Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Ryan Parrott - Book Review

'THE TEENAGERS WITH ATTITUDE MEET THE HEROES IN A HALF SHELL FOR THE FIRST TIME!

'The Power Rangers arrive in New York City to find their missing teammate Tommy Oliver – AKA The Mighty Morphin Green Ranger – but soon discover he’s joined forces with the villainous Shredder and the Foot Clan! But the Rangers must also deal with another unexpected (fr)enemy – the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Can these heroes find a way to work together to defeat the bad guys and save the world from total destruction?!

'Written by Ryan Parrott (Power Rangers: Necessary Evil) and illustrated by Simone di Meo (Power Rangers: Beyond The Grid), the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fight – and maybe team up with – the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the first time ever.'

Boom! Studios have done a fantastic job at breathing new and exciting life into the Power Rangers franchise with their works on the comics, introducing new characters to the lore more than twenty five years since Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was on television. One of the writers on the Power Rangers comics is Ryan Parrott, who's currently relaunching the books with two new, exciting series, and here fans get to see him tackle another beloved children's martial arts franchise, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles opens with the Rangers fighting Rita's latest monster in downtown Angel Grove. During the fight we learn that Tommy, the Green Ranger, has taken a leave of absence, and the Rangers have no idea where he is. On the other side of the country, in New York City the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are battling a number of Foot Clan ninja's. However, one of these ninja's manages to get the upper hand over Raphael, and make their escape.

We soon learn that this new ninja is, in fact, Tommy, who has travelled to the city to infiltrate the Foot Clan to help a childhood friend who's become mixed up with the criminal organisation. In order to prove himself to the Foot's leadership, Tommy must infiltrate a secret research lab and steal some tech. He's able to make it inside the building, but finds the Turtles waiting for him. When he's forced to morph in order to take them on the Power Rangers are able to detect this, and teleport to New York to assist him.

After a brief fight between the two teams they quickly realise that they're on the same side and join forces, however, Tommy has already fled the scene, returning to the Foot Clan with the stolen tech. Coming face to face with the leader of the Foot, Shredder, Tommy discovers that Shredder knew of his real identity the whole time, and is captured. Using tech from his allies in Dimension X, Shredder severs Tommy's connection to the Morphin Grid, and takes on the Green Ranger powers for himself. 

With Tommy missing, Shredder now a Ranger, and Rita Repulsa seemingly allied with him, the Rangers and the Turtles must work together to stop these powerful foes, rescue their friend, and save the city.

I'm going to be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect from this book when it was first announced. This isn't the first time that these two franchises have met, with an episode of Power Rangers In Space featuring the turtles from the 90's television series Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation. The crossover episode was admittedly, pretty bad, thanks in large parts to in both not making much sense for the two series to suddenly cross-over, but also because of the low effort put into it. I was slightly worried that this series could become another half baked way of putting these two groups into the same space. Luckily, I was wrong.

Parrott has come up with great ways to bring the characters together in this story, and not just the main teams either. Having Tommy travel to New York to help a childhood friend, and having to infiltrate the Foot to do it is a really good idea, and it gives him reason to keep going back on his own, without Ranger back-up. And whilst the two teams do do the almost obligatory fight upon first meeting because they don't know they're all good guys comic cliche, they actually work really well together.

Jason and Leonardo get time to bond over being leaders, and there's a few fun conversations between the two of them comparing sword fighting techniques and their love for martial arts. Michelangelo and Zach both seem to have some dubious food love, and get to have fun coming up with bizarre and downright disgusting pizza toppings together. Billy and Donatello are a perfect pairing as the teams two techies, comparing their inventions, talking science, and getting excited over giant robots. And there's a really good scene where Trini and Raphael discuss some of his emotional issues; though this felt like it was never resolved with another similar scene, which is a shame as I think Trini would have been an amazing friend for the deeply caring Raph. The only Ranger who doesn't really get a Turtle to pair off with is Kimberly, but she has a number of scenes where she and April O'Neil spend time together, and get to discuss guy trouble. 

The bad guys even get to team up too, with Rita and her lieutenants getting the chance to fight against Shredder and his forces, before ultimately agreeing to an uneasy alliance to bring down their respective foes. 

One of the best things about the book, however, is how Parrott really changes things up, and does stuff that would never happen on the TV screen. Using the same device that broke Tommy's connection to his powers, the other Rangers are similarly affected, which causes issues when one of Rita's monsters arrives in the middle of New York. To solve this issue the Turtles, and April, borrow the morphers and become the Mighty Morphin Ninja Turtles. Similarly, the de-powered Rangers join Casey Jones on a mission to infiltrate the Technodrome, kitted out in ninja gear borrowed from the Turtles.

The designs for both groups are absolutely brilliant, and I love the work that Simone Di Meo does here. The Turtle Rangers are all instantly recognisable as the Power Rangers, but still look like turtles, with some gold elements similar to the Green Ranger thrown in in places like their shells. Speaking of the Green Ranger, the design for Shredder using that powers is amazing, and the way that both iconic designs come together to create something completely new, without losing what makes either character recognisable, is astounding. Even April, who's just another human using the Pink Ranger powers gets a slight redesign, even if it's something as simple as removing the skirt.

Not even the Megazord gets away unscathed from the awesome redesigns, as it gets to merge with a giant version of Metalhead getting to combine with the Megazord to create the Turtle Megazord. I really hope that if Hasbro start doing more comic characters as part of their Lightning Collection of figures we get a set from this book, because the designs on offer here are some of the best Power Ranger designs I've seen in years. And I want them as toys.

I went into this book with pretty low expectations, but hoping for something that would be good, and I got something that was so much better than I was even hoping. I loved reading this book, and I want them to do a sequel. Do it again a season later, using the White Ranger and the Stone Canyon Trio to add something new into the mix, do it with Lord Zedd, or even go pick another team of Rangers all together. Either way, I want Ryan Parrott to do another of these, because this is brilliant.

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Sleepwalkers – Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

This week sees the release of Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK, and proves to be the perfect set for some classic horror just in time for Halloween.

The film follows mother and son Charles (Bian Krause) and Mary (Alice Krige) Brady, who have recently moved to the small town of Travis, Indiana. Despite looking like regular human beings the two of them are actually Sleepwalkers, a pair of shape-shifting energy vampires who feed off the life force of virgin girls. The pair have set their sights on local girl Tanya (Madchen Amick) to be their next meal.

Over the course of the film Charles uses his charming personality to win Tanya’s affection, trying to lure her into a situation where he can feed off her. However, when his plan doesn’t go as expected he and his mother find themselves being hunted by local law enforcement.

Sleepwalkers marks the first time that Stephen King wrote an original screenplay, rather than having one of his existing works adapted to film, and because of this it definitely feels a lot tighter than some other films with his name attached. It moves at a pace that is sometimes lacking in other King films, and seems to have a much more relaxed feel to it, even going so far as to embrace some dark comedy, rather than trying for an oppressive atmosphere. Though this will also in part be down to director Mick Garris, who before this film worked on Critters 2, another horror with a comedic tone.

The film itself is, despite the dark tone of the subject matter, is quite a bright and lively piece, and even includes a car chase in the middle of the day, something that I wasn’t expecting from a film with King’s name attached. It seems to know that the very concept, two shape-shifting cat-like entities that suck the soul out of people, is ridiculous, and doesn’t try to make it anything else. That’s not to say there isn’t a decent level of threat though, as the Sleepwalkers themselves are still dangerous foes, and there are a number of scenes in the film that show off how vicious and powerful these entities are, with some good effects work involved.

