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Read in April (Catch Up Post!)

Posted on June 27, 2017 by Lorraine Posted in Read This Month .

I’ve previously said that March was the month in which I finally read all the comics I had out from the library. Yeah, that wasn’t strictly accurate. But I read some novels too – honest!

Read in April 01

John Constantine, Hellblazer, Volume 14: Good Intentions – Brian Azzarello et. al. Even for Hellblazer, this was dark. Constantine in America has never really worked for me, but this run sees him locked up in a maximum security prison. Nothing good happens – for or to anyone – but, man, is it a good read (that’s sadly let down by the poor interior art).

John Constantine, Hellblazer, Volume 15: Highwater – Brian Azzarello et. al. Can we take a minute to discuss the terrible cover art? So far in these collected volumes the cover art has been gorgeous (see Volume 14 for example) so what the fuck happened here? There’s some weird neo-Nazi stuff in here, and I remain unconvinced by the mere idea of John Constantine in the US of A, but it was a solid enough read.

Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 04: Original Sin – Brian Michael Bendis, Ed McGuinness & Valerio Schiti. Not having read a lot of Guardians of the Galaxy before, I had no idea about anything this volume referred back to. Cancerverse? Everyone died? No clue. And once that was all dealt with, the story moves on to Flash Thompson who I’ve never heard of before in my life. So that was all very confusing. But, hey, Venom was there and it turns out there’s a whole planet of Venoms so that was a bit fun. Which sums up my experience of this volume – confusing but a bit fun.

Guardians of the Galaxy, New Guard, Volume 01: Emperor Quill – Brian Michael Bendis & Valerio Schiti. I was vaguely aware that Kitty Pryde had been dating Peter Quill, but I didn’t realise it was still a thing. And I certainly didn’t realise she’d left the X-Men to go galavanting about the galaxy. And the Thing is there too, an initially confusing addition until you’re reminded that way back in the day he worked with experimental spacecraft. So, okay, two random characters and the remnants of the Guardians. Odd. There’s pretty much no set-up to the New Guard and the Spartax storyline is dull as dish water, but, hey, it’s not the worst thing I’ve ever read.

Read in April 02

Guardians of the Galaxy, New Guard, Volume 02: New Galactic Order – Brian Michael Bendis and Valerio Schiti. Hey, look, there’s Angela! And she’s up to stuff. Just like the rest of the Guardians. So Gamora decides to punch her. Obviously. And do you know something? I remember absolutely nothing else about this volume, so that’s probably not a good sign.

Marvel Universe Guardian’s of the Galaxy, Volume 03 – Joe Caramagna and Various. Even allowing for the fact that this is stills from a cartoon turned into a comic aimed at kids this was dreadful.

Norse Mythology – Neil Gaiman. I’m going to say upfront that this book didn’t suit my mood when I read it, which is why I only gave it three stars on Goodreads. That said, it’s an excellent introduction to Norse myths and legends, split into stories that give us an overview of the Norse gods from their beginning to their end. Gaiman manages to keep all the characters and locations separate and distinct, and retells events in an almost lyrical way that harks back to the oral tradition that transmitted these stories in the first place. It would be a glorious thing to read aloud, I think.

Inhumanity – Matt Fraction, Olivier Coipel et. al. With the exception of Medusa’s excellent hair, I have no interest in the Inhumans. Marvel are determined to make me take an interest, but I’m not falling for it Marvel, and this volume hasn’t changed my mind. It has increased my interest in Spider-Girl though, who has an interesting arc in the middle of all the madness, so it wasn’t a totally wasted read.

Read in April 03

X-Men, The Hidden Years: Worlds Within Worlds! – John Byrne and Tom Palmer. I love these little pocketbook reprints. I’ve read so many storylines I would have missed otherwise thanks to them, and this is no exception. I’ve read a handful of Hidden Years issues before but nothing major. To be fair, I don’t think I was really missing out on anything but that’s not the point 😉 This volume features Polaris, a Dazzler who’s not the Dazzler and Kraven the Hunter (who I’ve only ever been able to take seriously in The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl). So, something for everyone basically.

Earthling – Aisha Franz. A dark, melancholy look at the lives of two sisters and their mother, Earthling is beautifully illustrated but something about the writing never fully connected with me (which could be a translation issue).

