Pashmina
By Nidhi Chanani
Published by First Second
Pashmina stars Priyanka, a young woman who's struggling to find where she belongs in the world and how she feels about her family. When she finds a magic shawl that can show her the future, she tries to find more of its secrets, thus slowly seeing the dense weaving that makes up her family, and how it has been shaped over the years.
This is a good book, nothing spectacular. The main character is fine, but sometimes acts immaturely in a way that seems out of character. The rest of the cast is fine, without anything spectacular, all fading into the background unless information needs to be dumped. The art is okay. It's simple lines and monochrome color pallets, which helps give the scenes with magic more flair, adding color and much brighter lights. The real life myths from Hindu folklore give the book a unique thing that makes it stand out, but that's the only thing that stands out. I've seen similar plots, characters, and art styles. It's still good, but it needs something more if it wants to be better.
7/10
Home Time
By Campbell Whyte
Published by Top Shelf
Home Time stars 5 friends who just got out of school, and are looking forward to spending the off days with each other. Unfortunately due to an accident, they all fall into a river and are transported to a magical land, where they are believed to be spirits send to save the world. Over the course of the book, they try to get accustomed to this new society, while arguing about weather they should stay there or try to find a way to get back home.
I love this book. The art switches styles throughout the book with each character's chapter having its own art. All of them are great! The world is incredibly rich with detail and very fleshed out. The characters have good chemistry and mostly act in ways that make sense. Over all, this is a great book and I highly recommend it!
TL;DR: 9/10
The Dam Keeper
By Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi
Published by First Second
The Dam Keeper is set in a world where most of the land has been covered by a deadly fog that kills all it touches. To keep civilization standing, a series of dams have been built with large fans to blow the fog away, but every 12 hours they must be rewound. Pig, our main character, is in charge of one such dam after his father killed himself in the fog. During the summer, the fog begins to act erratically, and Pig and his friends get swept into the fog when part of the dam breaks. When they wake up, they find themselves in a dead zone where the fog had killed everything, and have to get back to the safety of a dam before the next wave hits. During this quest, they begin to learn more about the insidious fog.
I love this book. The art is fantastic, with beautiful watercolors and amazing colors. The palettes highlight the characters very well, and each of them has a design that complements their personality. The characters all have good chemistry and interact like real kids. The story is great. There are a few things that I would have liked to see more of, but this book leaves itself open ended and it needs to be. I'm exited to see where the series goes.
TL;DR: 9/10
Graveyard Shakes
By Laura Terry
Published by Graphix
Graveyard Shakes is the story of two sisters Katia and Victoria, who have moved to a new boarding school and are having trouble fitting in with everyone else. After a while, they find the ghost of a young boy, and the group of ghosts that don't take too kindly to them. They all seem to be tied to a man named Nikola, and his bizarre rituals to keep his son alive. Katia and Victoria have to decide who they really are, and fight for survival.
The Main problem I have is the characters. The two sisters are okay, if a bit hyperbolic. The ghosts and Nikola are somewhat interesting if flat. The main problem is the other students at the boarding school. They go beyond the normal bully role and are way meaner and harsher then anyone I've met, refusing to see any good in the main character, and it just isn't believable. The art is decent, bus uses color in an interesting way for the backgrounds with nice contrasts. I enjoyed this book, but it didn't sit well with me.
5/10
Lifeformed
By Matt Mair Lowery and Cassie Anderson
Published by Dark Horse
Lifeformed stars Cleo, a normal human girl who's father is killed in front of her during an alien invasion. In the chaos, a rouge alien shape-shifter disguises itself as her now dead father, and the two of them set of on an adventure to try and stop this alien takeover/genocide in its tracks, all the while being hunted by other aliens hell-bend on their deaths.
The art is good, but nothing spectacular. The character designs are decent, but I've seen better. The backgrounds are fine, without being over detailed. The color palette is muted and dark, which clashes with the tone in some places. It never lets up, thus further muddying the tone. Some of the characters have bizarre shifts in opinion and action. Cleo's character has a radical shift in the middle of the book, which clashes with who she was before. The designs for the aliens is pretty generic, nothing to call home about. Over all, this book suffers from problems, but is generally alright.
