Tag: Gail Simone

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted October 28, 2014 by in General / 2 Comments

Aaand time for another Top Ten Tuesday! This week it’s a Halloween theme — not my favourite holiday, really; I’m a scaredy-cat at heart. Anyway, here’s the theme: “Top Ten Books/Movies To Read Or Watch To Get In The Halloween Spirit OR Top Ten Characters Who I Would Totally Want To Be For Halloween”. Aaand I’m gonna do the latter. Most of them are comics characters, because actually I’m really bad at visualising characters.

  1. Any Avenger. Comics/movies whatever. Especially one like female!Bucky or the Lady Avengers manips. Not that short red hair really suits me for anyone. Gimme a blond wig and I’ll do Carol Danvers? Scarlet Witch maybe?
  2. Batgirl. From Gail Simone’s run. I’d just need longer hair… lots longer. Like it used to be, in fact.
  3. Storm. Even mohawk!Storm. Maybe especially mohawk!Storm.
  4. A female assassin. Shush, Assassin’s Creed counts for this — there’re Assassin’s Creed books too.
  5. Kate Bishop. Young Avengers! We don’t need to imagine a female Hawkeye; we’ve got one. And I’d have a badass bow.
  6. Lara Croft. She has comics! It counts! Badass bow, again.
  7. Eowyn. Shield-maiden style, of course.
  8. Nazca. From The Lies of Locke Lamora. She’s badass and she should be celebrated.
  9. Zamira Drakasha. Scott Lynch again. Ditto!
  10. Sabriel. Or maybe Lirael. From Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom trilogy!

Lots of kick-butt ladies. I didn’t deliberately pick them to be mostly the ladies who fight; it’s just those are the ones I can see myself doing better. Not such a fan of the long dresses and so on.

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 19, 2014 by Nicky in General / 61 Comments

So, time for Stacking the Shelves a la Tynga’s Reviews! You know how I keep saying my haul post is going to be smaller “next week”? Well, next week it will be. I think? That’s the idea, anyway. Part of this I blame on going to Rainbow Rowell’s signing in Waterstones with Leah @ Uncorked Thoughts. I’d pick something up to look at it and she’d chip in with “that one’s good!”

Or I might just have no restraint. There’s always that explanation. Anyway, to kick off, here’s me with Rainbow Rowell!

Photo of me and my dorky grin, with author Rainbow Rowell

If you look closely you can see a little frog in the picture. Which means this is a good time to plug my friend’s art project: basically, she’s made a hundred of the blighters and over the last few months, she’s been ‘releasing’ them into the wild, a few at a time. If you find one, take a picture of yourself with it and then move it to somewhere new! Most are in England, West Yorkshire area, but I know some have gone to London, some have been released in Cardiff and Swansea, and some are travelling round the world. If you’re going to Loncon, I have two to release there, so keep your eye out for Sad Frog Project!

Waterstones haul

Cover of The Falconer by Elizabeth May Cover of Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein Cover of Take Back the Skies by Lucy Saxon Cover of Moth and Spark by Anne Leonard Cover of Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan Cover of We Were Liars by E. Lockhart Cover of the special UK Collectors Edition of Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

My copy of Fangirl was signed, of course. I still need to finish reading it… But I loved the way Rowell spoke about it, spoke frankly about Cath’s social anxiety, spoke with enthusiasm about fandom. So I’m very glad to have a signed copy. As for the others, some I’ve been planning to get for a while — Two Boys Kissing and Code Name Verity. Leah forced Take Back the Skies on me, and we talked about the others enough to get me interested.

