Marth Muffins
Dragonsong - 4/5
Dragonsong is the first book in the Pern Harper's Hall trilogy. Very fun and comfy classic fantasy aimed at the same YA audience as the original 3 Earthsea books. I love the low stakes and that despite the fact it's only around 170 odd pages a lot of time is spent on quiet moments of characters fishing or cooking or playing music together as there's no real outer threat, beyond the occasional appearance of the Thread from the main novels, but instead lots of living in this world. It's a lot of fun. Music does play a big part here, it's what the mc Menolly loves and it's very well integrated into the story and the second book most definitely expands on that.
Overall, a fun short read, would rec. It is probably recommended to read Dragonflight and Dragonquest before the Harper series, there are cross-connections and characters and Dragonsong takes place roughly at the same time as Dragonquest, but I found it very easy to just jump in here when I was younger and on this read.
Sidenote: I would also want to bond with a fire lizard pls, thank you.
Sabella, or the Blood Stone - 4/5
Tanith Lee has been an author I've been meaning to read for a while now, she's a part of the generation of sci-fi/fantasy/horror writers who started in the late 20th century who've just been widely forgotten about outside of a few large exceptions but at the time were huge, until the 90s killed the publishing industry they were a part of. She wrote in a lot of genres and styles and all that, but Sabella is one in the “goth horror, complex gender/sexuality” subcategories which vibes with the whole goth subculture coming around in the late 70s/early 80s.
A lot of what I would have to say about the gender/sexuality aspect, which is by far the most interesting aspect, would involve spoiling the whole book so I'm going to leave that aside for now. Let's just say there's a lot of mutual masochism: sexual and not, desired and not.
Talking about the goth horror and Sabella instead. Lee is great at realising a depressed character without leaving them inert or shut in. Everything in this book is from Sabella's perspective, locked in her head, but through how she interacts with people (who aren't Jace) she does come across, at least to me, as outwardly projecting confidence, she can use her ability to snare people to do the s e x and drink their blood and everything but is very much still locked in that internal limbo depression can leave you in. It does get a little much, especially given Sabella can come across at times like that tropey “Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette” (I mean, she is a vampire), and wangsty at times, especially in a few of the Church scenes, but overall it came across well for me.
The little much did add to a trashiness, which I liked, as did the wolves which worked in context but were quite silly. It reminded me of an exploitation film in a way, that's a complement, which a lot of “genre” books at this time were given how disregarded 99% of them were by any sense of making them respectable or widely appealing. You can then tackle what a wider public would consider a strange subject matter through the vampire lady who makes men orgasm a lot when she bites their neck and drinks their blood.
Lee's writing itself is excellent. The styling of the prose is excellent, and you can tell a lot of care went into each sentence to make it as evocative as it could be without overstuffing them with flowery language.
So yeah, a long post to say it's good, it's short, and that I guess I will be looking at more of Tanith Lee's books soon.
Algiers, Third World Capital : Freedom Fighters, Revolutionaries, Black Panthers - 3.5/5
This was an interesting read, and not quite what I expected. This is an autobiography of Elaine Mokhtefi, the American born activist, focusing on her time working in the post-independence Algerian government and as a liaison between the Algerians and the International Section of the Black Panther Party led by Eldridge Cleaver.
And Cleaver's name is important. His presence dominates this book, as his presence dominated in life, especially in its back half. Reading this felt almost like, and I don't want to read into the psyche of someone I've never met, Mokhtefi was attempting to come to terms with the Cleaver in the years she knew him and how he fit with what came before and after. She is fascinated with him: the way he speaks, his part in the BPP, his writings, the constant sexual and physical violence he commits against women.
Cleaver was a serial rapist. He continually abused his wife and other women. His writings celebrate sexual violence. At one point Mokhtefi describes Cleaver as “adept at programming rape”. But still, he dominates this book, subsumes it until parts feel like a gonzo biography of Cleaver instead of a autobiography of Mokhtefi.
