Robin Marx's Writing Repository

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on May 2, 2014.

Saga, Vol. 1

By Brian K. Vaughan (Writer) & Fiona Staples (Artist) – Image Comics – October 23, 2012

Review by Robin Marx

While it's definitely not the first story dealing with star-crossed lovers (almost literally in this case, as it involves a romance between soldiers on opposite sides of a genocidal moon/planet war), Saga handles this high concept trope in an action-packed, engaging way.

Furthermore, Saga very skillfully blends the core family drama with grand scale space opera. This series has super science, magic, robots with CRT TV heads, lie-detecting mercenary cats, living tree rockets, and more aliens than the Star Wars cantina scene. This isn't “by engineers, for engineers” hard SF, it's “wouldn't it be cool if...?” space opera. Vast, with a barrage of cool stuff on every page. And the artwork is some of the most beautiful I've seen in comics.

The characters are ridiculously appealing. For a pair of aliens, central couple Alana and Marko feel like real people, with all the foibles that entails. They're resourceful, brave, and admirably devoted to each other, but can also be dense, stubborn, or petty. I won't spoil it, but the inspiration for Alana's initial interest in Marko (revealed in Volume 2) is funny and seemingly trivial, but also authentic-feeling. Alana and Marko talk to each other like a real couple, not like an idealized Romeo & Juliet, and as a new parent I found it easy to relate with their interactions involving their baby daughter.

Saga feels like a SF comic for adults. Not because of the sex, violence, and profanity (although it has all of these, in detail), but because it's uncommonly smart and mature. It avoids treating its aliens like mono-cultures, with members of the same alien species look and act differently, rather than being more or less interchangeable. There are different ethnicities, body types, and sexual preferences represented within the same alien species. The characters have different points of view, and even the antagonists are usually treated with sympathy and nuance.

Highly recommended for comics and/or space fantasy fans, and new parents.

★★★★★

#CapsuleReviewArchive #ComicReview #ScienceFiction #ImageComics #Saga

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on November 4, 2015.

Lords of Dyscrasia

By S.E. Lindberg – IGNIS Publishing – July 7, 2011

Review by Robin Marx

While Lords of Dyscrasia benefits from an extremely original setting and intense, driving action, my enjoyment was hindered by some storytelling issues.

The premise is an interesting one. We're introduced to Endenken Lysis, who rules an unusual tribe afflicted with Dyscrasia, an imbalance of the humors that has resulted in a long history of birth defects and mutations within the society. An epic struggle results when Endenken refuses to play his preordained role in a mystic ritual, instead coming to the aid of a fleeing woman from the outside. Complications ensue and Endenken soon finds himself undead and infused with necromantic magic, caught in a struggle between two ancient divinities.

Rather than high or low fantasy, the book has a particularly mythic feel. There's not much introspection or even dialogue, the bulk of it focuses on the epic deeds of larger than life figures (most undead). The downside to this approach is that it felt like the characters were ciphers. Apart from the immediate aim (e.g., “strike down this enemy”), their overall goals or motives were frequently hard to ascertain.

The setting was very fresh and interesting (some of it reminded me of Tanith Lee, minus the eroticism but with the gruesome dialed to maximum), but likewise rendered in broad strokes. This is seen frequently in the sword & sorcery sub genre, where intriguing names and concepts are touched upon but usually not elaborated in detail. While this is a perfectly valid storytelling approach, the amount of setting-specific jargon in the text left me feeling confused for much of the book. While it was possible to “go with the flow” for most of the narrative, I think the reliance on insufficiently explained terms kept the central plot (including a betrayal by a supporting character) from having the intended impact. When you have two opposing characters spouting bewildering dialog at each other, it's difficult to appreciate the stakes underlying their conflict.

