You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
nerdyreferencelibrarian89's Reviews (1.18k)
This volume really built on the strengths of the first 2. We get a glimpse of the wider events happening across Japan, and it is not looking good.
Hideo and Hiromi join a large group of people heading up Mt Fuji to a high elevation. A rumor has been going around that the thin air and cold weather will kill the virus... nothing could go wrong right?
With the escalating chaos around Japan, Hideo and Hiromi encounter more potentially violent situations, but Hideo, remaining true to his character, continues to be hesitant to use his gun, and continues to try to follow all the laws he can.
For people wishing the series has more action this volume introduces some plot lines that I think promise to deliver some dramatic action sequences.
I personally think the dynamic between Hideo and Hiromi continues to be cute an endearing, amidst the horror of their situation. There is a third character which enters the group dynamic I am not as wild about, as I think he throws off the dynamic, but I am intrigued to see where things go. The volume ends with some major developments, as we see other groups of survivors coming up with their own schemes.
Hideo and Hiromi join a large group of people heading up Mt Fuji to a high elevation. A rumor has been going around that the thin air and cold weather will kill the virus... nothing could go wrong right?
With the escalating chaos around Japan, Hideo and Hiromi encounter more potentially violent situations, but Hideo, remaining true to his character, continues to be hesitant to use his gun, and continues to try to follow all the laws he can.
For people wishing the series has more action this volume introduces some plot lines that I think promise to deliver some dramatic action sequences.
I personally think the dynamic between Hideo and Hiromi continues to be cute an endearing, amidst the horror of their situation. There is a third character which enters the group dynamic I am not as wild about, as I think he throws off the dynamic, but I am intrigued to see where things go. The volume ends with some major developments, as we see other groups of survivors coming up with their own schemes.
This volume takes the plot laid down in volume 1 and takes it into a whole new gear. There is still the mystery of who framed Luci, but at the same time we have our main protagonist lost and wondering about her place in the world. We find out more about how the pantheon and recurrence works, we also get really interesting insight into the fandom of the gods.
I really enjoyed reading about Laura's character, and her processing Luci's death, and her one spark of godliness that she is unable to manifest again.
The volume ends on a huge bang, and made me immediately check out and want to start Volume 3!
I really enjoyed reading about Laura's character, and her processing Luci's death, and her one spark of godliness that she is unable to manifest again.
The volume ends on a huge bang, and made me immediately check out and want to start Volume 3!
To start off, this really wasn't a horror novel. It starts off sort of like one, but after the first 150 pages veers into the fantasy genre.
I really enjoyed the first half of this book, I thought the concepts were interesting and the characters compelling. Then there is a weird moment where the tone and style of the book entirely switch, and becomes more of a fantasy adventure...
This was jarring and didn't quite work for me. I did enjoy some of the exploration it led to, but sort of felt like I was switching books in the middle.
I also wasn't certain how I felt about some of the central concepts/ideas of the book. Un this mystical other world switches depending on many circumstances, and seems to meld and morph depending on the person viewing it. But then when the characters are exploring it, it is largely locked into one form, which didn't make sense.
The ending I also found to be a bit of a let down. There was one twist, which I didn't see coming and enjoyed involving Nathan (I won't spoil it). But his relationship after this twist to the rest of the narrative felt well sort of forced. I also didn't fully understand the choices Scattie makes at the end of the book, it never really explains what she is "protecting".
This books tries to be a lot of things, but really ends up giving lukewarm delivery of all those things. If you are looking for a truly scary horror novel, look elsewhere. If you want a fantasy adventure/ modern myth again other books do it better. If you want a weird Frankenstein mash up... this is the book for you. Also, at no point is the title explained, no idea who Hekla is or who her children are...
I really enjoyed the first half of this book, I thought the concepts were interesting and the characters compelling. Then there is a weird moment where the tone and style of the book entirely switch, and becomes more of a fantasy adventure...
This was jarring and didn't quite work for me. I did enjoy some of the exploration it led to, but sort of felt like I was switching books in the middle.
I also wasn't certain how I felt about some of the central concepts/ideas of the book. Un this mystical other world switches depending on many circumstances, and seems to meld and morph depending on the person viewing it. But then when the characters are exploring it, it is largely locked into one form, which didn't make sense.
The ending I also found to be a bit of a let down. There was one twist, which I didn't see coming and enjoyed involving Nathan (I won't spoil it). But his relationship after this twist to the rest of the narrative felt well sort of forced. I also didn't fully understand the choices Scattie makes at the end of the book, it never really explains what she is "protecting".