Kobo store

Cover of Karma Girl by Jennifer Estep Cover of Futureland by Walter Mosley Cover of Heart of Veridon, by Tim Akers Cover of The Wanderer in Unknown Realms by John Connolly Cover of The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen Cover of Premonitions by Jamie Schultz Cover of Permanent Present Tense by Suzanne Chorkin Cover of Liars and Thieves by Karen Maitland

It’s a rather mixed bag, isn’t it? The first three were mentioned in books of essays I’ve been reading recently; I’ve enjoyed some of John Connolly’s other stuff; The Queen of the Tearling is getting interesting reviews; I thought my sister would like Premonitions but I’m gonna try it first; Permanent Present Tense is non-fiction and was mentioned in the neurobiology MOOC I’m doing; Liars and Thieves is a short by Karen Maitland, who I’m a big fan of!

Netgalley/e-ARCs

Cover of A Touch of Poison by Aaron Kite Cover of Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel Cover of The Copper Promise by Jen Williams Cover of The Godless by Ben Peek Cover of A Suitable Replacement by Megan Derr Cover of Blood Tells by Rachel White Cover of The Mapmaker's Daughter by Caroline Dunford Cover of The Passage of Pearl by Lynn E O Connacht

An interesting bunch — I’ve been interested by The Copper Promise for a while!

Bookbridgr

Cover of Elysian Fields by Suzanne Johnson Cover of The Vanishing Witch by Karen Maitland Cover of Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains by Neil Gaiman

I think I’m in love with Bookbridgr. I’m certainly super happy about getting The Vanishing Witch! I don’t think I’ve crossposted any of my Karen Maitland reviews here so far, but I’m definitely a fan.

Library

Cover of Y: The Descent of Men by Steve Jones Cover of Coral by Steve Jones Cover of Blood & Guts by Roy Porter Cover of Jurassic Mary: Mary Anning and the Primeval Monsters by Patricia Pierce Cover of Darwin's Island by Steve Jones Cover of The Serpent's Promise by Steve Jones Cover of Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler Cover of Gloriana by Michael Moorcock Cover of My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor Cover of Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan

Mostly non-fiction this week, as you can see; all my Steve Jones reservations came in, and I had a browse in the 610s-620s in the non-fiction section of the library. (Well, also the 560s, because dinosaurs.)

And finally…

Comics

Cover of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Cover of The Movement volume 2 Cover of Ms Marvel #6

I didn’t actually magically get my hands on the second TPB of The Movement, but I thought it’d be silly to put up the cover of every single issue. So there y’go. And I imagine there’s no mystery as to why I picked up Guardians of the Galaxy.

Okay, I can’t believe how long this post has got, and I need to do a ton more things before I go to bed. When this goes live in the morning, I’ll already be out at the Race for Life, volunteering at a 10k event. And then on Sunday, I’m running in the 5k event. So I may not be very active this week, but I will visit back anyone that comments here, of course! Have a good week.

(Oh, and if you have some spare cash, sponsor me, please?!)

ETA: Except I can’t volunteer today due to travel problems, wah. But at least I’ll be around to chat to people!

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Review – Legends of Red Sonja

Posted July 18, 2014 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Legends of Red Sonja, by Gail Simone et alLegends of Red Sonja,Gail Simone et al

Received to review!

I didn’t love this TPB of stories about Red Sonja as much as I did the first TPB Gail Simone worked on, but I definitely appreciate what she did, the way she drew together female creators for this, and also the stories they all chose to tell. Women are prominent in many of them, and there are some delightful lines — like, “What’s wrong with men? I know plenty of decent male fighters.”

(If you don’t know why that made me laugh, well, it’s the flipside of what you usually get. Normally it’s a man damning women with faint praise for whatever skill or job.)

The whole storyline consists of a frame story with the Grey Riders, who are hunting Red Sonja, and then a series of stories told about her by her allies. What I loved about those was the way they emphasised different aspects of Red Sonja: her body, yes, but also her links with other women, her beliefs, her skill at fighting, and her cunning. Especially loved the little hat tip to complaints about her costume when she’s first given it, with the lady who gives her it telling her that if men are watching her curves, they aren’t watching her sword.

