Even though he’s a fairly popular creator (i.e. writer/artist) in comics, this is my first time reading a Daniel Warren Johnson book. I don’t know which of his works is most popular so far, but I can see how Extremity might become the one. It’s set in a post-apocalyptic world (think Mad Max but with…
Category: (3.5 out of 5)
Batman: Dark Patterns by Dan Watters (Art by Hayden Sherman, Colour by Triona Farrell) — Graphic Novel Review
I don’t read very many graphic novels, and I definitely don’t read many Batman stories, but I think I’d like to try a little more of both. Dark Patterns caught my attention when it was described as Batman in his earlier days, in more of his detective mode. I had mostly gotten to know Batman…
Silver in the Wood & Drowned Country (The Greenhollow Duology) by Emily Tesh — Book Duology Review
This is probably the first time I’ve reviewed a duology, but having read both books back-to-back, I mostly think of them as a single story with a shift in point-of-view midway through. One thing about this duology is that my experience swung widely between elements I loved and things I didn’t like. The story ranged…
The Wall of Storms (Dandelion Dynasty, Book 2) by Ken Liu — Book Review
I started Wall of Storms right after the first book, Grace of Kings, since I didn’t want to lose momentum on this Dandelion Dynasty series. Grace of Kings introduced us to Dara, an empire of island nations, through a story of rebellion leading to civil war, culminating in a new empire under protagonist Kuni Garu….
The Last Wish (The Witcher, Book 1) by Andrzej Sapkowski
My journey with The Witcher, Andrzej Sapkowski’s super-popular fantasy series, got off to a bumpy start when I read The Blood of Elves. I understood it to be the first book of the series and assumed that the short story collections (including The Last Wish) were extra, optional prequel stories. Boy, was I wrong! Without…
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer — Book Review
What a coincidence! I just finished reading Into Thin Air — the first-hand account, by journalist Jon Krakauer, of the harrowing and tragic 1996 climbing expeditions to summit Mount Everest that cost a dozen lives — only a week before the publication of the anniversary edition of the book, 30 years later. I inadvertently acquired…
The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft – Book Review
The Hexologists is my second venture (after Robert Jackson Bennett’s The Tainted Cup) into an emerging subgenre where we follow detectives investigating crimes/murders in a Victorian/Edwardian-inspired fantasy world. What sets these types of stories obviously apart from classic Sherlock Holmes tales is the addition of magical elements which may be part of the crime, instrumental…
Sunset at Zero Point, written and illustrated by Simon Stålenhag – Book Review
This is the fourth book by Simon Stålenhag for me this year (which is not about reading a lot, as these are coffee-table books more full of gorgeous art than text, but an indication of my adoration of Stålenhag’s work). Each is set in an alternate Sweden, where imagined experiments with radical science have left…
A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher – Book Review
My third venture into the works of popular author T. Kingfisher could be considered cozy horror, or suburban gothic (if that isn’t a thing I just made up). It starts out in a pretty classic way: Sam, a 30-something archeoentomologist, comes to stay at her mother’s suburban North Carolina home for a while and, of…
