There's really not a lot to review, hence the "mini-review". Pixie Strikes Back is a four-issue TPB, collecting a spin-off miniseries published by Marvel. The story revolves around Pixie, and it serves to explain her background. Now, I'm not someone who generally reads X-Men, but I still found this an enjoyable review. The only real difference my lack of knowledge made was that many of the characters weren't known to me. I knew of X-23 from various places (mostly research), Mercury appears in Vol #3 of Deadpool (X Marks The Spot), Pixie from a Free Comic Book Day edition of an X-Men comic I have from a year or two ago, and that left Armor and Blindfold, two characters I know little about.
Art:
OK, the art is not the greatest. It's functional, yes, but it leads to at least one (possible!) misunderstanding towards the end, and it seems somewhat schizophrenic. To me, especially in the first half of the TPB, the art seems to flit between slightly "artistic" and then back to "comic" for no reason, which then disappears towards the end. One of the problems caused by this change is that many of the characters go from quite attractive to somewhat repulsive - but that's one thing I found with my previous encounter with Pixie. She can look either very nice or very poor.
The misunderstanding I noticed, or perhaps it isn't, is when Mercury pulls Armor through a pipe, causing Armor to land on her and if you look very closely, it looks like they're actually kissing, or very close to.
Story:
Well, it's not the strongest story I've read. A lot of it doesn't make too much sense until the last section, and even then it's very... unusual. I don't really want to spoil it, but I'll just say that it's not as coherent as it could be, and the ending doesn't seem to make that much sense. Of course, I could just be missing things as I always seem to do. It goes between Pixie's "dreamworld" and the actual world, but at the start it doesn't make it that clear - I was unsure if I was looking at flashbacks, dreams or otherwise.
One of the major strengths of this TPB is that it's funny. It's not side splitting funny in the way Deadpool can be, but it's still quite light hearted.
Overall:
It's readable, although I would recommend you wait for it to come down in price. You can get longer, and better, TPBs for a small increase in price. If you're a big X-Men fan then this is likely to be down your street, but if you're as unversed in X-Men as I am, then it might be worth putting off or getting second hand.
Favourite Panel:
Psylocke exclaiming "Bloody hell!" towards the end. Absolutely brilliant :)
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The Magic of Recluce - Halfway Thoughts
OK, OK, halfway is pushing it. I'm within 10% of being halfway, though!
This is the first Modesitt, Jr. book I've read, and it's also one of the first he published. I intended to start with the Spellsong Cycle or the Imager Portfolio, but for some unknown reason I ordered The Magic of Recluce. It came a few days later with the usual battered appeal of a used book, although for £2.76 I wasn't going to throw a hissy fit. So now that I'm almost halfway, I decided to post about whether I want to continue or not, and what I do and don't like so far. Of course, it goes without saying that some spoilers will occur in this.
What Don't I Like?
Now, before I start, I'd like to point out I'm not a confident reader (well, not that confident) and as such I sometimes miss small parts. It might obscure my view a little.
One thing I don't like about TMoR is that Lerris (the protagonist, PoV and narrator) seems to do a personality shift every so often, but it only happens once he's away from Recluce. He somehow finds this wealth of confidence and does things I felt weren't befitting his character or his situation. As an example, he walks into an inn and basically greets everyone in one fell, confident swoop, yet he's never been outside of Recluce until a few days ago, and he's acting as if this is a natural situation. But at other times, such as the next inn he visits (or was it the same one? No, it can't be), he's this quiet, mostly-introverted character. You can read all the books on the world about heart surgery, but you wouldn't be able to do it. We were told by Lerris that he was frequently bored in all his classes and paid little attention, which (to me) implies that his understanding of the other nations is limited, yet he sometimes talks and acts like a native.
My other main issues relate to understanding. The biggest issue for me is Lerris seems to suddenly be able to use his powers. He's told, or perhaps it's inferred to him, that he's got these abilities and some of them seemingly appear out of nowhere. The other is the term "Blackstaffer". Once he arrives from Recluce (I really can't remember where he lands!), he's referred to as a Blackstaffer and it's not been explained - just yet - what one is. I think it means they're the more powerful individuals who gravitate towards the extremes of Order or Chaos, or perhaps have the potential to do so. One issue that doesn't matter as much, but can interfere with visualising the book, is that Modesitt uses measures such as "cubits" to describe the heights of things. You can roughly work out how high a cubit is at times (such as a relatively tall man being four cubits, so I'd suspect ~1.5feet or 45cm)... Or I could just Wiki it (as I did literally this moment), and find out that it's an actual measure which is roughly equal to 50cm. Oops.
Again, these issues could be down to either me missing a few sentences or perhaps a page missing (I haven't noticed any missing pages, though).
What Do I Like?
Well, I like Modesitt's writing style. He's descriptive, and often vividly so, but it's rarely to the point of being boring. It's also an interesting device to turn black and white on their heads. We're informed that the "good" wizards wear black, and the "bad" wizards wear white. Now, you're wondering why I said "good" and "bad", not good and bad. Well, that's because it's not that simple. Order is synonymous with good, Chaos with black. You cannot have Chaos without Order, just as you cannot have Good without Bad. The four terms mix together in a very intelligent way and it does make you think, and I'm enjoying what Modesitt (or his characters) have to say about it.
Modesitt's character of Lerris, who as I mentioned above is the narrator and protagonist of the story, is very interesting in my eyes. I can see a lot of myself in him (or a lot of him in myself if that's the term you prefer) and that allows me to identify with him.
