To Space, To War

When considering what to read next, I had to ask myself…what had I not read lately? The answer being science fiction. And anthologies. And wouldn’t you just know it, I’ve got more than a few things that fit that bill.

What I settled on was something that truly is a bit different from anything I’ve read in a while. Not just sci-fi, but military sci-fi. Not just an anthology, but a shared world. This is The Fleet, edited by David Drake and Bill Fawcett.

A few years back I was trying desperately to find new things to read and bought books simply because they checked a single box instead of several on the off chance that they’d work out for me. So when I saw a few volumes of The Fleet at a Half Price, I figured I might as well. Which then delayed when I could read them because of course the first book hadn’t been at that store. In fact, I didn’t get the rest until this past August and my book-based road trip.

I feel like the concept for The Fleet is self-evident, but I can lay it out regardless. Humans are a spacefaring race with numerous colonized planets. And they’ve come up against a species that seems utterly uninterested in peace on anyone’s terms but their own. These are the Khalia, nicknamed Weasels for comparable builds and attitudes.

The book is, as I said, an anthology with stories by a variety of authors, many of whom are notable names in the field. But what really sells it – makes the whole thing humorous actually – are the interludes that create a connective tissue between the tales.

From the mind of Bill Fawcett, the interludes show us a Public Relations officer of the Fleet who is tasked with convincing the civilians to accept higher taxes in order to better support the war effort. As such, he’s going through the records and recordings looking for a properly heroic figure to become the face of the campaign. Unfortunately, there just doesn’t seem to be anything that fits his bill. Either because the victory was based on a trick, or it all took place in the dark, or something else entirely. And yet, this is what makes the book so much better. Because we’re not getting the stereotypical story. We’re getting the weird and sidelined for our heroes.

Janet Morris starts things off, before the first interlude even, with “The Collaborator”. Which is so appropriate in so many ways. Not just because she created Heroes in Hell, another shared world of the eighties, but also because this entire book is a collaboration. And yet…the story itself is grim. A planet called Eire is under attack by Khalians. But it’s hard to mourn the destruction of its culture when the people their have backslid to a feudal system that sees them enslaving their fellow humans. This tale serves to introduce us to the conflict, the enemy, the fact that humans are most definitely still not perfect, and the fact that not all endings are happy.

“The Two That it Took” by John Brunner takes us back to the beginning of the human/Khalian conflict. When it was still just the disappearance of the odd ship or two. We see the start of the conflict from the human side, as a scout is searching for evidence of a missing ship. We also get a bit into the Khalian mindset and see what might have been the first planetside encounter between the two species. It’s noted that much of this story is unknown in terms of the fictional history. Some parts weren’t recorded, others were overlooked and extrapolated. It’s always fascinating to me what facts (or “facts”) are remembered and how centuries later.

Bill Fawcett offers “Tradition” for how someone, who got their posting due to nepotism, is still nonetheless not an idiot. They’re just not ideally suited for their role. And yet, nevertheless, there is a job they know well and between that and a bit of ingenuity, they might just manage to pull off a great victory.

“Bolthole” comes from Jody Lynn Nye and we see – how timely – Fleet medical officers delivering vaccines. But there’s an unexpected Khalian raid on the same planet at the same time. But such raids aren’t unknown…or unprepared for.

Margaret Weis mixes humor with sobriety in “The Thirty-Nine Buttons”. Our protagonist seems to be more than a bit of a self-important idiot and, frankly, only has himself to blame for the situation he finds himself in. And yet, there is that sober note in there…

“Klaxon” is a Robert Sheckley story and might just be one of my favorites in this book. Overlooking the fact that the main character seems to be out for her M.R.S. degree, it’s actually a nice little twist. I mean, I saw most of it coming, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it.

Steve Perry takes things in a different direction with “Contrapuntal”. This time our characters are Ndege, a race allied with the Khalia. And this is a set piece of Ndegian culture and thought processes. I mean, I like xenopsychology. There’s just one aspect to this story that I question.

“Pay Tribute to the Fleet” is, weirdly enough, by none other than Gary Gygax. Father of Dungeons & Dragons and this is the first time I’ve read any of the man’s fiction. Okay then. His story is about a fringe planet that is technically part of the Alliance (of humans and other worlds) but resenting it. See, the Alliance only allows for its own Fleet to be a military force. This sounds good in theory, but when they’re never around to deter a Khalian raid, either because they didn’t know or missed it by a couple days, people become resentful. And decide to find their own defense.

Poul Anderson’s story “The Only Bed to Lie In” shifts the focus to veterans. Not just any veterans either, but ones who find themselves almost abandoned in the wake of the Khalian war heating up. Some of them allowed their bodies to be modified to better serve in certain environments. People who had made friends with the natives. Natives that would now suffer because their human protectors were ordered home. It’s a tale of vignettes, with a through line shown in a reporter’s eyes.

“Duty Calls” Anne McCaffrey to answer the call! And we’ve got a reference to my absolute favorite of her series, the Brainships. It’s not obvious at first, but the pilot here is basically a brainship. He wasn’t always encased, which gives him a good balance of experience with flesh and blood people as well as flying his ship. Also there’s a catwoman and I kind of love this story?

