The Ancestor by Lee Matthew Goldberg - Book Tour

'A man wakes up in present-day Alaskan wilderness with no idea who he is, nothing on him save an empty journal with the date 1898 and a mirror. He sees another man hunting nearby, astounded that they look exactly alike. After following this other man home, he witnesses a wife and child that brings forth a rush of memories of his own wife and child, except he's certain they do not exist in modern times-but from his life in the late 1800s. After recalling his name is Wyatt, he worms his way into his doppelganger Travis Barlow's life. 

'Memories become unearthed the more time he spends, making him believe that he'd been frozen after coming to Alaska during the Gold Rush and that Travis is his great-great grandson. Wyatt is certain gold still exists in the area and finding it with Travis will ingratiate himself to the family, especially with Travis's wife Callie, once Wyatt falls in love. This turns into a dangerous obsession affecting the Barlows and everyone in their small town, since Wyatt can't be tamed until he also discovers the meaning of why he was able to be preserved on ice for over a century.'

The Ancestor is a hard book to pin down, it has some elements that you could describe as science fiction, or perhaps even fantasy, yet has such a grounded and human story mixed in too. If you were to force me to pick one category to put it into it would have to be speculative fiction, even though that's such a broad term. It's a fantastical book for those who don't normally read that kind of thing, and literary fiction for people used to reading sci-fi. It mixes together so many genre's and styles that I really believe that everyone can pick up and enjoy this book.

The story follows Wyatt, a man frozen through time. Having come to Alaska in the 1890's, searching for gold, something awful happens to him and he becomes frozen in time. He wakes up in modern day, with much of his memories missing, and unsure how he got there. Lost in the wilderness he discovers a pair of hunters and follows them back to town when he sees that one of them looks just like him. He discovers that this man, Travis, shares his surname as well as his face; and Wyatt becomes convinced that he's Travis' ancestor.

Wyatt becomes drawn to Travis and his family, drawn to Travis' wife and son. Seeing his family helps to bring back memories of his own wife and child, and he quickly becomes obsessed with them. When he and Travis finally meet the both of them find something that draws them to the other, and the pair quickly form a friendship. 

I won't say much more about the plot and what happens with the two characters, because I don't want to spoil what happens or where the story will take the characters, but I will say that Lee Matthew Goldberg always keeps you on your toes, that he keeps the story shifting and changing right up to the tense conclusion. Even in the final pages I didn't know how the book would end, because he manages to make a narrative that could go more than one way, that doesn't feel predictable or locked on a certain course; which is the sign of an amazing writer.

He also manages to make the world of The Ancestor feel really real and lived in, and all of the characters are interesting. Travis and his immediate family get a big focus, but there are so many characters in the periphery and background that grab you too. Some of the supporting cast in this book are more realised and well written than some lead characters I've read. They have backstory, they have complex motivations, and they feel so real. I'd have been happy to read a book that was twice as long as this to have more time with these characters, or books centred around them that didn't even involve Wyatt and his travel through time. I'm normally aren't drawn to literary fiction as I like to have something a bit more fantastical in the books I read, but the characters here are so engaging I'd be happy to read stories about them just living their lives.

I honestly didn't expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. When I realised that Wyatt's story of travelling through time wasn't going to be as front and centre as I thought, that it would be more about the lives of these people, I was worried that my interest would wane. But I was so wrong. I found everything about it fascinating. I kept reading long past the point I should put my book down and go to bed. This kept me awake way longer than it should have, which I always take as a sign of something special.

If the blurb for this book captures your interest in any way, do yourself a favour and pick it up. Give it a read, because you'll end up being sucked into this amazing story.

Buy Amy A Coffee

Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Instagram

Yes, God, Yes – Film Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Yes, God, Yes stars Stranger Things favourite Natalia Dyer, who plays frustrated teen Alice. Alice lives in a small town with a very religious family. She goes to church every week, and attends an incredibly strict Catholic school that forces the students to attend confession once a week, and even teaches that sexual arousal is a sin unless it’s with your married partner. That last part might sound a bit out of nowhere, but it’s very important for this story.

Yes, God, Yes is described as a comedy-drama, and whilst I can clearly pick out the drama elements, it felt very light on the ground as far as comedy went, and I can’t recall even laughing once. It does, however, take a look at the role that religion can play in the development of a teenager, especially when it comes to things like sex and masturbation.

