From Truth With Truth has all of the handmade love of a zine, expanded to the size of a full book. Lawrence shares glimpses of his childhood and adolescence including his early love of comics and music. He handles the difficult parts- divorce, depression, PTSD and Bipolar disorder- with gentleness and humor. If we could all treat ourselves with the kindness that Lawrence offers to his younger self, the world would be a brighter place!

Quick, fun and beautifully drawn. Pan is the daughter of a mechanic on one small world among many bustling spaceports. Her best friend, Tara, is a Princess- which doesn't matter until the day comes that her hand in marriage is going to be given away to the winner of a tournament. Pan helps Tara escape in a cargo ship and never sees her again. Five years later a pair of injured tournament fighters end up on her doorstep- two women who fight to free Princesses. Pan sees a chance to get off world and fight for freedom with them, but nothing is ever so simple. A message from her past and an untrustworthy ally confuse her future.

This one took me a lot longer to finish than the first two books of the series. I had forgotten that I don't like the central conflict/villain in this one quite as much. Le Guin's conception of the world of the dead is very grim, and I don't like dwelling on it. But this book also has one of my absolute favorite Earthsea passages, which is when Sparrowhawk and Arren spend time with a group of people who live year round on rafts, following the seasonal migration of whales. They celebrate the Long Dance as guests of these people and it's a beautiful and magical interlude in their often stressful journey.

I was lucky enough to read an advanced copy of this delightful, strange, D&D infused comic. Dig is a down-on-his-luck wizard and thief whose day goes from bad to worse when he is kidnapped by red-cloaked minions and carried to an underground prison. The Blood Cultists need enough living sacrifices to free the horrible monster they've pledged their loyalty to. Dig wakes up in a cell with Iana and Crina, two adventurers. They don't plan to just wait around to be sacrificed. They three escape and enter a dangerous underground maze, with the Blood Cultists one step behind. Are they heading towards the surface, or straight into the monster's mouth?

Another strong issue of The Nib magazine! The standout stories for me from this collection were "Cages Lives" by Mansoor Adayfi and Kane Lynch about the animals seen by prisoners in Guantanamo; "Bleating Heart" by Arwen Donahue about raising goats for milk and meat; "The Legend of Boto Cor-De-Rosa" by Laura Athayde about a Brazilian myth of a dolphin who transforms into a seductive man and how it covers a culture of male violence; and "Stealing Rainbows" by Dorian Alexander, Sarah Mirk, and Levi Hastings about the illegal smuggling of tropic birds.

This book has four successive opening scenes, which leave unclear how much time has passed between them, or even who the main character is. After this cluttered beginning, the book settles into itself, and develops into a well-paced action story set primarily in the Convent of Sweet Mercy, which trains girls from all backgrounds in reading, writing, armed and unarmed combat, poisons, lesser and greater magics and other useful skills. Nona has a rough journey to the Convent: she grew up dirt poor and was sold to a child-taker at age 9 and taken to the capital city. She lived briefly in the training yards of a fighting/gambling ring before almost murdering a man. The Abbess of Sweet Mercy plucks Nona out of prison to carry her off to a training that will only increase her deadliness. In the process, Nona and the Abbess make a dangerous enemy out of the politically powerful father of Nona's victim. His reach is long, and he isn't afraid to attack Nona's friends or the very foundation of the Convent in trying to get his revenge. This story is set in a world almost completely covered in ice. Only a thin ring around the planet's equator is kept warm enough to live in by a huge mirror satellite installed in the sky by the first humans to colonize the world. These people's understanding of technology has been almost completely lost as humans scrabble a dark-ages level bare subsistence from the weak soil. But prophesies swirl of a Chosen One who will finally be able to unlock the secret to controlling the largest piece of tech left from the ancient days. Nona is not that chosen one. But she might be the one destined to protect that person from all the evils of this bloody and dangerous world.... if she can survive her education. The writing is a bit rough, but the story is very compelling. I'm definitely going to continue with this series!