All We Shall Know – Donal Ryan. <3 <3 <3 After reading his debut novel The Spinning Heart, Donal Ryan was catapulted into my favourite authors list. All We Shall Know has elements in common with The Spinning Heart – broken lives, broken dreams, a broken economy – and it’s just as good, if not better. Ryan takes a simple story (a woman carrying a child that’s not her husband’s) and drills down into it, revealing complicated characters that aren’t always sympathetic but who keep you turning the page compulsively. There’s a lot of sadness in All We Shall Know, and a lot of humour. There’s defiance and perseverance. And there’s the realisation that sometimes we can never really know everything about ourselves, never mind anyone else. Recommended!

Ink and Bone – Rachel Caine. Despite picking this up after reading some really good reviews of it, I was still surprised by how much I ended up loving it. I’ve been burned by a lot of books about books that people have raved about but that I ended up finding underwhelming. (Poor me, I know.) But this one? Take one part Egyptian mythology, one part steampunk, one part giant world-controlling library, one part revolution, one part heart-shattering scene that is about war and how awful and terrible and pointless it is, and, like, fifteen parts awesome and you have Ink and Bone. PLUS, it has LGBT representation which isn’t even blinked at/made a big deal of/noteworthy in the world the characters inhabit. If I could draw pink sparkly hearts around this review, I would.

Read in April 04

Paper and Fire – Rachel Caine. Luckily, having put off reading Ink and Bone for so long, I had the sequel available to dive right into. It’s almost like I planned it, right? To sum up Paper and Fire, I present to you the following sentence – THE WELSH ARE COMING!!!! Having previously lived in Wales (and in England), I have a lot of love for this storyline. But even if you totally don’t understand why it’s exciting in any way, Rachel Caine uses the advancing Welsh army to show us the horror and futility of war. She doesn’t mess around with it either. People die. Mistakes are made. Is there such a thing as a good guy? And all of that is really just a secondary plot. Although it’s not quite up to the standard of Ink and Bone, please imagine more pink sparkly hearts here.

The Women in the Walls – Amy Lukavics. And then there’s this book. This book gets no pink sparkly hearts. The Women in the Walls has a fantastic concept and a blurb that promises SO MUCH. Unfortunately, the characters (both main and secondary) are so painfully unbelievable that I still cringe thinking about it. The horror elements are all there but due to a few things (terrible characters, nonsensical activities, a truly underwhelming denouement) they never come together. Avoid.

The Darkest Part of the Forest – Holly Black. I know a lot of people don’t enjoy Holly Black but I always find her spin on YA tropes entertaining as hell and The Darkest Part of the Forest is no exception. Hazel and Ben live in a town that’s unremarkable in every way. Oh, except for the guy in a glass coffin in the forest. And sure, sometimes tourists go missing, but tourists will be tourists, right? Probably best not to look into that one too deeply. Featuring a fairy prince, a knight errant, and a teenage girl who (bet you didn’t see this one coming) just might be more than meets the eye.

Read in April 05

The Lost Work of Will Eisner – Andrew Karl (ed.). A really well produced and researched book, but not one that I found particularly interesting.

The Rules of Civility – Amor Towles. Once I got over my judgemental disbelief at the main character being called Katey Kontent (I mean, c’mon), I raced through this tale of the roaring ’20s. I honestly don’t know what to say about this but click on the link, read the blurb and read it. You probably won’t regret it.

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend – Katarina Bivald. Let’s get this out of the way immediately – The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend is not a believable book. The whole storyline is based on a series of events that are outlandish, to put it mildly. But it doesn’t matter because The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend is so fucking charming my heart is clenching (with joy) just thinking about. Sara travels to America to meet her penpal Amy, but the welcome she receives isn’t quite what she expects. And then there are lots and lots of books, and awkwardness, and more books, and a romance, and a bookshop. If you’re looking for a fun, funny and charming book, look no further.

Read in June 2016 (Catch Up Post!)

Posted on July 15, 2016 by Lorraine Posted in Read This Month .

This is it, lads – the last catch up post!!!!! You may have noticed that a half-baked version of this post has popped up twice, so apologies for that.