Surprisingly, the book concluded with a detailed glossary and dramatis personae. Tucked away in the back of the ebook, this appendix obviously did me no good while reading the story, but it did manage to clear away a lot of the confusion lingering after the narrative ended. While it would have been nice to know about this glossary before reading the book (the Table of Contents only—unhelpfully—marks this section as an “Index”), it would have been even better if this background had been better incorporated into the text itself as terms are introduced.

Finally, while the action scenes are plentiful and exciting (a blade that slices through bone while leaving flesh intact; how cool is that?), there's an almost comical over-reliance on exclamation points in the second half of the book. The prose was strong enough to stand on its own, the constant exclamation points felt like having somebody poking me at the movie theater, saying “This is the cool part!” every few moments. I can see that it's cool, no need to jab me.

While the storytelling issues hindered my enjoyment of the book, I respect its ambition, originality, and exciting action a great deal. Parts confused and frustrated me, but I was never bored. I think most of my issues can be chalked up to a first-time novelist finding his footing, and look forward to reading the second Dyscrasia novel.

★★★☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Fantasy #DarkFantasy #SwordAndSorcery #LordsOfDyscrasia #SELindberg #DyscrasiaFiction

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on November 6, 2013.

The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All

By Laird Barron – Night Shade Books – April 2, 2013

Review by Robin Marx

The best stories in this collection could be labeled “rustic horror.” Many of them take place in the Pacific Northwest, in the deepest forests and shadowy valleys. The protagonists are often rough and tumble men who are nevertheless set on edge by a variety of creepy occurrences. Imagine Jack London writing spooky stories and you'd be on the right track.

While the rustic horror stories are great, the ones set in more modern and more urban locales were much less engaging. These stories tended to be longer and also more obscure (probably with the intent of creating a phantasmagorical atmosphere), which made matters worse.

One thing I found interesting was the use of Old Scratch himself, the Devil, as the prime supernatural threat in many of the tales. While this might seem cliched to some, I actually found it delightfully retro, reminding me of the “Satanic Panic” stories from the 70s and 80s. There's some Lovecraft homage in here too, but more an appreciative acknowledgement than slavish devotion.

While I didn't love every story in this volume, I came away with a strong interest in Laird Barron's work. Recommended for horror fans, especially those who enjoy the classics of the genre and rural settings.

★★★☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Horror #CosmicHorror #LairdBarron #TheBeautifulThingThatAwaitsUsAll

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on January 6, 2014.

Sword Sisters: A Red Reaper Novel

By Tara Cardinal & Alex Bledsoe – Rogue Blades Entertainment – December 11, 2013

Review by Robin Marx

I enjoyed this book, but it had some issues.

Penned with established author Alex Bledsoe, this novel apparently serves as a prequel to actor/screenwriter Tara Cardinal's indie film The Red Reaper. I haven't seen the movie, and as a result when I finished the book I felt a bit like I has missed out on something. It wasn't that the setting and characters were poorly explained, it was rather the opposite; the first third of the book details a very interesting premise and, unfortunately, the main plot only ever engages with a fraction of that rich background.

Sword Sisters tells the story of Aella, a human-demon hybrid Reaper. In the novel world's past, demons invaded from beyond, preying on humanity. Products of forced interbreeding with human women, the second generation of Reapers turned against their progenitors, fighting back the demons and freeing humanity. Since then, the supernaturally resilient and semi-immortal Reapers act as humanity's guardians, remaining largely apart from mankind in an effort to let them control their own destiny.

Aella in particular is—wait for it—the Chosen One of prophecy. The product of the union between the leader of the demons and a gifted Teller Witch, she is fated to become the Red Reaper, last of her kind and the most powerful of all, destined to combine the Reapers' physicality with Teller Witch magic. As a child, Aella is betrayed by her mother in exchange for magical power, handed over to the demons to endure years of abuse and torture in their realm.

