The Marvels Project: The Birth of Superheroes by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting

Dr. Thomas Halloway was a psychiatrist in an old age home when he first encountered his patient, Matt Hawk, who was old and dying. But he had a story to tell, of being taken to the future, and being a superhero there, and of the many other heroes and villains, men and monsters that he encountered.

Dr. Halloway should have recognized the name, for he grew up in a prison, his father one of the guards, and the adventures of "The Two-Gun Kid" were something he'd been familliar with as a young boy. It's only when Matt Hawk dies and leaves Dr. Holloway his old mask and guns that the Doctor remembers, and wonders if the story he's been told, which he had dismissed as a senile fantasy, but at the same time been fascinated by, could really be true.

He starts to realize it is only months later, when Professor Phineas Horton shows off his creation, a synthetic man who bursts into flame at the touch of oxygen. Horton had hoped to create artificial human life, but people are shocked and horrified at his creation, which they consider a monster. He is forced to bury his creation by public opinion, and the synthetic man is buried in a concrete tomb inside a capsule bereft of air.

But this news reaches Germany, as the American secret agencies knew it would. It disheartens them, as the CIA and OSS hoped it would, but it also impels them to try and duplicate the process, or find another one, to make similar creations of their own to fight against America.

As two Americans, former military men,are sent to Germany to meet up with a defecting German scientist, back in America, Professor Horton's creation breaks loose from its supposed tomb and flies off, setting part of New York on fire and creating panic and chaos in the streets. Horton, who is now convinced he is on the cusp living in the age of heroes that Matt Hawk told him about, does his best to help those in the streets and decides to take up the cause of heroism by becoming a masked hero himself.

Meanwhile, the Nazis plant agents into America with the intention of killing off Professor Erskine, the man who is starting a program to make Super Soldiers to fight for America in the war. As the Americans settle on the perfect subject, a sickly artist named Steve Rogers who is too weak and thin to fight in a war he desperately wants to be in, the Germans plan to stop the project the best way they can- assassinating Professor Erskine, while at the same time stealing the formula and the product of his research.

But while their agent makes it into the test and manages to kill Professor Erskine, they don't get the complete formula, which Erskine kept only in his head and never wrote down, and they also don't manage to scotch the test. Instead, the sickly young man who was its test subject, Steve Rogers, becomes the pinnacle of human perfection, and is retained by the Government and military to fight the Nazis as Captain America. But the assassination of Professor Erskine doesn't stop Superhumans from appearing. The Human Torch, helped by its creator, escapes the airless tomb he was held in, and slowly learns to control his powers. When he aids a police detective kidnapped by mobsters, he decides to learn more about humanity by becoming a police officer himself.

And when the undersea ruler, Namor the Sub-Mariner, blaming the Nazis (and the entire surface world, which he believes is all the same thing) for the deaths of his people in bomb-testing by the Germans, he comes to America to take his revenge on the surface-worlders, only to be defeated by the Human Torch. In a moment, the public's opinion of the Torch changes, and he goes from being a menace to being a hero. For Namor, who has never been defeated, it is a bitter pill to swallow, and he will attack again, but hopefully next time, he will learn the difference between those who have killed his people, and the Americans.

But as Thomas Halloway attempts to track down the killers of several costumed crimefighters like himself, he comes into contact with Captain America and they must team up to take down the killers, and the menace of Nazi spies that still lurk inside the USA. But can they do so before the Germans perfect the formula of Professor Erskine and use it to make all their soldiers into Perfect Soldiers like Captain America? And can Cap check the menace of the Nazi Scientist known as the Red Skull before he succeeds in an Ubermensch project of his own?

I really enjoyed this graphic novel. It's been the best one I enjoyed in a long while from Marvel or DC, and it's kind of sad that the writers had to go back into the past to find such wonderful characters. That being said, instead of the graphic novel focussing on just one hero, it tells a history of a lot of heroes, otherwise normal costumed heroes and Superheroes like Captain America and the first Human Torch, but makes each equal in time and coverage, so that you never quite feel like any one hero hogs the entire book.

And the best part is that the narrator, Thomas Halloway, who fights crime as the Angel, was an actual hero from the predecessor to Marvel, Timely Comics, and so are several other of the normal (non-super) costumed heroes mentioned in the book. It's an overview of the early Marvel universe, and is very well-told, weaving several different comic lines and stories into a coherent and well-told narrative. When reading this series, the scattered and sometimes chaotic stories really make sense, and the end of the story wraps well into the beginning, with Holloway's grandson being given his father's writings and some of his possessions by Cap himself, who confirms that the Angel was a real hero.

