Not so much…

Watchmen by Alan Moore
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Chapter 1 ★★½☆☆

Wild colour scheme! So what do we have here? Drop from a high building? Was he pushed? Murder? Burglary? Who knows!

It‘s colourful. Weirdly so. People are unlikeable and mostly nasty. Rorschach is despicable.
A murder mystery with forcefully retired superheroes?

Chapter 2 ★★½☆☆

Flashback and more unpleasantness. Ok, the alternate timeline has potential… but didn‘t go anywhere…

Chapter 3 ★★☆☆☆

So far it‘s all set-up of some nasty and despicable people without any redeeming features. I don‘t know why I should care.

I get the general direction of the story and I vaguely like the idea of a story within a story and the various hints and glimpses of half hidden things here and there, still… after finishing chapter three I feel no great interest in continuing this graphic novel.

Chapter 4 ★★★★☆

Well, ok, Dr. Manhattan‘s story, the various timeline, his fluid perception thereof, the story of Jon and Janey and the accident — that was pretty good.

The ending of that chapter leaves things wide open — at least a reason to continue now.

P.S.: I am not reading the full text parts at the end of each chapter.

Chapter 5 ★★★☆☆

It’s night. There is an intruder downstairs in your house. You get your gun, go downstairs and the first place you check…

…is inside your fridge???

The colours are eye-watering on ocassion. I wonder what the point is of the sub-story with the ship-wrecked sailor? Should I have recognized Rorschach without his mask? Well, I didn‘t. The story was ok-ish.

Chapter 6 ★★★☆☆

Ok, wasn‘t supposed to recognize Rorschach without the mask, I think. Here is his backstory. Depressing, unsettling stuff.

Chapter 7, 8 and 9 mostly ★★☆☆☆ and a brief ★★★★☆

Nite Owl and Laurie, some Rorschach, pretty much lost interest… skimming… Dr. Manhatten appears and we see some watchmen whose name I forgot.

This is not for me. Half of this thing is backstory and build-up, the colours are garish, the characters are horrible people. Yes, smart, lots of hints and clues and… whatever! How many more boring chapters are there?

I realize that this is considered an iconic and groundbreaking graphic novel, but I am just not entertained. I need someone I can identify with, not just a bunch of callous people without humour or a moral compass. Plus, did I mention the garish colours?

Ok, Jon is mildly entertaining and sometimes something comes along that is almost pretty in a Moebius kind of way… who was earlier and proves that there was truly iconic and groundbreaking stuff before this…

Obviously, as soon as I start bitching about this, something interesting happens and I come across some good panels. Great ending to chapter 9.

Chapter 10

I am basically mostly skimming at this point, reading bits here and there. So, am I being set-up or is the really bad guy who they are insinuating? (view spoiler)[I mean the dude in the golden outfit with the cat-thing… (hide spoiler)]

The Davidstown storyline is not bad.

Chapter 11

And I am skimming. Bam, disaster strikes… Yep, that‘s what I thought. Could‘ve only been him..

Chapter 12

Yikes! Pretty bad in a very Technicolor way… or not…?

Thank goodness, I skimmed my way to the end. Yes, I missed a lot by doing that, but I lost interest. This did not do it for me. Great stuff, if you like it, I am sure.

I might have a look at this for enlightenment at some point:
…don‘t spoil yourself! You have been warned…

https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Watchmen/

Still those pesky vampires…

Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The beginning of this is almost word for word the same as the end of the previous book. Which is odd, when reading them back to back.

Still trouble with Marsilia and her seethe. Developments with Stefan and a warming up of the relationship with Adam. We have more of the Walking Stick and Mercy practicing her skills as a Walker. This time she is off to Spokane about some ghost. Things happen that make it worse, as they tend to do with Mercy, and there is a vampire that is even scarier than Marsilia. Good fun, especially the finale.