Despite the over-reliance of prophecy in the fantasy genre, this is all very interesting stuff. However, the story that follows is much smaller in scale. We meet Aella as a snotty teenager, rebelling against her mentors at the Reaper monastery at which she lives. Annoyed by one instructor in particular, she cuts class and heads off into the woods, where she encounters a human village girl about to sacrificed to a cave-dwelling god. Ambivalent about humanity, Aella is still compelled to come to the girl's aid, an impulsive act that has unforeseen consequences.

The story that follows is fun and action-packed, with an interesting twist near the end, but I kept expecting it to ramp up into something bigger, and it never did. Is Aella truly fated to become the Red Reaper? Will the demons return for a final confrontation? We don't find out in this book. Maybe the movie tells that story? The cover says that this is “A” Red Reaper Novel, perhaps there are more to follow? I can't help feeling that this book wouldn't have been better served if less emphasis and page count had been placed on Aella's destiny in the beginning of the book. As it stands we're left with a fun, fairly localized sword & sorcery adventure burdened with epic fantasy framing that turns out to be mostly irrelevant to the tale we're presented with.

I also wonder if the book couldn't have been better pitched as a Young Adult novel. Despite the mature and confident-looking swordswoman on the awesome cover art, the book is really a Coming of Age story with a 16 year old protagonist. Younger readers may find Aella a more relatable character than Rogue Blades Entertainment's usual audience of crusty Conan fans.

The prose is mostly well-written and evocative, and the story progresses at a fast clip. Dialogue and characterization were a little clunky, however. For someone who spent an eternity being molested and tortured by demons, Aella seems remarkably stable, exhibiting no real mental health problems beyond typical teenage rebelliousness and mild trust issues. The novel is written in the first person, and Aella's tone is flip and thoroughly modern. While I don't insist fantasy characters limit themselves to Ren Faire speech, it takes me out of the story a bit when one character is told not to “freak out” when confronted with a monster and when supposedly formidable opponents are labeled “Ass-Face Number One and Number Two.” The most cringe-worthy is when Aella proclaims that she has “come to kick demon ass and chew gum tree leaves, and I'm all out of gum tree leaves.” A They Live/Rowdy Roddy Piper reference, really?

Editing was top-notch, with Rogue Blade Entertainment providing a higher quality ebook than many larger publishers. Again, the cover art is fantastic.

Some complaints aside, I would be interested in seeing more Red Reaper stories. Overlooking producer Uwe Boll's association, I'd be willing to give the movie a shot, and there is a lot of potential for future adventures starring Aella. I'd have no problem recommending this book to a teen Hunger Games fan, provided they can cope with the (“off-screen”) rape-filled Reaper background.

★★★☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Fantasy #SwordAndSorcery #TaraCardinal #AlexBledsoe #SwordSisters

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on January 25, 2018.

Helen's Daimones

By S.E. Lindberg – IGNIS Publishing – September 23, 2017

Review by Robin Marx

Promoted as a gateway to Lindberg's Dyscrasia setting, this novella is a prequel to the second novel in the series, Spawn of Dyscrasia. While this is certainly the most approachable installment, and I would go so far as to say it's an essential part of the series, it shares some of the previous books' issues.

The highlights of this volume are the same as in the other installments: the vivid description and sheer imagination on display. Though far from the first post-apocalyptic fantasy setting, the world portrayed here is a unique one, unlikely to be confused with any other. The blasted wasteland and its bizarre, mutated inhabitants are described with a loving eye to detail. The mythic atmosphere of the original Lords of Dyscrasia has also given way to a richly gothic one.

The originality of the setting remains a double-edged sword, however. Because the world and characters presented differ so much from more conventional settings, the reader is left without many recognizable touchstones. The world is mostly dead, and populated with mutants, traumatized orphans, and a handful of godlike beings, mostly living in a largely-subterranean tomb city. Sharon is the closest thing the series has seen to a regular human viewpoint character, but this story mainly focused on the less conventional visionary wild child Helen, with large stretches devoted to the (always fascinating, yet inscrutable) Lord Lysis and Doctor Grave.

