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versmonesprit's reviews
216 reviews
The Hunger and the Dusk #4 by G. Willow Wilson
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
As the drought gets worse in orc lands, some dynasties begin questioning their alliance with the humans whose lands are still fertile.
While we’re yet to learn much of substance about the Vangol (and by now we’ve had around 120 pages of the story) the lore of this universe deepens in a subtle but profound way as a dialogue reveals that healers need to draw the energy to heal from someone else, but ancient healers could draw it from and sacrifice themselves to heal fields and forests for a few more harvests. This is the sort of lore that I love beyond anything else, so of course I had to mention! It adds so much more depth to the orc culture, emphasises the severity of the environmental troubles of this universe, and overall provides a slightly dark turn.
An absorbing story with beautiful artwork, The Hunger and the Dusk also deals with human concerns like the prejudiced perception of “the Other” and its reconciliation.
I cannot wait to finally learn more about the Vangol!
While we’re yet to learn much of substance about the Vangol (and by now we’ve had around 120 pages of the story) the lore of this universe deepens in a subtle but profound way as a dialogue reveals that healers need to draw the energy to heal from someone else, but ancient healers could draw it from and sacrifice themselves to heal fields and forests for a few more harvests. This is the sort of lore that I love beyond anything else, so of course I had to mention! It adds so much more depth to the orc culture, emphasises the severity of the environmental troubles of this universe, and overall provides a slightly dark turn.
An absorbing story with beautiful artwork, The Hunger and the Dusk also deals with human concerns like the prejudiced perception of “the Other” and its reconciliation.
I cannot wait to finally learn more about the Vangol!
The Hunger and the Dusk #3 by G. Willow Wilson
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
Our heroes discover more about the Vangol, how they travel inland, and that they’re an ancient and intelligent species.
Oops for the orcs and the humans. But big win for us cruel readers.
As always, an addictive story with a brilliant artwork… I grow more and more desperate for a full-length brick of a novel :’)
Oops for the orcs and the humans. But big win for us cruel readers.
As always, an addictive story with a brilliant artwork… I grow more and more desperate for a full-length brick of a novel :’)
The Hunger and the Dusk #2 by G. Willow Wilson
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
Picking up shortly after where the first issue left off, the second issue focuses on a marriage that will forge orc alliances between two powerful dynasties, and gives the readers a closer look into the personal lives of Tara and Callum.
This is a necessary issue, as it lays groundwork for the rest of the story, but there isn’t much that goes on so when it once again ends abruptly, you can’t help but feel you just got a “filler episode”. At least that’s exactly what I would have thought had I waited a month from the first issue for this.
The Hunger and the Dusk offers an immersive story and an equally immersive artwork, with characters you cannot help but love. Me? Obsessed with you? Yes.
This is a necessary issue, as it lays groundwork for the rest of the story, but there isn’t much that goes on so when it once again ends abruptly, you can’t help but feel you just got a “filler episode”. At least that’s exactly what I would have thought had I waited a month from the first issue for this.
The Hunger and the Dusk offers an immersive story and an equally immersive artwork, with characters you cannot help but love. Me? Obsessed with you? Yes.
The Hunger and the Dusk #1 by G. Willow Wilson
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
Orcs and men must put aside their differences to fight a common enemy in these environmentally turbulent times.
Not an unheard of plot in the high fantasy genre, but I will eat it up every time (especially when we have an eco-fiction aspect). Willow Wilson makes it too easy. Characters come alive through these dialogues, and so much intrigue is sowed about the Vangol within the very limited space of such a short issue. It does end a bit too abruptly, or maybe I’m just too greedy and could myself kill a Vangol with my bare hands if it meant I could get a 1000-something pages long novel of this story.
Also, of course MASSIVE kudos to Chris Wildgoose for his lovely artwork and Msassyk for the most magical, hazy, dusky colouring ever! I could have never imagined it possible to render the soft light of the evening sun so excellently!
High fantasy fans, RPG boys and girls and enbies: RUN, don’t walk.