Finally we end with David Drake’s “Rescue Mission”. A major Fleet operation against a Khalian base. Behind the scenes, to rescue an admiral’s son. But there’ll be a surprise cameo calling back to that first story, as well as all the on-the-ground military action a reader might have been craving by this point in the book.

Overall, The Fleet is pretty solid. It reminds me most of the Bolo books, as those are also shared world anthologies (those that aren’t novels, but that’s besides the point). I’m a little surprised to find that this is also from the eighties – the cover style and art have a definite nineties feel to them. It does make sense though, I’ve already discussed that the eighties were a prime decade fro shared worlds and it’s where you see so very many rise. Some of which still exist today.

I won’t say that this book is free from issues. Being military sci-fi, it’s very male-dominated. Annoying, but true. There are still several strong female characters throughout, even if only four out of eleven authors are women. And there’s definite issue with how some of the women are portrayed. I mentioned one who, aside from narrating the story, seems mostly interested in finding a man. And we’ve got some lovely virgin/whore complexes and, best of all, actual incest. I’ve seen worse – I’ve refused to own books that have worse – but that doesn’t make any of these things good to find.

Of course, these complaints make slightly more sense in the context of a 1988 publication date, but that doesn’t mean we should just nod and accept them. It’s more understandable, but that doesn’t mean it should be more acceptable. The discussion has been gaining more traction in recent years that yes, people should still read the classics (of speculative fiction), but we have to acknowledge the flaws in the works and the authors who created them. Racism, homophobia, sexism…it’s all there in black and white. It’s our job to be responsible readers and understand that we’re still allowed to like the story, as long as we know that it is flawed and should not be taken as holy writ.

That makes me think about fandoms today and how people allow that small part of their identity to dictate their lives, but that is a very long tangent and I am not up for it today. Nor do I think I’m up for more of The Fleet tomorrow, but I can worry about that part in the morning.

It’s Getting Cold in Here

A while back I read the incredibly unorginally titled Urban Fantasy Anthology. It was an interesting mix of stories and I remember saying, as I finished it, “no wonder they used that Holly Black story for a preview”. After all, “The Coldest Girl in Coldtown” was almost certainly the best tale in the book. Even now, over a year later, I clearly remember that story and my reaction.

So when I was in a used bookstore a couple weeks back, browsing the YA section, you can imagine what happened when my eye fell on The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black. Obviously it was an expansion of the short story I’d already read, and even more obviously I had to have it. And since that’s the store where I have ridiculous amounts of credit, to the point where I’ve started bringing friends just to get them to help me use it, it was an easy decision.

Let’s start by discussing the Coldtown world. Coldtowns are ghettos, essentially. It’s where humans have (tried) to confine vampires. See, the undead have been with us all along, but recently (in the grand scheme of things) a newly turned vampire wandered all over the world touching off outbreaks wherever he went. See, it’s an infection. If you’re bitten, you’re not a vampire, although in twelve to forty-eight hours you may become Cold – and yes, it’s noticeable. If it was a shallow bite or scrape, you might be clean after forty-eight hours. You only turn completely if you then drink human blood. Which most infected do because it’s a powerful urge they can’t control.

Because it’s an infection, the body can throw it off and recover so long as the person drinks no human blood. But it takes eighty-eight days for the venom to leave their veins. And they’ll react like an addict suffering withdrawal, even though it’s a substance they’ve never had.

The original short story, “The Coldest Girl in Coldtown”, shows us Matilda. She’s infect and has been so for some time. But she’s determined to beat it. She distracts herself in every way she can…but then she’s forced into a corner.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a sequel to “The Coldest Girl in Coldtown”. Matilda, the last protagonist, is actually mentioned by name at one point. And our new main character is Tana.

The book opens with her waking up in a bathtub. She was at a party at a friend’s house and suspects she overindulged. So she leaves the bathroom. And that’s when she discovers the bloodbath the place has turned into. Obviously vampires got in when somebody wasn’t careful enough. And now it seems she’s the only survivor. At least until she enters a bedroom and finds her ex-boyfriend Aidan strapped to the bed.

When she removes the tape from his mouth, he tries to bite her and she realizes he’s been infected. That’s when she realizes there’s not two people in the room, but three. And the third is held by chains, not ropes. He may look the same seventeen years old as Tana and Aidan, but he’s clearly a vampire. And whoever put him in this room is not a friend.

So Tana decides to do what she feels is right and rescue both boys. It’s an impulsive choice, and leads her on an adventure to discover what she’s really made of.

The book not only builds on the world and premise of the short story, it also introduces us to more of the history and lore. Nowhere near as deep as what you’d find in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, but we’re not looking for the origin of life in this book. More like the roots of how this vampire infestation came to be.

So a bit of horror, a bit of adventure, a bit of girlpower, a bit of romance, and more than a bit of insanity is what Holly Black combined into a novel. And it’s pretty great. I think the short story is still a more immediately powerful piece of writing, but the novel makes good use of its four hundred some pages.

I’m fairly certain that the book will remain a standalone. It’s possible that Black might have more ideas for vignettes and short stories to illuminate small corners of her world, but there’s really nowhere else for the overall story of Coldtown to go. Which is no bad thing.

It’s just going to remain weird that both have the same title even though one is a sequel to the other. Sorry, I have opinions on titling and I may never get over that one. But I do really like this book and I’m so glad I stumbled onto a copy.

