Manga Review: Showa: A History of Japan 1953-1989 by Shigeru Mizuki This is the final volume of Shigeru Mizuki’s history of Japan and his personal life during the Showa Era. It mixes events that affected the entire country with stories of his struggles as a man and an artist. As noted in the introduction by… Continue reading Manga Review: Showa: A History of Japan 1953-1989
Tag: arranged marriage
Comic Book Review: Batman Archives Volume 1
Comic Book Review: Batman Archives Volume 1 written by Bill Finger & Gardner Fox, art by Bob Kane & Sheldon Moldoff Batman was the second full-fledged superhero published by National Periodicals, soon to be better known as DC. The kernel of the idea was proposed by artist Bob Kane, and fleshed out by writer Bill… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Batman Archives Volume 1
Manga Review: Dawn of the Arcana 1
Manga Review: Dawn of the Arcana 1 by Rei Toma Princess Nakaba has bright red hair. This is not a rare hair color in her homeland of Senan; indeed it’s all too common. Both in Senan and its southern neighbor Belquat, all the nobility and royalty have pure black hair. Her flaming tresses suggest that… Continue reading Manga Review: Dawn of the Arcana 1
Book Review: A Game of Thrones
Book Review: A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin About three centuries ago, the land of Westeros was known as the Seven Kingdoms. Then Aegon Targaryen and his sisters came from the collapsed civilization of Valyria with their dragons and conquered six of the Kingdoms. (The seventh Kingdom joined up later semi-voluntarily.) Eventually, the… Continue reading Book Review: A Game of Thrones
Book Review: The Woman Who Breathed Two Worlds
Book Review: The Woman Who Breathed Two Worlds by Selina Siak Chin Yoke This is the life story of Chye Hoon, a Nyonya (Malaysian woman of Chinese heritage) who lives between 1878 and 1941, a time of great change in her homeland. Initially a willful child who wants to break out of her culture’s tradition… Continue reading Book Review: The Woman Who Breathed Two Worlds
Book Review: Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology
Book Review: Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer As the subtitle of this volume indicates, it’s a collection of 29 short stories written from a feminist perspective. There are selections from the 1960s through the 2000s–SF, fantasy, horror and a couple of stories that seem to… Continue reading Book Review: Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology
Book Review: A Memory This Size and Other Stories: The Caine Prize for African Writing 2013
Book Review: A Memory This Size and Other Stories: The Caine Prize for African Writing 2013 Introduction by Lizzy Attree The Caine Prize is awarded to a short story written by an African author (which primarily means one born in Africa–all the authors in this volume are from Sub-Saharan Africa), published in English in the… Continue reading Book Review: A Memory This Size and Other Stories: The Caine Prize for African Writing 2013
Book Review: Fright
Book Review: Fright edited by Charles M. Collins The cover makes this book look like a generic product, but that’s a little deceiving. It’s actually an anthology skewed towards the Gothic end of horror rather than the gory, emphasizing vocabulary-rich authors. Most of the stories were rarely reprinted before this collection in 1963. We open… Continue reading Book Review: Fright
Book Review: Slow Dancing Through Time
Book Review: Slow Dancing Through Time by Gardner Dozois in collaboration with Jack Dann, Michael Swanwick, Susan Casper and/or Jack C Haldeman II. The art of collaboration is an interesting one; two authors (rarely three) blending their skills to create a story neither could produce individually. Ideally, the reader should be able to see the… Continue reading Book Review: Slow Dancing Through Time
Book Review: The Cavaliers of Death
Book Review: The Cavaliers of Death by Rosita Forbes Lois Gilmour is a pretty nineteen-year-old and ready to be a bit independent, so she is less than thrilled when her father Charles, a wealthy importer, has arranged her marriage to middle-aged Philip Wingate, a man with a sinister reputation. It’s especially irksome, as the… Continue reading Book Review: The Cavaliers of Death