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Read in June, Part 1 (Catch Up Post!)

Posted on July 24, 2017 by Lorraine Posted in Read This Month .

Read in May 06

Harley Quinn, Volume 1: Die Laughing – Amanda Conner et. al. I’m a bit torn on this one. On the one hand it was fun, on the other I’m not a fan of the new origin story which completely robs Harley of the agency that made her character so intriguing in the first place. As a Marvel fan, it also felt a bit too similar to Deadpool, especially when it was breaking the fourth wall.

Garbage Night – Jen Lee. In a post-apocalyptic world, a group of young animals fend for themselves, sharing tales of ‘garbage night’, a night when food was plentiful. The minimalist story does this book no favours, making it hard to ignore the fact that although at least one of the characters used to be a pet, all the animals are now walking around on two legs, wearing human clothes.

All-New Wolverine, Volume 1: The Four Sisters – Tom Taylor, David Lopez & David Navarrot. I’ve never been a fan of X-23 (I’ve never been a fan of Wolverine, for that matter), so I wasn’t expecting much from this. So colour me shocked that it was actually really well done. When a shady group tries to weaponise clones of X-23, she’s not overly impressed. But we’re not dealing with the X-23 we were introduced to all those years ago, we’re dealing with an X-23 who has felt love and loss, and learnt restraint. Her personal growth is given plenty of room to develop, and The Four Sisters manages to be both action packed and quietly beautiful.

The Midnight Library – Kazuno Kohara. An adorable look at a girl who works in a library that only opens at night. I can’t fault the illustrations which are charming, but, to be completely cynical about it, The Midnight Library presents a completely unrealistic view of a modern library. Yes, I know it’s a nursery book but libraries aren’t that well funded, okay? Even fantasy libraries staffed by children and owls!

Read in June 02

Aquaman, Volume 2: Black Manta Rising – Dan Abnett et. al. Aquaman just wants Atlantis and the good ol’ US of A to be pals, but Black Manta is super not into it for REASONS. So, obviously, he takes over N.E.M.O. (a sooper sekkrit club bent on total domination of the world) and fakes an Atlantean attack on the US to start a war. Oh noes! Oh, and there are some mystical prophecies that makes Mera totes sad. Now, if that sounds like your cup of tea, good for you, but it’s a hard, hard pass from me. Except for the inclusion of a character with a stutter, because that’s actually pretty cool.

Wonder Woman, Volume 1: The Lies – Greg Rucka, Liam Sharp & Laura Martin. I love Greg Rucka’s work, so I had super high hopes for this volume. As the characters reset yet again (seriously DC, stop), Diana remember multiple versions of her own origin story (a clever nod to all the Wonder Women who have come before) and fears that things are not what they seem. She figures out that she’s been somehow manipulated, but by who? The Lies does an admirable job of picking up a lot of sub-par Wonder Woman lore and stitching it together into something unsettling, and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what comes next.

American Vampire, Volume 8 – Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque & Dave McCaig. It’s been a while since I read volume 7 so this was tricky to get into for me. It’s also the midpoint of the story arc, which was frustrating as I don’t have volume 9. But, VAMPIRES IN SPAAAACCCCCEEEEEE!!!!! Two thumbs up!

Deadpool, World’s Greatest, Volume 6: Patience Zero – Gerry Duggan et. al. I’m so glad that this volume seems to have moved past the Mercs for Hire and Shiklah, two storylines I never really cared about. Without the Mercs and Shiklah bumming us out, we’re back to Deadpool and Preston, a team I never grow tired of with bonus Stryfe, of all people. Dun dun duuuunnn!!! (I liked it, just in case that wasn’t clear.)

Read in June 03

Catwoman, Volume 6: Final Jeopardy – Will Pfeifer, David Lopez, Alvaro Lopez & Jeromy Cox. There’s a new bad guy in town and he’s set on taking Selina’s place as the top thief in Gotham. As he systematically takes her life apart, Selina finds herself facing some impossible storylines. Now, as stories go, that one has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, everything seems really perfunctorily handled. Selina’s protege is framed for murder and goes on the run. And that’s the last we see of her. Selina’s nanny gets beaten up and ends up in hospital. And that’s the last we see of her. Selina gives her baby away and then ends up on a prison planet four thousand light years from Earth. Wait… what? She somehow gets back to Gotham (there’s literally no explanation of how given in this volume so I can only assume it happened in another title), and then they bring back Black Mask which is so lazy, I can’t even think too hard about it without my head feeling like it’s going to explode.

