Doctor Who - Empire of the Wolf - Titan Comics

 

This week's comic book takes us to one of my favourite subjects - Doctor Who. It's now 50 years since I first remember watching and I was hooked/addicted from that moment on. I devoured anything DW related - TV show, videos, DVDs, books (ah, all those target adaptations) and yes DW monthly magazine and the comic strips therein. And I enjoyed them all.

But as for comic strips - well, it's been a while.

This story has the eighth doctor teaming up with Rose Tyler (a face from his future) and the eleventh with an alternative Rose who is now The Bad Wolf Empress. This could have been confusing but the story (Jody Hauser) art (Roberta Ingranata) and colouring (Warnia K. Shadewa) kept everything clear. 

The characterisations of 8 and 11 were well done and believable - no shouty reliance on catchphrases here - and it was nice to see the 'human doctor' and Rose in their alternate universe and see how they had been getting on since we last saw them.

And yes, there is an old enemy that is thankfully not Daleks or Cybermen to add to the mix.

All round a highly enjoyable multi doctor tale 4.5/5*

Thanks to Will O'Mullane and Titan Comics for inviting me to review Empire of the Wolf and providing a review copy. All opinions, though, are my own and not influenced by either.

The Last Blade Priest W P Wiles

 

 Blurb

Inar is Master Builder for the Kingdom of Mishig-Tenh. Life is hard after the Kingdom lost the war against the League of Free Cities. Doubly so since his father betrayed the King and paid the ultimate price. And now the King’s terrifying chancellor and torturer in chief has arrived and instructed Inar to go and work for the League. And to spy for him. And any builder knows you don’t put yourself between a rock and a hard place.
 
Far away Anton, Blade Priest for Craithe, the God Mountain, is about to be caught up in a vicious internal war that will tear his religion apart. Chosen from infancy to conduct human sacrifice, he is secretly relieved that the practice has been abruptly stopped. But an ancient enemy has returned, an occult conspiracy is unfolding, and he will struggle to keep his hands clean in a world engulfed by bloodshed.
 
In a series of constantly surprising twists and turns that take the reader through a vividly imagined and original world full of familiar tensions and surprising perspectives on old tropes, Inar and Anton find that others in their story may have more influence on their lives, on the future of the League and on their whole world than they, or the reader imagined.

My thoughts 

The blurb sold me on this book - and it didn't disappoint (well, there was one 'disappointment' but I'll come to that later).

The 'style' of the story, especially from the point of view of Inar the builder, put me in mind of a massively expansive fantasy video game (you know the kind of thing where you just wander around the screen going 'Woooah, how cool is that') and for me that was a massive plus point. 

When Inar is sent to spy on The League, his people's conquerors, it made me wonder just what was going on as he seemed to be in a much better situation here - who are the 'good guys', who are the 'bad guys' am I going to be changing my mind every other page. Inar's part of the story was, I'll admit, my favourite - partly for the world building but also for his companion and comedy sidekick Lott, a great character who seems to lighten the mood at just the right time.

The other side of the story concerns the Blade Priest Craithe which, for the most part is more contained to the one area. This was a lot darker with sacrifice avian type Gods and the threat of an ancient Big Bad. When the book begins though the offering of human sacrifice is possibly coming to an end and the way this plays out between different factions made for an interesting read.

So, great characters, great plot, great world-building and a massive chonker of a book - 'what is there to disappoint?' you may well ask.

Well (and it's just a personal opinion) it could have really benefited from a map. That's it, a map, even though the world building was so good and so clear I knew more or less where I was for the majority of the time. What can I say, I like maps 😉

Two other things though - when Inar is first taken to The League they stay in a massive sprawling castle but the people who live there can find there way around as the corridors are all marked as are the individual doors - THEY BASICALLY HAVE A STREET GUIDE FOR THE CASTLE!! How cool is that idea? It may have been done before but I don't recall it.

Also, Evil Elves!!

So, when you put it all into context I guess the lack of a map is only a small thing really 

4.5/5* Highly Recommend (and the only reason it hasn't got 5* is that I feel the story is only going to get better in later volumes)

Rivers of London: Body Work Delux Writers Edition

 'CSI meets Harry Potter in this fantastic SPECIAL EDITION graphic novel from Ben Aaronovitch, writer of the bestselling Rivers of London supernatural police procedural crime novel series! This Deluxe Writers' Edition presents the full script of the graphic novel along with the unlettered, full-color artwork, allowing the reader to read the original script and see the artwork side-by-side.

Grant is part of a very special London police unit. Full-time cop and part time wizard he works on rather unusual crimes - those that involve magic and the general weirdness that permeates London's dark underbelly.

His latest case begins with a perfectly innocent car on a homicidal killing spree - without a driver. But, before you know it, there's a Bosnian refugee, the Most Haunted Car in England, a bunch of teenagers loaded on Ketamine and seemingly-harmless wooden bench with the darkest of pasts...'