TL;DR: 6/10
Knife's Edge
By Hope Larson
Published by Margret Ferguson Books
This is a sequel to the book Compass South. You can find the first review here. This book is a direct continuation of the first, following our intrepid heroes Alex and Cleo, who after reuniting with their father are determined to find their mother's long lost treasure. Along the way, they must continue to outrun the pirates following them, and maybe find a way to reunite with their long lost mother they've never met.
The book is about the same as the first. I like how the characters are more fleshed out now, and the chemistry is very good. The art is still quite pretty, and the story beats are well crafted. I did think there were a few too many odd coincidences and small deus ex machina moments, but over all it balances out nicely.
TLDR: 7/10
The Can Opener's Daughter
By Rob Davis
Published By Self Made Hero
This is actually a sequel to another book that I haven't read (The Motherless Oven). Keep that in mind.
I've read it twice and still don't completely understand what happened. The book stars Vera Pike, the daughter of what seems to be a powerful god, the weather clock. Throughout the book, she is trying to live in this world where death only comes via suicide, while trying to break away from her mother and find out how this dual layered world truly works. This is the best explanation I could give of the plot. It's a tangled mess that leaves a lot out.
I quite liked this book, but I do have very bizarre taste. I thought the world was fascinating and unique, and has a lot of places where it can expand. The characters are decent, all making sense in this world. The plot can be pretty obtuse, without a strong sense of time between the scenes, so you you can get a bit lost. This book does leave itself a bit too open-ended, but is weird enough to make it work. If you do pick this one up, read it twice. Even then I still don't entirely understand.
TLDR: 7/10
Star Scouts
By Mike Lawrence
Published by First Second
Star Scouts a sci-fi adventure staring Avani, a tomboy who is filled to the brim with hate since she had to move to a new town and her new scout troop is pure cliche girl. But one day she is abducted by aliens and finds that there is an alien scout troop who are way more interesting. Here, she thrives, makes new friends, and learns interesting things. Unfortunately her new scout troop has rivals, and she must work to become the best star scout ever.
I did not like this book. My main problem is that the writing is too immature. It tries very little to be creative, and relies way too much on cliche and immature humor. While there is the occasional joke that I chuckled at, the vast majority of them fall flat. The art is nothing new, with a generic sci-fi aesthetic I've seen before. The character designs are a more mixed bag. Some are good, some are bad. The human designs are the worst offenders. The faces look more alien than the aliens. Another problem was layout and flow. Some of the panels were hard to read since they were poorly laid out, causing me to loose track of where I was. Over all it was pretty poor. The occasional witty joke and the little details in the backgrounds are what saves it from a very low score.
TLDR: 4/10
The Creeps
By Fran Krause
Published by 10 Speed Press
It's the spookiest month of the year, so what better then a book about fear. The Creeps is a series of short vignettes about fear, and includes the supernatural, the classic phobias, and more then a few urban legends. Breaking up the one page fears are a few longer stories about more specific events, that are more abstract in their creepiness.
I quite enjoyed this book. The Art was simple, but I love watercolor illustrations. I understand many of the fears presented in the book, and I do share a few of them. I do wish that there was more of the longer form vignettes principled throughout. I thought that they were the best part of the book, and wish there were more.
TLDR: 7/10
Mighty Jack and the Goblin King
By Ben Hatke
Published by First Second
This is a sequel. The review for the first book can be found here. This book picks up right where the last one ended, with our two main characters having followed the beast that took Jack's sister through a magic portal. There, they find themselves in a world which was once used as a bridge between dimensions, but now is overrun by giants who intend to keep it sealed off from the rest of the universe. Under the castle lives a community of goblins, who used to rule the dimension before the giants ruined everything, and they want revenge. Our heroes must find away to defeat the giants before Jack's sister is sacrificed by the giants to insure their continued reign,
This book suffers from some of the strengths and problems the first book suffered from. The characters are all likable and have good chemistry. The art is good, with a good mix of medieval and more industrial. I like the goblins and their society, and would have loved for there to have been more there then their was. The problem is there isn't enough. I would have loved more of the goblins, a grander world to explore, a more interesting villain with an actual motivation besides raw power over something pretty insignificant. It does put it's pieces together well, but I would have liked more, and I'm excited to see where Hatke goes with these stories.
