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Wednesday, 15 May 2019

Animorphs: The Visitor - Book Review

'Morphing is certainly more fun than Sega -- you can soar as an eagle and walk as a cat. But being an ANIMORPH is by no means just fun and games. Rachel knew better than anyone. One of her best friends, Melissa, is acting very strange. And it looks like Melissa's dad, who is also the school's Assistant Principal, may be connected to evil aliens. Rachel can't tell Melissa what the ANIMORPHS have learned, but Melissa doesn't seem interested in talking to Rachel these days anyway. Could Melissa be one of "them?"

'With the help of Jake, Cassie, Tobias and Marco, Rachel plans to enter her friend's house as a cat, intent on unlocking the secrets from within. If only Rachel could keep her mind off mice...'

In this, the second volume of the Animorphs series our heroes face the result of having failed to stop the Yeerks from using their Yeerk Pool, and that they were unable to save any of the captured humans being used as controllers. Faced with the fact that they have little to no information about the Yeerks and their plans they hatch a plot to infiltrate the home of their vice principal Chapman, in order to gather intelligence.

The Visitor shifts it's narrative, placing Rachel in the lead role this time. At first it was something of a surprise that the books would be changing the narrator, but after a short while it began to make perfect sense. The series has five heroes, so why not make the most of that and allow them to take turns in the lead role. Not only does it mean that we get to spend a greater amount of time getting to know each of the Animorphs, getting to see how each of them thinks and what drives them, but it also means that the story is able to stay fresher over the course of it's run.

Rachel appears to be somewhat of a better hero than Jake did in the first book, not questioning if she should be fighting the Yeerks, but simply accepting that she is one of the few people with the power and means to be able to do something to stop them. This might be because it's later in the story, or it could be because of the difference in their personalities, but at this point it does seem to make her a better hero than her cousin.

We also learn more about what drives Rachel over the course of this book, as she discovers how her friend Melissa is suffering because of the Yeerks, not because she herself has been taken as an unwilling host to the aliens, but because both of her parents have been, and how the changes in their attitudes have affected her. Cold and distant, Melissa believes that her parents don't love her anymore. It's a surprisingly upsetting moment, and one that it would have been easy to miss in the grand scheme of the alien invasion, but this is what Rachel notices, what drives her on to fight. The Yeerks are destroying families.

Despite being a very personal and emotional story The Invasion also manages to pack in drama, as Rachel is captured whilst in a cat morph and taken to Visser Three, the Andalite Controller running the invasion of Earth.

The scenes where Rachel is brought before the deadly enemy are actually surprisingly tense, and whilst you know there's no way that she will be killed off, especially so early in the series, it does prove to be a scary moment. Will she do something to tip the Yeerks off that they're dealing with humans rather than Andalites, or will she be stuck in her morph? Thankfully, the other heroes are there to free her, with explosive results.

A great improvement on the first volume, one that manages to be both a smaller and more personal story, yet pack in bigger and more dramatic action, The Invasion is a clear indicator that Animorphs has a lot of depths that it can draw upon to make a sprawling, epic saga.

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Monday, 13 May 2019

Marvel Action: Spider-Man #3 Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

‘Peter Parker has signed up for an internship at The Daily Bugle, with the hopes that he’ll get the chance to interview Tony Stark in person – the perfect opportunity to pick the brains of another super hero. But he has a lot of competition, like Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy. After Peter finds out that Miles has spider-powers too, they begin working together to handle the escalating mutant animal problem – in secret from Gwen. But Gwen has a secret or two up her own sleeve, and she’s not about to be left out…’

It’s been an enjoyable slow build-up in Marvel Action: Spider-Man, of the series slowly introducing the three spider-heroes to each other and letting them discover that they’re not the only heroes like themselves, rather than just throwing the three of them together in the very first issue. Like all good team-ups, it’s better when we get to know the characters a little first, and get to see them gradually brought into the same story, rather than some kind of unexpected event that happens to them all at the same time.