This is one of the very best series I have ever read put into graphic novel form. I can't overstate how good and satisfying it was to read, and I'd like to see a continuation of the series, perhaps involving other characters from different lines and showing how their stories wove together in the 50's and 60's. Maybe that's too ambitious, but you know a series is good when you are dying to see and read more, and that is definitely how I felt after reading this book. Highly recommended.

Beyond the Darkness by Alexandra Ivy

Salvatore Giuliani is the King of the Werewolves, and he's on the trail of a set of weres who don't want to bend under his rule. But while he is chasing them, he discovers the scent of a strange, purebred female running with the Curs. Not just any purebred female, but one of a special set of four he had specially bred to save the Werewolves, which are dying out. The Purebred females can no longer control their shifting during the nights of the full moon, which leads to them spontaneously aborting their pups.

While the purebreds reproduce by breeding, curs are formed when a Were bites a human and infects them with the Werewolf virus. But even the bites of the Curs seem to be losing potency at passing on the virus, and no one seems to be able to find out or figure out why. So Salvatore's scientists worked on the blood of purebred females to create four female babies who were purebreds, but were unable to shift with the moon, enabling them to be the salvation of the Weres, the purebloods at the very least.

Unfortunately, two of the girl babies have been found, but one of them married the Anasso of the Vampires, Styx, and the second, Regan, married Jagr, another vampire. And Regan was sterile, which meant that her loss didn't affect the fate of the Weres. But Salvatore finds himself unconsciously attracted to the female on his radar, Harley.

But Harley, who lived for almost her entire life being tortured by the Imp Curley, has absorbed everything she knows about Werewolf society and its King from Caine, the leader of the curs- and he's convinced her that Salvatore hates her so much that he will kill her on sight. And Salvatore, who tends to be rather arrogant and dictatorial anyhow, finds Harley alternately attracted to him and pulling away when he pisses her off, which is seemingly every five minutes. But as his attraction grows to his destined mate, can he convince Haley that he is on her side and gain her regard and love while tracking down the curs who raised her, and their leader, who apparently also holds her remaining missing sister? And can she find happiness and even love with Salvatore, and will her sisters be able to ease her mind regarding the King of the Werewolves, or will their words and help merely drive them further apart?

I haven't read any of Alexandra Ivy's books before, to my memory, but the cover of "Beyond the Darkness", which is the sixth book in the "Guardians of Eternity" series, did look interesting, so I picked it up. However, there is a lot going on in the book, which made me feel like I had missed out on a great deal by not reading the books that had come before. And despite there being enough information to understand most of the gist of the story, I still often felt I wasn't really behind the eight ball when it came to understanding the bigger picture.

I have to say that I wasn't really attracted to Salvatore, though. He wants Harley as his own, but he often got on my nerves when it came to how he treated her, I felt that he was sometimes an "Alpha male" in all the worst ways. Not enough to be labelled an "Alphole" as some have labelled the trope, but sometimes he skirted close to that edge, which was a turn-off for me. And yes, he rather redeemed himself in the end, but I still felt ambivalent to his character even at the end. The best romance writers can make the reader fall in love with the hero themselves, but I just wasn't feeling the character of Salvatore as someone I would even really be attracted to.

In the end, this book was not quite a success for me. It was a nice read, but the hero didn't attract me, and I felt that his arrogance and need to be in command often triumphed over the building of his character as a figure I was supposed to be attracted to, and for a romance, that's a failure. On the other hand, i did enjoy the way that Alexandra Ivy wrote the story and her storytelling, which means I'd still pick up another book by her in the future. In fact, I might decide to pick up the first book in the series and read this one again after reading the others to see if that improved my perception of the characters and story. Right now, not recommended, but I am willing to change my mind on this.

Bayou Moon by Illona Andrews

William is a changeling. Nobody trusts changelings, and in the Kingdom of Louisiana, they are simply killed out of hand. But in the neighboring realm of Adrianglian, they are taken from their families and raised in Orphanages that are just this side of abuse. Most go straight into the military after they leave the orphanage, just as William did. Now he lives in the Broken, our world without magic, and spends his time between the Broken, the Weird, that world of magic, and the Edge, that place that is both and neither.