The thing about this film that really got to me was how well it captured the Catholic school mindset. I spent a few years attending a Catholic primary school after my family moved house, and attended it as someone who wasn’t religious, and the way they’d treat you if you didn’t join in or follow their religious rules was horribly frustrating. As someone who has experienced only a small part of what Alice goes through in this film, I really felt for her, and it helped to draw me into her story more.

She’s a young woman struggling to understand the world she’s in, and the feelings she has, but instead of getting any real, practical advice or help she’s made to feel nothing but guilt and shame. There were times that I wanted to scream at the screen because I hated how the adults around her were telling her that she would go to hell if she touches herself. It’s masturbation Karen, not killing a baby!

Part of me wanted Alice to break away from her religion during the film, and not just because I’m the kind of person that I’m pretty sure would burst into flames if I entered a church. Alice sees first hand that the thing’s she’s being told are lies. She sees the hypocrisy herself when her chaste camp counsellors are giving out blowjobs, or her pro-abstinence priest is watching hardcore porn on his office computer. I wanted to see her call out the people around her, to flip a table or two (it is what Jesus would do after all).

Instead, director Karen Maine gives us a less black and white story. Yes, God, Yes isn’t saying religion is bad, or that you need to reject organised religion, instead it’s a story about a young woman finding her place within her faith. Alice isn’t learning to let go of her faith, but she’s learning to see things a little differently, to accept that she can still believe in and love god, but still be herself. She can have more fun, she doesn’t have to be afraid that everything she does will send her to hell, and that she’s not evil if she decides to play with herself.

The film has a very subtle message that female masturbation is normal. It’s saying that it’s fine to have physical urges, to want to feel sexual gratification, and that doing so doesn’t make you a bad person. Whilst sex itself has become less taboo over the years, female masturbation is still something that is either made to sound awful and dirty, or even outright denied. This film does the opposite, and it sends a very empowering and positive message to teenage girls, religious or not.

I didn’t find much to laugh at in Yes, God, Yes but there’s a lot of good in this film. It angered me at times, but that just meant that it was telling its story well, with engaging characters that felt real. A little gem of a film that has some important things to say, headlined by an actress who does a superb job.

Buy Amy A Coffee

Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Instagram

Mara – Film Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

I initially wanted to watch Mara because sleep paralysis is something that I know a little about. It’s a phenomenon that’s been around forever, and there are generations of stories of people waking up but being unable to move. What’s not so common, but by no means rare, is that in this state some people will see dark, scary figures in the room with them, sometimes climbing up on top of them.

Whilst I never had a creepy old woman climb onto my chest, I have experienced sleep paralysis, and seen a shadowy figure watching me when it’s happened. As such, I was really interested to see how the film would handle this. Luckily, Mara doesn’t rely on using sleep paralysis all the time, and manages to craft something of a mystery story into its horror narrative too, one that I found pretty entertaining.

The story follows Kate (Olga Kurylenko), a psychologist working with the police, who gets called in to help with a murder where a man has been found killed in his bed, with his wife being the main suspect. However, the wife is claiming that a sleep demon killed her husband, and Kate has to figure out if she’s faking, or legitimately crazy. This spurs into motion a series of events that lead to several more killings, and Kate beginning to experience disturbing bouts of sleep paralysis.

The story reminded me of films like The Ring or The Grudge, where there’s a spooky central antagonist, but the hero has to get to the bottom of a bigger mystery to figure out what this creature is, and to save themself. Kate gets some help in her investigation from Dougie (Craig Conway), a member of a sleep paralysis support group who puts a name to this strange creature: Mara. Together the two of them try to stop Mara before they become her latest victims.

The central mystery is pretty good, and the reason why Mara is there and targeting specific people is a neat little reveal, with the clues laid out over the run time. It means that if you’re trying to figure it out and pay enough attention you can have a good bit of fun trying to get the answer before Kate. The film also looks really nice, and has some great cinematography from Emil Topuzov. There’s nothing that really jumps out as special, but it gets progressively darker in visual tone as Kate loses more and more sleep, mirroring the increasing darkness descending on her as she struggles to stay awake.

Mara herself is also a really creepy creation, with veteran monster actor Javier Botet in the role. Botet is a great suit actor, having brought creatures to life in things such as IT, Game of Thrones, Slender Man, and Alien, and breathes so much life into Mara that when you actually see her fully, and the camera isn’t trying to hide her, she’s still hugely disturbing; something that’s really hard to do with the creature in full frame.