Read in June 01

The Master Magician – Charlie M. Holmberg. This suffered from the same problems as the first two (a fantastic system of magic, but poor plotting and so-so characterisation), but it was a decent enough wrap-up to the trilogy.
Upside Down Magic – Emily Jenkins. A cute little story about kids whose magic doesn’t quite conform to the norm.
Deadly Class, Volume 1: Reagan Youth – Rick Remender, Wesley Craig & Lee Loughridge. Quite a lot of this was enjoyable. School for assassins – yes. Set in the 80s – yes. Diverse cast – yes. But there were some warning bells in the background that made me feel like this title could get derailed really easily. Overall, I liked it though and will definitely try more volumes.
Catwoman, Volume 7: Inheritance – Genevieve Valentine, David Messina & Lee Loughridge. I’ve clearly missed quite a lot in the Batman universe, because all of a sudden Selina Kyle is the head of a crime family. This was actually a cracking read, and I hope the creative team stick around for a while. Selina is fantastic in her new role, and watching her try to balance it with her Catwoman persona adds a nice element to the story.

Read in June 02

Batman, Volume 7: Endgame – Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Danny Miki & FCO Plascenia. Oh look, another comic about two men punching each other. Just what we need.
House of M: Warzones! – Dennis Hopeless, Cullen Bunn, Marco Failla & Ario Anindito. Although the House of M had some nice points, it’s never been one of my favourite storylines. This was a pretty solid lead about power corrupting the children of those in charge, but it centred on Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch who I’ve never particularly liked.
Jolly Foul Play – Robin Stevens. Another murder at Deepdean? How careless. Daisy and Hazel continue to be charming and the mysteries continue to be fun. Give it a shot if you need a nice, light read.
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven – Chris Cleave. Such an amazing read. This book looks at the impact of World War II on Britain which isn’t exactly new territory for a novel, but it’s the characters that shine. None of them are wholly likeable, but they are all completely believable, and their stories grab your heart and don’t let go. There’s also a really interesting subplot about black people in Britain during the 30s and 40s, which was something I hadn’t given much thought to before.

Read in June 03

Slow News Day – Andi Watson. Just terrible. An American moves to the UK and finds everything just so very strange. Blergh.
Cemetery Girl, Book One: The Pretenders – Charlaine Harris & Christopher Golden. Surprisingly decent if a bit formulaic. Calexa is left for dead in a cemetery, and wakes up with no memory of who she is or what happened to her. As she tries to find the answers to these questions, she discovers that she can see the dead. And as I say, it wasn’t bad. Not great, but not bad.
Cemetery Girl, Book Two: Inheritance – Charlaine Harris & Christopher Golden. A retread of much of what happened in the first volume, but still an okay read.
Siberia – Nikolai Maslov. An intimate read about one man’s life in Siberia, but in some ways it’s the background to the publication of this book that’s the most interesting.

Read in June 04

The View From the Corner Shop: The Diary of a Yorkshire Shop Assistant in Wartime – Kathleen Hey. This is another diary that came out of the Mass Observation project, but I found this a bit more of a slog to read than A Notable Woman. The problem was Kathleen herself, as she turned out to be quite narrow minded when it came to the class system in place at the time. Some interesting information about how rationing actually worked, but I struggled to find Kathleen sympathetic which sometimes made it a difficult read.
Extraordinary X-Men, Volume 1: X-Haven – Jeff Lemire & Humberto Ramos. Much like the Bat-verse, it’s clear that I’ve missed a lot of things that have happened to the X-Men recently. The downside is that once again, the mutant population finds itself unable to reproduce. This is a story line that could be done well, but Marvel haven’t managed it yet, so why would this time around be any different? The upside is that the characterisation is pretty excellent (apart from a weird thing where Storm, who’s been a leader of the X-Men for decades, regresses and isn’t sure she has what it takes) and Storm’s new look is a keeper.
Marvel Universe: Deadpool & Wolverine – Paul Tobin et. al. Dreadful. This is an all-ages title, which immediately robs Deadpool of some of his charm. A collection of mediocre, unfunny issues that will satisfy no one.
Rat Queens, Volume 2: The Far Reaching Tentacles of N’rygoth – Kurtis J. Wiebe, Roc Upchurch & Stjepan Sejic. Messy. The flashbacks were fun, but there were large parts of this that didn’t make a whole lot of sense. And let’s never forget that Roc Upchurch is a wife beater (I borrowed this from the library so he’ll get virtually no money from me).