————
Reading order and progress of my chronological Mercyverse re-read:
–
Moon Called
, ★★★★★, Mercy #1
– extra–
Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson: Moon Called Vol. 1
, ★★★☆☆, comic adaptation of the same…
–
Alpha & Omega
, ★★★★☆, Alpha & Omega #0.5
–
Cry Wolf
, ★★★★☆, Alpha & Omega #1
–
Hunting Ground
, ★★★★☆, Alpha & Omega #2
–
Blood Bound
, ★★★★★, Mercy #2
– Iron Kissed , ★★★★★, Mercy #3
– Bone Crossed , ★★★★★, Mercy #4
– Silver Borne, ★★★★★, Mercy #5, next…

Complete time-line for the “Mercyverse”, including the short stories:
http://www.patriciabriggs.com/books/t…
————

1st read in 2009:

Good fun. Mercy finally decided between her two potential boyfriends and life could be good, if that pesky vampire wasn’t after her. The usual mayhem, lots of action, witty banter.

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So far, so meh…

Watchmen by Alan Moore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Chapter 1 ★★½☆☆

Wild colour scheme! So what do we have here? Drop from a high building? Was he pushed? Murder? Burglary? Who knows!

It‘s colourful. Weirdly so. People are unlikeable and mostly nasty. Rorschach is despicable.
A murder mystery with forcefully retired superheroes?

Chapter 2 ★★½☆☆

Flashback and more unpleasantness. Ok, the alternate timeline has potential… but didn‘t go anywhere…

Chapter 3 ★★☆☆☆

So far it‘s all set-up of some nasty and despicable people without any redeeming features. I don‘t know why I should care.

I get the general direction of the story and I vaguely like the idea of a story within a story and the various hints and glimpses of half hidden things here and there, still… after finishing chapter three I feel no great interest in continuing this graphic novel.

Chapter 4 ★★★★☆

Well, ok, Dr. Manhattan‘s story, the various timeline, his fluid perception thereof, the story of Jon and Janey and the accident — that was pretty good.

The ending of that chapter leaves things wide open — at least a reason to continue now.

P.S.: I am not reading the full text parts at the end of each chapter.

Chapter 5 ★★★☆☆

It’s night. There is an intruder downstairs in your house. You get your gun, go downstairs and the first place you check…

…is inside your fridge???

The colours are eye-watering on ocassion. I wonder what the point is of the sub-story with the ship-wrecked sailor? Should I have recognized Rorschach without his mask? Well, I didn‘t. The story was ok-ish.

Chapter 6 next…

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Meh?

Watchmen by Alan Moore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Chapter 1

Wild colour scheme! So what do we have here? Drop from a high building? Was he pushed? Murder? Burglary? Who knows!

It‘s colourful. Weirdly so. People are unlikeable and mostly nasty. Rorschach is despicable.
A murder mystery with forcefully retired superheroes?

Chapter 2 next…

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Not a fairytale

Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

‘You need to choose,’ he told me intently. ‘Adam or Samuel or neither. But you can’t keep them dangling.’

They keep dangling for a while. But it‘s not as painful as I remember it. I actually like Samuel so far. Mostly. The resolution of this particular dilemma is anticlimactic.

Mercy is still dealing with some of the things she stuck her paws into in the previous books…

It was Adam’s trouble that had started everything. Then I’d owed the vampires for helping me with Adam’s problems. Clearing that up had left me indebted to the fae.

So, this time around we get to know the fae much better and finally make a trip to the Walla Walla reservation. As scary supernatural beings go, I think the vampires were much scarier, especially Marsilia. The fae are supposed to be, but it‘s all vague and a little nondescript and shrouded in mystery. Ok, the reservation is pretty cool. And the Fideal was fun in a nasty way.

The latter part of the book goes to a place the usual UF doesn‘t tend to go. The horrible thing that happens is not graphic (luckily) and happens mostly in the off. I am still mulling over the aftermath and if I like what Briggs did with it. I am not quite buying it.

On the lighter side of things, in this issue we meet my favourite non-sentient being… thing… item of power… The Walking Stick. I love it. Him? Feels like a him.

Considering that I couldn‘t put this down and read half the night on a work night, this deserves 5 stars from me, same as the first time around.