Not an unheard of plot in the high fantasy genre, but I will eat it up every time (especially when we have an eco-fiction aspect). Willow Wilson makes it too easy. Characters come alive through these dialogues, and so much intrigue is sowed about the Vangol within the very limited space of such a short issue. It does end a bit too abruptly, or maybe I’m just too greedy and could myself kill a Vangol with my bare hands if it meant I could get a 1000-something pages long novel of this story.
Also, of course MASSIVE kudos to Chris Wildgoose for his lovely artwork and Msassyk for the most magical, hazy, dusky colouring ever! I could have never imagined it possible to render the soft light of the evening sun so excellently!
High fantasy fans, RPG boys and girls and enbies: RUN, don’t walk.
Woman Much Missed by Thomas Hardy
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.0
Feel free to crown me a jerk. I just did not, could not care. Sorry your wife died, mate, but oh well.
Don’t get me wrong, these poems (mostly written from the perspective of the regretful, yearning husband, and sometimes from that of the phantom wife) do have powerful visuals from time to time, but all throughout this little selection I couldn’t help thinking about Poe’s Annabel Lee. Now there’s a moving, tempestuously emotional poem that makes me care, that makes me feel like I too have lost her. Unfortunately, in Hardy’s poems I had a hard time finding the emotions, and they became too repetitive too fast.
I needed more of this
Don’t get me wrong, these poems (mostly written from the perspective of the regretful, yearning husband, and sometimes from that of the phantom wife) do have powerful visuals from time to time, but all throughout this little selection I couldn’t help thinking about Poe’s Annabel Lee. Now there’s a moving, tempestuously emotional poem that makes me care, that makes me feel like I too have lost her. Unfortunately, in Hardy’s poems I had a hard time finding the emotions, and they became too repetitive too fast.
I needed more of this
O the opal and the sapphire of that wandering western sea,
And the woman riding high above with bright hair flapping free -
but obviously I did not get it.
Sorry :(
Sorry :(
Mobilis by Juni Ba
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
Inspired by Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Juni Ba creates an original eco-fiction that not only is utterly urgent for our times, but also has a timeless message about the importance of preserving our common cultural heritage as well as our planet.
Mobilis is a deceptively simple graphic novel. At its surface is a speculative/SciFi tale that sometimes veers into the Lovecraftian territory, about humanity’s future in which all has been swallowed up by the seas, and a child is found in a pod centuries after she was put in it. She’s raised by the submarine Nautilus’s AI, and eventually taken under the hesitant and haunted captain’s educative wing.
As Mobilis goes on and the child, Arona, grows, we learn the story of the now long-gone crew of the Nautilus while darker forces threaten to take over.
Ultimately, Mobilis is about hope, humanity, sacrifice, duty and responsibility, fraternal love, and of course, at its heart, environmentalism.
It is a solid story (no plot holes or rational inconsistencies) with so much heart, intriguing and absorbing, moving and striking. Yet again: its simplicity is surface-deep. Let your head break the water, and beneath you will discover that so much thought must’ve gone into it. Nothing is haphazard, nothing is random. From the importance of the name Nemo (which will land at the end) to the motto taken from Jules Verne (“mobilis in mobile” — moving with movement, changing with change) Juni Ba has done a marvellous job in plotting and executing a story that will stay with the reader long after the last page has been turned.
Readers of any and all ages can and should read Mobilis, and if you love a highly visual graphic novel experience, you will fall in love with how so much of the story is told by the images themselves. Hats off to Ba, and thank you for creating this beautiful book.
Mobilis is a deceptively simple graphic novel. At its surface is a speculative/SciFi tale that sometimes veers into the Lovecraftian territory, about humanity’s future in which all has been swallowed up by the seas, and a child is found in a pod centuries after she was put in it. She’s raised by the submarine Nautilus’s AI, and eventually taken under the hesitant and haunted captain’s educative wing.
As Mobilis goes on and the child, Arona, grows, we learn the story of the now long-gone crew of the Nautilus while darker forces threaten to take over.
Ultimately, Mobilis is about hope, humanity, sacrifice, duty and responsibility, fraternal love, and of course, at its heart, environmentalism.