Director Clive Tongue does great job at bringing a difficult subject to film. It’s easy to make sleep paralysis scary for a scene or two, but Tongue manages make it creepy and disturbing time after time, and makes the central story engaging and interesting throughout. If you enjoy a supernatural mystery horror like The Ring, then Mara will definitely keep you entertained.

Buy Amy A Coffee

Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Instagram

You Again by Debra Jo Immergut - Book Review

'Abigail Willard first spots her from the back of a New York cab: the spitting image of Abby herself at age twenty-two—right down to the silver platforms and raspberry coat she wore as a young artist with a taste for wildness. But the real Abby is now forty-six and married, with a corporate job and two kids. As the girl vanishes into a rainy night, Abby is left shaken. Was this merely a hallucinatory side effect of working-mom stress? A message of sorts, sent to remind her of passions and dreams tossed aside? Or something more dangerous?

'As weeks go by, Abby continues to spot her double around her old New York haunts—and soon, despite her better instincts, Abby finds herself tailing her look-alike. She is dogged by a nagging suspicion that there is a deeper mystery to figure out, one rooted far in her past. All the while, Abby’s life starts to slip from her control: her marriage hits major turbulence, her teenage son drifts into a radical movement that portends a dark coming era. When her elusive double presents her with a dangerous proposition, Abby must decide how much she values the life she’s built, and how deeply she knows herself.'

You Again is a strange kind of narrative, and often times feels more like a stream of consciousness more than a regular prose novel, and really gets into the head of the protagonist, Abigail. In her mid-forties, Abigail is a former artist and party girl who's settled down down, married and had two children, and now spends her days designing packaging and advertisements for pharmaceuticals. Her life isn't empty by any means, but she definitely seems to be stuck in a rut.

This all changed one day when Abigail sees a young woman who looks like her, exactly like her twenty years ago. Whilst at first she thinks this is either just someone who looks very similar, or perhaps some kind of strange hallucination, she keeps running into this young woman, and becomes convinced that she's somehow peeking backwards through time at a version of her that can still change her life and find another outcome.

Amidst this, her teenage son Pete is changing, becoming more and more political, hanging out with new friends that Abigail isn't sure she likes, and joining the ANTIFA movement. When Pete ends up in trouble with the police, Abigail begins to find herself attracted to the lead police officer on his case. With her son starting down a darker path, the temptation of an affair, and these strange sightings of her younger self, Abigail finds her life careening out of control.

There are a lot of interesting plot threads in You Again, and many of these stories are definitely worthy of being told, but due to the story being structured in the form of diary entries, interspersed with doctor emails and psychiatrist notes, none of the plot elements really feel like they've been given enough room to breathe and stand on its own.

For example, the main plot of Abigail seeing her younger self is deeply fascinating, and it raises so many questions about what's going on. Are these incidents simple delusions? Is this another woman who just looks like her and is living a similar life, or is this a split in time? This should be leading the narrative, driving Abigail on to find out more and to get to the bottom of this mystery, but instead this is just something that happens every now and again. This past version of Abigail only appears a handful of times across the year long narrative, and when the two of them interact the present Abigail seems to react like it's a slight bother in her otherwise normal routine. Yes, we can see that this is bothering Abigail more than she lets on thanks to the very personal nature of the narrative and the deep dive we get into her mind and emotions, but I just got frustrated with her for not making it a priority in her life.

Outside of this plot Abigail goes through a number of issues, and finds herself questioning the kind of person she has become and who she wants to be going forward. She has something of an awakening, realising that she's put her dreams and ambitions on the back burner to raise her family; and seems to be sitting on a huge talent in her artwork too.

One of the bigger things that seems to get her to reevaluate her life is her son Pete's interactions with local activist, and their anti-fascist stance. These political leanings are painted as something troubling for Abigail for most of the book, and she finds herself fighting against her urges to get involved too, to find something worth fighting for, that could make a difference. Unfortunately, the book is full of authority figures, such as teachers and police, who try to make the ANTIFA movement seem like something awful, an evil, that for much of the book it seems like Debra Jo Immergut was trying to present anti-fascism as something bad, which I did find a little troubling. But, by the end of the book it's clear that both Abigail and Debra seem to be not just okay with the ANTIFA movement, but view it positively. I think if this was a bit clearer from earlier on my enjoyment would have been increased for sure.

