Last Resort: A Zombiecide Novel by Joshua Reynolds - Book Review

 

'Hordes of zombies threaten to wipe out all of mankind in this first action-horror novel set in the exciting (yet horrifying) world of the Zombicide games.

'The zombie apocalypse has driven humanity up into the Airondacks. Enter Westlake, hardened career criminal on the path of “the Villa”, a legendary mafia hideout where he can escape the devastation. When he’s ambushed by the undead, an old FBI “friend” and his squad of survivors rescue him… and then force him to reveal his secrets. The jokey myth of the Villa suddenly becomes salvation for the settlements scattered around Saranc Lake. Reluctantly, Westlake is saddled with an oddball team to navigate mine fields, trip wires, and flesh-eating zombies at every turn to find their safe haven. Shame there’s already someone living there…'

Zombie fiction has had a recent boom in popularity over the last decade or so. This has been due in part to the success of certain films and television shows boosting the undead back into public consciousness. And whilst the creatures might be less used in film and TV now than they were even a few years ago, one place they're always been popular is gaming. Whether its table top or video games, zombies have been a great way of mowing down enemies guilt free since forever.

One of the games that makes particularly good use of zombies is Zombicide, a series that has produced zombie survival board games across multiple settings, including fantasy and science fiction. Because of the breadth of settings that Zombicide uses I knew as soon as it was announced that Aconyte Books were going to be producing fiction for the series that we'd be in for some interesting stuff. And whilst there has already been a sci-fi setting announced for one of the upcoming books the series is starting off with a foot in the more traditional zombie story camp by giving readers a modern zombie tale in Last Resort.

Last Resort tells the story of Westlake, a professional thief who gets double crossed by a mob boss and so agrees to give state evidence against him to send him a message not to screw with him. Unfortunately for Westlake, Sal has a couple of his goons grab Westlake in order to make the problem go away. Driven out into the woods to be executed, things take an unexpected turn when the living dead appear, killing Westlake's assailants and giving him the chance to escape. But the dead aren't just here, they're everywhere, and pretty soon the world as we know it comes to an end.

A few months later Westlake has headed out to Saranac Lake, where he knows Sal has a hidden hideaway called 'the Villa'. After being picked up by a group of survivors, including an FBI agent, a biker, and a masked luchador, Westlake convinces them that the Villa offers them the best chance for survival. Now Westlake puts together a team of misfits in order to find and take the Villa, so that the survivors can get a safe place to live, and so that Westlake can take what Sal owes him.

Where so many zombie stories feel dull and dour, where the characters are barely managing to survive and just trying to make it from one day to the next, Last Resort feels a lot of fun in comparison. The story is a little bit ridiculous, and it seems to know that it's a bit silly. The characters range from fairly average to completely over the top, and there's regular bickering and sniping between the team that leaves it all feeling a bit tongue in cheek. And this works really well.

The book felt like a lot of fun because of this. It felt strangely light at times, which is amazing considering it's the end of the world and people are barely surviving. I think a large part of this is that the book didn't try to be anything beyond what the game is. It looked at the strange mutated zombies and the bright and colourful player characters and it embraced that completely. The end result is a book that will not only avoid blending into the crowd of dull and depressing zombie stories, but will stand out from the crowd because of its sense of fun and weirdness.

A lot of the time with zombie stories you know that the vast majority of characters are going to end up dying, and so you try not to get too attached to them. In this case I found it really, really hard to avoid that, as the characters were so much fun that I couldn't help but find them wonderfully engaging and entertaining. Even when the characters are bickering an fighting with each other there's small sparks of wit and humour that bring the scenes to life in a way that I wasn't expecting. I wanted more time with the characters, and even though it's not a short book it felt a lot shorter because I wanted to hang out with these people more. The only down side to this is that when some of them die (sorry, spoiler warning) it actually felt like a loss and left me feeling sad.

With there being so many zombie stories set in the modern day, seeing a group of survivors coming together to try and reach a supposed safe haven I did wonder if starting the Zombicide books with this kind of premise would lead to the book feeling dull or overly familiar; but I was completely wrong. It took a theme and a story that I'd seen done a lot and put a whole new fun spin on things. Now I'm even more excited to see what else the Zombicide books will do, and how wild they're going to be.

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Star Wars Adventures: Tales of Villainy #9 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The latest issue of Star Wars Adventures: Tales of Villainy picks up afresh with two brand new stories, one a first part, another a stand alone adventure.

The first story in this issue, ‘Separation Anxiety’ by Michael Moreci, is set during the early days of The Clone Wars, and follows Jedi Master Mace Windu and his clone troopers as they travel to the planet Ridlay, a world where the Republic has lost all contact with the inhabitants. Upon arriving at the planet they find that it’s undergoing an eclipse – plunging the world into a perpetual twilight.

Searching the world, they find the local village deserted, but no signs of what could have happened to the inhabitants. It’s whilst trekking through the thick wilderness that they come across a frightened villager, a man warning them about ghosts. Not believing in something like the supernatural, Windu has his resolve put to the test when strange ghost-like beings descend on them.

This story is a pretty interesting start, it builds up slowly, allowing the spookiness of the abandoned village and the constant darkness to get under your skin before the big reveal of the ghost-like creatures that are causing havoc; a reveal that isn’t even the most surprising in the story. It ends on a genuinely interesting cliffhanger, one that will have you wanting to see what happens next.