Without any normal people to relate to, the reader is left slightly alienated from the setting and its inhabitants. “What do these people eat?” is a question I had for most of the book, and one that was answered in the final pages of the novella. They eat tree nuts filled with mutant insect larvae. While I've got to admit that's pretty metal as far as setting details go, it's not an experience I share, and therefore yet another thing that separates me from the people I'm reading about.

That being said, Helen's Daimones provides some much-appreciated background to Spawn of Dyscrasia, and I wish it had been available before I read that book. It definitely provides a gentle introduction and enhancement to Spawn of Dyscrasia, but because so much depends on the events of Lords of Dyscrasia it's difficult to recommend this book as a “gateway” to the series as a whole. This novella refers to those events repeatedly, acting as a welcome refresher course for people who HAVE read Lords of Dyscrasia, but if you're completely new to the series I wouldn't recommend starting here. If you don't already have a vague idea of what a “larvalwyrmen” is, this novella isn't going to educate you.

That being said, the storytelling is the clearest of any of the series installments to date. If you enjoyed Lords of Dyscrasia and appreciate Lindberg's fiercely original and sometimes opaque brand of vivid weirdness, definitely pick this up, ideally before reading Spawn of Dyscrasia.

★★★★☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Fantasy #DarkFantasy #SwordAndSorcery #HelensDaimons #SELindberg #DyscrasiaFiction

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on September 23, 2021.

Survivor Song

By Paul Tremblay – William Morrow – July 7, 2020

Review by Robin Marx

A virus sweeps America. Quarantines are in place. Hospitals are overrun, and the staff are concerned about insufficient Personal Protective Equipment. Vaccines are starting to be distributed, but far right elements of the population hinder efforts, fearing the “deep state” and/or foreign nations.

This is the setting of Survivor Song, a world that’s...pretty close to our current one. Instead of a novel coronavirus, the virus in the novel is a “super rabies” capable of spreading from animals to humans, turning them into berserk and belligerent infection vectors akin to the rage zombies from the movie 28 Days Later.

While this book was written before the COVID-19 outbreak, it turned out to be rather prescient. In interviews, Tremblay has acknowledged that, if anything, he underplayed how the pandemic would be exacerbated by the more ignorant right-wing portion of the population. Reading this book more than 18 months into the pandemic, I tend to agree.

Survivor Song focuses on Natalie, a heavily pregnant woman. When her husband is killed by a rabid intruder and she’s bitten on the arm during the struggle, she meets up with her pediatrician friend Ramola and the two of them embark on a dangerous quest for medical treatment.

This book was a fast-paced, gripping read. It was tense throughout. I also enjoyed the small scale of the story. It didn’t deal with the pandemic as a whole, it focused on this one pregnant woman and her friend. “Immediacy” is the one word that most sums up this novel for me.

However, despite the high personal stakes of the premise, the emotional dimension of the story mostly fell flat for me. Throughout the book, Natalie records voice messages for a baby she becomes increasingly convinced she won’t survive to raise. While normally this would be tear-jerking stuff, even as a parent I wasn’t affected in the way the author intended. This side of the story felt too obvious and familiar, perhaps. Instead, the conclusion of the plot thread involving Josh and Luis, two teenage boys that apparently appeared in a Tremblay book I have not yet read, left me more moved than anything involving the main characters. Tremblay’s A Head Full of Ghosts did a better job of reaching me emotionally, I think.

While my heart strings were left more or less un-tugged, this book was a propulsive and exciting read. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone struggling during the coronavirus pandemic, however, as under the current circumstances this book lacks much in the way of escapism.

★★★☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Horror #SurvivorSong #PaulTremblay

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on January 15, 2013.

