Tuesday, July 5, 2011
from me to HUE
Monday, July 4, 2011
Book Review(s): "Magic Bites" and "Magic Burns" by Ilona Andrews
Kate Daniels works as a mercenary who is often called upon to help in cases of magical emergencies. Armed with a saber appropriately named Slayer, Kate is a mysterious bundle of magical ability and attitude. When Kate's mentor is murdered Kate finds herself entangled with both The People and The Pack as both groups are caught up in a series of related murders that may send both groups to war with each other. The strength of Kate as a main character, and her saving grace, is her heart. She might throw out some sarcastic remarks but she has strong personal integrity and tons of compassion. Her magical abilities aren't really spelled out beyond the understanding that she inherited a magical legacy of some sort and that the magic is so strong in her blood that anything with her blood on it must be burned or it can be used against her. She does some neat tricks with her sword and has the ability to use "power words" that give her a certain command over other people, but the extent of her power isn't clear.
"Magic Bites" is, in some respects, boilerplate paranormal fiction. Kate is written in the now typical kick-ass heroine vein full of smart-alec remarks and the ability, or willingness, to take on all comers. But the overall package offered in "Magic Bites" takes it a level above the standard paranormal fare. What makes this books (and series) is the overlap of magic and technology. It's a bit confusing at first as the narration of the story offers tidbits about how the world functions in bits and pieces and it isn't clear for awhile how far into the future the story is set and how the magic first appeared. But the overlap is so intriguing and imaginatively done that it's difficult not to be impressed by what is created in this story. There's a terrific sense of anticipation as you read the book and wait to see what mythological creature is going to appear next.
However, there are times when "Magic Bites" does read like a debut novel. There are a lot of characters thrown at the reader and the story jumps around just enough to make the overall flow somewhat confusing-- you will find yourself backtracking to reread previous paragraphs in order to figure out where the story may have jumped or if you missed something. And while I think that books by Ilona Andrews make more effort than most to bridge logic gaps that are common to fast-moving paranormal fiction, there are times when the narrative doesn't make sense on a logical level and it feels as if certain elements are thrown in for emotional impact without ironing out the wrinkles. Those looking for paranormal romance will be somewhat disappointed because the romance angle is almost non-existent, though there are hints that it will materialize eventually.
Overall I liked "Magic Bites" though I find myself torn on what kind of grade to give it. I guess I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars for likability and imagination and 3.5 stars for execution.
"Magic Burns" gets further into the mythology of the series and we finally get some insight into how magic first began to appear-- and why-- as well as further explaining how The Pack and The People operate. Most of the secondary character development focuses on The Pack as Kate's potential love interest is Curran-- The Pack alpha who also happens to be a massive lion in his shifter form.
There's a lot to like about "Magic Burns." The relationship between Kate and her teenage charge is sweet but not cloying as Kate doesn't go the mother route and instead settles on "crazy aunt Kate" as her role in the kid's life; though she does frequently refer to the child as "my kid." The Pack is also interesting as we get a glimpse into the various groups including the were-hyenas and their particular kinks. Somehow the book manages to make were-creatures and vampires interesting in an over-saturated genre. But my favorite thing is something that all the books by Andrews features particularly well-- the magic. Every myth, every religion, every magical thing you ever heard of has the potential to show up and I love it. Whether it's a mobile-home park gone crazy, high-rises that turn to granite or crazy mermaid-like creatures with prehensile hair, there's always something new jumping out at you.
The only negative I'd give the series is the super slow reveal of certain plot points. As before the romantic elements are beyond anemic, but that doesn't really bother me. Many allusions are made to Kate's heritage and it's easy to make some educated guesses about her parentage, but so far Kate's mostly a cipher. The main revelations are limited to The Pack and the magic system of the series.
There is still a tendency toward a lot of busy action but overall I'm really liking the Kate Daniels series. I'm home now and have my nose buried in book number three. I could nit-pick here and there, but I'm still of the opinion that the writing team known as Ilona Andrews writes some of the most enjoyable paranormal fiction on the shelf right now. "Magic Burns" gets a solid 4 out of 5 stars.