Tuff Ladies: 24 Remarkable Women of the History – Till Lukat. Like many books, this was one I really wanted to love but sadly, it was too flawed. Featuring 24 illustrated ‘biographies’ of noteworthy women, Tuff Ladies is strongest when dealing with lesser-known women such as Miep Gies, who sheltered Anne Frank and her family. But there seems to be no organisation in the presentation of those included, so it bounces from Harriet Tubman to Malala Yousafzai to Beate Uhse to Princess Diana. Most of the time it seems to be pitched at a young audience, especially with the inclusion of a glossary of words readers might not have come across before, but an entry about Linda Lovelace makes it clear that the book is aimed at adults. Add in some spelling and grammar mistakes and I feel more disappointed in Tuff Ladies than not.

Night Shift – Debi Gliori. A stunningly beautiful book that helps explain depression to children. Instead of a black dog, Gliori uses a dragon as a stand-in for depression and chronicles the way darkness can overtake a person using lavish illustrations and minimal text. Utterly recommended.

Read in June 04

Journey, Quest and Return – Aaron Becker. Told entirely without words, the books of the Journey Trilogy tell the story of a girl whose family are too busy to spend time with her. Using a crayon, she creates a doorway to another world where she has gorgeous, epic adventures, makes a friend, and saves a king. But what will happen when there is a threat to her imagination itself? Wonderful.

Read in May, Part 1 (Catch Up Post!)

Posted on July 17, 2017 by Lorraine Posted in Read This Month .

Read in May 01

The Rabbit Back Literature Society – Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen. This is such an odd book. Magical realism meets books about books meets murder mystery meets strange and unusual happenings meets illuminating flashbacks meets what is going on?? When Ella is invited to join the elite Rabbit Back Literature Society, she gets a lot more than she bargained for. The head of the society goes missing, there seems to be a virus affecting the books at the town library, and she becomes embroiled in something known as ‘The Game’. Please, click on the link and read the blurb because this is a wonderful, twisty turny read that defies summation (seriously! I can’t condense what makes it so brilliant into a few sentences – I’ve been trying!).

The Women Who Shaped Politics: Empowering Stories of of Women Who Have Shifted the Political Landscape – Sophy Ridge. Or, more correctly ‘The Women Who Shaped British Politics’. Or, even more correctly, ‘The Women Who Shaped English Politics’. Ridge admits to her omissions and biases in the opening paragraphs of this book, but it’s still a bit hard to overlook the absence of non-English politicians at times. I also found it hard to swallow that after acknowledging Constance Markievicz as the first female MP in Britain (which then included Ireland), the book went on to state several times that Nancy Astor was the first female MP. Now, Markievicz didn’t take her seat but that doesn’t make her any less the first female MP which makes Nancy Astor the first female MP who actually took her seat. These things aside, I enjoyed The Women Who Shaped Politics immensely. It got across an awful lot of information without getting bogged down and it really is a good overview of some of the female figures who have played a prominent role in British political life. A good introduction for people looking to dip their toes in the complicated landscape of women in politics.

The Dark Days Club – Alison Goodman. I’ve mentioned before how I’m right into Regency high jinks, right? The Dark Days Club takes Regency high jinks, supernatural shenanigans, and a forbidden romance, slams them all together and comes out the other side as a hell of a read. Lady Helen is a sympathetic main character, torn between duty to family and duty to the crown, and the book doesn’t sidestep the limitations placed on women during this time period like some others (*cough* I’m looking at you Lady Julia Grey *cough*). The only thing I struggled with was supernatural element which I never connected with, finding it forced and not terribly convincing. Luckily, the rest of the book more than made up for this weakness and if you’re looking for a fun Regency read, look no further.

The Other Typist – Suzanne Rindell. A story of the jazz age, The Other Typist follows Rose, an every-day sort of girl who meets Odalie, an extraordinary sort of girl who utterly transforms Rose’s life. But is everything quite as it seems? This was a random pick from the library which I ended up absolutely loving. From the start, it’s clear that Rose is an unreliable narrator and as her life starts to fracture she becomes more and more selective about what she chooses to see. And the ending! Read this tale of glamour and obsession, read it now and know that wherever you think this book is heading, you’re wrong.

Read in May 02

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2: Prelude – Will Corona Pilgrim et. al. A truly dismal collection of seemingly random Guardians of the Galaxy comics and not a prequel to the new movie at all. Nice false advertising there, Marvel.

Guardians of the Galaxy New Guard, Volume 3: Civil War II – Brian Michael Bendis et. al. For the life of me, I can’t find a finished version of this cover anywhere online so you’ll have to put up with one that says ‘Subtitle TBC’. Anyway, Captain Marvel calls the Guardians for help, only she doesn’t tell them what’s going on so they jump straight in and everyone looks like an arsehole. Seriously, that’s the best summary I can come up with for this random, largely pointless installation in the Civil War II saga (I get that it’s hard to work company-wide events into a single title but was Bendis even trying with this one?).