Yoshitoshi's Women: The Woodblock-Print Series Fuzoku Sanjuniso

By John Stevenson – University of Washington Press – 1995

Review by Robin Marx

This handsome volume offers an in-depth look at one of Yoshitoshi Tsukioka's most remarkable series of woodblock prints. The book opens with an excellent summary of Yoshitoshi's life as well as the ukiyo-e creative process, making it appropriate for both newcomers to Japanese art and the already initiated.

Each print in the series is given a full two page spread, with one page devoted to the artwork and the other providing in-depth commentary. The descriptions are fascinating and extremely illuminating, cluing the modern viewer in on allusions, metaphors, and other pieces of cultural context that the contemporary Japanese audience would've naturally understood.

From literature to fashion and material culture, the multidisciplinary depth of John Stevenson's research is truly impressive, and the presentation is clear and engaging. I've been a fan of Yoshitoshi's artwork for years, but this book helped me gain an even deeper appreciation of his work. Highly recommended.

★★★★☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Nonfiction #Art #ArtHistory #History #Japan #YoshitoshisWomen #JohnStevenson

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on October 23, 2021.

Horrorstör

By Grady Hendrix – Quirk Books – September 23, 2014

Review by Robin Marx

Silent Hill IKEA.

Instead of a haunted house, this fast-paced horror novel centers on a haunted housewares store. After a number of vandalism incidents and strange happenings at an Orsk, an acknowledged IKEA rip-off, the manager Basil chooses a pair of employees to stay with him overnight to get to the bottom of the mystery. Inevitably, these hapless retail workers find out they’ve gotten much more than they bargained for.

The first half of this book feels like a Scooby Doo cartoon, with a light tone and broadly drawn characters. Things take a decidedly darker turn in the second half, when the true nature of the haunting is revealed. Each character reveals more depth and surprising resourcefulness as their situation grows more grim. There’s also some social commentary dealing with consumerism and the plight of retail workers, and the whole story ends on a particularly satisfying note. Highly recommended for horror fans.

★★★★☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Horror #Horrorstör #GradyHendrix

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on October 21, 2021.

The Corpse-Rat King

By Lee Battersby – Angry Robot – August 28, 2012

Review by Robin Marx

Marius dos Hellespont is a con man and a “corpse-rat,” a scoundrel who makes a living looting the dead bodies on a battlefield. A twist of fate leads him to be mistaken for a fallen king by the restless dead, who drag him to their subterranean realm to rule over them. When he reveals himself as both 1.) still living, and 2.) not a king, they return him to the surface charged with finding a replacement king. Or else.

While probably most aptly categorized in the “grimdark” subgenre of fantasy, this is a very humorous picaresque romp, with the cynicism of Jack Vance if not the verbosity. Clever cons and reversals of fortune abound. Some reviewers found this book lacking in substance, but I found the fast pace and breeziness a welcome change of pace.

This story works just fine as a stand-alone novel, but when I noticed a sequel was available I picked it up right away.

★★★★☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Grimdark #Fantasy #LeeBattersby #TheCorpseRatKing #MariusDosHellespont

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on January 15, 2013.

The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons: A Field Guide to Japanese Yokai

By Matthew Meyer – March 1, 2012

Review by Robin Marx

This illustrated volume is a fun, if not especially deep, look at monsters from Japanese folklore. The book is an adaptation of Matthew Meyer's A-Yokai-a-Day web project, where he uploaded an original painting of one of Japan's traditional monsters (Yokai) along with a brief explanatory article.

The book reads a bit like a Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual, with each creature's appearance, diet, habits, and encounter spots listed. The text is breezy and entertaining, but doesn't offer much in the way of analysis or detail. The artwork was excellent, presented in a style that mixes traditional Japanese stylings with a more Western aesthetic. Overall this book offers an appealing look at an interesting side of Japanese culture, but those hoping for detail, citations, or more ethnographical content are going to be left wanting more.

★★★☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Nonfiction #Japan #Folklore #TheNightParadeOfOneHundredDemons #MatthewMeyer