Fifty Shades of Lady Porn - pt 2!

Time to party with non bland characters in a really engaging and thoughtful story!


Just kidding - it's back to throwing shade at Shades.

Fifty Shades of Lady Porn

Ok. So there has been a lot of discussion about Fifty Shades of Grey recently, obviously, cause the movie just opened. People are giving it devious motivations such as normalising abusive relationships - I think it's lady porn so I give it a pass because in my opinion, no one should be modelling life long relationships on porn. Porn is a fantasy you visit, and then leave. I assumed this was a power/control fantasy that people could slip in and out of.

However I never read it, so felt a little out of place arguing on it. Now I didn't read it, because I thought it would be boring.

See, I LOVE SEX. I love sex, I'm not ashamed about it. I love my body, I love being naked, I love watching sex and porn, reading sex and porn, writing sex and porn. I especially like having sex, and trying new things wherever I happen to be.

So I avoided Fifty Shades because, well, I assume it is for people who aren't me.  I think female characters who are excessively innocent are indeed boring.  They're just not for me. They don't have to be.

BUT, I wanted to see if this book was touting itself as more than just lady porn (lady porn to me is romance to the reader whether it be good or bad romance + sex scenes + certain mary sue-ish qualities to the female character. If you're interested, I think male porn gets to the point quicker and is super graphic) and if people had a reason to think that this book could be taken seriously enough for fully grown, able minded women to misconstrue the relationship depicted for a "normal" relationship.

I thought while I read it, I might as well recap it, because... well I thought it might be funny.

So here we go, stream of conscious Fifty Shades of Grey...

 

Angel: Blood and Trenches by John Byrne

Set in WWI!

I picked this one up because of the artwork actually. Not just the cover (above), but the artwork is a bit different than what I usually see, and very cool. John Byrne is the writer and artist for this one, and the graphics are actually pencilly looking. There's no real ink work. No clean lines. No real colour for most of it! The pictures look like sketches.

I think that's awesome!

The only colour that appears that departs from graphite - is the colour red. I'd say it was Sin City-esque but Sin City is so clean and sleek - this isn't. This is rough. And it works.

The artwork is great - what about the story?

Basically, Angel is in New York, reading some news articles about the war, and (without spoiling you too much) he sees "something" that he believes might require his attention on the front line. *ahem* vampires.

That's not really a spoiler, it was a pretty high chance the antagonists in the story would be vampiric. Or demonic.

Anyway, Angel gets himself on a boat and starts investigating while working as an ambulance driver.

Sound interesting? It is! Actually this is only a few pages but that just sounds enthralling to me. I want to know MORE. I wanted to see more of his interactions with the other people. I wanted more build-up. I want MORE backstory, more character tension, more every-day situations and how hard they are for him at that time. But what I got was still great. I just wanted more...

Angel as an ambo in WWI.

This story is more of a character study about Angel, dealing with his nature. This is a lot closer to his Angelus days than we usually saw in the series. Which is great. I like exploring Angel's past. I always wished there was more of it in the show - and a graphic novel form is the perfect media.

Byrne writes Angel very well. He's very reserved in this era - and has a lot less control over himself and his actions than the Angel we're used to. He's still trying to come to terms with himself. He's not there yet.

The story is pretty simple, though told in a not-quite-linear fashion which stops it from going dry too quickly. I liked Angel's headspace in this one - he flees a lot, he's not strong, and he's not quite in control. It's a great look at a character I love.

I recommend it.

Review: X-Factor Issues #1 - 17 by Peter David and others.

Vol 1

Okay, so I'm going to start off honestly here - I am not up to date on the X-Men mythos. I'm sure I'm not alone. I've tried. I've really tried! But trying to wrap my head around all the information is like trying to cram a McGangBang into my mouth.

I mean, not only do you have over 50 years of storylines to get through, you've got characters dying, reappearing... having babies, flying in from different worlds... you've got people like damn Jean Gray having two characters in the series - and she's not the only one!
No matter which story I read, the characters are always referencing other plots that I know nothing about.

For an outsider, this universe of outsiders is damn hard to get into.


Cue: X-Factor.

As per the above, I wouldn't usually read an X-Men title because, simply, I never know what's going on. But, my friend brought up X-Factor in a discussion about the marketing hype of DC's new 52 relaunch (and the teaser of a gay character) and I thought it sounded alright and that I'd give it a go.

I'm glad I did.

This has probably been the most rookie-friendly title I've read from this universe. Yes - this is from the House of M universe, which is not the regular universe, but still...it feels like the start for me. A massive event happened in House of M - which I can summarise (hopefully correctly) as this:

A mutant (and witch) was working with the Avengers. She started using her

powers in new ways and her magic made her a bit cray cray. She attacked the avengers,

was defeated, lasped into a coma,

 and then was looked after by Magneto and her brother Quicksilver.

Quicksilver convinced her to alter reality. She did, making a reality where humans are the minority and mutants are ruled by Magneto.

Heroes find out. Heroes stop her.

She reverses the reality which in turn brings the mutant population from thousands to hundreds.