7/10
Wires and Nerve
By Marissa Meyer
Published By Feiwel and Friends
I'm going to start this review with a disclaimer. I have not read the Lunar Chronicles series, and thus have had to start with this book. Now, on with the review. Wires and Nerve stars a menagerie of characters, but mainly stars Iko, an sentient android from the moon, tasked with hunting down the remnants of an army of mutant wolf-men; a leftover from the Earth-Moon wars. During her struggle, she finds these ex-soldiers have reorganized, and have been committing atrocities all over earth, in a bid for revenge. While this is happening, political struggles on the moon are boiling over, and may threaten Iko's friends.
I was confused at first, since I was missing context from the previous books, and the book did try to filling some of the gaps, but did a bad job at it. At first I didn't really know any of the characters, and none of them made much of an impact, though some of them did eventually grow on me a bit. The art was okay. Nothing I haven't seen before, but it does the job well enough. The story was interesting, but it didn't really grab me very well. While I was reading it, I was thinking about how the story before the book would be more interesting to read. This book is okay, and that's really it.
T:DR: 6/10
Dept. H
By Matt and Sharlene Kindt
Published by Dark Horse Comics
Dept. H is a futuristic murder mystery set in a deep sea research base known as Department H. The main character Mia is sent in, after her father was killed in an "accident," due to the people on the surface suspecting a mole, and sending her to investigate. As a scientist and close friend to many of the people down there, she might figure out what happened. Deep beneath the waves, Mia must face disappearances, sabotage, attempted murder, and the constant pressure caused by the miles of water on top of her, while dealing with her own internal demons.
I had issues with the book. I thought that the writing was clunky and bizarre, without a good sense of flow. Way too many bad things happened too fast, leaving me without the time to catch my breath. The story also has a bad habit of telling rather then showing. Often, critical details that could have been shown in flashbacks or through the drawings are instead written out in thought bubbles that don't add very much to the story. The art is bizarre, combining a more sketchy style with watercolor, which sometimes works, but the character designs seem off. The faces often look blurry, without detailed eyes. The backgrounds and sea creatures are very pretty and good to look at, but over all it isn't the best. My main problem with this murder mystery is I couldn't figure out who the killer was. This is partly because the book leaves itself open ended, but again, that is no excuse for lazy writing. There are also a bunch of story threads that don't fit in the story, and merely break the flow.
TL;DR: 5/10
100 Nights of Hero
By Isabel Greenberg
Published by:
100 Nights of Hero is more about the setting then the characters. It focuses on an extremely patriarchal world, where women can't even know how to write. In it, Cherry and Hero two secret lesbians must try and outsmart a villainous suitor. To do this Hero tells a large and unending story for one hundred nights, all about the world and the many injustices against women that have happened.
I liked this book for the most part. The writing is good, and successfully juggles the two stories of Cherry and Hero as well as the internal stories themselves. The art is very stylized and interesting. The characters are a little exaggerated, but it works for the story. My main problem with the book is how heavy-handed the message is. It can be a bit off-putting to have it so forcefully pushed into your face. I understand why it's there, but it distracted me from the stories of the characters.
TL;DR: 7/10
Cast No Shadow
By Nick Trapalansky and Anissa Espinosa
Published by First Second
This book was adorable! The story focuses on Greg, a teen who never had a shadow. He was a loner with only one real friend: Layla. One day they decide to go to an old abandoned mansion to explore (cause every small town has one). There, Greg happens upon a ghost named Eleanor, and they fall in madly love. Unfortunately meddling with ghosts has some bad side affects, mainly Greg's shadow getting loose and causing havoc. The plot is really silly and cheesy but I loved it to death (get it?).