The art on this story is pretty good, provided by Michael Avon Oeming and Chris O’Halloran, and tries to emulate the style of The Clone Wars series. Mace Windu looks like his animated counterpart here, rather than Samuel L. Jackson, and the brief appearance of Anakin Skywalker also seems to be based on that version of the character. There are a few moments where the artwork seems to shift a bit in style, with one or two panels that seem very different from the others, but overall it’s a pretty decent recreation of the show.

The second story in the issue, ‘Trade Relations’ by Vita Ayala, is set at some later point in the Star Wars timeline, following Han Solo and Chewbacca as they transport goods across the galaxy. Midway through their journey their ship gets shot by a mystery assailant, and the package they’re moving gets thrown off the ship. It’s then down to Han to travel across the planet to try and find it whilst Chewbacca repairs the Millenium Falcon; but who keeps leaving strange traps for him along the way?

This story is a fun little distraction, one that doesn’t really do much or adds anything to the universe or our understanding of the characters, but is enjoyable enough in what it does. I did have to read over one of the pages a couple of times to fully understand what was happening at one point, as there was a narrative jump that wasn’t made completely clear what was happening in the panel, so it led me to not understanding what was happening until I went back over it.

The art itself, provided by Devaun Dowdy and Charlie Kirchoff was pretty nice, though there were a couple of times that I found Han and Chewie looked a bit odd, with Chewbacca being quite rounded and more bear-like, and Han looking almost like a kid in a few panels. There is a surprise character in the final few pages who looks really good though, and the art style in this story really suited them.

After a big disappointment in the last issue it’s nice to see the series right itself a little, managing to provide a couple of entertaining stories, one of which is yet to be resolved, but managed to create enough interest that I’m eager to find out what happens next.

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Duel To The Death – Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Duel To The Death has been called one of the greatest swordplay movies of all time, and despite earning big at the box office upon its release in 1983 it’s never garnered much of a following beyond hard core Wuxia fans. Thankfully, Eureka Entertainment have brought this classic martial arts movie to Blu-ray, giving the world a chance to discover this wild movie.

The story, set in the 16th century Ming Dynasty, centres on a competition between China and Japan that’s held every ten years. The greatest swordsman from each country travels to compete against each other for the honour of their nation, with the winner being crowned as a hero, whilst the loser is doomed to die. This year the two competitors are Ching Wan (Damian Lau), the Chinese champion who has been studying at the Shaolin Temple, and Miyamoto (Norman Chu), the wandering Samurai from Japan.

There’s more going on than just a simple fight to the death, however, as the film begins with the daring night time raid of a Shaolin Temple by a group of ninjas. Copying secret documents that contain the lists of the best warriors in China, as well as a guide to their fighting techniques, the ninjas are ultimately defeated; but this is just the beginning, as a larger conspiracy begins to be unveiled. Readying themselves for their fight with each other, Ching Wan and Miyamoto discover a secret plot between a Japanese Shogun and their Chinese host. Working together to stop the plot, the two fighters form a respect for each other, and could even become friends. But honour dictates that they must still fight each other to the death.

Despite the trailer for the film, included on the Blu-ray, depicting this as a big action piece, there’s a lot subtly going on in the background of Duel To The Death. There are plots, political machinations, and conversations on what honour and duty really mean. Much of these discussions come from Ching Wan, who out of the two competitors is the more open to looking at things from another angle. Miyamoto, on the other hand, is much more concerned with honour; which is common to the way the Japanese have been portrayed in Chinese cinema in the past. But one thing that makes this film particularly interesting is that despite pitting the two men against each other neither one is presented as the villain.

There has been a lot of animosity between China and Japan over the years, especially following World War Two, and other films of this era are happy to portray the Japanese as villains. And whilst Miyamoto is ultimately the one who insists that the two men complete their obligations to fight to the death it’s not done out of any kind of malice, or wish to harm a man he genuinely seems to respect. Instead, it seems to be something of an examination of how duty and honour have historically been a much bigger part of Japanese culture than Chinese.

It’s not just introspection and political double dealings though; this film is packed to the rafters with fight scenes. And ninjas. So many ninjas. If you’re a fan of ninjas this is a film that you’re going to want to check out. It has night time raids, throwing stars, exploding ninjas, flying kite riding ninjas, female ninjas who use nakedness to mess with monks, ninjas that move under the ground, and even a giant ninja made up of several smaller ones like some kind of Voltron. It’s wild.

And if after that brief rundown of all of the ninjas you can expect to find in this film isn’t enough to whet your appetite, there’s the titular duel itself. Held on a cliff edge over a raging sea, with mist coming down off the mountains and waves crashing over the competitors it’s like something out of an anime. The two swordsmen sail through the air, smash through rocks, and brutalise each other in what is easily one of the best fight scenes I’ve seen. It has to be seen, even if you’re not the biggest martial arts fan.

The new Blu-ray release features a really good looking 2K restoration of the film, and whilst it isn’t crystal clear it’s still the best the film has ever looked. It also has options to watch the film with an English dub, or the original Cantonese audio track alongside brand new subtitles that use the correct Japanese translations for the first time ever.

