have four. The Penguin has the fifth. Only, little does our heroin know, the Court of Owls has targeted the Penguin in their night of assassinations.

The story offers some flashbacks – as with the other tie-in issues, it gives us some history of the Talon involved – but goes further back into Gotham’s history for this Talon (1665), who is a special case, in that he was disgraced member of the assassins. He’s tasked with taking out the Penguin. Just before Catwoman and Spark can spring their heist, though, the Talon attempts to kill the bird-brained villain.

This is a very different chapter in the Night of the Owls event –Catwoman, after all, is a little bit more of the dark side than Batman’s other allies, and she can somewhat relate to this Talon. The action is messy, frantic, and close-quarters, but Catwoman also engages with the Talon on a deeper level than just an “I’m here to kill you”-“Not if I kill you first” dialogue.

There’s a very nice, almost sad ending. I really do enjoy the variety of approaches the various authors have taken for this event. Definitely recommended.

Cobra #13 (IDW)

Writer: Mike Costa | Artist: Antonio Fuso | Colours: Arianna Florean

A NEW ERA BEGINS HERE!

With the JOEs fragmented, somebody’s got to handle the dirty work. Who will it be? Find out here! When G.I. JOE goes underground, the world will never be the same!

While Cobra Commander orchestrated and conducted a war in Southeast Asia, Cobra High Command began to fall apart: Tomax and Major Bludd plotted to eliminate the new Commander, but when Tomax discovered that the Cobra Council was being methodically eliminated, he fled. Bludd was also betrayed by Serpentor and forced to flee as well, ending up in the custody of UN troops. This issue, however, deals only with the Joes and Tomax.

The Joes have seen some of their facilities closed, its operating budget severely cut, and General Hawk was replaced by Duke as commander. Now, it’s up to Duke to rebuild the unit, including bringing in new allies and operatives, and rebuilding the Joes from the ground-up in a cell-structure. The issue opens with a six-page introduction to Ronin, a former Cobra operative hiding out in Japan – unsuccessfully, at it turns out, as she is forced to dispatch a squad of Cobra Vipers who have come to take her out. And then she’s found by Duke, too. This, to me, poses some serious questions about Ronin’s general ability to be a covery operative, but never mind. It’s a nicely put-together scene, with the simpler art and artistic dynamism very eye-catching. Very nicely framed images.

Things have changed a great deal for G.I.Joe, and as Ronin and Chameleon are re-located to Las Vegas, they are in for one hell of a shock. I like the way this series is shaping up, and I think this issue promises some interesting things to come in the future. The potential to go a number of ways is there, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re in for a bumpy ride.

Recommended.

Grimm Fairy Tales #72 & 73 (Zenescope)

Writer: Raven Gregory (& Joe Brusha) | Artist: Carlos Paul, Marcio Loerzer (#72) & Allan Otero (#73) | Colours: Sean Forney, Owen Jollands, Michael Spicer (#72), Ramon Ignacio Bunge & Bruno Cotic (#73)

#72 – Sela’s journey to find the place known only as the tomb of Death leads her to a small town that may hold the secrets to its location. There she learns the truth of the temple that was once the training grounds for the knights of the realm and the tragic tale of their corruption and downfall at the hands of the Dark One’s minion, the evil Winter Witch.

#73 – Sela sets off in search of the Tomb of Death and finds herself joined by an unlikely ally who is also searching for a way to redeem herself from the failings of her past. But will this new ally be enough to help Sela defeat the dreaded black ghost knights who guard the swamplands that lead to the Tomb? Meanwhile, Alicia, Baba Yaga, Venus, and the Goblin Queen begin the final stage of their mysterious plans to rule the four realms and the very nexus itself.

The Winter Witch has infiltrated the… um, “good guys” camp (their forces are never named, as far as I can tell – but they’re captained by the Realm Knights), and makes quick work of bewitching the garrison to do her bidding. It’s quick, it’s bloody, and its devastating to the forces who hope to stand up to the Dark One’s hordes of minions.

