Dark Horse – New Releases!

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Dark Horse have a lot of new books out this week, with a variety of titles on offer. And if you’re looking for something a bit dark, a bit violent, and with a slight horror bent, these titles might just pique your interest.

Apache Delivery Service

Written by Matt Kindt, with art by Tyler Jenkins and Hilary Jenkins, Apache Delivery Service is a dark story about a young soldier in the Vietnam War, who stumbles across something dark waiting for him in the jungle. The soldier, who spends most of his time out in the jungle alone, uses his tracking skills to find enemy combatants, before calling in air strikes against them. Despite being great at his job he still receives scorn from his fellow soldiers for being Native American, with them nicknaming him the Apache Delivery Service, despite the fact that he’s Navajo, not Apache.

When he discovers grizzly remains in the jungle, bodies stuck on spikes as some kind of twisted warning, he gets caught in a trap and wakes up in the home of a man who’s searching the jungle for fabled Nazi gold that was supposedly stashed there decades before. Now the young soldier has a choice: he can either return to his base, continue killing, or he can team up with the man to find the gold in order to gain a new life for himself.

Apache Delivery Service is a tonally dark book, one that puts some of the horrors of war at the forefront. Kindt doesn’t try to paint one side in the conflict as better than the other, and shows that the US troops were just as capable of awful acts as their enemies. The book focuses on these themes, and sets its lead character on a path where he has to confront some of the things he’s done, and makes him question what kind of atrocities he’s okay with going along with and excusing. The artwork reflects this, and has a wonderfully dark colour palette, and the art choices really help to bring certain scenes, and certain feelings to life. Whilst the story itself is engaging, the art is probably the biggest draw for this book.

Kali

Kali is a book that will appeal to fans of Mad Max: Fury Road and gritty, violent war stories, as writer Daniel Freedman crafts a story that exists in a nebulous time and place that dystopia lovers will enjoy. Kali is the leader of The Matrikas, a gang of touch biker women who rove the desert, drinking, fighting, and causing trouble. But as the book begins Kali is a prisoner of The Machine, a huge army that controls most of the desert. She’s been stabbed in the back by her former gang (quite literally) and left for dead. However, Kali isn’t prepared to go quietly into the night, and instead sets out on a bloody and violent path of revenge.

Kali is a revenge story, pure and simple. There’s nothing really beyond that single character motivation, and it dictates the story, everything we learn about this setting, and the characters. But you really don’t need much more than that as, despite the story being light on lore and giving readers relatively little information, you never feel like you’re lacking anything. Freedman has crafted a pretty tight story where you get to know the central character well, and where you never really feel like you get the chance to slow down and breathe as her quest for revenge takes her across the desert landscape.

The books artwork is provided by Robert Sammelin, and it’s incredibly beautiful in a worn down, lived in way. This is a world where everything feels old, where the weapons, vehicles, and clothing could come from any period from the 1940s onwards, and has this strange timeless feel to it. But it also feels old in the book, with small details of wear and tear on everything, making every panel a piece of art where you can stop and take in the tiny hints at what this world is like. The characters all look fantastic too, especially the women. Kali and her gang look sexy, but they’re not sexualised. Their outfits drip with personality, showing off what they’re like and how they navigate this world. And I love how natural they look. They slouch when sitting, their body shapes are real, they have folds and rolls when in certain poses. It feels so far removed from the super thin tones and often sexualised superhero women, and it just feels like normal women. It is incredibly refreshing.

Kali is an action packed revenge romp through a dystopian setting that features tough, beautiful women tearing their way through men to get what they want. A revenge story with a female twist, that will appeal to a lot of people.

We Have Demons

Scott Snyder is a name that some comic fans will be familiar with, thanks in part to his work with DC Comics, where he spent a long time on titles like Batman, and Justice League, as well as writing big events like Dark Nights Metal. We Have Demons is the first of his new creator owned projects, and much like his big DC event books, it feels clustered, overly complex, and ends up being pretty un-engaging.

The story follows Lam Lyle, a young woman who grew up with her priest father after her mother died in a car crash. When she was a little girl Lam was bitten by a venomous snake, and her father cut her arm off to save her life. She now has a high tech prosthesis in place of her arm. After her father dies, Lam learns of a secret that he’s been hiding her entire life, that demons are real, and that he and a group of secret global warriors have been fighting them. And now that fight has been passed on to her.

