Venneh

The Fix 5: Still fun, but man, can't help but wonder if the whole millennials rant wasn't written around the time Cap 1 came out. Doom Patrol 1: Yup, that was a Gerard Way comic alright. First introduction to Doom Patrol, so I have no idea what's going on here, and I'm okay with that. Will probably pick up the first trade, but don't feel a strong compulsion to follow it monthly. Black Monday Murders 2: Continues to deepen the mysteries of what's going on, and world build more as to the general world. Also some random lesbian sex foreshadowing. Will probably pick this up on the trade as well. Black Panther vol 1: The good news: Coates is definitely writing for the long term arc, like a season of a tv show. The bad news is that I'm probably going to need to wait for it to be fully collected (i.e., first twelve issues all in one volume) before I say whether or not I'm here for it. Coates is clearly getting his feet under him this volume as to how to story tell in this format, making Panther mostly accessible to those coming in blind, while also throwing political theory re: Wakanda at us. Stelfreeze and Martin are amazing; I know that Sprouse is on this next arc, but don't know if it's for the long term. The trade is also hella padded with variant covers and the first appearance of Panther, which didn't help much for my feeling a bit "I can wait for the inevitable huge collection". Worth a peek to see what he's up to. Single Issues: 298TPBs/Collections: 95Digital First Issues: 11

Boy Snow Bird, Helen Oyeyemi: First off, the marketing sells this as a modern day Snow White. Get that out of your head right now. The novel uses the frame of the fairy tale to tell a story about race and passing, on so many levels. I blew through this in a bit under 12 hours. It's well written, and all the various reveals and twists are well done for the most part. There's one twist in the last 50 pages that I'm still parsing - it's a hell of a twist, but the way it's revealed and how it's handled make for some unfortunate implications. Got this remaindered at Unabridged - definitely worth your time. Books Read: 53

The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood: Reread, but one of my favorites to reread. The story of the Odyssey from Penelope's point of view, with the occasional interlude, in various forms (songs, an anthropological lecture, a jury trial) by the twelve maids who were hung. Short, quick read, but a fun one, and just generally well written. Worth it if you can find it remaindered. Books read: 52

was wondering when you'd hit this. :D

This and Grotesque were billed as "feminist noir". No. No they're not. The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3, Geoff Knightley: packaged as an eBook, technically a longer piece of games journalism. Not the deep dive into production I was hoping for, but a good oral history of the series, and some interesting tidbits from the production of 3. Mainly - that a lot of the integral story bits got relegated to DLC because of the crunch, and something that seems to lend credence to the Indoctrination Theory. Worth the few bucks that I paid for it, but man, I look forward to the eventual tell all that someone from Bioware is gonna do on this someday. Books read: 51

The Goddess Chronicle, Natsuo Kirino (translator Rebecca Copeland): So, having read translations of Kirino by other translators, I think I can now firmly say that my problem with Grotesque is probably Copeland's translation. This novel is mainly hindered by the awkward as fuck second section, which comes off as a poorly retold Japanese Mythology 101 lesson sandwiched in the middle of a genuinely interesting story about two sisters, the shitty island they live on, and the betrayals that shape their lives. The complexity that was seen in the female characters in Kirino's other two novels seems to have been completely erased here. The fourth and fifth sections suddenly bringing Izanagi back into the picture in what feels like them mashing two separate book ideas together and a rather abrupt ending doesn't help things. I can't really find any more of Kirino that's been translated into English (let me know if I've missed any), but if Copeland does the translation, I'm probably going to pass. Also I swear to Christ, learn what noir is, copy writers, this is not it. books read: 50

Yeah, it's weird because it's Vertigo but not quite? I'm hearing pretty universally good things about it so far though.

Yeah, didn't Prez do gangbusters in the trades, and they relegated that to a 15 page special in the back of a Catwoman election thing done by Meredith Finch? Like, not all of the DCYou was fantastic, but they were quick to cancel a lot of those. See also: that Vertigo is literally just American Vampire, Unfollow, Clean Room, and Lucifer right now (maybe one other thing currently running?).

