Just a quick news post: DC Comics has a new computer game coming out soon, and it looks kinda cool. Here’s the game trailer:
Injustice is made by the creators of Mortal Kombat, so this could actually end up a pretty decent fighting game… I am intrigued.
Ok, this is one of two “reviews” I’m going to post for John Scalzi’s latest novel, Redshirts. This one came about because I sent Scalzi a tweet telling him that I was irked about how difficult it was going to be to review the book. [Spoilers could so easily abound!] Mark Lawrence caught the tweet, and suggested that I
“perhaps use a series of animal pictures wherein the expressions of kittens, elephants, etc., convey your thoughts?”
To which I, naturally, replied: “Done.”
So, here it is. As a dog lover, but also someone familiar with internet memes, I have provided (where possible) a parallel dog and cat (or, “kitteh”) review of various emotions I went through while reading Redshirts. This is far from exhaustive, of course.
[This is a one-time thing. Probably.]
A few catch-ups and one really early review of a new series by one of my favourite comics’ writers. This was another pretty busy week, so while I tried to get as many of the comics reviewed as I could, some nevertheless had to be culled from the list. Some of these I was sent for review, so they will be read and reviewed at a later date. I just wanted to get the reviews of these issues up ASAP.
This is also one of the last weeks I’ll be reviewing individual DC issues for a while (I may do a couple more next week), as I’m heading back to the UK mid-June. I’m still working on coming back to the US if possible – Alyssa’s here for another four years, so my desperate quest for employment in or around New York continues! I’m almost at the point of begging, but that would be rather unseemly and undignified.
[*cough* … Please help … *cough*]
Anyway, on with the reviews!
Reviewed: Avengers vs. X-Men #4, AvX VS #2, Batman: The Dark Knight #9, Batwoman #9, BPRD: Hell on Earth – Transformation of J.H. O’Donnell, Call of Wonderland #1, The Defenders #6, Massive #1, Snake Eyes & Storm Shadow #13, Star Wars: Blood Ties – Boba Fett is Dead #1-2, Superman #9, Wolverine & the X-Men #10
It’s done the rounds around the biblio-net, but I really wanted to share the cover for Brent Weeks’s next novel, The Blinding Knife, on here as well. I love Weeks’s novels – his Night Angel trilogy was one of the first fantasy trilogies I reviewed on the blog, it’s prequel novella was superb, and The Black Prism (book one in this latest series) I thought was also superb, with a pretty great, original magic system to boot.
Isn’t it awesome? Certainly eye-catching, and I like the colours in the sky, and the fact that it has a semi-Roman aesthetic. I don’t really know why. It’s probably the columns. I like columns. (*Cough* Uh, paging Dr. Freud…). Massive kudos to Lauren Panepinto & the Orbit art team who worked on this.
The Blinding Knife will be published by Orbit in September 2012.
The synopsis is below. [after the break. Warning: Contains a major spoiler for The Black Prism]:
Performed by: John Banks
Desperate and isolated, Sergeant Estabann and Brother Cordoba of the Crimson Fists Space Marines are hunting the daemon that destroyed their battle-brothers. Their only hope remains with a Librarian on the edge of sanity, a potentially tainted Astartes who they are forced to trust. His psychic abilities can lead them to the daemon, where Estabann and Cordoba can avenge their brothers’ deaths. But is the greatest threat a foul denizen of the warp, or the power contained within a psyker’s mind?
The Madness Within is a pretty solid, straight-up Warhammer 40,000 tale in audio-drama medium. It’s not the best audio-drama I’ve listened to from the publisher, but it does tick off all the right boxes that make for an action-packed and entertaining future-war story. If you love the genre and the setting, then you should enjoy this, too. I did like the twist at the end, though, which I hadn’t predicted and certainly added an extra note of originality to proceedings, and making it stand out a bit more.
I’m a relatively new convert to the zombie-apocalypse genre, but I’ve found some really great new novels that are either doing something new or just very well. V.M Zito’s The Return Man, I thought, does both. It is also one of the surprise finds from last year. Read on for more about The Return Man, illicit childhood horror-reading, J.D. Salinger, Spider-Man and more.
Writer: Brian Azzarello | Artist: Cliff Chiang, Tony Akins (ch.5&6) | Inks: Dan Green (ch.6) | Colours: Matthew Wilson
Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, has kept a secret from her daughter all her life – and when Wonder Woman learns who her father is, her life will shatter like brittle clay. The only one more shocked than Diana by this revelation? Bloodthirsty Hera – so why is her sinister daughter, Strife, so eager for the truth to be told?
I took a gamble with this one. I’ve never read anything related purely to Wonder Woman (and only a few issues of Justice League), so have no history with the character. I’ve also not read much of Azzarello’s stuff – in fact, I’ve only read the first issue of Spaceman, which I thought was... well, not good. So, I figured I might be on safer ground here (I’ve also picked up volume one of 100 Bullets, which I’ll review pretty soon). Thankfully, I was not disappointed with this book, and I rather enjoyed it.
The BBC is one of the best things about the UK, and this is a great clip from Planet Earth Live.
The darker side of Washington, DC, lobbying
Mike Ford was following his father into a life of crime, when he chose to go straight and instead worked his way through Harvard Law School. Now he’s landed the ultimate job with the Davies Group, a powerful political consulting firm run by the charismatic Henry Davies. Rubbing shoulders with Washington’s heavyweights and with more money and privileges than he’s ever imagined, Mike believes that everything has finally come right.
But he’s about to discover that power comes with a price. Henry Davies is looking for a protégé for a crucial deal and one that must go right no matter what. Mike soon learns that being on the side of the lawmakers doesn’t mean your work is legal. And there’s no place for a moral code when you’re on the devil’s payroll.
I stumbled across this book rather by accident, while hunting around for political thrillers. Luckily, it’s very good, so I’m very glad that I did. The novel takes a look at the seamier side of lobbying culture, adds in a dash of conspiracy theory, some international criminals, and plenty of action. It’s very enjoyable.
I’m having a rather Linkin Park-themed day, with their music videos playing in the background on repeat, and thanks to IceBergInk’s Scott, I discovered that the video for their latest single, “Burn It Down” has finally been released! The song’s from their upcoming album, Living Things (released end of June), which I’m very much looking forward to.