I really liked this book. The characters are decent, and interact well with each other very well, even if they don't have the most complex motives or traits. The art is simple, but it works for the story. The character art is great, with their designs reflecting their characters. The plot gets really silly, but it works well enough. This book put its pieces together very well, and I enjoyed it.
TL;DR: 7/10
Mighty Jack
By Ben Hatke
Published by First Second.
It's nice to be back in the swing of things. Mighty Jack stars the titular main character and his younger sister Maddy, who never speaks. Together they find a very suspicious vendor at a flea market, who sells them a box of very strange seeds. These seeds turn out to be magical, and with the help of their neighbor Lilly, they must try to keep the garden at bay, while finding out what evil lurks at its heart. Pretty simple story.
There isn't much to critique here. The story rambles and doesn't go very far until the end. It's more of an excuse to show weird and strange imagery while checking a few boxes. The characters are strong, with clear motivations and desires, and all come off as likable. The art is fantastic. There isn't much to say about this book. It puts its pieces together well, and nothing is bad or offensive. The story is lacking due to the dreaded "First book in a series syndrome," but that can be blamed more on the premise, since there isn't much you can do with an introduction story wise. Over all, it was a nice slice of life mixed with fantasy that I enjoyed.
TL;DR: 7/10
Castle in The Stars
By Alex Alice
Published By First Second
My glorious return after a 3 week hiatus. Castle in the Stars takes place at the height of the Victorian era, where along with Africa and Antarctica, the great leaders of Europe also have their eyes set on the stars. The main character is a boy by the name of Seraphin, whose mother tragically died in a attempt to find a magical macguffin called Aether, which is this fuel-like thing that can support interplanetary travel. If the book explained what it was, I didn't catch it on either of my readings. Anyways, After some period of time, his mother's log notes are found by (bare with me here) King Ludwig II, who invited him and his father (also an engineer) to his castle to create working space travel. Unfortunately they get wrapped up in a game of spies and espionage and must try to keep their findings out of the wrong hands.
I think I found a good first book in a series! Instead of using the book to dump exposition at you until you can't breath, it focuses on telling a good story now that can will easily flow into the second book. While this does mean that a few things were left vague, that didn't impact the story. The characters are a range. Some I really like. The 4 main characters are mostly good, and have good chemistry together. Seraphin and his father play off each other well, and the three friends who band together also complement each other, despite the very German character being a bit too stereotypical to work at times. The antagonists were a bit muddled. Their motivation was bizarre and I didn't fully grasp it. King Ludwig II was boring and edgy, but he didn't appear for too long so it didn't change much. The main thing that I really liked was the art. It was beautiful. I am a sucker for steampunk and Victorian architecture though. The characters are all identifiable and match their characters. Over all, I really liked this book.
TL;DR: 8/10
The Silver Six
By AJ Lieberman and Darren Rawlings
Published By Graphix
The Silver Six stars Phoebe, a girl who's parents were assassinated by an energy tycoon, and now must survive in the dystopian system that has been erected. When she is caught by child services, she is detained. There, she meets 5 other kids who's parents were assassinated by the same people, and thus they must band together to finish their parent's work and take down the tycoon, all while being pursued by its chief henchman. Did I mention this is a sifi dystopia?
This book's plot is very flimsy. It relies on a lot of coincidences and chance meetings, and also expects that a group of twelve-year-olds has enough experiences in robotics and driving to defeat a giant tycoon that only ever sends one person after them. The art is decent. The Characters are simplistic and bland. The backgrounds are very pretty, save for the industrial which is also generic future. The characters have way too much knowledge to seem realistic, and seem to have very flimsy and changing motivations, as well as a tendency to flip-flop between different emotions without a clear reason as to why. The Setting is generic, the plot is meh, and the characters aren't that strong.