The biggest downside, however, is that as an animal lover, and someone who has cats, it is at times pretty hard to watch. The film opens with a scene where there are dozens of murdered cats hanging in a tree, in various grotesque states, and towards the end Mary snaps a cat’s neck (something that Krige, in the extras, admits was a hard scene for her to film). Whilst I know these moments are fake, and that no cats were hurt, it still made the film difficult to watch and tainted some of my enjoyment.

Despite these moments, one of the best parts of the film is a cat; in this case Sparks, who plays Clovis, who belongs to one of the local police officers. Clovis absolutely steals every scene he’s in, and even has a few heroic moments that would have meant the death of Tanya if he wasn’t there to save her. It’s not often a cat gets to play a hero, but I love it when they do.

This new release comes with a number of new special features, including interviews with the director, three lead actors, and special effects team, all of which shed some interesting light on the production of the film. The interview with Krige is particularly interesting as it gives viewers an insight into how she, as a classically trained actor, gets into the head-space of the characters she plays. The disc also includes two new audio commentaries, both of which are a lot of fun to listen to, and provide even more information on the production of the film than the extras.

Sleepwalkers is definitely one of the more interesting King films, and it’s a fun piece of early 90’s horror with some great actors and a bag full of cameos. If you’re not normally a fan of Stephen King movies this might be one that’s worth a watch, as it’s definitely a lot of fun.

Sleepwalkers is out on Blu-ray on 26th October from Eureka Entertainment.

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Race To The Finish Line by Aisha Yusuf - Book Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

'Aaleyah Ahmed had her senior year planned out. She would focus on diplomas, apply to universities, graduate, and take a road trip around Canada with her best friends. What was not a part of her plan was moving to a small town in America she’s never heard of because of her dad’s job.

'What she wasn’t prepared for was discovering the town’s dark history that threatens the safety of her and her family.

'Aaleyah and her friends vow to uncover the truth. However, they discover more than they bargained for. They realize they might be in over their heads, but they’re in too deep to stop.

'One thing is for sure; everyone is hiding something.'

Race To The Finish Line is one of those books where the cover instantly jumped out and made me want to learn more about it; there are probably few covers as instantly grabbing as a Black Muslim girl standing up to a member of the KKK, especially in 2020. When I discovered that the author is herself a young Muslim woman of colour, and that she was choosing to write about life as a member of that demographic in the US, I was instantly on board.

The book follows Aaleyah, a seventeen-year-old Black Muslim girl living in Canada with her family. When her father gets a new job in the US Aaleyah and her parents move to the town of Anderton, Arkansas. Upon arriving Aaleyah is shocked to find that the town is more then 90% white, and incredibly racist.  She's subjected to stares in public, muttered insults, and full blown verbal assault at school. And this is only the beginning of the abuse that she receives. Digging into the town history she discovers that there's an alarming trend of missing persons reports for minorities in Anderton. Teaming up with her two new friends, Brianna and Matthew, she sets out to dig into this past, all whilst trying to survive the racists that infest the town.

I have to be honest, at first I wasn't sure what to think of the book due to the writing style. The lead character is in her teens, yet the writing often felt like it was aimed at a younger audience. This was largely due to the simplicity of a number of the scenes, the way that Yusuf would gloss over certain details and jump around the narrative very quickly, not giving events a chance to breath before moving on to the next. For the first few chapters I was unsure if I liked the book or not.

However, once Aaleyah reached her school things changed. Suddenly events were a lot more interesting, the things that Aaleyah was experiencing had me on the edge of my seat, and the faster pace began to work a lot better. It felt like I'd found the meat of the story, and the first few chapters were Yusuf quickly getting through the set-up so that she could focus on the important stuff.

This part of the book wasn't exactly enjoyable, because I don't think you could ever class this kind of story as enjoyable, but it was certainly grabbing. Yusuf didn't shy away from showing the realities of the racism and Islamophobia that Aaleyah faces. There are times where she is verbally attacked, complete with racial slurs, physical assaults, vandalism, and appearances from the KKK. This is a book that will test you, it will make you feel angry and on edge, it could even hurt you, because despite being a work of fiction this is a very real story.

It's a sad thing that this kind of story isn't relegated to the past, but is still happening today. The Ku Klux Klan are active across the US, Black people are murdered by white supremacists and cops (with the two often indistinguishable), and the Black community have had to take to the streets in protest across the world to demand equality and justice. The way that minorities are treated in the US is fucking abhorrent, and this book doesn't shy away from that.

I don't know what it's like to be treated differently because of the colour of your skin, to face such vile hatred simply because you look different. I can't understand how hard this kind of thing must be for people like Aaleyah, like Aisha Yusuf. I experience some discrimination because I'm a disabled trans woman, but I know that what I face is a far cry from what Black people in the US suffer through every single day, where you honestly don't know if you're about to be murdered or not if a cop stops you. I don't understand how someone can live with that kind of pressure and hatred thrown at them and remain so strong and so compassionate, and even after reading this book I still don't get it.

Reading Race To The Finish Line made me angry at time. It made me so fucking angry that this is daily reality for some people, and for so many people. It made my heart race as the anger and despair of that kind of life washed over me, and it had me close to tears. This might just be a fictional story, but it's also a window into the lives of so many people, people whose only crime is the colour of their skin. 

Race To The Finish Line might not be the most polished book I've ever read, and there might have been moments where I wish things were done differently in the narrative, but it's also a book that moved me. It had a hell of an impact on me, and is one that I know is going to stick in my head for a long while. I know racism can be a scary subject for white people, it can be something that you don't want to admit is as bad as it is, something that still has such a stranglehold on society, but it's important that you at the very least start to look at it. We can't make things better if we just bury our heads in the sand and pretend it's not happening. If the news is too scary, if real life accounts are too awful to get you engaged, start with this book, and learn a little of what it's like to have to live with that hanging over your head everyday.  A must read.

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Zoey Punches The Future In The Dick by David Wong - Book Review

 

'The latest--and greatest--sci-fi thriler in the Zoey Ashe Series.

'Nightmarish villains with superhuman enhancements. An all-seeing social network that tracks your every move. Mysterious, smooth-talking power players who lurk behind the scenes. A young woman suddenly in charge of the most decadent city in the world--and her very smelly cat.

'Zoey Ashe is like a fish so far out of water that it has achieved orbit. She finds herself struggling to establish rule over a sprawling empire while Tabula Ra$a's rogue's gallery of larger-than-life crime bosses and corrupt plutocrats smell weakness. Tensions brew across the city.

'A steamer trunk-sized box arrives at Zoey's door, and she and her bodyguard Wu are shocked to find that it contains a disembowelled corpse, and even more shocked when that corpse, controlled by an unknown party, rises from the box and goes on a rampage through the house. After being subdued, it speaks in an electronic voice, accusing Zoey of being its murderer. Soon, it makes the same claim to the public at large, along with the promise of a cash reward for proof that Zoey and the Suits are behind the crime.

'Now Zoey is having doubts of her own: Is she 100% sure that someone on her team didn't do this? She also doesn't even have a complete list of what businesses she owns, or what exact laws her organisation is still breaking. So what does she really know?'