There's a lot in this book to like, a lot of mystery and drama, but the narrative seems to split its focus too much for any of the plots here to really shine or satisfy completely. I really wanted to like this book, and whilst I enjoyed it I left feeling a little let down. Perhaps I went in wanting more of a focus in one particular area, but there's still a lot here to like, and I'm sure that many people will absolutely adore this book.

Buy Amy A Coffee

Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Instagram

Marvel Action: Avengers #11 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Captain America is still stuck in his fear-induced hallucination in the latest issue of Marvel Action: Avengers, but who else is hiding in the shadows pulling the strings, and can Cap find a way to break free?

I’m really glad that the Fear Eaters arc from previous issues has carried on for a bit, even if it’s not the full scale planetary invasion that we’ve already had. It felt a little convenient that these destructive aliens were done away with so quickly, so having some kind of consequence to those events is really good.

It’s also a good move to have Captain America figure out that he’s in a hallucination. It would have been easy to have Cap believe that AIM had taken over the world, that the events he’s living through were real, but it would also have felt like a bit of a cheat to have that going on, meaning nothing, whilst the heroes in the real world fought to save him. Having him know that the things around him are fake, and fighting against it on his side makes for a more dynamic and engaging story. It also shows that Cap isn’t just a guy who makes good speeches and hits things with his shield, but can also figure things out.

This issue moves events along quite nicely, both inside the nightmare and in the real world. In the nightmare the resistance HQ is attacked by the brainwashed heroes, resulting in a fight between the good guys and these strange, yellow versions of their former friends. Yellow Hulk is a particular stand out here, with Captain Marvel making a point of how they’ve had so many different coloured Hulks up to this point already, kind of poking fun at Marvel’s reinvention of Hulk every few years in the regular comics.

This fight ends up putting the heroes on the run, and having to come up with a whole new plan, one that also helps Cap to fight his way free of the dream. It’s kind of weird how quickly the other heroes accept that they might be fakes, but then you could also argue that they’re just humouring Cap at that point, saying whatever it takes to keep him in the fight against AIM.

There’s something else that happens this issue that makes the story more interesting: the revelation that there’s someone else in the hallucination with Cap, keeping an eye on him from the shadows. We get some brief glimpses of this figure, but even with that I’m not entirely sure who this new party is supposed to be. This added mystery certainly does more to keep me interested, and I actively want to find out who this person is.

As far as middle parts of a story go this one is actually one of the best that they’ve done in Marvel Action: Avengers. It builds on the first issue in new and exciting ways, and leaves readers with a clear idea where things are going to be headed in the final issue, but with mysteries still needing to be solved. Issue 12 is definitely one that I’m looking forward to.

Buy Amy A Coffee

Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Instagram

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez - Book Review

'A mysterious child lands in the care of a solitary woman, changing both of their lives forever in this captivating debut of connection across space and time.

"This is when your life begins." Nia Imani is a woman out of place and outside of time. Decades of travel through the stars are condensed into mere months for her, though the years continue to march steadily onward for everyone she has ever known. Her friends and lovers have aged past her; all she has left is work. Alone and adrift, she lives only for the next paycheck, until the day she meets a mysterious boy, fallen from the sky.

'A boy, broken by his past. The scarred child does not speak, his only form of communication the beautiful and haunting music he plays on an old wooden flute. Captured by his songs and their strange, immediate connection, Nia decides to take the boy in. And over years of starlit travel, these two outsiders discover in each other the things they lack. For him, a home, a place of love and safety. For her, an anchor to the world outside of herself.

'For both of them, a family. But Nia is not the only one who wants the boy. The past hungers for him, and when it catches up, it threatens to tear this makeshift family apart.'

Okay, so one of the first things I thought once I'd finished reading The Vanished Birds was that I can't believe that this is a debut novel. The huge, sweeping scale of this story, the wonderfully strange and almost mystical ideas presented, and characters that span centuries all makes this book feel like something an author of decades would produce. The level of literary skill presented here is stunning for a first novel, and I'm certainly going to be watching Simon Jemenez's future work with great interest.

