Tag: Gail Simone

Review – Clean Room vol 3: Waiting for the Stars to Fall

Posted January 9, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Clean Room vol 3: Waiting for the Stars to Fall

Clean Room: Waiting For the Stars to Fall

by Gail Simone, Walter Giovani, Sanya Anwar, Quinton Winter

Genres: Graphic Novels, Horror, Science Fiction
Pages: 144
Series: Clean Room #3
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

In this new installment of Gail Simone's Clean Room, go back to the beginning to learn how Astrid was first affected after her hospitalization...through the eyes of one who cannot see what she sees: her would-be assassin and brother, Peter Mueller.

Then, a young woman devastated by the violent loss of her husband finds comfort in Astrid Mueller's teachings, only to face the woman herself in the most nightmarish reaches of the Clean Room!

The third volume of Gail Simone’s Clean Room cleans everything up — more or less, though one shouldn’t get too strict about the definition of “clean up” here. The world’s definitely a mess at the end, and the book doesn’t chart the recovery, or even really the recovery of the main characters, just the very beginnings of it. Assuming that Chloe ever does recover.

There’s plenty of gore and creepiness, as you’d expect from this series, now including a creepy, creepy baby.

I would say that I didn’t quite understand Astrid’s behaviour throughout the book; part of it seemed inconsistent and left me with definite questions about what was going through her mind, which weren’t really answered. And it felt like things were resolved very quickly, as if the story had to be jammed into this final volume — it made Astrid’s solution feel a little too easy.

Still, a fun series, especially if you’re more into horror than I am!

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Clean Room vol 2: Exile

Posted December 21, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Clean Room vol 2: Exile

Clean Room: Exile

by Gail Simone, Jon Davis-Hunt, Quinton Winter

Genres: Graphic Novels, Horror, Science Fiction
Pages: 144
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Journalist Chloe Pierce had no idea that her fiance Philip's decision to pick up a book by enigmatic and compelling self-help guru Astrid Mueller would change her life forever--by ending his! Three months after reading Mueller's book, Philip had blown his brains out all over Chloe's new kitchen and something in that book made him do it.

Now, Chloe will stop at nothing as she attempts to infiltrate Mueller's clandestine organization to find the truth behind Philip's suicide and a "Clean Room" that she's heard whispers of--a place where your deepest fears are exposed and your worst moments revealed.

Volume two of Gail Simone’s Clean Room certainly goes some more places. The horror hasn’t worn off, because it keeps hinting at deeper mysteries, and the rabbit-hole of weird keeps getting deeper. It still feels to me like any real explanation would defuse a lot of the unease that makes the story work — you know the type of thing: “This Big Bad is actually an alien from the planet Blarg, and it actually wants to…”

Simone avoids that and instead gets us deeper involved in what’s going on with tantalising hints and wheels within wheels. It’s still difficult to entirely like the characters, and that still doesn’t matter a ton; somehow you’re along for the ride with Astrid and Killian and Chloe, all the same.

Definitely going to read the third volume, and I hope it stands up to the promise so far.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Clean Room Volume 1: Immaculate Conception

Posted December 15, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Clean Room Volume 1: Immaculate Conception

Clean Room: Immaculate Conception

by Gail Simone, Jon Davis-Hunt, Quinton Winter

Genres: Graphic Novels, Horror
Pages: 160
Series: Clean Room #1
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Somewhere between the realms of self-help and religion lies the Honest World Foundation. Its creator started out as an obscure writer of disposable horror fiction who decided to change the world—one mind at a time. Now its adherents rule Hollywood while obeying their leader’s every command.

That’s almost all that anyone knows about the movement—or is it a cult?—founded by reclusive guru Astrid Mueller. But reporter Chloe Pierce is sure that there’s something deeper hiding behind Honest World’s façade. Her fiancé was a devoted follower of Mueller, right up to the moment that he blew his brains out while holding a copy of her book. Now Chloe wants answers from the woman whose words command the loyalty of millions—and she’s ready to storm the top-secret sanctuary known as the Clean Room to get them.

But there’s more to Astrid Mueller than Chloe could ever imagine—and the truth that she’s about to discover is more astonishing than any of Astrid’s accomplishments, and more terrifying than any of her novels.

Volume 1 of Gail Simone’s Clean Room is an introduction to a heck of a world. If you’re not into horror, this is quite possibly not for you, because it doesn’t go lightly on the gore and weirdness. It’s not just “oops, there’s someone’s intestines”, but weirdnesses like a guy literally tied into knots, physically speaking.

I feel like, in a way, getting answers about exactly what’s going on here would be an anticlimax; half of the experience is the wondering what the fuck is going on. Figuring out who the good guys are isn’t straight-forward at all (actually, the answer is that there aren’t any, but you’ve got to pick someone to root for — or I do, at least).

