Books and comics read in April 2014

[usuallyhats]

what happened to April, I don't understand.

Seven Soldiers of Victory Vol 1
Rachel Rising: The Shadow of Death
Dhalgren - Samuel R. Delany
*X-Treme X-Men: Xavier Must Die!
*X-Treme X-Men: You Can't Go Home Again
*X-Men: X-Termination
She-Hulk: Single Green Female
*A+X = Amazing
Mistress of the Empire - Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts
*Shades of Milk and Honey - Mary Robinette Kowal
The New Moon's Arms - Nalo Hopkinson
Avengers Academy: Final Exams
Inheritance - Malinda Lo
Legend - Marie Lu
The Road to Middlemarch: My Life with George Eliot - Rebecca Mead
*FF: Family Freakout

Didn't finish: Tender Morsels - Margo Lanagan. I could see why this book has good reviews but it just wasn't for me at all: it was so full of horror and unpleasantness that reading it felt like an endurance test and I caved 150 pages in.

X-Treme X-Men/X-Men: X-Termination
This run had quite a few things going for it. Dazzler turns out to be fantastic and I really loved seeing her grow into her role as team leader. Teen!Nightcrawler was adorable, and all the Howlett (alt!Wolverine)/alt!Hercules stuff was great ((skip) I was sad that alt!Hercules got killed off, but Howlett seemed pretty laid back about being able to waltz into hell and get him back, so I'll allow it). One of the two X-Treme X-Men volumes also really made an effort to tackle ideas around sacrifice, duty, humanity and whether ends justify the means, and made a pretty decent job of it. On the minus side, the artist seemed to change at least three times an issue, and it all degenerated into a muddled crossover containing too many characters and not enough sense. Shame. (I did enjoy the scenes between Dazzler and alt!Jean Grey, though.)

A+X = Amazing
Lots and lots of random team-up stories, exactly the kind of thing I'm into! The quality was variable, but the high points (like Iron Man and Beast, and Cap and Jubilee) were pretty fun. On the minus side, each issue had at least two writers and two artists, and yet as far as I could tell only one woman was employed in the making of this trade: Veronica Gandini, who coloured half an issue. Do better, Marvel.

Shades of Milk and Honey
I really liked this book's magic system: both fascinating in its own right, and beautifully integrated into the Regency setting. Unfortunately, the rest of the book I didn't like nearly so much. Partly that was a mismatch between me and it: what I wanted was magical adventures, maybe with a soupçon of romance, but what I got was a romance novel with a magical garnish. And since romance really isn't my genre, this was something of a disappointment. I also thought it needed more fleshing out in places (the final epiloguey chapter was particularly annoying on that front), and I found the characters and their relationships pretty flat and not hugely convincing, though some of that may have been down to my genre-based lack of engagement. Sigh. I wish I had liked it better.

FF: Family Freakout
I LOVE THIS COMIC MORE THAN I CAN POSSIBLY EXPLAIN (there may have been actual tears of joy at one point) AND AM NOT OK WITH IT BEING OVER.

Comments

[muccamukk]

If you didn't like shades of milk and honey (I did, but I'm also a romance reader), you might actually like the next one better. Now that she's married, they flush out the relationship and characterisation. Plus they spend most of the book fighting Napoleon, and it does interesting things with the magic system.

[usuallyhats]

Oh, awesome, that sounds like much more my thing! I will give that one a try, thanks!

[spiderwolves]

Books! I read Legend this month too - what did you make of it? (I also read the other two, and liked them a whole lot - it's a cool world she's made, and Lu is a cool person.)

[usuallyhats]

I liked it a lot! It didn't make me flaily with joy, and I didn't think it was doing much that was that new, but everything it did do it did really well - I especially enjoyed the bit where June finds out what Metias was going to tell her - and I'm looking forward to the rest of the trilogy. :D

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

I LOVE THIS COMIC MORE THAN I CAN POSSIBLY EXPLAIN (there may have been actual tears of joy at one point) AND AM NOT OK WITH IT BEING OVER.
ME TOO I MISS THIS COMIC LIKE CRAZY. What are your feelings? We should talk about FF and how great it is. (Also how far in are you--I am not sure what issues are in which trades.)