Whilst the plot for We Have Demons sounds simple enough it gets bogged down in overly complex concepts and ideas that make the plot pretty muddled. There are two opposing elements that came to Earth at the dawn of time, one good, one evil, and the evil one makes demons whilst the good one is used in weapons to fight them. Demons are also twisted humans, who can be anywhere and anyone, and the evil element is inside everyone on Earth and so anyone can become demons. And the demons wiped out advanced, ancient humans that we know nothing about.

It reminds me of elements of Dark Nights Metal, but in all the bad ways. Snyder seems to like his weirdly magic metals and elements. The plot begins slow enough, but moves at a very quick pace, throwing huge concepts around with multiple narrators that sometimes makes reading the story a bit of a chore. The fact that we only really get to know two of the characters, yet are given close to a dozen to follow and care for, hurts the book a bit too, and it feels like it could have used a tighter focus.

The artwork, provided by Greg Capullo and Dave McCaig is decent enough for the most part, and the early parts of the book are decent enough. However, once the demons start showing up the art begins to feel very messy and busy, and when there are multiple creatures on the page at once their shifting, twisted bodies all start to become a jumbled mess. The superhero outfits also feel pretty weirdly designed, and stand out against the rest of the book in an odd way.

We Have Demons feels like a throwback to the ‘gritty’ and ‘extreme’ days of 90s and 2000s Image and Wildstorm comics. Everything here feels like it’s being done for style over substance, and the result is a book that feels pretty shallow. The fact that the lead character is disabled, yet gets a magical high-tech prosthesis that just doesn’t seem to fit with the regular world setting also feels weird. Her mechanical arm works no differently to her regular one, and it erases her disability completely to the point where you begin to question why you’d have a disabled character if you’re going to do nothing with them. I really wanted to find something to like in this book, but it feels like an example of everything that’s bad about Snyder’s writing pushed to the max.

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DC vs. Vampires: All Out War #2 - Comic Review

 

Originally published on Patreon

Man, do things keep going from ad to worse in the DC vs Vampires universe. Last issue we saw one of the last havens of humanity come under attack by the vampires, and here we find out that it resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people, including some of our favourite heroes and villains. 

With the survivors split up and head off in different directions (with one of these groups transporting a hidden Supergirl to the last city) we follow one particular group consisting of Deathstroke, Booster Gold, Azrael, Bane, Midnighter, and Mary Marvel.

I really like this group, and the combination of personalities that we see play out across the course of this issue is quite good. Deathstroke is great in an almost heroic, leader-like role, it's fun to see Bane and Jean Paul getting along considering their history, and this more grizzled Booster is great. But the best is by far Mary, who doesn't seem to have let the end of the world dampen her spirits. She's delightfully cheery and chipper, even when people are dying around her, and it makes her one of the more stand-out characters in the entire series.

The down side of this is that I'm now going to be absolutely devastated if she ends up getting killed; which considering what this series is like is a distinct possibility. We ended up meeting a vampire hunting Jimmy Olsen this issue, who was actually pretty cool, and then lost him in the same story. But this is the way that DC vs. Vampires goes. You can't get attached to anyone.

We also find out what this little band of heroes (and I will use that term even though some were villains, as they're all heroes here) are planning. They're going to be travelling down to Florida in order to capture Weather Wizard in the hopes of taking him to one of the Lazarus Pits so that his vampirism can be reversed. All this so that he can change the weather, part the clouds, and bring sunlight back to Earth. It's a decent plan, but the downside is that the vamps know they're coming thanks to Billy Batson giving prophecies to what appears to be a vampire Lex Luthor (his face isn't clear, but it certainly looks like his armour at least).

The Back-up feature might be one of the most interesting and important ones that we've gotten so far in this series, as we get the first part of the story of how Dick Grayson becomes a vampire. Considering that Dick is behind all of this, that he's the man responsible for the destruction of Earth as we know it, this is a hugely important story. 

We don't get a huge amount of stuff happen with it here, as this first part is lying the groundwork, but because we know how it's ultimately going to end and what's going to become of Dick it's an incredibly tense read because you know something terrible is coming and you're afraid to see it, as much as you really want to know how it happens.

I wasn't entirely sure about this spin-off title from the first issue, but issue two shows that it has its own fun and interesting stories to tell in this universe.