Art in Comics

I am a sucker for some good, Art Deco inspired poster design. The simplicity, the shapes, the flatness…it really speaks to my personal design aesthetic. I’ve seen an upsurge in tourism posters done in this style in recent years and I love it.

It’s also what immediately caught my eye when I saw The Omega Men by Tom King at the comic shop. The deluxe edition cover is yes, an issue cover (12 of 12 actually) that shows a set of wanted posters. Kyle Rayner is front and center, with his Green Lantern symbol modified to show an omega (as in the Greek alphabet). We get glimpses of four other wanted posters behind his, but you’d have to already know the other characters to identify them. Scrawled over the top right corner is The Omega Men, with the O also being an omega symbol, and it looks to have been done with a paintbrush.

Every single (main) cover in the twelve issue series was done in this Art Deco style. Five are actually tourism posters, representing five of the six planets in the Vega system where the story takes place. The others are propaganda of various types, reminiscent of the World War II posters that encouraged people on the home front, and including the wanted poster eventually taken for the graphic novel cover.

There are two sides to each poster. You’ve got the “clean” version, as it was meant to be seen by the Vegan peoples. And then you’ve got the defaced version, which not only has The Omega Men scrawled over it, but often a bit more to emphasize something dark and sinister.

Like I said, this aesthetic is what drew me to the book in the first place and I’ve been loving it the entire time. It’s probably the best part as far as I’m concerned. But I should discuss the actual story.

First and foremost, I guess the Omega Men were originally seen in eighties comics. I have no idea who they were then or what those stories were about, so I can’t speak to anything regarding those older issues. All I know is the twelve issues I’ve got here from 2015.

Kyle Rayner, in his capacity as the White Lantern, went to the Vega system, which is not a happy place. These planets are the sole place in the universe one can mine stellarium, an element that can be used to prevent planets from going the way of Krypton. As such, it is in extremely high demand and commands ridiculous prices. However, mining stellarium is inimical to life on the planet.

There are six Vegan planets, ruled by the Citadel and its Viceroy. Each of them is home to a different species and each lives by different customs, although they all nominally share a religion. It is a religion of an Alpha and an Omega, a beginning and an ending to everything. But each planet is a bit different. It is no coincidence that the Omega Men draw from every single planet in the system.

Tigorr is a big cat-man from Karna, the planet of beasts. They live simple, bloodthirsty lives and are exceedingly unfriendly to outsiders. Broot comes from Changralyn, the most devout of the Vegan planets. These people are big, powerful, and under the thumb of a priestly class that controls them through bribery. Primus is of Ogyptu, the pleasure planet, where he led a nonviolent resistance against the overlords who kept his people as slaves.

Kalista is princess of Euphorix, a captive taken by the Omega Men. Her people originally came from the Citadel, exiles after their beliefs about Alpha caused a religious schism. As such, they believe it is their right to crush the natives under their heels. Doc, the robot character, represents Hyn’xx, the planet where you can buy just about anything provided you can pay the price. Lastly is Scrapps, from the planet Voorl. Not much is known about Voorl because when the Citadel first looked at how to take control of the Vegan planets, they put up an impenetrable shield and have stayed isolated since then.

The Omega Men opens with Kyle Rayner being kidnapped by the titular group and executed on live TV. Obviously he’s not really dead given that he’s in a wanted poster for issue twelve. The entire idea here is that there’s so much more going on behind the scenes everywhere in Vega and the Lantern is with the Omega Men. Although it’s anybody’s guess whether he’s a captive or a willing aide. I mean, you can read the story. I’m not spoiling that much.

What I didn’t realize until it was stated outright in the bonus material is that Vega is meant to represent the Middle East. I mean, I know that Ogyptu sounds incredibly like Egypt, but I hadn’t put that together with the many different ways we see the Middle East represented in media. I’m not sure that I want to view the story in that specific context; I get more than enough out of it without bringing in real world baggage of decades and centuries.

The main focus of Omega Men is the fact that all of Vega lives under the Citadel’s thumb, each planet suffering in a different fashion. Kyle’s goal is to free them. But what his idealism may overlook is the fact that stellarium is still one of the most valuable materials in the universe and the planets willing to pay outrageous prices for it don’t give a shit about the cost in lives. They just want their shiny rock. Sure, it’s bad if people are suffering, but why should that prevent the export of stellarium?

Like I said, I don’t need to see this as specifically being the Middle East to get the messages Tom King is conveying. This comic strikes home regardless and it’s not the easiest read. Of course, it also doesn’t help that Kyle Rayner is still the least interesting of the Terran Lanterns as far as I’m concerned. As a comic artist, he’s pretty much someone’s self-insert character, he basically became a Green Lantern on a whim, and his stories are the origin of “women in refrigerators” because some men have serious issues. (The phrase is used today to indicate women who serve no narrative purpose other than to remind the male hero of the cost and/or motivation for his actions. They don’t even need to be on screen. And it doesn’t even get into the insanity of how Rayner’s girlfriend got into a damned fridge.) Kyle Rayner is a largely passive character and things happen to him, he’s a brooding artist, and again, just the least interesting of the human Lanterns.

