Rick is preparing Alexandria to fight the Whisperers. Practice makes perfect… starting this volume by shooting a lot of walkers. Yikes.
The story progresses nicely. Some of the early artwork did not really convince me though in this issue. Faces were a little messy and overly simplified at times.
Negan is such a nasty piece of work! And then something happens and you think, wow, he is human after all… and then we get that ending. Holy cow. I wonder how that is going to play out in the next volume…
The ending of Volume 24 was a shocker… This one here is more of an in-between volume, getting us ready and building up to whatever comes next. It‘s strong on relationships.
All of them suffering… the emotions come across so well. And Rick doesn‘t seem to be doing anything about it. The others in Alexandrias are not happy. Will Rick come through this crisis and still be the leader?
The relationship between Rick and Michonne is great. And then there is Negan in that basement… Rick‘s evil ace-in-the-hole?
Was Dwight the inspiration for Daryl Dixon in the TV adaptation, any idea?
Good one. Rick was getting too complacent, but that seems to stop here…
Seamless continuation of Volume 22. If you haven‘t read the previous issues, you should stop reading now.
Nice one! Sprinted through this! I am really enjoying this arc. I had a long pause after All Out War, because I was scared that the next story arc wouldn‘t measure up. And because the Whisperers really creep me out! So far, not too creepy. 😳
I still don‘t like Carl. He is one of the most unlikable characters I have ever come across. Is it me? My favourite character of this and the previous issue: Jesus. I like his looks and strength. Maggie is ok. Still haven‘t gotten used to Rick‘s looks and mellowness.
I‘m in new territory now, as I stopped watching TWD on TV during the Negan arc… Looking forward to the next one.
If you haven‘t read the previous issues, I strongly suggest that you stop reading.
“They’ve survived the walkers. Survived war with a ruthless enemy. And now hope for the future emerges. […] In the aftermath of ALL OUT WAR, Rick Grimes and his allies begin to rebuild their communities. But in the world of the dead, tranquility is only temporary. How long will it be before a new, unexpected foe emerges? Find out in A NEW BEGINNING.“
We start of with a herd. And a Rick that looks quite different. On purpose, to become less recognizable, uncomfortable with the hero worship he is faced with. No idea how much time has passed since the end of The Walking Dead, Vol. 21: All Out War Part 2.
Negan is imprisoned in Alexandria. Rick Junior wants to move to The Kingdom to learn a trade and Rick is scared to loose his son. It all seems pretty mundane and fairly peaceful, even with the odd zombies popping up.
A group of survivors shows up and is very suspicious of the idyllic appearance of Alexandria. And someone gets lost on patrol.
Anything else would be too spoilery. If you know the TV series, you know what is coming anyway. A peaceful life is just not on the horizon yet.
Very good start to a new story arc. Good art, well told, quite a cliffhanger.
We owe our good health to a humble parasite – a genetically engineered tapeworm developed by the pioneering SymboGen Corporation. When implanted, the tapeworm protects us from illness, boosts our immune system – even secretes designer drugs. It’s been successful beyond the scientists’ wildest dreams. Now, years on, almost every human being has a SymboGen tapeworm living within them.
But these parasites are getting restless. They want their own lives…and will do anything to get them.
Early on this reminded me a little of Lock In by Scalzi. Although this is not about a pandemic, but about a society that willingly infects itself with a parasite. That tapeworm prevents people from getting sick, prevents allergies and chronic illnesses and even helps with hangovers. Good deal, right?
Sally nearly dies in a car accidents, falls into a coma and eventually is diagnosed as brain dead. Just when her physician tries to convince her family to turn of the machines keeping her alive, she wakes up. But she‘s not Sally anymore. She has lost all of her memories, she can‘t talk or read and has to relearn her mother tongue. Sal makes her way back into a life controlled by her parents and SymboGen, the company that had developed the tapeworm. All seems more or less fine, until people start to sleepwalk…
It was pretty obvious for me what caused Sal‘s dreams and the sleepwalkers. Parasite was a fun novel, but very predictable, with a willfully ignorant main character. 🪱🪱🪱¾
I might pick up the next one in the series… Good audio narration.
Welcome to #6degrees. On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book. I mostly use this meme to work on my backlog, aka reviews that I haven‘t yet posted to my blog here. Or to give myself a reminder of the books on my TBR pile or want-to-read-shelf.
So, as usual, this month starts the chain link with a book I haven‘t read or ever heard about — we begin with Trust by Hernan Diaz. Pretty cover. Is that a snowglobe with a skyscraper inside?
Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the brilliant daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth. But the secrets around their affluence and grandeur incites gossip. Rumors about Benjamin’s financial maneuvers and Helen’s reclusiveness start to spread–all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. At what cost have they acquired their immense fortune?
Trust engages the reader in a quest for the truth while confronting the reality-warping gravitational pull of money and how power often manipulates facts.
Part of the book blurb
Historical fiction, but not necessarily set in an era that I enjoy reading about. I have another book on my shelves though that is titled Trust…
Rowan Gant used to be just an average guy who just happened to be a Witch. However, when the spirits of murder victims found out he could hear them, they started coming to him for help. His life just hasn’t been the same since…
Part of a 10-book series, of which I read 8. Not typical UF, Rowan Gant is a witch in a very contemporary setting. He hears dead people, but there is less magic going on as for example with Harry Dresden. Unusual and I liked it. Maybe one of these days I will get the last two books of this series. Not all witches are enjoyable though. This one didn‘t really do it for me:
Marked for death, Rachel is a dead witch walking unless she can appease her former employers and pay off her contract by exposing the city’s most prominent citizen as a drug lord.