Summoned back to Adrianglian to track down a demented Weird noble named Spider who killed an entire group of Changelings and is now tracking down a magical weapon that could cause the Louisianans to gain the upper hand in the war that is ongoing between the two realms, he is sent by the Mirror, the head of the Adrianglian spy service, to track down Spider and to finally kill him- and to get whatever he is after for Adrianglian.

Cerise Mar is an Edger, the daughter of a scientist and his wife from the Weird who settled in the Edge after they were banished. Now, their family is in an on-again, off again feud with the Sheerile family, and her parents have both disappeared. When she goes out riding to find them, the Sheerile brothers claim that her parents sold them part of the Mar family property, and show her a signed deed to "prove" it. Only she knows that her parents would never have done something like that. The Sheeriles also let slip that the Hand, a group of Louisianan enforcers, is in the area, and wanted to speak with her parents, which fills Cerise with dread.

With her parents gone, she is in charge of the family, and she must enter the weird to find her Uncle who is the only one who has a copy of the deed granting her family ownership. And when she comes back, she must put an end to the feud once and for all, by either killing the Sheeriles or killing her own family in the process. And find her parents one way or another.

Unbeknownst to Cerise, her mother has been taken by the Hand operatives, including Spider, and is being turned into an assassin by them as they break her with torture and graft her with a tree for the weird. But on her way home, she meets with William and forms a connection with him as they fight the swamp and the creatures in it to return to the Edge. But when William gets involved with the family, can he ferret out a traitor within their ranks and find Spider and his operatives before they find and kill him? And can Cerise find some sort of happy ending with William, who she has come to care for? Or will the Hand and the Sheeriles grind her family down to dust?

This book is a sequel to the previous Edge novel "On the Edge" and while the Mar family is definitely more combative and more possessed of magic than the Drayton family, I found this book a little more engaging because of the many characters within it. It's sort of the Hatfields and the McCoys writ large, and with magic in the mix as well. Because of that, I did feel some distaste for all the feuding. The origin of the feud seemed just as stupid as any real feud, and there was little right in the past on either side. It's only in the latest round of "who done who wrong' that I felt sympathy for the Mar family at all.

Cerise is one of the few people in her family who come off at all well. She's the one who has held everything together. She's the one who balances the books and finds money to send the kids to school and to have money for books and clothes. So when her parents go missing, it's natural that she takes over in all aspects of the family, even though some want to reject her being in control simply because she's a woman- she's already looking out for everyone, and adding more to her job is something she'll shoulder the burden of.

William, even though he's got a large third person subjective role in the story, is a bit more of a cipher. Yes, his wants and desires are straightforward. but because of his upbringing, he's still something of a cipher. We sort of get hints of what he can do, but it isn't until near the end that we see all his talents in full swing. He does come off better than most of the Mar family, or the Sheeriles, for that matter. Most of the other characters are eccentric at best and repulsive at worst.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy this novel, although I wasn't sure where the Mars and Sheeriles fit into the Edge of the last book, and I did really want to know. How big is the Edge, and where does it extend? It's sometimes hard to put your mind around because its not really explained. I recommend this book regardless as another look at the Edge from a much different perspective. Well-told and mostly enjoyable. Recommended.

The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: Twelfth Grade Kills by Heather Brewer

Vladimir Tod is a vampire, and the only vampire who was born of a woman rather than created with a bite. This makes him rather special in vampire society, and there is a prophecy about a vampire being born and who is known as the Pravus. But the impact of the Pravus is debated. He is supposed to either rule the vampires or to take over the humans and rule them as a despot.

Vlad is still off-balance from the results of his last year. He drank from the vampire known as Dorian, who may have been mad, but who was the keeper of the prophecy of the Pravus. Dorian saved Vlad from a stake wielded by his supposed friend Joss, a vampire slayer, and was dying anyway. Dorian begged Vlad to drink his blood, the only way he would know the truth of the Prophecy of the Pravus for himself. In the aftermath of drinking Dorian's blood, Vlad nearly beat Joss to death and was only stopped by the appearance of his father, who told him not to kill the boy. Then, his father disappeared.

Now, Vlad tries to stay by Joss's side with his friend and Drudge, Henry, as they wait for the paramedics to arrive. Henry wants Vlad to flee and avoid lots of hard questions, but no one seems to suspect that Vlad had anything to do with Joss's injuries. But at the hospital, Joss's mother tells Vlad to stay away from her son, and Vlad agrees. But as soon as he arrives home, he gets two shocking pieces of information. First of all, Slayers are in town and they want Vlad dead. Vlad knocks out two Slayers disguised as cops who attack him in an alley. But the sight of them in Bathory makes him cautious.