There are other focuses of course. A lot of time is devoted to the growing distrust and authoritarianism of the Algerian Revolutionary Government towards Mokhtefi and the Panthers, especially after Boumédiène's coup. We see some of the developing instability which led to the civil war in the 1990s. We see some of the networks of global anti-colonial and anti-capitalist resistance which are coordinated through Algiers and Paris. And we see Mokhtefi interact with and have to deal with all of this, seeing various storms coming her way over the span of the book. But so much of that is marginalised by Cleaver's presence being so central here.
And I realise that has tainted this review as well but hey, it was what I took away from reading. It did reignite my interest in Algeria and how it's global networks functioned so that is indeed a plus, and this is an interesting insight into those, and into the life of Elaine Mokhtefi herself.
Star Trek New Frontiers: Double or Nothing - 2/5
Fine. The James Bond stuff wore a little thin and it did a lot of the tropes, like the Bond Girl who is unceremoniously fridged when she's fulfilled her plot purpose, very uncritically which I wasn't the biggest fan of. Calhoun is very much still an overly badass cool guy (TM) which grates a little but he's still fun and I like his interactions with Picard and the man who killed his dad. It's also nice to see Riker interacting with the Excalibur crew, especially with Shelby given their history in Best of Both Worlds.
But yeah, it'll be fun to get back to the main narrative with the next two books in the core series.
The Faceless Ones - 4/5
I love the interactions between Skullduggery and Valkyrie, I love the interactions between Skullduggery, Valkyrie, and China, I love the interactions between Skullduggery, Valkyrie, and Kenspeckle, I love the interac- I think you get the point. Derek Landry is so good at writing the characters that it's just so much fun to be in the world with them. That world is pretty interesting too and gets a fair amount of expansion here, and we finally get to see the titular Faceless Ones (more Lovecraftian cosmic despair in children's books thank you) and the hidden world is fun and well done, with all the secret institutions, rules, and agreements being fun to learn about and Landry does use them in interesting ways throughout the story.
But yeah, the characters are what I'm there for and it still delivers. Will get around to the next 3 soon enough, although the shift in narrator is a little unfortunate.
Cobra - 3/5
I've been reading this off and on for a while now but I've finally finished Cobra. It's a solid military sci-fi that focuses more on what happens in the aftermath of war to all those cybernetically enhanced supersoldiers built to fight in it. The whole thing is structured as a series of novelettes that give a snapshot of the main character, Jonny Moreau, at various points in his life pre, during, and post-war which gives a good general outline of the character and the effects the superpowered Cobras are having on the universe. I do think it does a good job at that, it's nothing groundbreaking even for 1985 but it's well thought through and fun to read.
The writing style is solid as well. It's very readable and engaging plus my experience reading Zahn's Star Wars books meant I knew he was great at action scenes and that holds true here. The characters are relatively archetypical but fun and well realised with solid voices, although they all felt I don't know, very 1950s? I got white picket fences and filled with Valium from a lot of the characters here, especially the women.
I think my main complaint would be that the world here is pretty underdeveloped, I never got much of a sense of the setup and structure of the Human Dominion, despite some parts of the novel being told from a high government official's POV, and the aliens here, the Troft, are kept very mysterious. It works for the story and I don't think Zahn needed to put more in but I would have liked to see a little extra, although that could come in the sequels (although this book functions extremely well as a standalone).
So yeah, it's a solid read, and you can get it for free from the Baen Books Free Library, which gives out free ebooks for many of the books which they publish.
Daughter of the Empire - 4/5
A fun political fantasy story that works as a standalone in many ways, although it is the first in a trilogy, which really does help disprove the silly notion that mid 20th century/pre 90s fantasy didn't really do these sorts of stories. Lots of fun political manoeuvring, backstabbing, scheming behind hands, and suchlike, plus some solid, if not the most developed, characters, especially the protagonist Mara and her main advisors alongside Mara's father-in-law and the Warlord.