Red Sonja is kind of a male fantasy fulfilment thing. The chainmail bikini makes no sense, and probably chafes. But Gail Simone has made me feel very fond of her anyway: she and her team take everything about Sonja makes it feel more real, more worthy of celebration. She might’ve started as a sexist fantasy, but she doesn’t have to stay that way.

Rating: 4/5

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What are you reading Wednesday

Posted July 17, 2014 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

What have you recently finished reading?
Legends of Red Sonja (Gail Simone) et al, which was not as good as the first Red Sonja TPB under Gail Simone’s leadership, but still pretty fun, and also Rocket Girl: Times Squared (Brandon Montclare, Amy Reeder), which was… okay, but I wasn’t enamoured.

What are you currently reading?
I’m slowly-slowly making my way through Death, Disability and the Superhero (José Alaniz), which is very academic and hard going, because I haven’t had to use my brain like this in a while. I’m enjoying it, though; I’m wondering if it’s going to mention Hawkeye in, what was it, the 70s? Who was deaf, according to the internet. I think Gail Simone’s Vengeance Moth is a bit too recent for this study, but I’m gonna be interested in the stuff about Daredevil. I haven’t read any Daredevil yet, but it is something I’m interested in.

I’m also reading The Serpent’s Promise (Steve Jones), which… I’m not sure how I feel about it. He’s one of those people who is very, very dismissive of faith/religion and basically holds it up as an intellectual truth that there’s no God. Which obviously, I’m not so sure about it. Anyway, the aim is to explain events in the Bible through science.

And finally, I’m reading The Vanishing Witch (Karen Maitland). It only arrived this morning, so I probably shouldn’t jump straight to it, but I’ve enjoyed all of Karen Maitland’s books and I’m excited about this one. I accidentally read the back page (I read so fast that if my eyes fall on it, it’s read), so I have some idea of what’s going to happen, and for once I’m a little disappointed about that. Normally I don’t mind spoilers.

What will you read next?
I’m trying to work on my Netgalley ratio right now, so next is probably Yesterday’s Kin (Nancy Kress). Although I’m also thinking of Illusive (Emily Lloyd-Jones), because hey, superpowered heist story!

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 12, 2014 by Nicky in General / 48 Comments

Wait, how is it time for Stacking the Shelves again already?! Oh well, happy Saturday, all, and don’t forget to check out Tynga’s Reviews to find everyone else’s posts and interact with loads of wonderful other people.

I was actually going to say it’s been a quiet week, but then I remembered a bunch of books I’d ordered arrived, and I got quite a few ARCs too. Plus, me and my sis had a day trip to York with one of my closest friends, and that more or less inevitably meant a bookshop. (Less inevitably, it meant even my friend picked up something — my hunger for books is one of those things we really don’t share, but now she’s prepping for a teaching course, so she has to do more reading. I am trying to get her to try Attachments by Rainbow Rowell for fun…)

Anyway, I’ll just… split these up however comes to mind.

Ordered before this week!

Cover of Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh Cover of Final Curtain by Ngaio Marsh Cover of Swing, Brother, Swing, by Ngaio Marsh Cover of Storm Front by Jim Butcher Cover of Fool Moon by Jim Butcher Cover of Grave Peril by Jim Butcher Cover of Sea of Shadows by Kelley ArmstrongCover of Wings to the Kingdom by Cherie Priest Cover of Sunrise of Avalon by Anna Elliott

So yeah, more Ngaio Marsh, no one’s surprised. Cherie Priest, ditto. Jim Butcher might be a bit of a surprise because I didn’t get on that well with the series the first time I tried to read it, and found some aspects of it problematic. Still, I did enjoy them for light reading, and The Works (yes, again) was selling them for around ~£2 each. So. Might as well see if I can get back into the series.

Re: Anna Elliott, Lynn O’Connacht bought me the first two books yeaaars ago. I spotted this one in, oddly enough, The Works’ online shop and went oh yeah, I never read that.