Gwen probably has the best introduction of the three characters, and this issue is really her first chance to shine in the series so far. Having been built up over the first two issues as a strong-willed young woman who isn’t afraid to go after what she wants yet remains somewhat in the background in her civilian persona, it’s nice to see her step out as a hero for the first time. Especially as she proves that she is just as capable as her male counterparts.

This issue also sees the introduction of The Lizard to the series, something that I had suspected was coming since we saw Dr Connors in the first issue, and the enemies they team were facing were mutant animals. Despite it not being a surprise to find Connors behind everything that’s been going on it was still great to see the Marvel Action version of the character, and his design looked very good. Sticking close to the classic Lizard design artist Fico Ossio added spines and spikes to the character, a choice that made him different enough from previous versions, and lent him a deadly edge.

Despite not getting to beat the bad guy and bring him to justice the new trio worked really well together, and we got to see how each character differs and has their own strengths. Their shared love of science and using their practical abilities to solve the problems of the mutant animals only went on to highlight how similar they all are, and how good a team they can make. That being said, I do hope that their apparent need to try and out-quip each other gets something of a tone down in future issues.

The final page reveal – that Tony Stark had planned for the three of them to end up working together, so that they would discover that they are all spider-powered heroes – was a neat touch. It showed that the kids weren’t crazy in their idea to talk to Stark, and that he does have a good grasp on being a hero and knowing what they need, in this case each other.

With the team now together I’m excited to see where the series goes from here, to see if they continue to work well together or end up in conflict, and what new takes on bad guys the series will give us.

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Friday, 10 May 2019

Goosebumps: Horrors of the Witch House #1 Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

Goosebumps has always been a great series for getting kids into reading. It was a series that was very accessible, even to a kid like me who struggled with reading and writing, and it sparked an interest into horror, the bizarre, and strange fiction. As such, I was really glad to see that the series has made the leap into comics, allowing it to capture the imaginations of a whole new host of readers.

Goosebumps: Horrors of the Witch House #1 is a fairly standard set up issue, one that lays the groundwork for the main characters and the world. The story begins by introducing the readers to the ‘old Whaley House’, a run down building in an unnamed small town. Left empty for decades and in sore need of work to repair it, the new buyer, tech millionaire Veruca Curry, discovers that the people of the town think that the house is haunted.

Over the course of the issue we see various townsfolk, both adult and children, gossiping about the house, and giving various theories as to why the house is ‘evil’, including a curse, it being the former home of a witch, and even a UFO in the basement.

We are also introduced to the protagonists: there’s the shy Rosie, the sporty and outgoing Becca, and cool kid Carlos. Despite starting the issue in different social circles the three of them end up drawn together when they hear strange noises coming from the Whaley House, spurring on an investigation that reveals Veruca may have mysterious powers of her own.

There’s not a whole lot that happens in this first issue, but it does establish the world and characters well, and gives both the three kids and Veruca their own space to stand out and establish their personality traits.

The art and colours by Chris Fenglio and Valentina Pinto respectively, are simple, yet have a great deal of charm, with the book often feeling more like a Saturday morning cartoon in sense of style than a comic book. Scenes are very clean and clear, yet also have a great amount of detail within them; enough that if you wanted to you could sift through the background, picking out things that you might have missed.

A good start to the series, Goosebumps: Horrors of the Witch House #1 sets out well and creates a solid start to the story. Hopefully now that the world and characters are set up we will get more story progression in the next issue.

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Thursday, 9 May 2019

Marvel Action Avengers #4 Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

Marvel Action Avengers #4 is a strange comic. In the previous issue we saw the Avengers take down the monstrous Fing Fang Foom, as well as freeing Tony Stark from mind control, but discovered that the villain Count Nefaria had used this distraction to steal the Ruby Egress. This issue begins with Thor and Captain Marvel trapped in some strange dimension, looking for Doctor Strange.

At first I thought that this was a separate mission that the two of them were on that would somehow tie into the main story, yet as the issue progressed it was revealed that Count Nefaria had trapped the two of them there when he infiltrated Avengers Tower; something that we had not seen. The rest of the Avengers had even laid a trap for Nefaria thanks to information given to them by Doctor Strange – another thing that we had not seen. There was such a big jump in the narrative structure that I had to go back and check that I had not accidentally skipped an issue.