Second comes from Em, a member of the vampire council. First comes the shocking news that D'Ablo is dead. Killed by someone unknown. Second is a summons from the council for Vlad to pay for his father's crimes. To wit: falling in love with a human woman and sharing the secret of vampire existence with her. Em promises Vlad that he will be put on trial for his father's crimes, and she will take pleasure in executing him for them. Vlad tells her that he has seen his father... alive. Em is momentarily taken aback by this news and tells Vlad that he has until the end of the year to bring his father in. Either his father, Tomas, will pay for his crimes, or Vlad will.

Vlad immediately sets off in search of Tomas, without any luck whatsoever. He also tells Ottis about his father's reappearance, and Ottis doesn't necessarily believe Vlad. He thinks that Tomas was a vision that came from Vlad drinking Dorian's blood. And it seems that Vlad has inherited some of Dorian's seeing abilities, but that is nothing compared to the sensation when Tomas reappears, and Ottis sees him as well.

Tomas, it seems, survived the fire long ago, as he had gone to Elysium to spy on it. Even though he was banished from Elysium and the presence of other vampires, his hunger for their society made him spy on them, and to break into their libraries to read what books they had on the Pravus. When he left to do so that day, it meant he was out of the house when whoever it was broke in and set the fire, killing Vladimir's mother. He doesn't know whose body it was that was taken for his own, nor what really happened. By the time he returned, his wife was dead, and the fire was already burning out of control. He hid out of fear, and in hopes that Vlad would not be blamed for his crimes. Obviously, that hope has come to naught, so he plans to stick around to be tried himself and take the burden off of Vlad. It's the only thing he can do for his son now.

Meanwhile, Vlad returns to school for his senior yeat, and, having given up Snow, the girl he loves, he's very much alone. Joss comes to him to tell Vlad he's sorry, and that he didn't have a choice about attacking him. The society of Slayers gave him an ultimatum. Either he kills Vlad or the Slayers will wipe the entire population of the town from the face of the earth. Everyone, humans included. And considering that Slayers train to fight vampires, against humans, the humans would be completely outclassed. Joss hopes to get Vlad to agree to let Joss kill him, because Joss knows that there is no way he could kill Vlad on his own. And he doesn't want his own family to be killed. Joss only has to the end of the year- that's because to kill everyone in town, it will take all the Slayers in the world, and it takes time for all of them to gather.

Vlad can't agree to let Joss kill him, but he can't let everyone in town die, either. And then there is Eddie Poe, the guy who wanted to become somebody by exposing Vlad's secret to the world. Now, he has plenty of evidence to throw Vlad to the wolves, but he's changed what he wants. Now he wants Vlad to turn him into a vampire, or he'll screw Vlad over by exposing his secret to everyone. Unfortunately for Eddie, Vlad doesn't really care any more. With an entire society of Slayers coming to kill him, how much worse could his life get?

But Vlad, who must struggle to forgive his father for abandoning both him and his mother, must soon struggle with a last minute defection by someone he loves dearly. And when the cost is a toll in lives and people he loves, Vlad must come to terms with a battle that could result in the death of everyone he cares for. Is the Pravus a savior or a tyrant, and what choices must Vlad make on his way to discovering the truth? Will everyone he loved desert him, or will he find his own way to be what he must, the Pravus?

This book takes the conflicts and problems of the last four books and ramps them all up to eleven. No longer does Vlad have to worry about being outed or being rejected by his friends. He's pretty much out there and most people have some idea of what he is. But all his bad decisions are coming home to roost and with the kick in the pants that it's not just his own life he is putting at risk any more. Now, it's Ottis and Nelly, Joss and Henry and everyone in town who could die if Vlad fails or turns into a petty tyrant.

I have to admit, that even though I am a pretty suspicious person, I never saw the betrayal of Vlad coming until it nearly happened, and that was quite a trick to pull off. It's not a pretty ending- there is enough death to satisfy any kind of tragedy-lover, and even though the ending was fairly happy overall, it ended up being rather bittersweet. Vlad has picked himself up and gone on with his life, but an echo of tragedy hangs over his life. And I also wanted to see exactly how he will live out his own version of being the Pravus- the ending made me curious to see what he will do with the job/position.