————
Reading order and progress of my chronological Mercyverse re-read:
–
Moon Called
, ★★★★★, 1st Mercy novel
– extra–
Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson: Moon Called Vol. 1
, ★★★☆☆, comic adaptation of the same…
–
Alpha & Omega
, ★★★★☆, novella, start of the Alpha & Omega spin-off
–
Cry Wolf
, ★★★★☆, 1st Alpha & Omega novel
–
Hunting Ground
, ★★★★☆, 2nd Alpha & Omega novel
–
Blood Bound
, ★★★★★, 2nd Mercy novel
– Iron Kissed , ★★★★★, 3rd Mercy novel
– Bone Crossed next…

Complete time-line for the “Mercyverse”, including the short stories:
http://www.patriciabriggs.com/books/t…

————
First read in 2008:

Zee is arrested as a murder suspect. Mercy tries everything to help her old boss. Not a favourite move with the resident fairy community. And on top of that she’s having major relationship problems — it looks as if it’s high time to decide between Samuel or Adam.
Very entertaining, the third book in this series is still going strong. Not as good as the Kitty Norville books, but a very close contender.

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Howling mad

Full Moon City by Martin H. Greenberg
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“The children of the night. What music they make.“

“I Was a Middle-Age Werewolf”, Ron Goulart, ★★★★★
Hollywood. My kind of humour. Funny. I am envisioning Michael Douglas in the lead and Alan Arkin as Hersh, aka The Kominsky Method with werewolves.

“Kitty Learns the Ropes”, Carrie Vaughn, ★★★★☆
This story is most likely the reason I got this anthology five years ago. Well, Carrie Vaughn can write, she‘s proven that often enough. This was easy to read , especially because I have read the whole Kitty Norville series and it‘s one of my favourite UF series. Maybe it is time for a re-read.

“The Bitch”, P. D. Cacek, ★★★★☆
Story about a bothersome and creepy ex-lover. Oh, that was unexpected! How fun! I am a big fan of doing something differently and this surprised me. Checked out the author, did not see anything that grabbed me.

“La Lune T’attend”, Peter S. Beagle, ★★★★☆
Good world-building and character development. I liked the setting. It felt like a much longer story through what it conveyed. Sad, but powerful ending.

“The Aarne-Thompson Classification Revue “, Holly Black, ★★★★☆
Third person present tense, urgh. I don‘t like it. Never mind. We are auditioning for a musical!

“Being a werewolf is like being Clark Kent, except that when you go into the phone booth, you can‘t control what comes out.“

Sweet, a little sad, made me smile. What a werewolf girl wants. Good! Checked out the author, all YA—not my genre…

“Kvetchula’s Daughter”, Darrell Schweitzer, ★★★¾☆
Jiddish vampires in New York. Lots of kvetching. Mildly amusing. Where are the werewolves, you ask? Oy vey.

“The Bank Job”, Gregory Frost, ★★★¾☆
Well-written, good story. Good pacing, nice level of suspense. Fairly predictable. Will check out the author.

“A Most Unusual Greyhound”, a Harry the Book Story, Mike Resnick, ★★★½☆
Amusing. What is a werewolf to do to make some money? Slightly odd tense and grammar in general. Possibly on purpose, but it threw me off.

“Sea Warg”, Tanith Lee, ★★★☆☆
“Now the boats put off from the west end of Sandbourne, or at least they did so when the rest of Europe allowed it.“
What did we do? Did Brexit start in 2010 and I missed it?

I could swear I read some novels written by her, but for the life of me can’t recall their titles or plot. I only found a short story collection I DNFd.

Hm, interesting. Hadn‘t expected that ending. Well, that was mean. And Johnson is a very creepy character.

“And Bob’s Your Uncle”, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, ★★★☆☆
Sad boy meets mysterious, but cute black dog. Promising beginning, but didn‘t turn into much.

“The Truth About Werewolves”, Lisa Tuttle, ★★¾☆☆
Unusual take on werewolves. I disliked the female MC for her dishonesty. She felt like a hypocrite to me, especially after disrespecting the Chihuahua woman for „shopping“ and then doing the exact same thing.

“Weredog of Bucharest”, Ian Watson, ★★☆☆☆
A murder investigation and a crime writer observing. Ponderous, overly explanatory, superfluous details. The author seemed very eager to show us little details of Romanian life, perhaps trying to create atmosphere? Unsatisfying, with a lame ending.

