The Dreaming Stars by Tim Pratt
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
DNF at 36%. I just can‘t develop an interest in the story. They finally got their job, after a lot of set-up and not much happening. And still not much happens. This lacks the action and the suspense of the first book. Or it takes too long to get there. I really tried, but I don‘t care. Which is a shame, because I really like Callie, Elena and Askok.
The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
DNF at 21%. I found this to be almost unreadable. It took me three attempts to just get past the opening paragraphs. Overly wordy and constructed.
I made the effort to find out more about the events that Bolander took and merged to make her own novelette. Links below. Utterly depressing and horrible.
That combined with the overblown prose results in this: Not my thing. Sorry.
Background of the real-life Radium Girls: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiu…
And details about the real-life elephant Topsy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topsy…
Check out the details at Tor.com: https://publishing.tor.com/theonlyhar…
Lightspeed Magazine, February 2012 by John Joseph Adams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Review for “Her Words Like Hunting Vixens Spring“ by Brooke Bolander, ~14 pages
“The first fox to come clawing up and out of her throat is a sleek gray thing with enormous ears and eyes like drops of crude. (…)
The Day My Beau Tried To Kill Me, September 17th, 1880.“
A story of revenge, Old Wild West style. With the help of a bruja, Rosa has unusual assistants on her hunt for her serial-killing ex-fiancé.
Bolander seems to like mixing her heroines with fantastical beasts.
Enjoyable, easy read. Nothing too surprising. Nice visuals.
Can be read for free here: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fic…
Uncanny Magazine Issue 23: July/August 2018 by Lynne M. Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Review for “The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters, and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat“ by Brooke Bolander
Entertaining take on fairytales, with unusual protagonists.
“Once upon a time, long, long, long, long, long, long, ago, there were three raptor sisters, hatched beneath a lucky star. They lived in a wood together, they stole sheep and cattle together, and all in all, there was no tighter-knit hunting pride of matriarchal dromaeosauridae between the mountains and the sea.“
Nothing too surprising, an easy read. Enjoyable.
Can be read for free here: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/t…
Uncanny Magazine Issue 27: March/April 2019 by Lynne M. Thomas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Review for Taho by D.A. Xiaolin Spires
Poetry. I am woefully under equipped to unterstand it well. Not something I read often. I landed with this story through a bad link and thought… why not?
So, I had to look up stuff….
Kundiman is a genre of traditional Filipino love songs. And Sylvia La Torre is known as the Queen of Kundiman. Listen here: https://youtu.be/qtodF2RV_JU
Arnibal is caramelized brown sugar syrup. Filipino again, I think.
Other than that I have no idea. A bot drives across a Martian landscape with two buckets of food and listens to Filipino love songs… I am stumped.
Did I like it? Well, yes, after the first confusing few lines… Did I understand it? The words, yes. I learned stuff. The meaning, not so much.
Can be read for free here: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/t…
Descender #16 by Jeff Lemire
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Driller‘s story. Driller is a real killer, right? Here you find out why he keeps saying that. Not as funny as you assumed.
Not the most exciting issue, especially as the last one in Volume 3. More backstory on Dirishu. A bit of a filler, that killer. Does not bring the plot forward. Character development on a limited scale.
Artwork was ok, but nowhere near the spectacularly beautiful issue #15.
The Umbrella Academy #0 by Gerard Way
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Gave this free teaser issue a shot, because I keep seeing the TV show. Haven‘t watched it yet. The comic was ok. The art is a bit flat, but nice enough. Too short to really say something about the story. Alas, this proves to me again that I do not really like superheroes.
Descender #15 by Jeff Lemire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Took a break and read some other comics. Coming back to this I have to once again say how stunningly well done the artwork is. The sketching as well as the colouring. The art is—well, very artistic. Great!
And the storytelling is good as well. Andy‘s backstory this time. Although I have to confess I never really got his hatred of the robots. I mean, I understand the reasons intellectually. However, I don‘t think the telling of it works well. Or maybe it‘s just that I do not like it that he hates robots so much.
Nice counterpoint with Effie.
STET by Sarah Gailey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Very different. In a good way. A tragic story told in the footnotes and annotations. Clever. Very relevant topic. I do not have the answer as to what is right or wrong or how the decision should be made.
Can be read for free here: https://firesidefiction.com/stet
If you want to read something unusual once in a while, check it out. Read it online to be able to fully experience the formatting.
STET by Sarah Gailey. Part of my HUGO 2019 reading. 4.5 stars.
The Incal Vol. 6: The Fifth Essence – Planet DiFool by Alejandro Jodorowsky
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I am pretty ambivalent about the whole experience and glad to be done with it. I think I do not like John DiFool much. I pretty much agree with those 78 million…. What a wanker.
The twist at the end was neat and there were some nice panels towards the end.
But mostly I felt very meh and couldn‘t wait to get to the end. The resolution of the storyline was underwhelming. This felt a bit like smoking too much weed and listening to Ravi Shankar‘s Best Of.
Definitely not picking up more of this. Yes, it‘s a classic. And if you are a completionist, have a look at it for the sake of rounding off your experience of European graphic novels. Other than that maybe read the first volume and don‘t bother with the rest.
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publisher of Neon Druid: An Anthology of Urban Celtic Fantasy
Ghostwriter by day, writing about ghosts by night. Mischief-maker-in-chief, Mt. Misery Press. Editor, NEON DRUID: An Anthology of Urban Celtic Fantasy
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