So this massive event has sort of hit the reset button in a way, because while the characters have previous storylines, they're still battling to understand the new world order. Which is great. Cause it means I can follow the story.

The series itself is led by protagonist Jamie Madrox - the recognisable Multiple Man. Jamie is running a detective agency in New York's Mutant Town - where the ex-mutants and few mutants left are holed up.

Alongside him are Guido (Strong Guy), brash Theresa Cassidy (Siryn, and Banshee's daughter) Rahne, snobby Monet St. Croix, a young girl named Layla Miller who knows stuff, and a ex-mutant named Rictor who opens the story by contemplating killing himself.

We quickly learn the world is in a state of unrest to put it nicely. There is division between mutants and ex-mutants, there is a division between humans and ex-mutants and of course, between humans and mutants.

Jamie is an interesting choice for a leader of this group, seeing as he is intensely indecisive - something highlighted by the fact his power is to create duplicates or "dupes" of himself upon any type of jarring physical contact, each dupe personifying a part of himself - and the situations that call for a steadfast course of action showcase his personal issues.

Jamie himself is both incredibly sad throughout the arc so far and subversely humourous at times. Peter David has really brought a depth to this character that surprised me.

Characters I thought I wouldn't enjoy spending time with grew on me surprisingly fast - Monet St Croix who is written as snobbily as Cordelia Chase in season one of Buffy became one of my favourites towards the end of the third collection, showing some heart and an ability to kick ass when the situation calls for it. (Hmmm actually, Cordelia Chase became my favourite in SEASON three... perhaps I like my bitchy characters in threes...)

Monet St Croix

The main antagonist of the story is the Singularity Investigations. By the end of the seventeenth issue I still have no idea who they are or why I should be against anything they do ... apart from the fact the characters are drawn more evilly and try to kill X-Factor employees.

There honestly isn't a big story arc in this series so far. Only hints. A lot of the time we are dealing with the effects of small plots; Siryn being kidnapped and beaten, trying to help the ex-mutants of Mutant Town or just Jaime getting drunk, accidently duping himself and sleeping with both M and Siryn ...

Jamie Madrox and Rictor discussing water levels

The main plot motion is created in the form of the young Layla Miller, who acts as a sort of soothsayer for the team.

And I don't mind. This really seems to be a character piece so far. Some poignant issues are raised, whether its Guido dealing with the fact he killed someone under hypnosis, or Jamie tracking down the dupes he sent into the world to learn (so he could absorb the knowledge when they returned) and unexpectedly finding one who had a family. Even though it's only a short storyline, it's handled really well and is thought provoking.

Siryn and M ... hugging shopping it out

As it is, I'd definitely read further and possibly back to the beginnings of the House of M story!



...Definitely one for the rookies.






Buy Vol 1 here:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/X-Factor-Longest-Night-v-1-Peter-David/9780785118176

Review: Canongate Myth Series, Books #1 - #3

Note: I'm not reviewing the content of any of The Myths today, just the external packaging.

The Myths is a long-term global publishing project where some of the world's most respected authors re-tell myths in a manner of their own choosing.

I was very excited when I first heard about this project from Scottish publishing house Canongate. Classic myths being retold in a contemporary way. Easily recognisable stories being handed to some of the best authors out there, so they can polish the meaning, breath new life into these ancient archtypes and make them accessible to modern audiences.

Awesome. And epic. This series only just started and it's planning to get to a century.

So of course I bought the hardcover box set, featured below. This set has the first three books; A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong, The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, Weight by Jeanette Winterson and also a small inclusion by Philip Pullman A Word or Two About Myth.

A Short History of Myth is more of an overview of myth in general, and what the myths we know today meant to different periods of our human history.

The Penelopiad Homer's Odyssey told from his wife's perspective

Weight The overlapping story of Atlas and Heracles, and a poignant take on the way Heracles tricked Atlas into taking back the world

The Myths!

So first we have the box, which is patterned with cave drawings, appropriately enough. There's also gold writing on the back, detailing the books, and the little Canongate Myths Symbol also in gold.
The box itself is made of thick board - not flimsy at all, I could probably rest my monitor on it.

The hardcovers each have decorative jackets. They look all the same inside the jackets.

I'm not sure if you can see the text, but the chapters are printed in a deep red. Some of the words in the foreward are also printed in the same deep red and the contents pages have the same theme... very pretty.



I bought the boxset and I'm more than pleased with it. The editions are of a high quality, some of the best editions i've seen in a while.


Just one last note: these books are more novellas, they do not take long to read, but they are worth it! Really recommend these, pick your favourite author up to see how they teach old dogs to play pianos.



Find out more about the myths series here:
http://www.themyths.co.uk/

Review: American Vampire #1 - #5 by Scott Snyder and Stephen King

"Another vampire story? Aren't there enough?" you groan.
"Never!" I respond.

The thing about vampire stories, good vampire stories that is, is that they can be told over and over, as long as you keep the blood fresh.

King's foreword in the graphic novel American Vampire reveals that he jumped onboard this train because he was lured by the prospect of Snyder's SCARY vampires. Not to say this hasn't been done before, but at the moment it's not exactly a secret that the media is leaning towards one specific type of vampire: the sexy vampire.