Which is why I wasn’t entirely certain if I’d keep this book. On the one hand, absolutely beautiful covers that I love so much that I spent the first five paragraphs of this post discussing them. On the other hand, a story where you very much can’t trust anybody to be what they say up front. Back to the pros, I like most of the Omega Men as characters and find them interesting. But on the cons, some I very much don’t like. Pluses, the creators are able to create issue-sized snapshots of each planet that quickly and strongly get across a characterization for each society. Minuses, one issue is devoted to a summary of Rayner’s backstory – which I absolutely did not need – and I truly despise guest artist Toby Cypress’ style. It’s stylized in a way that doesn’t appeal to me, with strange proportions, very dark inks, and no real sense of continuity to any of the more “normal” styles I see in superhero comics today. It’s reminiscent of the art in The Sandman: The Kindly Ones that I also hate for the same reasons.

But that was just one issue. And the “travel poster” covers are throughout and the good characters are strong enough to keep me invested the entire time. So I will keep the book. I mean, obviously there’s a lot to talk about here, given that I’m already over a thousand words. I don’t know that it’s going to make me any more interested in Kyle Rayner as a character, but I’m starting to think that good stories around him are actually ones where he’s placed into a group of more interesting people telling their own tales, and he’s just trying to do his White Lantern thing. Which is hard because he’s a supremely unconfident Lantern thanks to his past traumas. Which makes it weird that he’s the White Lantern with all these unprecedented powers…bah. Like I said, I’m not a Rayner fan. But for all I don’t care for him, he can be placed into interesting stories and I do like interesting stories.

I’m still failing to pick a book of a normal length to read, so it’s back to the pile of comics. And back to that freebie that I was going to read yesterday until I realized I had two X-Men comics of varying stripes and I might as well try to keep things consistent.

Like I said, this was a freebie that the comic shop threw in. In all likelihood, I suspect he had to order enough to get quantity incentive covers and thus had plenty mysteries to give away. Because this was in a plastic bag with a concealing piece of cardboard in front, marking it as a Planeswalker variant cover. Yes, this is Magic #1. A Magic the Gathering comic.

For the record, the “virgin” cover behind the board (IE no text, logos, barcodes, etc to distract from the art) is absolutely gorgeous. I have no idea who this lady in a purple dress with gold accents is as she stands on a literal stairway of skulls, but she’s beautifully drawn.

Then I opened the book to learn that Magic is also now a multiverse. Or maybe it always was; I honestly don’t know or care. I’m fully aware of how long the game has been around and I have never once in my life been interested in spending the amounts of money required to be “good” at the game.

Anyway, the story is that three guildmasters in Ravnica have been targeted by assassins. Because I could care less about this game, I’ll refer to them as ghost guildmaster, steampunk guildmaster, and medusa guildmaster. And whoever is masterminding the attacks tailored their assassins to the targets. Still, these people aren’t guildmasters for nothing and all the attackers die, except for one from the steampunk attack. The guildmasters go to a…I don’t know, someone who overseas all ten guilds and bring the prisoner, who is not as compliant as could be desired. The issue ends on a realization that there’s definitely more to it.

But we all know I won’t be reading it because, as stated, I give no shits about the game this is based on. And sure, I’ve been known to express vague interest in literature inspired by and based off of games in the past (DragonLance and Assassin’s Creed in particular), but both of those gave me decent entry points. Magic #1 is not for new readers. It’s for people who have either read previous Magic the Gathering literature, people who have played enough of the game to know the lore, or both. As I don’t fall into any of those groups, it’s just not for me at all.

But again, that is some beautiful cover art. Given the general quality I’ve seen from the cards over the years, I would hope that all the variant covers are just as good. I can’t say, of course, because I haven’t seen any others in person and am far too lazy and uninterested to look them up online. Ah well.

Moving on to something I actually bought for myself is Static #4. This also happens to be a variant cover, by Nikolas Draper-Ivey. It’s a lovely watercolor or marker style of Static walking towards a manhole with the milestone “m” on it. And the title Static has its Japanese translation layered over the time, as if this was an anime poster. It’s a nice cover.

In this issue, people in black come to the door of the Hawkins household looking to take Virgil into their custody. But since our hero’s parents know who he is and what he can do (or about as much as he does at this point), they’re not buying into the party line. They know that so many of the kids who were at the protests are disappearing into cars and vans throughout the city and they’re determined their boy won’t be next.

Of course, that says nothing for what Virgil can get up to on his own. After all, those are his friends who are being taken and he sure as hell doesn’t want to leave them prisoners in unfriendly hands. Needless to say, he’s going to take action.

The more I read of this comic the more nostalgic I become for the Static Shock TV series. Seriously, that was underrated and I hope they put out a complete set where I can find it sooner rather than later. I did notice a complete bluray set of Batman: The Animated Series at Target just a couple days ago, so here’s hoping we get more in that vein. (I thought about buying it, but it was roughly seventy dollars which is a little pricey for nostalgia at the moment.) Regardless, the current Static comic is fine and I’ll still read more.

No Focus

When you can’t decide what book to read, it’s always a good time to read comics, right? And since it’s been a while since I read comics, I have quite a few to choose from. So naturally I decided to start with one the comic shop threw in. It’s not missing its cover, but that’s fine.

