Bloodthirsty: One Nation Under Water (#1)

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In the spirit of the Halloween season, I am reviewing a comic book with a creepy cover.

Chances are that a lot of people haven’t heard of this comic book, and it’s one you shouldn’t judge by its cover, although that’s basically what I did.  I was drawn to the comic by the fleur-de-lis on the cover, and then opened it and saw some panels clearly depicting a New Orleans setting.  I bought it, thinking I was buying a comic about a zombie apocalypse starting in New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which would’ve been neat.  That’s not what it’s about, but it’s still kinda neat.

Bloodthirsty was funded through Kickstarter and the writer, Mark Landry, is originally from Louisiana.  The story is indeed set in New Orleans, but only the opening takes place immediately after Katrina.  There we meet Virgil, a New Orleans native and member of the Coast Guard who is helping to pull people off rooftops.  Some stuff happens that messes him up, and then we flash forward to the present.  A mostly-recovered New Orleans is facing a new hurricane, and Virgil unwittingly gets caught up in some drama/intrigue.

That’s about as much as I can say without spoiling things.  There are no zombies so far, and I don’t think there will be.  No signs of superpowers either.  There is what appears to be an evil crossdresser/drag queen though – forgive me if there’s a difference I’ve not discerned – to keep things from being too vanilla.

Most of this volume was set-up, but I think it did it well.  I did end up having some connection to Virgil, and I was intrigued by the mystery dangled towards the end.  The artwork is decent too; I’m not sure I’d go so far as to call it beautiful, but I prefer it to the styles common to many mainstream comics, like Marvel’s A-Force.  I intend to try to follow this series.

Art: 6.5/10 (Although still not what I’d call beautiful, I think it’s noticeably better than most common/mainstream comic styles)
Story: 7.5/10
Overall: 7.5/10

SpoilerAlert

Some stereotypical fat cat politicians and businessmen rose to power in post-Katrina New Orleans.  Virgil’s brother works for one of them named Wolfinger, and when he dies, it’s implied that his death may have been related to some gruesome bodies/murders Virgil stumbled across during Katrina rescues, and that Wolfinger and/or Wolfinger Labs is involved.  Also, the evil crossdresser looks kinda like the city’s mayor, who is close to Wolfinger. However, the how’s and why’s haven’t been revealed yet, so some of this is speculation.

Ryria Revelations

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Ryria

I read all three of these books – a total of six stories – in a short period of time.  This will be a short review, partially to keep the first part spoiler-free, and partially because I actually read these a couple of months ago, so my impressions aren’t as sharp anymore.

The main characters of the series are Hadrian and Royce, a pair of mercenaries/thieves-for-hire.  They agree to take a job that turns out to be a lot more than they bargained for, and we get to enjoy the inevitable shenanigans, banter, and fallout.

Each of the six stories has its own, self-contained plot, but they all also play into a larger over-arching plot.  I liked this structure because it kept you wanting more without any one ending being too much of a cliffhanger.  There is also a set of prequel books that the author wrote later, which I believe have the same set up.

Do these books have the depth of Tolkien, Sanderson, or Martin?  No.  It has world-building/history, but it’s not particularly deep, and there are not revolutionary of ground-breaking characters.  In fact, most of the characters are stereotypes or archetypes.  But that doesn’t make this a bad book.  It has action and humor and is a fast, enjoyable read, like a book version of a popcorn-flick.

Rating: 8.5/10

SpoilerAlert

There is one character that I have to say really bugged me, and almost made me knock a couple of points off the score.  She is introduced in either the second story or second book – I can’t remember which – and is originally named Thrace.  She comes across as ridiculously naive and innocent, especially for what she’s been through.  Then after her father and she becomes Empress Modina, but she’s in mourning.  Like, ridiculously deep mourning; she’s basically a mute, walking doll for months.  I think she was supposed to have catatonic depression – that’s a real thing, apparently – but nevertheless, I found her mourning phase to be very grating.  She mostly redeemed herself once she finally snapped out of it, but I thought this was a point that needed to be addressed.

Age of Misrule

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Misrule

Ancient gods and beings from Celtic myth are rising up and starting to walk in the modern world.  Technology starts to fail, and modern life as we know it seems to be at risk.  A small group of people – dare I call them a fellowship? – unite and go on a quest to seek out magical items to help face this threat.