Somewhere along the line we lost the idea that vampire's are alluring to humanity because they represent a taboo. There are dark and despicable things that humans often succumb to and vampires are a realisation of that. Recently, we have this trend that vampires are hot because they are physically attractive, and they are simply so desired because they get to be young and hot forever, not because they represent a dark part of our humanity.

Snyder's bringing scary back. And I, for one, welcome it. Not because I don't enjoy sexy vampires, I do, but because I so sorely miss vampires with a ...ahem... point.

Scott Snyder's American Vampire follows Pearl Jones, a young ingénue in 1920's Los Angeles, as she struggles to realise her Hollywood hopes and dreams. Needless to say, these dreams are brutally dashed when she's unwittingly served up as an all you can drink buffet to some elitist European vamps.

Pearl Jones - our heroine

Stephen King's part to play in all this is that he's penning the story of Skinner Sweet, a heartless murderer and theif in the 1880's who wronged the wrong unpeople, as he discovers what he's become: a vampire with no sensitivity to sunlight, silver or the usual vampire hoodoo. What the book calls an American vampire.

The stories merge with Skinner changing Pearl (she's still breathing after the attack, and Skinner finds her still dying in the ditch where they've left her) into an American vampire, and sets her on the path of revenge, against the same that carries the rest of part one.

Skinner Sweet...

I'm not going to lie, these ideas are things we've seen before (Blade, for instance, featured "daywalkers"). But the characterisation, and the non-attempts to make Skinner at all sympathetic rather than selfish - or invalidate Pearl's revenge plot - are refreshing. Skinner is a badass. There's no apology for that. But even though he is villainous, Skinner isn't the main antagonist in this story either. It's great. He's no woobie, and he received no karmic payback either.

I'd definitely recommend it, the writing is sharp and though-provoking. Also, the art by Rafael Albuquerque (and colourist Dave McCaig) is both at times beautifully sweet and eerily freaky. Combo of both great story and art is rare for me in graphic novels - I usually like one and not the other.

Let's see if the magic continues into part 2...

Review: Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy

Ariel Levy's examination of expectations of modern day female sexuality (at least in Western terms) is intriguing and her opinions mostly justified.



Levy's book is about the 'hot' ideal. The playboy-as-teen-icon ideal, the porn star as the ultimate in female liberation. The blonde and large-breasted ideal. The exhibitionist woman who is ready to play, ready for sex, 'that' woman that we see everywhere in our society - that ideal is fast becoming the only outlet of female sexuality.

Raunch culture is Levy's term, the definition of which is the rise of sexuality in our media, and it's perversion of sexuality into a type of commodity.

While Levy has no issue with stripping, or porn, or people gaining a sexual thrill from those things, what she examines is how easily a variety of women conform to that one idea of sexuality. She followed a Girls Gone Wild crew for this book, and the facts she lays out about this experience are all at once expected and frustrating. She examines how many people believe this raunch culture to be the epitome of female liberation - instead of a backwards slide.

Levy makes the point that if women continue to shoe-horn themselves into a one-size-fits-all model, if we deem only 'that' woman as a sexual being, then we are only playing a part in order to attain attention and a sort of misguided self worth. This in essence, shows how far behind our understanding of woman's sexuality really is. The current raunch culture strong-arms women to play a part, in order to satisfy a man and, indeed, other women.

She examines the Sex and the City culture of feminity, where sex acts as a commodity. Where sex is pursued as a hobby rather than a desire-fuelled sexual encounter. Where sex is pursued to attain the veneer of a sexy, free-willed and empowered woman. And that with that veneer, comes self-worth and even status in society.

Another supporting facet of the book is the examination of women who 'act like men', in order to be 'cool', who visit strip clubs and watch porn not to experience any sexual desire, but rather to assume the facade of a woman who enjoys this. To 'be one of the boys', to be the woman who 'gets it' is becoming part of our culture. Shying away from the prim girly girl and focusing on the cool man. Levy examines how this mannification of women, of women wanting to act and be like men, is equal to saying that being a woman is somehow inferior - and I agree with her.

Levy is quick to acknowledge the woman who feels her most sexual with a hair free vagina, who gets a thrill out of exhibitionism - but is trying to make the point that not every woman is that woman, and the more our society and our media only acknowledge this woman as sexual in the spectrum of sexual women, the more women at large are forced to be like that woman and deny their own sexuality.

SEXUAL!

This is an opinion piece, backed by interviews and some data. There is a chapter in which Levy attempts to delve into the trans community, and makes some oddly sweeping implications that women opting for trans surgery are somehow indulging in the mannification of women. I think she missed the point in this area, but it doesn't invalidate the rest of the book.

Also, I know this is a book based on WOMEN and the rise of raunch culture, but I think Levy could have taken a moment to acknowledge that - to a less grievous extent - men have a predetermined role to play in raunch culture as well.

All in all, it's a thought-provoking read with some stunning statistics in regards to things like vaginoplasty and teen pregnancies in it. I really enjoyed it, and I'd look for more from Levy in the future.