If I had two main complaints they'd be the fact that Mara is generally too successful in her scheming for what she should know and her experience compared to the other political players, and the attitude towards sex is a bit weird. I appreciate that the world it's set in is not all that taboo about sex but there are still some hang-ups on the treatment of some more, em, adventurous things that seem to come out of the Fritz Lieber school of dirty old man attitudes. I assume that came from Feist to be honest.
It's definitely better than Feist's solo work, although I've only read Magician, and makes me want to check out Wurt's novels even more. I'll get round to the sequel to this, Servant of the Empire, sometime soon.
Infidel - 3.5/5
A really solid comic which is undermined by the fact that everything takes a backseat to The Message. Now, the message here, about the insidious nature of racism/xenophobia and how it infests the core of people and systems, is important and well realised here but it overpowers the book to such an extent that things like character and plot take far too much of a secondary role here.
I never felt as if I entirely knew Aisha or Medina, or any of their myriad of friends and relations, well enough to be suitably invested beyond a surface level. There are a lot of elements here which could've got me invested but they never entirely came together, and which wasn't helped by the sheer number of characters a reader has to keep a track of, especially in the 5 issue space this story was provided.
To add to that, the decision to switch up the protagonist from Aisha to Medina partway through didn't help with my difficulty to connecting with the characters. Suddenly we're going from a fairly well sketched out character to focus instead on her somewhat interesting but not nearly as developed friend. It really didn't work for me.
The horror was very effective though, with Aaron Campbell's art perfectly suited for the ghosts and spirits infecting the bones of the building. Not to undersell the writing in these scenes though, the text of hateful words going across the page when the ghosts are present is very effective.
So yeah, this is a tentative recommendation. Just be aware that this comic is focused on that Message over everything else and, as needed as that message is, it does overpower the whole story to the determent of the characters and plot.
Morvern Callar - 5/5
Given I'm finally reading the sequel to this I thought I'd finally put a few scattered thoughts on Morvern Callar here.
This is one of my favourite books ever, so much so that for good or ill it defined a decent chunk of my life. As much as it's a tired thing to say this character, Morvern Callar, is me. I just feel her in my bones in a way that I've never much experienced, all of which was reinforced when I saw the film version directed by Lynne Ramsay with Samantha Morton's incredible performance. That's not really an experience I can articulate in text or even speech, it's just, well, something in me. A distorted reflection of sameness.
Alan Warner loves a character who walks, or wanders, and Morvern Callar has walked in her way with me for years.
Elevation - 1.5/5
Look, Stephen, I agree with your point in this book, why can we all just get along with each other? Why won't those nasty evil Trump voting bastards just get along with everyone else goddamnit?
I understand, I hope that homophobia will end, that everyone will accept that marriage between consenting adults is a fine thing, no matter their sex, but writing a book that is dedicated to the ‘if they make themselves useful people will accept them' fallacy? I just can't get behind it. This same trick has been used to gaslight shat-upon minority groups for time immemorial, especially in your own US of A Stephen. Be it black civil rights, American Indian sovereignty, or the rights of queer communities, these condescending smug liberal beliefs have been advocated as a cure. Don't rock the boat, or the consequences will be your fault.
The story wasn't very interesting either, and neither were the characters. Expect all your standard King characters, the sarcastic old doctor man, the most generic of nice guy protagonists, and two underdeveloped lesbian characters that exist solely to be ‘saved' from homophobia by our hero.
Oh, and our hero is losing weight but looks like the same tubby middle aged man, it's a metaphor.
Over'aw, pretty bad, pretty fucking bad.
