trilbynorton's reviews
253 reviews

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Does each evil cancel the other out? Does disappearing one person from the earth clean it some? I seen men I knew were a danger to the world and they too deserve better than this. A shame for me to hope for better, but I know it's better that can be done. Ain't no magic potions for these bleeding human hearts. Ain't no building full of hurt gonna save the masses.

Chain-Gang All-Stars is a savage swipe at America’s carceral system. In the near future, prisoners are given the opportunity to win their freedom by fighting each other gladiator-style. America being America, the bloodsport is transformed into an entire industry, with podcasts, merchandise, and reality shows all centred around human beings forced to kill each other. Multiple POVs from not just the prisoners themselves, but everyone involved in the sport from executives to viewers, make the point clear: if you aren’t speaking out against atrocities like these, you are complicit in them.

What makes Chain-Gang All-Stars such an incredible book is how unbearably human it is. It is full of violence, but it is never sensationalised; most characters regret the killing they are forced into, and deaths are considered a form of freedom. Footnotes offer brief glimpses into who the prisoners were before, defying the system’s need to dehumanise them; others provide damning statistics on the prison system. My favourite character was a man driven to the edge of his own self by the inhumane practice of solitary confinement and the effects of the Influencer, a tool of subjugation that makes victims feel all the pain their nervous systems can conjure (a chapter dealing with the use of the Influencer was so disturbing I had to step away from the book for some time). He goes through hell and almost loses himself, but he is more human than the so-called people who locked him up, tortured him, and forced him to kill for their own entertainment and profit.

His name was Simon J. Craft. He was a fictional character, but he was also a human being. Every prisoner in every prison is a human being.

Danger Street Vol. 1 by Tom King

adventurous funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Another miniseries arbitrarily split into two volumes.

Children of Dune by Frank Herbert

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 

I know that, like Dune, Children of Dune is going to reward rereads. As a sci-fi adventure, it’s a slow-paced story that builds to a gonzo finale. Along the way, though, there are countless profundities concerning government, power, and religion, all couched in Herbert’s dense world-building and sense of mystical grandeur.

The Human Target Vol. 2 by Tom King

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This is a pretty entertaining superhero mystery, which is entirely predictable if you're at all familiar with film noir and hardboiled detective fiction. But the highlight is obviously Greg Smallwood's gorgeous 50s pop art.

Also, no one writes Booster Gold like Tom King.

The Human Target: Volume 1 by Greg Smallwood, Tom King

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Bizarre that DC are splitting these limited series into two volumes, especially when Tom King's previous series were collected into single books.

Lucifer, Book Five by Peter Gross, Ryan Kelly, Mike Carey

adventurous challenging dark inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“...he must know

-- that he has travelled by meandering roads to the place where he always meant to be.

That the fire -- the wings -- the throne -- were only accidents. Tricks of the light.

Beneath all aspects, all accidents, there is the naked will.

Always. Only.”

The final volume of Mike Carey’s devilishly good Lucifer contains everything you’d expect from an epic conclusion. Armies clash, villains slain, grand journeys embarked upon. Yet, it is in the quieter, intimate moments and standalone issues in which the real magic happens. Like “The Gaudium Option”, in which everyone’s favourite cigar-smoking fallen cherub ventures into the garbage heap underneath creation with his ever-exasperated sister Spera. And “Eve”, a farewell (of sorts) to my surprise favourite character, Elaine Belloc.

To say that Lucifer isn’t as good as its parent series, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, is to state the obvious. After all, what is as good as Neil Gaiman’s Sandman? But, like the Morningstar himself, Lucifer manages to carve its own path out of the shadow of its creator.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

3.0

Antkind by Charlie Kaufman

5.0

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

4.0

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

3.0