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All or Nothing: A Zombicide: Novel by Josh Reynolds - Book Review

 

'Caught between murderous humans and hungry undead, a newly resurrected thief must survive a casino-turned-gladiatorial arena and his own growing blood-lust in this dark, yet vibrant splatter-fest from Zombicide

'When former career criminal Westlake finds himself semi-zombified and shuffling towards Atlantic City, he freaks out. He’s supposed to be dead, after all. Kidnapped, he becomes part of a savage gladiator-styled show for the amusement of a heartless overlord. Lucky for him, ex-cop Estela Ramirez and her crew of mishap heroes are already on their way to save him and stop the horrors being inflicted on the humans in good ol’ AC… if they can figure out a way to fly a plane there, that is. While trying to stay “alive” and resist the urge to gnaw human flesh, Westlake realises that while the zombies are pretty bad, the worst thing in this apocalypse is definitely the people.'

The previous entry in the modern day Zombicide series introduced us to Westlake, a career criminal who finds his life thrown completely off-kilter when the world comes to an end, and the dead begin to rise. And whilst the dead rising did help him out of a tough spot to begin with, the world coming to an end did kind of send his life in a direction he wasn't expecting. Having teamed up with a group of survivors to take over a remote compound, Westlake ended up being bitten and infected; and the last we saw of him was him driving a car away to lure the undead away from his new friends.

But if you thought that that was the end for Westlake, think again! Picking up a few months after the first book in the series, All or Nothing takes us to Atlantic City, where Westlake seems to come to from a weird, confused state. Was he suffering from a head injury, was it some kind of memory loss? Worse, he comes to consciousness to discover that he's long since dead, and has turned into a zombie. What does this mean or him, will he be able to keep him mind intact, how long will his undead body last? These are all questions that will have to go on pause when Westlake finds himself getting dragged into a war in Atlantic City.

A casino has been transformed into a haven from the zombies, but the man who runs it does so with an iron fist, and dreams of conquest. Worse still, a twisted scientist is experimenting on the zombies in the basement, and those captured by the casino forces are made to fight for their lives in an arena for the amusement of the casino residents. Westlake must try to do his best to stay alive (ish), and to help the innocents caught up in these evil schemes. Meanwhile, his friends at the Villa hear the call for help from Atlantic City, and set out on a rescue mission of their own.

All or Nothing does what the first book did, it gives readers great zombie action, interesting characters, and a fun story, but it also does what every good sequel needs to do, and ups the ante and gives us some cool new things too. The first, and most obvious, is that Westlake has become a zombie. It's hard to talk about this book and not address that fact. Westlake having become the undead alters his story in about the biggest way possible, and gives him something super interesting. Whilst his role as the reluctant hero, a shady character who's trying to do the right thing but doesn't want to look too good, was fine for one story, but couldn't really last for long. This new development gives the perfect excuse for him to change, to be a bit different. He seems much more willing to throw himself into danger this time round, to put himself at risk to help others; due in large part to him technically already being dead.

It makes things more interesting because it raises questions about what makes him so special, what led him to become this unique form of zombie. Is it something unique to Westlake, or are there others out there like this? I think it's fascinating how much this opens the world up, and it means that all kind of things could be possible in future books. Could another member of the group end up becoming a zombie? Could they discover a whole community of sentient zombies? And the questions that are at the forefront of my mind, will this last? Are we going to get to a point where Westlake rots away too much and falls apart, or could he lose his mind and end up becoming a monster? These are all things that make this series much more interesting than just another zombie survival story, and give it something a little extra exciting.

But, the book isn't just about Westlake. All of the survivors at the Villa make a return, and we get to see them go on a whole new adventure with them as they head off to Atlantic City to answer a distress call. This mission involves them having to break into an airport and steal a plane; something that's incredibly balls, but isn't even the wildest thing that happens to them in this book. It's great to see this group back, as they're a bunch of characters that were an absolute joy to spend time with last time, and getting to see them go off on an adventure that's even bigger and more dangerous than the last is a lot of fun; even if there are certain parts of it where you end up reading on thinking 'why would you do that!?'.

There are also some new characters introduced in this book, both allies and villains; and it's not always clear who's going to be which. The story that Reynolds crafts in Atlantic City is a really interesting one, and it feels a lot more dynamic and engaging than the first book, which was a very simple story of trying to capture one location. Here, it's not always clear who to trust, there are double dealings, and there's a sense that we've stumbled into the middle of a story that's been going on for a while. It makes the world of Zombicide feel bigger, more lived in, and more realistic.

