Posted June 2, 2015 by Nicky in General / 15 Comments
This week’s theme is books you’d like to see as movies/tv shows. The proviso here is that I would want appropriate casting, e.g. not a white man for Ged or Patriot.
- A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula Le Guin. Shush. There hasn’t been one. Doesn’t exist.
- Captain Marvel. Sooner than planned, please. And keep in the recent bit about her dating Rhodey!
- Young Avengers. You’ve got all the ingredients ready, Marvel. Dooo iiiiiittttt.
- Throne of Glass, Sarah J. Maas. It could be really epic, and it’d require a female lead who could do stunts and would need a good range of acting skills.
- A Natural History of Dragons, Mary Brennan. I’m not sure how well it’d translate to the big screen, but again, it’d require a female lead and it’d be a little bit like Walking With Dinosaurs, only dragons and fiction.
- The Winter King, Bernard Cornwell. Do Arthur right!
- Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay. In the right hands, it would be beautiful.
- Sunshine, Robin McKinley. Female lead who is both a reluctant hero type and a baker. Interesting vampire lore, gorgeous imagery. It’d be amazing, right?
- Farthing, Jo Walton. Could serve as a timely warning to a country embracing conservatism right now, too.
- Bloodshot, Cherie Priest. Weird found-family dynamics, kickass female lead, ex-Navy SEAL drag queen? Okay, there’d be so many ways for them to mess it up, but we’re talking an ideal world here, and it would be so very right.
Gaah, gimme them. Nowww.
Tags: books, Cherie Priest, comics, Guy Gavriel Kay, Jo Walton, Marvel, Mary Brennan, Robin McKinley, Sarah J. Maas, Top Ten Tuesday, Ursula Le Guin
Posted May 16, 2015 by in General / 35 Comments
Another week where I’ve been a bit naughty! I have just adjusted my book budget to take other stuff into account, though, so I had the leeway. Thankfully. I hate failing at any challenge! But first…
For review
It was listed as just a preview excerpt, but what I downloaded seems to be the full file. I am immensely excited about this one. My review of The Just City is actually (finally) going live on Monday!
Bought
A friend bought me An Ember in the Ashes to comfort me about the election results! A couple of the others were on sale on Amazon or something like that. Aside from Sabaa Tahir’s book, they’re all paperbacks; for some reason I’m not really in the mood to read on my ereader at the moment, much as I love my Kobo.
Library
I got a couple of others, but I’ve featured them here before; I just grabbed ’em from the local library while I’m visiting my parents, to reduce the amount of books I had to haul across the country!
Comics
Yay so many comics! Boo that my pull list is now costing me £10 some weeks. Whoops.
Tags: books, comics, Marvel, non-fiction, Sarah J. Maas, Stacking the Shelves, Susanna Kearsley
Posted May 13, 2015 by in Reviews / 2 Comments
Batgirl: Death of the Family, Gail Simone, Daniel Sampere
There’s a lot of individual elements I like in this book — Barbara’s bravery, her struggles with her anger at the people who put her in a wheelchair, her sheer ferocious intelligence (and yet she spends so much time punching her way through problems, sigh), some of the family issues that are brought up… But where it ties in with the other Batfamily books, it feels clumsy. I don’t know what’s going on with Damien, with Nightwing, etc. Nor do I really get chance to care, since it’s all a whirlwind of action.
The art is good, expressive, etc, but ye gods, I forgot how dark DC comics can be. Grit, grit, and more grit.
I do like Alysia’s coming out; I like the casual way Barbara takes it, and yet how important the moment still feels.
Rating: 3/5
Tags: book reviews, books, comics, DC, Gail Simone
Posted May 9, 2015 by in General / 32 Comments
Up until Friday and the UK election results, I was being good. Then I bought myself a couple of books as self-comfort… At least it’s books, not chocolate?
Bought
Thorn I got using a promotional voucher thing; Atlanta Burns was in a deal. Finnikin of the Rock and The Bards of Bone Plain were my naughtiness; my mother bought me After the Golden Age so I can reread it before Dreams of the Golden Age (which I’m still waiting for, but which should arrive soon). Then there’s a preorder of The Wrath and the Dawn because, uh, obviously.
Library
I pretty much behaved myself with the library, though!
Comics
Last issue of Operation S.I.N. Which means it really is time for me to read it, for the awesome of Peggy Carter. (And, uh, I should watch Agent Carter. And Daredevil. Oh god.)
So yeah, a good haul for me! How’s everyone else been doing this week?
Tags: books, comics, Stacking the Shelves
Posted May 2, 2015 by in Reviews / 8 Comments
Ms Marvel: Generation Why, G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona, Jake Wyatt
I liked this more than the first volume. It felt less like it was setting the scene, and it got down to the important stuff: superhero team-ups, more self-discovery, bigger plots, etc, etc. Kamala teams up with Wolverine and (separately) Lockjaw, sent by Queen Medusa of the Inhumans to guide her somewhat. I loved the interactions with Wolverine — fangirly, cute, funny, but also serious. He’s her mentor, teaches her some important things about her powers and how to live with them, and he relies on her to help him, even to do the bulk of the fighting.
There’s still some background with Kamala’s family, but less so. It’s reduced from being the main issue to being part of the flavour of it, so that her family saying (for example) that Lockjaw is a dog and therefore impure is just… part of who Kamala is. I liked her interactions with the leader from the mosque, too: he’s a mentor figure as well, in a way.