This books tries to be a lot of things, but really ends up giving lukewarm delivery of all those things. If you are looking for a truly scary horror novel, look elsewhere. If you want a fantasy adventure/ modern myth again other books do it better. If you want a weird Frankenstein mash up... this is the book for you. Also, at no point is the title explained, no idea who Hekla is or who her children are...
Star Wars: Darth Vader by Kieron Gillen Vol. 2
Dave Stewart, Jason Aaron, Frank Martin, David Curiel, Kieron Gillen
This was really good, I think the first half was stronger then the second half. I really enjoyed seeing Vader, Luke, and the other rebels interact in a scene not shown in the movies.
I didn't read this first volume of this, as I couldn't find it at my library, so I think some of the reveals and show downs in the second half of this volume were lost on me.
Overall, this is a perfect read if you are looking for some heavy Vader action, and a few interesting moments of insight into the deeper parts of the characters.
I didn't read this first volume of this, as I couldn't find it at my library, so I think some of the reveals and show downs in the second half of this volume were lost on me.
Overall, this is a perfect read if you are looking for some heavy Vader action, and a few interesting moments of insight into the deeper parts of the characters.
This was a really interesting read. I had no knowledge of Jessica Jones beyond the Netflix series, so a lot of the information was relatively new. I particularly enjoyed that much like the Netflix series this book wasn't necessarily about a super hero, but was rather about a person who has super powers (that at no point were used to accomplish her goals!).
Without giving away spoilers Jessica Jones is leaving prison at the beginning of the story, after being put there for unknown reasons. Her life seems in shambles, he marriage to Luke Cage in trouble, and she is hiding her and Luke's daughter from the super hero community for unknown reasons. Basically Jones seems to have hit rock bottom and is continuing to spiral down.
Jones tries to return to normalcy by taking on a private eye job, but this job reveals a potential darker secret to the super hero world.
I really enjoyed that this story focused more on the marvel world, rather then on super hero stuff. I also think Jones is a compelling character to read about because she is such a nuanced character. It's also interesting to see a super hero relationship.
Overall I think this was a great start to a series. I am not a huge fan of the art style, I don't think the character's details, specifically faces and facial expressions are particularly sharp, but the compelling dialogue and story made up for it.
Without giving away spoilers Jessica Jones is leaving prison at the beginning of the story, after being put there for unknown reasons. Her life seems in shambles, he marriage to Luke Cage in trouble, and she is hiding her and Luke's daughter from the super hero community for unknown reasons. Basically Jones seems to have hit rock bottom and is continuing to spiral down.
Jones tries to return to normalcy by taking on a private eye job, but this job reveals a potential darker secret to the super hero world.
I really enjoyed that this story focused more on the marvel world, rather then on super hero stuff. I also think Jones is a compelling character to read about because she is such a nuanced character. It's also interesting to see a super hero relationship.
Overall I think this was a great start to a series. I am not a huge fan of the art style, I don't think the character's details, specifically faces and facial expressions are particularly sharp, but the compelling dialogue and story made up for it.
This book was LONG, but extremely good.
This was my only second Stephen King book, so some of my review of his style may be duh statements for hard core fans, but here we go.
IT was an exploration of the town of Derry, which has a curse, or town wide haunting. King does an amazing job intertwining the tale of the Loser Club as kids and as adults, growing up, and then returning to Derry to fight a creature they only know as IT.
It had several scary and chilling moments as a creature, the most uncomfortable involved flying super leeches! However, I think the greatest fear came not from the creature itself, but from the actions of the everyday people subtly having their worse personality traits enhanced. These involved a lecherous leper, a emotionless serial killer, homophobia, sexism, racism, and pretty much every negative emotion humans can have. This is where I found the true horror of the story.
As a word of warning, I was truly shocked at the amount of racism, homophobia, and sexism in the book, but these depictions are a powerful way to demonstrate the subtle influences of IT, as well as the dark depths of humanity.
This book has quite a bit of discussion of childhood, the role that plays for us, and what it means to be a child. This was an unexpected component of the content, but very welcomed, as it lent an layer of extra stuff to consider and think about.
The power of belief was an interesting concept the book used that I really enjoyed.
While there is a lot to love about this book, there are a few things that I don't think quite worked. The biggest was the very weird, very out of place sex scene with the losers as kids. I don't mind the sex in the rest of the book at all, but 10 and 11 year old orgy... no thanks. To make it worse the reason for this scene felt very forced and weird. It also regulated Beverly to just a sex object for the group, which was BLEH. There were so many other ways to handle fixing the group getting lost, this just didn't work.