Battle Royale (Koushun Takami) vs The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)

I know they're not the book covers, shut up they look cool

I recently read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and while I was entertained, it bugged me on a few levels. I have had to think on this a long while, but I want to really understand why I've got a bug up my butt, because this story has had such an impact on our media culture that I am sure it’s going to influence stories to come.

So, I used Battle Royale as a yardstick.

To quickly recap, The Hunger Games is a dystopian YA novel. (Note the YA in that – young adult. This is a book that has to conform to certain rules of its genre.) The titular Hunger Games are an annual tournament in a country called Panem, where a girl and boy from each of the twelve slave districts are selected by chance to compete in a televised battle to the death. The book is told from the perspective of Katness Everdeen who competes for her district in lieu of her younger sister. This is all very interesting.

So I like the premise.

But the execution of this idea was lacking (for me) and there are many reasons for that, but one is obvious. The Hunger Games is a dystopian YA novel. YA. Young Adult.

Now, I’m not saying that you can’t have a dystopian novel written for young adults, and I’m definitely not saying you can’t have a good dystopian novel written for young adults, I’m saying that in this particular case, the YA – that rating – handcuffed this story and prevented it from reaching its full potential. YA meant this particular story couldnt go into the dark where it NEEDED to go.

There are plenty of YA novels that manage to incorporate heavy themes into a book geared towards teenaged readers – Harry Potter springs to mind, and Tomorrow When the War Began. But Collins wants to tell you a story about children battling to the death… without any gore.

Gore is typically not a YA theme, at least not in this medium. But how can you tell a story about what it means to battle to the death without gore? How can you write about the horror of murder, about a totalitarian government that forces a gladiator charade and then skip out on the yukky part? How do you make death a character, while at the same time covering your eyes when he appears and refusing to react to anything he does? This is what I mean, the YA rating slapped on this handcuffed it from really creating a clear message, from really exploring the themes that Collins hints at.

Apart from the overaching "death battle" theme, Collins touches on themes of government control and slavery, love, a society desensitised to violence, class distinction, how much of an impact television has on our lives … but never really focuses her story on any of them. I think this is because she didn’t want to delve too deep and confuse her younger target market, but the result is more blurred messages.

Government control is shown but never actually explored. We see the people are starving, but the only one who really seems outraged at what this means to the people is Katniss’ friend Gale, and he's hardly a major player. We know Katniss believes the games to be unfair, but doesn’t really seem to care if they continue after her exit from them.

Love is hinted at; a lot of Peeta Mellark’s (the other contender from Katniss’district) actions seem to be driven by his love for Katniss, but Katniss seems remarkable unaware, or maybe just unmoved, by this.

And I’m sure Collins wants us to be aghast at the idea of a bloodthirsty crowd watching the teens in their death throes … but she never gives us a chance to be shocked. She can’t shock us with what would be gory death descriptions because of the target audience, so I would expect Katniss to really explain either the deaths or how the deaths affect her. But she doesn’t. Katniss takes the whole thing extremely well; she only really balks at one death of a young tribute.

Class distinction is probably the most explored theme throughout the novel, as the distinction between the Capitol dandies and the starving district where Katniss lives is well done and interesting.

The whole television angle is I’m sure the main theme, that we are slaves to the box which is reflected by the Capitol making the games mandatory viewing. But this message is skewed by the whole interviewing segment where Katniss is suddenly amazingly beautiful from her makeover (of course!) and changes her personality in order to get sponsors. It’s not subversive at all. Katniss knows she must play by the pre-determined rules… and she does.  This is like saying the Bachelor is an awful show… and then signing up to be on it. (especially jarring as Katniss seems to have an almost aspergers-like level of not understanding human interaction/expectations/social signals for the rest of the story)

So if the story is not making a political point, it must be character driven, right? But it’s not. Katniss’ love for her sister is plain to see, and it’s what drives her to take her sister’s place in the games... but Katniss is the same person at the start of the book as she is at the end. She is cold, and she is only in it to survive. Katniss doesn’t seem at all changed by the events of what is supposedly her story – even though she participates in a post-apocalyptic gladiator battle…

Okay… so why have I called this blog Battle Royale vs Hunger Games? It's not really fair to compare the two, because one book is for adults and one is for young adults.

I know that. In fact, I don't care that they use the same premise... alot of people get hung up on that, but that isnt important. What's important here is that Battle Royale goes where the Hunger Games doesn’t. Or can’t.

Battle Royale (by Koushun Takami) is another story about a totalitarian government forcing teenagers to fight in a death match – this time a military research event called ‘The Program’. The Program is just as inescapable as the Hunger Games, except it takes place on an island, and the children are wearing bomb collars around their necks.

There are a few big differences in the book, most notably the gore level is high in BR, such as what I tend to call headhopping - switching character POVs during the story -  and a bigger focus on the political message. 

We've got Katniss...

...and Shuya...

Unlike Katniss, whose actions are motivated by survival and wanting to return to her sister, the main protagonist of Battle Royale, Shuya, is motivated by love, rebellion, and hope.