“Innocent”, Gene Wolfe, ★☆☆☆☆
Weird. Guy in prison tells a priest about his life. The story only consists of his side of a dialogue.

“No Children, No Pets”, Esther M. Friesner, ★☆☆☆☆
Another odd one, about a werewolf child of six living in Central Park. Humorous writing, I suppose. Not my thing.

“Country Mothers’ Sons”, Holly Phillips, ★☆☆☆☆
When I started, the slow moving, very descriptive prose had me interested. It never went anywhere though and I lost that little spark. Suggestive, but ultimately pointless.

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The Empire of Pajan…

The Complete Okko by Hub
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Cycle of Water ★★★★☆

Okko the ronin heads a small group of demon hunters… Noburo, a mysterious giant who hides his face behind a red oni mask, and the whimsical monk Noshin, the saké lover with the power to summon and commune with the spirits of nature.

The young fisherman Tikku enlists the group’s help in finding his sister, the geisha Little Carp, who was kidnapped by pirates…

Pretty cool. The beginning was confusing, but the plot developed quite nicely and I like the very colourful artwork. I was satisfied with the story, including the cliffhanger.

At the end, Tikku joins Okko, Noburo and Noshin on their travels, to hunt (their personal) demons…

I wonder, what Noburo hides under that mask?

The Cycle of Earth ★★¾☆☆

Takes a little longer to get going. And there is a lot of traveling from one monastery to the next and the next and the next…. which is actually quite amusing.

The story telling is too wordy and the artwork is sometimes really tiny. I lost interest in the story towards the end. The bad guys were nicely evil, but it was all a bit pointless.

The Cycle of Air Part One ★★★★☆

Ok, that was not confusing at all….

The Cycle of Air Part Two ★★★★½

The boys are not having a good time. Appendages are lost. Ropes are tied. Hm. The plot was good. Nice action, some mystery, some humour, something shocking. Not sure I really got the ending. Why so happy?

The Cycle of Fire Part One ★★★☆☆

Ok. Not sure if it was me or if that story was a little allover the place?

The Cycle of Fire Part Two ★★★½☆

Continuation of the previous issue. The art is still nice, the changing POVs do not make it easy to keep track of what is going on.

The Cycle of Fire is basically a major conspiracy story. Smartly done actually, once you figure it out.

The Cycle of Emptiness Part One ★★★★☆
The Cycle of Emptiness Part Two ★★★½☆

Backstory! Interesting! And as in the previous issues quite a bit of gratuitous violence.

Finally done. Hm. There was closure to it all, the loose ends were tied up. The artwork was good. Unfortunately the characters were pretty unlikeable and the main character Okko was a pretty horrible person. Did he really want or find redemption? Not sure. What am I to make of that last panel showing his face?

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Vampire stuff

Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is where Mercy‘s story gets really interesting for me.

“I was already a freak, a shapeshifter not tied to the moon who turned into a coyote. Neither human nor werewolf nor fae. I didn’t like thinking I might be even odder than I’d thought.“

I like the plot of this second Mercy novel. It‘s believable and doesn‘t feel as convoluted as the Alpa & Omega novels I read before this. The plot makes sense. The vampires are scary.

The beginning was a little too much recounting and summarizing of the first book for my taste.

And, again, amazing how little I remembered of the story!

What Samuel and Stefan go through and how they interact with Mercy also works for me. I get it. Stefan, not so much, he seems to be a little arbitrary. But I enjoyed this enough to stick to my previous 5-star rating. I loved Ms. Hanna!