If you're a fan of zombie horror this book has a ton of stuff in it that you're going to like. It has masses of zombies, corrupt humans out to better themselves, brave survivors going up against overwhelming odds, and weird, twisted new types of zombies. Whether you've ever played Zombicide or not, this book is sure to keep you thrilled throughout.

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The Flash #785 - Comic Review

 

Originally published on Patreon

The search for Barry Allen comes to a close in the latest Dark Crisis tie-in issue of The Flash.

The bulk of this issue is split between two of the three parallel worlds, with Wally and his kids being the main focus here. Which considering this series has been about the West family for a while now, feels kind of fitting.

On the Mad Max style world Max Murcury and Jesse Quick help to hold off the marauder forces whilst that worlds Barry takes a magical pearl inside a huge tower structure and smashes; doing...something? It's not really clear what this is going to do; and honestly, it doesn't really matter as this is all just stuff to keep two of the speedsters busy whilst other things happen.

On the dark world inhabited by Night-Flash, the twins learn about this worlds Flash from a kid they encounter, who tells that of how this version of Barry Allen got his powers, and how he has become a merciless dictator. Convinced that this Flash is evil, and that beating him will prove to their family that they have what it takes to be heroes, the kids set out to find him and stop his evil reign.

The only issue with this plan, it turns out that despite the frightening appearance and the way he was acting, Night-Flash isn't a villain; but the kid the twins are with is. Thanks to some help from Jay Garrick, who finally arrives in time, the twins are able to stop themselves from doing anything particularly bad, and help the Night-Flash in time.

I kind of like how this section subverted expectations, as I was convinced that this was going to be an evil Batman/Flash mash-up, but I was wrong. It's also a really good lesson for the kids, to not judge by appearances, to not trust so readily, and to be prepared to think on your feet and change in a moment's notice on the battlefield.

Now, for the important stuff. Barry (our Barry) is continuing to beat the shit out of Wally, thinking that he's the Reverse Flash there to hurt his family. And there's a moment when it seems like Wally is going to get through to him, but it's fleeting, as Pariah's prison world exerts its control over him and puts him back under its spell. Luckily, help comes in a surprising form, as Linda follows her family into the portal thanks to her new speedster abilities; and she knocks Barry off her husband.

This is the shock needed to break Barry out of things, and he gets brought up to speed by the others; and reveals to the Flashes that the League aren't dead, but trapped in fake worlds just like him. So, the Flash family heads back to Earth-0 to try and help against the villains there, whilst Barry heads off to find a way to free the League.

So, it looks like this has become a very important part of the Dark Crisis event, and that people who haven't read it could end up being surprised when Barry shows up out of nowhere in the next issue of the main series. Thankfully, I've been reading this, as it's been absolutely fantastic.

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A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin – Book Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

'For Ning, the only thing worse than losing her mother is knowing that it's her own fault. She was the one who unknowingly brewed the poison tea that killed her—the poison tea that now threatens to also take her sister, Shu.

'When Ning hears of a competition to find the kingdom's greatest shennong-shi—masters of the ancient and magical art of tea-making—she travels to the imperial city to compete. The winner will receive a favor from the princess, which may be Ning's only chance to save her sister's life.

'But between the backstabbing competitors, bloody court politics, and a mysterious (and handsome) boy with a shocking secret, Ning might actually be the one in more danger.'

A Magic Steeped in Poison is the debut novel of author Judy I. Lin, who has crafted a truly breathtaking world based upon Chinese culture and mythology, delivering a unique and wonderful magic system that not only makes this book stand out, but will also have you craving a good cup of tea.

The novel begins when Ning packs her bags to leave her family home. Having grown up in a small village with her mother, father, and her sister, Shu, her life has been forever changed now that her mother has died after drinking poisoned tea. Even worse than that, the same poison is currently killing her younger sister. Despite the best efforts of her father, the village doctor, there seems to be nothing that can be done to cure the poison that looks set to claim another life from their family.

Ning, however, has come up with a plan to try and save Shu. The capital is currently holding a competition to crown a new shennong-shi, a magic user that is able to brew different teas to craft spells, combat poisons, and perform amazing feats. The winner of the competition will be given a place of honour among society as the shennong-shi for the royal family, but will also be granted access to cures and resources that Ning believes would allow her to save her sister. Stealing off into the night, Ning makes her way to the capital where she’s able to use the invitation sent to her mother – who was a shennong-shi and taught Ning – to enter the competition.