27 June 11
I went over to Flatland and Amanda, Laryssa, Jeff D and I sat on the porch drinking wine until it got windy and cool. Then we went inside and sat on the living room floor listening to music, smoking the hookah, and eating popcorn. A lovely evening.
perpetual motion & W1L 017: Write one leaf about Friday.
MAN HARRY POTTER!! seems the rumors say Dumbledore will die. NO!!! I actually think that makes a lot of sense, but I dont' want it to happen. sadness. okay. i'm trying to break myself down and rebuild the way i want to be. so. yeah! yeah. yeah!...I obviously haven't changed much because 1) I still keep a diary, 2) I still geek out over Harry Potter, 3) I still geek out over plot theories (e. g. the current season of Doctor Who), and 4) I am still in perpetual motion.
Evidence of perpetual motion: Exhibit A, how poorly cobbled-together this outfit is, and the fact that I still chose to blog about it.
Further evidence of perpetual motion: Exhibit B, a layered turtleneck a la Sam in First Grade; and Exhibit C, outfit detail photo focused on the background instead of the outfit detail.
Turtleneck: secondhand, gift. Sweater: uncle's. Shorts: Alloy. Tights: secondhand, gift. Boots: Steven by Steve Madden. Photography expertise: School of Life.I write stuff after the jump.
My Life as The Soap Lady
The World Through New Eyes
Graphic Novel Review: Blackest Night
Since 2004, when Geoff Johns ostensibly finished work on The Flash and became the writer for Green Lantern, DC comics have been building toward one point: Blackest Night, 2009 and 2010′s event that became the next DC Crisis, mainly because you can’t call a Crisis two years after Final Crisis a Crisis. With all of the Crises DC has had, it makes sense that much of the first part of this omnibus details exposition about Final Crisis. For many comic readers like me, characters like the Justice League of America seem to live in a constant limbo, their lives unchanging with events due to rarely reading about a single character in a linear manner and television shows that seem to be focused on the early 90s (as well they should be). Not knowing the precise nature of how modern comic events worked, the first time I read Blackest Night #0, I was operating under the impression that the mountains of dead were killed just for the opening of Blackest Night the way they might be in an Infinities one-shot (and I don’t mean just because Final Crisis knew Blackest Night was going to follow up). Over time, I realized this was not the case.
If you look at these pages, though, you might understand why. Blackest Nights #0 and #1 are like a DC obituary. Most of this is exposition, and if this weren’t a nine-issue omnibus, it would get pretty tedious. And it’s all relevant for this volume (and would have been awkward anywhere else). If you really want to see how much exposition is just skipped over, take a look at this image:
The setup issues aren’t all backstory, however, as they bring us into the current plots as well. Mera, one of the main characters of the saga, discusses the fallen Aquaman with Garth, while the new Firestorm attends a memorial for the old (one of my favorite DC heroes). Green Lantern Hal Jordan and original Flash Barry Allen share much of the page time as the stars of the book, and the Atom narrowly misses being part of the deaths of Hawkman and Hawkgirl. More characters are involved, more setup takes place; this issue is the foundation for both Blackest Night and Brightest Day.
Without spending too much time on each issue’s plot, I do want to address how the tone for the series is set here. We see the undead Black Hand licking a skull, acid rain at a funeral, memorials and crypts, defiled graves, cursed lovers being slain by their dead friends, a multi-species horde of zombies the likes of which Star Wars: Death Troopers and Red Harvest should have sported, and bloody hearts being pulled out of still-screaming bodies for a feast of the dead. Pretty much the only thing that’s not black in this issue is the light of green rings, which sets the tone in a different way.