Bottom line, this book was boring and the main character was not interesting. Potential for great world building, but it was not happening. The narrative was flat, not funny and sloooooow and I had the sneaking suspicion that Rachel is really stupid, not just clumsy. It was a major struggle to finish this book and I never picked up another book of this series.
A dead witch walking leads me quite naturally to many other dead walking… a classic by now!
At first I was a bit confused, because Rick didn‘t look like Rick. And then I wanted to smack myself, because the comic came before the TV series. I really like the black-white-and-grey pencil work. Minimalistic, but great in telling the story. Very good artwork. I still haven‘t finished the whole series. Last year I completed volume 21, The Walking Dead, Vol. 21: All Out War Part 2. Still a few volumes to go. I do like Robert Kirkman though, he tells great stories. Another comic on my shelf that he wrote is this…
Mark Grayson is just like most everyone else his age. He’s a senior at a normal American highschool. He has a crappy part time job after school and on weekends. He likes girls quite a bit… but doesn’t quite understand them. He enjoys hanging out with his friends, and sleeping late on Saturdays… at least until the good cartoons come on. The only difference between Mark and everyone else is that his father is the most powerful superhero on the planet, and as of late, he seems to be inheriting his father’s powers. Which sounds okay at first, but how do you follow in your father’s footsteps when you know you will never live up to his standards
Superhero comic with a teenager. Not really my thing. This came as part of a comic bundle, aka a mixed bag. Not sure yet, if this will work for me, but you never know. The subtitle of this comic is „family matters“ — family and those previously mentioned dead lead me down memory lane…
After enduring torture and the loss of loved ones during the brief but deadly Faery War, Sookie Stackhouse is hurt and she’s angry. Just about the only bright spot in her life is the love she thinks she feels for vampire Eric Northman
Remember Sookie Stackhouse? Truly a Blast from the Past! The last one hundred pages or so of this particular one were pretty good. Turns and twists and suspense. The two hundred-odd pages before that were meh. Not good, not bad, they flowed along pleasantly. Not much of a plot, really. Sookie was getting a bit tired by book #10. And I backed myself into a bit of a corner with that last link. Let‘s see…. Faery war… the Fae!?
When her sister is murdered, leaving a single clue to her death–a cryptic message on Mac’s cell phone–Mac journeys to Ireland in search of answers. The quest to find her sister’s killer draws her into a shadowy realm where nothing is as it seems, where good and evil wear the same treacherously seductive mask. She is soon faced with an even greater challenge: staying alive long enough to learn how to handle a power she had no idea she possessed–a gift that allows her to see beyond the world of man, into the dangerous realm of the Fae….
Mac is extremely annoying. Obsessed with pink, nail varnish and silly clothes. Petulant and childish. I would have tossed her and her stupid book over a cliff, if I hadn’t received assurances, that she grows up in consecutive books. The afterword by the author also put my worries to rest (a little).
What I didn’t like either: being told at the end of a chapter (or anywhere, really), what horrible thing might happen to her soon / how irrevocably her life will change or what she will commit, do, not do… It’s a lazy plot device to raise suspense and it made me roll my eyes by the third time the author did it.
I was really uncomfortable with that first scene at the museum and don’t understand, how anybody can find that guy sexy after what he did. There is no coming back from that.
What I did like:
Barrons, although he stays a bit one-dimensional. I hope that’ll change in the coming books.
The writing in general. Good characters (annoying, pink, stupid…), good setting, flows along nicely. I liked the idea of a dark zone. I’ve never been to Dublin, so I don’t have an opion on how well it was described. The world building was not bad, although I could have done with more.
Summarizing the experience: massively annoying female main character. Barrons has potential, but remained a bit flat. Good story, bit flat as well. Kept me hooked, I will definitely read the next one, in the hopes that plot, characters and world-building pick up a notch in the next books. Would recommend it.
PS: I gave up on this series after the first chapter of the third book. The MC was just too silly.
This special Artist Proof edition collects the monumental ALL OUT WAR story arc all in one volume as seen through artist CHARLIE ADLARD’s raw pencils. Read the story in a whole new way, never before collected together in one single volume. Collects THE WALKING DEAD #115-126.
Part 1 — Rick versus Negan with a little help from everyone else. Things do not go well.
Part 2 — The quiet before the storm. Our bunch of heroes draw back and consolidate in the Hilltop and prepare… They don‘t have to wait long for Negan to show up. Kaboom, boss fight!
In my review of the first part of All Out War I wrote that maybe the artwork was getting sloppier. Flipping through the pages of this artist‘s version, purely done as pencil sketches, I have to say that the sketches are very good and I might actually like this better than the inked version.
I wonder what comes next? Well, I have a vague idea from peeking at some episodes of the later TWD seasons. We‘ll see.
Our bunch of heroes draw back and consolidate in the Hilltop and prepare… They don‘t have to wait long for Negan to show up. Kaboom, boss fight!
Motherfuck, there is a lot of god damn swearing in this fucking thing. I don‘t generally mind, but even I think that this is a bit over the top.
This volume collects The Walking Dead #121-126.
This is now all past the point where I stopped watching the TV series. I am tempted to go back and pick it up again in… season 6, I think.
And now what? Before I delve into A New Beginning, I will skim through The Walking Dead: All Out War AP Edition: “This special Artist Proof edition collects the monumental ALL OUT WAR story arc all in one volume as seen through artist CHARLIE ADLARD’s raw pencils. Read the story in a whole new way, never before collected together in one single volume.“
Cathy's Reading Bonanza 