However, now that Ning is part of the competition she learns that she is not only having to compete against other, better trained and more well connected opponents, but that she has entered a world of court intrigue, double crosses, and plots. With assassins targeting the princess, the Emperor locked away inside his castle, and a poison plot claiming the lives of people across the kingdom, Ning realises that it may not be as easy to save her family as she first hoped.

A Magic Steeped in Poison feels like multiple stories all rolled into one. On one hand it has a central competition that feels like The Apprentice, with various competitors fighting to prove themselves and to win their prize. There’s also the court intrigue and villainous plots from stories like A Song of Ice and Fire with various ministers and court officials all out to advance themselves. And there’s some romance thrown in for good measure as Ning begins to fall for a dangerous, dashing young man with a dark secret. And on top of all of this, the book gives us one of the most interesting and engaging magic systems that I can remember coming across, one that feels wholly unique to this world.

The magic of the story is tightly connected to tea. The shennong-shi create their magic by carefully crafting the right teas, picking the ingredients for the different qualities that they bring to the table. They have to think about how these items interact with each other, taking care not to brew something where one ingredient drowns out another, ruining the intended outcome. They then ceremonially brew and pour the teas, and breathe magic into them using their inherent powers. It’s a complex and subtle art, one that requires years of training and careful study, as well as some natural talent too. Ning is probably the least experienced person in the competition, yet has a natural flair for the process that allows her to not only compete with the others, but to stand above them at times too.

There are multiple instances throughout the book that we see hints of Ning’s magic at work without the use of teas, such as her listening to the flow of the world around her, taking notice of nature and asking it for guidance to find certain objects. The book makes hints that whilst the teas are the most obvious and practised form of magic in this world they’re not the only one, and that there is more beauty and horror hiding just out of sight. Because of this, it’s one of the more subtly engrossing fantasy worlds I’ve read. It draws you in slowly, and will occasionally add more elements into the mix, though it never seems to want to overshadow the tea brewing itself. Much like the shennong-shi crafting their teas, it seems like Lin has carefully crafted and curated what we learn of this world to give us the best result.

Whilst the book takes some chances and does some unique things with some of the elements, others will be comfortingly familiar. The book follows structures that will be recognisable to those who’ve read a lot of Young Adult literature, with a few of the more popular tropes thrown in there too. It could be easy to dismiss a book that uses familiar structures and tropes as not trying, or not being creative; but that’s certainly not the case here. Lin does some things that may be expected with the formula, but it never feels derivative or hackneyed, and instead it puts enough freshness and new ideas into it that it instead feels reassuringly familiar.

The book is packed with interesting characters, and by the time it ends you’ll probably have had your opinions on quite a few of them change more than once. Lin’s cast of characters are always more complex than they first appear, and have ulterior motives, hide their true intentions, and often put on a front in the imperial court. The result is that you can never really feel too complacent, and that you end up having to take careful note of everything you read as you never know how the plot and characters are going to shift.

My only criticism of the book is that this is a first part, the beginning entry in The Book of Tea series. I enjoyed the book, and when it came to an end with the story unresolved, and me unable to jump straight into the next volume, I was a bit disappointed. But that’s the sign that a book has done its job well, when it comes to an end and you’re thirsty for more. The book ends with things to be continued, but it’s still a wonderful, contained story that you can pick up and enjoy all on its own. Fingers crossed fans won’t have to wait long for the next instalment though.

A Magic Steeped in Poison is a wonderful debut packed full of interesting and intriguing things for readers to get lost in. The cover is absolutely gorgeous, and is a wonderful work of art in itself. If you love fantasy stories but want to try something that feels fresh and original, this is the book for you.

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Nightwing #95 - Comic Review

 

Originally published on Patreon

Issue 95 of Nightwing might be one of the best of the run yet, and with how good this series has been that's a big achievement.

The issue opens with Dick travelling to save his half sister from Blockbuster, in an escape that has such a great surprise in it that I literally burst out laughing at how well timed it was. Tom Taylor continually proves that he's brilliant at story timing, and it's not just the way he writes the characters and the stories he gives that that works, but the tiny moments that make the story pop.

So, with things reaching a head with Blockbuster, and with him knowing that he no longer has control over the mayor it means that we finally have to move against the villain. But how can Nightwing go up against everyone all on his own? Blockbuster has too many people, all of which will run and hide if they find out the law is moving against them and their allies.