TL;DR: 5/10
Digger
By Ursula Vernon
Published by Sofawolf Press
This book is an interesting one. It stars Digger, a wombat who after five days of frenzied digging, ends up in a temple to the god Ganesh, with the hole back being magically changed, seemingly being removed from existence. Digger must thus explore this strange new world in order to find her way home. Along the way, she meets an interesting cast of characters, including a shadow creature, a slug with the gift of foresight, and a Hyena who's name did not exist any more.
This book is beautiful. It focuses on contrasting shadow, which gives the world a dark and ominous feel. The Plot is again open ended, but it does this correctly by making its mysteries interesting as well as putting the main character in the same position as us: clueless and constantly learning, despite the many similarities between this world and our own. The Plot does tend to go in a cycles. By this I mean that Digger ends up back at the temple which broke the flow a bit for me. The characters are great. My personal favorite is the shadow creature. Over all, the book has it's flaws, but more then makes up for them.
TL;DR: 8/10
Fish Girl
By David Wiesner and Donna Jo Napoli
Published By Clarion Books
Fish girl stars a mermaid who lives in an aquarium by the seaside with a magic octopus. There, she tries to remain somewhat unseen while still letting guests catch short glimpses of her, to keep the aquarium afloat. The aquarium is run by a man going by the name of Poseidon, who found her when she was merely a baby and constructed the aquarium to give her a safe home. As she forms a friendship with a young visitor, she starts to learn more about who and what she is.
I have been a big fan of Wiesner's work for as long as I can remember. This book is his art style, but it isn't his best work. If you compare this book's illustrations to the one in say, Flotsam, this one isn't as polished or detailed. It still has great illustrations, but I've seen better from this author. The story is fine, and works. It's general claustrophobia helps us connect with the character by allowing us to see this world more or less as she sees it. While it isn't very advanced, it works well enough. The Characters are bland, but fine. Over all, it does everything it seeks out to do, and does them well enough for me to enjoy it more then most.
TL;DR: 8/10
Afar
By Leila Del Duca and Kit Seaton
Published By Image Comics
Afar stars Siblings Abena and Boetema who live in this strange Post-apocalypse world with relics of some ancient civilization scattered across the desert. When their father is revealed to be a fraud, the family is forced to move to a new city. There, Boetema accidentally gets in trouble with a wanted criminal. During this time, Abena gains the power to astrally project and possess entities from other worlds. The two must flee town and find a way to survive. The plot is a bit of a mess and I can only reveal so much before we enter spoiler territory.
I really like the art in this book. The world is well designed, the characters look nice, and the alien worlds and creatures are quite good, even if there is a bit of a bipedal bias. The characters are decent, playing off each other well enough. My main problem with this book is the world. It leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Now I don't expect my fantasy-syfy books to explain absolutely explain everything, but I want at least a little knowledge about the world and how it works. This does strengthen the alien segments, because leaving a lot of unanswered questions there allows us to better empathize with the protagonist. This is far from a deal-breaker though, and I am willing to look past this for the most part.
TL;DR: 8/10
Decelerate Blue
By Adam Rapp and Mike Cavallaro
Published by First Second
Decelerate blue is set in a future where the world is controlled by corporations who keep everything fast. People aren't ever allowed to slow down, and everything is slimmed down or thrown away. It's a distopia around speed. It stars Angela, a teen who is despises this unrelenting need for deficiency and is desperate for a way to escape and slow down. After her grandfather tells her where he hid a box, she finds there a secret society of people who have successfully slowed down, and decides to join them. Thus she joins the fight to slow down.
One of the books major flaws is pacing. It seemed to skip over details and didn't have a good flow. Half the time I wasn't quite sure what was happening and how it was effected by what had came before. The characters were bland, none of them leaving an impact on me save for the main character who was well written enough. The dialog was patchy at best, and the art is simple. The thing is, despite this, the book was powerful and emotional, especially the ending which was a great way to end. But unfortunately it's flaws still drag it down.
