Belated book reviews: graphic novels
Jun. 28th, 2011 05:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terrikoContinuing my catch-up of book reviews, this is the graphic novels section. It's the longest one, unsurprisingly!
A Home for Mr. Easter by By Allen, Brooke A.
Cute little comic about a girl who rescues a very special bunny and then tries to get him home. I wasn't sure about the book at first because, frankly, I don't usually enjoy reading about other people's body issues and it starts with her being bullied, but once the story picked up and she was the heroine rather than the victim, it was totally worth it.
Oishinbo: Fish, Sushi and Sashimi: A la Carte By Kariya, Tetsu
John's comic book guy recommended this series to him, and since the guy has a pretty good success rate (only one miss thus far), I figured I'd look it up even though John didn't decide to buy it. It's a story about some reporters (?) who are aiming to create the ultimate (Japanese) menu and are going around learning about food... and about people. It grabbed me a lot more than I thought it would, with the stories telling me not only how to prepare fish, but a lot about the personalities involved with excellent food, and how knowing people can make it much easier to make them happy, regardless of the food. Surprisingly compelling storytelling intertwined with an interesting little premise.
Foiled By Yolen, Jane
A fantastic, well-told and well-illustrated tale of a girl who fences and falls for a boy... only to discover that her powers go way beyond championship fencing. A great urban fantasy I'd totally recommend to younger girls.
Stargazer Book 1 By Allan, Von
This feels a little like Myst, if that makes sense? Three friends wind up in a world strangely empty but filled with mysteries. The girls are scared but curious, and they start exploring. Apparently the author's local to me!
Aaron and Ahmed A Love Story By Cantor, Jay
A nurse who's lost his love when the towers fell tries to do something for his country by working in Guantanamo Bay as a torturer, but finds himself befriending a prisoner and... well, I really can't say much without spoiling the story. Love, hate, faith and patriotism seen through an unusual tale.
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane: Sophomore Jinx
I just got this because it was Terry Moore, despite the fact that I'd seen it before and been kinda turned off by the "Spiderman as an Archie comic" vibe I got from it. That said, teen superhero comic where the main character is actually Mary Jane? Actually pretty darned fun, even though it really a teen drama with the backdrop of superheroism. Even though it's clearly "comics for girls", I found it actually endearing, so I'll pick up some other volumes.
Here's a few where I've reviewed others from the same series:
Runaways vol 7-9
Still enjoying this as it switched authors: from Brian K Vaughan to Joss Whedon to Terry Moore. I'm actually impressed at how little it felt like author switches, actually. Unfortunately, the art was a little more obvious, and I didn't think the art style for vol 9 suited the story nearly as well even though I still enjoyed the volume.
Top 10 book one By Moore, Alan
See my review of book 2. Basically this got me caught up and elucidated some things for me. Fun world, interesting people.
Echo volumes 1-3 By Moore, Terry
See my review of book 4, which I read first. Just as intriguing now that I know the backstory! Sadly, the library doesn't have book 5 (or maybe it's not out?) so it'll be a while before I revisit this one.
Xkcd
Just a collection of the comics: even the intro reminds you that you could have just gotten this for free. Some cute additions and it was fun to revisit the comics I hadn't read in a while, though.
These were actually all enjoyable, but not books I'd recommend you go out of your way for.
FreeRealms [1] By Lewis, J. S.
I didn't realise when I got this book that was some sort of game tie-in. It feels like that a bit, but is otherwise a reasonable if not amazingly imaginative fantasy quest story.
The Mice Templar Volume One, The Prophecy By Glass, Bryan J. L.
I'd heard great things about this one, but honestly? It didn't really grab me. It feels a little too much aimed at younger boys, which sort of put me off even though the story was good enough. I guess maybe I'm tired of reading fantasy worlds where the women can't be warriors 'cause they're girls. :P I'd like my fantasy worlds contain less gender-oppression, thanks. Perhaps because I was already irked, though, I also found the faith a bit heavy-handed. Overall, I just didn't feel like the target audience here.
RG Veda Vol. 1 by CLAMP
OK but not amazing, fairly standard fare for manga with demons and ancient fantasy Japan. I won't go out of my way to find the next volume.
Beauty Is the Beast 3 By Matsumoto, Tomo
Again, OK but not amazing, kinda standard "we worship some kid" highschool romance manga. I can't even remember much more than that at this point.
Warcraft: Legends vol 2-4
I probably shouldn't even admit to reading these tie-in novels, but I wanted to sit in the air conditioned library for a bit so i pulled one off the shelf to sit for a while, and was surprised to find that although a lot of it was a little too merchandising-schlock for me, there's some actually compelling fantasy tales that just happen to be set in Azeroth in there. Still wouldn't have been worth buying, but a nice read from the library and I feel a bit bad about prejudging it now.