————
Chronological reading order and progress for my Mercyverse re-read:
–
Moon Called
, ★★★★★, 1st Mercy novel
– extra–
Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson: Moon Called Vol. 1
, ★★★☆☆, comic adaptation of the same…
–
Alpha & Omega
, ★★★★☆, novella, start of the Alpha & Omega spin-off
–
Cry Wolf
, ★★★★☆, 1st Alpha & Omega novel
–
Hunting Ground
, ★★★★☆, 2nd Alpha & Omega novel
–
Blood Bound
, ★★★★★, 2nd Mercy novel
– Iron Kissed next…

Complete time-line for the “Mercyverse”, including the short stories:
http://www.patriciabriggs.com/books/t…
————

1st time read, 2008:

Mercy is special. She’s not a shapeshifter from the old world, but rather a walker from the new one. And as such vampires don’t hold a thrall over her. Good enough for her undead friend to take her along to a possibly dangerous meeting with the new vampire in town. She’s going undercover, too, as her shapeshifted self – a coyote.
Obviously things go downhill quickly from there and get messy. Very entertaining, read it on a weekend on my sofa, couldn’t put it down! Second in series.

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Fae sh*t!

Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Parts of the plot are a little silly. Yes, again, I did not remember a thing about it…

Charles oscillates between love sick and scary überwolf. Anna works on her scared wererabbit persona. Jean is the one-dimensional evil dude without character development. I kept mixing up and confusing Arthur and Angus.

There were some fun parts, overall it was very entertaining, especially the last chapters. Again a little convoluted, I didn‘t really buy the bad guy and had pretty much forgotten his motives the moment I finished the book. Ok, it came back to me after thinking about it pretty hard…

As for the rating… that kept moving around 3.5 and not quite 5, from silly plot to unputdownable action sequences. So it goes down to 4 stars.

————
Chronological reading order and progress for my Mercyverse re-read:
–
Moon Called
, ★★★★★, 1st Mercy novel
– extra–
Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson: Moon Called Vol. 1
, ★★★☆☆, comic adaptation of the same…
–
Alpha & Omega
, ★★★★☆, novella, start of the Alpha & Omega spin-off
–
Cry Wolf
, ★★★★☆, 1st Alpha and Omega novel
–
Hunting Ground
, ★★★★ ☆, 2nd Alpha and Omega novel
– Blood Bound next Mercy novel…

Complete time-line for the “Mercyverse”, including the short stories:
http://www.patriciabriggs.com/books/t…

————
Original snippet from 2010:
Great fun, loved it! Maybe even more than the first one in this new series by Patricia Briggs.

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The moon called again

Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

‘His eyes lit for a minute. ‘Mercedes the Volkswagen mechanic?’ His face closed down quickly, and he mumbled, ‘Sorry. Bet you’ve heard that a lot.’‘

It‘s been over 10 years since I read this for the first time. It is a good reminder of all the little details I forgot. Hair colours, eye colours, who is who, who did what when and why…

Never mind not remembering the actual plot. At all. The resolution of the whodunnit at the end revealed a pretty convoluted plot.

Still liked it after all this time.

————
Chronological reading order for my Mercyverse re-read:
(1st time readers should start with Moon Called)
– Silver, novella, not read, part of Shifting Shadows: Stories From the World of Mercy Thompson, might read later.
–
Homecoming
, comic, ★☆☆☆☆, skipping
– Gray, short, not read, part of Shifting Shadows
– Fairy Gifts, short, not read, part of Shifting Shadows
– Seeing eye, short, not read, part of Shifting Shadows
–
Moon Called
, ★★★★★, 1st Mercy novel
– extra–
Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson: Moon Called Vol. 1
, ★★★☆☆, comic adaptation of the beginning of the first Mercy Thompson novel.
–
Alpha & Omega
, ★★★★☆, novella, start of the Alpha & Omega spin-off
–
Cry Wolf
, ★★★★☆, first full-length novel in the Alpha and Omega series
– Hunting Ground, second novel in the Alpha and Omega series, next… and with this I am back on track in the correct reading order.

Time-line for the “Mercyverse”:
http://www.patriciabriggs.com/books/t…

————
Original review from the 1st read in 2007:

How refreshing, the shapeshifting heroine is not a werewolf for a change, but a coyote! And she’s almost a normal girl from next door with her job as a car mechanic. Ok, so the guy who fancies her is the alpha of the local werewolves and her old boss is a gremlin. And that other bloke that keeps coming over is a vampire…. Life is not perfect. But cheeck-in tongue and a page turner with Mercy Thompson. First in the series.

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