TL;DR: 5/10
Yvain
By M.T.Anderson
Published by Candlewick Press
Yvain is an epic tale of knights and monsters in the days of King Arthur. The book focuses on the quest of Sir Yvain, who in a bid for glory must go an a series of quests after killing a knight and falling in love with the widow. On these quests, he meets a lion, and they become insepearbale as they fight knights, demons, and dragons, in an attempt win the widow over.
The plot is incomprehensible at times, but it mostly works. It occasionally throws new plot threads at you without warning, and I lost track of them at points. The conceit that it is a King Arthur style fable gives context for the plot, and reinforces the story by giving it a reason for it's oddness. The art is beautiful, with vivid colors and beautiful architecture. It's the classic medieval look for graphic novels that I've seen a few times. The characters do have some strange faces from time to time, but it mostly works. The characters are strong, but again, I didn't always understand what they were doing and why. I still very much enjoyed the book.
TL;DR: 7/10
The Lighthouse
By Paco Roca
Published by NBM
The Lighthouse is a nice little story. It's about a Spanish soldier in WWII, who has to flee the Fascists and ends up in a French lighthouse. The Lighthouse keeper takes him in temporarily, and cares for him as he recovers from his injuries, all the while harvesting things from the sea and telling tails of far off lands.There isn't much more to say about this one. It's more of a short story compared to some of the other books I've reviewed.
I really like this book, but it has some flaws. What book doesn't? The main character is bumbling and naive, and the lighthouse keeper is a dreamer and a story teller, and they have good chemistry. While I do think the main character may be written as a bit too dumb for his own good, I'm willing to let it slide. The plot is simple and short. It works for the most part, save for the second to last scene, which I won't spoil but rubbed me the wrong way. Over all, it's flaws don't way it down too much.
TL;DR: 7/10
How to Talk to Girls At Parties
By Neil Gaiman
Published by Dark Horse Comics
This book is an odd one. It focuses around two college frat guys who accidentally go to the wrong party. There, they meet a collection of "Exchange students" who all are something greater then human. The Main character Enn, and the discussions he has with three of them. There isn't much to say about this one story wise. It's pretty simple.
The Writing is fabulous. It's Neil Gaiman at his best, with a very down-to-earth yet beautiful way of constructing sentences. Each character is unique, and they are all have great designs despite the simplicity. The main character is written as a drunk idiot who doesn't realize what is truly going on, thus contrasting well with the people he talks with, who all talk very eloquently. He is pretty unlikable, but it works for the most part. The Art is great, with bright colors and a constant sense of movement. The story is kinda flimsy and more of an excuse to show us fantastic images, but I'll let it slide.
TL;DR: 8/10
(Sorry for not getting this up on Monday. I had it scheduled correctly but It didn't post.)
Battling Boy
By Paul Pope
Published by First Second
Battling boy tells the story of a city in danger from monsters and villains, and the hero that's sent to help. After one of the town's most famous protectors dies tragically, a new hero must be chosen. In this case it's Battling Boy. Unfortunately he is unskilled, confident, and is constantly in the shadow of his father, a famous monster hunter. Thus he has to struggle to carve a name and an identity for himself, all while the villains strengthen their forces continue with their diabolical plans.
This book has ups and downs. I really like most of the art, especially the backgrounds. While it can get a bit overly detailed at times, I enjoy it. The Monster design is great, but again it can get a bit busy. The character design is fine, but the faces don't work. They just don't look human and don't work with the art style. This is a bigger problem with the lead and his father. The story Doesn't really work. It again falls into the trap of being a first book, but this is compounded by the comic book nature of the plot. Unfortunately, the main character isn't very interesting, and thus I'm not invested in him. The villains are just as nebulous. While they do have one good scene, they also seem to lack motivation.
TL;DR: 5/10
The Sand Warrior
By a bunch of people
Published by Random House
This book's a bit hard to explain. It stars Oona, sand dancer, a kind of elite magic people on this one planet who can control sand (sand is important) but isn't very good at it. Through a mistake, she finds out that the 5 planets (4 of them are moons but I don't want to go into much detail here) are dying due to global warming because there are these giant towers that were put there by the gods of the realm and now they are closed so heat is building up, so now she must group up with some unusual companions in order to find the "Chosen One" to fix everyone. I understand that's a really bad description, but it makes way more sense if you actually read the book. Trust me on this.