Sometimes coming into a series after the first book can be something of a challenge, wither the book can be too dense with things left over from the previous entries that it becomes hard to know what's happening, or it can become so bogged down with trying to explain everything that it can alienate new readers under an info-dump. Zoey Punches The Future In The Dick could easily have faced these issues, it's set in a world where the fantastical is the norm, and society is pushed to the extreme, so suddenly being thrust into that with characters and a set-up that you don't know is a daunting prospect; however, I never once felt lost or overwhelmed reading this, which speaks volumes to how well Jason Pargin (writing under his pen-name David Wong) writes the book.

The book returns readers to the city of Tabuala Ra$a, a mostly lawless metropolis formed by gangsters and powerful businessmen in Ohio. It's here that were introduced (or reintroduced to returning fans) to Zoey Ashe, a young woman in her early twenties who grew up a regular poor, working class girl in a small town, but discovered her father was the billionaire founder of Tabula Ra$a when he died and she inherited everything he had. Now Zoey finds herself not only heading up a business empire, but also all of the shady and illegal dealings her father had, including his former enemies.

The story begins with Zoey having to respond to a hostage situation in one of the businesses she now owns when a cybernetically enhanced man smashes his way into the building and threatens to kill everyone inside unless Zoey gives herself over. Zoey manages to help bring the volatile situation to a peaceful conclusion, but is still hated by much of the city, who have taken to harassing and bullying her whenever they get the opportunity.

When the hostage taker turns up at her home, dead inside a trunk, a month later Zoey's problems get even worse. Stripped of organs, and made to attack her via his cybernetic implants, the victim blames Zoey for his death. Pretty soon rumours spread throughout the city that Zoey has had him killed so that she can eat his organs, and a million dollar bounty is put on her head to make her confess to these heinous crimes. Now Zoey not only has to try to get to the bottom of this mystery, but needs to keep herself alive as she is targeted by every bounty hunter and hate group in the city.

It's made pretty clear very early on during the book that you don't have to take things too seriously in the world Pargin has crafted here. There are some brutal and disturbing moments yes, but these tend to occur rarely, and the book instead relies on an almost satirical sense of silliness to keep things fun and entertaining. The stakes are big, but the characters always manage to keep things feeling light. There's a high speed vehicle chase where our heroes are under attack, but it features a human glider flying around, there's a brutal fistfight as Zoey tries to stay alive, but her opponent also has an electric crotch whip. The whimsy manages to make scenes that would otherwise be too intense manageable, and will have you laughing out loud more than once.

I liked this sense of humour the book had, and the way it was also used in the world as well as the characters. More than once Tabula Ra$a reminded me of Mega City One from Judge Dredd, in the sense that anything felt possible. Even though the book is set around Halloween Zoey makes it clear that much of the bizarre costumes and over the top people walking the streets wouldn't be out of place on any day of the year, and the constant social media monitoring and giant electronic billboards made it feel like a crazy future to live in.

Thanks to the brilliant world building, interesting cast of colourful characters, and a plot with more twists and turns in it than I was expecting, the book was a pure joy to read, and I blasted through it faster than I thought I would. I'm definitely going to be going back and checking out the first book because of this, and really look forward to seeing more from Zoey in the future. As long as she's done punching it in the dick.

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After Sundown by Mark Morris - Book Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

'This new anthology contains 20 original horror stories, 16 of which have been commissioned from some of the top names in the genre, and 4 of which have been selected from the 100s of stories sent to Flame Tree during a 2-week open submissions window. It is the first of what will hopefully become an annual, non-themed horror anthology of entirely original stories, showcasing the very best short fiction that the genre has to offer.'

Short story collections are good ways of finding new authors to try out, I've lost count of the number of times I've read an anthology book and ended up putting a load of new books onto my list of things to eventually get round to reading. After Sundown is a great example of this, as not only was there only the one writer in this book that I'd already known of, but with no connective theme, other than horror itself, to bring these stories together, there was a huge variety in the tone, style, and feel of all of them. 

The book features twenty stories in all, sixteen of which come from already established writers, and four from an open submission to the publisher. I honestly wouldn't have been able to pick out these four submitted stories, as all of them were of such high quality. There was also a great variety here, with stories that felt very modern and relevant to events going on in the world today, to stories with a science fiction bent to them, some traditional ghost stories, a Victorian chiller, and some very strange and 'trippy' entries too. What ever style appeals to you most, there's definitely going to be at least one story in this collection that appeals.

'Butterfly Island' by C.J. Tudor is the first book in the collection, and one feels very different to many of the others. It centres on characters in some kind of apocalypse like scenario. It's not clear what's happened to the world, but it seems like there aren't many people left around, and that life has become something of a cheap commodity. The lead character murders a couple of thugs at the start of the story, and this see,s to be something that no one bats an eyelid at. This narrator, along with a group of his friends and some other survivors, decide to head to Butterfly Island, a remote island that was shut off by a reclusive millionaire before the end of the world. However, once they arrive on this deserted island they find brutalised remains, and begin to be hunted through the jungle by more than one killer assailant. This story has a much more action adventure feel to it, and it's makes me think of brightly light movies of the early 2000's that seemed to love using tropical locations to film in. 

In contrast to this story 'Creeping Ivy' by Laura Purcell is much darker and more gothic in tone. Told in the form of a journal recovered from the ruins of Hindhead Manor, it tells the story of a man in the 1800's, the former master of Hindhead Manor. The story recounts the events following the death of his much older wife, a woman he describes as having hated, and who spent all her time in her greenhouse tending to her beloved plants. The author of the journal is happy with the passing of his wife, finally feeling free of her, yet also harbours guilt at being responsible for her death. Dismissing all of his staff, he chooses to be alone in the Manor, yet begins to sense that there is some other presence there with him, one that could be responsible for the sickness overtaking him. This story is much darker in tone and setting, and made me think of classic ghost stories like The Woman In Black, thanks to the creeping madness that seems to be setting into the lead, and the isolated setting of the story.

'Murder Board' by Grady Hendrix is in comparison a much more modern story, and one that feels a little comical in places. Following an aged rock star and his much younger wife in their isolated modern mansion, the two of them play a game during a torrential storm. They use a Ouija board. The older rock star claims that this board has advised him through important decisions throughout his life, and believes in it completely. However, when the board spells out 'i will kill u', this leads to a dangerous situation. Convinced his wife wants him dead, the rocker convinces his assistant to murder her, which leads to a domino event that just leads to worse and worse as the story unfolds. 'Murder Board' is one of those stories where things spiral out of control, and where you wish the characters would just talk to each other, but their misunderstanding and desperation are ultimately what leads to tragic events, rather than any obvious outside force.

My favourite story in the book has to be 'Branch Line' by Paul Finch, which sees a man recounting the story about the time he and a childhood friend walked up an abandoned train line during the 70's in order to get a load of porn mags (what else were kids in the 70's supposed to do?). During this journey one of the teens recounts a few stories about how the track is supposed to be haunted, one of which is particularly chilling. Thinking it's just the usual kind of local stories, they forget about the supposed ghost and focus instead on the prize awaiting them, but when they have their own horrific encounter the story takes a terrifying turn. The slowly building atmosphere of this story, along with the very normal, recognisable setting, made it incredibly creepy. I'm so glad I'm not able enough to walk along abandoned train lines, because this would have put me right off it.