The art and character designs are gorgeous, at least where they aren’t gory or unsettling, and despite not being much of a horror-lover, I’m curious enough to continue.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – The Movement: Fighting for the Future

Posted May 22, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of The Movement vol 2 by Gail SimoneThe Movement: Fighting for the Future, Gail Simone, Freddy Williams II, Chris Sotomayor

Volume two of The Movement is a little disappointing in that it’s also the last volume. Some things are wrapped up, but really you’re just left feeling this frustrated sense of how much has been left undone, how much potential exists within this mismatched group of characters. I love the fact that the story itself brings this up, in a way: people warn Virtue that her team doesn’t fit in with how existing superheroes work and think, and she says essentially, well, one day they’ll have to. Change is coming.

Change is coming, and maybe The Movement was a little too soon, a little too blatantly diverse, a little too brazen about being a new sort of superhero team. Maybe it’s just that it’s difficult to launch a new set of superheroes without serious support — some of which the team gets, in Batgirl’s appearance in a couple of issues. Successful as the Young Avengers have been, they don’t have a current comic either, while Cap and Iron Man and all the mainstays are going on (and on, and on).

I love what we did get, though: a complex team made up of people who complement and clash with each other in equal measure. It’s a team of diverse voices, not only in terms of skin colour and country-of-origin and sexuality, but in terms of political ideals too. Katharsis is fairly blatantly not down with some of the more liberal ideas held by other members of the team. Burden comes from a religiously conservative background and is only just opening up to new ideas. It’s not just a liberal hippie love fest.

And on a lighter note: I love that we saw the hinted-at date between Virtue and Rainmaker. Cute.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – The Movement: Class Warfare

Posted May 18, 2016 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of The Movement by Gail SimoneThe Movement: Class Warfare, Gail Simone, Freddie Williams II

It took me so long to get around to reading the second volume of The Movement, I thought I’d better reread the first. Perhaps it was very much of its moment, both in terms of the content and in terms of the effect on me: I wasn’t as taken with it this time round, though there’s still lots to love. The diversity of the characters, in terms of sexuality and gender and even political views. It’s great for the way the characters struggle against each other: they don’t automatically have the same opinions, and some of them clash on fairly fundamental levels (and yet friendship can win out — note to US politicians: try not seeing your opponent as total scum).

The art is still awesome; I love Virtue and Rainmaker in particular. And Tremor. Okay, I just love the art, okay. I do wish at times there was a bit of a brighter colour palette — I can tell I’m reading a DC comic just from the gloomy colouring! Though it is also appropriate to the world that these characters are living in, so it does make sense. (Marvel’s Young Avengers are a much more privileged group, after all.)

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Batgirl: Death of the Family

Posted May 13, 2015 by in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of Batgirl: Death in the Family by Gail SimoneBatgirl: 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

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Review – Red Sonja: The Art of Blood and Fire

Posted April 4, 2015 by in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Red Sonja volume 2 by Gail SimoneRed Sonja: The Art of Blood and Fire, Gail Simone, Walter Geovani

Gail Simone’s run on Red Sonja continues to make the She-Devil about a lot more than tits and ass and the male gaze. Her relationships with other women are important, but here we also see how she relates to the rather male-oriented world around her. I love that it makes no excuses for what Sonja is like — low on hygiene, high on hedonism, low on distinction, high in violence… And she’s a character you can love anyway, because there are things she cares about, regrets that she has, and she clearly inspires people around her in many ways. Despite her faults, she has friends, and she knows exactly who she is.

The art is mostly lovely, though some of the variant covers do veer back to the tits and ass version of Sonja, I think. And the… ‘chibi-fied’ ones just made me wince. C’mon, don’t infantilise this powerful woman who would hate to be portrayed that way…

Sonja’s adventures continue to be more episodic and disconnected than cohesive. It’s not a superhero story with a massive arc and a need to obsessively buy loads of tie-in comics. Which is good, I think.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Tomb Raider: Season of the Witch

Posted April 2, 2015 by in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Tomb Raider: Season of the Witch by Gail SimoneTomb Raider: Season of the Witch, Gail Simone, Nicolas Daniel Selma

I never got into Tomb Raider as a kid — though it helps I didn’t have any games consoles until I was a teen — but I recently played the reboot and loved it. The survival aspects were great, and I needed to think tactically about taking out enemies, etc, etc. Season of the Witch doesn’t, in my opinion, bring anything really new to the story. It deepens the stories around some of the relationships, but in many ways the actual plot is a re-run in miniature of the game — without such high stakes, it seemed; there weren’t many characters to lose anymore.