Guardians Team-Up, Volume 1: Guardians Assemble – Brian Michael Bendis et. al. Given that this is basically a random selection of issues where various members of the Guardians team up with other Marvel heroes, this has its ups and downs. A highlight is definitely the Gamora and She-Hulk crossover, and the Rocket Raccoon team up with the Pet Avengers was surprisingly witty but at the end of the day it’s a pretty transparent cash grab.

Avengers Standoff, Volume 2 – Nick Spencer et. al. Not as good as the first volume but still a surprisingly enjoyable read (well, for a non-Avengers reader at any rate).

Read in May 03

Indelible – Adelia Saunders. Magdalena can see people’s secrets, Neil hasn’t quite figured out what’s really important, and Richard is searching for the mother he never knew. Three characters, three stories that slowly wend their way into one beautiful, aching whole. The magical realism element (Magdalena can see the history of a person written on their skin) is what drew me to this, and that aspect of the book is as thoughtful and wonderful as I’d hoped, but there’s so much more to the story than that. We move back in forth in time and location, learning just a little bit more each time until things finally start to click into place. A slow-burn of a read, definitely, but one worth your time.

The Secret Loves of Geek Girls – Hope Nicholson (ed). I didn’t realise this would be a straight up romance book. I thought, as did Kelly Sue DeConnick according to her introduction, that it would be more wide-ranging, so I struggled with this. Individually, the stories were fine (some were better than others, obviously), but they didn’t fit together. There was no thematic arrangement that I could see, instead they’re just presented at random which led to a jerky reading experience. They were also quite repetitive – ‘I was a geek and I didn’t fit in and then I found love and it either went great or terribly’. Here’s the thing, I was a geek but I fit in just fine, so reading story after story where being a geek seems to mean automatic exclusion was tiresome. There’s some really lovely, honest stuff in here but overall I was massively disappointed.

The Boy on the Bridge – M.R. Carey. GO READ THIS BOOK! Seriously. This takes place in the same universe as The Girl With All The Gifts, a book where M.R. Carey took zombie tropes and made them wonderful again, but it’s not a direct sequel. Technically, you could read this without reading The Girl With All The Gifts, but both books are so freaking good that it’s worth reading them in publication order. I read the second half of this sitting in my garden and cried so hard at the ending, in front of all my neighbours, and it was worth it.

Aliens: Life and Death – Dan Abnett & Moritat. This referenced a lot of events that I’m not familiar with, but it was a fun sci-fi horror romp with a dash of LGBT representation so I forgave it pretty quickly.

Read in February (Catch Up Post!)

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

Read in February 01

Dust – Hugh Howey. I took this out from the library in December 2014 and didn’t get around to reading it until Febraruy 2017. AND I DON’T KNOW WHY. I loved Wool, was pretty excited by Shift and couldn’t wait for Dust. Who knows why it languished for so long in my TBR pile. Happily, when I finally did get around to reading it, it didn’t disappoint. I love the enclosed world(s) created in the Wool series, and I’m a sucker for unexpected twists and turns which Dust delivered in spades.
Captain Marvel, Volume 1: Rise of Alpha Flight – Michele Fazekis et. al. I don’t know why Alpha Flight are suddenly in space, but there’s not really any time to ponder that question as we’re thrown straight into the action, and I’m kind of into it. The combination of action, politics and sci-fi in this volume reminded me of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which can only be a good thing. Where’s my Captain Marvel movie, Marvel????
Black Widow, Volume 1: The Finely Woven Thread – Nathan Edmondson & Phil Noto. I don’t know much about Black Widow, and ‘The Finely Woven Thread’ didn’t do much to enlighten me. That said, it was a solid spy-thriller that I enjoyed more than I thought I would.
Savage Wolverine, Volume 2: Hands on a Dead Body – Zeb Wells, Joe Madureira & Jock. So many Wolverine titles make me throw my hands up in the air and question the popularity of the character, and this was definitely one of them. The first half is thoroughly ‘meh’ and the second half makes almost no sense. I gave it two stars. ‘Nuff said.

Read in February 02

Queer: A Graphic History – Meg-John Barker & Julia Scheele. Breaking down queer theory is a tall order, but one that this book takes in its stride. Illustrated with humour and verve, it takes a more-or-less academic look at an incredibly complex subject and manages to make it accessible to almost everyone.
Paper Girls, Volume 2 – Brian K. Vaughan & Cliff Chiang. So, I liked the first volume of Paper Girls. It was good, and the ending was exciting, but I felt a bit unmoored when reading it. I was hopeful for volume 2, but not quite sure what to expect. Luckily we jump right in to aliens, time travel, witty banter, awesome relationships and general EXCITEMENT. If you haven’t started this series yet, you really, really need to.
Superman/Wonder Woman, Volume 4: Dark Truth – Peter J. Tomasi & Doug Mahnke. Dismal. So very dismal. There was potential in the storyline but I really don’t think Tomasi knew what to do with what he was writing. Avoid.
Sorcerer to the Crown – Zen Cho. This was recommended to me by several bloggers and man am I glad I listened to you all. Things are not going well for England’s Sorcerer Royal. There’s a war on, and the government are set on involving magic in the fight, magic reserves seem to be falling, someone keeps trying to kill him, he’s somehow ended up with a female apprentice. Oh, and he’s black. This book covers so many amazing things. Magic – check. ‘Regency’ shenanigans – check. Diversity and the problems inherent therein – check. Rampant feminism – check. Romance – check. Read it!