Meanwhile, Sela sets off in search of a portal, is joined by an unlikely companion seeking absolution, and together they are confronted by ghosts of their past. It almost doesn’t end well for them…

This series has really moved on since the earlier issues, and I like how the story is shaping up. I’m still not quite as fond of this as the Myths & Legends and mini-series Zenescope release, but that probably has something to do with lack of familiarity. Two worthy additions to the series, sure to please fans.

Guild Fawkes (Dark Horse)

Writer: Felicia Day & Wil Wheaton | Artist: Jamie McKelvie | Colours:

A brand-new story spotlighting Fawkes, the dashing, debonair, and douchey leader of the evil guild Axis of Anarchy! His relationship with Codex threatened to tear the Knights of Good apart until he was thrown off a balcony for his treatment of her. Set after season 4 of the show, this issue reveals how Fawkes deals with his split from Codex and navigates the aggressive personalities of the Axis, and follows his journey to his surprising state when he returns in season 5!

I must admit, I don’t really know what this is meant to be all about. As far as I can tell, it’s a story about two groups of MMORPGamers whose drama and obsessions bleed into their real lives. This is the first thing I’ve read properly related to this series, and I think it’s… kinda interesting. I think if I understood more of the references I would obviously get more out of it, but as it is, I thought this was just a quirky commentary on gamers and gaming culture when reality and virtual reality bleed together. But it’s also rather strange. Probably one just for established fans. This didn’t really win me over.

Irredeemable #37 (Boom)

Writer: Mark Waid | Artist: Diego Barreto | Colours: Nolan Woodard

The Final Issue of Mark Waid’s seminal superhero series!

Can the Plutonian, seemingly Irredeemable, find his salvation? What is the true definition of a hero? And can a world, ravaged by loss and carnage, ever believe in such an idea again?

This did not go the way I was expecting. That’s not to say I’m unhappy with the series ending, it’s just that this was a surprising one. Qubit and Tony have come to an agreement, and as is Qubit’s way, he has withheld some key information from the rogue demi-god. I really don’t want to spoil this at all, but it’s definitely worth reading, and the final epilogue-type final pages offer up a very endearing proposition for the creation of another character, in another dimension… A nice nod to super-hero history.

I’ve been lucky to read the whole of Irredeemable in a relatively short period of time – indeed, I devoured the first few volumes in very quick order – which meant I didn’t have to wait a month between the early issues. Irredeemable remains the only comic to bring a tear to my eye (chapter/issue 12 – which shows a moment of utter sadistic cruelty by Tony). It’s really very good. It dipped a bit in quality towards the end, but I think it remains one of the best comic series about super-heroes. It’s delightfully subversive and twisted. It’s thoughtful and thought-provoking.

Highly recommended.

Justice League #9 (DC)

Writer: Geoff Johns | Artist: Jim Lee & Gary Frank | Inks: Scott Williams | Colours: Alex Sinclair, Pete Pantazis, Gabe Eltaed & Brad Anderson

“The Villain’s Journey”: Part one of a story introducing an all-new major nemesis for the Justice League.

In part three of the SHAZAM! backup story, Billy Batson attempts to get used to his new life, new school and new family as Sivana unleashes an ancient evil imprisoned long ago.

This issue centres around two things. The first is a certain Mr. Graves, who wrote the book on the Justice League, “Gods Among Men”, which has popped up in past issues a couple of times. Turns out, he’s extremely unwell and probably dying, and has gone from viewing the Justice League as super-human near-godlike creatures to being embittered and resentful of them. The second story-line focuses on the Justice League members and how they are coping with being part of a team and also handling their alter-egos.

There are some really nice touches throughout this story – for example, it looks at the loneliness some of the League members feel. But also, it examines the extent to which the Justice League gives them almost a community base. There’s a great moment, when Batman texts Superman about his lunch plans – only, instead of going out for sushi or tacos, they put down some chaos at Arkham Asylum.

There’s a fun dynamic between the groups within the Justice League, which we see first-hand: Superman, Batman and Cyborg are very focused and results-oriented. Green Lantern and Flash have a little more fun, more patter and appear to take things a little less seriously.

Colonel Trevor, the League’s liaison with the world (and Wonder Woman’s former lover, apparently) goes through quite an ordeal in this issue, too. The final pages are particularly brutal, and it’ll be interesting to see where his story goes in the next couple of issues.