If you haven’t guessed it by now, as far as DC-wide events go, this is pretty much a Green Lantern/Flash event. The Atom and Mera feature prominently, and there are other, smaller plots with other heroes, but the alpha and omega of this miniseries are Hal and Barry. I don’t mind this- Hal Jordan has long been one of my favorite heroes, and when I’ve read about Wally West emulating Barry the Flash seems like a hero worth learning about. Those more focused on the Supermans and the Batmans, you might be a little out of luck here.
Blackest Night continues by following through with its premise: super-powered zombies that feed on the emotional spectrum. And you know what? This is definitely a worthwhile take on zombies. The undead have a single personality, all designed toward drawing out an emotional response in their victims so that they can eat their hearts and use it to power their central power battery. By the way, the battery is at zero power when these super-powered monstrosities start killing their friends. Imagine what it could do at full power.
As the general story unfolds, you get the impression that scenes are being skipped. Why is this? Well, as a main DC event, Blackest Night had several spin-off series, in addition to touching close to every main title that DC carries. So while the most relevant things are explained as part of this series, sometimes you get things like groups of Lanterns leaving or returning to Earth for unexplained reasons.
Another focus of this book is on splash pages and two-page spreads. Every issue has at least one of these. Many of these exist to focus on the drama of the unfolding zombie apocalypse (in a very real sense- Black Hand and his Corps seek nothing less than the end of all life), with the rest giving Alex Sinclair space to show off his coloring for the other seven Corps. Thankfully, all of the visuals in this volume are phenomenal, from the pencils and inking to the colors and lettering. If you buy comics for eye candy, these splash pages will sell the whole book to you.
The heroes of Earth can’t do much, as Hal Jordan leaves to collect the people that actually have a chance against the black rings, and they fight a war of attrition with the unkillable until the black Central Power Battery, which has been brought to Earth, reaches 100% power.
More new characters are introduced to the Saga. We get Nekron (insert “because poor literacy is cool” joke here), the disembodied voice that’s been guiding Black Hand throughout the miniseries. Despite the patronage of former Guardian Scar, Nekron is the Black Lantern Corps’ true Guardian- or if not, he’s potentially their version of Parallax (which makes him death incarnate and the avatar of the black lanterns). He closes off an issue with a semi-dramatic appearance, ordering the non super-powered dead of Coast City to rise.
As the next issue begins, Blackest Night is introduced to Saint Walker of the Blue Lanterns, Sinestro of the Sinestro Corps, Carol Ferris of the Star Sapphires, and Larfleeze, aka Agent Orange along with the returned Hal Jordan and Indigo-1 (who appeared earlier to bid Hal join her in finding these… characters) of the Indigo Tribe. Together, they represent the seven Corps of the emotional spectrum, often with cartoony caricatures to distinguish their emotion of choice. We have only a few pages’ montage to introduce these characters to those who have not been following the past few years, making them behave more cartoonishly than normal.
The Lanterns are on Ryut in Sector 666 (where all the bad things in Green Lantern come from), where the Black Lantern had spent its time charging ever since the Sinestro Corps War, but is not now. We therefore cut back to dramatic goings-on on Earth which are obviously waiting for the main characters to show up before explaining Nekron’s deal, and the cavalry arrives. Scar mentions that she considers Nekron her Lord, which potentially makes her just another Black Lantern, despite the role she’s played in events, and the Lanterns show off their combined powers by destroying her.
Carol Ferris, the Star Sapphire, makes a Captain Planet joke when they combine their beams to attempt to destroy the Black Power Battery; neither of these have much impact. Bruce Wayne is raised from the dead, causing an emotional link to the members of the Justice League that allows Nekron to send black rings after those who have been resurrected in the past and kill them while Nekron narrates that all they’ve accomplished in the past (at least as far as beating death) has been according to his will. Sort of like when you’ve been beaten time and again in a video game and when you get your rematch claiming that it’s because you’ve let them win a dozen times in the past, despite not having any good reason to have ever let them win.