Sounds great.  I had this book on my Paperbackswap wishlist for months, and was excited to finally get it. Unfortunately I couldn’t even finish the book.  I gave up on page 54, after the main characters – Jack and Ruth – spent a page discussing Jack’s taste in music.  In a word, the book is boring.

By page 54, Jack and Ruth have had one unpleasant encounter with a mythical being and have started to investigate what might have happened.  However, we don’t know what they encountered, or what it might forebode.  We know far more about Jack’s wife, his depression/mourning, and even his musical tastes than we do about anything mythical.  The focus of the story is obviously going to be on the characters rather than on the plot idea of re-emerging Celtic gods, which would be tolerable if the characters were interesting, but I couldn’t care less about Jack or Ruth.  If the main interest of the story is supposed to be the characters, then the characters need to be interesting.

The pace is slow, the characters are dull, and at times the writing is pretentious.  The book seems to aim for intellectual entertainment, but it missed the mark and it put me to sleep.  I’ve given up and am moving on.

Rating: 2.5/10

Schedule Announcement

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I’m not sure I have enough followers to really merit this, but figured I’d do it just in case.

Last month was the start of Fall college classes, and thus my return to school.  I have started pursuing a new degree that I hope will be more applicable in the job market than my B.A. in English.  Unfortunately this means I will have less time for leisure reading, and even less time to write reviews.  As of right now, I’m guessing I’ll be lucky to do one review per month, with maybe some “bonus” reviews over the winter break.

If you’re reading this, thank you for following me thus far.  See you all at the next review!

The Shadow Throne

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It’s probably been almost a month since I’ve read this book, and as is typical for me, a lot of the specific details have already faded.  This will be a sort of mini-review instead.  You can read my review for the first book in the series here.

The main trio of characters – Winter, Marcus, and Janus – have made it back to the capital.  Political shenanigans are afoot, and they most help thwart the ambitions of the Duke Orlanko.  Princess Raesinia is introduced as a new character that the readers follow, and she too is trying to undermine Orlanko’s schemes.

I had mixed feelings about this book.  I liked a lot of the soldiers from Winter’s regiment, but most only appeared briefly in this book, assuming they appeared at all.  Winter was given a task to do separate from Marcus and Janus, and when she actually left to do it, her character felt isolated from the rest of the story.  I didn’t like her as much in this book as I did in the previous.

Janus’ pragmatism is awesome to the point of being almost comedic.  If I had to guess, I’d say the time/world in this book would parallel the East India Trading Company and The Three Musketeers; so 1600’s.  Some of things women got to do – and that Janus allowed/supported – are highly unlikely for such a time period.  Even Marcus’ “old-fashioned” beliefs aren’t realistic.  But then again, there are plenty of books stuffed with sexism, violence, and other such things, so if you need that in a book to enjoy it, just read a different series.

Winter’s plot was disappointing, but Marcus and Janus had some funny lines and the end of the book was exciting.

Rating: 7.5/10

SpoilerAlert

Winter is sent by Janus to infiltrate a group of women, where she crosses paths with her former [female] lover.  They had some drama and some flirting, and I had just as little interest in their romantic story line as I do with the vast majority of romantic story lines.  In the first book Winter had to put on a brave face and be smart and creative to overcome obstacles, but in this one it felt like she was Nero, fiddling over stupid emotional “dilemmas” while Rome/Vordan burned.  I’m very unforgiving regarding romance though, so some may like it.

River Road

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This is the second book of a supernatural/fantasy series set in Louisiana.  My review of the first book is here.

Several years have passed since the events of the first book, and in that time, apparently nothing has happened.  DJ hasn’t talked to Jake or Tish, and Jean Lafitte hasn’t called in her debts to him.  After some serious mixed signals between them, DJ and Alex are still just partners/co-sentinels.  The only difference is that DJ is now renting a space in a strip mall to act as her office.

Right from the start, the author has irritated me.  Either DJ has horrible coping mechanisms to go along with her chronic stupidity, or the author is lazy.  I’m inclined to believe it’s a combination of the two.  DJ is flaky enough that I could see her thinking avoiding situations is a good way to handle them, but I also suspect that the author didn’t want to deal with explaining events that happened between books.

