Staying at home is the norm... What are you reading?

Hawki

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Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader (4/5)

So despite this book's status as JF fiction, and that it's only around 200 pages, this was actually a pretty decent read.

The title pretty much gives the premise away, but basically, this is effectively a series of 'snapshots' for Vader/Anakin, ranging from his arrival on Tattooine at the age of 3 as a slave alongside his mother, ending with his final appearance in Return of the Jedi (given when it was written, no sequel trilogy nonsense, thank you very much). This is mostly good, but not perfect. Thing is, the book has to compress six movies, plus associated material, into 200 pages, with none of those pages actually being 'letter dense.' As a result, the book alternates between depicting actual scenes and summarizing them, and the choices made aren't always effective IMO (did we really need a step-by-step for Anakin's podrace?). Also, the book makes heavy use of EU material, such as stuff that happened in the three year gap between Episodes 4 and 5 for instance, that I imagine would confuse people who haven't trawled through Wookiepedia.

Still, like I said, for the most part, the book works. It's not like it's doing anything new per se - Vader's a tragic figure, and other books have captured this far better - but what it does, it does well, and we see how step by step, Anakin is slowly turning to the Dark Side. Or to be more broad, how his seeds for aggression have their roots in his childhood. For instance, even if it's only in summary, the book quickly establishes how the space between episodes 1 and 2 aren't that good for Anakin, given that he has to deal with his frustration at the Jedi's pacifity (the Senate isn't interested in Outer Rim slavery, and the Jedi obey the Senate), and feels distrusted by the Order as a whole, given his late age, his raw power, and his slave background. As another example, jumping ahead to Episode V, we see Vader looking at 3PO's head after he's blasted by the stormtroopers, and bitterly reflecting "I should have left you in the desert." There's a good sense of linkage between the boy Anakin was, and the monster he became, and how his regrets and hatreds dictate his actions in Episode VI. If you're looking for something approaching the character depth of the Revenge of the Sith novelization for Anakin/Vader, you're not going to find it here, but as its own thing? Pretty good.
 

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Doctor Who: Alternating Current (3/5)

Reading this story, where the Tenth and Thirteenth Doctors team up, I'm reminded as to why I liked the era of the former, and not so much the latter.

Anyway, this is building off a pre-existing comic serial that I hadn't read, but basically, some time paradox happens where Earth in the early 21st century is now under control of the Sea Devils, so Thirteen and co. have to work out what caused the timeline shift and fix it. Meanwhile, Rose Tyler, in this new timeline, is a human resistance fighter and very different from the Rose Tyler of the original timeline, much to the unease of the Tenth Doctor. So you ultimately have "Team Ten" (Ten and Rose) working with "Team Thirteen" (Thirteen, Yaz, Ryan, Graham), to work out what caused the shift, fix it, and set things right.

Here's the problem from the start, and it's a microcosm of part of the problems with Chibnall's run. Rose is an interesting character. Even if you disliked Rose before, Rose here has a clearly defined personality (resistance fighter, ground down by war, aggressive, etc.), which puts her at odds with Ten, who knows how Rose 'should' be. There's an interesting dynamic there, almost tragic even, since Ten is part of the reason why the paradox occurred (I'm not sure how, it's apparently better explained in the previous serial). On the other hand, we have Thirteen, who's at least clearly defined here, but is equipped with a trio of companions who don't have distinct personalities, nor do anything distinctive in the context of the story. It's quality vs. quantity, and like most examples of characterization, quality wins.

Even that aside though, even if it was mitigated somewhat, the comic still has issues of its own. It's retreading old ground of the episode "Nicholas Tesla's Night of Terror" (this isn't me projecting, it's part of the core plot), so the 'teams' travel back to the early 20th century to find out what's up. There, they're accompanied by a skithra queen who resents her species's warlike ways, and wants to thwart their efforts in the past. Which, as far as I can tell, is...using Thomas Eddison and Nikola Tesla to wake the Sea Devils early, which will change the timeline so that the Sea Devils end up ruling Earth. Um...yay?

I know, the skithra's whole schtick is that they can't really create anything of their own, hence why they had to rely on Tesla in the original episode, and why they're using the Sea Devils as proxies here, but really, the entire later half doesn't do much for me. The one saving grace is when, with the timeline back to normal, the Rose from the paradox remains, as she was outside the paradox when it collapsed, so there's effectively two Rose Tylers now in the core timeline. This isn't a happy ending though, as she asks Ten to drop her off on another planet that has need of fighters like her. I'm not saying that this is some in-depth examination of what war does to a person, but there's still some gravitas for Ten and Rose here that Thirteen and her "Fam" lacks.