Luckily, Nightwing has some allies of his own. First we get Batwoman, who joins him to talk to the new police commissioner, Maggie Sawyer, thanks to their shared history. And at this point I was thinking 'this is good, he's got help', but then it got so much better when the elevator door opens and you see who else has come along. Batman, Tim Drake, the Batgirls, Signal, Blue Bird, and the Titans. All of Dick's friends come to help, because of course they do. And then when they move against the criminals the Flash arrives. The only people that felt like they were missing here were Damian and Jon, but then I think they're both busy invading a country at the moment.

I absolutely loved that when things need sorting, when Dick can't handle everything alone and the day needs saving, his friends and family are there for him. Dick Grayson is one of the kindest, most caring, and best liked members of the super hero community. You'd be hard pressed to find a hero who doesn't respect him and wouldn't come and help him if asked. So of course he never had to do this alone.

Whilst Dick and his friends take down Blockbusters operations Blockbuster himself decides to be a spiteful dick, and targets Haven. Of course, Dick has to face him, but thanks to some truly evil shit from Blockbuster, is quickly overpowered. And worse still, his mask comes off, and Blockbuster finally learns that Nightwing and Dick Grayson are the same person. Which is frankly kind of obvious and he should have known long before now.

Things really kick off this issue, and it's amazing how many awesome moments get packed into this one comic. With Dick at the mercy of his nemesis it's clear that things will be continuing in an explosive manner next issue; and I'm so excited to see what happens next.

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The Butcher by Laura Kat Young - Book Review

 

'A debut small-town horror novel that is a chilling blend of Shirley Jackson meets Devil's Day by way of Westworld.

'When Lady Mae turns 18, she'll inherit her mother's ghastly job as the Butcher: dismembering Settlement Five's guilty criminals as payment for their petty crimes. But then their leaders, known as the Deputies, come to Lady Mae's house, and there in the living room murder her mother for refusing to butcher a child.

'Within twenty-four hours, now alone in the world, Lady Mae begins her gruesome job. But a chance meeting years later puts her face to face with the Deputy that murdered her mother. Now Lady Mae must choose: will she flee, and start another life in the desolate mountains, forever running? Or will she seek vengeance for her mother's death even if it kills her?'

We all like to think that if we were in some kind of awful regime we'd do something to stand up against it, some kind of defiant act that says 'no, I will not comply'; and dystopia fiction often puts defiant young heroes into roles where they end up becoming key figures in some kind of resistance movement, where their defiance becomes a spark for a larger rebellion. But, I think we all know that in reality that just isn't how it works. Looking around my country right now there are no resistances to our corrupt government, no one leading the charge against rampant capitalism, and transphobia, racism, and homophobia are all on the rise, unchallenged. The reality is, people don't really stand up against stuff, and if they do it's often small acts that do do much.

The Butcher feels very much like a story like that, where terrible things are allowed to happen, often with the excuse of 'that's how it's always been', and very little is said and done to stop it. It's not a story where our protagonist rises up and leads a movement that will change the world forever, there's no fight for freedom. But you get small acts of defiance, small moments where people say 'no', and sometimes they inspire others, but sometimes they do nothing. And because of that The Butcher is a realistically bleak story.

The story takes readers to Settlement Five, a small town in the mountains. Here, we meet Lady Mae, the daughter of the town Butcher, the person whose job it is to administer the physical punishments on those charged with criminal offences. The Butcher takes pieces from the townspeople, sometimes just a finder, sometimes a whole hand, depending on their crimes; and Lady Mae is set to take over for her mother one day.

However, when Lady Mae's mother lets a child go, rather than removing several fingers, she's attacked by the Deputies, the town's law enforcement, and killed in front of Lady Mae in her own home. Over the next few years Lady Mae takes over for her mother, and becomes the new Butcher. But when her childhood love returns to town her life begins to forever change as she realises that perhaps she doesn't want to keep hurting people, and that the system they all live under is wrong.

The Butcher is a story that takes readers to a very different world to our own; yet isn't concerned with building much of that world. We know that we're in Settlement Five, and that it's in the mountains, but that's about all. We don't know what year it is, what country it's set in, or how the world became this harsh, authoritarian place. There's no indication whether or not this is a dark future, or a completely separate fantasy world that has no connection to our own. And at first I was left wondering all of these questions, hoping that Young would provide some answers. But, that stuff wasn't really important, and inn the end, it doesn't matter.

What does matter are the people, both the characters like Lady Mae and Arbuckle around whom the story centres, and the people in the background. There are a lot of people in the book who don't get a time in the spotlight, who don't even get names, but every person in Settlement Five matters, as it's the way they live, the way they obey the laws of the Deputies, and the way they rebel against them, that shapes the story. We don't know the details of this world, but its inhabitants build it for us through their words and actions.