The Twin Knights: Tezuka does Disney by way of Zorro and cross dressing. Technically a sequel to Princess Knight, but still readable on its own. Has some real great funny moments, but really stumbles on the translation sometimes. Curveball: Vaguely futurish apocalypse and personal apocalypse, mediated by splashes of orange. Absolutely gorgeously written and drawn, and with a genderqueer protagonist treated matter of factly and not as the sole focus of the characters plot. Read this Monday night in a warm bath with bath bombs and a bottle of wine, and loved the experience. Definitely worth a read if you find it. Single Issues: 295TPBs/Collections: 94Digital First Issues: 11

Abzu: This game is short, and gorgeous, especially in how it lets you pretty freely explore things while also nudging you if you go too far off course. You get to ride manatees and whale sharks and the goddamn Loch Ness monster. The controls to actually direct the diver can suck my nonexistent hairy balls. Especially when Jim and I spend ten minutes trying to figure out how to make the goddamn diver walk during the land segments. I also spent several aborted starts trying to figure out how to make the diver move properly at the beginning.

We'll be saying more about this in the podcast, but I might've taken a series of reaction shots as that ending happened. Going to watch that indoctrination theory documentary, because I might subscribe to that idea. Will, is there a good article on what you're talking about? I am intrigued.

We're picking up Leviathan for the inevitable next run. Watched the Omega DLC though - kinda underwhelming (especially Carrie Anne Moss' VAing). Wish we could've picked up Nyreen for the main game.

A Bride's Story vols 4-5: These volumes mostly focus on a pair of twins that Smith meets on his way back to Turkey, and their eventual wedding to a pair of local brothers, with the occasional check back to Amir and her family. I really like that we get to see all these different traditions, and holy wow does Kaoru Mori continue to be fucking amazing. Lovers in the Night: Early Yoshinaga focusing on a lord and his butler, and oh, that whole French Revolution thing. Not anything particularly memorable, but a good fun read Single Issues: 295TPBs/Collections: 92Digital First Issues: 11

Mass Effect 3: We ended up playing from Thessia straight through to the end yesterday evening. For the most part, we really liked it. The stakes felt appropriately high (and goddamn, it hurt to lose who we did - Thane, Mordin, Legion), and it hurt the more we went through the game. The one complaint I have is that we can't really do anything romance wise until the end of the game no matter how soon we lock it in (we had a FemShep who romanced Liara through 2 and 3). The only DLC we had was From Ashes (which I am genuinely surprised wasn't part of the main game, given how integral it was), and the extended ending DLC. There was some holding of the idiot ball with Kai Leng, but for the most part, the plot was on point up until we met the Catalyst. Even with the extended ending, (we had 3100ish EMS and went Synthesis) we were both yelling at the screen because some of that is some bullshit (though the context the DLC provided is appreciated). That "tell me more about the Shepard" post credits scene can fuck the fuck right off, though. picked up ME 1 on sale, so we're probably going to try a run all the way from the beginning (not soon though), and pick up the Leviathan and Citadel DLC. We're also watching all the romances on YT and figuring out who we want to try for the next run (Tali and Jack are bae so far, watched them and Garrus romance wise last night). also expect some yelling on a podcast about this at some point. Currently playing: -Overwatch: the new map is a haul and a half but it's so much fun, and I'm actually trying my hand at Mei more now. -Abzu: I can't figure out how to make the diver go forward on PS4. This is embarrassing.

4001 AD 4: More on this on the podcast. But: this has to be at least a pause for the Rai run for now, right? Single Issues: 295TPBs/Collections: 89Digital First Issues: 11

All the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders: I've been hearing pretty universally good things about this book, so I picked it up. Fun, and funny read about the intersection of science and magic, and the two kids who embody the two ideas and also ends up kinda meta being about the two genres while its at it? It almost ends up being too many ideas and not enough space, but it manages to rein itself in. You can tell Anders' roots as the lead editor of io9 in some of her references in the book, but it's not grating, thank god. It's not gonna be an award winner, but it's definitely worth a read if you find it. Books Read: 49

The Kingdom of Gods, NK Jemisin: This book is narrated by Sieh, one of the trickster gods from the books before, and openly skewers the series in its first few paragraphs, which I can always appreciate. This is a good book, but it has the first time trilogy problem of trying to do too much and reaching too far, and it kind of falls apart towards the end under the strain of too many balls in the air and too many arbitrary time jumps. Has some neat stuff to say about cycles, etc, and has a good narrator too. You can tell she's getting more conscious about what she portrays and says as an author too. I still like it better than Broken Kingdoms, but this first trilogy is a bit rough. Read Hundred Thousand Kingdoms for sure, read a bit of this, but I'm not sure about the trilogy as a whole. Books Read: 48