Possibly most interesting on the disc, however, is the host of interviews with stars of the film, as well as a lengthy new interview with the original screenwriter Manfred Wong, as well as a full feature length audio commentary with Asian expert Frank Djeng. The commentary track is great, with Djeng delivering a ton of insight into both the making of the film, as well as information on the careers of the various people involved and the way the film was received when it came out. You can tell in the commentary that Djeng is a big fan of the film, thanks to how much he tries to pack in for the audience, speaking incredibly fast at times to try and give you as much information as he can.

Whether you’re a long time martial arts fan or just someone looking to pick up an interesting movie, Duel To The Death should be on your list. It’s a film that more than deserves its reputation for being one of the best sword fighting movies ever made.

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Gears of War 3 – Throwback 10

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The Gears of War series is one that’s pretty synonymous with the Xbox, with the first entry in the series being released within a year of the Xbox 360’s launch almost twenty years ago (yes, I was shocked it was that long ago too). Thanks to the original game receiving huge critical acclaim and massive sales, a sequel was green-lit straight away, with plans to wrap up the story in a third instalment. In 2011 that third entry was released, and the story of Gears of War came to a close – until a sequel trilogy began in 2016.

Gears of War 3 picks up two years after the conclusion of the second game, where the remnants of humanity destroyed their last remaining city in an effort to stop the deadly Locust Horde. As the game picks up, players are put back in the story of Marcus Fenix as he and a group of survivors try their best to survive on board the Soverign, a huge ship in the middle of the ocean. When the former president arrives and gives Marcus a disc filled with military secrets, and reveals that Marcus’ father is still alive, our team of heroes set out on a mission to finally end the war once and for all.

Joined by new allies, and some old friends who have now had to step up into the fight rather than just being in a support role, Marcus and his friends head out across Sera to reach their target; a journey that not only has them coming into conflict with the Locust, but the deadly new Lambent, a twisted, mutated version of the Locust that acts as a third party. Travelling to some remote locations, finding distant human outposts, and delving into long buried secrets, the team will have to fight harder than they every have before – even if it costs some of them their lives.

The plot for the game, provided by author Karen Traviss, who had been penning the Gears of War novels, is probably the best of the series up to that point, featuring interweaving narratives, dives into the history of the world and the characters, surprise appearances from characters from the novels and comics, and some genuinely heartbreaking emotional scenes. Despite the series continuing on after this point, years later with a time jump and a new main cast of heroes, this game felt like a fitting conclusion to the story, and is still one that holds up well a decade later.

The game also featured a host of new elements that gave returning players something to look forward to. The most obvious is the leap in visuals the game gave players. The series had always been one that looked good, a series that made ruined environments look beautiful when it wanted to, but often it would fall back on bland corridors and underground tunnels that would look pretty similar and drab between the big set pieces. As a contrast, Gears of War 3 offered players a lot more visual variety, allowing you to play through ruined cities, desert environments, and tropical beaches. These locations were helped by crisper visuals than the previous entries, along with dramatic lighting and great smoke effects that really helped to make this seem like a living, breathing world.

The combat was also improved upon, though not completely revolutionised. The features that made the series recognisable were still there, but they worked a lot better this time around. You could charge across the battlefield snapping from cover to cover much smoother, meaning that you didn’t have to worry about your character getting stuck or bogged down during a fire fight as often as you did with previous games. The developers also introduced a host of new weapons that changed up combat too, especially guns such as the Digger, which would fire through the ground to pop up at targets behind cover, and the Silverback, a huge mech suit with guns and chainsaws that you could wear into battle; and yes, a mech suit with chainsaws is as cool as it sounds.

As someone who’d not just been playing the games, but reading the expanded material too, Gears of War 3 felt like a great way to round out the series. It introduced some great new characters, it took existing characters in new directions, and it brought in some people from the other media and put them into the games. It felt just as big, over-the-top, and bombastic as the rest of the series, and frankly, that’s what you come to Gears of War for.

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The Snake Girl And The Silver-Haired Witch – Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

With a title like this you don’t need me to tell you that The Snake Girl And The Silver-Haired Witch is an odd film, but even with how wild that title is, and seeing the psychedelic cover art for the new Blu-ray set, it didn’t prepare me for the experience of watching this wonderfully bizarre movie.

The film follows the character of Sayuri (Yachie Matsui), a young girl who has been living in an orphanage, but is reunited with her birth parents, who she’s been told have been looking for her. Her father (Yoshirô Kitahara) takes Sayuri to her new home, where her mother (Yûko Hamada) is recovering from an accident several months previous. Her somewhat odd and weakened mother is being helped around the house by a housekeeper named Shinge (Sachiko Meguro).

When Sayuri’s father is called away on business to Africa, Sayuri is excited to spend some time with her mother, getting the chance to know her better. However, as soon as her father has left the house strange things begin to happen. She’s attacked in her bed by a snake, and she sees a mysterious, monstrous figure in her room. Sayuri’s mother then reveals to her that she has a secret sister, living in the house’s attic. Now that the father is away Tamami (Mayumi Takahashi) comes down out of the attic to live with Sayuri, but Sayuri begins to suspect that Tamami might be more than she seems.