This is Excalibur #18 and though you can’t see the image for yourself, please take my word that the “x” is large enough to make it clear that this is an X-Men title. It’s also in the current font used for all of the X-Men series, but again, you wouldn’t necessarily know that unless you read comics yourself.

The cover itself has a “somebody’s dead” vibe, with Rogue, Jubilee, Gambit, and some guy I don’t know in the foreground, looking down and solemn. There’s also another line of figures behind them, but these look more like glamour shots, and more than a little ominous. Although that might be due to the mysterious glowing eyes above them that have tinted everything behind the first four figures red.

We are in the middle of a storyline and here’s what I can tell you. Excalibur seems to be about the main group hopping worlds/dimensions/universes (I honestly don’t know or care how we’re classifying things). In all worlds, Captain Britain, aka Betsey Braddock, is the designated representative to the Omniversal Majestrix. Please don’t ask me who or what that is. The problem is that in a particular world, Captain Britain has gone missing and therefore they cannot approach the Omniversal Majestrix. Last issue they appear to have found her, but they’re not sure it’s really her.

This Betsey looks right and sounds right, but she’s quiet and withdrawn, antisocial to the extreme. Which is unusual for her as a person…but does make sense given that she’s clearly been through a lot. Still, Rogue’s sure that something’s not right here.

That’s basically this whole issue. They talk to Betsey’s family, Gambit talks to Monarch, apparently Monarch had a creepy Betsey body with nothing inside it and that’s now gone, etc. It makes a lot more context if you’ve been keeping up with the series and I obviously haven’t. I’m not really interested except for the part where I think Rogue and Gambit are married now and Jubilee has a baby.

I was going to go to another freebie comic next, but decided I should keep in the theme of what I’d started. Which is to say another X-Men comic. Or X-Men related. It’s also one that I actually bought: Phoenix Song: Echo #1.

If you’re familiar with the major X-Men storylines of decades past, you’ve heard of the Phoenix Force. It’s this cosmic power with something of a mind of its own that possesses people who in turn become Phoenix. Jean Grey as Phoenix is still an amazing storyline to this day.

Anyway, recently I guess there was a tournament to decide who the new Phoenix was going to be. And Echo, who did not win the tournament, got the prize. Just in terms of representation she’s awesome; a deaf Native American woman. And now she’s got all this power and no idea how to control it. So, she goes back to the reservation seeking help. That’s where she learns about what the main plot for this miniseries is: someone’s trying to negate the threat of the Phoenix by making it so that Echo was never born.

It doesn’t sound that bad of a concept, I’m just not interested enough to pick up more. Still, good for Echo and I’m sure she’ll come out on top in this existential crisis.

Alpha’s Bet

I have been so very busy, and yet I still manage to read some short things randomly despite all the things clamoring for my time and attention. This weekend has been longer than usual already and yet I have no time.

Still, I was hanging out with a friend and discussing the con I was at earlier this month. And I mentioned how pleased I was that Larry Smith Booksellers had returned. These are the people who have sold me books like H.P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu for Young Readers and P is For Pterodactyl among others.

Somehow my friend had never heard of the latter and I knew at once that we’d have to remedy this. So after I finished my lunch and while he was still working through his takeout sushi, I fetched the book and read it aloud to him. As I’ve established, audiobooks and reading aloud still counts as far as this blog is concerned.

The full title is P is For Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever and it really does live up to the title. Almost every single letter is representing a word where the letter is silent. And then there’s a picture with an elaboration on the initial sentence that also describes a bit of what we see in the image. And it’s hilarious. Perfectly appropriate for children, but also quite silly.

As a bonus, there’s a glossary in the back with a bit more information and some definitions of the words chosen to highlight, along with pronunciations. So if you’re planning on reading this aloud to a child, you might want to take the time to familiarize yourself with the words first, just in case you find something you’ve not heard or spoken before.

My friend has nieces and nephews, so you can imagine this is now on his list of things they need. As stated, it’s delightfully geeky, has a bit of regional pride, and I see no objectionable content whatsoever. And if you disagree with me about what’s acceptable in terms of this book, you may be a bigot.

Anyway, it’s been yet another long, busy day and I don’t have the attention span to start a real book yet. Here’s hoping for tomorrow, after I do all the errands I didn’t get to today.

Strangeness

A friend and I did a little gift exchange recently as we’re heading into the holiday season and it was slightly more convenient than usual for us to meet. And she gave me Strangelands Volume 1 by Mags Visaggio & Darcie Little Badger, with art by Guillermo Sanna.

I’ve been aware of the series for a couple years now. In fact, I gave this same friend issue one…signed by Darcie Little Badger. Because both she and my friend are asexual. In fact, it was Little Badger who moderated the asexuality in science fiction panel that I attended at Worldcon 2019. It was a great panel and the room was packed – surprising given that it was going on at the same time as Opening Ceremonies.

Now, I love supporting ace artists, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to go out of my way to read things if I’m not interested in them in the first place. And Strangelands didn’t look like my cup of tea. Still, when someone gives me a book, especially a graphic novel it won’t take me long to read, I might as well give it a shot.

Our protagonists are Adam and Elkashi Land. They’re not related or married, they just happen to have the same name. And they, like a few other people in the world, have developed strange powers. In the case of the Lands, they seem to have become human magnets. They can attract or repel objects at will, and bad things happen if they get too far apart…or if they touch.