Anyway, yeah. It's okay, overall, but nothing more than that. If this story was altered so it just focused on Ten and Rose, and made the required adjustments, maybe it would get up to "good," but as is, well...well, you know how I feel about the current era of NuWho, so I won't keep moaning. :(
 

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Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time (4/5)

There's a certain irony in me giving this a glowing score, after coming off Legend of the Sea Devils. It's a reminder how, not too long ago, the series was at the top of its game. I'd ask "what happened?", but we all know the answer. :(

Anyway, this comic was made for the 50th anniversary of the show. I'll come off the bat and say that no, it doesn't have the same 'oomph' as Day of the Doctor, but it's still pretty solid regardless, and even has the same conciet of bringing every Doctor together (sans War in this case), but focusing on recent incarnations (in this case, Nine to Eleven). However, there's still more balance spread throughout the piece in comparison. It sort of acts a reminder of what comics can achieve what live-action shows on a budget can't.

Anyway, the graphic novel is a collection of comic issues, with one per Doctor, ranging from One to Eight (I'll get to Nine and beyond in a bit). Each of these stand-alone issues is mostly self-contained, in that the bulk of the story begins and ends within its own confines, as the Doctor and his companions does his thing. However, each of these end with the same mysterious cloaked figure incapacitating the Doctor, kidnapping the companion(s), and thus, ending the story. However, as we get further ahead in the Doctor's personal timeline, he starts to remember the past abductions, which means that he's able to start anticipating the arrival of the figure. As the figure explains, each strike is very close together in his own personal timeline, but the attacks are spread out over the Doctor's longer, wider timeline. This starts to stack up, with one of Six's companions (a shapeshifting penguin...huh...) getting a message from Ten, and Eight being able to call the figure out ahead of time, even if he still fails to stop him from kidnapping Grace.

Things reach a head in Nine, where the figure is revealed as...drumroll please...Adam Mitchell. Yes, Adam Mitchell. Remember him? The guy that appeared in two episodes of season 1 of NuWho? Yeah. I actually like the idea behind him, that due to being booted out by the Doctor due to his one mistake, he lived a miserable life, watched his mother die, only to be recruited by a benefactor. I actually like this idea, and Adam does make a valid point about the unfairness of him being forced to leave the TARDIS, while also showing how cold the Ninth Doctor can be due to his lack of remorse. But nonetheless, Adam still wins, and kidnaps Rose.
 

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Ten is next, and by this time, he's fully aware of Adam's plan, so spends the episode trying to suss him out, but can't stop him from kidnapping Martha. Finally, Adam confronts Eleven, and reveals that his patron is the Master (one of the OldWho incarnations). Eleven visits the sites of the past Doctors before finally confronting Adam, who's got a whole bunch of companions in stasis. This, admittedly, raises a question - up until now, every appearance of Adam has been giving the Doctor a finger while kidnappning a companion, but the no. here is far in excess of all that. So how'd that work? Whatever, he wants the Doctor to choose which companion lives, while all the rest die, only for all the other Doctors show up due to Eleven's chronal trail, and cue Avengers Assesmble-esque moment. They fight and they fight and they fight, and the Master reveals his plan to kill all the Doctors across their timelines, which will mean the destruction of the universe, and Adam doesn't want that, so he gives his life to save the day. There's some reconciliation with Rose and Nine, and the Doctors attend his funeral - "Adam Mitchell, a Companion True."
 

Hawki

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...yeah, in case the writing didn't give it away, I don't think the ending really works that well, at least compared to the buildup to it. Having this story be with Nine or even Ten would be pretty good, but Adam has no relation to the Doctors before Nine, so the story's lacking some emotional oomph. Also, the ending is let down in a sense. I get the Master's idea - erase the Doctor entirely, so that the universe is destroyed as a side effect - but again, that isn't too in-depth a motivation.

Still, I did like this comic overall. While the ending is a bit of a letdown, everything up to the ending is good enough to put this in the "good" category. There's also how, between each issue, there's author/editorial notes going into the history of the Doctor Who comics across time, and I guess you could say space (e.g. UK comics vs. US comics). They make for interesting notes on the nature and development of them, and arguably wide-comic publishing over 50 years as a whole.