The story, if it can be summarised, follows the captain of a trading ship, Nia Imani. When the book begins Nia and her crew have been transporting produce from a distant world to one of the main human space stations. It's a job that isn't as easy as it sounds, mainly because in order to travel the vast distances between worlds ships have to travel through some kind of pocket space; whilst this allows the ships to travel huge distances in only a few months, time moves differently outside of the pocket, and the crew can lose years of their life.

The first main section of the book introduces this concept in a really clever way, by showing the effect it has on the people left behind. Kaeda is farmer on the world that Nia travels to and from, and when the story begins he's just a child, watching in awe as visitors from the stars visit his home. The ships come back every 15 years, and he watches as he and his world age and change, whilst these visitors hardly change. The effect of having a relationship with someone who stays relatively young whilst you grow old is somewhat shocking when presented this way. Most books would choose to focus on Nia in this moment, to show how hard it is on her to watch a friend grow from childhood to old age whilst they only experience a handful of years; but Jimenez makes the bolder choice of flipping this, and it works so well.

It's on this world that a young boy eventually arrives, crashing from the sky in a ball of fire. The strange child scares the farmers of Kaeda's community, who find the quite boy something to be wary of. Kaeda, however, takes him in and keeps him safe until Nia can arrive. He convinces the captain to take on the boy, and this is where the story shifts to follow Nia instead, revealing that Kaeda and his world were simply an introduction to this universe and the concepts, rather than the focus.

 

From here the story opens up in scale, showing the readers more and more of this universe, and the way that humanity has evolved since leaving Earth a thousand years before. But these ideas aren't just presented to readers as concepts, we get to see it first hand too, as we're introduced to another central character to the narrative, Fumiko Nakajima. Fumiko is a scientific genius who lived on Earth more than a thousand years before, and we get to follow her through her younger life, see her grow into a hugely respected scientist, we watch her fall in love. But we also see how she lost most of what she held dear whilst trying to secure a future for humanity.

Fumiko is one of the more interesting characters over the course of the book, as due to her using advance technology and cryogenic suspension she has managed to live for over a thousand years. Living for so long, existing outside of normal time, effects Fumiko in ways that you wouldn't expect, and over the course of the narrative we see just how fragile the human mind is, and how living so long can be a curse as much as a blessing.

Eventually Nia and the boy cross paths with Fumiko, and a much bigger story begins, one that I don't want to reveal too much about; but I will say that it becomes a story that spans decades or more, will see characters cross the galaxy, discover amazing, impossible abilities, and even commune with the spiritual. The story is so vast and sweeping, and handles so many heady subjects that I feel I have to call the book a Space Opera. There's just so much here that feels bigger than a lot of other books. Even once it's done, once you've read through hundreds of pages spanning thousands of years and most of the galaxy it still feels like you've barely scratched the surface of this amazing new universe.

There were so many ideas and concepts presented here, some explored deeply, others only briefly touched upon. The Vanished Birds is an entire universe, not just a single story. And it's a universe that I wanted to learn more and more about, that left me with so many questions. However, this never left me feeling unsatisfied, or disappointing. Yes, the book could have been twice as long and included more detail and answered more questions, but that doesn't mean that it would necessarily have been better. Jimenez gives you enough information that it feels real, and like the real world, you're never going to know everything.

The Vanished Birds was stunning to read throughout, it presented huge concepts incredibly well, and has a cast of characters that were wonderfully refreshing to read. There were queer women, women of colour, people of various genders and sexualities; it wasn't a future only inhabited by straight white men, and it was wonderful to read a future where everyone is seen as equal, no matter who they are or who they love. I can't wait to see what Jimenez does next.

Buy Amy A Coffee

Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Instagram

All The Stars And Teeth by Adalyn Grace - Book Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

'As princess of the island kingdom Visidia, Amora Montara has spent her entire life training to be High Animancer — the master of souls. The rest of the realm can choose their magic, but for Amora, it’s never been a choice. To secure her place as heir to the throne, she must prove her mastery of the monarchy’s dangerous soul magic.

'When her demonstration goes awry, Amora is forced to flee. She strikes a deal with Bastian, a mysterious pirate: he’ll help her prove she’s fit to rule, if she’ll help him reclaim his stolen magic. But sailing the kingdom holds more wonder — and more peril — than Amora anticipated. A destructive new magic is on the rise, and if Amora is to conquer it, she’ll need to face legendary monsters, cross paths with vengeful mermaids, and deal with a stow-away she never expected… or risk the fate of Visidia and lose the crown forever.'