Once we get past the “introduction,” we learn there are two clans of mer-people living in southern Louisiana, and they’re getting sick from swimming in the Mississippi River.  Both clans insist the river is poisoned and blame each other.  DJ is asked to step in, mediate between the clans, and figure out what’s going on with the river.

As the book progressed, we were treated to more examples of the DJ-brand stupidity and tepid “romantic intrigue” I disliked from the first book.  We also got hints that DJ is a speshul snowflake, shoving her into firmly into Mary-Sue territory.  My already less-than-impressed opinion of her slowly ticked down throughout the book.

Yes, this book was set in Louisiana.  Yes, it had magic and supernatural stuff and a potentially interesting story idea.  But while I could tolerate it in the first book, the flaws seemed more glaring and the missed potential more depressing in this book.  Unless you are a fan of YA romance triangles like Twilight, I’d suggest you steer clear.

Rating: 4/10 (At least I finished it)

SpoilerAlert

It’s already obvious to the readers that there’s something between Alex and DJ, even though Alex is supposedly seeing someone else.  At the end of the book – after DJ has been on dates with both Lafitte and Jake, mind you – Alex makes it clear he intends to pursue DJ too, to which I said “fucking finally.”  Not because I was interested in whatever feelings they might have for each other, but because I was so damn sick of the waffling and dancing around each other.  Maybe other people think it’s cute or romantic, but I thought it was just dumb.

Along with having some elvish blood, DJ’s magical elven staff is apparently rare and famous in the elven kingdom.  Because, you know, being pretty and having 3 good-looking guys interested in her wasn’t enough to make the readers see that DJ is awsum-sauce and that they should want to be her, so she had to have a speshul weapon too.  A speshul weapon that let her circumvent the restrictions/limitations of other Green Congress wizards, because wouldn’t it be boring if she had to use her smarts and creativity to deal with those limitations instead?

Considering what’s happened thus far, I’ll make some predictions about the rest of the series:

  • In at least one more book, Jake, Alex, and Lafitte will all continue to show interest in DJ, and there will be more waffling.
  • DJ’s ability to use the staff will prove significant.  Likely it will be because it’s a sign that DJ has a lot of untapped power/magic, that she’s descended from some royal elven bloodline, and/or because there’s a prophecy associated with the staff.
  • DJ’s heritage will eventually be a key plot point.
  • A hot male elf will appear at some point, and will be interested in DJ too.
  • DJ will play a pivotal role in a war between factions of the Beyond and the wizards/Elders.

I don’t intend to read the rest of the series, so if someone else does, maybe they can let me know if I’m right.

Royal Street

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As a Louisiana native, I have a special interest in books set in Louisiana.  So here’s a book that’s set in Louisiana, AND revolves around Hurricane Katrina, AND has magic and supernatural creatures.  This should be a smorgasbord of awesome, right?  Well, no.

The book starts off a couple of days before Hurricane Katrina makes landfall in New Orleans.  We meet DJ and Gerald, two wizards that basically police the supernatural community in Louisiana.  It’s decided that one of them should evacuate as a safety precaution, and Gerald, as the senior of the pair, decides DJ will be the one to evacuate.  She does so reluctantly, and then is stuck outside the city when Katrina hits and floods the city.  The wizard council of Elders contacts her, informs her that Gerald has gone missing, and that she has to return to New Orleans and take up the role as head wizard – aka sentinel – in the area.

Back in New Orleans, DJ encounters many problems.  The most obvious are the hurricane aftermath: security checkpoints, flooding, no electricity, etc.  But there is also supernatural trouble brewing.  The low pressure from the storm punched holes through the barrier between our world and the supernatural, and supernatural beings have started crossing into New Orleans.

The ghostly/undead pirate Jean Lafitte has a grudge against DJ.  The new partner assigned to her, Alex, seems to blow hot and cold and has an obsession with weapons.  DJ is trying to figure out what happened to Gerald, while both Alex and the Elders think he’s turned turncoat.  And DJ is an idiot.  No, seriously.  Her stupidity was one of my biggest gripes with the book.  I’ll go into detail in the Spoiler section.