If Matthew K. Mannings wanted to skip certain aspects of the story, to jump forward in time in order to keep things interesting that’s fine, but it does feel like some very important story points have been missed out. A simple solution would be to show a couple of panels of flashbacks, but that doesn’t happen here. Instead the story choices left me feeling confused and somewhat lost. As a result, I found it very hard to stay in the story.

Jon Sommariva provided the art for the issue, and it all looks great throughout, with some fun and dynamic action sequences, and some interesting designs to new enemies and even a fancy new stealth suit for Iron Man. There are some nice contrasts between the other world and the real world thanks to colour palettes that are unique to each, with reds and oranges for the strange dimension where Thor and Captain Marvel find themselves, and blues and other cooler tones dominating the real world.

Overall Marvel Action Avengers #4 is a decent enough single issue, filled with action that moves the plot forward. However, taken as a part of the whole story it feels completely out of place, like there are huge amounts of the story missing.

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Wednesday, 8 May 2019

Animorphs: The Invasion - Book Review

'Sometimes weird things happen to people. Ask Jake. He may tell you about the night he and his friends saw the strange light in the sky. He may even tell you about what happened when they realized the "light" was only a plane -- from another planet. Here's where Jake's story gets a little weird. It's where they're told that the human race is under attack -- and given the chance to fight back.

'Now Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Tobias, and Marco have the power to morph into any animal they choose. And they must use that power to outsmart an evil that is greater than anything the world has ever seen...'

I remember watching the Animorphs television series when it first aired in the UK, and loved the series very quickly. I'd never, however, read the books that the show was based upon, despite hearing repeatedly that the series was amazing. Thankfully, my husband has the entire series, so I'm finally getting down to reading them, and will be reviewing each book as I go.

'The Invasion' is the first book in the Animorphs series, and introduces a lot of elements to the readers very quickly. Within the first few dozen pages we're introduced to our five main characters, Jake, Marco, Tobias, Rachel, and Cassie, a group of teens in small town America. Not only that, but we discover that the Earth is playing host to an alien invasion, get introduced to four different alien races, and our heroes get the ability to transform into animals.

Whilst things do slow down a little after this action packed start the book keeps a steady pace throughout, and packs in a lot of character moments and plot into it's relatively short page count.

'The Invasion' is a bold book, not only does it have to lay the foundation for this galaxy spanning alien war that has found it's way to our planet, but also needs to quickly establish the rules of the universe. Thanks to some last minute explanations from the Andalite prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul the Animorphs learn that they can acquire the DNA from any animal that they touch, and can then transform into a copy of it.

Over the course of the book we follow our heroes as they test these claims, acquiring their first morphs and testing their abilities. What's most interesting is how each of the characters reacts to gaining these powers. Tobias seems to take to it naturally, and loves becoming a hawk, spending as much time as he can in it's body. Cassie, the daughter of a vet and a natural animal lover, seems to find the beauty and wonder in being an Animorph. Yet Marco seems to want to do everything in his power to not only avoid the war with the Yeerks but also doesn't want to transform at all.

We also learn that there is a limit to how long the Animorphs can stay transformed, just two hours, and get to see first hand the dangers of them staying too long, as in the final pages we discover that Tobias has become trapped in a Hawk body. Something that is sure to not only make things more difficult for our heroes, but highlights how dangerous their task is.

The Invasion does a good job at hammering home just how dire the situation is for our heroes, and the rest of the world, as we make an early visit to one of the locations that the Yeerks use as one of their regenerative pools, and see the scope, scale, and horror of what they are doing. It clearly shows that whilst this might be a children's series, the stakes are high, and the dangers that the Animorphs face is very, very real.

A wonderful introduction to the series, one that sets the groundwork for a story that will span multiple volumes and capture the imaginations of people all over the world. K.A. Applegate is clearly a writer that works well in long, sprawling fiction, and Animorphs is her longest series, and it's obvious that a large part of that success is thanks to the strong beginning established here.