Fantasy books are tricky things, especially when they're set in a completely new world. Having big fantastical elements like monsters and magic in a setting people know is hard enough, but creating a whole world for people to have to learn and believe in can be really difficult. Whenever a writer dos it well there are usually two outcomes, a world that feels old and lived in but kind of becomes a bit of the background, or a world so unique that you find yourself wanting to learn about it as much as you do the characters. The kingdom of Visidia is definitely in the latter category, and it kept me fascinated throughout. 

The story follows Amora, daughter of the current king, whose time has come to name his successor. Amora must prove her ability to wield the soul magic of her royal lineage in order to be worthy of becoming the future queen. However, when her powers go out of control she’s not only out of the running to become queen, but is imprisoned. When a daring swashbuckler offers to free her, she must set out on a quest to save her kingdom and prove that she can be queen.

The more I learnt about this bizarre world that Adalyn Grace had created the more it drew me in. I kept thinking I'd gotten a handle on how this place worked, and what to expect, and then she'd throw something new at me. Whether it was teleporting taverns, mermaids, giant sea monsters, or magic that could split a persons soul, each new thing felt so completely different, yet never broke the world she'd made. It would have been easy to go too over the top, to throw something too fantastical into the mix, but that never happened. There was a sense of escalation, but it never jumped the shark so to speak.

With a world so layered and interesting it would have been easy to create characters that failed to live up to this environment, but the lead characters of All The Stars And Teeth were great. The crew that formed around Amora all brought something new to the table in terms of both powers and personalities. Towards the start of the adventure I really didn't like Ferrick, the young man that Amora is set to marry. He seemed clingy, a bit stuffy, and frankly annoying; but come the end of the book he'd stepped up in some big ways, and had had some of the biggest moments of bravery in the narrative. He'd proven himself not just to the other heroes, but to me too, and because of that I really hope that he comes back in the second book.

Bastian in contrast starts of as the cool guy, the dashing pirate who knows all the dodgy people and has connections with people that will help Amora on her quest, but as the story progresses we learn more about him and find out that really a lot of this is a bit of a front, and that he's probably one of the most damaged characters in the book. What comes across as bravado at the start ended up being seen as a front by the end, he hides behind this persona to stop further pain, and it's only through his adventures with the others that he can begin to open up and become vulnerable again. Vataea is definitely one of the more interesting characters, thanks to her not even being human. Though we get to spend some time with her and get to know her and her powers a bit she's still the most unknown element in the crew by the end. Out of the heroes she's the one who I'm the most unsure bout returning in the next book, but really hope she does so that I can try to get to know her batter.

Amora is, obviously, the most important character, and as the main point of view the reader spends all their time with her. She's set up to be this powerful character, a young woman who's been raised to become the next ruler, and a master of her brand of magic. She begins the book thinking that she knows everything and is the best version of herself that she can be. Over the course of the story we see her realise that she's wrong on a number of occasions, and she has to do a lot of growing up. Thankfully, she never comes across as childish or petulant. She's always trying to do better and be better, and it makes her a very likeable protagonist.

All The Stars And Teeth is an interesting novel, that manages to weave a story that's more complex than it first appears, and keeps you interested throughout. The plot unfolds organically, and the characters grow and develop throughout, meaning that events never feel dull or stale. The story ends in a way that's satisfying, yet manages to leave so many elements open to be explored in further books. Whether you're reading this as a stand alone, or you're getting invested in the series, it's sure to leave you satisfied.

Buy Amy A Coffee

Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Instagram

The Apocalypse Strain by Jason Parent - Book Review

'A multi-national research team, led by a medical genomics expert suffering from MS, study an ancient pandoravirus at a remote Siberian research facility. Called "Molli" by the research team, the organic substance reveals some unique but troublesome characteristics, qualities that, in the wrong hands, could lead to human extinction. The researchers soon learn that even in the right hands, Molli is a force too dangerous to escape their compound. But the virus has a mind of its own, and it wants out.'

I guess it's thank to the current global pandemic that's happening that I was expecting a book that would be dealing with a more traditional disease, possibly an apocalyptic aftermath of an outbreak. But, that's not what The Apocalypse Strain offers, instead it's much closer to body horror movies like The Thing in tone and style.