This collection has some amazing stories in it, some that were a slow burn, others that had visceral fear. It had ghosts, monsters, and very human horror. It presented a range of stories that included the fantastical, and made the everyday into something that could inspire fear. 

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The Book of Malachi by T.C. Farren - Book Review

 

'Malachi, a mute thirty-year-old man, has just received an extraordinary job offer. In exchange for six months as a warden on a top-secret organ-farming project, Raizier Pharmaceuticals will grant Malachi a new tongue. So Malachi finds himself on an oilrig among warlords and mass murderers. But are the prison-donors as evil as Raizier says? Do they deserve their fate? 

'As doubt starts to grow, the stories of the desperate will not be silenced - not even his own. Covertly, Malachi comes to know them, even the ones he fears, and he must make a choice - if he wants to save one, he must save them all. And risk everything, including himself.'

The Book of Malachi is a story set in some undefined near future, where science has advanced to a point to allow the growth of human organs in order to provide needed transplants, however, the practice seems to be less than legal, and as such leads to some shady and frightening practices. This is where Malachi comes into this story.

Malachi has spent years working in factories and on production lines, and has an impeccable work record. Thanks to his skills he seems like the ideal person to work for Raizier Pharmaceuticals, but the thing that makes him the perfect candidate is that he has no tongue. Raizier offers to give Malachi a new tongue if he comes to work for them for just six months, helping to take care of the prisoners on their off shore oilrig. Malachi agrees, believing that it's a good trade, that those people locked away in cages, used to grow new organs and go through rounds of surgery deserve their fate. They're murderers and rapists after all, why shouldn't they suffer if it means that they can save other people's lives?

However, Malachi quickly begins to discover that despite their pasts, the things that they have done, these people are still people; and they deserve basic compassion. Stripped naked, kept in cages, fed through tubes, their conditions are barely better than animals. And when they begin to tell Malachi their stories, the things that led them to this place he not only begins to see that they're in some cases victims of circumstance, people who have been forced into awful decisions, but some of them are just as much victims as he is.

One of the best things about The Book of Malachi is the surprising twists the narrative takes. I wasn't too surprised that Malachi comes to see the caged criminals as more than just incubators for organs, but it was the way their stories affected him, the parallels he saw to his own life that took me by surprise. We learn over the course of the book that Malachi wasn't born mute, but suffered something awful that led to him losing his tongue. Malachi eventually reveals the reasons for this to both the reader and the prisoners, and you see that this is not only the first time that he's ever shared this information, but just how much it affects him.

Malachi's journey through the book isn't just him learning to see the prisoners as people, but learning to see himself as one too. He's walked around with incredible guilt and self hatred for years, putting himself as the reason for the suffering he has been through, and lives that have been lost. It's through his interactions with these killers that he learns to let go of this pain, to start to see himself as a person worth loving, worth being proud of.

There are some characters amongst the prisoners that I don't think we're supposed to like, some whose crimes are completely unjustifiable, like the resident rapist, but with others it's not so clear cut. There's a character who admits to having killed his wife and her lover when he discovered them together, who lashed out in a moment of blind rage and deeply regrets what he's done. He's presented as a very clear headed and decent person, and one who's torn apart inside by the regret and grief over his past actions, and you can't help but feel a little sorry for him, acknowledging that this is a situation that you yourself could find yourself in. There are others who have more extreme stories, but who still manage to feel sympathetic, victims of circumstance.

Thanks to the duplicity and intentional harm being caused by some of the people working at Raizier, and the way they even treat some of their staff the people who think of themselves as being the 'good guys', as doing something shady in order to help others, it means that there's not really anyone in this book who can be seen as a good person. Every character here is a shade of grey, a victim or an offender in some way. They've all done bad things, or turn a blind eye to bad things. Because of this, the book ends up being an incredibly complex character study, even for the minor characters. It's a story where I don't know how I feel about the people involved, and at times don't know who to root for.

T.C. Farren has done a spectacular job at crafting a story that's going to test its readers. You're going to come away thinking about your own morals, about what you feel is good and bad, and how those ideas can easily be twisted to opposite means. Yes, some people have done awful things in their lives, and you might think there's nothing wrong in those people suffering a little if it leads to a good outcome, but does that make you a bad person if you allow that? The Book of Malachi asks if the ends justify the means, and if people are every truly evil or irredeemable. It's a book that will make you feel uncomfortable, but in a good way, in a way that will leave you stunned.

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Slay: Stories of Vampire Noire by Nicole Givens Kurtz - Book Review

'Mocha Memoirs Press is proud to present Slay: Stories of the Vampire Noire - a revolutionary anthology celebrating vampires of the African Diaspora. Slay is a groundbreaking, unique collection and will be a must-have for vampire lovers all over the world. Slay aims to be the first anthology of its kind. Few creatures in contemporary horror are as compelling as the vampire, who manages to captivate us in a simultaneous state of fear and desire.

'Drawing from a variety of cultural and mythological backgrounds, Slay dares to imagine a world of horror and wonder where Black protagonists take center stage - as vampires, as hunters, as heroes. From immortal African deities to resistance fighters; matriarchal vampire broods to monster hunting fathers; coming of age stories to end of life stories, Slay is a groundbreaking Afrocentric vampire anthology celebrating the rich cultural heritage of the African Diaspora.'

Slay: Stories of Vampire Noire presents readers with a collection of vampire stories that often get overlooked, stories that are important, diverse, and engaging; stories from Black voices.

One of the things that is made immediately clear with this anthology, from the very blurb on the back using the phrase Diaspora, is that even though the stories in this collection are united by their blackness, that there is a huge difference in how that plays out in these stories, and what it means to be Black for different people. Diaspora refers to the forced dispersal of a people from their homeland, in this case it would be of peoples from Africa during the Transatlantic Slave Trade that took place over hundreds of years. 

This seems to play out in the division of the stories within the book, with three main sections that inform and influence the stories within, those set in the United States and Britain, those set in Africa, and those that look to the future. These sections take some very different experiences of being Black, and the hopes for Black communities in the future, and uses them to inform the work within.

The very first story in this collection, 'Desiccant' by Craig Laurance Gidney, lets readers know right away that this book isn't going to have stories that you'd be instantly familiar with if you don't read diverse fiction, and that not every vampire in these stories will be the kind you recognise. The story follows Tituba, a young Black trans woman, who's been forced to move into the run down and forgotten Bellona Heights Apertments after being thrown out of her last place thanks to the transphobic views of her sister's boyfrind. 

Tituba is having to scrape by in a building where it's reinforced how little society thinks of her, a trans woman of colour. She receives scorn and muttered insults from the others who live in the building, and no one seems to take her seriously when she notices that she and other residents are getting sick. The cause of this sickness seems to be a strange rust-coloured powder that she finds coating many of the surfaces in the building, a powder that seems to sometimes move on its own, and comes out at night. Through her investigation she comes to believe that this dust is somehow draining the residents, leaving them sick and dying. Despite having figured out the cause of this sickness the story leaves Tituba facing this danger alone, knowing that no one will be coming to help her, because of who she is, and how little the world cares about Black bodies.

'The Retiree' by Steven Van Patten jumped out at me because it felt a lot like this was the kind of story that could both be the end of a longer series, and the start of something more to come. It follows Gideon Hastings as he is being taken to stay in a retirement home by his daughter Mona. Over the course of the story Gideon comes across as a grumpy, displeased man, one who isn't happy with where life has led him, or the choices his daughter has made. However, over the course of the story we learn that there is something more to Gideon than meets the eye.