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Monday, 6 May 2019

Transphobic Teacher Reinstated Following Dismissal

Lee Livengood, assistant principal at Liberty High School in West Virginia, has won an appeal to be reinstated following his dismissal for harassing a transgender student.

Last year Livengood was fired from his position after he followed transgender student Michael Critchfield into the male bathroom facilities and verbally harassed him. According to Critchfield, Livengood challenged him as to why he was using the male facilities, then demanded that he use a urinal to 'prove' he was male.

When Critchfield attempted to leave the bathroom Livengood blocked his way out ans asked him what he thought would happen if another student thought that he was trying to check him out in the bathroom. When he finally agreed to allow Critchfield to leave he told him, 'I'm not going to lie. You freak me out.'

Livengood was initially suspended, and following the end of his probationary contract was told that his contract would not be extended, effectively terminating his employment at Liberty High School.

Last month the school superintendent Mark Manchin said that it was not unusual for teachers to have their contracts terminated following their probationary period. 'There's no other reason other than the fact that we just desire not to have him continue as an employee of the Harrison County Board of Education.'

Despite this, the same board that agreed to end his contract have now voted to reinstate him to his former position. As of yet the only statement released as to the reason for his reinstatement is that it 'was difficult and followed a lot of discussion'.

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Monday, 29 April 2019

Other Words For Smoke – Book Review

Originally Published On Set The Tape

‘The house at the end of the lane burned down, and Rita Frost and her teenage ward, Bevan, were never seen again. The townspeople never learned what happened. Only Mae and her brother Rossa knew the truth; they spent two summers with Rita and Bevan, two of the strangest summers of their lives… Because nothing in that house was as it seemed: a cat was more than a cat, a dark power called Sweet James that lurked behind the wallpaper, enthralling Bevan with whispers of neon magic and escape.

‘And in the summer heat, Mae became equally as enthralled with Bevan. Desperately in the grips of first love, she’d give the other girl anything. A dangerous offer when all that Sweet James desired was a taste of new flesh…’

In complete honesty, I wasn’t quite sure what to think of Other Words For Smoke when I first began the book. The story begins at the end, before jumping backwards in time a number of years. The narrative flips between third person, and a narrator that puts you in Bevan’s place, not just her telling you how things affected her, but the narrator talking to you as if you are Bevan. Along with this, there are a number of big, fantastical things that are given little explanation, it was all a little confusing.

However, after a short while I began to understand that this was part of the point, that you as the reader are never quite meant to feel comfortable in this strange world of twisted logic and bizarre magic. Even though the book tells the story through three viewpoints, Bevan, Rossa, and Mae, it’s really about Mae, and the mixture of understanding some things whilst still being confused and unsettled mirror her experiences.

In many ways, this confused state, this partial understanding of the world around you, is a perfect metaphor for the journey that Mae and Rossa are going through over the course of the three years the book is set; not their journey into magic and other worlds, but their journey from teens to adults. The book is about growing up, and the two teens go from naive youngsters to young adults who have discovered so much more about themselves, and have had to live through the awfulness of their fractured and hateful home lives.

We get to see Mae go from a shy young girl hidden away in her games and just discovering her sexuality to a young woman who is embracing who she is, the powers that she is starting to tap into, and having to come to terms with how her first love will affect her for the rest of her life. Rossa changes from a boy closed off from the fantastical world around him, content to shy away from the world in his drawings, to a man with a plan, who knows what he wants from life and isn’t afraid to grasp for it, who opens himself up to the magic around him.

Whilst the book is about growing up and discovering the person that you’re going to be, it’s also about addiction. Bevan is addicted to the powers that the mysterious creature in the walls of the house, Sweet James, is willing to give her. At first glance it simply appears that she’s a character who is craving power, and potentially just a very nasty person, but as the book progresses and we see Bevan without the influence of Sweet James for a while it becomes clear that she’s a victim. She discovers this new world full of wonder and wants to learn more about it, as most people would, but it’s twisted for her by the parasitic creature that is luring her in. She becomes a junkie to the powers on offer, willing to lie, steal, hurt, and even kill if need be to get more.