The two have been on the run since their powers first appeared, traveling the world and being targeted by a killer who wants them dead. They also have a mysterious benefactor who has arranged for travel and cash, in addition to providing them two very special watches. The watches tell the Lands how far apart they are from each other, so that they can always keep an eye on their potential for destruction.

As first volumes go, it’s fine, I guess. Like I said, I wasn’t much interested in the premise originally, so it’s no surprise I’m not much more into it now. I’m all for supporting creators and representation and all that jazz, but again, I’m not going to fill my time or house with things I don’t actually like, just because of who made them. Just as I will judge the works of reprehensible people on their own merit as entertainment, so I’ll do with much better souls. Thus, Darcie Little Badger is sadly going in the sell pile while a few Orson Scott Card books linger.

That doesn’t mean I won’t ever like something Little Badger puts out. I very much hope that she’ll write something more in line with my inclinations in the future. Strangelands just isn’t it.

It being Thanksgiving, I’m going to guess that I won’t finish much else today. I have places to be and a puzzle to do.

All the Tricks

When I can’t seem to focus and my head aches and I have no idea what I’m in a mood for…it’s always a great time for a graphic novel. Shorter than a typical book, full of pictures, and not requiring a huge amount of my attention. Especially when each collected issue is a standalone story, thus even less focus is needed.

I was able to pick up Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: Tricksters recently, the newest installment in that series from Archaia. If you’re new or have forgotten, The Storyteller was a short TV series Henson did back in the day, wherein old fairy tales were retold by the titular teller to his faithful dog. Archaia put out the novelization of those episodes along with the ones for The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth in a nice box set I’ve got, and then turned to comics.

Tricksters is the seventh collection where different writers and artists create new and old tales with their own twists. Each issue features the framing device of the storyteller and his dog, along with the actual tale. Most draw upon the rich heritages and ethnicities of the writers and artists. Some are old tales brought to new life, others are combinations of old stories made new (this was the mark of the original TV show), and some are brand new stories entirely. Aside from the original The Storyteller, each of the volumes has its own theme, like Fairies or Ghosts.

Now, when you’re assembling a group of tricksters and your publication is known for showcasing different ethnicities, there’s one particular character who came into my mind straight away. So I wasn’t at all surprised that Jonathan Rivera wrote and Jade Zhang illustrated “The Spinner of Stories”, a tale of Anansi the Spider. Rivera says right in his introduction which stories he combined to produce this one, and it plays out largely as you’d expect for an Anansi tale. Although I didn’t expect Anansi to be a spider-taur. That’s just…weird. And creepy.

Then we get “A Heart that Beats Forever” from writer Jordan Ifueko and artist Erin Kubo and this one may be my favorite in the book simply for being so new to me. Ifueko drew upon her Yoruba heritage and introduces us to the god Eshu, who commands winds and fate. More than that, we’re introduced to several Yoruba concepts for their gods in general, and some of their storytelling traditions. In fact, the teller of this tale is not our titular storyteller, but a stranger who comes to his door, making this a truly unique instance.

Writer Amal El-Mohtan and artist Isa Hanssen bring us “A Tale of Two Markets”. Straight and narrow Stork and wily Reynard both go into town for the market. Stork has dry medical tomes to sell and Reynard has absolutely nothing to sell but what he takes from Stork as a dare. So, a stick in the mud and a con man. I may not have heard this particular story before, but I’ve seen characters like Reynard many times.

You know, there was just one thing I hoped when I knew this book would be tricksters. I hoped there wouldn’t be a Loki story. And if there was to be a Loki story, I desperately hoped it wouldn’t have Thor in a dress. Because of all of Norse mythology, that seems to be the story that crops up again and again and I’m more than a little tired of it. So from the start I was disappointed in Robin and A.L. Kaplan.

And yet…somehow this is great? I mean, It helps that this Thor is weirdly pretty. And then he just…leans into it when Loki explains his plan. Like, he just goes full on drag queen and it’s great. So many times Thor is embarrassed and ashamed in this story, but here he just accepts that today he’s wearing a dress and damn if he’s not going to be the most beautiful bride ever.

Which means that instead of ending on a disappointing note, the one story I’d dreaded finding turns into great fun and elevates the collection as a whole. And really, how can you top that? I mean, I feel like the book just played the greatest trick of all on me. And we both won.

I know I can’t, so I will just leave things there and pick tomorrow’s book tomorrow.

Still Schlock

The second Royal House of Shadows novel is Lord of Rage by Jill Monroe. This focuses on Princess Breena, the lone girl of the group. I’m not wholly clear on the timing of this particular volume as the other two I’ve read thus far have twenty years passing between when Nicolai and Dayn were home and when the books start. We do find out that ten years prior to the present Osborn’s people were slaughtered, but again, that doesn’t tell me if Breena’s main story starts ten years before the other two or not.

I knew from Lord of Vampires that Breena is a witch like the group’s mother, a magic-user. And I am…not impressed. Because apparently the girl was raised to be quiet and unassuming and hide in the shadows until the day she married, at which point she’d have the freedom and power (presumably) to be herself. Like…seriously? Be a mouse until you are in a position of power?

The other notable thing about Breena before the fall of Elden is that she’s been having wet dreams about a man. A particular man, although the details are hazy. And this is part of her magic. Because of course, after she’s been sent away and spent two days stumbling through the forest, whose cabin should she happen upon but Osborn’s. The man in her dreams.