You’ve got to love, though, the tension between Reyes and Lara, and the way that plays out; but especially the deep friendship between Lara and Sam. I hope that remains an essential part of the series.

Rating: 3/5

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted January 10, 2015 by in General / 16 Comments

First full week of 2015; first chance for us to break all our resolutions and buy a load of books. How’s everyone else been getting along?

Comics

Cover of Batgirl volume 4 by Gail Simone

Late Christmas present from my dad. <3

Library books

Cover of Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs Cover of Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Cover of Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Cover of The Time Paradox by Philip Zimbardo Cover of The Secret Life of Birds by Colin Tudge

At my parents’ place again for most of January, so this is what I got out of the library to keep me amused — as if I needed anything more than what’s on my ereader and on my shelves from their generosity at Christmas! Ahem…

Anyway, so far this year I’ve avoided buying any new books; I’ve finished the first book in my Open University course already, so I feel like maybe I deserve one, but I can’t choose. I do now have an Amazon wishlist which I’m trying to keep updated. If nothing else, it’ll serve as a list of ‘approved’ books when I do want to get something, and I’ve saved stuff I haven’t preordered yet onto there too.

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Top Ten Tuesday

Posted December 16, 2014 by in General / 12 Comments

This week’s theme from The Broke and the Bookish is “Top Ten Books I Read in 2014”. This one you can probably predict if you follow this blog, but I won’t leave you guessing. Also, links don’t show up on my theme very well, so I’ll just say now that all the titles are links to the reviews I wrote earlier in the year.

Cover of The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison Cover of The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany Cover of We Have Always Fought by Kameron Hurley Cover of My Real Children by Jo Walton Cover of The Movement by Gail Simone

  1. The Goblin EmperorKatherine Addison. Yep, you probably predicted this one. I just loved it to bits — I’d have happily gone back to page one and started all over again right away. I don’t think it’s for everyone, but it was pretty perfect for me.
  2. The King of Elf-land’s DaughterLord Dunsany. This is definitely not new to a lot of people, but it was new to me. I think I’d read one of Dunsany’s short story collections before, but not this one. It’s a lovely mythic/fairytale-like world. In style and the like, it’s not like the more typical modern fantasy, but that doesn’t put me off at all.
  3. We Have Always FoughtKameron Hurley. I haven’t read any of Hurley’s fiction yet; she may even be a writer who appeals to me more as a commentator than as a creator, since I did start God’s War at one point and put it down again. But I loved this collection of her essays. She very much deserved her Hugo.
  4. My Real ChildrenJo Walton. Again, probably predictable. I loved the characters in this — the sheer range of them, the ways small circumstances could change them. It was quite upsetting on a personal level because of the mentions of dementia, but the fact that it had the power to upset me only made me like it more.
  5. The Movement: Class WarfareGail Simone. I think this is a pretty timely comic. This sums it up, from my review: “[T]his is a group of young people getting together against injustice. Not supervillains: injustice. Crooked cops who beat poor people and POC because they can. The whole system of privilege and disprivilege. It’s a team of heroes for the Occupy Movement, for the 99%, for the disenfranchised.”
  6. Cuckoo SongFrances Hardinge. Read this all in one go on a train journey and resented every interruption. There’s a great atmosphere to this book.
  7. Behind the Shock MachineGina Perry. I’ve always been fascinated by Stanley Milgram’s experiments, and this was a great way of delving into them — looking at it not from Milgram’s point of view, not looking at the results, but at the people he used in this experiment.
  8. What Makes This Book So GreatJo Walton. This is kinda cheating, in that it’s a book chock full of the books Jo Walton likes. Not limited to a top ten, of course, but I have a feeling it could furnish the whole contents of this list.
  9. SpilloverDavid Quammen. Fascinating stuff, with some very obvious conclusions that apparently still need to be said. We are destroying habitats, forcing animals closer together and closer to us: we’re creating the perfect situation for a pandemic. It’s going to happen again, as it’s happened before, and we’ve just got to hope it isn’t something exotic and deadly. Even the flu is bad enough when it sweeps the world.
  10. The Broken LandIan McDonald. This is the only book in this list I didn’t give five stars. But it’s stayed on my mind the whole time, and the issues it examines aren’t temporary ones that’re about to go away.

Cover of Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge Cover of Behind the Shock Machine by Gina Perry Cover of What Makes This Book So Great by Jo Walton Cover of Spillover by David Quamnem Cover of The Broken Land by Ian McDonald

This is gonna be a really interesting week to check out other people’s lists; I’m looking forward to this! Make sure you link me to your list if you comment. I’ll always visit and comment back.

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