The plot for The Snake Girl And The Silver-Haired Witch is frankly really weird. It’s a film that doesn’t hold up under close scrutiny, and there are constant contradictions throughout that never quite line up. Sayuri is first told that her parents have been looking for her for years, then we discover that she has an older sister, then we learn that the girls are supposed to be the same age, then we’re told that they were accidentally switched at birth. People are said to know things, but seem to have no knowledge of them later, or the reverse. Sayuri sees things that are fantastical that seem to only be happening in her head, yet she also finds physical proof that cannot be explained.

One of the things that works in the favour of the film is that you just can’t fully comprehend everything. It not only means that there’s a constant sense of unease throughout, but that you’ll find yourself trying to work it out when you go back to watch it a second or third time. You’ll be looking for clues to help try and answer the myriad questions, and you’ll come away with more questions than you started with.

The film was directed by Noriaki Yuasa, who was famous for the Gamera films, a series of Kaiju Eiga films that were a direct rival to Toho’s Godzilla franchise. Yuasa made these films stand out from the other giant monster movies by having Gamera be aimed at kids, and this is something that he brings to this movie in spades. This is a film for children, but also told by them. Sayuri is the narrator, sometimes literally talking us through scenes, and I think it’s her childlike confusion, fear, and unreliability that makes this such a strange film.

Yuasa tells the movie through a child’s eyes, and it’s so unapologetically weird because of that. There are scenes in the movie that take on a nightmarish, dreamlike quality. The screen shimmers and swirls, the music sounds odd and otherworldly, and Sayuri and the audience are bombarded with images that simply cannot be real. It’s almost like a fever dream at times.

These ideas are explored across this new release, and we get a lot of insight into the film thanks to an interview with manga and folklore scholar Zack Davisson, who explores the origin of this kind of storytelling, as well as the manga the film was based upon. There’s also a the feature-length commentary by film historian David Kalat, who talks us through not just what we’re seeing on the screen, but what Japanese cinema was like at the time, and how this film stood out from the crowd to become a cult classic.

This is the first time that The Snake Girl And The Silver-Haired Witch has been released outside of Japan since a small theatrical run in 1968, meaning that this will be the first time a lot of people get the chance to even it. As an important piece of Japanese cinema, with a recognisable cast, one of the biggest directors of the time, and based upon one of the most influential horror mangas ever, it’s not just a curiosity worth checking out, but a must-watch movie.

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Outlaw: Relentless - A Marvel Heroines Novel by Tristan Palmgren - Book Review

 

'Super-powered mercenary Outlaw is always ready for a fight, but when her own mind is being stolen from her, she’ll have to find a new way to defeat the bad guys, in this fast-paced Marvel Heroines adventure.

'Inez Temple, aka Outlaw, is a key member of Domino’s mercenary team, the Posse, but when a job goes sideways Outlaw finds herself on the outside, and in an alarming state. A merc in her line of work needs to be sharp, but Inez’s mind is slipping away from her. Mutant-hating telepath Johnny Dee is robbing her of the only things she’s ever counted on: her wits and her courage, and worse – her very identity. Inez’s bloody revenge will take her on a chase through the Texas desert and a labyrinth of her own worst memories.'

After a brief appearance in Domino Strays: A Marvel Heroines Novel, also written by Tristan Palmgren, released last year, the super powered mercenary Outlaw is getting her first solo novel adventure. 

Set some time after the events of Palmgren's other book, we catch up with Outlaw and the other members of the Posse, Domino, Diamondback, White Fox, Atlas Bear, and Black Widow, as they've been hired by Tony Stark to help to capture a container ship transporting dangerous weapons for the criminal group A.I.M.. Despite things seeming to go well to begin with the mission goes a little off the rails when Outlaw loses control of the ship's bridge, resulting in fight that ends with the ship destroyed. Even though they managed to snag the tech and weapons Stark wanted the mission is deemed a failure, and Outlaw begins to question how she could have made a rookie mistake.

When Outlaw suddenly wakes up in the middle of the street late at night, with no memory of how and when she left her hotel room, she realises that she's been suffering through several moments of lost time, and that the constant tiredness this is bringing was what led to her mistake on the mission. With Domino's help she reaches out to the X-Men for help; who after several tests think that she might be developing a new mutation that will give her psychic abilities. After having a shield set up in her mind to help with the symptoms Outlaw decides to head back to her childhood home in Texas, as she feels like something is drawing her there.

However, when she arrives home she finds a group of armed men waiting for her; with her brother held prisoner. Now Outlaw will have to fight for her life against foes who will stop at nothing to get what they want; a fight that will push her to her limits.

Before reading this book my only experience with the character of Outlaw was in the other Marvel Heroines novel written by Palmgren, where she was a supporting character who wasn't in a large portion of the book. Despite this, I don't feel that I went into this book at a disadvantage, as you very quickly get a sense of who the character is in a broad way, and by the end you feel like you know them really well. Whilst this is an action story, one of survival and overcoming huge adversity and pain, it's much more an exploration of the character.

The Outlaw we meet at the start of the book is a woman who' very far from being her best. She's tired, run down, and ready to snap. We're quickly let in on the fact that this is due to several blackouts and moments of lost time that she's been experiencing, as well as feeling constantly tired and run down. As such, it's not until a good portion into the book that we even begin to get a sense of who she is. After visiting the New Charles Xavier's School for the Gifted Outlaw is given a break from the constant worry and the increasing pain and tiredness, and we begin to get to know her a bit better.