Graphic Novels
New and interesting
A Home for Mr. Easter by By Allen, Brooke A.
Cute little comic about a girl who rescues a very special bunny and then tries to get him home. I wasn't sure about the book at first because, frankly, I don't usually enjoy reading about other people's body issues and it starts with her being bullied, but once the story picked up and she was the heroine rather than the victim, it was totally worth it.
Oishinbo: Fish, Sushi and Sashimi: A la Carte By Kariya, Tetsu
John's comic book guy recommended this series to him, and since the guy has a pretty good success rate (only one miss thus far), I figured I'd look it up even though John didn't decide to buy it. It's a story about some reporters (?) who are aiming to create the ultimate (Japanese) menu and are going around learning about food... and about people. It grabbed me a lot more than I thought it would, with the stories telling me not only how to prepare fish, but a lot about the personalities involved with excellent food, and how knowing people can make it much easier to make them happy, regardless of the food. Surprisingly compelling storytelling intertwined with an interesting little premise.
Foiled By Yolen, Jane
A fantastic, well-told and well-illustrated tale of a girl who fences and falls for a boy... only to discover that her powers go way beyond championship fencing. A great urban fantasy I'd totally recommend to younger girls.
Stargazer Book 1 By Allan, Von
This feels a little like Myst, if that makes sense? Three friends wind up in a world strangely empty but filled with mysteries. The girls are scared but curious, and they start exploring. Apparently the author's local to me!
Aaron and Ahmed A Love Story By Cantor, Jay
A nurse who's lost his love when the towers fell tries to do something for his country by working in Guantanamo Bay as a torturer, but finds himself befriending a prisoner and... well, I really can't say much without spoiling the story. Love, hate, faith and patriotism seen through an unusual tale.
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane: Sophomore Jinx
I just got this because it was Terry Moore, despite the fact that I'd seen it before and been kinda turned off by the "Spiderman as an Archie comic" vibe I got from it. That said, teen superhero comic where the main character is actually Mary Jane? Actually pretty darned fun, even though it really a teen drama with the backdrop of superheroism. Even though it's clearly "comics for girls", I found it actually endearing, so I'll pick up some other volumes.
The continuing story...
Here's a few where I've reviewed others from the same series:
Runaways vol 7-9
Still enjoying this as it switched authors: from Brian K Vaughan to Joss Whedon to Terry Moore. I'm actually impressed at how little it felt like author switches, actually. Unfortunately, the art was a little more obvious, and I didn't think the art style for vol 9 suited the story nearly as well even though I still enjoyed the volume.
Top 10 book one By Moore, Alan
See my review of book 2. Basically this got me caught up and elucidated some things for me. Fun world, interesting people.
Echo volumes 1-3 By Moore, Terry
See my review of book 4, which I read first. Just as intriguing now that I know the backstory! Sadly, the library doesn't have book 5 (or maybe it's not out?) so it'll be a while before I revisit this one.
Xkcd
Just a collection of the comics: even the intro reminds you that you could have just gotten this for free. Some cute additions and it was fun to revisit the comics I hadn't read in a while, though.
Others
These were actually all enjoyable, but not books I'd recommend you go out of your way for.
FreeRealms [1] By Lewis, J. S.
I didn't realise when I got this book that was some sort of game tie-in. It feels like that a bit, but is otherwise a reasonable if not amazingly imaginative fantasy quest story.
The Mice Templar Volume One, The Prophecy By Glass, Bryan J. L.
I'd heard great things about this one, but honestly? It didn't really grab me. It feels a little too much aimed at younger boys, which sort of put me off even though the story was good enough. I guess maybe I'm tired of reading fantasy worlds where the women can't be warriors 'cause they're girls. :P I'd like my fantasy worlds contain less gender-oppression, thanks. Perhaps because I was already irked, though, I also found the faith a bit heavy-handed. Overall, I just didn't feel like the target audience here.
RG Veda Vol. 1 by CLAMP
OK but not amazing, fairly standard fare for manga with demons and ancient fantasy Japan. I won't go out of my way to find the next volume.
Beauty Is the Beast 3 By Matsumoto, Tomo
Again, OK but not amazing, kinda standard "we worship some kid" highschool romance manga. I can't even remember much more than that at this point.
Warcraft: Legends vol 2-4
I probably shouldn't even admit to reading these tie-in novels, but I wanted to sit in the air conditioned library for a bit so i pulled one off the shelf to sit for a while, and was surprised to find that although a lot of it was a little too merchandising-schlock for me, there's some actually compelling fantasy tales that just happen to be set in Azeroth in there. Still wouldn't have been worth buying, but a nice read from the library and I feel a bit bad about prejudging it now.