Read in June 05

Wonder Woman, Volume 2: Guts – Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang & Tony Akins. Having read volume three first, and then volume one, I finally get around to volume two. And it wasn’t really worth it. I’m just not a fan of the mythological story running through this version of Wonder Woman.
Jupiter’s Legacy, Volume 1 – Mark Millar & Frank Quitely. I don’t really like Frank Quitely’s art. I feel like I’m not allowed to say that, but it’s true. It was better in this than on his run on the X-Men, but I’m still not a fan. Story-wise, this was fairly good. It dithered around a bit at the beginning, but the second half was strong, and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.
The Beauty, Volume 1 – Jeremy Haun, Jason A. Hurley & John Rauch. This had so much potential – people are deliberately catching an STD which makes you physically beautiful, but things start to go wrong (obviously) – but it was never quite as good as it could have been. The opening few pages were excellent, a large part of the middle was alright but not great, and then it started to pick up again towards the end. Hopefully, Jeremy Haun can nail it in the next volume.
Virgil – Steve Orlando & J.D. Faith. A ‘queersploitation’ tale. The problem here is that everything is cliched and quite awful. I’m not against the idea of queersploitation, but this is just a story about a man beating a lot of other men up. It’s not good.

Read in June 06

We Stand On Guard – Brian K. Vaughan & Steve Skroce. We jump forward to a future where the USA has invaded Canada, and it’s ridiculous and excellent all at the same time. The Canadian resistance are doing their best to force US troops off their soil, but who really started this war? Recommended because it’s pretty awesome 😀
The Wicked + The Divine, Volume 3: Commercial Suicide – Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie et. al. Disappointing and disjointed. This really suffered from having so many different artists, highlighting just how important Jamie McKelvie’s art is to the series. Although I didn’t love it, I’ll still be picking up volume four.

Read in July 2015 (Catch Up Post!)

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Lorraine Posted in Read This Month .

Read in July, Part 01

The Massive, Volume 4: Sahara – Brian Wood, Garry Brown et. al. We finally get more focus on Mary in this volume and it’s about time.
Saga, Volume 4: Brian K Vaughan & Fiona Staples. I wasn’t massively into the drug plotline in this, but it was still worth a read (I feel like I don’t love Saga as much as I should, which makes me sad).
Lazarus, Volume 3: Conclave – Greg Rucka & Michael Lark. If you’re not reading this, you need to start. Lazarus is a sci-fi comic with a twisty-turny storyline and a main character that kicks ass. Read it!
Ms Marvel, Volume 2: Generation Why – G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona & Jacob Wyatt. Kamala continues to be both awesome and cute as a button.
The Wicked + The Divine, Volume 1: The Faust Act – Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie. I loved this. Loved the story, loved the characters, loved the art. Every few decades, twelve gods are brought back to Earth in human form and find new ways to be worshipped. And it’s fantastic.

Read in July, Part 02

Uncanny X-Men: Breaking Point – Kieron Gillen & Terry Dodson. This wrapped up a few storylines that I’m not familiar with but Gillen managed to keep my attention. Not least because his Kitty Pryde is excellent.
Wonder Woman, Volume 3: Iron – Brian Azzarello & Cliff Chiang. I wanted to really like this but I was left feeling disappointed. This is not the Wonder Woman I love.
Wonder Woman, Volume 5: Flesh – Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang & Goran Sudzuka. See above.
Suicide Squad, Volume 5: Walled In – Matt Kindt, Patrick Zircher et. al. Although I like the concept of Suicide Squad, and a lot of the characters, this was underwhelming at best.
Batgirl, Volume 2: Knightfall Descends – Gail Simone, Adrian Syaf & Ed Benes. Taking Barbara Gordon out of her wheelchair wasn’t exactly a popular decision, but I think this volume deals with the fallout quite well. Overall, I quite enjoyed this one and would read more.

Read in July, Part 03

Catwoman, Volume 5: Race of Thieves – Ann Nocenti, Pat Olliffe & Tom Nguyen. I wanted to like this but it was pretty dreadful.
Dissonance – Erica O’Rourke. Thanks to Star Trek I have a love for parallel universe stories, and the idea of this one is intriguing. Unfortunately, the love interest just clutters up what could be enjoyable YA sci-fi thriller. Decent but not great.
Star Trek, Volume 8 – Mike Johnson et. al. Not particularly noteworthy but not bad either.
Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files: Ghoul Goblin – Jim Butcher, Mark Powers & Joseph Cooper. Solid story but fairly mediocre artwork.
Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 2: Angela – Brian Michael Bendis & Sara Pichelli. I don’t know if I’m just not familiar enough with the character in this, but I struggled to enjoy it.