I have found this series quite wonderful and enjoyable. Only one thing sort of nags me about the ending- it seems like the toll in characters was mostly female when it came to real deaths. Vlad's mother really perished, and there were several others it would spoil the ending to name, but it seems to have been largely a female tragedy rather than a balanced one (i.e. more women died than men, even if there was a last-minute save for one of them), and I feel vaguely disappointed because of that. But still, I have no qualms about recommending this book, and this series, most highly. Overall, it is a taut, well-told story that makes you care in some way about all of the characters. Very Highly Recommended.

Keep the Change by Steve Dublanica

Steve Dublanica wrote the highly successful book called "Waiter Rant", about the trials and tribulations he experienced in his life as a waiter. Originally, the stories were posted on his blog, which featured his restaurant under a made-up name, which eventually morphed into a book. Since much of his book revolved around the tips waiters do or do not get, people assumed that Dublanica was some sort of Guru of tipping and knew how much people should tip for every job and every profession under the sun.

Unfortunately, this was not the case. So to bolster his deficiencies in his knowledge, he set off on a trek across America, looking into the sorts of jobs and professions that people tip for to see how much is a usual tip and how much the people in that profession would like to be tipped. And in the course of his travels, he not only fills the gaps in his own knowledge, but comes to some very interesting conclusions about the origins of tipping and why some professions are tipped and others are not.

And that is because a profession where, traditionally, tips have never been given is very resistant to the introduction of tipping. Prostitution, for example, is something where men, even if their experience was something wonderful and beyond the norm, are not going to tip the woman who gave it to them. That's because, traditionally, it's not something you tip for. On the other hand, houses where men are sexually abused by women (S&M, Bondage and Domination and so on) usually do, because they are much newer and therefore are not seen as something you can get away with not tipping for. One thing I found most unusual here are "Marking fees". You can be into Sadism as much as you like, but if you pay for it in a house and want to leave marks, you have to pay a marking fee. The worse the damage you want to leave, the more you have to pay for it (presumably so that the girl can recover and make up for the lost time you are costing her).

Other professions that people don't tip for or tip too little for are things like shoeshines, drinks from bartenders and cab rides. And in Las Vegas, he goes to the strip club known as the Peppermint Hippo for a straight talk with strippers about what kinds of tips they accept, and why the club will ferry you to their door in a limo and consider it cheaper than having you take a cab there (because cab drivers must get kickbacks from the club for every guy they take there, whereas the house-owned limo is free to the club, saving them $30 for every patron).

And it's not just that tipping people makes you seem generous, tips can also make sure you are seen quicker by a mechanic or hair stylist, ensure the maid doesn't rat you out for smoking in a non-smoking room, changes your sheets every day, or that your mechanic or stylist doesn't do a half-assed job or your waiter or waitress doesn't "accidentally" dump a drink or tray of food on you, which can happen if you are a nasty enough piece of work and push your luck,

In the end, though, Dublanica realized that he didn't have to go around the world to discover what each profession wanted to be tipped. He came up with a simple formula that anybody could use at any time. Ask the person who is providing you with the service. Ask them what they want to be tipped. If you don't know and are unsure, ask. That way you can't go wrong.

But even before he gets to that gem of advice, Dublanica's book is sure to amuse, entertain and inform. With his interviews of a cross-section of people who perform various services to other people and society, you'll meet a wide variety of people in all professions and all sorts of work, and marvel at a pair of junkies who tipped a cabbie more than all the people with the big, important jobs who rode in his cab that night. Dublanica excels at showing the true faces of the people he is showcasing, and admits where he falls down in his own tipping behaviors, and resolves to do better.

Once again, a fascinating book from Steve Dublanica on a behavior we all do. We all tip, but many experience anxiety over just how much to tip and who deserves our tips from us, but by reading this book, we can all learn how the right way. Recommended highly.

James May's LEGO House

As a child, James May loved LEGO bricks, and he wondered, 'if one had enough bricks, could you build an entire house out of LEGO and have it stand?' In 2009, he found the answer, as he and the BBC came together with the LEGO company to build a two-story house out of LEGO and see if it was possible to build a free-standing two story house of LEGO bricks.

The bricks used to build the house were not standard LEGO bricks. These were larger versions of the same bricks one can buy in any toy store. And it wasn't just slapping bricks together willy-milly. This house had designers and everything in it, from the toaster in the kitchen to the bed in the bedroom, was constructed completely out of LEGO, even down to the slippers on the bed. And then James May got to stay in it for a single night, after throwing a housewarming party with real wine drunk out of LEGO goblets.