Bought in York

Cover of Opening Night by Ngaio Marsh Cover of Spinsters in Jeopardy by Ngaio Marsh Cover of Scales of Justice by Ngaio Marsh Cover of A Plague on Both Your Houses by Susanna Gregory Cover of The Boy with the Porcelain Blade by Den Patrick

And… more Ngaio Marsh. I’m not even that huge a fan, in that sense, I just find reading her work really relaxing. Susanna Gregory, I’ve been meaning to try. And automatic recommendation sites keep suggesting The Boy with the Porcelain Blade, and the first few pages intrigued me well enough, so with that comparison to Scott Lynch… yeah, worth a try.

One lonely ebook

Cover of Landline by Rainbow Rowell

ARCs

Cover of Rocket Girl, by Brandon Montclare & Amy Reeder Cover of Yesterday's Kin by Nancy Kress Cover of Detour from Normal by Ken Dickson Cover of Legends of Red Sonja, by Gail Simone et al Cover of Conquering the Electron by Derek Cheung and Eric Brach Cover of Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Thomas Sweterlitsch

Yep, that’s a pretty odd mix. Nancy Kress, I’ve liked some of her other work; Gail Simone is just awesome and Kelly Sue DeConnick’s in there too; Ken Dickson’s story about his experience with mental illness sounded interesting enough; electrons are cool; Rocket Girl was on read now; Tomorrow and Tomorrow was the first book I spotted on BookBridgr that intrigued me.

And finally, new Captain Marvel. <3

Cover of Captain Marvel #5

So what’s everyone else been stacking their shelves with? Say hi, link your posts, let’s talk books!

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Review – The Movement

Posted June 29, 2014 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Cover of The Movement by Gail SimoneThe Movement, vol. 1: Class Warfare, Gail Simone, Freddie Williams II

I decided to get this one on the strength of the fact that a) it’s Gail Simone, and though I don’t like DC that much, I do like her work and b) I was fascinated by the diversity of the team line-up. They’re all different — characters of colour, a girl with a wheelchair, an ex-cop… they all have different backgrounds, different motivations, and the same goal that they have to struggle against the world and each other to achieve.

Much as I love Billy Kaplan and company (Young Avengers), that aspect never came through the way it did here. These guys feel more real. I know it’s a criticism often levelled at DC, that they focus too much on trying to be dark and gritty. Well, this is, but it’s also relevant in a way that I’ve never found Batman to be: this 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.

And I enjoy the way they play off each other. The chirpy brightness of Vengeance Moth, the righteousness of Virtue, the struggle between Katharsis and Tremor. Mouse’s crush on Tremor is sweet. I like the fact that — like the Occupy movement itself — they aren’t of one accord, and they aren’t perfect people. Katharsis wants to beat people’s faces into pulp, while Vengeance Moth gives them hamburgers and doesn’t see the risks.

My one problem so far is that Vengeance Moth’s power takes her out of the chair. That’s twice now for Gail Simone, that I know of: Barbara Gordon gets out of the wheelchair to be Batgirl again after that stint as Oracle, and then Moth gets tipped out of the chair and suddenly can fly. It’s great to have superheroes in wheelchairs, and it’s great that Simone doesn’t limit them or think they’re incapable as too many people do, but… I wanted Moth to fight from the wheelchair if she had to.

Let’s have some badasses be badass while still in their wheelchairs, yeah? And let’s not have any miraculous cures as though they need them to be really badass. If only my AU roleplay Steve Rogers was canon somewhere (had polio, in a chair, still fights, maybe has to work a bit harder for the respect he deserves but never gives up, never puts up with any bullshit).

Still, overall, I really loved this. I like the art a lot. And I can’t wait for the second TPB, so I’ll be hitting Comixology in hope pretty darn shortly.