In the S.H.A.Z.A.M. back-up story, Billy’s still rebelling against life at his new foster home, but this doesn’t stop him from sticking up for his fellow foster siblings – even if it means getting into a fight with spoiled rich kids.

Magic: The Gathering #4 (IDW)

Writer: Matt Forbeck | Artist: Martín Cóccolo & Christian Duce | Colours: J. Edwin Stevens & Baileigh Bolten

Dack Fayden has finally caught up to the mage that destroyed his home village, but it might be too late: she has begun casting a deadly spell that will drain hundreds of their life force. And, now that Dack has arrived, he may fall prey to the same dark magic as the rest!

This is the final part of the first story-arc, and it’s a pretty good one. Dack has finally caught up with Sifa, the evil sorceress, who is preparing to drain the lives of another town – just as she did to Dack’s hometown. This issue is predominantly taken up by a large battle between the townspeople and Sifa’s ghouls ensues, and it’s anyone’s guess who’ll come out of this alive.

The artwork for this issue was particularly good – lots of dark hues, reds, purples and so on. Very atmospheric and gothic. I wish I could have shared some examples of the artwork, but the only images I have are watermarked, which obscures much of it.

Ultimately, this is a great, fun sword-and-sorcery-with-thieving fantasy comic, and I really look forward to reading more in the series. The ending won’t satisfy everyone, but I thought it suited the transitory and peripatetic nature of Dack’s lifestyle rather well. There’s no certain closure, but that’s ok.

Recommended for all fans of fantasy and comics.

The story continues in Magic: The Gathering – Spell Thief #1, which is coming soon from IDW.

Mind MGMT #1 (Dark Horse)

Writer & Artist: Matt Kindt

Reporting on a commercial flight where everyone aboard lost their memories, a young journalist stumbles onto a much bigger story, the top-secret Mind Management program. Her ensuing journey involves weaponized psychics, hypnotic advertising, talking dolphins, and seemingly immortal pursuers, as she attempts to find the flight’s missing passenger, the man who was Mind MGMT’s greatest success – and its most devastating failure. But in a world where people can rewrite reality itself, can she trust anything she sees?

The first four pages are a strange sequence of violent acts, all seemingly connected in at least location. Then the story switches to the “amnesia flight”, and the journalist’s attempts to find the missing 121st passenger who has eluded everyone. Meru, the journalist, believes she can track him down and discover the truth – all while floating the idea as a book to her sceptical literary agent, who is getting fed up of waiting for her to write the follow-up to her bestseller.

I must say, the artwork didn’t do anything for me. It felt incomplete and unfinished, like someone turned in their preliminary sketches, with added colour, and called it a day. I know it’s a popular style in some regions of comic fandom, but it’s not with me. Sorry. The story and premise are pretty good, though, as is the writing, and it will be interesting to see how it develops in future issues.

Neverland: Hook #5 (Zenescope)

Writer: Joe Brusha | Artist: Geoff Shaw | Colours: Derek Dow

Barre’s power continues to grow and its only a matter of time before Neverland falls to him and the earth soon after. Cross, Tiger Lily and Wendy are all that stand in his way but without Tinker Belles help they don’t stand half a chance of defeating the evil tyrant. Unfortunately she has her hands full battling the mysterious dark fairy and even if she manages to win and survive it may prove to late to stop Barre’s madness.

Barre’s ritual has allowed him to break through into the real world, pulling some of it into Neverland (perhaps – it’s not entirely clear), where he immediately begins feeding on the life-force of the population of New York City… Nathan, meanwhile, remains stranded in Neverland, not exactly at his best after the ritual and his fight with Barre. With the aid of Tinkerbell, he gets back to Earth, and together they try to return the monster to Neverland.

I find it kind of amused me that Barre seems to have morphed into a mixture of the Hulk and King Kong:

You know, speaking of the Hulk, there are actually a couple of other similarities with this final (for now) issue. Just some story points that they use that are similar, but in no way rip-offs or copying. It has the big-finish feel of a comic-book movie, with parts of New York being damaged, an inter-dimensional portal, big monster-man, evil pixies (eh?), and plenty of action.