It transpires that Gideon is an old demon hunter, one who has killed a lot of vampires and monsters over his younger years. However, he knows that one day the forces of darkness will be coming for him to enact revenge. Having made his home on consecrated ground he's been safe most of his life, but now that he's in a retirement home he's open to attack from these evil beings. Gideon's story here feels a lot like the final chapters of a series of monster hunting stories, one where readers finally get to find out what fate awaits a man who's never lost a battle against the forces of evil, but can't fight forever. It also feels a lot like this could be a great jumping on point to a series, a pilot episode for a show where a young Black woman discovers her father was a demon hunter and decides to take on his mantle and continue the fight following his passing. Either way, it's definitely a story where I found myself wanting to read more about Gideon and his family, and wanting to see more of the world that Steven Van Patten managed to craft in these few pages.

This kind of feeling was also present in 'Beautiful Monsters' by Valjeanne Jeffers, who's story felt like a small part of a much broader tapestry; and one that was instantly grabbing. In this story we follow Sanyu, a vampire living in the wild west style town of Passion, where monsters rule the streets. Passion is run by the Adze, a type of vampire from Ewe folklore, who oppress the other supernatural beings who live there. 

Sanyu is a member of the underground resistance, who are fighting against the Adze to gain better rights and free the other oppressed supernatural beings from their evil grip. The story follows her over the course of a night where her mission goes wrong, and she's forced into open conflict with these deadly creatures. As with the previous story I talked about, this one feels like it's taking a small step into a much bigger world, one that brings together a number of different folklore's and myths in new and interesting ways.

'His Destroyer' by Samantha Bryant is one of my favourite stories in the entire collection, despite being one of the shortest included. The story follows Dienihatiri, a woman who has been beaten to death following the birth of her daughter, for having displeased her husband by giving him another daughter instead of a son. The story opens with her suddenly regaining consciousness wrapped in a burial cloth, left for dead. Crawling from her grave, she finds the streets of her home city deserted, but it is in this city, on the bank of the Nile, that she discovers a bright pillar of light in the darkness, a pillar of light that calls her it's destroyer.

Walking through the sleeping city she thinks of how Pharoah has been given chances to do the right thing, been given warnings from a higher power, but chose to ignore them. It's then that she realises that she's the punishment that has been sent upon him. Walking through the city she is driven away from the homes with blood above their doors, made to feel sick. But those that don't, she is drawn to, to the sleeping first born sons within, whose blood could help sate her desperate hunger.

The idea of throwing a vampire into the myth of Moses and Ramses II, to have a vampire created by the powers of heaven stalking through the streets, killing the first born sons of Egypt, is a bold move. I would have never have thought to combine these two ideas, but it really, really works. The idea of blood being what drives her away from certain homes, yet her desire for the blood of others that drives her to her targets is brilliant, and makes it so that I'll never look at this story the same way again.

Steve Van Samson's story 'No God But Hunger' that's included in this collection actually fits into his Predator World series, and features his character Mirhèla Nanji as she travels across the African Savannah tracking down a leopard. She and her companion are hunting the big cat down for food, trying desperately to survive in a world more than two decades into a vampire plague that has all but eradicated the human race. However, when the hunt goes wrong, Mirhèla finds herself fighting off a swarm of deadly vampiric children.

Slay: Stories of Vampire Noire brings together a lot more stories than this, and I could have talkes about how good they all are all day; but I had to draw a line somewhere. The stories in this book feature new tales that stand on their own, as well as stories that tie into bigger series and other novels. The stories subvert traditional themes and tropes, they draw upon African culture and heritage, and focus on a group of people that often don't get given the chance to star in this genre. We have Black vampires, Black vampire hunters, and everyday people drawn into nightmare scenarios, who get to take the spotlight in a series of stories that will have you adding a load of new authors to your list of people whose work you need to check out. A brilliant, and much needed collection.

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The Driver – DVD Review

Originally published on Set The Tape 

Zombie plagues have become, ironically, a plague. TV shows, films, video games, comics, it seems like you can’t turn around without finding another zombie product coming over the horizon. In a world full of zombie entertainment you’ve got to do something different to stand out. So when I saw that The Driver was a Thai made film, and starring martial arts legend Mark Dacascos and his family, I thought this one might be worth taking a shot on. I was wrong.

If you took The Walking Dead and removed the quality of writing, took away the special effects, and hired people who can’t act well you’d have The Driver. That might sound quite harsh, but there was so little in this film to keep me interested that the 90 minute run time felt about twice as long, despite only really having enough content to fill about half that time.

The film follows The Driver (Dacascos), who is living with his family in a small compound with other survivors a number of years after civilisation fell due to a zombie apocalypse. When the compund comes under attack, The Driver’s wife (Julie Condra) is killed, leaving him to care for his daughter Bree (Noelani Dacascos) alone. The two of them set out on a journey together to try to reach Haven, a supposedly safe colony they’ve heard about in whispers.

The first half of the film focuses on the life The Driver and his family have within their community, one that he’s feeling less and less confident about. Despite the dangers outside their walls he feels that it would be safer to leave, and is proven right when they’re betrayed from within. Like I’d said earlier in the review, there are so many zombie stories around that the first half of the film follows a formula that I’m sure you’ll be familiar with. Sadly, this echoes the rest of the film, as everything that happens has been done before.

Unoriginality doesn’t have to be a bad thing, there are lots of stories that tread similar ground to others, yet manage to be engaging and entertaining, but one of the biggest problems with The Driver is that no one seems too interested. Considering how much Dacascos talks about how he loved the story in the making-of feature on the disc it’s surprising he didn’t bring any of that passion to the film itself. He seemed more excited to talk about the film than being in the film.

Probably the biggest let down, however, is the casting of Dacascos himself. He’s a good actor when used in the right projects, and I’ve seen some amazing fight scenes in film and TV that he’s been a part of, but here he feels wasted. Most of the action scenes have him shooting zombies from a distance, and the one sequence where he does get to use his fighting skills, fighting some raiders, is one of the worst fight scenes I’ve seen him do.

There was potential for The Driver to be something really different, to stand out from the crowded zombie market, but it let me down in every way. I wanted an exciting zombie martial arts film, something that didn’t have to be brilliant, but was fun; instead, I found myself desperate for the film to finish.

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Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee – Book Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

'Gyen Jebi isn’t a fighter or a subversive. They just want to paint. One day they’re jobless and desperate; the next, Jebi finds themself recruited by the Ministry of Armor to paint the mystical sigils that animate the occupying government’s automaton soldiers.

'But when Jebi discovers the depths of the Razanei government’s horrifying crimes—and the awful source of the magical pigments they use—they find they can no longer stay out of politics. What they can do is steal Arazi, the ministry’s mighty dragon automaton, and find a way to fight…'

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee is a story that instantly jumped out at me. Set in a fantasy land inspired by Korea under Japanese occupation, containing a mixture of magic and technology, and with a giant mechanical dragon on the front cover. I mean, what’s not exciting about that set up?

The story follows Jebi, a non-binary artist who lives in Hwaguk, a country that is living under the occupation of Razanei, a neighbouring nation who defeated their forces a decade before. Jebi has been living with their older sister, trying to find steady work as an artist, but failing despite their skills. Jebi isn’t a prodigy by any means, but still competent enough that they feel they can make a living from their craft. When Jebi discovers that the Ministry of Armour is looking for artists they find themselves recruited to help the forces occupying their nation.