One of the main differences in the two stories is that the participants in Battle Royale are all people Shuya goes to school with. Katniss interacts with people she has never seen before (apart from Peeta) and this lessens the intimacy – and the shock value – of the death match.

Katniss’ drive to save her fellow participants is almost non-existent; Katniss mainly wants to stay away from them … because she doesn’t know them, and she wants to survive. Understandable. Shuya wants to survive as well, but he wants to gather his fellow classmates and escape as he feels a connection to them, and that’s why the story is all the more devastating when some of the classmates are more interested in killing by the rules than banding together.

Battle Royale explores numerous reactions to The Program, some people decide to kill, some decide to hide, some are leaders, some are protectors, some are hopeless, and some go completely crazy. It shows very well that dire circumstances will bring out different reactions in people. Takami lets you into the characters heads, makes an effort to portray them as real people with real motivations, before they are brutally done away with. This is what makes the story so awful.

Compare to Hunger Games, when most of the characters are killed in the first few minutes of the games, and it is impersonal and mashed together. Then, the other characters are sectioned into good and bad, so there are no moral dilemmas for the audience to really deal with.

Battle Royale is horrific… but is not horror that glorifies the murder; it is horror that makes an attempt to personify the corpses. The very fact the corpses of Shuya’s classmates are left around, dead on the ground for the duration of The Program, bringing home the stinking, fly-blown reality that they were people, and they do not disappear after they are murdered. Shuya and friends wander around the island and see them there. It's very disturbing. This is in striking contrast to Hunger Games efficient removal of the bodies (and also, the magic salve that removes injuries…)

Battle Royale raises the point that maybe you can’t trust anyone, and adversely, how sometimes you just have to trust, and I’m sure Takami was using this theme to describe life in general.

Battle Royale is about humanity, about politics and rebellion, and about endurance. It, like Lord of the Flies, is about the sheen of civility over barbarism. It’s about moral ambiguity, whether good people can do evil things and vice versa. It doesn’t blink in the face of its characters deaths – in fact, Takami makes you “watch” every single one, he makes you experience them, no matter how uncomfortable it is. Because he’s trying to tell you something clearly. Battle Royale, and The Program itself, is a microcosm of the brutality of life which you can’t always close your eyes to.

But Takami balances students trying to kill and rape one another with the naivety of things only important to teenagers, like who has a crush on who (and how much this matters to kids on their first loves), and who’s the best at baseball in the class. He counteracts the shadow of the totalitarian government, with some truly rebellious characters who want bloody revenge. The result is a story that has a well defined point.

Battle Royale is not without its flaws, some of the translation from its native Japanese is clunky and there is random head hopping. Most of the characters are nothing new, mostly like archetypes, with only a few surprises. Some of the characters are downright Gary-stus. Some of the backstories are meandering intrusions, and trying to keep track of 40+ students with similar names (to Westerners) is a right pain at the start.

And adversely, Hunger Games is not without its achievements, I actually like Collins writing style, and though her descriptions and hand holding through developments were often anvilicious, I chalked this up to the YA genre. I like that we actually have a female main character, and one who is so cold and unfriendly (not often you see that and it’s not a bad thing) so I really liked Katniss apart from her lack of growth.

I just think Battle Royale, with its flaws, was a clearer story. If Katniss was allowed to explore moral ambiguity, if she was allowed to lust after Peeta, if she was allowed to react to the rotting stinking corpse of a fellow participant, if she was allowed to rebel and kill the big bad... I think the messages would be there. But she's not allowed to do any of that, because she has to be YA friendly.

The Hunger Games is not a bad story. It is not a book you SHOULD NOT read; in fact it is an entertaining story. But it is a story that confuses its message. It wants to tell you glorifying television is bad while at the same time relishing how beautiful Katniss is as she is led to slaughter. It wants you to know that government control is bad, without bothering to have characters that care about it.

And I don’t know how much of that is toning down the (pretty hardcore) ideas to suit a younger audience.

Review: The Fall by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogen

Continuing on from my THE STRAIN review, this book keeps up Hogan and Del Toro’s story of Eph Goodweather and his team of vamp-battling white hats. We've got the average man who becomes a hero, the token girl who is the most emotional of the group (grrr I hate this trope), the wise and knowing mentor, the new hope (Eph's son), the tank... all the usual’s. Despite being tropestastic, the characters are done well, and we even get some warring gangbangers to help in the in the battle – which I liked, along with a seasoned Mexican wrestler.

So in this book, we've travelled past the "OMG vamps exist!!" part of the story and have moved on into "we must stop this terrible plague or die trying!"

The central plot focuses on stopping the spread of the usual cattle vampire infection, and also revolves around a certain ancient macguffin that will end all vampires or whatever it does.

It's a good story, it's well paced and well written, despite the fact the limelight must be shared among so many (which I had issue with in the first book). In face I still haven’t shaken the idea that these books are merely an accompaniment to the movie they really wanted to make. Perhaps it feels this way because of Del Toro. Anyway, I don’t find the head hopping so obvious in this one, or maybe I just got used to it.



