Review – Ms Marvel: No Normal

Posted November 10, 2014 by in Reviews / 2 Comments

Ms Marvel: No Normal, G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona

I’m going to pretend I haven’t seen/read the comments and reviews that basically boil down to “a Muslim American can’t be a superhero, and because this story is about a Muslim American teen, it’s not really a superhero book”. Despite the fact that in many ways, this is Spider-man: family issues, school issues, identity issues, except it happens to be a female character who also happens to be a person of colour and a Muslim. There is nothing in the set of issues here that wouldn’t be right at home wearing a different mask in Spider-man. He spends just as much time building up to getting the costume, just as much time or more actually becoming a superhero.

I did find that this TPB stopped just where I wanted things to really begin for Kamala. It’s a little too short, not giving me enough to really hold onto. I like Kamala, I like her family, I like the quirks of the art and what we’ve seen so far — I just haven’t seen enough yet to know how much I’m going to like it. This TPB is really just an origin story, and we have yet to see Kamala meet the wider world.

It’s great as an origin story, but I’m not hooked yet.

And before you ask, Spidey took me a while too.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Marvel

Review – The Sleeper and the Spindle

Posted November 9, 2014 by in Reviews / 5 Comments

The Sleeper and the Spindle, Neil Gaiman, Chris Riddell

The Sleeper and the Spindle is a gorgeous book: the illustrations are all in black and gold, and there are some really beautiful pages. Riddell was just the right illustrator to bring the story to life, I think. The copy I have is really great: the dust cover is transparent, with the pattern of roses on it; the cover of the book itself is the sleeping woman.

If you know Neil Gaiman’s work, the rest of this is perhaps not surprising. It takes both Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, and puts them in a unified world that is a little darker, a little different, a little more mature than the sanitised stories we see so much of now. This ain’t Disney. It’s still a fairytale, but it’s something different, too — something a little bit creepy, even.

The LGBT representation that I have seen this book being lauded for is… not exactly. There’s one kiss which appears to be so if you see the illustration on its own — and it’s a gorgeous illustration — but it doesn’t mean what it seems to mean, in context. Which is a little bit of a cop-out, really, since there’s excitement around this book on the back of it.

But really, romance isn’t at the heart of this fairytale. A search for autonomy is really what’s going on; a shrugging away from the familiar fairytale ‘happy ever after’.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Neil Gaiman

On Requires Hate

Posted November 8, 2014 by in General / 0 Comments

Shortly after I created this blog, there was a whole kerfuffle on Goodreads and Twitter about reviewers who noted author behaviour in their reviews. There were many sides to the argument, about whether it was fair to judge the book by the author’s behaviour, whether these people were becoming as bad as the behaviour they were calling out, etc. I generally occupied a medium ground: I won’t buy anything by Orson Scott Card, but I did really enjoy Ender’s Game back when I read that. Given authors’ expressed attitudes to homosexuality, race, gender, mental health issues, etc, I’ve quietly avoided some of them, even if I’ve thought before their work was pretty good.

I don’ Cover of The Archer Who Shot Down Suns by Benjanun Sriduangkaew t think any of it has ever been on the scale of Benjanun Sridungkaew, aka Winterfox, Requires Hate, etc. I was interested in reading her work and I’ve included her book covers in a fairly recent Stacking the Shelves post. I didn’t know about her other identities then. I’m sorry if that gave anyone any unpleasantness: I didn’t know.

I did actually come across Winterfox back on LiveJournal, and because I’m an unabashed fan of N.K. Jemisin, I caught the edge of some of the hate. Never anything particularly severe, but enough that I dropped out of s Cover of Scale Bright by Benjanun Sriduangkaew ome communities, avoided participating. I didn’t really know back then the sheer scale of what was happening, but there’s no excuse now. There’s a report here which I suggest you read, in that it relies on data as best as possible, and presents evidence, etc. It definitely contains a lot of graphic threats of violence quoted from the original blog, however, so be warned.

I’m not saying Benjanun Sridungkaew’s apology isn’t genuine, because I can’t judge that. Maybe she’s trying to atone for the harm she’s done, even. I haven’t seen that, either. I’m not saying other people have to make the same decision, publicly or privately. I do know that I remember the bullying tactics, and I’m not going to read Benjanun’s work. It sounds great, it sounds right up my alley, but I can’t maintain interest in the face of the behaviour described in the report. I can always go back to it if circumstances change, but as of right now I’m drawing a line.

If you’ve been targeted by Requires Hate, then let me say: I believe you, I hear you, we’re with you now.

Tags: books

Review – Fangirl

Posted November 8, 2014 by in Reviews / 9 Comments

Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell

I have some friends with reservations about Fangirl, and then there’s lots of people who think it’s the best thing since sliced bread. It took me a while to read it because of that, but I think on balance I like it a lot. The primary thing I enjoy is that it involves neuroatypical people; Cath’s anxiety, her dad’s bipolar, Wren’s potential alcoholism. It feels true to life in the way the twins grow apart and come back together, in the way university life works. I’ve totally been with Cath, eating energy bars instead of finding the cafeteria, talking to people online instead of going out and enjoying the fun.