Jebi thinks that they’re being recruited to help paint the magical symbols onto automata, artificial soldiers that patrol the city and guard Razanei facilities. However, they discover that they’ve been recruited to work on one very particular automata, a ferocious new war machine in the shape of a dragon.

One of the things that makes Phoenix Extravagant interesting is the fact that unlike other lead characters Jebi isn’t a fighter. They’re not a rebel, standing against an oppressive regime and fighting to free their home. They’ve accepted that this is the way things are now. They’ve begun to assimilate, even having adopted a Razanei name, to help with their art. Jebi is very much being swept into a story they don’t want to be a part of. They’re an ordinary person out of their depth, and this doesn’t really change much over the course of the story, and in the moments where they’re forced to take action it’s very clear that they’re not equipped for this, and they’re sometimes a little useless.

Thankfully, there are a few other characters around Jebi who do know what they’re doing, and they’re great. Vei is initially introduced as the a potential foe, a duellist working for the Razanei forces assigned to watch over Jebi. Deadly in ways that Jebi could never hope to emulate, the romance that begins to blossom between the two of them is one of the more interesting parts of the book. Whilst it’s not quite an enemies to lovers narrative, their opposing political standings make it a romance that definitely has its issues, and holds more risks than just a broken heart.

One of the best characters, however, is Arazi, the mechanical dragon. I won’t say much about them so as not to spoil the story, but they’re more than I first expected, and their journey through the novel was just as engaging as any of the human characters. They’re not just a machine, despite their origins, and are a being with its own thoughts and feelings, ones that I always wanted to learn more about.

Whilst Arazi is brilliant, they’re also one of the downsides of the book, or rather the lack of time we spend with them is. Jebi is the central character, and we spend so much time with them, and by the end of the book I had a good grasp of who they are and their personality, but I wanted more with Arazi. I wanted Jebi to just sit down and talk with Arazi, to have a whole chapter of the two of them just engaging so we could learn more about this amazing creation.

This would be something that I would hope for in a sequel, but it’s not clear by the end of the book if this is something that we might ever get. The book ends with the words ‘The End’, so it seems like this is it for this world and these characters, but it feels like there’s so much more left to tell. Yoon Ha Lee has left enough story threads dangling that they could easily return to this world, and I really hope that they do, because I wanted more.

Despite being left wanting more I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The setting and story felt new and unique, and I adored the amount of queer representation it had. Not only was the lead character non-binary, but we had same sex relationships, families where people had three parents in a polyamarous relationship, and none of these things were commented on as out of the ordinary or strange. It was a world where people didn’t get hung up on gender or sexuality, and it was amazing.

If you’re looking for an engaging fantasy story that isn’t just going to give you the kind of things you’ve read before this is a definite must read.

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The Omniscients: Phenomena by Dugomier - Book Review

 

'When five teenagers wake up one morning imbued with absolute knowledge, the news travels fast, and before long the young geniuses are taken into hiding by the FBI. What would you do if you were 15 and never had to set foot in school again? Our heroes won't have long to think about it, as a secret organization is hell-bent on capturing them. And they also have a puzzle to solve: where did this gift come from, and who are these mysterious beings seemingly playing with their destiny?'

The Omniscients begins with five teenagers suddenly waking up one morning with ringing in their ears. When this mysterious noise passes the five of them suddenly find themselves with access to all available public knowledge, making them close to omniscient. Four of these teens quickly come together, drawn to each other by a deep need to be together, but a fifth is fighting this urge, until she too has to give into this desire and sets out to join the others. However, the FBI are desperate to get their hands on one of these teens, and set their sights on stopping her reaching the others.

This book definitely feels like the first part in a bigger series, not just because there are so many mysteries left hanging come the end that things haven't even begun to feel explained, but because not much really happens here. 

The story begins with our five teens, Albert, Diego, Amber, James, and Jessica, all waking up one morning and discovering that they have access to a huge swath of knowledge. This access seems to be like being able to see into the internet inside their heads, and at one point one of the teens even 'accesses' a person's Wikipedia page in order to read up on them. This is never really explained in this first volume, and it's simply implied that the teens are somehow able to read the internet. They say more than once that they don't have access to hidden knowledge, and that they can only see public information, but then they'll be able to see into people's hidden records, and gather information that wouldn't be publicly available.

This lack of clarification of the teens powers is possibly one of the mysteries of the book, as it seems like each teen is able to do slightly different things, however, it also leads to the main conflict in this book. The FBI are convinced that if they are able to get their hands on these teens they'll be able to use them to gather information on the 'bad guys' and use them as espionage tools. This doesn't seem too unreasonable, as they're led to believe that the kids know 'everything', yet these undefined rules on their powers are definitely a problem here. Can the kids access information on databases on foreign powers computers? Maybe? It's not clear. Can they know what terrorists are up to? Probably not, unless they're keeping a blog on the dark web, but who knows?

I can't help but feel that an earlier clear description of these powers would not only help the reader, but would have helped the characters too. It would mean that the FBI might not try hunting down one of their number just to try and get an advantage that they might not even get if they do manage to capture on of the teens.

This conflict also seems to lead to nothing really happening. Early on in the book four of the teens come together and are placed inside a house in New York, somewhere where the four of them can be protected and studied, allowing the Health Authority to try to figure out what caused them to gain these amazing abilities. However, Jessica chose not to join them straight away, and its when she does try to get to them that the conflict with the FBI happens.

By the end of the book, however, this has been resolved. Jessica is now with the rest of the group, and those members of the FBI who were hunting her down have been removed. The five of them are now living happily together in their new home in New York, and the Health Department are still supporting them and trying to figure out what happened. If you'd have had Jessica just join them when the others came together a whole huge chunk could have been removed from this book and you wouldn't feel like you'd really missed out on anything.

This lack of anything really happening is a big drag on the quality of what should have been an exciting first volume of a new teen adventure series. There are definitely elements of great things here in this first volume, and the small snippets we see of the person behind everything, who seems to be connected to their strange powers, is intriguing and raises a lot of interesting questions; but it gets lost in the masses of stuff that feels very throw away.

With this being the first, and so far only, volume with which to judge the series I feel like it's hard to know if the rest is going to be great or not. This one volume is okay, but that's about it. I want to read the second volume not because this one got me hooked, but to see if the series will actually be worth sticking with. I hope it is, as there was a lot of stuff here to like, but if the story doesn't pick up in the next book I'm not sure if this will be a series that I'll be wanting to stick with.

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My Riot by Rick Spears - Book Review

 

'1991—Val, a teenager from a conservative family, has grown up dreaming of becoming a ballerina, but recently something has changed. She’s begun feeling pressure to conform to a specific idea of beauty, body type, and a personality that just doesn’t fit.

'Val meets Kat, a smart, witty girl that doesn’t take any crap off anyone. Kat introduces Val to punk rock. Along with Rudie, another new friend, the three form an all-girl punk band they ironically name The Proper Ladies.

'Soon Val and her friends find themselves caught up in a movement with other girls also starting bands—also finding their voice. Collectively, these “riot grrrls” discover that their songs ring out loud and powerful, and for Val, there’s no going back.'

