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labunnywtf's review
2.0
Regarding book recs, I'll consider this and volume 1 as just one rec. Which means new coworker, aka D&D Boy, has only one strike as opposed to two.
What. is. this? Like....
Imagine if you were sitting around with your buddies, having hit the bong particularly hard, and you started throwing out the most random and insane sounding superheroes possible.
Then you slapped them into a comic, crammed far too much action into each panel, and got it published.
There. You've written Dial H.
What. is. this? Like....
Imagine if you were sitting around with your buddies, having hit the bong particularly hard, and you started throwing out the most random and insane sounding superheroes possible.
Then you slapped them into a comic, crammed far too much action into each panel, and got it published.
There. You've written Dial H.
colindalaska's review
2.0
Full on full out madness. I have literally no idea whether this is any good as it's so completely weird.
shane_tiernan's review
3.0
I love a lot of China Mieville's writing mostly because of the originality. You'll never find a dwarf or an elf in his fantasy stuff and his non-fantasy stuff is even stranger than his fantasy stuff. The problem with this series is the same as other attempts at originality - sometimes it just gets too weird. The other problem, for me because I'm American, is that I think much of the humor was British, so I didn't get it. Like the hero "Cock-a-hoop" basically a rooster with a hula hoop, which I just looked up and it says "British" before it. So the humor fell flat sometimes for me. If the heroes were only in a frame or 2 no big deal but "Open Window Man" ended up being a main character and he just looked so stupid it was distracting from the really cool plot.
Anyway, I loved the plot, I loved the 2 main characters, but things often got incomprehensible and there were silly heroes. That puts this firmly in 3-star territory for me. Which is disappointing because I was really hoping I would love it.
Anyway, I loved the plot, I loved the 2 main characters, but things often got incomprehensible and there were silly heroes. That puts this firmly in 3-star territory for me. Which is disappointing because I was really hoping I would love it.
davybaby's review
3.0
As always with Mieville, enjoyable and strange. I can't help but feel that the story reached its end-game too soon. It felt as though the pace picked up a bit too much for the second volume. I'm not sure if the series was only ever going to be as long as it was, but the climax felt too large for the protagonist and his story.
I may give it another go at some point (being a quick read), but the series was sadly a step down from most of Mieville's prose fiction.
I may give it another go at some point (being a quick read), but the series was sadly a step down from most of Mieville's prose fiction.
otherwyrld's review
3.0
I feel like I've been Mievilled (that's a word I just made up, because if the author can do it why can't I?) I don't quite know how to define the word, but it has something to do with being hit over the head with the author's own copy of the Oxford English Dictionary, liberally annotated with his own made-up words, and with the pages heavily suffused with any number of hallucinogenic drugs. Feel free to made up your own definition though, it's as loose and fluid as the author's own words.
Basically though in book 1 of this series, Nelson Jent finds a mysterious dial that allows him to become all sorts of weird superheroes. Teaming up with Roxie Hodder, who has her own dial and fights crime as Manteau, he sets put to find out more about the dials and where they came from.
After losing one of their dials, Nelson and Roxie have to take turns to use the dial to track down a second dial and find some answers. They run into a villain called Centipede, and find another dial in Canada where. At one point Nelson dials himself into the Flash, which is possibly the best bit of the story, though it does bring up an earlier point made in the last book - what happens to the heroes when the dial steals their power, especially if they are in the middle of a battle? We saw in the first volume that this can have tragic consequences. . Of course, this is also frustrating as it crosses over to the Flash series, and I haven't seen that so I don't know how it ends.
It is at this point that the story starts to get so weird and convoluted that it loses me, as our heroes run into others with dials, and after a lot of battles finally make it to the origin point of all this, and a long ago war that caused all of this to begin with. With all the different people dialling so many heroes, the story collapses under its own weight. I really feel sorry for the artist trying to illustrate this insanity.
Roxy, Nelson and the others finally win (I think!) but find themselves stuck on the world of the Exchange, but at least they have plenty of materials to make new dials. The end of this volume is the end of the story as the series was cancelled with issue 15, but there is an epilogue of sorts which appeared in Justice League.
This was a bold and inventive story, but China Mieville is certainly not to everyone's taste. I certainly admire his writing, and the inventiveness that appears there, but I'm not sure I actually like his books.
4 stars for the Flash appearance, 2 stars for the rest.
Basically though in book 1 of this series, Nelson Jent finds a mysterious dial that allows him to become all sorts of weird superheroes. Teaming up with Roxie Hodder, who has her own dial and fights crime as Manteau, he sets put to find out more about the dials and where they came from.
After losing one of their dials, Nelson and Roxie have to take turns to use the dial to track down a second dial and find some answers. They run into a villain called Centipede, and find another dial in Canada where
Spoiler
they discover there is more than one kind of dial - the one they have is a Hero dial, but there is also a Sidekick dial, and there are other types as well, as they find out later onSpoiler
it turns out that the dials are only supposed to copy powers, not steal them, but the dials our heroes are using are the faulty ones, blown across all of time and space after the final battle at the ExchangeIt is at this point that the story starts to get so weird and convoluted that it loses me, as our heroes run into others with dials, and after a lot of battles finally make it to the origin point of all this, and a long ago war that caused all of this to begin with. With all the different people dialling so many heroes, the story collapses under its own weight. I really feel sorry for the artist trying to illustrate this insanity.
Roxy, Nelson and the others finally win (I think!) but find themselves stuck on the world of the Exchange, but at least they have plenty of materials to make new dials. The end of this volume is the end of the story as the series was cancelled with issue 15, but there is an epilogue of sorts which appeared in Justice League.
This was a bold and inventive story, but China Mieville is certainly not to everyone's taste. I certainly admire his writing, and the inventiveness that appears there, but I'm not sure I actually like his books.
4 stars for the Flash appearance, 2 stars for the rest.
crowyhead's review
I tried to finish this, but I was just SO BORED. I made it halfway through. The action was incredibly difficult to follow, the pacing was weird, and I got tired of waiting for the story to be something I could sink my teeth into.
bemerson's review
4.0
Just like everything else I've read by China Miéville, most of the time I had no idea what was going on. But it was very enjoyable!
linnaeusns's review
4.0
Pretty bugnuts and a lot more meta than I prefer, but also smart as hell and a lot of fun. Not sure the dials need an explanation in the end, but the imagination and energy on display make for a fun ride.
linnaeus's review
4.0
Pretty bugnuts and a lot more meta than I prefer, but also smart as hell and a lot of fun. Not sure the dials need an explanation in the end, but the imagination and energy on display make for a fun ride.