The story is set in a remote research station in the Siberian wilderness, a facility shit away in one of the coldest and most inhospitable places on Earth. The facility has its own private security, researchers, and even a group of astronauts using the surrounding wilderness to train for their mission to Mars. It's this group of astronauts who discovered an ancient birds nest buried in the ice for 30,000 years, a nest that contains some never before seen viruses.

Whilst this initial setup, finding something ancient buried in the ice, feels very much like John Carpenter's horror classic The Thing the book goes out of its way to make itself feel different in the very first chapter, where we see the astronaut who makes this discovery being spurred on to the location by the ghostly voice of his dead daughter. It makes the book feel creepy from the outset, and shows that this is no normal virus or organism that we're dealing with, but something that's able to get inside people's heads, access their memories, and manipulate them.

After a while this sense of the unknown and more ghostly horror takes a backseat for some downright disturbing moments where the infection spreads through the facility. Mutating and destroying the hosts, this virus can reshape its victims in a variety of ways. Some become monstrous humans, whilst others transform into insect-like monsters, and some even become sentient ooze that chases the survivors through the maze-like halls of the facility. There's no constant to those infected, other than that a horrific fate awaits anyone who the virus touches.

The book gives us a few survivors to root for, and manages to make it so that most of them never feel completely safe, other than the main lead Clara. There are a number of characters who each get moments of heroics, that makes you think they're more likely to make it out alive, only to have them suffer horrible deaths a few chapters later. Jason Parent manages to craft a story where you're always guessing who the next victim might be, and usually not going for the obvious choices.

Clara is clearly the main character though, and thanks to something that happens to her fairly early on it means you never really feel like she's in danger of death. However, I wasn't sure what to make of her when she was first introduced. Clara is disabled and has MS, and the chapter she's introduced has some rather unpleasant descriptions of her condition. Passages like 'the multiple sclerosis had ravaged her body, gobbled up a lithe sprinter and swimmer, and shat out a contorted heap of wasted flesh' and Clara's hatred of her entire life come across as a little abelist. As a disabled person myself these kind of moments always broke me out of the book and made me feel uncomfortable. The author seemed to make the choice that Clara had to hate her existence due to her disability, even wishing herself dead at one point, because they couldn't see a disabled person not being like that. Yes, disability can change your life and take a toll, but it felt a little insulting to imply that you'd be better dead than disabled.

The story also gives Clara a miraculous cure for her condition, and uses this as her reason for suddenly wanting to live again, to no longer feel like her life s worthless because she can use her legs again and fights to stay alive. I don't think that any of this was done maliciously, or even consciously, but this kind of characterisation and narrative definitely contributes to abelism in society.

Overall the story was engaging, it had some interesting characters and had enough twists and turns in the narrative to always make you feel invested. You never get complacent because you never know who will be the next to die, and the book keeps you guessing who will make it out alive right until the end. Fans of horror are sure to find something they love in this book.

Buy Now On Amazon

Buy Amy A Coffee

Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Instagram

Marvel Action: Spider-Man #3 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

So, the Shocker story-line has come to a close much in the way that I was anticipating. The villain was brought down, and revealed to be exactly who we all thought he was going to be, but despite this resolution being something that I was pretty sure about from the very first issue it was still a really entertaining read. Brandon Easton is really good at telling his superhero story, but he’s even better at telling a human story, and that’s what makes this final part of the story really work.

The stuff with Shocker is pretty standard fare. He’s upgraded his suit and is more powerful than ever, using his powered-up abilities to hold the city to ransom. His new suit is pretty cool, and is what you’d get if you mashed together Iron Man‘s hulk-buster armour and Shocker. Whilst this is a bit of a stark visual change, thanks to the standard Shocker suit having some vaguely Iron Man hints to the design it isn’t too big of a change to this version of the character.

It even proves to make more sense for Shocker to be in some kind of armour rather than his normal quilted jacket as the heroes make a point of him needing to be insulated from his vibrations. I know that that’s what the classic Shocker’s suit is supposed to do, but it always looked a little hokey and weird, but this big armour looks like something that would actually work and do that job.

The action scenes are pretty good once they get going, and the powered-up Shocker is actually one of the more impressive villains the heroes have had to take on. He’s not just a physical challenge for them, but is able to cause substantial property damage and a risk to civilians in ways that some of the other villains haven’t.