                                    -

 So, last week I covered the origins of Spiderman from 1962. This week we come right up to date with Body Work pt1 the first graphic novel in Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London universe. And oh, my friends, it is so much more than that. This is the Delux Writers Edition and it is a thing of outstanding beauty.

 I've loved the RoL novels since day 1 but I've always been a sucker for 'magic London'. The series stars Peter Grant who is basically a wizard policeman and crimes with a supernatural leaning.

 With the graphic novels Lee Sullivan (pencils and inks) and Luis Guerrero (colours) bring the characters to life in Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel's story and I think I enjoyed the visual aspect of this even more than the novels (and I love the novels!).

 The story here is of a possessed car on a killing spree (reminded me of the King classic Christine) but there's so much more than just a killer car going on.

  The big thing about this edition though is the way it is presented. This is almost a masterclass on how a graphic novel is created and put together (I guess if Body Work were a dvd this would be one of the extras).

 

On each double spread we get the unlettered artwork on one side while the other has the dialogue, captions etc and such things as photo references that were taken to give the art accuracy. The book is printed on glorious feeling paper which gives it even more of a 'special book essence'.

And then, when you reach the end - another treat. Several 1 page shorts, Tales From The Folly, a collection of short stories featuring the side cast (Beverly Brook, Toby the Dog etc). It's amazing how much story you can get from 6 or so panels.

This book is a real gem and deserves pride of place on any book shelf but mostly it deserves to be in your hands as you treat your eyes to what I can only call a true work of art. 

5/5*

https://titan-comics.com/c/1651-rivers-of-london-vol-1-body-work-deluxe-writers-ed/

Against All Gods - Miles Cameron

 

                      BOOK DESCRIPTION

The tyranny of the gods is absolute, and they are capricious, malevolent and almost all-powerful, playing cruel games with the fates of mortals for their own ends . . .

A vibrant and powerful epic set against an alternate Bronze Age, this tale of gods, men and monsters, conspiracy and war, is a rich, compelling and original read from a master of the historical and fantasy genres. The people caught up in toils of the gods are merely trying to survive. Victims of vicious whims, trapped by their circumstances or pushed beyond what the mortal frame can bear, a handful of god-touched mortals - a scribe, a warlord, a dancer and a child - are about to be brought together in a conspiracy of their own.

A conspiracy to reach the heavens, and take down the corrupt and aging gods . . . who are already facing troubles of their own . . .

                          MY THOUGHTS

 I've been reading Fantasy Fiction for a long, long time and it's a safe bet to say I know what I like. . . and I like Against All Gods a lot!

 The story kicks off in Heaven with a pantheon of Gods (in fact the whole thing starts with a line from the chief God himself, asking the lesser gods "What the f*ck just happened" - Yeah, I knew early on this was a winner). There is a lot of manipulation, plotting, scheming, carousing etc between the Gods - and there are a lot of them. There seems to be a God of almost everything.

 After the Gods we move to a bronze age era world where we meet a varied collection of characters from different parts of the continent who eventually come together to go up against the Gods.

The character bringing them all together is a boy named Daos who seems to be a cypher for, possibly, one of the Gods or maybe one of the Old God's (who were displaced by the present one after one almighty battle). Someone or something is telling him exactly where and when he needs to be to gather the 'gang' together. And he gets his messages through his teddy bear (which had a WTF just happened moment all to itself). And the gang are also joined on their adventures by a donkey who probably isn't all he seems (and is one of my favourite characters in the whole thing).

 With sections flitting between Heaven and the world below the story never starts to become stale. There is humour, there is sadness and there is a whole lot more story to tell in coming volumes.

 Where MC really excels though is in the battle scenes. These are brutal yet awesome. In time to come, when people have read the book I'll hopefully be able to elaborate on this but till then. . . Spoilers😉

 So, in short, Great world building, great characters, Gods, Demons, artefacts, awesome battles - all the things that make me a very happy Wyrm indeed 7/5* (my blog, my rules😉)

 Is it too early to say Book of the Year? Well we'll just have to wait and see about that but it's looking promising.

 Thanks to Gollancz for providing me with a review copy of Against All Gods. All views and opinions are my own.

Comic Book Monday - Mighty Marvel Masterworks - The Amazing Spider-Man

 

So, here we are, Spider-Man's origin story from Amazing Fantasy #15. Yeah, I know, it's nothing we don't already know - Boffin schoolboy, bitten by radioactive spider, gets powers, "with great power comes great responsibility" etc, etc. We've seen the movies but there's something a little bit special about seeing it as it was originally drawn and written. This is from 1962 and people picking up AF#15 were meeting Spidey for the first time, and this is how they saw him. They weren't to know he'd still be slinging webs 60 years in the future.

