octavia_cade's Reviews (2.64k)

When I was a kid, about 13 or 14 or so, I had a Sweet Valley High book. Don't ask me why. It wasn't my usual fare and I have no idea how I got it. But my school was having a book swap so I took it in and swapped it for this, which was fantasy and myth and everything I liked, and it was the best book swap I've ever done. The Moon Stallion quickly rocketed up the ranks of my favourite childhood reads, and it's stayed in the upper echelons ever since. It's not perfect, few books are, but when I did my OE, over in England, I went to visit Wayland's Smithy and the White Horse at Uffington entirely because of this book. And yes, I did the turn-around-three-times-in-the-horse's-eye, and no I didn't see anything but grass and chalk. I was delighted anyway.

Apparently it's based on a tv series (which I knew, because of the cover) and that series, decades old itself now, has been put on YouTube, so guess what I'm doing tonight. That's right, watching The Moon Stallion. I hope it's as good as the book.

This is really charming! It's a rather advanced picture book for kids, sort of an introduction to bird watching. It's not a field guide or anything like that - more a "this is how you get started, and this is what to look for." I got it from my local library here in New Zealand, and though the birds that Cate all refers to are American (because she's talking about the birds where she lives) that really doesn't matter. When she's talking about how water birds have different feet to birds of prey, for instance, a reader can apply the observations to the birds around them. It's chatty and informal and has lots of commentary from the birds themselves, which gives it a nice sense of humour.

It'd be a great book for kids who are looking to take up bird watching and don't really know how to start. The author makes it clear they need no fancy equipment and they can start in their own back garden, or with birds they see in various places in their local neighbourhood. She clearly wants to make birding accessible to all, which I appreciate. Kids who develop a love of nature will make sure to look after it, after all...

It's taken me some time to come back to this series, because the first three books were just so stupid, and I really mean they were dumb. But my desire to read Star Wars tie-in fiction from the beginning is forcing me to continue, and I suppose at least these are short. I will say, though, that this one is the best of the bunch. That's not saying much - the first three were all one star reads - and much of the same idiocy is repeated regarding names, but it's marginally less idiotic than the others. Though I shake my head at the hidden "good" son of the Emperor saying how if he takes his father's throne he'll start fixing things, because how about he starts fixing things by not taking the throne and returning to the basic democracy of the Senate before his dad started screwing things up in the name of power. No one calls him on it, though, that would require thought.

Honestly, these books would improve at least ten percent if the authors were forbidden from using the word "dark" because the dark prophets having dark visions and giving dark blessings is ridiculous. Might as well tattoo "we are evil" on their foreheads...

This is deeply silly, but it's still pretty entertaining regardless. I lost count of the times I shook my head at the idiot decisions of the crew, but the pace zips along and the culture depicted is just odd enough - and over-the-top enough - to be interesting. Everyone wears masks, all the time, and the masks represent their function in society, albeit anyone at any time can be challenged to a duel and lose the mask they are wearing to the winner. There's a number of problems with this that are never, ever explored - if you're injured, do you really want to be treated by a healer who got their position by stabbing someone rather than study? - but it all becomes so farcical I found myself just going with it for amusement value.

Though I can't stop myself from asking: why is it, on this highly volcanic world where volcanoes blow at the top of a hat, is there no mention of masks as they relate to breathing problems? Instead, the crew beam down with Halloween masks, because Troi can order any fudge sundae she wants from the replicator, but no-one thinks to exploit this same technology when it comes to getting Worf something different to wear than a plastic pig face. And they're wandering round this pretty terrible landscape, and one of their local companions gets killed by a volcanic eruption and no-one, not even the doctor, says, "About all this ash... maybe we should adapt these masks so we're not breathing it in all the time and fucking up our lungs?" But nooooooo.

As I said, it's immensely silly. But it's entertaining in its silliness, certainly more so than the last few TNG tie-ins I've read, so I enjoyed myself reading it anyway.

I've never read a novel by Okorafor that I haven't loved, so I had high hopes for this. Unfortunately, it just didn't do it for me. I liked the beginning and the end, and I particularly enjoyed the African Council and the interplay about the place of Wakanda in a pan-African Alliance. This is the sort of political storyline that absolutely appeals to me. The promising beginning and interesting ending, however, didn't make up for the tedious and lengthy middle, which was full of astral projection and giant bugs and black holes and cameos by characters I don't give a damn about. I didn't care for any of it, and even the Egungun doesn't make me want to read it again. (I'd totally read a whole series about them, though.)

The start of a new series, and I liked it. I have to say I'm not particularly interested in Shuri's feelings of irritation at being compared to her brother - I mean, it's a common enough storyline and I feel like I've read it too often, even reflective of real life as it often is. I much prefer the joy Shuri takes in science (the "little Saurons" made me laugh). The most interesting thing here, though, was the Elephant's Trunk: the deliberately diverse group of women gathered to shape policy behind the scenes. That's something I'm particularly interested in reading more about.

This one started out well. The Elephant's Trunk was the strongest point, and although I had little sympathy for Shuri's dislike of being asked to fill in for her brother - her mild resentment might be understandable but it's not a particularly compelling character trait - I did enjoy her mother sticking the knife in. (Figuratively, not literally!) The Queen is far more interesting to me than her daughter... So, I liked the first part. If it had gone on in this vein I would likely have given it a three star rating as I did with the first volume... but then it went onto astral projection and it just lost me. Completely lost me. Astral projection is where my suspension of disbelief fails, and it always has been.

As much as I didn't connect with a lot of the contents of this comic, though, it might have the most beautiful cover of any comic ever. I would love that framed and hung on my wall, because it's gorgeous.

This was the low point of the first collected volume for me. I bounced off it, hard. Astral projection into the mind of Groot, while being attacked by a giant bug. It's not interesting, it does nothing to forward any character work, it's just... I'm sorry, but there was nothing I liked about it. Spectacle over substance.

A vast improvement over the previous issue. This one returns to more earthly matters (in both senses of the word) and the best part of the first collected volume is introduced and showcased. The Egungun (the pan-African Alliance) turns up, and it's a small group of leaders from around the continent who are trying to build bridges. They are smart and perceptive and quite snarky, and they have no compunction in calling out Wakanda for being insular and self-centred and unwilling to adequately engage with neighbouring countries. Which is honestly quite realistic, I think.

I know Shuri's a teen, and that necessarily plays into her character, but the Egungun feels like the adults have arrived and I enjoy the politicking much, much more than I do the bug-fighting. There's more of that in here, unfortunately, but the mere presence of the Egungun makes up for a lot.

Come at me, superhero fans, but I don't give a shit about Iron Man. I really don't. So to have him turn up for a large part of this final issue doesn't thrill me. The thing is, it should. I enjoy that Shuri is a scientist - being one myself - and I should love to watch her doing science stuff with another science nerd, and yet I don't. Partly because that other nerd is Iron Man (which, see above) and partly because this mini-series has gone back to action fights over community building, except this time it's a black hole instead of a bug and it's handwavium time to fix it. My interest tanked, and only sputtered back into life when the Egungun (how I love them) turned up at the end to give Shuri some tough love.

Not gonna lie... I would absolutely read a series that was nothing but the Egungun members having a meeting in some random community centre, organising against colonialism and fundamentalism and side-eyeing the quality of the snacks. I'd be more interested in reading that than the continuing adventures of Shuri, to be honest.