What stands out most about the book however, is how it’s written. Not just jumping through different perspectives, narrative styles, and time periods, the book has a lyrical, almost poetic quality to it. It’s clear that Sarah Maria Griffin spent a great deal of time weaving ideas and themes throughout the tapestry of the book in a way that a lot of writers don’t, and the end result is a book that feels infinitely more than just the sum of its parts. Even come the end there’s mystery and wonder that is never answered, a world left unexplored, and relationships and motivations only partially hinted at. This might bother some, but it feels more real than most books. After all, in life you rarely get all the answers.

Sarah Maria Griffin has crafted a living, breathing world around one house and a handful of characters, a universe that is barely dipped into. She could come back to this time and time again, exploring the wondrous places that she has made, or simply leave it be, forever a mystery. Either scenario would make me happy, as I’d love to spend more time in this universe, but would also be more than happy to let my own imagination fill in these blanks.

It’s not often I finish a book and find myself immediately wanting to return to it and read it again straight away, but Other Words For Smoke had this effect on me. I want to go back and see those connections that I only realised were there at the end, to use the knowledge I gained later on to see if there is more there to be learned. A stunning example of not just a novel, but a work of art that is sure to stick with the reader long after the final page has been read.

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The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion – Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

The Witch (or The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion, aka Manyeo), the first part of a potential trilogy series, tells the story of Ja-Yoon (Da-Mi Kim), a young girl who has grown up living on a small farm with her elderly adoptive parents after escaping some kind of sinister experimentation and murder squad some ten years previously.

The film is very light on details as to what Ja-Yoon went through at the beginning, with opening credits that hint at mysterious experiments on children, but very little else to tell audiences what has happened. Instead, the film spends a good half of its run time teasing out small pieces of this mystery, with secret conversations and mysterious figures that follow Ja-Yoon.

Instead of focusing solely on the mystery of her past, the film chooses to give over a good portion to building Ja-Yoon as a character, letting us get to know her, her parents, friends, and even smaller figures in the periphery of her life. It’s a nice decision on the part of writer/director Hoon-Jung Park, as it helps to build the world and lets us get attached to Ja-Yoon before her world starts to spin out of control.

As with a lot of YA fiction Ja-Yoon is at the centre of an evil plot headed up by a nefarious organisation that is trying to exploit young people for their own gains. It follows a young girl who is ripped from her happy family life, who has to fight against these corrupt conspirators in order to save herself and her family. What The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion does differently, however, is to bring a Korean revenge thriller twist to the proceedings.

Without spoiling too much of the film, as there are certain expectations it intentionally builds in the audience before quickly pulling the rug out from under you, the sudden shift in its last half is a masterstroke.

The quiet, rural settings of Ja-Yoon’s home life, are gone, replaced with an industrial futurist look, complete with concrete lined labs, corridors with long staircases and high ceilings, and secret bunkers. Ja-Yoon also changes here, revealing a competent heroine beneath the scared teenage girl that we’ve been following. This shift marks a high point in the film, and is sold in large part thanks to the phenomenal acting by Da-Mi Kim, who is able to shift from scared girl to scary killer within seconds.

The other main cast members also bring a lot of great energy to the film, and the villains of the piece are some of the best. Min-Soo Jo is great as the sinister Dr. Baek, the mastermind scientist behind everything that has happened. She’s cold and calculating, trying to manipulate people from behind the scenes, and Min-Soo Jo plays her as a woman used to being the smartest person in the room, and who enjoys flaunting this sense of superiority.

Woo-Sik Choi, referred to in the credits simply as ‘Male English-Speaking Witch’, is great as one of Ja-Yoon’s fellow experimentees, though one raised within the evil organisation. It’s clear that Woo-Sik Choi is having a lot of fun playing the part, and that energy translates into his character, a twisted young man who enjoys being a killer. Both of these characters steal any scene that they’re in, and whilst being used sparingly definitely helped to raise their mystique I would have loved to see more of them.

