Quickie Reviews

For those that don’t know, Saga is on hiatus and we have no idea how long we have to wait for the story to continue. Saga volume 9 kept being touted as about fake news and I’m not sure I really got that. It did hint on governments controlling news but I wasn’t sure if the story being sold was fake. Maybe I should re-read the whole series for more clarity. Not quite as good as the earlier instalments but the ending, OMG, please don’t leave it there! I hope we get much more of Hazel’s story in the future.

Another comic I’m loving is Monstress and I recently read volume 3, Haven. The artwork is still the most beautiful ever and it’s another one where the ending left me wide eyed. It seems like it’s getting less disturbing and pieces are being manoeuvred into place for the war of the gods. Maika’s monster is also starting to become rather likeable.

On a Sunbeam started out as a web comic by Tillie Walden and has recently been published in a single volume. I love how Tillie uses colour and this is wonderful story about friendship, love and families, in space. It follows Mia, young woman who has joined a crew who restore damaged buildings. In flashbacks she recalls her time at school and the friend she never got to say goodbye too. Maybe her new job will provide the chance to find her again.

I keep seeing the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews mentioned and it’s been a while since I read this kind of urban fantasy so I grabbed Magic Bites from the library. It’s set in the future after a major magical event which means magic and tech can’t co-exist at the same time. When magic rises, electricity doesn’t work, and when the tech rises, spells fail.

Other than that it’s quite standard urban fantasy fare but so many magical creatures are thrown at you in a short space of time. I think the different bits of world-building needed to be introduced slowly. I didn’t take enough in to have any chance of trying to work out who the bad guy was. It’s pretty dark and there is more than one reference to rape. I might try the next one from the library again, but I’m not grabbed immediately.

I read Ray Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree for a Popsugar prompt and I’m not entirely sure I knew what was going on at all times. They rush from era to era, seeing glimpses of different traditions that inspired modern day Halloween. Their guide speaks very oddly and they appear to be chasing a dying boy through time, and he keeps popping up as part of the Halloween traditions. The characters weren’t really fleshed out so all the boys seemed the same to me. It is a children’s book and it might be fun to read with your kids, but I’m sure it’s stood the test of time.