The Broken Kingdoms, NK Jemisin: Second book in the Inheritance Trilogy. Suffers from middle book syndrome. It lays out some necessary world building mythology and provides a good check in on how the world is ten years on. That they have to introduce someone who, as far as I can tell, is a one off character for this book, and relegate most of the interesting characters from the first book to cameo appearances is where it suffers for me. Still a fun, fast paced read, but I wasn't as much of a fan of this as I was the first book. Books Read: 47

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, NK Jemisin: Jemisin's debut novel. I read this a few years ago, but didn't really retain most of it, so this was like reading it again for the first time. Combines family and elite politics with the politics of a family of gods, and how one woman set in motion something that upends it all. Just enough world building to intrigue, but mostly focused on our main trying to find her way through all these various conspiracies to find the truth about herself and her mother, all while interacting with her crazy ass extended family and the gods. And again, after reading Liu, this went by like a breeze, and was a great reading experience on top of it all. Never finished the second book, so that's up next. Books Read: 46

Catch up time. Another Castle 3-4: On the one hand, I like that this series actually takes a look at what Misty will really need to do to save both their kingdoms, beyond just straight up killing the bad guy. However, there's some weird politics in here about effecting change that's clearly a not so veiled criticism of the comics industry that's kinda eye rolly. Also, 99% sure this is Wheeler instructed, but anyone we're supposed to find attractive according to the story is drawn with a vaguely Asian look to their characters, which seems... slightly fetishy? Paulina does a great job on the art here, though. Cry Havoc 5-6: Review of this coming on the podcast. Going to go back and look at it as a whole again too when we do record. I Hate Fairyland 6-7: I wasn't sure how Skottie was going to keep the momentum going here, honestly, so I'm glad to see that he's managed to do so pretty damn well. Constant low grade insanity with some really good gags, and just fun to read, too. Lumberjanes/Gotham Academy 1: Adorable crossover, not the normal teams working on either except on the covers. Intriguing enough start, I'll probably tune in when it comes out in trade. Weirdworld 6: Manages some really great wrap up moments in the middle of pretty abruptly slamming the brakes on things and trying to wrap things up after the lol you're cancelled news came through. Del Mundo is fucking gorgeous as ever on this. The Mighty Thor 7-10: I can leave the breather story that they put in seven. The story that they've got spinning for the new arc (that they are decidedly thumbing their noses at Civil War II with) I'm incredibly interested to see play out, especially as they bought back Oubliette from YA/Marvel Boy to play. Dauterman and Wilson are absofuckinglutely gorgeous as ever. The Ultimates 8-10: Manages to do really well for the Civil War II crossover and at least attempts to contextualize why they're turning Carol into the new Tony Stark, in term of the MU's most hated character. However, what I'm here for most is America Chavez doing what she promised to do if the team ever overstepped their bounds. Fuck. Yes. The Vision 8-10: Best fucking series that Marvel is putting out, hands down. We've only got two issues left of this, and I can't wait to see how this plays out. The way King has been using the slow build of dread and everything falling into place has been perfect. It has to be done after this twelve issue run, right? There's nowhere anyone could take it competently post this run, I don't think. Also, holy fuck Jordie Bellaire's coloring on this series. Single Issues: 294TPBs/Collections: 89Digital First Issues: 11

Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey From East to West and Back, Janice P. Nimura: A nonfiction book I picked up a while ago for cheap on Kindle. Details the trio of daughters of samurai who were the first to be sent abroad to receive a Western education, and basically went abroad for ten years, and what they did when they came back. I'd never heard about this, so it was fascinating to read about these girls, and where their life paths eventually took them. It's not anything amazing, but it's definitely a servicable, lovely read. Books Read: 45