The highlight, however, is the sudden shift into brutal action that comes within the last half hour, seeing these characters with super-human abilities fighting not just each other, but scores of soldiers too. These scenes have a visceral kind of beauty to them as people are shot, stabbed, and beaten to death in showers of blood, yet done so with such amazingly choreographed movements that it’s almost like watching a brutal ballet. If the film proves to be a success and we do get more entries into the series I can’t wait to see more of this kind of fighting and action.

A story that is really only setting the stage for things to come, we end up with a heroine that we still don’t really know, who is more than just the caring daughter that we saw in the first half of the film, a dangerous, frightening killer hiding just beneath. It’s not clear if she is even really a good person, and it’s possible that those distinctions don’t really exist within this world, opting instead for everyone to being on some kind of spectrum of grey. Despite these questions the film still delivers a great experience even on it’s own, and if the franchise ended here it would still be a great story.

Similar in a lot of ways to The Raid and the Villains novel series by VE Schwab, this is a film that is sure to draw in people who love superhero films, yet want to experience something different, fans of YA stories with strong female leads, and even action junkies who want to see some amazing fights. A brilliant start to what could be a truly amazing trilogy of films.

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Tuesday, 23 April 2019

The Blue Moon by Christopher Webster - Book Review

'It is a hopeless future. Forced to flee a toxic earth, humanity has found a new life among the stars. Some hold out hope that a new home can be found—a planet called Eden Star—but that dream is mostly forgotten.

'While travelling between space ports, an old laborer with nothing to live for saves two young children when their transport ship is destroyed. Set adrift in a cramped escape pod, they begin to lose hope of rescue until a strange alien moon reveals itself to them. Together, the castaways learn to adapt and survive on the mysterious alien landscape. But what seems like paradise at first, hides many dangers and dark secrets. And as they grow into adulthood, they must confront forces they can barely understand: life, death, and a deep natural love.'

Having previously read Chrtistopher Webster's other work, the YA book New Horizons, I was interested to see what he would be like in the sci-fi genre. The Blue Moon starts off like a lot of sci-fi stories, set in a distant future, aboard a spaceship traversing the endless expanse of space. However, things quickly take a turn when the ship suffers a disaster and the three central characters, an old mechanic called Pin, and two young children Adam and Emma, are forced to escape together.

This shift is a great moment within the narrative. Whilst the future that Webster has crafted here is interesting in itself, the shift to a smaller story focusing on these three characters makes for a much better narrative. Webster is clearly very good at writing smaller, personal stories, and does so to great results here.

New Horizons had a fairly small cast of characters, yet dealt with big concepts and a story that was left unresolved for future books, and as such I never felt completely connected to the characters of that world, yet here I quickly came to care for Pin, Emma, and Adam.

The dangerous situations that the three of them are put into over the course of the book test not only the resolve of the characters, especially the young children, but really put the reader on edge. Whilst I knew that there was no way the three of them were going to suffocate in space with two thirds of the book left it didn't mean that I wasn't worried for them. One of them could still perish and leave the others to continue on without them, or they could suffer some kind of wound or injury that would stay with them.

This sense of danger is never really gone during the course of the story, even when the characters seem to be in moments of relative peace. The Blue Moon they find themselves upon is a wondrous, beautiful place, yet seems to constantly be hiding a layer of danger, no matter where they move to.

The moon itself becomes as much a character as Pin and the children, and we learn more and more about it as the story unfolds, discovering it's strange and mysterious secrets along with the humans who must now call it home. Whenever you think that you've got an understanding of what might be going on, or what will come next something new and amazing, and often terrifying, is revealed.

A book about humanity, of the drive and desire to survive in a world that hides its dangers under a layer of beauty. It's a story of survival, and love. The characters grow and develop over their years together, and whilst unable to develop and mature in certain ways due to their isolation, their changes are believable and realistic. A great read that is sure to keep the reader entertained from start to finish.

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