As such, this very quickly becomes a story where you care for the characters. You start to worry for them, you start to hope for them, and fear for them. Young shows us early on that this is not a kind world, that anything can happen to the characters, as not long into the book a young girl who breaks the law is sentenced to be burnt to death for her crimes. The laws of this land are harsh, and those in power aren't afraid to enact the cruellest of punishments. As such, you begin to understand why Lady Mae is constantly in a state of fear and paranoia; and you start to feel that yourself. There's an oppressive quality to the writing that gets under your skin as you read it.

But like I said before, this is a story about defiance, and Lady Mae, her lover, and her mother, all harbour the desire to rebel, to buck against the system. There are no big moments in this story, no grand gestures or big speeches. This isn't a story like that. Instead, it keeps its focus on the characters, on how they come to the tough decision to stand up and refuse to boy down, and how that effects them personally. And because of that it feels different to other stories about defiance in the face of oppression.

There are times where The Butcher is hard to read. It doesn't shy away from awful things, and goes to some very dark and disturbing places; but it never feels like it's completely without hope. It has a good message, and has a small seed of hope that I think we can all learn to try to have in real life. This isn't a light or fun read at all, but it is a damn good one, and one that speaks volumes.

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Batgirls #9 - Comic Review

 

Originally published on Patreon

Now that the leftovers from the Peacekeepers have been dealt with, what do the three Batgirls have left to contend with? Well, it looks like they're dealing with a huge summer heatwave (same here girls) and a vicious serial killer on the loose (thankfully, not the same her girls). 

We've had this small story going on in the background for a while now, simmering beneath the surface and it's kind of wild that nothing has really happened with it until now. Yes, I know that the Batgirls have been dealing with some super villains and evil hackers that they couldn't just ignore, but other than Steph becoming convinced their neighbour was the killer and stalking him they've done nothing about this serial killer.

I don't know if the book was intending to make the point that these heroes sometimes have very skewed priorities, but it certainly did. The villains have been stopped and the Batgirls identities and ability to operate are secure, and Babs goes out for coffee with her friend, Cass goes book shopping, and the only one who even acknowledges there's a killer is Steph, who's actually trying to do something.

And then they find another victim, brutally murdered. I'm not saying that it's the Batgirls fault, but they definitely should have been on this case before now. They know the worlds greatest detective, they should look into ordinary crimes every now and then.

Thankfully, it seems that this latest killing has spurred them on to look for the killer; a killer who seems to be watching the girls. Killer Moth is lurking in the shadows, watching the three of them. Is he the one committing these murders? It does seem a little different from his normal MO, but it does keep surrounding the Batgirls, which does fit with his obsession.

Whether it's him or not, it at least seems like the girls are going to be trying to close this case now, and it looks like it's going to take a slight toll on Steph, who blames herself for their neighbours death, and for suspecting him of being the killer just because he was a bit odd. 

After the simply just fine quality of the previous story I'm looking forward to the series trying something more, and this story arc seems like it could be a lot more entertaining and engaging than the first one. I'm certainly excited to see how it ends up going.

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The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway) – Throwback 70

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

There are a few books in the world that carry the term classic, that are considered some of the greats in literature. And whilst many of these are older books, written more than a hundred years ago, The Old Man and the Sea stands out amongst them for being relatively modern, and for also not even being a full novel. This short novella very quickly became a bestseller and award winner, as well as revitalising the career of its author; all in a relatively small package.

The Old Man and the Sea tells the story of Santiago, an ageing fisherman who lives in a small coastal town in Cuba. Santiago is incredibly poor, and barely gets by as he hits a patch of bad luck, and begins to come back without catching any fish for the day. This bad luck extends and soon he’s failed to catch anything for more than eighty days. His only real friend, a young man who used to work on his boat with him, has had to leave to work on other ships, leaving Santiago to fish alone.

As he reaches eighty five days without making a single catch, Santiago head out into the Gulf Stream, hoping to finally find something. Soon, Santiago manages to hook a huge marlin on his line, but is unable to bring it in. Thus begins a battle between the man and fish that lasts days, with Santiago slowly reeling the huge animal closer and closer to his small boat. After two days, with the ship having drifted further and further from land, Santiago finally manages to bring the fish in, and kills it with his harpoon. However, the fish is too big to bring on board, and he has to tie it to the side.