I enjoyed this mini-series rather a lot. A couple of issues in the middle weren’t quite as good, but it started very strongly and finished very strongly, so anyone reading this as a collected edition (probably to be published very soon) should really enjoy this. One of Zenescope’s growing line of strong mini-series.

However, it is rather improbable that all the women in Neverland wander about in string-bikinis. I thought that was pandering too much to a teenage boy audience. It did make me chuckle, though, when I saw this panel:

That’s Tinkerbell, fighting Barre, and in case it’s not clear, she’s saying “Tell them to stay back. I’ll distract him” – I thought that pretty much a given, considering what she’s wearing…

Nightwing #9 (DC)

Writer: Kyle Higgins | Artist: Eddy Barrows & Andres Guinaldo | Inks: Eber Ferreira, Ruy Jose & Mark Irwin | Colours: Rod Reis & Peter Pantazis

Night of the Owls: Nightwing faces another villain claiming to be The Talon at City Hall as the Court of Owls’ plans go into action – but will he be able to figure out what’s going on before it’s too late?

This issue picks up where #8 left off, in the middle of Night of the Owls and as Nightwing faces off against a particularly skilled and brutal Talon. Our hero has already been severely wounded by the Talon, William Cobb – who is his great-grandfather, as it turns out. The present day action is interspersed with flashbacks about William Cobb’s past, thereby filling out some more of the Court of Owls storyline and also the genesis of Dick Grayson’s surname.

I thought this issue was particularly strong among the Night of the Owls stories I’ve read thus-far, and is had a really good finale, too.

The artwork throughout is superb, with some highly dynamic spreads and pages. Definitely recommended to anyone reading the Night of the Owls cross-title event, but I’d also recommend Nightwing in general very highly.

Resident Alien #1 (Dark Horse)

Writer: Peter Hogan | Artist: Steve Parkhouse

A stranded alien seeks refuge in the small town of Patience, USA, where he hides undercover as a semiretired doctor, masking his appearance using his unique mental abilities.

Now known as Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle, all the alien wants is to be left alone until he’s rescued. However, when the town’s real doctor dies, “Dr. Harry” is pulled into medical service – and also finds himself smack dab in the middle of a murder mystery! He’d rather be fishing.

This is a pretty interesting series. The inclusion of a stranded alien in the middle of a small-town murder mystery was pretty original and a pleasant surprise. Harry clearly wants to get out of there, but feels a sense of duty to fulfil the role of town doctor whenever he’s called upon. Given his alien abilities, he is also able to tell whether or not someone is guilty or telling the truth (to a point), and seems unnerved by how easily everyone is turning on the first suspect they find (to be fair, the suspect did break into the murdered doctor’s office and steal a load of pills – certainly incriminating).

Also a surprise was that this is not the first issue. The story begins in issue #0… I have no idea why. It’s a little weird, and does mean I missed a little bit of the story set-up.

Nevertheless, this is a fun and intriguing story, with an original premise. It’s well-written, well-illustrated and generally well put-together. It’s kind of fun and absurd to see an alien going about his everyday business, with the people around him unaware of who he really is (I assume it’s a skill of his, explained in the previous issue).

Recommended.

Smoke & Mirrors #3 (IDW)

Writer: Mike Costa | Artist: Ryan Browne | Colours: Ryan Browne & Aaron Daly

Magic is real – but sleight-of-hand is king! Stage magician Terry Ward makes his way in a world of sorcery using only his skills and his wits! But will that prove to be enough when the dangers of the world start compounding?

This issue gives us some much-needed back-story on Terry Ward. We see what happened when he crossed over from our world into the world where everything runs on magic. We learn of how he managed (or didn’t, really) over the first few months in this strange world.

After the slightly disappointing previous issue, this one reaffirmed my interest in the series. I’m really looking forward to seeing how it develops in the future. It’s a great, original premise, and is definitely recommended to anyone looking for a different kind of comic about magic.