Rating: 5/5

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted June 28, 2014 by Nicky in General / 43 Comments

So you know I said this would be an Unstacking the Shelves? Hehe, no.

As usual, hosted by Tynga’s Reviews, go over there to get to everybody else’s posts!

Received for review

Cover of The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton Cover of The Table of Less Valued Knights by Marie Phillips Cover of Solaris Rising 3, ed. Ian Whates

I’m an enormous fan of Arthuriana, so the Marie Phillips book really has my attention. I wrote a lot of my BA and MA work on Arthurian stories, and never miss the chance to expand my horizons. Uh, except I’ll never read a Marion Zimmer Bradley book again, after being forced to read The Mists of Avalon and after all I’ve found out about her in the last week or so.

Fiction bought

Cover of Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal Cover of Glamour in Glass, by Mary Robinette Kowal Cover of Without a Summer Valour and Vanity, by Mary Robinette Kowal Cover of The Snake Charm by Laura Lam Cover of Broken by Susan Bigelow Cover of The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters Cover of Countdown City by Ben H. Winters
Cover of A Reason to Live by Matthew Iden Cover of Blueblood by Matthew Iden Cover of One Right Thing, by Matthew Iden

I read Shades of Milk and Honey a while ago, and I remember being interested enough to finish it but not a huge fan. But someone whose taste I trust ripped through the books recently, and I liked it well enough to have another go. And the covers are pretty.

Non-fiction bought/downloaded

Cover of In the Land of Invented Languages, by Arika Okrent Cover of From Elvish to Klingon, by Michael Adams Cover of We Have Always Fought by Kameron Hurley

The two language books are going to be interesting, probably a good complement to The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker, which I’m reading at the moment. And Kameron Hurley’s essays, well, I need to read those for Hugo voting.

Comics

Cover of The Movement by Gail Simone Cover of Ms Marvel #5

The Movement is the TPB and Ms. Marvel is just issue #5, but both are obviously exciting. I am pretty psyched about The Movement, with the heroine in a wheelchair, etc.

What’s anyone else been grabbing?

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Top Ten Tuesday

Posted June 10, 2014 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments

Hooray, another Top Ten Tuesday post, run by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Top Ten Books I’ve Read So Far This Year. Luckily, I have no lack of awesome books that I’ve been reading. I’ll link to my reviews on this blog. These are not in order of awesomeness, I couldn’t manage that! I’m not including rereads, or Jo Walton would swamp everything.

Cover of The Winter Soldier comic by Ed Brubaker Cover of Spillover by David Quamnem Cover of The Universe Versus Alex Woods, by Gavin Extence Cover of What Makes This Book So Great by Jo Walton Cover of Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

  1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier, by Ed Brubaker et al. I just. All the feels.
  2. Spillover, by David Quammen. This one was fascinating. Lots and lots of stuff about not just the way animal diseases spill over into humans, but on the way humans interact with the environment, how we come into contact with these kinds of diseases.
  3. The Universe Versus Alex Woods, by Gavin Extence. I loved this, and really didn’t expect to. The quirky friendship, the bonding over books, and the things Alex ends up doing for that friendship. It’s beautiful and I’m pretty sure I cried. It deals with a topic that’s really important to me, too — as it happens, my tithe this month went to Dignity in Dying, campaigning for the right to voluntary euthanasia in this country.
  4. What Makes This Book So Great, by Jo Walton. I love this as a resource for more books to read, and as a way to read insightful discussions about books and get a different perspective on them. Also, it’s just a really good read.
  5. Attachments, by Rainbow Rowell. I think this one may have surprised people who know me, but somehow I just adored it. Good building of characters, and I like the way the love story comes about.
  6. Cuckoo Song, by Frances Hardinge. Got this as an ARC, had it finished before the end of the day. Just captivating. I love that it’s a changeling story, and the story itself doesn’t work out the way you might expect.
  7. My Real Children, by Jo Walton. Can’t miss this one out. I was uncertain how I felt about the style and structure, and then right at the end Jo pulled everything together and made it work. And despite a certain simplicity about it, I cried — multiple times.
  8. Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, by J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. Christopher Tolkien. I’ve been waiting for this for, literally, years. I always hoped Christopher Tolkien would publish this, and stop holding it back. The translation is interesting, but actually what really excited me were Tolkien’s in depth notes on just about every aspect of the poem, including close reading of the actual Anglo-Saxon words.
  9. Red Sonja: Queen of Plagues, by Gail Simone et al. I only really knew of Red Sonja as a sexist symbol whose image caused some trouble in the SF/F community. So I wasn’t sure about trying this out, but I’d heard good things about Gail Simone. And it turns out she created a good story with fun characters, full of powerful women who are not perfect, but who are compelling and are not just fan service.
  10. The Broken Land, by Ian McDonald. I wasn’t expecting to love this one so much, but it fascinated me. It creates a world that’s different to pretty much anything else I can think of, and comments on civil wars and the rifts they can create. It’s not light reading, but I thought it was good.

