9.25.2013

 

Saga vol.1

written by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Fiona Staples, ~160 pgs, softcover
Series: Saga vol.1
Overall Grade: A

Definitely not a young-adult graphic novel (due to plentiful gore and sex). Narrated from the future by their daughter, the story begins literally at her birth. Her parents are soldiers from two different warring humanoid races (species?) who fell in love and ran away. Pursued by armies, bounty hunters, and weird tv-headed robotic royalty, Marko and Alana are struggling just to keep themselves and their newborn daughter alive and find a way off the planet.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 12:21 AM

9.23.2013

 

Trimalchio's Feast and other Mini-Mysteries

by Caroline Lawrence, 114 pgs, paperback
Series: The Roman Mysteries
Overall Grade: B


A collection of short mysteries and character studies set between the first 14 books.

Again, it was intersting to learn more details about gladiator training, fullers and ancient Roman lamps, as well as some of the events that are hinted at in the books. All of the stories are quick reads, with commentary by the author on how she came up with the ideas for each, and an interview with her at the end of the anthology.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 5:59 PM
 

Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions

by Neil Gaiman, 339pgs, hardcover
Overall Grade: B

An anthology of stories, drabbles, poetry, and novellas by Neil Gaiman over a range of topics and genres.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 5:52 PM

9.13.2013

 

Blood of Tyrants

by Naomi Novik, 431 pgs, hardcover
Series: Temeraire book 8
Overall Grade: A 

It's hard to tell if this is truly the penultimate book in the Temeraire series, but until further clarification I will act as if it is.

When last we parted ways from Laurence, Temeraire and company, they were headed to China from South America. Novik spares us the tedium of narrating the trans-Pacific crossing and suddenly dumps the reader and characters on and near Japan. Laurence has somehow been washed ashore in feudal Japan, and for those readers not also enamoured with Japanese history/culture that was an era when Japan was so isolationist that Westerners were only allowed in one port and were likely to be executed if they turned up anywhere else. And if that isn't torturous enough, he has amnesia and doesn't remember any of the past ten or so dragon-ful years of his life. Meanwhile everyone else is stuck on a ship stuck on the rocks in inclement weather. Thus begins the story!

'Blood of Tyrants' is broken up into 3 parts taking place in Japan, China and Russia sequentially. Unlike several of the other novels in the series (I'm looking at you 'Throne of Jade' 'Black Powder War' 'Tongues of Serpents'), Novik is light on the travel narration. This means that the story does take some geographic and chronologic jumps. (I would have read it w/o jumps but then I adore Patrick O'Brian's novels and The Silmarillion :-P  ) In hindsight, I felt this rushed the pacing of the novel, but it doesn't feel that way during the reading when it seemed like they spent forever in Japan and I just wanted them to get to China already. Is this pacing a signal of the series headed into denouement? The novel does end with Laurence and Temeraire in the midst of fighting Napoleon's forces in Russia. (I don't feel like that is a spoiler because, while Novik has and is re-writing some history she's not completely ignoring how the Napoleonic Wars went.)

How will it all turn out in the next book? I don't know, but I will have The 1812 Overture queued for epic dragon warfare!

Haha! Look how much I've written! Temeraire books get such thorough reviews from me!

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 11:03 PM

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