Star Trek: New Frontier, #4: Endgame 2/5
It feels strange to me that a Star Trek book can make me feel so dirty. There are so many sleazy nineties sex comedy jokes/situations present that it just brings down the whole beuk for me a fair notch. Also, our Captain, Mackenzie Calhoun, is so ‘badass' it becomes ever so slightly ridiculous especially when he pulls a sword through his arm, I'm sorry what?.
Still, o'eraw, I had a fairly fun time with the story and characters so I'd still recommend it, just be aware of the sleaze going in.
Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham - 3.5/5
A Lovecraftian tale of 1920s Batman from Mike Mignola, Richard Pace and Troy Nixey. Feels a fair bit like a Hellboy story that escaped before latching itself, like some Lovecraftian monstrosity, to a jazz-age Batman.
The best aspect of this story was the many interesting reimagining of classic Batman characters: the betentacled Two-Face, the spiritual medium Oracle, the Knight Errant Oliver Queen. These interpretations, set in the pre-crash squalor of decaying Gotham, bring a new life to these characters and gives them a Lovecraftian, or weird fiction, edge.
However, the characters are also what bring down the book the most. There are just too many of them: Batman, Alfred, three Robins, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, Killer Croc, Ra's and Talia al Ghul, Oliver Queen, the list just keeps going and going and going, not letting any of these interesting interpretations stand out for very long.
Additionally, Batman feels a little off to me, less brooding Dark Knight more the sort of gruff ‘its-in-the-job description ma'am' Hellboy type character. This adds to the feeling that this story somehow managed to escape from the Mignolaverse but does make the connection to Batman as an idea a little tenuous.
Overall, a really fun story of cosmic horrors hampered by an overabundance of interesting ideas and off characterisation.
American Gods - 4/5
A big, rambly drive through the dreamland that is the United States of America. American Gods is, in many ways, a novel (duh) version of Sandman. A somewhat boring protagonist gets themselves out of prison and enters (or renters in Sandman's case) the strange worlds of gods, demons and various excuses for anthropomorphic representations before, many winding and worrisome roads later, they meet their fate(s).
I had two main issues with this book. The first was the Shadow who, if it wasn't made clear enough in the text, is a big man. Big and ever so slightly dead inside. Now, I can definitely see what Gaiman was going for with Shadow, the man feeling down and out, emotionally crippled even, after what he's been through makes a fair bit've sense but, despite the book's length, this angle isn't really explored in much detail. Instead Shadow sort've acts as a driver not just for the rest of the characters but a driver for us, taking us to the next interesting setpiece or character with little more than a grunt. It makes his actions in the finale in stopping the Godwar a bitty anticlimatic.
The second problem was the slightly... cutesy way some of the horror/weirdness was treated. Instead of feeling disturbing or transgressive it feels a little trite at times, manufactured in a way that stops it going too far, from being too scary, by undercutting the drama with a handwave, a joke, or other lightness. It didn't do this all the time, but I felt there was a slight fear on Gaiman's not to go too far with it, or a need to undercut it for some other reason.
Overall though, a great ramble across the U.S.A. and definitely worth a go for Gaiman fans and fantasy lovers.
Joyland - 3.5/5
A fine coming-of-age tale from the ever consistent Stephen King. Characters are fun and well-rounded carnival architypes, especially impressive given the short page count of this book, and the whole looking back on ‘lost love' theme is pretty well executed as well.
The novel does sort've feel like King wanted an excuse to write about theme parks/carnivals though, with a load of the book being devoted to the ‘Carny talk' and the running of Joyland itself. Personally I really enjoyed this aspect. It was cool to see the way of life and the talk of all the folk working at the theme park, which was mainly fictional with a wee bit of historical research on King's part thrown in, which made for a fun setting for the plot to unfold in.
However, the Carny stuff does leave the plot a little thin in places. With so much devoted to the setting not much is left to develop the unsolved mystery the story is based around, with major characters in that plot not really introduced until almost halfway through the book (though those characters are still well constructed). However, the plot arguably isn't really the focus, that instead being centred on the coming-of-age storyline for our main character, Devin, and the slow death of the independent American amusement park.