Alex, Jean Lafitte, and Jake – Alex’s cousin – are all presented as interests to DJ.  She finds them all attractive, even the undead/ghost Jean Lafitte.  Even though Lafitte is old, a murderer, and doesn’t belong in our world according to the Elders. She’s defensive and mentally tags men as sexist, but she herself ogles and stereotypes guys herself.  Ultimately, she comes across as a stupid, hormone-driven teenage girl instead of an adult wizard in an import, respectable position.

It’s unfortunate that DJ is such an idiot lemming, because the rest of the book has so much potential that you can see the possible greatness, and almost forgive the author for making the hero someone you want to strangle; almost, but not quite.  The idea of supernatural and regular people living in two parallel realms, separated by a barrier that’s policed by wizards is a neat idea.  I like the idea of historical figures being powered by memory, and I like the the different factions of wizard magic/society.  Hurricane Katrina was handled respectfully, but even there potential was missed.

For me, the saving grace of the book was really the Louisiana setting and Hurricane Katrina.  I like that the setting mattered and was utilized, instead of being a story that could’ve been anywhere but just happened to be in New Orleans.  As I said, Hurricane Katrina was respectfully handled, and as I read those parts, I liked to think that they’d help non-locals reading the book to better understand what happened and how we felt.

In short, if you like stuff set in Louisiana and/or can tolerate nonsensical romantic elements, you may enjoy this book.  If you do not like stuff set in Louisiana and hate nonsensical romance, you may want to steer clear.

Rating: 5.5/10

SpoilerAlert

Jean Lafitte shows up at DJ’s house and attacks her.  He actually fires his gun at some point.  Later, DJ tries to insist that Lafitte wouldn’t have actually killed her, that she was more useful to him alive, or some such nonsense; to be honest, I didn’t pay much attention.  The reasoning given was dumb, and felt like an excuse by the author to make DJ’s ogling of someone that attacked her seem OK.  But it’s not.  It’s really not.  Then, if that wasn’t bad enough, after Lafitte attacks her and Alex makes it clear that she’s not very good at keeping herself alive, she sends Alex off on a wild goose chase so she can go confront Lafitte.  On his turf.  Surrounded by his men.  WTF?  At this point I was hoping someone would stab her with a sword, because she deserved it.

And Jake.  What the hell?  They don’t want to explain the whole magic/supernatural thing to him because they don’t “want to involve him,” but they sent the ghost of Louis Armstrong to live with him!  And naturally he charged into a dangerous situation, ignorant to the full danger thanks to DJ and Alex, and gotten bitten by a werewolf.  Bravo.  I hope DJ and Alex feel like asses.

My Life as a White Trash Zombie

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I have lived in Louisiana my whole life.  I also like zombie stories, and the TV show iZombie.  So I found this book, which basically sounded like iZombie set in Louisiana, and I had to read it.  Had to.

Like iZombie, this book starts with a girl who is turned into a zombie after a tragedy.  Both characters get jobs in a morgue, both use the morgue to supply their new dietary requirements (brains), and both are only loosely what you’d call zombies.  From there, the differences become more apparent.  For example, a mysterious benefactor with connections gets the book’s main character, Angel, her morgue job.

Angel is a loser, and easily labeled as white trash, hence the title.  She dropped out of high school, has been fired from multiple jobs, lives in a trailer, has a pill problem, and has OD-ed once already.  Being turned into a zombie and being given the morgue job may be the best thing that’s ever happened to her, assuming she keeps it together.  And I mean that both in the figurative “don’t fuck things up” sense, and in the literal sense, because going too long without consuming brains means Angel starts rotting/falling apart.

I must stop here to say that calling Angel a zombie is a stretch.  I think Angel is to zombies as the Cullens from Twilight are to vampires.  The Cullens are “vampires” because they drink blood, but sunlight doesn’t hurt them, they’re not nocturnal, they don’t have to be invited into houses, and they can subsist on animal blood if need be.  Angel is a zombie because she needs to eat brains or will start rotting and become increasingly aggressive, but as long as she has a regular supply of brains, there’s little to tell her apart from regular humans.  In fact, being a zombie basically gives her superpowers: increased strength, healing rate, pain tolerance, nausea resistance, inability to get high/intoxicated, etc.  She is not the mindless, shambling, disease-ridden flesh-puppet most people think of when they hear the word “zombie.”

