Reviews: Lucky Penny, Beyond, Verdigris Deep, and a Boulet short

[roadrunnertwice]

Ananth Hirsh and Yuko Ota — Lucky Penny (comics, re-read)

April 8

Originally read this when it was being serialized; this time I read the paperback.

The back 1/3 of the plot still doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but the panel-to-panel character moments are good enough that I don't really mind that much. And as ever, I love Ota's art.

Sfé R. Monster, ed. — Beyond: The Queer Sci-Fi & Fantasy Comic Anthology (comics)

Apr 11

Anthologies are fundamentally odd, I think, or at least the experience of reading one through is bizarre. Like... themes are weird, and un-themed anthologies are also weird. But they're a good way to support artists you like who're between Things at the moment, and a good way to maybe find out about some new folks (although they make following up way more awkward than when you just see a lone short make the rounds on Twitter or Tumblr), so I end up with a bunch of them. And I'm a bit behind on them at the moment!

Anyway, this one has an impressive density of good work in it. TBH I was concerned it would be a bit basic, since the whole theme was just "queer SFF" and with a dictate that loose I was kind of braced for like twenty repetitive gentle coming-out stories. But luckily, no! So my compliments to the editor.

A few of my favorite standouts:

• Jon Cairns' "O-Type Hypergiant"
• Sfé R. Monster's "The Dragon Slayer's Son"
• Kristina Stipetic's "They Simply Pass"
• Anissa Espinosa & Alison Wilgus' "Barricade"

Boulet - "Kingdoms Lost" (comics short)

Apr 12

Posted online here.

I've seen this story before, more or less, but the devil is in the details, and this particular nerd-vs-jock plot has space for a lot of nasty devils. Who, in this case, mostly stay away!

For me, what makes this one work is simply that the protagonist doesn't get the girl (who has her own thing going on) and in fact wasn't even fixated on the girl in the first place. Once they get to the real world, his attitude is like "Hey, high school was bullshit but now it's long gone and I'm just out here working on myself." He teaches chemistry at a primary school, he has a cozy little 1br apartment and enjoys cooking, and he's like "this was a stunning and total victory, go me." IDK, that feels true and I appreciate it.

Books I Didn't Finish: Frances Hardinge — Verdigris Deep

noped out May 29

(UK version; also published in US as Well Witched.)

This was a solid book, and Hardinge did a real impressive job at crafting something I genuinely Do Not Want. I was curious enough about what was going on to skim the rest of the book, but I didn't care to fully experience it.

I'll try and describe what's going on here: this is a middle-grade novel (written to a younger level than Fly by Night, the other Hardinge book I've read) which tells a Ringu-esque horror story, and the trick is in what that horror is constructed from. There's a very small amount of body-horror, but for the most part her instruments are embarrassment, humiliation, peer cruelty, and social anxiety (have I mentioned yet that she's British). In other words, she's constructed a sophisticated horror story where the fundamental unit of action is getting in trouble. And even if you know that being in trouble is a fake idea, I bet your body still knows how to do it.

Anyway, if that's what you're into, I guess have fun!!