Shared dreams, it’s worth noting. Because he’s dreamt of her just as much.

Osborn is a Berserker, one of the Ursan people who were nearly wiped out ten years prior, as I said. In this story, it’s a combination of berserker rage and the bjornhedar, the men who are sewn into bear pelts.

I remember seeing a comment in one of the authors’ notes about how each of these books is based around a fairy tale. I don’t remember reading that for Lord of the Wolfyn, but I do remember seeing the Red Riding Hood story brought up multiple times. I still have no idea what fairy tale Lord of Vampires was trying to be, but Lord of Rage was very clearly about Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Because, you know, they’re Ursans. Osborn and his two younger brothers. Look, she entered their house while they were gone, at their porridge, broke a chair, and fell asleep on Osborn’s bed. It wasn’t subtle.

Of the three books I’ve read thus far, this shows the most of what happened in the castle the night the King and Queen died, although I think Dayn was most aware of his surroundings and got the clearest explanation of what to expect.

I understand that all of these books are named “Lord of” something, but it bothers me since this particular volume is Breena’s. Oh sure, we’ve got Osborn to be the male lead, but she’s the one from the royal family. It just strikes me as unfair to her that she doesn’t get her own book title simply because she’s female.

I feel like Monroe’s pacing was off. There are several distinct segments to the book and I think some were too long and others too short. The writing itself was fine, but the structure felt off-balance and as if it was spending its focus where it shouldn’t.

If you ever watched Rugrats, you know that every episode started out with an extreme closeup on something utterly mundane. And it’s actually kind of weird that this is a thing that they did. But they don’t focus on it for too long so it’s just a weird few seconds and then we move on to the actual episode. Lord of Rage felt like we had some random extreme closeups thrown in, and we were forced to focus on something that was, ultimately, less important than something we could have been spending our time on.

As such, the book ends up being about as average as the last. I don’t regret reading it, but I’m glad I didn’t spend money on it. There’s still the last one to come via interlibrary loan at some point, but I think I’ll be glad for the wait. They aren’t the worst books I’ve read by a long shot, but I doubt I’ll find anything worth keeping or revisiting. In the end, this is exactly what libraries exist for.

Back to Schlock

So I picked up a schlocky paranormal romance at the convention and discovered it was book three in a quartet where each book was written by a different author. And I decided that I was mildly curious about the rest. Luckily for me, the library network was able to help out with the first two volumes. The fourth will take longer, but that’s what happens when I have to resort to an interlibrary loan. Ah well, I’m not in any huge rush.

The first Royal House of Shadows book is Lord of the Vampires by Gena Showalter. Our male lead here is Crown Prince Nicolai, the oldest of the four siblings. (Worth noting that Dayn, the male lead in my book, is second oldest despite his volume being third in the series.) Like Dayn, and as evinced by the title, Nicolai is a vampire. Although he’s also inherited some magical abilities from their witch mother. We also find out that Breena, the lone girl, is a full witch. And little Micah is…not either of these, I guess? Maybe he was too young.

Anyway, the book opens with our female lead, Jane, receiving a mysterious package. It’s a strange, handwritten book, begging her to come back to someone. And she knows, instantly, it’s the gorgeous man she’s been dreaming of. Somehow, as she’s fantasizing about him, she ends up in his world. And people think she’s Princess Odette.

Nicolai had used his magic to cast an illusion, to make people think she was the thought-to-be-deceased princess. And when she goes to see him, he who was the real Odette’s sex slave (yes really), he asks her to free him.

Now, I did already know a few things. I knew that Nicolai was a vampire as Dayn was a vampire. I knew he was the eldest and crown prince. I know that it’s been twenty years since the fall of Elden and the princes and princess are tasked with killing the Blood Sorcerer and taking back their parents’ kingdom. But I did not know that Nicolai would be without his memory. So a lot of the book on his part is dealing with that, as well as when those memories start to return.

I don’t know, I don’t really have much to say about Lord of the Vampires. It wasn’t quite the same story as Lord of the Wolfyn, wherein the leads meet and must go on a quest. Rather, the two here are just trying to get away and explore their insatiable lust for each other. The vengeance plot is secondary at best. So we’re left with a fairly standard paranormal romance beneath the rest. Which is fine. It’s just nothing exceptional in any way.

I’m very glad it’s a library book. But the fact that it was rather dull beneath the basics does mean I’m that much less likely to keep the one volume that’s actually mine. We’ll see how I feel after the second book.

And Then an End

The finale of Nancy Springer’s Book of Isle series is The Golden Swan. It was, funnily enough, the second volume I’d acquired, though that is almost entirely irrelevant at this point. Because, like I said, this is the last book. The fifth and final tale. And hoo boy, it’s a thing.

I was a wee bit disappointed yesterday with The Black Beast. After all, The Sable Moon had very clearly established elements for a sequel. So going from the familiar Isle to the completely different land of Vale for a story that used more real world terms than ever before was jarring. Not to mention the change from standard third person narration to first. With no less than four different narrators throughout.