So, it's not "fantastic," as the Ninth Doctor would say, but still pretty good.

Jellybaby?
 

Thaluikhain

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In the expanded universe, it seems a lot of writers wanted to do something more with Adam.

Oh, and they brought back Frobisher the penguin/shapeshifter? That's kinda cool.
 

Hawki

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Read some stuff:

Doctor Who: Gangland (4/5)

Doctor Who: Fractures (3/5)

Doctor Who: The Body Electric (2/5)

In the expanded universe, it seems a lot of writers wanted to do something more with Adam.

Oh, and they brought back Frobisher the penguin/shapeshifter? That's kinda cool.
Yeah, Frobisher, that was his name. He has a decent role, in that he's put inside one of Adam's pods, but is able to escape due to his shapeshifting abilities. The graphic novel goes into his background - apparently he was implemented in the comics as they could easily portray a shapeshifter, whereas live-action couldn't.
 

Hawki

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Star Wars: The High Republic - Out of the Shadows (3/5)

I really don't have much to say about this. The novel isn't bad by any means, but it just didn't really leave any kind of impression on me. It occurs later in the High Republic storyline than most, if not all previous High Republic works I've read, and it's nice to see those works referenced, but overall, I just didn't particuarly care. I don't find the Nihil that interesting (they seem to be equivalent of Mandalorians, and I never found them interesting either), and the characters...well, some of them are decent (e.g. a space pilot/scavenger who gets drawn into the novel's overall conspiracy), and others...I'm sorry, but Jedi are boring. Or at least, THESE Jedi are boring. Force this, Force that, gah! The result is that every time we spent time with our space salvager character (Sylvestri "Syl" Yarrow - look her up on Wookiepedia if you want, I can't be arsed to do a description right now), the writing's pretty decent, but the book alternates between her perspective and Vernestra Rhoh, a Jedi who's just SO perfect at everything and anything. I don't think Vernestra's a Mary Sue (if she is, then Luke's a Gary Stu), but again, I just didn't find the Jedi sections interesting. So what we have is a novel that's split down the middle in terms of what it covers, and my correspondent levels of interest.

Overall, I'm sort of left to wonder what direction The High Republic storyline will take. If we're looking at the worldbuilding, we have a situation where the Republic is refusing to be drawn into a massive war with the Nihil, and to be fair, there's interesting traits here. For instance, the Nihil have a mastery of hyperspace that exceeds that of the Republic, so their hit-and-run efforts are hard to counter, but...well, I know this franchise is called Star WARS, but, well, doesn't do much for me.

Shame.
 

Hawki

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Fleet School: Renegat (3/5)

Technically this was a short story as part of the Infinite Stars sci-fi collection, but whatever the case, I'm reviewing it by its lonesome.

Anyway, it's been a long time since I've read anything from the Enderverse. My main interest in the IP these days is waiting for 'The Queens' to be released, but whatever the case, this was a nice jump back in. Especially since it partly deals with the protagonist of Children of the Fleet (my least favourite Enderverse novel).

Anyway, I could describe the plot, but honestly, the plot in of itself isn't that compelling. Really, it's more about mood and concepts then anything else, as Ender and Valentine come to a world overseen by Dabeet. Human settlement has done a number of the local flora (more specifically, cats killing everything...oops), and there's one species in particular, the ilops. Basically think alien hyenas that can unhinge their jaws, and are pseudo-sapient. There's a murder mystery of a planetary researcher that gets sussed out, but again, that's not really the point. The story is more ideas focused, on the nature of sapience, and the ethics of inter-planetary colonization, or at least, such a thing when there's already local flora. You can draw parallels to real-world history if you want, but there's also a Watsonian view to contend with (at least for me); the possible implication that having beaten the formics, humanity is now doing the same thing the Buggers were. Spreading out, damn the consequences. I know Card is a...controversial, individual, but I'll be frank, I think his work on the Enderverse shows that he's a very intelligent one. The aliens in the Enderverse aren't your Star Trek variety, and the ethics debates here aren't present in much sci-fi out there. Also, for better or worse, Renegat doesn't have his usual esoteric writing style. Make of that what you will.