One thing that does bother me is the characters who try to drag Cath out of herself like it’s that easy. Reagan mentions medication once, but after that there’s no indication that Cath gets therapy or any kind of substantive help with her issues. She’s just kind of friended-and-boyfriended out of it to a large extent, which — I’m not going to say it’s impossible, but when I was in Cath’s position, it took medication and therapy as well as the friends.

Also, Levi’s “nice guy” thing was just — ick. I mean, in many ways he seems like a genuinely nice guy, but then he admits he was doing the whole nice guy thing to try and get Cath to date him. And he wouldn’t respect her wishes about her name or letting her carry her own damn laundry, so how I’m supposed to believe he respected her about anything else, I’m not entirely sure. You’re not such a nice guy if you’re trying to be a nice guy to make a girl like you, you know? And that aspect didn’t fit with the rest of Levi, who seemed too good to be true in many ways — the kind of guy who rescues kittens from trees and helps old ladies cross the road.

Anyway, most of the scenes between Levi and Cath are really well done: early awkwardness, the slow evolution of their relationship, even the misunderstandings — which normally really annoy me in romantic stories. I did feel that their relationship was real, even if Levi himself was a little too good to be true.

I do still really like the way Rowell writes; it’s really easy to just settle into, nothing pretentiously getting in the way of reading it, nothing trying to be too flowery. And the excerpts of fanfiction and “Gemma Leslie”‘s work made me smile; Rowell does understand fandom, as was also clear when I went to her talk/signing, and she gets the comfort and excitement of that online community just right.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, Rainbow Rowell

Stacking the Shelves

Posted November 8, 2014 by in General / 28 Comments

It’s been a very acquisitive week for me, even though I keep telling myself I mustn’t go over 365 books bought this year. Not that my book-buying urge has ever listening to such logical things, so there y’go. There’s been a fair amount of yarn buying, too, so I am predictably pretty broke already, even though it’s just the first week of November. Anyway! Some awesome stuff, this week.

Review copies

I was actually kindly lent a print copy of The Just City, which is in my Top Ten Books I Don’t Own and Want To Read post, by Robert. Then naturally Tor approved me for the ARC on Netgalley as well, even though they’ve never approved my requests before… Ah well, I’ll probably read the print copy anyway. I’ve heard mixed things about Robin LaFevers, but I thought I’d try. And queer fairy tales are right up my street.

Print books

I couldn’t resist getting The Sleeper and the Spindle, especially because of some of the art I’ve seen inside it. Claire North is apparently another pseudonym of Catherine Webb/Kate Griffin, whose work I’ve been following since she published her first novel. Excited! The other stuff is a mixture of random choice and stuff I’ve been meaning to pick up. I had an ARC of Elizabeth of York, and my guilt induced me to finally just buy it…

Anyway, as this goes live I’ll be heading out to the local Comic-Con. Looking forward to seeing what the dealers have! What’s everyone else been getting?

Tags: books, Jo Walton, Neil Gaiman, Stacking the Shelves

Review – Red She-Hulk: Hell Hath No Fury

Posted November 7, 2014 by in Reviews / 0 Comments

Red She-Hulk: Hell Hath No Fury, Jeff Parker, Carlo Pagulayan, Wellington Alves

Hell Hath No Fury is a pretty fun story. I haven’t read anything that actually used Betty Ross before now, except I think she was in a Hulk comic I read for a few pages. This gives her a story of her own, one that doesn’t revolve around Bruce Banner, and though I’m not fond of the way this plot talks about Bruce/Hulk (as becoming nothing more than a monster), her issues and her mission are pretty interesting. I don’t think I’ve read anything using Aaron Stack/the android X-51 before, and he’s pretty interesting too: an android more advanced than Ultron and the Vision.

Despite the fact that this is issues #58-62 of Red She-Hulk, it’s easy enough to follow what’s happening. There’s a quick summary of who Betty is and how she Hulked out at the beginning, and the other mysteries explain themselves as you go along. Aaron is pretty self-explanatory, too. I think this works without reference to any other arcs and storylines, beyond the background knowledge about Betty Ross’ relationship to Bruce Banner.

The Avengers also have their moment here; it’s a little funny how Red She-Hulk can so easily defeat them; it’s like Marvel making Betty more powerful than all of them combined, which I’m not entirely sure she’s meant to be. Mind you, she’s got the body of a Hulk and the mind of Betty Ross, so she’s subtler than the original Hulk, more able to strategise. Anyway, the Avengers’ appearance and banter is fun, and I like seeing Cap making the tough decisions with the data he has — it’s the wrong decision, but he can’t know that. He just does the best he can.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Marvel

Review – The Sundial

Posted November 6, 2014 by in Reviews / 2 Comments

The Sundial, Shirley Jackson

The pleasure of reading The Sundial is in the quality of Jackson’s prose, the cleverness of the way she does character and plot through dialogue or limited narration, the way she can take almost any scene and infuse it with that little frission of dread and foreboding. I’m not as much a fan of it as I am of We Have Always Lived in the Castle, though there are commonalities; most of the characters are detestable, which is not something I get along with, and all but one or two are quite weak personalities, which means they don’t act much versus a single powerful character — which makes that character repellently appealing, but makes the rest of them seem pretty insipid.

