10.29.2013

 

Timeless

by Gail Carriger, 386 pgs, paperback
Series: The Parasol Protectorate #5
Overall Grade: A

The final installment in Carriger's 'Parasol Protectorate' series, the story timeskips forward several years so that the baby is now about a few years old. Alexia receives an "invitation" from the oldest living vampire queen to come visit her in Cairo and for Alexia to bring her daughter. The local vampire queen advises Alexia that this is not the type of invitation one can turn down, but demurs to say what the oldest queen might want. So while Alexia is in the midst of generating a satisfactory reason to travel to Egypt and preparing her family for travel, the beta from the Scotland pack returns from Egypt with important information that he fails to impart to Alexia before mysteriously dying. If that doesn't sounds like an auspicious start to one's tripplanning, I don't know what is!

I found Carriger's book to be a satisficatory ending to the series. We find out more about the God-Breaker Plague, the weaknesses of werewolves and preternaturals, some history on Alexia's father and Floote. There are a few teasing details that could easily remain as is, or allow future works. I particularly enjoyed the developments with Biffy and Prof. Lyall as those are two of my favorite characters in the series, and it was refreshing to have their narration often through out the story.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 11:31 PM
 

MirrorMask

by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean, ~80pgs, hardcover
Overall Grade: C

A storybook-format of the movie 'MirrorMask' (which I have yet to watch) - we follow a story told by the protagonist, Helena Campbell, budding artist and member of a family circus. Helena longs for a 'real life' then her mother falls ill and is hospitalized. While staying at her aunt's, she fills her room with drawings and one night mysteriously enters a bizarre world. Helena later learns that she's swapped places with a runaway princess, and she must get the princess to come back in order to return to her own world.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 11:11 PM

10.26.2013

 

American Gods

by Neil Gaiman, 461pgs, hardcover
Overall Grade: B+

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 6:11 PM
 

Winter of the World

by  Ken Follett, 940gs, hardcover
Series: Century trilogy book 2
Overall Grade: C

Following the same families, but quickly shifts focus to the adult children.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 6:06 PM
 

The Search Parts 1 & 2

authors: Gene Luen Yang, Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko
editor:  Dave Marshall 
artist: Bryan Gurihiru
~80pgs each, paperback
Series: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Overall Grade: A

Set shortly after the events of 'The Promise', Aang, Katara and Sokka travel to the Fire Nation and join Zuko and his sister, Azula, in the search either find Zuko's mother or find out what happened to her. With liberal use of flashbacks, we learn about Ursa's past and Zuko's early life. I am gratified with the relevations so far - they explain much about why Ozai treated Zuko the way he did. I also admire the way Azula's mental troubles are presented. Yes, she's still a nasty piece of work to everyone around her, with her hallucinations apparently getting worse. But despite their inclinations, the main characters don't react with violence when she's obviously unhinged. I eagerly await the final installment in November.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 5:49 PM
 

The Promise

written by Gene Luen Yang, Bryan Konietzko, Michael Dante DiMartino; 
art by  Bryan Gurihiru; ~240 pgs, paperback
Parent Series: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Overall Grade: B

Originally released in 3 parts but now available in one collected volume.
Set a few years after the end of the cartoon, Aang, Katara and Sokka are still travelling the world helping ease the transition back to peace. Toph is off running a metal-bending academy. The conflict about how to handle the Fire Nation colonies in the Earth Kingdom (some of which have been there for generations) places Aang and company squarely in the middle of their two friends, the Earth King, and Fire Lord Zuko, and builds to an inflamatory brink.
I'm recommend this to fans of the animated series, but there's not much stellar about it. Frankly, Aang and Katara being lovey-dovey and calling each other 'sweetie' gets old almost immediately. But we do see the seeds of how Republic City came to be, as well as the Air Nomad culture enthusiasts seen in 'Legend of Korra' came from.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 5:30 PM

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