It is a solid story (no plot holes or rational inconsistencies) with so much heart, intriguing and absorbing, moving and striking. Yet again: its simplicity is surface-deep. Let your head break the water, and beneath you will discover that so much thought must’ve gone into it. Nothing is haphazard, nothing is random. From the importance of the name Nemo (which will land at the end) to the motto taken from Jules Verne (“mobilis in mobile” — moving with movement, changing with change) Juni Ba has done a marvellous job in plotting and executing a story that will stay with the reader long after the last page has been turned.
Readers of any and all ages can and should read Mobilis, and if you love a highly visual graphic novel experience, you will fall in love with how so much of the story is told by the images themselves. Hats off to Ba, and thank you for creating this beautiful book.
The Three Electroknights by Stanisław Lem
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Woah! Before I was even finished with the first of the 4 stories (all taken from Mortal Engines) I had ordered several of Lem’s books. This does come at a time I have decided to become a science fiction person (previously only ever being a Dune girlie) but I’m very picky with what I choose to add to my home library, foregoing many books that would be considered classics in the genre. Lem’s stories are imaginative, vivid, and profoundly beautiful in their imagery and subject alike.
The titular story is unexpectedly lyrical (what a feat to achieve in translation!) and such a brief but strong tale about colonialism.
The second, no less beautiful, is so touching and timeless as it concerns the hubris of curiosity. Despite Lem being an atheist, this also has elements that are unmistakably Christian.
The third story once again had profound remarks and concepts that left me in a state of wonder. But the story of the third sage was entirely lost on me — oops. That’s probably my bad, but it made me go back and forth between a 4 star review and a 5 star one. In the end Lem’s genius won.
The last one… oh my God. Here Lem touches on power poisoning. And sorry if you consider this a spoiler, but the ending does something I am a COMPLETE sucker for: the narrative blurring of lines. It feels like reality being swept from under your feet as you freefall into a state of suspension inside warmth, beauty, true literature.
The absurdity of these stories is nothing short of delectable, and I equally love their crystalline clarity. They are magical. A must read for anyone who yearns for the intersection of literature and SciFi.
The titular story is unexpectedly lyrical (what a feat to achieve in translation!) and such a brief but strong tale about colonialism.
The second, no less beautiful, is so touching and timeless as it concerns the hubris of curiosity. Despite Lem being an atheist, this also has elements that are unmistakably Christian.
The third story once again had profound remarks and concepts that left me in a state of wonder. But the story of the third sage was entirely lost on me — oops. That’s probably my bad, but it made me go back and forth between a 4 star review and a 5 star one. In the end Lem’s genius won.
The last one… oh my God. Here Lem touches on power poisoning. And sorry if you consider this a spoiler, but the ending does something I am a COMPLETE sucker for: the narrative blurring of lines. It feels like reality being swept from under your feet as you freefall into a state of suspension inside warmth, beauty, true literature.
The absurdity of these stories is nothing short of delectable, and I equally love their crystalline clarity. They are magical. A must read for anyone who yearns for the intersection of literature and SciFi.
The Tea Dragon Society by K. O'Neill
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
1.0
The way I wanted to love this book… I thought (I’d say understandably) tea would play a central part, dragons would be actual characters, and the book would have a wonderful warmth to it.
Unfortunately what we get instead are illustrations that lose all charm and appeal due to a criminal lack of shading which makes them look like nothing more than corporate flat, unnecessary info-dump, storytelling and character bonds being sacrificed for the sake of brevity which makes the story skip from scene to scene over months (unsurprisingly thus ruining any chance for the readers to have a connection with the characters even though I’ll admit Hesekiel and Erik are still lovely), and the tea dragons being relegated to props to the point all information about them is given in a “guide” at the end of the book instead of being integrated into the story itself. Tea plays almost no part at all, and tea culture never plays a pivotal role.
Overall, it turned out to be a big disappointment, devoid of much substance. It demands nothing of the reader, but that’s not a good thing.
Unfortunately what we get instead are illustrations that lose all charm and appeal due to a criminal lack of shading which makes them look like nothing more than corporate flat, unnecessary info-dump, storytelling and character bonds being sacrificed for the sake of brevity which makes the story skip from scene to scene over months (unsurprisingly thus ruining any chance for the readers to have a connection with the characters even though I’ll admit Hesekiel and Erik are still lovely), and the tea dragons being relegated to props to the point all information about them is given in a “guide” at the end of the book instead of being integrated into the story itself. Tea plays almost no part at all, and tea culture never plays a pivotal role.