My Riot is a coming of age story that puts female empowerment front and centre, and gives readers a lead character that you can not only identify with, but who you want to try and be. Val is a fairly average teenage girl, she's struggling to find a part time job, not wholly successful in relationships, and has a hot and cold relationship with her parents. In essence, she's a regular person.

At the beginning of the book Val seems to be going through the motions a little, just trying to carry on the way she always has and trying to find something in her life that sparks her joy. She's been doing ballet since she was a little girl, but seems to be in something of a slump with it, especially as her teacher is trying to get her to lose weight to be a 'better' dancer, even going so far as encouraging her to take up smoking to try to suppress her appetite. Her home life isn't much better, and she's been getting into arguments with her mother, especially when her mother finds condoms in Val's room, acting as if her seventeen year old daughter having safe sex is an awful thing.

It's in this slump where Val meets Kat. The two of them go to the same school, but Val hasn't really spoken to the outgoing Kat much before, but when the two of them shelter in the same ice-cream parlour together when a riot breaks out a bond quickly forms, and Kat introduces Val to the world of punk rock. The two of them decide to form a band together, and soon discover that they've got a talent for music, even convincing another friend, Rude, to join with them. 

Things happen pretty quickly throughout My Riot, due to the constraints of the length of the book and not being able to show everything, as such, the progress of Val and the band does seem to happen a bit quickly. But, you can easily overlook this as just being something that's been dictated by things outside of the creators control. I've seen some reviews complain that it makes their journey seem too easy or convenient, but who knows, their band might actually be really good and deserve the early breaks they get.

But the book isn't really about the band, or the music, it's about Val and her journey to discovering herself and finding a place of happiness. At the start of the book she's an awkward teen who doesn't know who she is, but by the end she's a successful and confident young woman. 

There are moments in the book where this journey makes some big leaps, where Val stands up and makes the decision not to back down or have her life dictated by others, and these are some of the best moments in the book. When her ballet teacher is encouraging her to smoke, to develop an eating disorder, and is telling her that she's failing as a dancer because of this Val stands up for herself. She tells her teacher to shove it, and quits dancing. It's a great moment of empowerment, and one that's really healthy. With eating disorders and body image being a hugely relevant thing to teenagers seeing a character breaking out of what could be a very dangerous situation is great. And it shows how strong of a person Val is.

Another moment that stands out is when her boyfriend finds out that Val had sex before they were together, as he'd just assumed they'd both been each other's first experience. He tries to make her feel guilty about this, to make her think that she's somehow the villain for having a sex life and normal desires. Rather than letting this be something that breaks her down she turns this into a moment that can inspire her music, that helps to make her a stronger person, whilst breaking out of a toxic relationship.

Val has these moments of wisdom and clarity that are needed to survive her teenage years, but never feels like she's older beyond her years, she's still clearly a teenager who says and does stupid things and makes mistakes. But that's what makes her so great. People reading this book after their teens will look at her and say 'yeah, I was a bit stupid as a teen too', whilst teenagers will be able to see themselves in her. 

The artwork throughout, provided by Emmett Helen, is really nice, and fits the tone well. It's minimalist, with nice smooth line-work that doesn't go into huge detail, but still manages to convey everything. I don't want to say that the art is simplistic, because that would sound too mean, as it's not, but it's not detail heavy. It provides readers with everything you need to be able to experience the story. The fairly minimalist style means that you always focus on the characters and what they're going through, rather than having your eye drawn to other things in the panel, or searching through the background for tiny details. The book is a great example of artist and writer coming together to tell a story about people, and making that the focus.

My Riot didn't take me long to read, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I loved the characters and their journey, and the really positive message that the book tried to get across. Whilst I don't think we'll ever see more of Val again as her story's done, I'd love to see more from these creators working together in the future.

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The Man Who Shot Chris Kyle by Fabien Nury - Book Review

 

'A former Navy SEAL and Iraq War veteran, Chris Kyle is the most lethal sniper in American military history. His autobiography, American Sniper, was a best-seller in the US. On February 2, 2013, Chris Kyle is killed by another veteran, Eddie Ray Routh. The murder takes place on a shooting range in Stephenville, Texas. But that’s only the beginning of their story.'

The Man Who Shot Chris Kyle is a new graphic novel that takes the real life story of Chris Kyle, the man behind the book an film American Sniper and focuses on the events around his death.

I was aware of Chris Kyle in the absolute broadest sense when I first picked up this book, I knew that the man behind American Sniper was a real person, and that he was once a soldier; but that was all I knew. As such, I went into this book with little information to colour my opinion of him, or with ideas about what to expect.

The book skips over much of Chris' early life, as well as his military career, instead jumping into the narrative following his return from duty; at the point in which he found fame. Instead, the book focuses on the events leading directly up to his murder, and does so in a way that feels more like a documentary than a normal graphic novel. The book is full of detached narration, with some third person telling the reader the story of Chris, rather than it being told from the point of view of anyone present in the narrative.

This feeling of reading a documentary was further built upon when the book included pieces of interviews that Chris had attended to promote his book, small images of events that would have been recorded on camera, and even advertisements for different services and events. It's not hard to see how this would play out transplanted to a televised documentary, and I think that was the intention of writer Fabien Nury.

One of the things that let this down a little, personally, was the art. The art style of the book was incredibly simple and lacked any real depth of flare. Characters were often quite flat looking, and seemed to be basic approximations and caricatures rather than detailed drawings of real people, and backgrounds were hardly ever used; instead having blank, single colour panels behind people's heads. Whilst this didn't bother me most of the time as this seemed to have been a deliberate choice to allow readers to focus on the story over the art, there were times where it really jumped out at me. 

These moments tended to be in the interview segments of the book. There's a section of the book with quite a long interview between Chris Kyle and Bill O'Reilly where the two of them talk about American Sniper and Chris' time in combat. The scene consisted of switching between a close-up of the characters faces when each of them were talking. This wasn't bad in itself, but it quickly became clear that each panel was exactly the same. No variation in expression or pose was used a lot of the time, and it felt like the artist, Bruno, had simply copy/pasted the images. Once it became apparent here, there were other times that I began to notice a repetition of the images, where it looked like the artist had reused old panels without any variation. Whilst I understand that reusing artwork can save time and effort, it began to feel like it was laziness, and every time that I noticed it it would pull me out of the book.

The biggest issue I had with the book, however, was the choice to split it into two volumes. The book ends with the dramatic murder of Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield, leaving readers wondering what happens next in the story. The book itself is only 80 pages long, so it's a very short read. The decision to split the story into two volumes doesn't seem to have been made because the events are so long that it would make a book too large to read in a single volume, and it strikes me that the choice was made by the publisher in order to try and sell a second book. The fact that the book ends with the murder of Kyle but no resolution as to what happens to his killer definitely seems like an engineered hook, something to frustrate readers and have them wanting to find out what happens next.

Whilst I would have liked to have read a complete story this first volume kind of lets me down. The fact that it stops halfway through the narrative for no apparent reason, coupled with repeated artwork and little variation in the panels featured leaves the book with an overall feel of a project where few people seemed too bothered. It feels unfinished, and instead of leaving me wanting the next volume and eager for more it left me feeling annoyed, almost like my time had been wasted a little. That's not to say the whole thing is bad, on the contrary, I learned a lot about a subject that I had no idea of before, so for that I'm grateful. However, ending the way it does, the book had me going to Wikipedia to read about the rest of the events, rather than willing to wait for a second volume to come out.