So if that's all well and good, why is this only a 3? Well, again, the plot. I get that this is more an 'ideas story,' but the actual plot holding it together is pretty thin, and just sort of peters out. The ending is quite moving, but again, it's more on the level of theme rather than plot. I think this is a case of YMMV as to what you want out of science fiction, but to me, this was a decent, if not great read.
 

Hawki

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Dune: The Waters of Kanley (4/5)

If there's a difference between the writings of Frank Herbert and Brian Herbert/Kevin Anderson, I feel that this story is a perfect encapsulation of that fact. Because while WoK is a sidequel to Dune, taking place during its storyline, everything about it, from writing style, to content, to themes (or lack of them), exemplifies this. I'm not saying this to put anyone on or beneath their counterpart, but, well, yeah.

Anyway, the story is set during Dune, and focuses on Gurney Halleck. This is after the Harkonnens have stormed Arrakeen and killed Leto, but before Gurney reunites with Paul. Basically, Gurney and a group of Atreides survivours have fallen in with the Fremen, and what follows is a raid on a Harkonnen water tanker. The raid goes wrong (supposedly), as the tanker has far more Harkonnen soldiers on it than their insider told them, and Gurney and the survivours are forced to escape in a drop pod. However, he infiltrates the city of Carthag and the plot twist revealed, as Gurney's plan comes to fruition before his eyes, and he gains a measure of vengeance.

So, yeah. The plot itself is simple, there's no themes to speak of, and what follows is plot/character-driven. It might be unfair to compare this to "original Dune," as this is a short story compared to a mult-chaptered epic, but the differences are fairly clear. That said, treating this on its own, I think it's pretty decent. If I did decimals, I'd give this a 3.5, but at the end of the day, with the plot twist revealed at the end, I think this gets up to 4. Overall, it's a decent-action adventure read.
 

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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: Dust to Dust - Volume 1 (5/5)

Yep, a rare 5/5. TBH, I feel it might be 4/5, but I can't think of anything wrong with this graphic novel at all in any meaningful sense, so, yeah, full marks.

I should specify that this is a comic series prequel to Phillip K. Dick's novel, which went on to inspire Blade Runner. In a sense, the comic seems to incorporate elements from both the book and novel, even if it's explicitly stated to be in the continuity of the former. Instead of blade runners, we get "hunters." Instead of replicants, we get "androids." Instead of Voight-Kompf tests, we get an empath that can detect androids due to their lack of emotions. There's all these similarities that I assume were in the book, but while the Blade Runner DNA is there, it's not quite the same thing.

On the other hand, the iconography is really Blade Runnerish. The story takes place after "World War Terminus," in what seems to be this world's version of the early 2020s. A substance called "dust" has irradiated the Earth, causing a mass die-off of animal life. Humans are more resilient for some reason, but are still affected, which creates empaths in some cases. Others have gone off-world, leaving a dying world behind (but hey, we get flying cars). Taking place in San Francisco, an android hunter teams up with a human empath to track down a group of rogue androids led by "Talus." What Talus wants is unclear, but he's motivated to be around long enough to see humanity go extinct. Meanwhile, a doctor is conducting research on dust, and trying to find a way to save what's left of Earth's biosphere. Also, there's a cult led by Mercer, with the philosophy of "Mercerism" that's gaining traction.

Honestly, it's a pretty good setup, and things go from there. I could honestly see this as being a Blade Runner prequel as much as an Electric Sheep one. But the plot aside, what I also want to draw attention to is the comic's use of colour. A lot of it is done in 'heavy' tones, conveying the lifelessness of everyone - greys, browns, etc. This is literal in a sense, but also thematic. The idea that humans in this world are emotionally dead. However, when the doctor character uses an "empathy code" that delivers a jolt to her brain, her panels are drawn using bright colours, signifying the reactivation of her emotions. It's subtle, but highly effective.

So, yeah. Great read. Hopefully I can get my hands on volume 2 as well.
 

Hawki

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The Borders of Infinity (2/5)

A short story in the Infinite Stars collection, set in the universe of the Vorkosigan Saga. As you can tell from the ranking, I really didn't like this. In fairness, a difference between this and Reneget/Waters of Kanley is that this was taking place in a unvierse I knew nothing about, whereas I'm reasonably familiar with the Dune and Enderverse settings. But even that aside, didn't like it. Some guy called Miles ends up in a camp and has to inspire a revolt and...sorry, just couldn't connect with anything or anyone. I suspect a fan of the series might have a different reaction, but as a newbie? Yeah...
 