Overall, it turned out to be a big disappointment, devoid of much substance. It demands nothing of the reader, but that’s not a good thing.
The Tea Dragon Festival by K. O'Neill
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
1.0
There’s a very overtly furry dragon... Yikes.
Set many years before the events of the first book, the highlight is once again Hesekiel and Erik’s relationship, but that certainly isn’t enough to carry a book in which they aren’t the central characters. There are some pretty visuals, but they lose their appeal to the absolute lack of shading which just creates a cuter version of the corporate flat. I’d also like authors of books and TV series to understand that clothing choices are not “diversity” or “representation,” and that hijab is a Muslim attire ONLY — why is Islam a religion in this universe where no other world religions are mentioned? It takes away from the authenticity of your fantasy world…
Anyway, the biggest sin of this book aside from the fursona dragon is that tea dragons play almost no part at all. They’re barely seen around, and they’re mentioned by individual names just once at 75% into the book. This is a book named after the tea dragons, and they play no part at all in it… Make that make sense. And oh, screw tea too. Why should that be an important element when the book is supposed to be based on the concept of tea pets and well, infusions?
(Last note: why are the tea dragons constantly referred to as rats and pests? The latter is so mean for no reason, especially in a book so keen on its message of kindness… Like, why do these characters do not like the tea dragons???)
Set many years before the events of the first book, the highlight is once again Hesekiel and Erik’s relationship, but that certainly isn’t enough to carry a book in which they aren’t the central characters. There are some pretty visuals, but they lose their appeal to the absolute lack of shading which just creates a cuter version of the corporate flat. I’d also like authors of books and TV series to understand that clothing choices are not “diversity” or “representation,” and that hijab is a Muslim attire ONLY — why is Islam a religion in this universe where no other world religions are mentioned? It takes away from the authenticity of your fantasy world…
Anyway, the biggest sin of this book aside from the fursona dragon is that tea dragons play almost no part at all. They’re barely seen around, and they’re mentioned by individual names just once at 75% into the book. This is a book named after the tea dragons, and they play no part at all in it… Make that make sense. And oh, screw tea too. Why should that be an important element when the book is supposed to be based on the concept of tea pets and well, infusions?
(Last note: why are the tea dragons constantly referred to as rats and pests? The latter is so mean for no reason, especially in a book so keen on its message of kindness… Like, why do these characters do not like the tea dragons???)
The Tea Dragon Tapestry by K. O'Neill
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
0.25
Set a year or so after the first, the final book of the trilogy offers very little beyond generic feel-good, found-family, accept-change, you-belong stuff. It feels as if the story begs to be left alone, it has nothing more to give, but is nonetheless milked to say again and again the same things that were already said before. It’s almost like slogans strung together. It has the most unnecessary epilogue that just writes down every sentiment that has already been expressed. I felt so profoundly bored, especially with the “guide” which tried to be more scientific without any real understanding of biology so instead it just sounds random. You can also tell the author learned that “chickens are related to dinosaurs” on the internet, which is very cringe.
I am sorry, but this was incredibly boring. There was no need for this story at all.
And also my usual complaints about this series: 1) For the love of God, SHADE. It’s giving corporate flat. 2) Tea should really play some integral part in a series titled ‘tea dragon’. (Also the furry dragon makes a return, so yikes.)
(I’m also pretty sure the lifespan of a tea dragon was stated to be 1000 years in the first book, and for some unknown sloppy reason, it’s reduced to 300 years here??? How can you forget about the book info you wrote???)
I am sorry, but this was incredibly boring. There was no need for this story at all.
And also my usual complaints about this series: 1) For the love of God, SHADE. It’s giving corporate flat. 2) Tea should really play some integral part in a series titled ‘tea dragon’. (Also the furry dragon makes a return, so yikes.)
(I’m also pretty sure the lifespan of a tea dragon was stated to be 1000 years in the first book, and for some unknown sloppy reason, it’s reduced to 300 years here??? How can you forget about the book info you wrote???)