I wish Stan had a more major role in the group, he dies right at the beginning of the book, and sort of plays a back role in the story from that point on. In many ways he felt like the least fleshed out and least interesting person in the group. Being Jewish isn't enough of an identity to be a fully fleshed out character.
Overall I would strongly recommend this book to anyone looking for an amazing horror epic, that ends on a really solid note. It is incredibly LONG, so it is a huge commitment, but it is definitely worth it.
This was my only second Stephen King book, so some of my review of his style may be duh statements for hard core fans, but here we go.
IT was an exploration of the town of Derry, which has a curse, or town wide haunting. King does an amazing job intertwining the tale of the Loser Club as kids and as adults, growing up, and then returning to Derry to fight a creature they only know as IT.
It had several scary and chilling moments as a creature, the most uncomfortable involved flying super leeches! However, I think the greatest fear came not from the creature itself, but from the actions of the everyday people subtly having their worse personality traits enhanced. These involved a lecherous leper, a emotionless serial killer, homophobia, sexism, racism, and pretty much every negative emotion humans can have. This is where I found the true horror of the story.
As a word of warning, I was truly shocked at the amount of racism, homophobia, and sexism in the book, but these depictions are a powerful way to demonstrate the subtle influences of IT, as well as the dark depths of humanity.
This book has quite a bit of discussion of childhood, the role that plays for us, and what it means to be a child. This was an unexpected component of the content, but very welcomed, as it lent an layer of extra stuff to consider and think about.
The power of belief was an interesting concept the book used that I really enjoyed.
While there is a lot to love about this book, there are a few things that I don't think quite worked. The biggest was the very weird, very out of place sex scene with the losers as kids. I don't mind the sex in the rest of the book at all, but 10 and 11 year old orgy... no thanks. To make it worse the reason for this scene felt very forced and weird. It also regulated Beverly to just a sex object for the group, which was BLEH. There were so many other ways to handle fixing the group getting lost, this just didn't work.
I wish Stan had a more major role in the group, he dies right at the beginning of the book, and sort of plays a back role in the story from that point on. In many ways he felt like the least fleshed out and least interesting person in the group. Being Jewish isn't enough of an identity to be a fully fleshed out character.
Overall I would strongly recommend this book to anyone looking for an amazing horror epic, that ends on a really solid note. It is incredibly LONG, so it is a huge commitment, but it is definitely worth it.
I thought I hadn't read this book yet, but it turned out I did, I had just forgotten most of the plot DOH!
Anyhoo if you like the Monster Hunter series this will be a really enjoyable read. It has all the staples that sell the series, fast pacing, interesting supporting characters, great action sequences, and some really good humor, plus a villain you can really hate.
This book veers away from following members of MHI and Pitt, instead focusing on the Monster Control Bureau and most importantly Agent Franks. This story is jam packed with juicy information on this most famous MCB member, and even has an epic showdown between Franks and Earl of MHI.
This book isn't particularly deep, like the rest of the series. It doesn't aim to change how you view the world. But it does deliver a great story, great characters, all in an easy to consume 500 ish pages. Highly recommend to fans of the series.
Anyhoo if you like the Monster Hunter series this will be a really enjoyable read. It has all the staples that sell the series, fast pacing, interesting supporting characters, great action sequences, and some really good humor, plus a villain you can really hate.
This book veers away from following members of MHI and Pitt, instead focusing on the Monster Control Bureau and most importantly Agent Franks. This story is jam packed with juicy information on this most famous MCB member, and even has an epic showdown between Franks and Earl of MHI.
This book isn't particularly deep, like the rest of the series. It doesn't aim to change how you view the world. But it does deliver a great story, great characters, all in an easy to consume 500 ish pages. Highly recommend to fans of the series.
I was very excited for this graphic novel, I had read bits as comics when I was a preteen, but could never find the missing parts of the story, so naturally I was very intrigued.
This graphic novel was really more about Cable then the x-men, which was fine, I didn't know much about Cable and his segments were interesting. The real problem with the story is it was very disjointed and jumped around. When ever a group of X-men were gearing up to fight, it would show them in a pose and then jump away, and this happened whenever almost any character was prepping to fight.
In addition several characters are seen preparing, or are mentioned, but don't really pop up again in the story, such as Canonball and his group.
Perhaps the story worked better when it was initially published and if you have the prior knowledge about the characters subplots, but I found myself getting excited for scenes or interactions, and then the story would jump to the next scene, only coming back to show the results.
Overall this was just ok, perhaps I should have let it stay in my nostalgic memory :/.
I may try picking up the second volume, just to see if any of the story gets concluded better, but I am not positive if it is worth it.