As Santiago tries to get back to land the blood from the marlin begins to attract sharks, and though he manages to battle away many, killing several, it’s not enough, and by the time he makes it home all that’s left is the head of the fish. With his giant prize eaten, Santiago returns home with nothing to show for his ordeal.

There are many books that contain the message to never give up, to keep going no matter what to achieve your goals and come out on top. And whilst these are decent sentiments, and people should always strive to achieve, The Old Man and the Sea has a slightly different message; that even if you fight your hardest for something you can still lose.

Santiago battles against the marlin for days, he goes with little to no sleep, with barely any food or water, he cuts his hands open. And when he finally manages to pull in his catch he faces an even greater task, getting through the sharks that are drawn in. Fighting with harpoons, an oar, and just a knife, he kills shark after shark, showing a fierce dedication to protecting his prize, going further than any man should, and it’s all for nothing. Santiago doesn’t do anything wrong, he doesn’t make any particularly bad mistakes, but he still fails in the end. It’s an example of the famous Captain Picard quote “It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life.” in action.

The Old Man and the Sea teaches a lesson that few stories want to, that sometimes you fail no matter what. Most stories want a happy ending, or a resolution so bad that it’s catastrophic. But by the end of this book Santiago is just back to his normal life, carrying on after failing because that’s the human way. We can strive, and whilst we sometimes succeed we can also fail; that’s just a part of life.

The Old Man and the Sea was Hemingway’s final book to be published during his life, and was printed in both book form and in the September edition of Life magazine. The first edition of the book was printed at 50,000 copies, but Life sold more than five million copies in just two days. The huge number of sales made Hemingway a celebrity once again, after his last full length novel, Across the River and into the Trees, was met with a poor reception.

Many critics thought that Hemingway has peaked as a writer, and that his best work was long behind him. But The Old Man and the Sea changed that. Within just a few short years the novella received both a Pulitzer Prize, and the Nobel Prize in Literature, which Hemingway would dedicate to the Cuban people. The book’s publisher printed it with the term ‘new classic’ on the cover, and most critics agreed with this statement, favourably comparing it to some of the greatest pieces in literature.

The Old Man and the Sea has gone on to become one of, if not the, most famous works of Hemingway, and has become a staple text for many schools across the world. It’s been adapted for the screen more than once, with a feature length film version, a television mini-series, and an animated short film which went on to win more than a dozen awards. Whether you experience this story through reading it, or via one of the various adaptations, it’s a story that’s sure to leave some form of lasting impression upon you, which is part of the reason it has become a important piece of literary history.

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Future State: Gotham #16 - Comic Review

 

Originally published on Patreon

The story of the five Batmen continues to heat up in the latest issue of Future State: Gotham, as the five heroes and villains finally come together; promising an explosive conclusion to this story.

We pick up where the last issue left off, with Jace being attacked by Damian, under the instruction of Hush. It turns out that Damian learned a few tricks whilst he was in hell, as his rune and symbol covered Batarangs cause Jace to relive the worst moments of his life, making him face the 'sins' that will cause him to go to hell. Luckily, Red Hood and Panic are on hand to come to his aid and stop Damian from killing him.

Elsewhere, Dick ends up fighting the other members of the Bat-family, who are trying to stop him from using the brain drug. But, Dick seems determined that not only is he going to be Batman, but that his family can't be involved. Using the drug, he's able to stop his friends, and heads off into the night.

Back with the others, things get complicated when the Batmobile crashes onto the scene, delivering Talia al Ghul and Bruce onto the scene. Damian, now not knowing who or what to trust, seems to go wild, and turns on everyone. The issue ends with Dick arriving, bringing the five Batmen together at last.

There's a lot of action in this issue, but we also get time to squeeze in some more insight and character moments as we get to see a little bit about Jace's past and what drives him, as well as getting to see a bit more of how this new, older version of Damian thinks. It's interesting to see how easily Hush is able to manipulate Damian, a grown man who spent years surviving in literal hell, but then you realise it's because all Damian has ever wanted is a father who loves him; and that's what Hush is using to get what he wants.

I will be honest, not a huge amount happened this issue, but this is often the case in comic stories, where you're past the exciting set-up and just coming up to the conclusion, so you have to have the less exciting issues that bring everything together. This issue did a lot of work for the big final confrontation, but that doesn't in any means mean it's bad or boring. This was a solid issue that was enjoyable to read.

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