Currently reading
The Alchemist of Souls (Night's Masque, #1)
How to Train Your Dragon
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
I picked this up expected a cute, fun Soul Eater spin-off, but there's some sturdy world building behind this volume that adds a lot to the anime and original manga.It seems to be working hard to tackle themes the original series didn't, and it's a fascinating read because of that.
A really weak, dated Batman story. 20% decent storyline, with Batman angsting over his decision to take on Jason Todd as a replacement Robin, and 80% Batman punching a lot of "terrorists" out in the Middle East (and beating up and drugging a few women for variety). The colouring is well done, but the art itself is confusing -- mostly because Batman and Robin have the exact same face.This comic run is famous because readers were allowed to vote on whether Robin lived or died, and they voted for his death. That's really the only thing that's notable about it.
Saga, Volume 1
A fantastic read. Great character designs, brilliant art, and some really nice writing with engaging, likeable characters.
Batman: Year One
When DC decided to 'modernise' their characters, they ran into a problem with Batman: his dark origin story already fitted the direction they were trying to go. So instead of redoing his origin story, they decided to fill in the blanks with Year One.Year One tells the story of Bruce Wayne stepping back into Gotham City, finally ready to avenge his parents. It's also the story of Gordon, not yet a commissioner, who takes a job in Gotham for the sake of his wife and learns just what it takes to be a cop in the world's most corrupt city. Lastly, it's the story of Selina, who realises there are better jobs out there than walking the streets.The included extras are some of the best I've ever seen. There's cover art from the printed single-volume comics and previous collections of Year One, scripts, a short autobiographical comic by David Mazzucchelli with examples of his older work, and some examples of the colouring differences between the original comic and the printed collections. I'm particularly fond of the last two extras: the autobiographical story is a short and fun read, and the colouring comparisons really showcase what a great change the new colours make to the story.
I'm a sucker for a good bit of meta-fiction, and this takes the more fourth wall breaking aspects of Deadpool and turns them up to eleven. It's a mindless, bloody gorefest but I loved the commentary on Marvel comics and the nature of the characters.
Railsea
I really want to like Mieville's style. I do. But after being amused by it for a few pages, by page five I was sick of it. He suffers badly from "Call A Rabbit A Smeerp" syndrome.I gave up after this sentence, about moles/moldywarpes: "He'd seen pups of bigger species too, miserable in earthtanks, brought back by hunters for Stonefacemas Eve; baby bottletop moldywarpes & moonpanther moldywarpes & wriggly tarfoot moldywarpes."
I've been describing this book to friends as "like a very smartly written chick flick", and now that I'm finished I think its' a very fitting description.The story is a bit slow to start, but fantastic once it gets going -- a sweet, complex story of an American trying to find her way in Paris and all the interesting friends she makes in her year there. It doesn't shy away from anything, delving head-first into fascinating character personalities and friendships, detailed backstories, and teen issues. I'll be looking forward to picking up "Lola and the Boy Next Door" when I've whittled down my to-read piles.
This was a nice, well-rounded way to end the series, but I speant about half the book being frustrated by Alek's stubborn misogyny.After three books, it just seemed silly that he remained so stuck in his ways.
Batman: Knight Of Vengeance is a brilliant, unique Batman story showing what would happen if Bruce Wayne was shot down and his dad took up the Batman mantel. Deathstroke And The Curse Of The Ravager is an interesting story showing what a super villain would get up during a world war. Deadman And The Flying Graysons has some nice retro circus covers, but the story is forgettable and has very litte emotional death -- key characters die and no one stops to mourn them. Secret Seven has some beautiful art, but the story is completely confusing.
This is a sister book to "Write A Great Synopsis", but this time the focus is on UK-style covering letters to help you net a UK agent. UK covering letters are a lot more laid back than US queries (by which I mean you won't get instantly rejected dun dun duuun if it's not perfect) but they're still important enough to stress writers out."Dear Agent" is a short, sweet, and to-the-point read that covers all the important questions, such as should I mention multiple books, being rejected, my pets, or that my mum liked it...It also pays special attention to the tricky bits: that dreaded hook, how to write the bio section even if nothing very interesting has happened to you, and how to inject a bit of personality into the letter. It covers both fiction and non-fiction, multiple Points of View, and other sticky situations that can make the thought of summing it up in a letter more nerve-wracking than it needs to be.If you're new to the submission process, or trying out the UK system for the first time after submitting in the US, then this is a great starting point. Authors who've been submitting in the UK or US will already be familiar with a lot of the advice, but the tips are still useful no matter how long you've been wading in the query trenches.
Blood and Feathers
Full review at: http://emmamaree.com/reviews/emma-maree-reviews-blood-and-feathers/The hierarchy laid out in Lou Morgan's universe is gloriously detailed, with angels split into choirs under each Archangel with powers related to their choir. As a lady who's spent far too much time with her nose in books about angelic mythology, the amount of effort put into Blood & Feather's worldbuilding was great to see.I had trouble empathising with the leading lady, Alice. She seemed to make a lot of decisions without even hinting at her motivations beforehand, leaving me to follow behind her in the dark without a clue what she was up to. But the other characters more than made up for this. The flawed angels are a world apart from their biblical counterparts, with kind-hearted but battle-hardened alcoholic Mallory, a disgraced angel, being the closest to human while cold, aloof angel Gwyn is his apathetic opposite. The conversations between Alice and the angels were sharp and witty, keeping the story going at a great pace.I loved the world created here, and I'm excited to see where else Lou Morgan takes this story in the sequel.
This is possibly Juanjo Guarnido's finest artwork so far, following his black cat detective to sunny New Orleans and featuring a stunning Mardi Gras parade sequence.However, the storytelling seems to fall flatter than the last collectio. Flashbacks are handled clumsily with almost no indication that we're in a different timeline, and there's less bite to the story: Blacksad has no personal connection to the people involved, and there's less of the serious political themes of the last volume.This collection contains one full issue of Blacksad, two two-page short stories, and a bucketload of notes from the artist about why he colours his panels the way he does. The art explanations are fun for a while, but I can only read so much about the comic's art theory before getting tired of it. After the packed-to-the-brim first Blacksad collection this is a little disappointing, but perhaps that's only because I was expecting another three collected issues.