A big part of the journey we go on with her is as she returns to her childhood home, and we get her thoughts on her time growing up as a mutant in a remote, rural community, as well as several flashbacks to her time there. This shows us a lot about her, and how she's ended up as the strong, confident woman that she is; having to grow up watching the community around her turning their back on her family and treating her as less than human having hardened her to the cruelties of the world.

Sadly for Inez, she doesn't just get to return home, catch up with her brother, and figure out what's been drawing her back, as as soon as she's stepped out of her car she's being shot at. From here until the end of the book it's pretty much a brutal fight for survival as Outlaw has to face off against a gang of killers, as well as a spectre from her past, Johnny Dee.

Johnny Dee is a name that might be familiar with some readers who are more well read in terms of Marvel Comics, as he and Outlaw have crossed paths in the past. But don't worry if you've never even picked up a book before, as we're given a succinct catch-up on who Dee is, and what he's done to Inez. We learn that he's also a mutant, though one who hates and despises mutants. Using his unique ability to ingest a persons DNA, he's able to take control of people and force them to do what he wants. Realising that he's the reason that she's been losing time, and that the psychic shield in her mind is the only thing keeping him from taking her over again, leads Outlaw into a fight she has to win as quickly as she can; because as soon as that shield wears off, Dee has control of her.

This was actually one of the best things the book could have done. Even the best of the Marvel prose novels from Aconyte books can feel a bit odd to read at times. This is mainly due to the fact that in comics there is often very little room to spend time with characters outside of important moments or big events, but in the novels we're able to slow down a bit and get to know them. In the past this has sometimes resulted in what feels like lulls in the story, as I'm not used to a slower pace in this kind of genre. Outlaw: Relentless, in contrast, never has a moment like this. Because of the constant ticking clock of Dee being able to take her over again Inez isn't given a moment to rest, she never has the chance to regroup or wait for help. Instead she's forced to keep running from one fight to the next, desperately trying to beat the villain.

The action sequences that are spread across the book really help with this sense of constant battle too, and they're some of the more brutal fights in the Aconyte novel range. Whilst Outlaw has enhanced strength and could easily do the super hero thing of using her fists in a fight most of the combat in the book takes place with guns. Outlaw will often be running from over to cover, dodging bullets, whilst trying to take the enemy out. She gets hurt because of this, a lot. Inez goes through a lot of wear and tear over the course of the book, and it really does feel like she's being pushed to her limits. 

Outlaw: Relentless is a book that intrigued me from the beginning because I knew next to nothing about the character and was looking forward to finding out more. I didn't expect it to end up being an intense action story full of desperate fights, extreme survival, and a ton of character drama that would not only lead to me finishing the book in a single day, but also with Outlaw ending up on my list of favourite characters. This isn't the first time that Palmgren has impressed me with their writing, and they've made me fall in love with characters I knew little about in the past. This is quickly becoming a pattern of their work, so much so that I'm very excited to see what they do next.

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Horseman by Christina Henry - Book Review

 

'Everyone in Sleepy Hollow knows about the Horseman, but no one really believes in him. Not even Ben Van Brunt's grandfather, Brom Bones, who was there when it was said the Horseman chased the upstart Crane out of town. Brom says that's just legend, the village gossips talking.

'Twenty years after those storied events, the village is a quiet place. Fourteen-year-old Ben loves to play Sleepy Hollow boys, reenacting the events Brom once lived through. But then Ben and a friend stumble across the headless body of a child in the woods near the village, and the sinister discovery makes Ben question everything the adults in Sleepy Hollow have ever said. Could the Horseman be real after all? Or does something even more sinister stalk the woods?'

I'm starting to have something of a problem with Christina Henry's books; namely that I love them so much that I end up reading them in a single sitting. This is the third time that this has happened now, where I've loved her work so much that I've kept reading long after I should have put the book down because I became so engrossed in it that I needed to see what happens next, even if it means I'm awake all night reading. Which I guess isn't too bad a problem to have with an author.

Horseman is set two decades after the original story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and focuses on Ben, the grandson of Brom Bones and Katrina Van Tassel. The story begins with Ben and his friend playing in the woods, but their games are interrupted when a group of men from the town pass by, heading deeper into the woods. With their curiosity piqued, the two lads follow along after the men and soon discover that one of the other boys of the town has been killed, with his head and his hands missing.

Ben is convinced that this is a sign that the headless horseman is behind the killing, and thinks that he might be able to figure out why; but things quickly become even stranger when a dark presence in the woods starts to stalk him, killing off one of the sheep from their farm, and going after other boys of the town. Now Ben thinks that their might be another creature in the woods, one that won't stop killing people. But to make matters worse, he not only has to convince his grandparents that he's right, and that something needs to be done, but he also has to convince them to let him be himself. You see, Ben was born a girl, and now that he's getting older his grandmother is trying to force him to become a decent young lady; something that Ben refuses to ever allow to happen.

Whilst I've never read the original tale I am familiar enough with the story of Sleepy Hollow that as soon as it was announced that Christina Henry was going to be writing a spooky sequel I was instantly on board. As I said earlier, I've loved her previous work, and knew that this was going to be the kind of story that worked well with her style of horror, but one of the things that I wasn't expecting was that it was going to feature a trans lead and how wonderfully Christine handled his story.