And yet, The Golden Swan ties all things together. It tells us quite early on that The Black Beast actually happened before The Sable Moon by about seven years, for that’s how long Frain had traveled before washing up on Isle’s shore. And that is where he meets Dair, Trevyn’s wolfborn son. As is the norm for these books, the two young men must travel together not simply to accomplish a stated goal, but to better understand themselves and their relationship to each other and the world.

They’re joined, eventually, by Dair’s mother Maeve. For there is often a woman who is beloved, wiser than herself, and stands in for the goddess at times.

When I discussed The Sable Moon I mentioned Aslan’s country in Narnia, and the Grey Havens in Tolkien, comparing them to Elwestrand. Well, The Golden Swan has me remembering Aslan’s country again, but instead of the Grey Havens, call it Eiden Myr from Terry McGarry’s Illumination triad. And in both we’re talking from the climax of the final book chronologically, if I’m to say what I mean without spoiling things for those who may want to read any of these series. Although I sometimes feel that Narnia has become so commonplace it’s rare to meet someone who doesn’t know how insane The Last Battle gets.

The only other thing I want to discuss in terms of the book’s content is Frain. In The Black Beast, Tirell was a dark, moody asshat. Frain, by contrast, was open, friendly, and just the nicest guy you could meet. He was also head over heels in love with a woman that only wanted Tirell and whom the older Prince could not stand.

Seven years after he left Vale, Frain has become, in today’s terms, the epitome of the “nice guy”. It may be true that he really was a nice guy back in the day, but now he’s angry and frustrated and violent, and he doesn’t always try to conceal it anymore. So his moment can only come once he accepts his truth. And all I can think is that this book was published in 1983 and how biting a commentary that is today.

To be fair, Springer doesn’t say a person has to be perfect. Rather, she continually points out that pain and death are just as much parts of life as joy and love. It’s only when Frain accepts that his nature includes darkness along with the light that he can see clearly for the first time in far too long.

It’s always fascinating to turn up things like this, that are more relevant than I think they should be decades after publication. On the other hand, these stories are written by humans for humans and remain powerful because they speak about human nature, which does not change. So maybe it’s not at all surprising that even if we didn’t have the same phrases and terminology for a certain type of person or act or what have you, we still knew and understood that these things existed before that.

I heard somewhere that the act of naming something allows us to be more aware and conscious of it. I cannot for the life of me remember (because I really don’t care) the name for the bit of flesh between your nose and your upper lip. But I remember that !? is an interrobang and that the bit of plastic at the end of a shoelace is an aglet and so tend to notice such elements when they cross my path. So when we use terms like “nice guy” or “redneck”, we’re relying on the meaning that has been given to them, and tend to notice when certain behaviors and actions allow us to categorize people under those umbrellas. If slang hadn’t created a pool of common knowledge, we might still react the same way to these people in the end, but we might not classify them so easily or readily.

The question now becomes…what do I think of the Book of Isle? This set of five short volumes published from the late seventies through the early eighties, taking readers on an epic journey in a bit over eleven hundred pages. Seriously, this series is about the same length as a Stormlight Archive brick, though Springer’s takes a bit longer to read because of the older mode she used to write it.

As I’ve said, the story is fairly epic, despite the short length of the individual books. Although I don’t think any of the latter volumes reached the same high I found in The Silver Sun. I could see myself choosing to reread just the first two books. Not that I can’t also see myself rereading the entire series, simply that if I wasn’t inclined to take the time for all five, I’d be more than content with just the first two.

I think that a lot of the power would have been lost on me if I’d read these books when I was younger, say of an age with the protagonists, who tend to be fifteen to twenty during the course of the tales. There’s something very psychological about the powers and deities of these books that would have either flown over my head years ago, or frustrated and annoyed me. I would never list them as young adult books, not even for people who were reading the same things I was at that age.

Yes, I do have to say that I’ve enjoyed reading Springer’s first series. But it’s not the sort of thing I can just say “I liked it” and have done. There’s just so much to discuss, so many meanings and layers of meanings, that a simple sentence can’t do the books justice. It also means I can’t like them unreservedly. I like them because of how they ask me to think on the ideas they suggest, how they show certain things, how they offer observations on people you’ve almost certainly met in one form or another.

Going back to C.S. Lewis, I was introduced to Narnia through the classroom. That series has always been shown to me in the context of something worthy of being taught. Oh sure, I discovered on my own that there were more volumes, but didn’t negate my introduction or the fact that I was always aware in the back of my head that these books had been deemed significant enough to be used in school.

I would argue that the Book of Isle is just as worthy. I certainly wouldn’t throw it at a room of third-graders, but I could see a college discussion about the series. Maybe highschool, but like I said, I would want an older audience. I think there’s a lot to talk about here. I have mentioned that there are aspects that could be drawing on Christianity, but it’s hard for me to say because I am not as intimately familiar with the religion as someone born and raised to it.

Of course, I’m not sure I’d want to take a college class on these books. I did that once, with His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. It was a great class, but afterwards I gave my books away because I just couldn’t see myself rereading them ever again after going through them in such detail and at great depth. So, I think these books could be a college class…I just don’t want to take it for myself.

I do think I’m going to take a break from exploring Nancy Springer’s work for a while. I’ve got another couple on the shelf, but I definitely need a change of pace. Maybe something with a smaller scope, and definitely something more modernly written. I’ve got plenty of options, so I’ll have to consider them.