The art is all great. I especially liked the first few issues collected here — you’ve gotta love the scene where she jumps down into the water flailing her arms and trying to shrink as fast as possible — but all of it is awesome. And there’s no gratuitous anything, either: this ain’t the black leotarded Ms Marvel, for sure.
Rating: 5/5
Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Marvel
Posted May 2, 2015 by in General / 26 Comments
Is it Saturday again already? Whoa. I’ve been catching up on blog stuff all this week, thanks to the readathon — which is not a complaint.
Review copies
I have finally got round to writing a review of The Buried Life, which will be up soon; Cities and Thrones is the sequel. You can still check out Carrie’s post here from her blog tour for The Buried Life, too! I got The Eye of Strife via LibraryThing; I’ve been meaning to read Dave Duncan for ages, so this should be interesting.
Won
I’ve been interested in Sword for a while, so I picked it as my win in one of the readathon giveaways. <3 Dreams of the Golden Age was my pick for another win; that hasn’t arrived yet, which is probably good, because I need to reread After the Golden Age, and I think my partner has my copy.
Library
Daughter of Smoke and Bone and The Drowning City are both rereads, to get me back up to speed for the next book in the series/trilogy. Crown of Midnight is obvious, since I just read Throne of Glass (but I’m sorry, I just don’t love it as much as some of you guys seem to). I have The Deadly Sisterhood somewhere, but goodness knows where. And I just like Susanna Kearsley.
Bought
Quite a contrast there between the covers, heh. I reaaally need to actually read the issues of Silk I have… I’ve been tearing through Kowal’s series lately, just in time for this last book. I’m excited!
Audiobooks
I usually prefer to listen to audiobooks I’ve already read for myself, hence Among Others and Rivers of London (the latter of which I’d like to refresh my memory on anyway); Epigenetics: How Environment Shapes Our Genes is a new one for me, which I couldn’t really resist because epigenetics! Non-fiction! Science!
How’s everyone else been doing? Behaving yourselves?
Tags: Amanda Downum, books, Carrie Vaughn, comics, Laini Taylor, Mary Robinette Kowal, Sarah J. Maas, Stacking the Shelves, Susanna Kearsley
Posted April 18, 2015 by in General / 28 Comments
Good morning, folks! After a busy couple of weeks, I’ve been good this time. I had one library trip, and didn’t buy anything for myself when I went shopping. (Unless you count accessories for my Captain America teddy bear. Shush.)
Library books
Yes, you can clearly see what I’m in the mood for at the moment!
Aaaand comics. Two single issues, and the TPB of Ms Marvel, which my sister bought me. <3
Comics
What’s everyone else been getting?
Tags: books, comics, Gail Carriger, Marvel, Stacking the Shelves
Posted April 11, 2015 by in Reviews / 5 Comments
Captain Marvel: Higher, Further, Faster, More, Kelly Sue DeConnick, David Lopez
It’s no secret that I love Captain Marvel, so it’s probably not a surprise that I adored this, too. I love Carol and her stubborn determination to do what’s right, and the fact that she tries to do things that Captain America would approve of. I love her relationship with Rhodey (“I’m never gonna be the one who holds you down”!) and his acceptance of what she needs to do. I love the fact that she takes her cat into space with her, and I love her dumb banter in a fight.
I liked that this ties in with Guardians of the Galaxy, too — not in too obtrusive a way; you only need to know a couple of basic facts about the Guardians, mostly about Peter Quill and his father — so that we’ve got a sense of a whole universe, not just Earth’s problems.
Lopez isn’t my favourite artist for Captain Marvel, but the art is pretty good: clear, expressive, colourful.
Also, gotta love the casual queerness.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, comics, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Marvel
Posted April 11, 2015 by in General / 44 Comments
A somewhat acquisitive week for me! But at least I’m keeping from requesting loads of ARCs, given I have a challenge to meet that means reading 55 of them already… (Yes, that’s not even all my backlog. Just 30% of it. I am awful.)
Bought
The first three, well, I planned to get them anyway, since I’m enjoying both series. The Tanya Huff I’ve been eyeing for ages. And One Night in Sixes is a bookclub read, if I recall rightly.
Comics
Looks like a tie-in event for Captain Marvel? Might not be so fond of that… And I am getting tired of seeing Carol looking terrified/helpless on covers. Spider-woman looks fun, though.
How’s everyone else doing? Up to anything interesting?
Tags: comics, Gail Carriger, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Marvel, Stacking the Shelves, Tanya Huff
Posted April 8, 2015 by in Reviews / 10 Comments
Lumberjanes vol. 1, Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Brooke Allen
Not gonna lie, Lumberjanes was one of the first things I added to my list when I finally gave up and got a Scribd subscription. Volume one contains just the first four issues, while Scribd has about nine, so I imagine I’ll review the rest en masse sometime. Anyway, these first four issues are just enough to get a taste of Lumberjanes: quirky art, a great cast of characters who come in all shapes, sizes and colours, and a fun setting. There’s not time for much more than a taste, and it seemed to be over all too fast, but it is fun.
I especially love Mal and Molly. Their relationship is cute but casual, and low key enough that overzealous parents probably won’t even notice. The character designs are great; it took me a while to learn each girl’s name, because so far they haven’t focused on any one character for an issue or anything like that, but each girl has her own look, abilities and way of dealing with the world. You’ve gotta love that April’s pretty and fashion conscious… and capable of arm-wrestling a stone statue and winning.
I’m looking forward to reading more Lumberjanes; I might even subscribe to it once I’ve caught up with everything Scribd has, because it’s just cute.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, comics