When the book begins Ben is simply Ben, a boy bordering on being a young man playing in the spooky woods around Sleepy Hollow with his best friend Sander. He loves to play Sleepy Hollow Boys, where they act out the story of the headless horseman and Ichabod Crane, he climbs trees and plays in the dirt, and is braver than his friend. It's not until Ben heads home and his grandmother scolds him for getting himself so dirty and orders him to bathe and put on a nice dress that you even realise he's more than a regular lad.

This is one of the things that I loved about the book, that for the most part there's not a huge amount of fuss made about Ben wanting to live his life as a boy, and how most of the people in his life accept that he calls himself Ben, plays with other boys, and wears trousers. A large part of this comes from how he was raised by his grandparents, following the deaths of his parents when he was still young. His grandfather, Brom, is a very macho kind of man, though one with a huge heart who's not afraid to be sensitive. He's seen how Ben wants to be, how he's always wanted to be treated and he's allowed it. This being the era it is I'm not sure you could say that he'd understand completely how Ben feels, or that he could go on to live his life presenting male, but that doesn't matter. He loves his grandson enough to support him, to let him be himself and do what he loves, and that's enough.

But, this isn't something that just takes place in the background of the book, and Ben's gender identity does come up in the story, especially after a particularly heated confrontation with hi grandmother; who's sure that one day Ben will accept that he's a girl and start acting like a woman. After telling his grandmother that he'd never get married or be a woman, that he'd cut off his hair and run away forever to live as a man she dares him to do it, and he does. He cuts off his long hair and he's ready to leave. He doesn't, however, get to leave home, but seeing that he was going to, seeing how determined he is to be himself changes something in Katrina. Instead of trying to force Ben to wear a dress and learn to be a young woman she makes him boys clothes. It's an incredibly moving moment, to see her affirming her grandson's identity and standing by him. We even get this from Brom later in the book, when he refers to Ben with male pronouns.

It would have been so easy to have this story veer into having guardians who don't understand or approve, to have them fight against Ben every step of the way; especially in a historical novel such as this where there just wouldn't have been the understanding or language to know what a trans man was. But instead of that Christina Henry does something better, she writes a story about the love and acceptance of a trans child. This might not seem that big or important, but it really is. With so much anti-trans sentiment in the world, with vocal transphobic minorities fighting loudly to remove trans rights and protections to have a positive trans narrative, where a characters transness isn't something that brings them pain or misery, but joy and acceptance is so damn important. There were times this book made me feel genuinely emotional because of how happy Ben's story made me feel.

Sadly, it's not all joy for Ben, or the reader, as there's some seriously spooky shit going on in Sleepy Hollow. Considering the title of the book, and the original story this is following on from, it's surprising that this isn't just something as simple as a story about a ghostly headless horseman charging through the woods cutting people's heads off. From the very beginning there's hints that there's something more to things than you'd expect thanks to the added fact that hands are being taken as well as heads, and it soon becomes apparent that Henry has chosen to go for something much more original and complex than the headless horseman as her antagonist.

I won't say too much about what's going on so as not to spoil the surprises, but it's a brilliantly unique idea, and one that will keep you guessing over the course of the book as Ben learns more and tries to figure out what's going on. I have to be honest, I didn't see the reveal coming, and was completely surprised by what the answers were. And even when you think you know everything and the story's done it doesn't end there are there's still a good chunk of the book left to go as Henry reveals a further mystery that will continue on into Ben's adult life.

Horseman was one of those books that I was looking forward to when it was first announced. I knew that I was going to enjoy it, but I didn't realise that I was going to love it so much. It was better than I was ever hoping it would be, and I'm honestly sad that it's over as I could have spent so much loner with these characters and this story. I got a digital copy of this to review from the publishers, and as soon as I was done with it I was ordering the beautiful hardback, signed edition with red sprayed edges as I know that this is a book that I need in my collection, one that I'm going to treasure for a long, long time, and that I'm going to read over and over again.

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Triptych: A Marvel Xavier's Institute Novel by Jaleigh Johnson - Book Review

 

'X-Men super-soldier Fantomex faces off with clone versions of himself in this thrilling Super Hero heist adventure from Marvel’s Xavier’s Institute

'Former super-soldier and master thief, Fantomex, stumbles upon one of his clones, Cluster, breaking into museums to steal priceless artifacts. Outwitted and intrigued, Fantomex decides to beat Cluster at whatever game she’s playing. But something is different about these artifacts: they’ve all been infused with nanotechnology, very similar to the kind that originally created Fantomex. And they aren’t the only ones looking for them… Their other clone, Weapon XIII, is on the hunt too. The cat-and-mouse heists test their burglary skills and push the boundaries of how much they can trust one another. When it turns out that they're the pawns in an even deadlier game, all hell breaks loose – and these clones always play to win.'

The latest entry in the Xavier's Institute series focuses on the mutant sentinel hybrid Fantomex, a character who's been something of a rogue element in the X-Men universe ever since he was first introduced nearly twenty years ago. Set not long after the events of the Uncanny X-Force series, we see a Fantomex who has gone through an extreme trauma.