Overall, it’s never clear whether this is meant to be horror, literary, fantasy/spec fic, whatever. It can be what you want it to be. What it is really is a story about people and the way they act and react, and how difficult it would be to find people who are really worthy of inheriting a new world. You don’t have to accept that the world is really ending, only that the characters believe so.

As you’d expect, there’s also a fine sense of place; the Hallorans’ home is a character in the story too. There’s a lot of description of it, which is all revealing of character and the history of the family, but if you don’t have the patience for it, that might seem quite slow.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, classics, Shirley Jackson

What are you reading Wednesday

Posted November 5, 2014 by in General / 2 Comments

What have you recently finished reading?
Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell, which I mostly enjoyed with some mixed feelings, and The Sleeper and the Spindle, by Neil Gaiman, which has really beautiful art. Reviews of both will, of course, be forthcoming.

What are you currently reading?
The Just City, by Jo Walton. I’m about a third of the way into it now, and very engrossed, although it is driving me to want to find my old copy of The Republic and read up on what it says about art, given the art-focus of several characters. (I mean, I distinctly recall it being rather dismissive of any mimetic art, and sculpture and painting of the human form are definitely that?) Also, I keep peeking at the back for the list of who the characters were as historical figures, and poking through their Wikipedia pages. I feel rather history-deficient about some of them, and I studied Classics and Philosophy!

What are you going to read next?
I should get on with Mary Stewart’s Merlin books, so that’s The Hollow Hills. I’ve also got endless amounts of ARCs to catch up with, of course, so there should be something from that list — Alan Bradley, perhaps.

Comics-wise, I still have Ms Marvel: No Normal and Captain Marvel: Higher, Faster, Further, More to read, so I’m sure they’re coming up soon. And the Black Widow comic, and the Kate Bishop as Hawkeye comic, and… yeah.

Tags: books, comics, Jo Walton, Marvel, Mary Stewart, Neil Gaiman, Rainbow Rowell

Review – She-Hulk: Law and Disorder

Posted November 5, 2014 by in Reviews / 2 Comments

She-Hulk: Law and Disorder, Charles Soule, Javier Pullido, Ron Wemberly

I’ve been meaning to try some She-Hulk comics for a while, so Charles Soule’s Law and Disorder seemed like a good place to start. And it was: it’s not part of some big overarching plot, although Jen remains part of the superhero world, with super clients, a formerly super-landlady, and apparently a super paralegal as well. Several heroes (and villains) make their appearance, including Daredevil, Tigra, Hellcat and Dr Doom.

It’s a fun book, altogether, introducing what is obviously a story arc for Jen in the form of a mysterious file connected to reality-warping magic (can I just briefly hope that Dr Strange can’t help and instead Jen needs to speak to Billy Kaplan?) as well as the self-contained story of trying to get Dr Doom’s son political asylum. There’s plenty of female characters as well as Jen, and she is in doubt about her worth as a person, an attorney and a superhero. It’s pretty great, reading a book with such a confident female character.

I’m not an enormous fan of the art in this book; Pulido’s work is okay, but not really to my taste, and Wemberly’s art just looks dreadful to me. You get used to it, but it’s still a style I really don’t enjoy.

Overall, though, it’s a fun book, and I’ll be picking up more She-Hulk.

Rating: 4/5

Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Marvel

Review – Pretty Deadly

Posted November 4, 2014 by in Reviews / 0 Comments

Pretty Deadly, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Emma Rios

I’m having a bit of a hard time with this book. I didn’t find it as confusing as many other people seemed to, but I do feel that there wasn’t much to grab hold of. It felt like set-up, something that might’ve been better as a flashback in an established comic, because you get the feeling that the important stuff is yet to come. And worse, you don’t get much of a grasp on character — it’s like a myth in that sense, but there’s also the Wild West vibe and other stuff going on that makes me feel like it should be more than something pretty and mythic. I mean, we know what Deathface Ginny is by the end of this, but we have no freaking idea who she is. Allegiances and relationships and characters are all unclear.

Visually, it’s a stunning comic. I’m not a great fan of Emma Rios, usually; I really didn’t like the work she did on Captain Marvel. This worked better for me, though, and there’s some amazing pages here. They can be a bit crowded, though — full of panels, and very little script and explanation.

Overall I think it’s a cool idea and a cool team — I am a fan of Kelly Sue, and Rios’ style does look good here! — but I think it needed to be tightened up, pruned, written differently. I don’t know if I’ll read more of Pretty Deadly; I think I might look for like-minded reviews and see what they’re saying when there’s another TPB out. Deathface Ginny could be really, really cool, but there’s so little of substance here.

Rating: 3/5

Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Kelly Sue DeConnick