Read in February 03

The X-Files, Volume 1: Revival – Joe Harris et. al. A decent, if not spectacular, collection. Some hits and some misses, but it’s always fun to revisit the world of Mulder and Scully.
Tracer – Rob Boffard. The future is here and it’s not that fun. On a decrepit spaceship, Riley delivers packages for a living. It sounds easy, but given how much of the station is a no-go area thanks to various gangs, it’s not an easy way to get by. When she gets dragged into a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top of station management, she does the only thing she knows how to do – runs. It’s Mirror’s Edge in space, basically. I never fully connected with this book, but it was a fun, fast read, and I recommend it if you’re looking for some lighter, action-packed sci-fi.
We Go Out: Dung Beetle Book 1C – Miriam Elia & Ezra Elia. A fun, if not particularly memorable, parody.
The Ladybird Book of the Zombie Apocalypse – Jason Hazeley & Joel Morris. See above. An amusing, fast read, but not one that will stay with you.

Read in February 04

The Battles of Bridget Lee: Invasion of Farfall – Ethan Young. A sci-fi war comic aimed at younger readers, there’s not much in this that’s earth-shatteringly original. That said, I mostly enjoyed it but took, and still take, issue with the idea that it’s the future but women aren’t allowed to take part in combat.
Aquaman, Volume 1: The Drowning – Dan Abnett, Philippe Briones, Scot Eaton & Brad Walker. Right, so, Aquaman. I see what Dan Abnett was trying to do with this relaunch, but the problem seems to be the Aquaman as a character is dull, dull, dull and therefore not someone you particularly care about.
Doctor Strange, Volume 1: The Way of the Weird – Jason Aaron & Chris Bachalo. I’ve never had any fondness for Doctor Strange. In my view, the magic Marvel universe, and the mutant one should remain separate. Marvel disagree though, so I thought I’d give this new series a chance, especially since it’s illustrated by Chris Bachalo, who I’ve had a soft spot for since Generation X. And I loved it! This is a rollicking, disturbing, amusing look into the world of Doctor Strange. A good starting point for new readers, but one that fully acknowledges and incorporates the history of the character.
Doctor Strange, Volume 2: The Last Days of Magic – Jason Aaron & Chris Bachalo. A fantastic continuation of volume 1 (the bad guys are… weird, but you just need to roll with it).

Read in February 05

Spider-Man/Deadpool, Volume 1: Isn’t It Bromantic – Joe Kelly & Ed McGuinness. Peter Parker is another character I’ve never have a lot of time for. Sadly, even though he’s got Deadpool around to help him be much cooler, ‘Isn’t It Bromantic’ hasn’t changed that for me. To be honest, I didn’t enjoy this at all. Spider-Man isn’t my cup of tea, this version of Deadpool isn’t stellar, and putting them together weakens them both.
Black Panther, Volume 1: A Nation Under Our Feet – Ta-Nehisi Coates, Brian Stelfreeze & Laura Martin. I wanted to love this, I really did, but I just couldn’t connect to any of the characters or invest in the storyline at all. I’ll keep reading it in the hope that it improves but I suspect it’ll turn out to just not be for me.
Daredevil Back in Black, Volume 1: Chinatown – Charles Soule & Rob Garney. This has a surprising amount of negative reviews, but I actually really enjoyed it. I’ve never really found a Daredevil book that I’ve fully liked, so I didn’t have much in the way of expectations for this one. But it’s fun, and interesting, and dark. Daredevil gets a sidekick, who brings a lot of complications to the table, but that’s part of what makes the book worth reading.
The Amazing Spider-Man: Edge of Spider-Verse – David Hine et. al. I’m only in this for Spider-Gwen. Quelle surprise!

Read in February 06

Spider-Gwen, Volume 0: Most Wanted? – Jason Latour & Robbi Rodriguez. Given that Spider-Gwen was initially just super cool outfit, ‘Most Wanted?’ does a really good job of setting her up as a fully-fleshed character with motivations and problems. Gwen Stacy decides to become a superhero when she’s bitten by a spider and develops powers. The problem is that she doesn’t really know what she’s doing, her band would really like her to stop missing practice, and her father is the vigilante-hating Chief of Police. A solid set-up and some great artwork.