Cover of Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge Cover of My Real Children by Jo Walton Cover of Beowulf trans. J.R.R. Tolkien Cover of Red Sonja by Gail Simone Cover of The Broken Land by Ian McDonald

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Review – Batgirl: Knightfall Descends

Posted March 17, 2014 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Cover of Batgirl by Gail SimoneBatgirl: Knightfall Descends, Gail Simone, Ardian Syaf, Ed Benes, Vicente Cifuentes

I think this might have been a stronger issue if I was up to date on some of the other New 52 stuff that I’m… not that interested in. Or maybe more of Barbara’s past, since this volume features the (re)introduction of her brother James, who I know nothing about. It all just about hangs together, and some parts of this felt much more satisfying in terms of Batgirl getting some decent villains to kick around, but other parts were… well, a villain called Grotesque who wears a mask and kills a man to try and get a bottle of — vintage wine?!

The art is strong, as with the first book, and I liked the cameos by Black Canary (must hunt up some of Gail Simone’s run on Birds of Prey) and Batwoman. Still not totally sure about that whole decision to bring Barbara back to being Batgirl as opposed to Oracle via a miracle cure, but overall, I’m still ready to follow more of Batgirl’s adventures.

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Review – Batgirl: The Darkest Reflection

Posted February 19, 2014 by Nicky in Reviews / 7 Comments

Cover of Batgirl: The Darkest Reflection, by DC ComicsBatgirl: The Darkest Reflection, Gail Simone, Ardian Syaf, Vincente Cifuentes

I very much enjoyed my first foray into Batgirl — certainly much more than I did the volume of Batman I choked down a while back for a class. Barbara Gordon is fun, and I have a thing for redheads anyway, I liked the art and her interactions with Bruce Wayne, and it’s a good introduction for someone new to DC.

I had two nitpicks. One, I didn’t think terribly much of the villains. They seemed almost too easily dealt with, like Gail Simone was starting Batgirl out soft because of the point I’m about to get to. It kind of makes sense, since she is being reintroduced and she is portrayed as needing to get back into the game here, but. Eh. I didn’t really care about the villains, put it that way. It felt a little bit rushed, too, though when I flipped back through it didn’t seem too bad. Maybe because the villain I was more interested in, Gretel, had less space.

The other thing was, well… why did we have to have a miracle cure for a disabled character? I don’t know much about Barbara Gordon or how prominent she might have been as a disabled character, so maybe there have been other issues building this up, but just jumping right in and finding that she was completely paralysed and then got better “miraculously” (as several people point out), it just didn’t feel right. I thought I was okay with it at first, given the way she talks about the time in a wheelchair and insists she’s not delicate now she’s out of it, but it didn’t quite add up for me.

Still, enjoyable, and I’ll pick up some more Batgirl when I get chance.

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