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The Winter Duke by Claire Eliza Bartlett - Book Review

 

'When Ekata's brother is finally named heir, there will be nothing to keep her at home in Kylma Above with her murderous family. Not her books or science experiments, not her family's icy castle atop a frozen lake, not even the tantalizingly close Kylma Below, a mesmerizing underwater kingdom that provides her family with magic. But just as escape is within reach, her parents and twelve siblings fall under a strange sleeping sickness.

'In the space of a single night, Ekata inherits the title of duke, her brother's warrior bride, and ever-encroaching challengers from without—and within—her own ministry. Nothing has prepared Ekata for diplomacy, for war, for love...or for a crown she has never wanted. If Kylma Above is to survive, Ekata must seize her family's power. And if Ekata is to survive, she must quickly decide how she will wield it.'

I enjoy YA books, they sometimes get classed as a genre itself, but there is such a huge variety within the category in tone and themes that it encompasses many genres; something that The Winter Duke does too. It's part fantasy story, with an amazing setting and magical creatures, part coming of age story where a young woman must find her place in the world, and it's part political thriller full of intrigue and mystery. It's also incredibly adult, it features a complex and layered story that doesn't talk down to its readers; and there were a few times I forgot that the protagonist was a teenager because of the level of maturity brought to the book.

The story follows the Avenko family, the rulers of the tiny kingdom of Kylma Above. Kylma Above is a frozen kingdom, with a palace made out of eternal ice on top of a frozen lake; beneath that lake lies Kylma Below, an underwater civilisation of fish people and magic. Residing above this mystical land, and having an accord with them, Kylma Above uses its position to trade magic with the outside world, granting it great prestige despite it's size.

The Avenko family, however, are a bit of a strange bunch. Raised to believe that power should be earned through cunning and strength it's perfectly normal for a new Grand Duke to take the throne by killing the previous one, along with any contenders. Despite this, other kingdoms are desperate for a better relationship with Kylma Above, and as such many have sent sons and daughters to attend a brideshow, where the next in line for the throne will be picking out his future consort. 

It's here that we meet Ekata, one of the middle daughters of the Grand Duke, and possibly the only member of the Avenko family who isn't a power hungry psychopath. More interested in getting away from her family and travelling south to study at university, she's more interested in science and medicine than politics. However, when on the night of the brideshow the entire Avenko family all fall into a deep coma, except for Ekata, she finds herself forced to assume the throne.

Acting as Grand Duke, Ekata must try to discover what has effected her family and try to save them. However, she soon learns that there are bigger threats than just this mysterious ailment, as she gets drawn into a web of political intrigue. Dealing with visiting dignitaries, a council of unhappy advisers pushing for democracy, and a challenge for the throne from a rival kingdom, Ekata will be lucky to survive herself, let alone awaken her family.

One of the best things about The Winter Duke is that we as the audience get dropped into things with little world building, being left to discover much of the culture of Kylma Above, and the surrounding politics, as they come up in the narrative. At first, I was a little put off because things were happening very fast, magic was introduced with no warning, and people were talking about other kingdoms and trade agreements without explanation. But after a while I began to suspect that this might have been the point. The readers aren't given explanations in the text and are left to discover things through the narrative because that's very much the same experience that Ekata has during the book.

Ekata has spent most of her life accepting that she's not going to rule Kylma Above. Even if she had desires to do so she would need to kill her father and several of her siblings, something that it becomes quite clear she would never do. As such she's poured her attentions into her studies, focusing on academia instead of political manoeuvring and policy. So when she's suddenly thrown into being the Grand Duke she's as unaware of the intricacies of the kingdom as the reader. 

Instead of us having things explained to us in large blocks of text that delve into the history of this world we have Ekata asking the questions for us, she turns to her advisers and asks them who diplomats are and what they're after because she genuinely doesn't know.She not only gets to be the protagonist, driving much of the narrative forward, but becomes an audience stand in at times, something that quickly endeared me to the character. We both got to be a little lost and unsure of this world together.

There are times when this doesn't quite work, as there are things that Ekata would definitely know, such as the society of Kylma Above, their history, and their traditions. But Claire Eliza Bartlett found another good way of avoiding just having to info dump in these moments; Inkar. Inkar is one of the perspective partners being offered up to Ekata's brother at the brideshow, but when Ekata has to take over the throne, and in order to avoid the political machinations of a rival, she picks Inkar out to be her royal consort. Inkar is thrown into being Ekata's wife (on a week's trial basis) and suddenly finds herself in the middle of a kingdom she's unfamiliar with. Inkar doesn't always know things that would be taken for granted by Ekata, and as such she can also act as an audience mouthpiece by asking questions about the city, their belief systems, and where they grow their food in an ice covered kingdom. 

That being said, Inkar isn't just there to ask questions, and is one of the more interesting characters in the narrative. The twenty-fifth daughter of the jarl of another kingdom, she's proven herself to be a hardened warrior and general for her people, and brings a degree of self assured cockiness with her. Where Ekata seems to be barely getting through things, often overwhelmed and close to exhaustion, Inkar always seems to be full of energy, and almost constantly has a sly grin on her face. I loved how the two of them complimented each other, and how the scenes between them would often play out. And my god, the sexual tension.

I loved that there was no heteronormativity in this book, and that a sapphic slow-burn romance was given centre stage. The relationship that built between the two of them was easily one of my favourite parts of the entire book, and I found myself desperately hoping that Ekata would throw her advisers plans away and not try to alienate Inkar out of breaking their marriage. I wanted the two of them to end up together, and craved more of these quite scenes of the two of them learning about each other and discovering that there was something real between the two of them.

This wasn't the only place where the book had good queer representation, however, and LGBTQ+ people seemed to be incorporated well into the narrative without any big fuss being made. All of the titles seemed to be gender neutral, with Duke being the rank of the ruler regardless of gender, and their being a mix of genders represented in the brideshow, both when it was for Ekata and her older brother. There were also characters with they/them pronouns in the story who weren't treated any differently from anyone else, and some even held high ranks within the political structure of Kylma Above. The simple ease at which these things were included, their lack of impact on the story, and how none of it was highlighted as being special or out of the ordinary was brilliant, and reinforces the point that representation and inclusion needn't be a hard thing, or something that writers should be afraid of having in their works.

Claire Eliza Bartlett also does an amazing job at world building with Kylma Below, and made the handful of segments of the book dealing with them some of the best. To begin with I wasn't sure what Kylma Below was, and some of the descriptions made it sound like a sub city of some kind; leading me to suspect it would be the trope of the rich and powerful living in luxury above whilst the poor lived in an 'under' city. When I discovered it was an actual underwater kingdom full of fish people and sea creatures I was hugely excited to find out more about it. 

The handful of times that we get to follow Ekata below the surface of the ice and see her discovering this alien world that had been below her feet her entire life were stunning. The world below the surface was something truly different from everything above, and I wanted to spend more time there exploring and learning more. I'd love to see Bartlett return to this world, not so much to continue with Ekata's story, but with a whole book set beneath the ice.

The Winter Duke was a book that I was unsure what to expect, the narrative and intriguing world constantly kept me on my toes, and meant that I never knew what would be coming next. The characters were diverse and had believable motivations and desires, some of whom I came to adore, and others I absolutely hated. Part of me wishes that the story could have been longer, that I could have had more time in this world and with these characters, but alas, all good things have to end. 

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