Now, to talk a bit more about the story and character elements I’ve got to go into spoilers, so if you don’t want to know stuff skip ahead to the next paragraph. So, it turns out that Shocker is actually Mr Schultz, Miles’ teacher. The revelation isn’t a complete surprise, but the effect it has on Miles is the important part. He spent so much of this issue thinking that his mentor was a victim, or being forced to help the Shocker in some way. He wanted to believe that Schultz was a good man, and refused to think he was the villain. Whilst this is a definite blow to Miles it does go to highlight that Miles has a good support network around him, that he’s able to rely on his friends and parents to support him. This definitely plays into one of the bigger themes of the entire Marvel Action: Spider-Man series, that friendship can help get you through.

This issue seems to put the Shocker story-line completely to bed, and it seems like Miles is relatively okay come the end, so I don’t know if this will have any lasting consequences for the book or the characters. If there are other things to come that tie into this I’m excited to see them, but if not this story still proves to be a great jumping on point for  the next volume. It shows how the characters work together, and how important their team is to keeping them being successful heroes.

Buy Amy A Coffee

Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Instagram

Theo Paxstone and the Dragon of Adyron by James Turner - Book Review

'Dragons and worse lurk in the forests of Adyron, and only the steam knights in their gleaming battle machines can keep the kingdom safe. Theo Paxstone dreams of being a knight himself, but instead finds himself stuck slaving away at a repair shop for a pitiless master.

'When a dragon swoops in and abducts the princess from the annual royal tournament, Theo escapes. He joins forces with a crippled knight and his squire, and together they pursue the dread beast, determined to rescue the princess from its clutches. Along the way they discover that not all enemies are what, or whom, they seem…'

Theo Paxstone and the Dragon of Adyron is a fun fantasy story designed for younger readers, but one that adults will enjoy too. Set in a post-apocalypse world, where the old world of technology and science has fallen into myth and legend, the story follows young orphan Theo. Theo is stuck working in the junkyard shop of Master Grimes, worked in sweatshop like conditions for long hours. Whilst there are many downsides of his life, this does mean that Theo has learnt to become a mechanical genius.

Having secretly worked on his own steam knight armour in a hidden corner of the junkyard, Theo dreams of one day getting to be a steam knight, piloting a huge suit of armour equipped with flaming lances and missiles. The steam knights are definitely one of the cooler parts of the book, and uses the post apocalypse fantasy element of the world to full effect, giving us massive mech armour that lumber into battle firing gatling guns and clashing with huge swords.

When the royal family comes to the city, complete with a huge following of steam knights, Theo thinks that he'll get the chance to sneak away from the junkyard and watch the knights in action during the tournament. Unfortunately, before the festivities can really get underway a massive dragon attacks, killing many knights and kidnapping the princess.

During the attack Theo finds a trapped knight, Sir Bertham, and helps to free him from the burning wreckage alongside Bertham's squire Riley. After helping the old knight Bertham buys Theo's freedom from Master Grimes, and gives Theo the opportunity to join him and Riley on their mission to rescue the princess from the giant dragon.

The quest that the three of them set out on, saving a princess from a dragon, is one of the most clichéd ones around, but James Turner manages to make it feel fresh and interesting. This is in large parts thanks to the setting, and the small events that beset the group along the way. The four of them have to contend with huge mutant wolves, monstrous lake creatures, and even evil knights on their journey. Along the way we also get to learn a little more about the characters, and we learn that Riley and Bertham have some secrets to them. 

The characters and story have enough twists and turns in them to keep events interesting, and prevents the plot from falling into any of the expected clichés. The setting and world is fairly interesting, and James Turner gives the sense that he's thought a lot about the world and the history, even if it doesn't always get the spotlight in the story itself. There's a lot of references to places and events that we never see, and often don't get explained in any real depth. This makes the world feel bigger than just what we're seeing, but there is a downside to this, the world feels big, but not hugely deep. We never learn what happened to the old world, why some people have powers, if those powers are magic or down to some technological advance or mutation. I can't help but feel that some more time could have been given over to these elements, but then it becomes a matter of having to fill the reader in on history without it feeling too dull or like a history text. It's a fine line to walk, and whilst it mostly works here, there were a fair few times I wanted more.

Theo Paxstone and the Dragon of Adyron is a book that will appeal to most age groups, and would be a great book for a parent to read with their kid.

Buy Amy A Coffee

Go to Amy's Blog

Follow Amy on Twitter

Add Amy on Instagram