Hawki

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World of Warcraft: Sylvanas (4/5)

It's funny coming off the Volk story that I come to this one, which is a case in point of what pre-existing knowledge of a setting can do for one's reception to it. I mention this because the ranking I gave this book is really conditional as to whether you're familiar with Warcraft or not. If you are, I think 4 is generally warranted. If not, you're looking at a 3 at best. This is going to sound arrogant in some ways, but I'll say it, I don't think this can be called a "proper" novel, in the sense that its structure is less "here's a story" and more "here's a sequence of events in a character's life as we go from Point A to Point Z, as we focus on the most important ones in question." As the title suggests, the novel focuses on Sylvanas Windrunner, and supposedly exists to fill in gaps for her narrative in Shadowlands. Not having played Shadowlands, I can't say how true that is, but I can see why, as we go from one point to another.

There's also another problem with the book, and that the task set before it is hobbled from the start. The book wants to chronicle the full story of Sylvanas, from pre-WC1 to the end of Shadowlands. In-universe, that's a period of well over 30 years. Out-of-universe, that's round about the same length of time to cover. All of that in a book that's around 420 pages long. The result is that some sections are fleshed out, other key events get a single paragraph dealt to them. Don't get me wrong, the sections that do get fleshed out are worth it in a lot of cases (e.g. when Sylvanas meets the Jailer for the first time, and she's shown the nature of the Shadowlands), but there's other events that are quickly summized, and end up feeling cut short as a result.

Concerning the plot and its associated revelations...for the most part, I like it. I can't comment on whatever gaps it's supposedly filling in, but it does give us a good look into Zovaal's motivations, and Sylvanas's motivations, and how long those motivations have been in play. Certainly recontextualizes a lot of material from MoP onward, that if planned, deserves kudos, and if not, then still gets some props. However, I did say "for the most part," because there's still elements that continue Warcraft's trend of "bigger bads" and "bigger bigger bads," and bigger bigger BIGGER" bads, such as the role Zovaal played behind the scenes in regards to the likes of Arthas and the Burning Legion. It doesn't go as far as retconning anything per se, and it doesn't ruin either Arthas or Sargeras (in that their actions and motivations would remain the same regardless of Zovaal), but it's still a case of him piggybacking off pre-existing foes. Thing is, we've already gone through the phase of "Burning Legion are the big bad," and by Chronicle we go through the phase of "actually, Void Lords are the big bad," and so on, and so forth, and it can get tiring. But in the context of the novel by itself, I think it's presented decently.

So, yeah. It's "good," but only conditionally.
 

Hawki

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Revelation Space: Night Passage (4/5)

This was another short story in the Infinite Stars collection. Like the Miles one, I knew nothing about the Revelation Space universe prior to this, and having read this and browsed Wikipedia since, I don't know much more. However, unlike the Miles one, this story easily stands alone in isolation.

Anyway, a ship between one star system and another is damaged in an uprising by Conjoiner passangers (as far as I can tell, these are cyborgs that live on Mars)? This is a setting where FTL travel doesn't exist, and as far as I can tell, neither does super-luminal communication, so they're kind of boned, especially since they're being drawn in by a mysterious object. Kind of like a black hole, given its gravity and how light can't seem to penetrate it, but also clearly artificial. So what follows is the mystery of why the Conjoiners made their uprising, followed by the mystery of the object, along with the question of if/how they'll be able to get out of this predicament. The ship is drifting towards the object, they have no way of adjusting course, and its gravity will do a number on them both physically and in terms of time dilation if they get too close.

Basically, the novel is veering towards the "hard" end of the sci-fi spectrum, and it works in that regard. Also works as the mystery unfolds. However, I found myself raising questions at the ending. Trying to avoid spoilers, but "a" character survives, is retrieved, and is questioned. This all seems to happen in a short period of time, and it feels incongruent with the rules of the setting. Because basically, if a ship's drifting in space, another ship has to get to it, and either get back, to press on to a new star system. At sub-luminal speeds, that's an insane amount of time, and that's not even factoring in issues such as relativity. Yet the implication is that all of what I just described, plus the inquiry, takes place over just a few years. Um...

Still, overall, the work is solid.
 

Hawki

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The Ship Who Sang (4/5)

Another entry in the Infinite Stars series. Basically centres on the character of Helva, who is cybernetically installed inside a ship to guide it, due to being born with some kind of condition. Turns out she's a pretty good singer as well.