The Grace of Kings, Ken Liu: okay, so. I read this because I liked Liu's translation of the Three Body Problem, and Jim picked me up this at the Hugo signing that he was at. I also wanted to support diverse writers in fantasy, etc etc etc. I'm gonna stick to his translations from now on. Powered through most of this tonight because I wanted to be done with it and to be able to properly critique the whole thing instead of dropping it like I badly wanted to. I should've dropped it. This book has four major problems, as follows: 1. It can't decide if it wants to be this epic sweeping history book or the story of two boys caught up in history. It swings wildly between the two, which makes our two main characters' development suffer badly, with entire chapters and the occasional mid chapter flashback for no reason for side characters, who I swear to God exist just to max out word count. 2. This six hundred fucking page tiny ass type book is two separate books. There's a clear break at page ~350ish that was clearly supposed to be the original ending, and then it drags onto page 618. If the book had split, I would likely have been a lot kinder. But it drags, and dear fuck Christ it suffers for it. (Also, HOW THE FUCK ARE THERE TWO MORE BOOKS IN THIS TRILOGY?!) 3. It switches between being barely concealed Chinese history, trying real hard to be like Game of Thrones (wuxia GOT is one of the actual fucking pull quotes), with a bit of "silk punk" (aka lazy steampunk with a vaguely Asian flavor) that it remembers to bring up once every hundred pages and then forget about. PICK A THING AND STICK TO IT. 4. The women in this book. Holy fuck Ken Liu I actually ended up throwing this book in anger at one point because of his lack of women, and the women who do get a chapter or so devoted to them are the worst fucking stereotypes. At least GOT developed its female characters. Our ladies are 1. The cunning wife who sees much in one of our mains and lifts him up and plays politics and suggests he get a second wife and then gets jealous; 2. One of the main's moms, who dies and provides a convenient funeral to make politics at; 3. A woman who ends up falling in love with one of the other mains and is the only woman who gets him; 4. The second wife, who we get one chapter about and jealousy from wife 1 and that's literally fucking it; 5. A secret aunt of one of the mains who exists to tell him that he's lost his way and be mysterious and a secret advisor to wife 1; 6. A woman who dresses like a man and leads the army and is tough as a man and I think my eyes rolled out of my head; 7. A beautiful woman who tries to play the game with her beauty but fails and gets herself killed to absolve her shame (the point at which I threw the book and just started yelling). There are twice as many male mains with way more development. TLDR holy fuck this book needs an editor and needs it badly. Books Read: 44

The Broken Earth: The Obelisk Gate, NK Jemisin: First off, if you haven't read the first book yet, it just won the Hugo, go do that. The sequel won't win a Hugo, I don't think, but how it moves all the parts it needs to move is great. It continues the three povs conceit of the previous book, though now with different people all on a convergence path, and a fourth added as a context pov for when the second POV is used. (Great technical work there.) Essun's part of the novel is mostly a training montage for the amazingness of the last part of the book, and comm politics. The real interesting bits of the story this time come from Schaffa, our first Guardian pov, and Essun's daughter Nassun. Warning for Nassun's POV chapters: they go hard into what abuse looks like and does to a person, so if you have that in your past, be prepared to tap out here and there. Jemisin is wrapping the last book now, and I can't wait to see how all this comes together. Books Read: 43

Insexts 7: Again, Marguerite gets to throw feminist venom for ~20 pages along with some great body horror, and Ariela gets to draw some crazy goddamn shit. A+ ladies, good arc end. I Hate Fairyland 8: Young continues the insanity with a guest artist as he takes on fighting video games. Good to peek my head back in on this, I've been out of the loop with the whole unemployed thing. Rai 16: Circles nicely back to the beginning of the series, which I was expecting, but damn, well done. Cafu settled nicely by the end of this arc, and it's been slowly looking more and more like Crain, which I think might've been Kindt's goal as he got closer to the beginning of the timeline. Well done. Single Issues: 277TPBs/Collections: 89Digital First Issues: 11

What Did You Eat Yesterday 10: the formula for this manga is starting to show: some kind of minor conflict/situation, cooking, and being cute, rinse and repeat. There's only one volume of this a year now though, so that makes it fairly bearable. Still quality fun reading, and absogoddamnlutely adorable. Underwater Welder: Jeff Lemire does a Twilight Zone esque story about a man confronting his past and his issues with his father just as he's about to become one himself. The art is very sketchy, and has some absolutely amazing layouts. Worth a read if you find it. Underground: A short Lieber/Parker mini about some drama that happens around a cave that is being considered to open to the public, and how one mans maneuvering makes it all go tits up. Neat switching between color outside the cave and only black and white inside. Fun read. Animosity 1: hell of a premise, and executed beautifully and horrifically across this opening issue gambit. Let's see where this spins. Some great art stuff, especially the three double page grid art shows the awakening. WicDiv 22: Oh man, the end of issue arcs are always great one two punches. Matt Wilson is clearly having the time of his life on colors, and Jamie gets to do some incredible stuff. Interested to see how this actually plays out in the long run. (Also, Kevin Wada next issue oh god yessssss.) Single Issues: 274TPBs/Collections: 89Digital First Issues: 11