It’s the middle book in a trilogy, and because of this it does fall into the usual trouble of having a plot that can’t progress too far. However, lessening the emphasis on the plot (and now knowing the vampire physiology from the first book) this novel is really more of a character study. I know at the end of my last review I hoped for more forward motion, but honestly, I really don't mind spending time with these characters.  

Perhaps this is why I didn’t mind the head hopping… it wasn’t getting in the way of anything this time.



At any rate, I am ordering the last book in the trilogy – THE NIGHT ETERNAL – as soon as I have some money.

Review: The Divine Comedy, Dante (Barnes and Noble Leatherbound Edition)

Note: I'm not reviewing the content of Dante's Divine Comedy today, just the external packaging.

Barnes and Noble have been releasing leather bound (bonded-leather bound) editions of particular classics. THese can include singular books, like Dracula or the Picture of Dorian Gray or collections, like Chronicles of Narnia or Grimm's Fairy Tales. I picked up the Dante edition in a nice red bonded leather. I believe "bonded leather" is actually particles of leather and other materials mixed together, but the effect (at least on my copy) is quite classic-looking.

Pictures below...

This is a fair representation of the colour of the cover.The black designs don't stand out as much as they do in the flash here, but are very visible (and pretty). The title, "Dante" and some design are completed in shiny gold-look.

I love the look, and even the gold edging on the pages - even though I doubt it will last long with the rate it is flicking off on my fingers. The pages are quite stuck together though, so I had to flick back and forth to seperate them all.

The only think I don't love is the design right in the centre. It doesn't keep in with the rest of the "look", which is a classic gold, red and black motif. The design - which I think is a sticker - is too colourful for the book. Even inside the book is very classically designed so Im not sure why they thought sticking a colourful sticker in the centre of the cover was a good idea.
I don't hate the cover, I quite like it still, but I think the centre inlay was a bad idea.

Continuing with the cover, this is the back. The design on the back is beautiful, depicting a swirl up from inferno to a gold topped paradiso. I don't know why they didnt try for something similar on the front cover.

This is the inner cover.

This is a sample of one of the pages. Barnes and Noble went with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's translation, which I don't mind. I think I originally read John Ciardi's in early high school, but I can't be sure! I don't have a copy of John Ciardi's though. I have Mark Musa's translations in a penguin classic, but I don't particularly like any of them over the other. Perhaps if I read them one after the other...

Now the main reason I wanted this copy is that it has Gustave Dore's illustrations inside! I'm not sure how many illustrations are inside the edition, but they are plentiful, and make the edition worthy of buying themselves! (click to enlarge)




All in all, the edition is a great addition to your bookshelf, the only real downside being the central sticker-thingy on the front cover (and if you dislike HWL)

I would definitely like to get more of these editions. They are not rare, but they are a definite book-lovers indulgence.

Review: Full Frontal Feminism by Jessica Valenti

 

Jessica Valenti knows her shit. She does. In Full Frontal Feminism, she explores the relatively new idea that feminism does have a new face, and they face cops a lot of judgement, even from other women. And I wish it wouldn't because OBVIOUSLY, it's the exact opposite of what we need as a society. 

Women against women has always pissed me off. I don't believe we''re all sisters in arms, that's just as much as an "us against them" idea as anything else. 

But to have some feminists against OTHER feminists, some feminists saying that other feminists don't know enough, don't have the "right" values, don't "understand" what feminism is about - that's INSANE.

Because feminism is about being equal. It’s about fairness and equality for everyone, women and men. And Valenti really expresses that. Feminist against feminist goes against the basic ideals of feminism – and it’s a problem I’ve encountered!

She writes that, sure, heels and makeup make women look sexier by today’s definition of “sexiness” – but if you like to, wear those heels! If you don’t want to, DON’T! Awesome :D I agree with that. 

What I loved about FFF was that I already believed most of the ideals she writes about – but I couldn’t define those ideals I had. Valenti discusses with clarity those furry feelings of wrongness I had. E.G. she poses the idea of a “rape schedule” wherein women walk to their car with their keys in their hands, ready to attack the boogeyman where he may jump out of the bushes. I do this. I know a lot of women who do, but Valenti really clarifies what’s wrong with that, and what it means to our society as a whole.

Is this a good book?

For me, definitely. Read it in three hours, couldn’t put it DOWN good book. Valenti writes with appropriate humor about the subjects she covers, and colours each with personal stories and anecdotes. The book is a joy to read, and for me, made me feel like I had a person on my wavelength. 

Valenti definitely has a new fan in me. Who doesn't love a cool, smart woman?

Pick up the book, regardless of your gender!

Valenti’s site: feministing.com

Review: The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs by Irvine Welsh

This is not a new review. This book is coming up to it's fifth birthday, but damn... it's a good book!

Irvine Welsh - best known as the guy who wrote Trainspotting - delivers what I believe is his best story to date. Better than Filth, which included monologue by a tapeworm in the protagonist’s gut. And The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs is a re-imagining.

And if you'd believe it, it's a re-imagining of Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray.