This graphic novel was really more about Cable then the x-men, which was fine, I didn't know much about Cable and his segments were interesting. The real problem with the story is it was very disjointed and jumped around. When ever a group of X-men were gearing up to fight, it would show them in a pose and then jump away, and this happened whenever almost any character was prepping to fight.
In addition several characters are seen preparing, or are mentioned, but don't really pop up again in the story, such as Canonball and his group.
Perhaps the story worked better when it was initially published and if you have the prior knowledge about the characters subplots, but I found myself getting excited for scenes or interactions, and then the story would jump to the next scene, only coming back to show the results.
Overall this was just ok, perhaps I should have let it stay in my nostalgic memory :/.
I may try picking up the second volume, just to see if any of the story gets concluded better, but I am not positive if it is worth it.
This was a nice revamp of a character from the old canon of Star Wars. Taking a more internal perspective of Thrawn readers really gain some interesting insight into the alien, his view on people, and some of his tactical acumen.
The plot follows Thrawn's entrance into the imperial navy, and then his rise through the ranks. His side kick Vantou (i'm not sure if that is spelled right I listened to the book) rises with him.
Overall the book delivers an interesting plot with some great character interactions. I think it would be enjoyed by many star wars fans; however, I did have some problems with the story.
One of the three perspectives of the book is from this annoying government bureaucrat, and while her story eventually intersects Thrawn I found myself not caring about her at all. She also is a pretty terrible person, which I guess was the point, but I found her annoying.
It was difficult to see how Thrawn and his side kick, who seem to genuinely want to help people, can work for the Empire, much less how their actions fit imperial approval. I get it was trying to show a different perspective of the Empire, but at the end of the day several of Thrawn's actions seem like they didn't fit with the Empire we are repeatedly shown, he cares about fairness, lives, and aliens! It is never really explained how this fits into the larger narrative of the Empire.
In addition, it seemed like EVERY imperial higher up Thrawn meets is a blithering idiot. I am totally willing to accept there would be swaths of people incompetent, and even that Thrawn is the best of the best. But it got tireseome that every sing;e commander of this galaxy spanning empire seemed inable to achieve basic military goals. How the hell were the conquering anything?! This was obviously done to highlight Thrawns own tactical genius, but it would have been far more effective to demonstrate competence on the part of the Empire, to show how many more steps up Thrawn's brilliance is. Instead, it seems like any jerk willing to not be pigheaded could do a better job then 90% of the Imperial navy.
My final complain was that the audio book had too much background noise. Every scene while on a ship had thrumming and some high pitch weird beeps, this was distracting and created way too much background stuff, when really the narrator was doing amazing on his own.
I hear there is a sequel and I enjoyed it enough to give the sequel a read when it comes out, but it won't be an immediate purchase.
The plot follows Thrawn's entrance into the imperial navy, and then his rise through the ranks. His side kick Vantou (i'm not sure if that is spelled right I listened to the book) rises with him.
Overall the book delivers an interesting plot with some great character interactions. I think it would be enjoyed by many star wars fans; however, I did have some problems with the story.
One of the three perspectives of the book is from this annoying government bureaucrat, and while her story eventually intersects Thrawn I found myself not caring about her at all. She also is a pretty terrible person, which I guess was the point, but I found her annoying.
It was difficult to see how Thrawn and his side kick, who seem to genuinely want to help people, can work for the Empire, much less how their actions fit imperial approval. I get it was trying to show a different perspective of the Empire, but at the end of the day several of Thrawn's actions seem like they didn't fit with the Empire we are repeatedly shown, he cares about fairness, lives, and aliens! It is never really explained how this fits into the larger narrative of the Empire.
In addition, it seemed like EVERY imperial higher up Thrawn meets is a blithering idiot. I am totally willing to accept there would be swaths of people incompetent, and even that Thrawn is the best of the best. But it got tireseome that every sing;e commander of this galaxy spanning empire seemed inable to achieve basic military goals. How the hell were the conquering anything?! This was obviously done to highlight Thrawns own tactical genius, but it would have been far more effective to demonstrate competence on the part of the Empire, to show how many more steps up Thrawn's brilliance is. Instead, it seems like any jerk willing to not be pigheaded could do a better job then 90% of the Imperial navy.
My final complain was that the audio book had too much background noise. Every scene while on a ship had thrumming and some high pitch weird beeps, this was distracting and created way too much background stuff, when really the narrator was doing amazing on his own.
I hear there is a sequel and I enjoyed it enough to give the sequel a read when it comes out, but it won't be an immediate purchase.