Oh, and how did you like Single Green Female? I didn't love it as much as I expected to based on the hype, but it was cute. The Spider-Man issue was fun.

I have been debating whether to read Seven Soldiers of Victory, because on the one hand, Grant Morrison, and on the other, Zatanna. Was it any good?

[usuallyhats]

IT IS THE BESSSST. I think I've read it all now? #16 was the last one in this volume. :( It's just so funny and heartfelt and sincere. I love how it never slips into easy cynicism or manipulative saccharine...ness. And how it's full of people just being people, and doing their best, and trying to be good people and good to one another. And all the kids really feel like kids. And the issue where Matt Fraction, Mike Allred and Tom Brevoort turned up was so funny and warm and I love it all SO MUCH and also the microtiger. And how it handled Cassie's death without making Scott all manpainy.

I felt similarly! It was fun and entertaining, if not as amazing as I was kind of expecting. I loved all the stuff about how Marvel comics are canon in the Marvelverse.

I liked the Zatanna bits! With the caveat that the last Zatanna issue isn't in volume one, so it could all go horribly wrong. There were a few moments I liked in the rest of it, but overall it was a bit Grant Morrisony for my taste.

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

Ahh, yeah, #16 is the end. OMG the microtiger and the meta issue were SO FUNNY. And yeah, I think they struck a good balance of acknowledging Cassie's death and what it meant to Scott without going all WOE IS ME. The end was really weird though, like it was just Scott punching Doom for pages and pages. I want to know more about their moon picnic and what they all did when the Fantastic Four came back!

With the caveat that the last Zatanna issue isn't in volume one, so it could all go horribly wrong
Hahaha this is always the great fear with comics. Especially with Morrison.

[usuallyhats]

And the meta issue never felt self-congratulatory or anything, it was just really welcoming and delightful. ♥ Agree re the end, though, I wish it had been stronger and more fun.

Right? Also Zatanna has acquired a sidekick who I really like but don't remember ever seeing anywhere else, so I am v. worried she'll end up dead/evil/something equally terrible...

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

I think Jen and Scott and Darla are supposed to show up in the current Fantastic Four at some point? I think it's in the issue that comes out next week. Oh wait, here, I found the solicit (http://marvel.com/comics/issue/49774/fantastic_four_2014_4)! But yeah, I miss it so much I am thinking I might have to do a re-read. :P

[usuallyhats]

Hurray! I hope it's good... And heh, I got my copies from the library and am seriously considering buying my own so I can reread and reread and reread. :D (I read the first volume three times before I gave it back...)

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

I reread a bunch of it before Yuletide as research for one of the stories I was writing, but I already want to read it again. :)

[usuallyhats]

Yuletide was ages ago, it's totally time for a reread! ;) (Ooh, fic! *goes off to investigate*)

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

I got your comment, aww, thanks. There is actually surprisingly more FF fic than you would expect, between Yuletide and Beyond Panels, and a lot of it's really good--I like this one (http://archiveofourown.org/works/1393267) a lot especially.

[usuallyhats]

Oh cool! Thanks for the rec, will read when I get home! :D (I often find that really small fandoms have a disproportionately high amount of really good fic. :D)

[lycoris.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed "Shades of Milk and Honey" a bit more than you - I was very braced for the romance angle so I was a little more into that - but yeah, I was a bit disappointed too. I loved the ides and the world and bits of it were really nicely done but some of it didn't quite work for me and that was mostly the relationships. It was a shame, I think it could have been better than it was with a bit of work. And the magic was so lovely too.

[usuallyhats]

Agreed! On the DW crosspost muccamukk said that the second volume does some cool stuff with the magic and also developes the main characters and their relationship more, so I'm going to give that one a try - have you read it?