Assuming you can get past that, the book is pretty fun.  And no, don’t go thinking it’s another Twilight just because I mentioned it earlier.  The romance is a secondary element in the book at most.  In fact, most of the book is just about Angel getting used to life as a zombie, and trying to figure who turned her and why.  The mystery with the serial kills doesn’t start really playing a role until the second half or so of the book.

I like how the book takes a stereotype, applies it to the main character, and tries to get you to see it in a different light.  “White trash” is a term usually used to demean and/or laugh at someone.  The book uses it to a degree for entertainment, but not in a “ha ha, look at the redneck, isn’t it funny” sort of way.

It could’ve been better.  There were times I was like “really, you still haven’t figure out you’re a zombie?!” And ending was so neatly tied up that I couldn’t fully buy it without letting things slide.  Still, if you like “zombies” and/or Louisiana and aren’t too critical of books, you should have a fun time.

Rating: 7/10

SpoilerAlert

There’s a moment when a police cadaver dog tries to point out that technically Angel is a walking cadaver; I thought that was a clever scene.

The way everything fit together and tied up at the end felt a little too neat.  That guy had a zombie vendetta and killed multiple zombies already, but didn’t realize his BFF of several years was a zombie too?  That just seems too convenient, and arranged for the sake of the plot rather than actual logic.

The Thousand Names

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I picked up this book for two reasons: it had good reviews, and one of the main characters is a woman who disguised herself as a man and joined the army.  The latter is reminiscent of Mulan, my favorite Disney “princess” movie – yes, I know she’s not technically a princess, but shh – so I had high expectations for the book.  It wasn’t quite what I expected, but it didn’t disappoint.

The basic story is a sort of colony/territory tension tale.  The territory is Khandar, and it is claimed by Vordanai.  People in Khandar are not all happy with being under Vordan control though, and some start to form a rebellion.  The Vordan army retreats to a small corner of Khandar until reinforcements arrive, and then they march out to squash the uprising.

Given that synopsis, you’d probably want to root for the rebellion.  However, the main characters of the story are all part of the Vordan army.  There’s the steadfast Captain Marcus d’Iovoire, who is loyal, reliable, and gallant, but a tad old-fashioned and not terribly creative.  Then there’s Winter Ihernglass, who starts as a foot soldier but gets promoted to a command position, which is a problem since Winter is a woman in disguise.  Last is Colonel Janus bet Vhalnich, an odd but brilliant man who you want to like, but never fully trust.

Of the three, Marcus d’Ivoire was probably the least interesting.  But that doesn’t mean he’s un-interesting, just that Winter and Janus outshine him.  Marcus has both strengths and flaws, and provides a “normal” – aka male – soldier’s perspective.  His normal-ness and military experience also helps highlight how odd Janus is.

Winter.  Ah, Winter.  She’s Mulan with a musket.  Sort of.  She is Mulan in the sense that she’s a woman masquerading as a man in the army, but there are some key differences I’ll discuss in the Spoiler section.  She starts off a bit timid, but steps up to the challenge when promoted and grows into her role.  The book was a bit slow at first, but my desire to follow this particular character’s journey kept me interested.

Sadly Winter has no witty sidekick.

Sadly Winter has no witty sidekick.

Colonel Janus is young, intelligent, and seems to be something of a military prodigy.  As the book goes by, I experienced the odd conflict of growing to like him more, but not growing to trust him more.  He has a habit of keeping plans and information from his subordinates that couldn’t prove very problematic at some point, if not villainous.

Considering that this book revolved around an army fighting to regain control of a colony, the fighting felt very light.  Battles were not the protracted, exhausting, multi-chapter affairs one might expect from other books.  Instead they were almost more like highlight reels, and I was fine with that.  The fighting wasn’t meant to be the focus in this book – the three main characters are the focus – so it works.

Rating: 8.5/10

SpoilerAlert

One of the big differences between Winter and Mulan is that Winter is at least bisexual, possibly gay.  She doesn’t end up with Marcus or Janus, as one might expect from a YA book or Disney film, and in fact there’s a feeling that she may not hook up with a guy at all.