I like this book, but at certain parts I feel like it just grabs a few to many cliches (the chosen one, many of the spaceship designs, the warrior race, etc...) but over all it's original ideas are strong enough to stand. The art is pretty good. I especially like the architecture. The characters are fine, nothing to write home about. The chemistry between the characters is decent, but there are a few moments where a character makes a decision that seems to clash with their goal. The plot does get a bit incomprehensible at times, but over all it works. But this book does have one big problem that I see more and more. The dreaded "First book in a series" syndrome. This book is mainly concerned with info dumping about the world, while providing an okay story to keep you interested. I feel like this book isn't too hurt by it, but I worry that as this gets more common, it could seriously hurt books like it.
TL;DR: 7/10
The Time Museum
By Matthew Loux
Published by First Second
The Time Museum stars Delia Bean, a high school student and complete nerd who goes to her Uncle Lyndon. Turns out her Uncle is a time traveler from the future who works at The Earth Time museum, a museum that employs time travelers to collect artifacts for them, thus giving the museum the most complete collection of earth's history, employing people from all different ages. Delia is given the chance to intern at the museum by competing against other possible interns in a competition across time, but through their adventures, they get intertwined with the story of a rouge time traveler and his schemes.
I quite like this book, but *fill in the blank.* The characters are a bit hyperbolic, but it works well enough, and some of the characters have good chemistry, and the different times adds another layer of depth to them. The art is fabulous, but clashes with the character design. The characters have very cartoony designs, with very stretchy faces and limbs, while the backgrounds are more realistic and solid. Even so, it works well enough. The Story is simple. Very much a first book. The antagonist was weak and didn't have a clear motive or goal, and seemed to switch his character throughout his timeline. Overall, the book has some holes, but no deal breakers.
TL;DR: 7/10
The Stone Heart
By Faith Erin Hicks
Published by First Second
My first review of a sequel! If you want context for the series, read the old review here. The book continues the story of Kaidu and Rat, as they live in the nameless city. Taking place directly after the first book, the Dao government has been making a push for peace, but this didn't please everyone, and after the assassination attempt in the last book, everyone is on edge. During this pressing time, the location of the secret of how the city was built was uncovered, and a new plot is hatched to take control of the other clans with war instead of diplomacy, with only our main characters having the knowledge to stop it.
This book is a good improvement over the previous book. I think the characters are much more fleshed out in this book, with interesting backstories and struggles, each with believable motivations save one. The expanded cast is much more diverse, which is good. The main characters have very good chemistry, and are written well. The plot is much easier to follow, and the sense of scale works well. I do think the "main" villain is completely unrealistic, with no real motivation I could see, which did dampen the end a bit, but over all, I liked this book
TL;DR: 8/10
One Trick Pony
By Nathan Hale
Published By Amulet
It's hard thinking of first sentence comments; I've used up the good ones. One Trick Pony is set in a dystonia future where strange alien bug robot things known as Pipers bubble up and steal all the metal and plastic they can find, leaving earth ravaged and the few survivors trying to stay one step ahead of the horde to survive. The Book stars Strata, a girl of one such survivor group who finds a mechanical (and somewhat sentient) horse named Kleidi. Together, they must escape the pipers, and maybe find a way to end them once and for all.
I like parts of this book, but not others. The characters are mostly flat, with boring motivations, and most only have a single character trait, that can clash with their actions. The horse is my main problem. It's powers and abilities were never made 100 percent clear to me, so I found it really anticlimactic when the final conflict was ended by the horse doing the thing we'd already seen it do multiple, and that somehow having a completely different affect. That really left a bad taste in my mouth. The monster design it great though, and the art is good, save for a few odd character designs. On the whole, it's flawed, but I enjoyed it somewhat. I do want to encourage the author to keep writing fiction though. It's a good first start.
TL;DR: 6/10