The book follows Danny Skinner, a ruthless character with his lips wrapped around a bottle and a finger in every girl he meets (excuse the language). Danny believes a famous chef impregnated his mother, and Danny is focused on proving it. That's his mcguffin, and it drives the plot forward even while Danny succumbs to his alcoholism.

The secondary character is shy and "pure" Brian Kibby, of course the polar opposite to the Danny. Every aspect of Brian is everything Danny lacks - though he can't admit this, even to himself. From the moment Danny meets Brian at work, he dislikes him immediately. And when quiet Brian shows a booze-debilitated Danny up at a meeting, the dislike turns into incandescent hatred. Danny curses Brian, and that's where the re-imagining begins.

From that point, Danny finds himself mysteriously without hangovers after drinking and coke binges while Brian is growing more and more ill. It dawns on Danny that Brian's illness coincides with his own impossible wellness, despite his lifestyle. (like the portrait in Dorian's attic?)

So Danny participates in more and more debauchery, indulging in hedonism and inflicting his consequences on Brian to the point of near death.

I won't spoil the ending, but I will cut the book into my three points: Characters, Plot and Atmosphere.

  
Characters:
Spot on brilliant human characters, but we are talking about Welsh here. Danny is a bastard of the highest Welshian order, so you'd expect him to be ruthless and without heart, until Welsh reveals his human side. And sure enough, it happens. Welsh is an author that can show you the humanity inside the despicable. And in this instance, the despicable inside the "pure"

Plot:
Well… it’s a re-imagining of (debatably) once of the most brilliant books of all time. Don’t let my review fool you into thinking you know what will happen, Welsh has overlaid an engaging, deep story over the old psalm.
The story is fast and involving, and you need to find out what happens next. It's a work of deep emotion, overlaid with black comedic acid.

Atmosphere:
Bars and booze and Edinburgh. Rough and raw and as vivid as any other Welsh work. You can hear the accent in the dialogue, and you can smell the smoke. 


I can’t say anything more apart from clever, clever Welsh, and find this book to add to your collection.

Review: The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogen

Note: THE STRAIN is part one of a trilogy.

Woo woo vampire books by my favourite director?? Totally snapped that up as soon as I could find it!

I summarise THE STRAIN as a mix between zombie and vampire fiction. So the vampires aren't those sweet sparkly or sexy kinds that you find in fiction alot of the time, these vampires are... well they're like the vampires from Blade 2.
 Remember them? The Reapers... I think that's what they were called (or am I getting confused with Firefly??) They ate normal vampires, and in doing so, spread the virus from body to body, creating overwhelming numbers of these nasty vamps. This idea, this outnumber idea, is usually found in zombie fiction, but it works well for animalistic vampires as well. That’s why I’m calling it a mix.

To start off, I love Guillermo. I've loved him since I watched Blade 2 with the commentary on. He loves his monsters, and that comes through in this book.  These monsters are LOVED, they have been thought about long and hard so there's a lot of what I call sci-babble, in which they attempt to explain how a vampire would work medically. Not so much of a fan of sci-babble – but the vampire theories are fun here (the virus mutates the organs, they become more batlike so the vampires defecate a batlike guano full of proteins), so they kept my interest. (again, recalling Blade 2, with the reaper autopsy)

The plot in a nutshell, is that a plane lands at JFK airport, everyone inside is dead, and the CDC are called in to explain why. It turns out it’s vampires. That's not a spoiler; it says it on the back of the book. This is a vampire novel.

Keeping that in mind, it takes 100+ pages for the vampires to show up. I mean, it was fast paced and all, but I felt a lot of filler for those first hundred pages. First we're looking at the airplane through the tower, then we're approaching the airplane with the baggage loader, then a new point of view of a CDC guy at home with his kid talking about his marriage, then the CDC guy heading to the airplane, then the baggage handler again, then what felt like fifty pages about an eclipse - viewed from a space station, and a ballgame, and some random people on the street.
 Now, when I say "viewed"? I mean we're head hopping. We as a reader are taking flying leaps from character-head to character-head. It was a little awkward, I mean I'm sitting there thinking "Where are the VAMPIRES in this VAMPIRE book, Guillermo??" and we're switching POVs about random people, sometimes only staying with a person for less than a page.
This might work for movies, I'm yet to be convinced it works for books.

It was so weird at first that it actually took me a while to figure out who our major players are. I thought the baggage handler was going to be a vampire killer, but no, she gets two close-together chapters and then ... bye. Okay. And we don’t meet one of our MAJOR players until, I'm sure, about halfway through the book. And I didn’t take much notice of him because I thought he was just going to be a random POV.

We jump into an astronaut’s head, so she can tell us that the eclipse is creepy from space. I mean... why? Sure it’s creepy, we get it, you told us this with what feels like six other characters and we're never see this character again? Why should I care that she thinks the Earth is creepy with a shadow on it? Wouldn't it have been a good move to use the POV of the major players?

We ended up with FOUR major characters (not including the other head-hopping), one main character - the CDC guy, and the main antagonist.