I have to confess I found the character of Tamra interesting, too. Just as Lerris reminds me of myself, Tamra reminds me of someone I know and I think it brings a level of believability to this work. She lives upto her hair colour in that she's quite fiery, and I must confess she appeals to my one weakness - redheaded females.
Will I Continue?
I'd be stupid not to.
This is the first Modesitt, Jr. book I've read, and it's also one of the first he published. I intended to start with the Spellsong Cycle or the Imager Portfolio, but for some unknown reason I ordered The Magic of Recluce. It came a few days later with the usual battered appeal of a used book, although for £2.76 I wasn't going to throw a hissy fit. So now that I'm almost halfway, I decided to post about whether I want to continue or not, and what I do and don't like so far. Of course, it goes without saying that some spoilers will occur in this.
What Don't I Like?
Now, before I start, I'd like to point out I'm not a confident reader (well, not that confident) and as such I sometimes miss small parts. It might obscure my view a little.
One thing I don't like about TMoR is that Lerris (the protagonist, PoV and narrator) seems to do a personality shift every so often, but it only happens once he's away from Recluce. He somehow finds this wealth of confidence and does things I felt weren't befitting his character or his situation. As an example, he walks into an inn and basically greets everyone in one fell, confident swoop, yet he's never been outside of Recluce until a few days ago, and he's acting as if this is a natural situation. But at other times, such as the next inn he visits (or was it the same one? No, it can't be), he's this quiet, mostly-introverted character. You can read all the books on the world about heart surgery, but you wouldn't be able to do it. We were told by Lerris that he was frequently bored in all his classes and paid little attention, which (to me) implies that his understanding of the other nations is limited, yet he sometimes talks and acts like a native.
My other main issues relate to understanding. The biggest issue for me is Lerris seems to suddenly be able to use his powers. He's told, or perhaps it's inferred to him, that he's got these abilities and some of them seemingly appear out of nowhere. The other is the term "Blackstaffer". Once he arrives from Recluce (I really can't remember where he lands!), he's referred to as a Blackstaffer and it's not been explained - just yet - what one is. I think it means they're the more powerful individuals who gravitate towards the extremes of Order or Chaos, or perhaps have the potential to do so. One issue that doesn't matter as much, but can interfere with visualising the book, is that Modesitt uses measures such as "cubits" to describe the heights of things. You can roughly work out how high a cubit is at times (such as a relatively tall man being four cubits, so I'd suspect ~1.5feet or 45cm)... Or I could just Wiki it (as I did literally this moment), and find out that it's an actual measure which is roughly equal to 50cm. Oops.
Again, these issues could be down to either me missing a few sentences or perhaps a page missing (I haven't noticed any missing pages, though).
What Do I Like?
Well, I like Modesitt's writing style. He's descriptive, and often vividly so, but it's rarely to the point of being boring. It's also an interesting device to turn black and white on their heads. We're informed that the "good" wizards wear black, and the "bad" wizards wear white. Now, you're wondering why I said "good" and "bad", not good and bad. Well, that's because it's not that simple. Order is synonymous with good, Chaos with black. You cannot have Chaos without Order, just as you cannot have Good without Bad. The four terms mix together in a very intelligent way and it does make you think, and I'm enjoying what Modesitt (or his characters) have to say about it.
Modesitt's character of Lerris, who as I mentioned above is the narrator and protagonist of the story, is very interesting in my eyes. I can see a lot of myself in him (or a lot of him in myself if that's the term you prefer) and that allows me to identify with him.
I have to confess I found the character of Tamra interesting, too. Just as Lerris reminds me of myself, Tamra reminds me of someone I know and I think it brings a level of believability to this work. She lives upto her hair colour in that she's quite fiery, and I must confess she appeals to my one weakness - redheaded females.
Will I Continue?
I'd be stupid not to.
So, a fresh start...
Yes, yes. I'm lazy. Mock me for it all you wish, for I shall not be...
Ahem. I decided to start afresh for two reasons. Firstly, I'm too lazy to sign out of my GMail account, sign into Blogger with my other e-mail and then log out when done. Secondly, well, see the first reason. Hopefully I'll be updating this blog more often than the old one.
I've pretty much decided that from today, i.e. the 27th of July, that I'm going to make more of an effort in regards to reading and whittling down my ever-increasing book collection. I've recently found myself in the possession of seven books by Terry Brooks (Original Shannara Trilogy and a few others) along with a large to-be-read pile.
So yes, dear reader, over the rest of the year I shall hopefully be sinking my teeth into the works of Martin, Jordan, Sanderson, King, Hobb and many more. And, I hear you ask, where will I start on such a psuedo-momentous task?
L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
Ahem. I decided to start afresh for two reasons. Firstly, I'm too lazy to sign out of my GMail account, sign into Blogger with my other e-mail and then log out when done. Secondly, well, see the first reason. Hopefully I'll be updating this blog more often than the old one.
I've pretty much decided that from today, i.e. the 27th of July, that I'm going to make more of an effort in regards to reading and whittling down my ever-increasing book collection. I've recently found myself in the possession of seven books by Terry Brooks (Original Shannara Trilogy and a few others) along with a large to-be-read pile.
So yes, dear reader, over the rest of the year I shall hopefully be sinking my teeth into the works of Martin, Jordan, Sanderson, King, Hobb and many more. And, I hear you ask, where will I start on such a psuedo-momentous task?
L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
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