The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

I just haven't been getting much in the way of comics recently. Saga #4  (last week) was good, as was American Vampire: Lord of Nightmares #1 (2 weeks ago). This is the week that all the other titles I'm collecting come out, though. Favorite Issue this Week: No idea. Everything was AWESOME. I may have finally cut down my pull list to just books I actually enjoy. All issues new in stores on June 27 American Vampire #28 (The Blacklist, Part One) Writer: Scott Snyder, Artist: Rafael Albuquerque, Colors: Dave McCaig Woo! All our American Vampires together to kick ass at last! I just loved this. Pearl was gorgeous and fierce, Cal is a stand up guy, uh, vampire, and Skinner is back and better than ever. Give me an action-packed set-up like this and I'm raring to go! Batman Inc. #2 Writer: Grant Morrison, Artist: Chris Burnham, Color: Nathan Fairbairn This issue re-caps Talia. Yup, her whole story, more or less. While my husband was reading this issue, he st...

Heat Wave Unknown Staff Writer, 2009 Premise: This licensed tie-in book is ostensibly the novel written by the character Castle on the show of the same name. The plot follows a murder investigation about a rich man pushed off a high balcony. This book did amuse me a little, but mostly it was unintentional. It's funny that a lot of people bought this short, throw-away book. It's funny that some ghost writer got paid to crank this out over a weekend. It's funny that any editors or producer types gave this a pass to be put into production. I know, I know, it's a novel created for the sole purpose of exploiting the TV show's fanbase. I am a fan of the show. I wasn't expecting brilliance. I was, however, hoping for competance. So sue me. This is a somewhat spectacularly bad book, although not quite so bad for me to think that it might be bad on purpose. My biggest problem with it is the terrible use of tie-ins to the show. If this were a stand-alone...

The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, Day One) Patrick Rothfuss, 2010 Premise: Kvothe of the Edema Ruh has been called many things: student, arcanist, musician, street trash, 'Kvothe the Bloodless', 'Kvothe Kingkiller'... Soon after a mysterious attack by what the villagers agree is a spider demon, a man known as the Chronicler comes to the town of Newarre. He has come to speak to the innkeeper, a man who is more than he appears- he has come to get Kvothe's story. This book was intensely long, but never boring. I really enjoyed reading it; the story was engaging, the characters intriguing, the world well drawn. The best part, however, might be the prose. The prose was full of gorgeous poetry - yet it read effortlessly. From the prologue: The third silence was not an easy thing to notice. If you listened for an hour, you might begin to feel it in the wooden floor underfoot and in the rough, splintering barrels behind the bar. It was in the weight...

Wrath of the White Tigress David Alastair Hayden, 2011 Free copy received   from BookRooster.com  for review Premise: Zyrella is the last priestess of the White Tigress. The sorcerer Salahn has conquered the nation with his elite corps of warriors and is absorbing and destroying minor deities in his quest for immortality. Zyrella is trying to protect her goddess, but the Tigress herself is more concerned with a warrior named Jaska. He is the worst of the sorcerer's men, but could he be the Tigress's salvation? A few unavoidable minor spoilers follow. Really, it's okay. Sometimes I should listen to my first instinct. When I received the offer of this review copy, I did what I always do: I read the sample on Amazon. I thought it was interesting, with promise, but not enough to request the review copy. Later I was cleaning samples off my Kindle and I came across it again. I found that I was still intrigued by the concept, so I requested a copy after all. The...

The Man in the High Castle Phillip K. Dick, 1962 Hugo Winner - 1963 Premise: It's 1962 in San Francisco. There are threats of war and planned Mars missions in the news, and the people of the Pacific States are uneasy. An art dealer, a government official, a machinist and others try to go about their daily lives. Most of these people are affected by two books: the I Ching, and a novel written by a reclusive author. In his novel, the world is different, and the characters are intrigued and disturbed by his vision of a world in which the Allies didn't lose World War Two. I found this novel of alternate history to be enjoyable to read and intriguing to think about, although it didn't have much of a plot, per se. It is a highly meditative look at what life might have been like if Germany and Japan had split the world between them after World War II. The characters in the book hold widely divergent opinions on their governments, their history, and their hopes for th...

See Part One and Intro Here. Now, Onward! The Intrinsic     Arcana   Actually a FCBD issue from last year. Oops. Not terrible, a magic-based heroes-against-the-apocalypse book.     Rating:     3     Buy another?      Probably Not Marvel: Point One     Marvel   Back Issue. This was released last fall as a sort of grab-bag update/teaser for upcoming happenings in the Marvel Universe. It's a pretty cool one, actually. This is a sizable issue, and each snippet is long enough to really get into what's intriguing about each plot. A couple of underwhelming apocalyptic futures, a couple cool character pieces featuring The Scarlet Spider and Doctor Strange, and an intriguing character introduction for some element-based sibling heroes. Not too shabby.   Rating:     4     Buy another?      Possible Mega Man     Archie   Cute overall. I'm not sure the...

The Wind Through the Keyhole (Dark Tower) Stephen King, 2012 Premise: Set between books four and five in the Dark Tower series, this stand-alone tale-within-a-tale-within-a-tale shares some of Roland's past, and a story from the early days of Mid-World. This was a very interesting book, although not in the way I expected at all. Let me start by saying that Wizard and Glass , which is also primarily flashback, is not one of my favorite Dark Tower books. The idea of getting more backstory wasn't a huge appeal to me. However, I really enjoyed this read. The book starts out in the “present,” with the main group traveling. Very quickly this frame story is done, and Roland tells the others the tale of a mystery he investigated in his youth. Eventually young Roland in the story tells another story, and actually over half of the book is this furthest-nested-in tale. And that's just fine, because the tale of The Wind Through the Keyhole is a fable of Mid-World, an...

Another year, another stack of Free Comics. Here, in alphabetical order, are the books! If this is your first FCBD with me, each issue is listed with its publisher, my short review, a numerical rating (out of five), and how likely I am to purchase another issue. Some of the books were back issues given away as extras at some stores, and they are noted. Titles with a slash in the middle are flip-books, where half the pages are one title and half the other. Adventure Time/Peanuts     Kaboom!   Not bad, overall. I don't have much experience with Adventure Time, but the first two stories were cute, although I found the third stupid. The Peanuts section was split between a couple of classic strips and a bunch of newer material. It was fairly underwhelming.   Rating:     3     Buy another?      Nope Anna & Froga/Moomin Valley Turns Jungle     Drawn & Quarterly   These are okay little stories, I gue...