Star Wars: Darth Vader & the Ghost Prison #1 (Dark Horse)

Writer: Haden Blackman | Artist: Agustin Alessio

The graduation celebration for the first class of Imperial cadets is disrupted by a sudden terrorist strike! But the real targets of the attack are the new Emperor and his second in command, Darth Vader.

Only one man – a disabled, brilliant cadet who, up until the moment of the attack, was experiencing the best moment of his life – stands ready to fight alongside Vader for the life of his Emperor!

This story is set a few months after the events of Revenge of the Sith. And I must admit, I was not expecting it to be this good. Despite Darth Vader’s name being prominent in the series title, in this first issue he doesn’t feature so much, except in the background and the final few pages. The story mainly follows the class valedictorian – disfigured and missing an arm – who’s perspective this issue presents. He is in awe of Coruscant, and at the end he is faced with a choice: stand with his Emperor or his friends.

I really liked this issue, and can’t wait to read the next issues (this is part one of five). Like Agent of the Empire, this series appears to herald a period of better writing for the Star Wars comics franchise. This is very well written and very well realised on the page. The artwork is great (see the example, above), and everything from the dialogue to the plot progression feels natural and un-forced. This is easily one of the best Star Wars comics I’ve read.

Definitely recommended for all fans of Star Wars.

Wolverine & the X-Men #9 (Marvel)

Writer: Jason Aaron | Art & Colours: Chris Bachalo | Inks: Tim Townsend, Jaime Mendoza & Al Vey

Captain America arrives at The Jean Grey School Of Higher Learning to convince Wolverine to join The Avengers on the front lines! Logan’s choice will drastically alter the impending war between The Avengers & The X-Men, and Captain America needs him on his squad! Will Wolverine join Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, or will he stick to his X-Men roots?

Wolverine, torn between two teams. Will the Jean Grey School follow its leader?

Captain America has come to the Jean Grey School in order to talk Wolverine into joining the side of the Avengers, and to discuss the headmaster’s role in the upcoming events. Apart from this, the story’s pretty straight forward, so it’s probably best not to ruin anything. It’s very much a set-up for the wider cross-series ‘event’, so other than that it doesn’t serve much in the way of moving the Wolvering & the X-Men story forward. I’m not sure if this will be the case in the next issue. (Actually, come to think of it, I have no idea when the Avengers vs. X-Men event is meant to come to an end…)

This is a very busy issue, in terms of the art – there are lots of panels per page, which didn’t always make for a tidy read. There are plenty of funny, background gags and asides, though, which did make it a very fun issue. For example, when Captain America first turns up at the school, one of the glitches in the system meant he was automatically entered into a Danger Room final exam phase…

The issue does fill in some of the gaps left in the Avengers vs X-Men and AvX titles. It’s just a pity that this issue has to be read as well in order to get the whole story.

Again, though, this is a pretty fun series, and I think the team did a good job of fitting it into the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline.

Also Released this Week:

DC: All-Star Western #9, Aquaman #9, Batman Incorporated #1, Batman: The Dark Knight #9, Flash #9, I Vampire #9, Justice League Dark #9, Stormwatch Vol.1 TP, Superman #9, Teen Titans #9

Image: Chew #26, No Place Like Home #4, Netherworld TP

Marvel: Amazing Spider-Man #686

Vertigo: Dominique Laveau Voodoo Child #3

“False Covenant” by Ari Marmell (Pyr)

2012-05-22T03:40:00.001+01:00

Widdershins rides again, thieving and attempting to survive a nasty supernatural threat

It’s over half a year since the brutal murder of Archbishop William de Laurent during his pilgrimage to the Galicien city of Davillon. During that time, the Church of the Hallowed Pact has assigned a new bishop to the city — but it has also made its displeasure at the death of its clergyman quite clear. Davillon’s economy has suffered beneath the weight of the Church’s displeasure. Much of the populace — angry at the clergy — has turned away from the Church hierarchy, choosing private worship or small, independent shrines. And the bishop, concerned for his new position and angry at the people of Davillon, plans to do something about it.

But a supernatural threat is stalking the night-time streets, come to infiltrate the seedier streets of Davillon, to intertwine its tendrils through the lower echelons of society. Faced with both political upheaval and a supernatural threat to its citizenry, the local representatives of the Church are paralyzed and the Guardsmen are in over their heads.