After AF#15's introduction this volume gives us issues 1-10 of The Amazing Spider-Man with such villains as Doctor ish Octopus, Vulture, Electro, Sandman and the lesser known Terrible Tinkerer and The Living Brain. These are all stories I've never seen before and watching Peter Parker (or Peter Palmer as he's curiously called in Spider-Man Vs The Chameleon) come to terms with his powers and deciding on his future path has been an absolute treat. I'm certainly going to be looking for the other titles in the Mighty Marvel Masterworks series (Captain America, Fantastic Four, X-Men -but I think I'll give Daredevil a miss, wasn't a fan).

The 60's vibe is strong in this volume so the dialogue sometimes feels a bit off but hey, this was written 60 years ago - it's almost historical 😉. It'll be interesting to see how this develops in the decades that follow.

And speaking of which, next week sees Comic Book Monday come right up to the here and now with a look at Rivers of London: Bodywork, The Deluxe Writer's Edition and a chance to look at both how much comics have come on since Spidey first donned the Spandex and just how a graphic novel is constructed.

See you next week 

Twelve Percent Dread - Emily McGovern

 

       

                     ABOUT THE BOOK

Katie and Nas are best friends, exes, and co-dependents. They share everything, including a tiny room in a North London townhouse belonging to their landlord, Jeremy, former host of the hit 90s show Football Lads.

While Katie bounces from job to job and obsesses about falling behind in life, Nas has bigger things in mind, such as waiting endlessly for their visa to come through and working on a seismic art project that will revolutionize politics and society as we know it.

Their friend Emma, meanwhile, seems to have it all figured out – job, mortgage, engagement – yet the long hours working for tech giant Arko and endless wedding admin have left her similarly anxious and unsatisfied.

But when Katie’s latest job finds her tutoring the daughter of Arko’s formidable CEO, and Emma welcomes the eccentric and enigmatic Alicia to her team at Arko, neither are aware that all of their lives – and possibly the future of society itself – are about to change forever . . .

                            MY THOUGHTS

 Well, this was fun (in a good way, not a sarcastic one!). I'm fairly new to graphic novels, although I did read and enjoy McGovern's Bloodlust and Bonnets.

 This tale is set in a London where all seems to be run by tech giant Arco who are the producers/suppliers of the majority call the electronic gadgets - phones, screens etc. - that the populace just can't do without. Yeah, pretty much the world today but the names have been changed 😉. It flits between characters Katie, Nas and Emma quickly enough that you don't get bogged down in one particular storyline which makes for a quicker read than I was expecting (believe me this is a hefty book) and I got through it in 3 sittings (3 sunny afternoons, sat in the garden letting the day drift by gadget free). When the storylines start to come together is where the book is strongest although the ending felt a tad too neat and quick.

 As for the art, a very simplistic, uncluttered style really worked here. The wording and dialogue were clear and, again, uncluttered. A very enjoyable reading experience.

 There is a lot here that resonates with today's world and McGovern is able to get this into the story without being preachy about it, again making it enjoyable.

Thanks to the lovely people at Black Crow for sending me an early review copy (all views are my own). Please have a look at the posts by the other reviewers on the tour.

The Ballad of Perilous Graves - Alex Jennings

 

                      About The Book 

In a fantastical version of New Orleans where music is magic, a battle for the city’s soul brews between two young mages, a vengeful wraith, and one powerful song in this vibrant and imaginative debut.

Nola is a city full of wonders. A place of sky trolleys and dead cabs, where haints dance the night away and Wise Women keep the order, and where songs walk, talk and keep the spirit of the city alive. To those from Far Away, Nola might seem strange. To failed magician, Perilous Graves, it’s simply home. Then the rhythm stutters. 

Nine songs of power have escaped from the magical piano that maintains the city’s beat and without them, Nola will fail. Unexpectedly, Perry and his sister, Brendy, are tasked with saving the city. But a storm is brewing and the Haint of All Haints is awake. Even if they capture the songs, Nola’s time might be coming to an end.

                      My Thoughts 

I've always enjoyed books with music at their heart. Somehow the music makes the story feel even more alive, almost a soundtrack to the written word before me. When you throw in the Deep South I'm hooked before I've even looked at the first page and that was certainly the case here. And, my instincts were right.

There is so much going on in Nola (an alternative New Orleans). The music is alive, graffiti floats through the air and the dead share the streets with the living. It's almost, at times, like a massive 60's technicolour trip. But trouble is coming to Nola, the city is losing it's beat and Perilous "Perry" Graves and co might not be enough to save it! 

I'll be honest, there were times when I wasn't sure what the hell was going on. There were even times early on when I nearly gave up on it but something kept pulling me back in - and for that I'm grateful as it turned out to be a cracking read.

Alex Jennings has written something special here, I just feel I'm going to have to read it again to get the full benefit

4/5*