Oer'aw, King shows he's still a very consistent and fun writer and I'd recommend this book of his to anyone who wants another quality, and short, coming of age story from the guy.
Orsinian Tales - 4/5
A beautiful collection of short stories set in the imaginary country of Orsinia, which is also the setting of Le Guin's novel Malafrena. Most of these stories, much like the novel, are romances (both in that they have romance and are Romantic in style) set to the backdrop of turbulent events in Orsinia's history: the 1956 risings against Communist rule, the 1660s wars of succession, and the industrial struggles in the 1910s and 20s to name a few. However, unlike the novel these tales don't outstay their welcome and provide well-written snapshots of Orsinian life rather than a winding string of liberal revolutions.
Le Guin's writing is, as ever, wonderful. It has the same quality of calm introspection that reminded me of the 4th Earthsea book, Tehanu, that takes the time to show the world through the eyes of the characters, highlighting the quiet moments of their lives. Also, rather than her usual genres of fantasy or Sci-Fi these stories, aside from a few surreal ones, are all rooted in a ‘realistic' historical setting.
O'eraw, I'd really recommend these stories to Le Guin fans and fans of introspective Romantic fiction. Orsinia sits in an overlooked corner of Le Guin's bibliography and, whilst the novel in the setting, Malafrena, was a little dry and plodding, these stories manage to capture a beautiful look into the literary valleys and up at the fictional mountain peaks of an imaginary country.
Read as a part of the Orsinia Collection.
Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, Vol. 10 - 2/5
In this enticing volume: Fearsome Separatists duel with Jedi Dropouts in Graduation Day! Formidable duo Obi-Wan and Anakin use their supreme skill to escape nefarious bounty hunters in Thunder Road! Newly Knighted Anise I'Zak must break through droid lines to make a doubtful delivery in Chain of Command! And an Arc Trooper must deal with difficult locals before facing the Separatist war machine in Waiting!
More fun, if slightly samey stories in this volume of Clone Wars Adventures. This was the finale of these digest sized gems before they moved onto adapting stories in the style of the CGI THE Clone Wars rather than the original 2003-5 hand drawn series. Fantastic times in a Galaxy Far Far Away!
Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, Vol 9 - 3/5
More wild wanderings in this edition of Clone Wars Adventures! Dexter Jetster goes on a silent odyssey for exciting new culinary delights (?) in ‘Appetite for Adventure'! A lost clone trooper comes across some Republic runways in ‘Salvaged'! Jedi Quinlan Vos descends into Coruscant's sewers to face off against some sneaky assassins in ‘Life Below'! And Mace Windu discovers a mysterious lost city with a fearful secret in ‘No Way Out'!
Another fairly fun fly through of the Star Wars galaxy. High Adventure! Heroic Dramatics! Heady Action! All abound in this comic that is recommended for anyone looking for a quick diversion to a galaxy far far away.
Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, Vol. 7 - 3/5
Thrilling adventures abound in this sizzling selection of super stories that feature: the formidable twosome Anakin and Kenobi's struggle against the brutal beasts of a far frontier, the persistent Padme pursuing a perfidious plot, the silent but surgical Bultar Swan as she takes down a dastardly Separatist fortress, and 3 bickering brothers fleeing their war-torn world by way of a bank heist gone terribly wrong.
Action and Adventure burst through the pages of these terrific tales to create a frantically fun foray into the Star Wars universe. They won't be shifting your stance on Star Wars storytelling, but they'll still act as an entertaining ride through their sparkling sci-fantasy stars nonetheless.
Another Suburban Romance - 1/5
Not really having much luck with comics recently am I? Both Saga and Flex Mentallo have been pretty disappointing and this Moore comic wasn't very good either.