Into this mix, you have to add Widdershins, the hero of Thief’s Covenant, gifted member of the Finders Guild, and sole worshipper of the god Olgun. This second Widdershins adventure maintains the fun and excellent pacing of the first, and shows that Marmell has the ability to write for younger readers and adults with equal skill. This novel, while not perfect, was a lot of fun and showcases Marmell’s gift for writing the sinister side of fantasy as well as the fun side.

Widdershins has tried, and failed, to stay out of trouble since she took over her friend Genevieve’s tavern, The Flippant Witch. The tavern is seriously struggling with the economic backlash that came in the wake of the Archbishop’s assassination, and our heroine, not having a clue about how to run a business, is attempting to keep things afloat by supplementing the business’s income with thieving on the side. Which gets her into many shades of trouble. Her reputation with both the Church and the city Guard leaves her trusted by neither, and she has to conceal her less-legitimate activities more than ever before. The novel opens with one of these activities, as she cases an aristocrat’s home. As she executes her plan, though, the heist gets unexpectedly, unfortunately over-crowded.

Someone called Evrard seems intent on causing problems for Widdershins, while enigmatically not telling anyone who he really is. His presence is linked to a certain scuffle Widdershins got herself into during the previous book, so I won’t spoil that for people who haven’t read it yet. Needless to say, he plays a key part in the solution to the bigger threat hovering over Davillon. And that threat is something supernatural and very sinister, stalking the streets of the city, frightening the populace. At first, it appears as if it’s just something giving people a scare. But then, events escalate and people start dying. In large numbers, and in horrible manner. Nobody is safe – rich or poor, young or old. As the atrocities mount, connections are made, and Widdershins finds herself squarely in everybody’s sights once again, as her secretive manner and connection to William de Laurent’s death make everyone suspicious of her.

I must admit, False Covenant was not as immediately grabbing as Thief’s Covenant. True, it would have been difficult for Marmell to come up with an opening scene to rival that of the previous Widdershins novel (it involves a detailed, brutal massacre). In this novel, however, I thought the voice just wasn’t quite as consistent as in the first book. I thought this rather strange. There were a few too many clunky qualifying statements, or segues, or extra comments in parentheses. I could also have done without the kiddie-“swearing”, too: “Oh, goose feathers” and “How by all the happy hopping horses”...? This was especially frustrating, because I’m pretty sure someone actually swore properly, and what’s wrong with “crap” and “damn”? That being said, “Oh, figs” had an endearing quality to it, as Marmell utilised it at rather amusing moments. This was a very unexpected issue to find, actually, as it’s the first time I’ve really been confronted by something written by this author that I didn’t like. That being said, it didn’t ruin the book – it’s not frequent, but it was very noticeable for me, and stood out.

The rest of the writing is very tight and the novel rattles along at a fair clip. In addition, there is a good, light humour to the novel sprinkled in between the dark and sinister moments (which are superb) that adds to how much fun the novel is. It’s not laugh-out-loud, but I certainly found myself chuckling a number of times.

“Julien, we have been through this, you know.”

“Yes, but I haven’t won, yet.”

Marmell’s true skill, however, is in writing the sinister, darker moments (such as those with the supernatural menace) – he has a wonderful sense for the creepy and horrific, and some of the scenes in the novel are really very creepy. The primary antagonist (Widdershins has a habit of collecting minor ones along the way, too) is genuinely horrific, and quite brilliantly conceived and brought to life on the page. The action scenes are pretty good, too, although a couple of them seemed longer than absolutely necessary.

Overall, despite the slight inconsistencies with voice, this is another strong instalment to this new YA fantasy series. Fans of the first book will definitely lap this up, as well they should – it’s fun and populated by endearing and engaging characters. The ending is bittersweet, but promises more to come. If you’re after something quick, fun and lighter than some of the Big Book Fantasies out there, then this series is perfect. Definitely recommended.

I really must catch up with the other two novels of his I have (The Warlord’s Legacy and The Goblin Corps).