Being a mutant with three brains, as well as an external nervous system called E.V.A. that can act independently as either a young woman or a flying saucer (yes, comics are weird), Fantomex has always been something of an unusual character; even amongst the X-Men. However, things have become even more complex for the character at the start of Triptych. Having just suffered through an extreme trauma that came close to killing him E.V.A. took Fantomex to a facility where he could be saved via cloning. Unfortunately, due to his complex biology the facility got things a bit wrong and instead of having one body with three brains his brains got split across three bodies.

This means that not only is Fantomex different now, both weaker and lacking some of his powers, but also his personality has gone through some changes; leading him to have to try to figure exactly who he is now. Something that would be difficult enough, but made even more so when his two other selves start to appear on the scene, apparently engaging in elaborate art thefts. Now Fantomex is going to have to learn to work alongside the members of the New Charles Xavier's School for the Gifted if he's going to find out what his other selves are up to, and stop them.

I've liked Fantomex since he first appeared in Grant Morrison's New X-Men run. He was mysterious, had a cool costume, and was a very no nonsense kind of character. Over the years he, like most comic characters, became more complex and at times slightly confusing. One of the changes made to his that was most interesting, however, was when he was split into three people. This was something that I was only vaguely aware of having happened in the comics, so when I saw that we'd be getting a novel focused on this I was quite excited as this was definitely something fun that was worth exploring.

And this was a large focus of the book. It takes president over action and adventure, and spent a large part of its time exploring Fantomex as a person. In a lot of ways he was always the kind of character who didn't do a lot of introspection, who rarely doubted himself. He was confident and had a plan and never worried that what he was doing was the wrong thing. This was, honestly, not the most interesting thing that could be done with the character. However, Jaleigh Johnson actually managed to make him feel like a real person for once.

Now that he's split into three beings Fantomex doesn't really know who he is anymore. He's finding that parts of his personality have changed, and that because some aspects of his powers have gone to his other selves he's having to be more cautious in battle. This leads him to feeling physically vulnerable, but it's the emotional vulnerability that is the most interesting. When Fantomex learns that Cluster (the female version of him) has received his more noble aspects, whilst Weapon XIII (essentially a bad version of him) has received his more negative traits, it leaves Fantomex feeling like the 'leftovers', the parts that don't really matter. He becomes vulnerable in a way that we've never seen him before.

This sense of vulnerability, of having to figure out who you are and how you fit into the world is shared with the books second protagonist; a young woman named Avery Torres, who recently moved to the school to try to figure out her powers. Having lost both of her parents, and having left behind her girlfriend in order to attend the school Avery feels very isolated. She doesn't think there's much point to her staying longer than absolutely needed and becoming an X-Man, and because of this she's reluctant to make friends. Add on to that the strain of a long distance relationship, one in which her partner can tell that Avery is hiding something from her, and she's very much feeling close to empty.

Despite having very different lives, and very different outlooks on the world this story is very much about these two isolated and vulnerable people figuring out who they are, and who they want to be. They may not like each other much when the book begins, but through their interactions with each other, and their fates becoming more and more entwined Avery and Fantomex actually have a great effect on the other. They encourage the other to start thinking of themselves better, to start seeing the good in the world around them, and to start making connections. It's strange how the one ting both of them needed is the one thing they helped the other to see; perhaps we can only listen to our own good advice when it's coming from another.

It might seem like a strange choice to write a super hero story that puts fighting and action on the back burner, that spends its time having characters talk through their feelings or simply having fun together and bonding; but there are hundreds of books where heroes and villains fight each other if that's what you're after. This is something else, this is something a little special. It shows a human side to these characters, a vulnerability and complexity that is often left out of comics to make more room for explosions and fist fights. If you're after something a bit different, something that isn't just the standard comic book formula this is a book you're definitely going to want to read.

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Asylum by Tamera Lawrence - Blog Tour

 

'Like all children living at Rose Hill Asylum, Kyle Hampton wanted freedom from the abusive staff and violent residents. When at nine he was adopted into a loving family, he left his younger brother behind and didn't look back. Twenty-eight years later, his choices have returned to haunt him.

'Now a family man, Kyle has hidden his true childhood from his wife, only to stir up the past when, as a lark, he revisits the underground tunnels and the abandoned asylum with a friend. A dark figure wants revenge and emerges ready to destroy Kyle and everyone he loves. But Kyle isn't going down without a fight—he's played in the shadows before. Will his childhood, rooted in terror, be what saves him? '

Kyle was born into Rose Hill Asylum, a home for mental and physically disabled people, as well as the children born to them. He and his brother, Roy, grew up in the frightening, sometimes violent, institution, doing their best to have as normal a life as they could. Despite looking out for each other the two boys would often be on the receiving end of abuse from some of the older children in the asylum, and lived in a state of near constant fear.

When Kyle is adopted by one of the men who volunteers at Rose Hill he thinks that all his problems are finally behind him; but he faces something awful, as he will have to leave his younger brother behind. Afraid that if he were to keep asking his new family to adopt his brother too he'd lose his new home, Kyle and his brother drift apart until finally losing all contact with each other.

Now an adult, Kyle returns to the long abandoned Rose Hill with his lifelong friend, and fellow former Rose Hill resident, Randy, to take a last look through the ruined hallways and rooms before it's sold off to a developer. Seeing the place begins to stir up memories in Kyle, as well as feelings of guilt over having to leave his brother all those years before. Not only that, but it seems like someone has started to follow Kyle and his family; someone who want to hurt him and the people he loves.