It also turns out that Winter is not the only woman in the army.  Bobby turns out to be a young woman too, and after she’s seriously injured, Winter convinces a magic user to heal her with a magic ritual.  The ritual has lingering side effects, like oddly colors skin at the site of the wound, and there’s a hint that Bobby could be destined for great things, or to help Winter to do great things.  I hope this is examined in the next book.

2015 Chevy Cruze

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Someone rear-ended my poor Tardis – that is what I named my blue, 2015 Honda Fit – so I had a rental car for a little while as my car was repaired.  I was given a 2015 Chevy Cruze rental and decided to do a quick review.

Comparisons = The main cars I will be comparing it against are those I have the most experience driving: 1992 Honda Accord, 2014 Mazda3 iSport (referred to as “M3” – review), and 2015 Honda Fit LX (review).  Note that I do NOT know what trim level my rental car was.

Bias =  First, the variety of cars I’ve driven is obviously limited.  Second, I am a single, child-free woman, and most of my driving consists of commuting to work and running errands around town; therefore, I don’t care about sportiness, and I’m not particularly concerned about passenger room/comfort.  Last but certainly not least, I only had this car for 10 days and did not drive it every day.

The Awesome:
– Cargo/Trunk = The trunk on this sedan car is quite spacious.  It doesn’t match the sheer potential capacity of the Fit, but that’s not a fair comparison since the Fit is a hatchback.  Compared to the M3 sedan, the Cruze is the definite winner in terms of cargo/trunk room.

– Tire Pressure Monitoring =  I liked this so much, I felt it deserved it’s own point.  Both the Fit and M3 only have a warning light that lights up on the dashboard if it senses a low tire, but it doesn’t tell you which tire is low, or how low it is.  The Cruze’s monitoring system has an info screen with a diagram of the car, with a PSI listed next to each tire.  In theory, this should tell you exactly which tire has what PSI.  It doesn’t quite work – the tires on the info screen in my rental were backwards/mislabeled – but the PSI readings seem to be fairly accurate, and seeing the individual numbers is a very useful tool.

The Good:
– Tech Features = Cruise control and adjustable intermittent windshield wiper speeds; nice.  I didn’t pay much attention to the buttons on the rear view mirror, but it looked like it had OnStar and a couple other things.  There are a lot of buttons and a fairly large screen in the central control area, so there may be other features I didn’t discover in the week I had it.

– Roominess = There’s a lot of room in this car.  The back seats didn’t look cramped and the driver area seemed to have plenty of leg room.

– Seats = Not as cushy as some, but still a good level of padding.  The headrests are mercifully at a somewhat normal angle, unlike the M3’s painful contraptions. It lacks lumbar support, but that’s true of the Fit and the M3 too, especially when you adjust the M3’s seats to compensate for the terrible headrest.

– Handling = The gas pedal felt nice; it didn’t have the delay/slow start like Nissans, or even the M3 had to a lesser extent.  The breaks felt nice, road noise seemed better than the Fit and maybe better than the M3.  Good overall as far as pedal feel and driving.

The Bad:
– Backup Camera = It doesn’t have one.  Most 2015 model cars have backup cameras, so it’s odd that the Cruze doesn’t have one.

– Button/Center Stack Layout = Some things were in some odd places.  None of the sticks on the steering column control the headlights.  Instead, the headlights are controlled by a knob under the air-conditioning vent to the driver’s left.  The button to pop the trunk is located in the center stack towards the bottom, which seemed like an odd place, and the center stack in general seemed busy/cluttered.

– USB? = I found one USB port in the center armrest (which doesn’t actually function as an armrest).  I didn’t do a thorough search, but I didn’t see any other USB ports.  If a car is going to have only one USB port, I think the port should either be at the bottom of the center stack, or the armrest should be big enough to fit a large iPod or smart phone inside and be able close with it plugged in.

– Front Cup Holders = The cup holders between the driver and passenger were position so that I was reaching roughly to the side of my thigh, which is towards the edge of my peripheral vision while driving.  It would’ve been better if they could’ve been position further forward.

The Ugly:
I did not find anything that would qualify as “Ugly.”  However, I only drove the car for about a week; it took longer for the “Ugly” traits to be noticeable in both the M3 and the Fit.

Overall, did I like this car?  Yes.  I think it’s at least worth a look.