Jumping between four people's heads is hard enough, then we have the main and sub antagonists, plus the interludes which take place in the past, and on top of that, all the other random POVs - like, is it enough already? Do we have enough scene changes? 

I felt unable to focus for the first third to half of the book. I don't mind head hopping, but you have to have a reason to do it. Simply because you want to tell me the eclipse looks eerie from space is not enough of a reason to disconnect me from who I'm supposed to be caring about - i.e. CDC guy. (I know it was only a throwaway page but I remember it because it was so incredibly jarring. I started thinking "do the vampires come from space?")

HOWEVER! Having said that, the book starts to gel (about the time the vampires show up) about 150 pages in. We still have head hopping, but it seems purposeful, we hop into people’s lives to experience the result of the infection and the ramifications. And when that’s done, we start just sharing our time between the important people and that’s when THE STRAIN grows some whiskers and becomes a GREAT book.

It’s really good, the vampire theories are fun, it’s scary and creepy, unsettling and exciting. Plus they throw in some ancient vampire mythos. All the things you want out of a vampire book! If only they’d sped up and pruned the initial, confused beginning.

I’m going to buy the second book THE FALL, which is out now. Now that all the characters know what’s going on, I hope we can keep the speedy forward motion, with all head hopping leading us towards a final, melded conclusion.

Review: On Writing by Stephen King

What is it about Kingy? I love him. I really do. He can write a story for billions of people and make it seem like he is in the room with me, in the chair across from my computer, with a beer in one hand and my dog sitting on his shoes.
He's so damn... accesible. And from someone who has written about everything from giant maneating spiders, to nazi-wannabes, to prison inmates, to murderous husbands... being accessible is one HELL of a skill!

Who wouldn't want some tips about writing from Stephen King?

This book isn't fiction, it's a memoir. It starts off with his stories from childhood, and morphs into a reader-friendly breakdown of The Elements of Style (E.B White and William Shrunk Jr.) While Elements is great as a revisionary tool, King's On Writing is a good way to see the elements in action.

He gives examples of what works and what doesn't. He does this in a general "you should be honest with your writing" way, all the way down to "see how adverbs kill this passage" way. Very handy.

He points the way to get more information on anything if you need it, uses personal experience to guide his answers and advice, and just gives easy tips to sharpen your quill.

One thing stood out for me though, and I mention this with a grin on my face; King advises that his characters take on the novel, and simply act on their own merits, and the storyline plays out from their interactions. That's why, and he alludes to this in Writing, many of his books are based on SITUATION and REACTION. There is a situation, and the book is about the character(s) reaction to that situation.

Now, sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't.

Desperation, this book is all reaction to a situation. And I read it, and I struggled with all the character POVs and it ended and I felt nothing. It didn't affect me at all. I'm not against what I call "character studies" (and I'll go into that a little further), but to please me they need to be tempered with some forward motion too.

Kingy's one of my favourite writers, hands down and tickets ripped, but sometimes his books don't land properly and I'm now attributing this to the fact he doesn't believe in plotting it out too much. By land properly, I mean end properly. This is in my opinion of course.

Rose Madder, definitely one of my favourite books, ends so strangely - it's reaction, not plot. Rosie's reaction to the initial situation is the main drive of the story. AND it's amazing! But the wrap up is odd to me - I won't spoil it, but pick it up, I know you'll see what I mean. The story-plane lands like it's hitting a cross wind on the runway.

Kingy also mentions that Rose isn't one of his favourites, because it was so heavily plot driven. I found that completely at odds with the book i've read about 20 times, if anything I would say Rose lacks plot because it's a character study. When I say character study, I mean this: the book is about Rosie. Rosie runs from her husband and rebuilds her life. To me, that's not plot driven. In a plot driven story, "Rosie runs from her husband and rebuilds her life" would be the start, leading onto her becoming a spy, or finding her true calling as a policeman, or solving a murder or something.
I have to stop talking about this book, that's for another day.


/digression



IT - this is another one that has that landing trouble. It's all going well, gelling together, and then suddenly the girl character (can't remember her name right now) sleeps with all the boy characters and IT's a giant spider or something. I still don't get it. It might be user error of course.

Sometimes SITUATION and REACTION work amazingly! See Firestarter. Amazing beginning middle and denouement. Characters are fleshed out with no problem, the story is a first class flight and a landing on a summer's day with no breeze to be felt.

See Misery, see Cujo... See mostly anything he writes. But sometimes, and just sometimes, his landings are off for me.

Anyway, I only mentioned the stories because of what Kingy wrote in Writing and I need to wrap this review up.

The memoir is a great tool for any aspiring writer, and a great way to get some answers to some FAQs. Kingy gives some amazing advice and lessons in the book, and most of all, he gives the advice in an inspiring and encouraging way.

Stephen King is so often unsung, when really he is just a great writer. Just because he's ACCESIBLE DAMN IT, just because everyone, even your twelve year old cousin reads him doesn't mean he's not amazing. Not everything that is popular is as vapid as Justin Bieber or Jersey Shore. Stephen King is definitely not dull, he can just reach people. And that's what writing is about, right?