It's kind of hard to describe this story, as it's based far more around character than plot. For the most part, Helva's an endearing character, as she goes through training, then is installed in a scout ship (a "brainship," so named because of the interface between ship and cyborg), and goes on a series of missions with a Captain Jenner before he loses his life in an evacuation, and she's recalled to be partnered with a new captain. Towards the end, it kind of lost me, but until then, it was really solid. So, giving it a 4/5, as it averages out.
 

Hawki

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Cadet Cruise (2/5)

Shore Leave (3/5)

I'm reviewing these together, because they're both in the Infinite Stars anthology, and they both, broadly, deal with the same plot. Protagonist goes on shore leave, shit happens.

Shore Leave's ranked slightly higher as you can tell, but it's arguably not fair. I'm at least partly familiar with the Lost Fleet series (which Shore Leave is set in), but not the Republic of Cinnebar series (which Cadet Cruise is set in).

Overall, really not much to say. I'm not a big fan of military sci-fi, and neither of these did anything to change that.
 

Drathnoxis

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I've read a bunch of stuff, but haven't posted it because who cares, but I just finished Gone with the Wind, and I have to say: wow!
Now that was a classic. Scarlett O'Hara is a fantastic character. You see her grow through hardship and change with the world. She's strong and flawed, and just so very believable and human. People these days talk about 'strong female characters' as if the concept was invented by the modern era. But here's Scarlett, written in 1936, taking on the world. She isn't very likeable, but she's very understandable, and she got them all through the war and clawed her way back up from the bottom.

It was also really fascinating seeing the American Civil War from the side of the Confederates. This is the first time I've ever been presented with their perspective, and it was very different from the hateful bigots you see in other media, and I can understand why some people flew the confederate flag for so long into the modern era.

It was an emotional roller coaster though and Margaret Mitchell must be some kind of sadist. Every time Scarlett starts to pull ahead there's some new tragedy that rears it's head. I was in tears for the last 2 hours of the audio book (great narration by Linda Stephens, by the way) and the ending is really quite a downer. But I love the book regardless.
 
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Hawki

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The Reckoners: Mitosis (2/5)

By this point you should all be familiar with my mixed views on Sanderson at this point, and yet why, despite them, I keep coming back to his works. But with Mitosis, we hit a new low. At the least, at only around 40 pages, it didn't take up too much of my time (less than an hour, actually).

Anyway, Mitosis is in the Reckoners series, and takes place after the first book. Steelheart's been defeated, the city of Newcago is rebuilding (so to speak), but a new Epic named Mitosis comes to challenge the ones who killed the city's former ruler. If this sounds like a simple summary, you're right - it's a simple summary for a simple plot. And simple plots aren't bad, inherently, but, well, when your simple plot has simple characters, engaging in simple dialogue, in the context of simple concepts, one tends to want something a bit more 'meaty.'

I've ranked this lower than Steelheart, because while the issues I raised above remain, Steelheart, at the least, had the advantage of worldbuilding. The TL, DR version is that superheroes (called Epics) exist, and are all jerks, and rule over their own enclaves in the former United States (I can't remember about the rest of the world). Not exactly original, but the book operated within its premise well enough. Mitosis, however, doesn't have the advantage of that worldbuilding (it doesn't introduce anything new in terms of setting), and what it does introduce (arguably), or reinforce, is that every Epic is bad, and can't be anything but bad, bar a few key exceptions. So, yeah. We have a setting where the bad guys are bad, the good guys are good, and zzz...

Look, I've never really been into superheroes, but the current media landscape makes it kind of advantegous to at least attempt to be in my case. The Reckoners, however, isn't such a case, and Mitosis just hits rock bottom. It's less Mitosis and more meiosis, amirite?

Does that joke make sense? No? Too bad, I don't care.
 

Hawki

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Prototype (3/5)

This, as in, the prequel/sidequel comic to the original Prototype game. It's...fine, I guess?

The comic really doesn't stand on its own. It has two main timeframes - New York, during the outbreak, that follows two detectives, and a past plotline that details Lieutenant Randall (who I assume is a game character) climbing the ranks of Blackwatch by eliminating all kinds of nasty beasties that seem to keep popping up everywhere. Suffice to say, it's more action than plot, while I generally prefer stories to be the other way round.

Anyway, it's fine. I could say more, but don't feel like it.