Asylum is a stand alone mystery from author Tamera Lawrence that centres around a man as his past comes back to haunt him, pushing his relationships with his friends and family to the breaking point in the process. Lawrence sets the tone for the book early, having the very first chapter of the book set in Kyle's past as he and his brother face violence at the hands of one of the older Rose Hill residents. It's a grim and foreboding start, one that shows that even in the moments where these young children tried to carve themselves out a bit of joy there was always the threat of something awful hanging over them.

This was a feeling that would continue over the course of the book, and would mount as the story unfolded. The reader was never really given a chance to rest, and even the most benign seeming scenes in the book, such as Kyle going to grab a beer with his friend, or him coming home from a long day at work to spend time with his wife and baby daughter, would keep the pressure on as there would be small mentions of trouble that was building, or that you'd see the strain beginning to form within these bonds.

And that's one of the main focuses of the book, the bonds that Kyle has with the people around him. He's upset that his relationship with his brother didn't last, and feels an awful guilt around that. We also see how these feelings of self recrimination have begun to affect his life at home, and how his relationship with his wife is starting to strain because of this and the added stress of having just given birth. Even his relationships with his adopted father gets called into question when Kyle discovers hidden things in his fathers home (though due to his father having recently suffered a stroke he's unable to go into things with him), as well as his oldest friend, who keeps creating conflict as Kyle is having to chose between him and his wife at various times.

Even the villain of the book is all about relationships. At first it's very unclear who this person, simply referred to as Stitches by himself, is and what they might want. But as the book unfolds and we see more chapters from Stitches' point of view we see hints that he's also being driven on to target Kyle and him family because of a personal connections, and a bond that was broken. The book is quite good at playing its cards close to its chest in regards to the villain, and whilst it does feel like it's intentionally leading you to make a wrong conclusion as to his real identity there is enough evidence for readers to figure it out before the climactic reveal.

Asylum was an interesting story, one that kept me guessing, and managed its dark and dour tone well without it feeling too overwhelming. The characters felt a lot like real people most of the time, and I found myself wanting to see more of Kyle and his family as I was hoping that things would work out for them all. With the Halloween season coming up this would be the perfect time to give this dark thriller a go.

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Come Play - Film Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Come Play tells the story of Oliver (Azhy Robertson), a non-verbal autistic child who communicates with his parents using his smart device. One night Oliver discovers a new app on his phone, ‘Misunderstood Monsters’. Loading up the app he finds a strange story about Larry, a twisted and monstrous looking creature that just wants a friend. Oliver is a made a little uneasy by the story, and this soon turns into fear as he believes something is in the house with him and his parents.

Over the course of the next few days Oliver keeps going back to the story, reading a little more, and the strange events keep on mounting. The lights in the house blow out, strange footsteps are heard, and his phone keeps thinking that there’s someone in the dark corners of his room. Soon, his parents become aware of the strange events, and have to find a way of protecting their son from the entity that’s breaking through into their world in order to take Oliver away.

Come Play is a pretty basic, by the book horror film, though one that has some good moments spread throughout. The story felt a little predictable at times, and there were points where I was predicting the scares that were coming, but despite sometimes being predictable it was never really dull.

A large part of the film’s charm is that it takes what’s a pretty ludicrous subject completely seriously. As with Poltergeist and The Ring before it, Come Play firmly places technology at the heart of the film, and uses tablets, mobile phones, and even televisions, as gateways for Larry to cross over into our world. This is actually a pretty frightening concept, especially when the film makes you realise how many screens and devices are around us almost constantly. It not only means that Larry always has a gateway into our world close to the people he’s after, but that he’s always able to watch us. And watch us he does. One of the cooler things the film does is show us Larry looking out of the devices at Oliver, peering through the screens at the boy he wants to befriend.

Larry himself is a pretty creepy monster, and to begin with it’s really effective. Towards the start of the film we hear him moving around, his heavy footsteps on the floor and his ragged breathing. The lights begin to go out whenever he’s near, and we get the occasional glimpse of some twisted humanoid figure through the screens of devices when people turn their cameras on. Sadly, the more we see of him the less frightening Larry becomes. Early on in the film we see the trash blow around in the wind suddenly hit and invisible figure and stop mid-air, and it’s pretty effective, but by the end we’re seeing a monster running around in full view, and it really does spoil some of the magic.

Another thing the film has going for it is a pretty solid cast. Azhy Robertson acts well in the role of Oliver, and the film seems to handle his autism in a decent way. Director Jacob Chase’s wife works with autistic kids, and Chase seems to have actually given some care over to the way Oliver is portrayed in the film. Though as someone who isn’t neurodivergent myself, I can’t say if it’s completely without issue.

Gillian Jacobs plays Sarah, Oliver’s mother, and whilst it’s a big departure from the stuff I’m most familiar with from her (Community and other comedy roles in particular) she plays the role well. Her character is something of an overprotective mother, one who clearly wants what’s best for her son, but perhaps going too far in her methods, leading him to feel somewhat isolated.

Come Play is a horror film with some good scares and moments that I really enjoyed, with a good cast of actors who seem to be trying their best to tell a story about issues of isolation and overbearing parents. Is it perfect? No. But, it’s still a pretty good way to spend an hour and a half.

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