“Bruce Wayne” (quotes being Nekron’s, not mine, and you can guess what that means) is dismissed as The Flash helps Hal Jordan escape their two rings by running several seconds into the future. Nekron summons his reinforcements from across the universe, which prompts the other six Corps (not counting Larfleeze, whose entire corps lives in his ring) to call for reinforcements. Before they can arrive, however, Ganthet, fallen Guardian-turned-Blue Lantern leader, commands each of the seven rings to duplicate for the sole purpose of giving fans a chance to see such things as a Star Sapphire Wonder Woman, Blue Lantern Flash, Orange Lantern Lex Luthor, and so on.
Other than the unique looks and comments on each hero and villain’s personality, there are two comments I have to make on this. The first is that the Star Sapphire ring would not pick anyone other than Wonder Woman because “nobody loves this planet more than her”, which is as close as they’ve come so far to saying that only women can be Star Sapphires (Superman’s name wasn’t even brought up). The second is that we don’t really get to see the benefit of this. Scarecrow turns into a powerful Yellow Lantern, sure, but otherwise the only real outcome is demonstrating the downsides of each ring, such as stopping Mera’s heart and overwhelming Luthor with power lust. I understand that each ring requires training and experience, but the whole point was that they would be of more use in the fight, not to make them useless.
As part of Nekron’s final solution, Black Hand uses the heart of a Guardian that Nekron killed to summon The Entity (known to Nekron as The Intruder), the embodiment of white light and life itself. The idea is to kill it, but it’s sort of like when a mage summons a demon in order to take its power and is slaughtered by the emerging demon. While the “Blackest Night” prophecy is almost proven to be true by the existence of this series, what happens next proves it impossible: it’s impossible to kill Life itself, even for Nekron.
Sinestro takes the Entity into itself, much as he had forced Parallax, the embodiment of fear, into Hal Jordan, and kills Nekron. For a moment. Just like a few other baddies Star Wars fans might know (and others, I’m sure), Nekron takes the body of one of his servants to return himself to life, pulling the Entity out of Sinestro. Hal gives a Patrick Stewart speech about life and resurrection before taking the Entity into himself and using it to turn all of the heroes turned into Black Lanterns two issues ago into White Lanterns, who target Nekron.
While all this was going on, it was decided that Black Hand was Nekron’s link to the world of the living, and returning him to life would end Nekron’s cycle of reanimation. The Entity knows this too, apparently, and leaves Hal so that it can lean over Hand dramatically and resurrect him. At the same time, it resurrects the freaking Anti-Monitor, trapped within and powering Nekron’s Central Power Battery.
This is one of the weakest moments of the series. I understand this is halfway through the finale and time is short, but you don’t resurrect the most deadly villain in the history of DC Comics and then have Nekron dismiss him with a hand wave. Sorry, it just doesn’t work that way. No epic battle? None of the heroes even react to this? It’s a cool looking two pages, sure, but ultimately, it was forgotten.
The Entity destroys Nekron with a badass “LET THERE BE LIGHT”, and then resurrects twelve heroes and villains to set up for Brightest Day. Among these is Deadman, who was seen earlier begging to stay dead before Nekron made his corpse into a Black Lantern, causing there to be two Deadmans for the duration of the miniseries. From here, we go into closure. Everybody is returned to their normal state, except for the resurrected, who are either alive where they were dead before or, in the case of the Hawks- are un-cursed where they were cursed before.
We get a hint of the drama to come in Brightest Day, such as Gen, the second half of the new Firestorm, still being dead, and several deadly supervillains having been returned to life. Deadman laments over being forced back to life, the fact that the real Bruce Wayne was apparently not dead to be reanimated is discussed, and a white lantern appears in a crater. But as they say, it is now tomorrow, which means the Blackest Night is over.
It is time for Brightest Day. And if it’s anything near as good as Blackest Night, we’re in for a good ride.
The Man in Black is a weekly review at Fantasy & Sci-Fi Lovin' News & Reviews. For more of his reviews, you can visit his home page at www.MiBreviews.com