Originally a play written by Alan Moore then adapted by Anthony Johnston (a number of Avatar Press books under Moore's name are more comic adaptations of his other work) it mostly consists of disconnected imagery that vaguely comes together as ‘gangster noir films were a thing, isn't that strange, anyway, go live your life'. There was also a panel at the end where a crowd of people literally bow down to worship the great magician himself, Alan Moore which I found very, very funny.
The art by Juan Jose Ryp is not my cup of tea. It's too detailed and grimey for me, although it fits the ‘story' well enough and is impressive even as someone who is not the biggest fan of the style.
Overall, not really worth a read, even for the most hardcore Moore fans.
The Two-Front War (Star Trek: New Frontier, #3) - 3/5
Deals with the harrowing affects of rape better than Saga does.
This is undermined by Burgoyne's incredibly date rapist vibes that they give off towards Selar and how the book treats that like its alright because secretly Selar's into it. I'm knocking off a star for that.
Flex Mentallo: Man of Muscle Mystery - 2/5
Feels like the perfect summation of the problems some people have with postmodernist media: obscurantist, faux-profound and an excuse for the writer to wallow in self-aggrandising wankery.
Yeah, Grant, don't think I didn't notice that joint-protagonist Wally Sage is suspiciously similar to the then you of 1996. Loves comics and psychoactive substances? Check. In a band? Check. Created Flex Mentallo? Check. Into chaos-sigil bollocks? Check. it's all you, isn't it Grant?
The problem is, I agree with a lot of what Morrison has to say. Superhero comics of the late 80s and into the 90s were often far too caught up in their own self-importance, abandoning the creativity and fun of silver age heroics to revel in gratuitous violence and contorted sexualisation. Writers, artists and readers alike seemed obsessed with the idea that these spandex clad twats had to be in ‘relevant' or ‘real' stories (Issue #3, the best of the 4, of this series plays into this idea, as we follow Flex into an sewer-bound orgy of dark age heroes whilst, over-the-top, Sage monologues a knockoff Allen Ginsberg poem). Morrison desperately wants these characters to grow up and out of the self-wallowing teen-angst of the ‘dark age', for them to make it back to a self-confidence rooted in how silly and inspiring the idea of superheroics, found in comic books or elsewhere, can be.
However, this, relatively simple, assessment and goal is clad in layer upon layer of symbolic surrealism (which I usually love) which slowly drags the story down into Morrison's beliefs in chaos magic. This obsession with ‘chaos sigils', magical semiotics mixed with the ‘laws' of attraction scam as far as I can tell, infects every, but especially the last, issue, squeezing nonsense-filled diarrhoea all over the page.The art by Frank Quitely is pretty good though, so there's that.Overall, a comic that reads like Mystic Meg on an acid binge, you hear all the ‘profound realisations' that they've come to on the future rapped up in a nice lump of pseudo-mystical shite.half of which seemed to be nicked from Michael Moorcock's various Eternal Champions.
Saga, Volume 3 - 2/5
Criticisms from the first and second volumes still apply.
I will admit, there was a really good page in issue #14, the one where Sophie (slave girl) feels that she's to blame for the horrible rape/assaults she has been through as a sex slave however Lying Cat lets her know that this is a lie. It's just such a brilliantly low-key moment for two characters to connect with one another whilst still showcasing one's continuing trauma. I did not expect that from Saga at all. That's it.
Pretty much everything else was badly written (A grown woman calls others ‘condom failures' and apparently the opposite of war is fucking? Well that throws out millennia's of thought viewing death and sex as interlinked.), slave girl (who, thankfully, gets a name this volume, though she doesn't even get to decide what it is) is still, for the most part, a plot device and not a character, Gwendoline is still solely obsessed with either her ex Marko or with The Will and Marko's mum soon gets over her husband's death and right into the author the main cast are holed up with.
Overall, still not enjoying it but I've gotten the first five volumes out of the library so I might as well read up to there. You never know though, I might end up liking it at some point.