James Bond: SKYFALL Teaser

2012-05-21T20:50:00.001+01:00

I seem to have missed all other news about this movie, but I’m rather glad they’re doing another Daniel Craig James Bond movie. The teaser trailer was just released, and it definitely whet my appetite:

Here’s the synopsis for the movie:

“Bond’s loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.”

A strong cast once again, with Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney and Javier Bardem (among others) joining Daniel Craig in the top slots.

“Fables” Deluxe Volume 1 (Vertigo)

2012-05-21T18:12:00.001+01:00

The first two arcs of the superb, award-winning series

Writer: Bill Willingham | Artist: Lan Medina, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha & Craig Hamilton | Colours: Sherilyn van Valkenburgh & Daniel Vozzo

When a savage creature known only as the Adversary conquered the fabled lands of legends and fairy tales, all of the infamous inhabitants of folklore were forced into exile. Disguised among the normal citizens of modern-day New York, these magical characters have created their own peaceful and secret society within an exclusive luxury apartment building called Fabletown. When Snow White’s party-girl sister, Rose Red, is apparently murdered, it’s up to Fabletown’s sheriff, the reformed and pardoned Big Bad Wolf, to find the killer. Meanwhile, trouble of a different sort brews at the Fables’ upstate farm where non-human inhabitants are preaching revolution – and threatening Fabletown’s carefully nurtured secrecy.

I’d been on the fence about trying this series for a while – I’d heard great things, but couldn’t decide on whether or not to buy the normal trade paperback collections or the deluxe editions. Alyssa made the decision for me, and got me this book for my birthday. And I am so happy that she did – this is a superb series, and the two story arcs in here are perfect introductions to Willingham’s engaging, inspired and subversive world.

Right off the bat, you know you’re getting something pretty special and inspired, and the book continues to engage, delight, surprise and inspire throughout. There’s really no wonder this has been so very successful.

The first story is a great whodunnit story, only with a very different cast of characters. Bigby Wolf (formerly the Big Bad Wolf) is given the job of finding out what happened to Fabletown’s party girl, Rose Red. Willingham uses the investigative premise to take readers on a tour of Fabletown and introduces us to many of its more colourful and intriguing characters. He manages to pack in so much story into this first arc, that I felt comfortable and at home in the setting very quickly. The characters are nicely drawn (in both senses of the word), and the story is very engaging.

The second story arc takes us to The Farm, an out-of-town haven for non-human Fables, where they can live happily and without fear of discovery or attack. Or so everybody thought. As it turns out, the Fables living there do no consider it a haven, but rather a prison. This leads to an interesting attempt at revolution, complete with allusions to Animal Farm (which is also the name of the story arc) and plenty of language from the Soviet Revolution. It’s alternately amusing, inspired, bizarre, and slightly twisted.

The stories aren’t perfect, as there are a couple of plot/pacing jumps, when things don’t quite progress as smoothly as it could, but they’re not major mistakes, and are forgivable given that this is the first book. (Having read Fairest, I can say that Willingham’s writing improves tremendously, which – given how good this is – should tell you how great Fairest is.)

It amused me that one of the three pigs crashes as Mr Wolf’s pad whenever he comes to town on a bender: a “living symbol” of Wolf’s “lasting redemption” for destroying the pig’s house. The book is littered with literary and fairy-tale jokes and puns, most of which are clever and delightful.

The series has a fantastic premise, written and very well conceived. Willingham and his creative team have done an amazing job of taking some of the most recognisable characters from myth and fairy tale, and making something truly unique and special.

With the increased popularity of fairy tale-inspired media and entertainment (Zenescope’s Grimm Fairy Tales, TV’s Once, and a slew of new Hollywood movies), there’s no reason this series shouldn’t be able to find a huge new audience. If you’re a comics fan, or anyone with an interest in great story telling and the subversion of genre tropes, then Fables is a must. Compared to the other fairy-tale-inspired media, this is awesome on a whole different level, and superior in almost every way.

I’ve already started reading the second Deluxe edition (also a present from Alyssa – I think she wanted an excuse to read them herself…).

Very highly recommended. This could very well become one of my favourite series.

Collects issues #1-10

Original Issue Covers