This book shows the construction of the house, from the planning stage to the construction itself, and the setbacks and problems that developed. For one thing, the house was constructed in a grape orchard, but the lawyers for the project insisted that the house have supports of known construction materials, like wood, because the actual strength of Lego is unknown. To get around this, the wooden supports were completely enclosed in LEGO, but none of the bricks actually rested on them. And to build the house, even with the much larger LEGO bricks they were using, still took over 3 milliion individual bricks. And the house was constructed so that the bricks ran in parallel colors, creating a house with a bold, striped look.

Even the windows were LEGO- clear bricks for the main windows and transparent colored bricks for an upstairs window. The pictures in the book are wonderful, showing the house under construction, and several shots of the areas in the finished house, like the coffee table made to look like a British Flag. Apparently, the house itself only took several days to construct, but preparing for construction, including making the concrete-like blocks used to construct the outside of the house, took a lot longer, as well as building a LEGO chair that could support the weight of a human man. And it had working taps and a working shower, with hot and cold running water. Amazing.

Though the book is short, it's also a fun look at a building material that many people only think can be used to create things in miniature. James May is also fairly well known as a presenter of the BBC series "Top Gear". And although it's not covered in the book, I was rather saddened to hear that the house was torn down later that year when the BBC LEGO Park refused to take it. For a short book, it's full of wonderful pictures and you will constantly be amazed at what LEGO bricks can be used to build.

This book is a must-read with an amazing story and an amazing creation at the end of it. Although James didn't think the bed was too bad to sleep in at the beginning of the night, he'd completely changed his view by the end of it. His only concession was a non-Lego blanket to sleep under. This book is full of fun and will appeal to just about anyone with a slightly zany view of life or a love or appreciation of LEGO bricks. Highly recommended.

Fire by Kristin Cashore

Fire is a young woman who lives in the Dells. Her father, an advisor to the old King, had the Grace to control everyone's mind, and used it to lead the old King down unsavory paths and turn him into a monster. It's not certain how bad the King was before her father started in on him, but after his influence was assured, the King became much, much worse. Even Fire's birth came about because of her father's influence, when he and the King raped two women on the same night. Fire was the result, and her father only kept her because she inherited the same grace that he possessed.

But Fire doesn't have the same cold heart as her father does. Since she encountered him only infrequently, and was mainly raised by her father's servants, she grew up with a much more centered attitude, and despite her father trying to make him into a smaller, female copy of himself, she grew to hate and despise the way he treated people, and except when he was trying to "teach" her to be like him, she didn't exert herself to use her Grace the way he did.

Now that her father is dead, killed by the very dangerous animals that he kept for his own amusement, Fire has fallen into a relationship with the local lord, Archer, who is possessive of her for her great beauty. And with the bad old King also dead, the country seems to be on an even keel. But the old lords who hated the old King are even upset that his son has come to the throne and are stirring up rebellion against him. But when Fire is discovered by Roen and Brigan, the King's half brothers, she must travel out of her comfort zone of the country and go to the Capital because of her father. And she is shocked to discover that Brigan, a man she is afraid of, is immune to her Grace, and is ready to kill her to protect the country.

But Fire can't hate Brigan, no matter how much she would like to, and on the way to the capital, he slowly revises his opinion of Fire as well, and both come to care for each other, enough that she ends her relationship with Lord Archer and sends him home. But the King would like her to use her gift to question the rebels opposed to his rule to make them find out who is behind the rebellion and what they plan. Can Fire use her gift and not become as bad as her father was, using people for his pleasure? And can the King and his family keep Fire safe as the rebellion comes to a head and Brigan must leave the capitol to fight?

And meanwhile, in the north, someone else with the Grace to control people's thoughts is biding his time, and he means to capture Fire. But why does he want her, and what is he going to do with her? And when Fire heads north to find Archer, who has disappeared in the aftermath of the rebellion, can Fire rescue him, or will she even be able to rescue herself?

This book is a companion, and something of a prequel to Kristin Cashore's previous book, "Graceling". Fire has one of the more powerful Graces, being able to read and influence the minds of others, but in a way, she is almost afraid of her own grace, because of her father's previous bad example, and how he raised her. She seems to fear that because of her father, that no one will be able to love and accept her, and she also fears coming to the attention of people for the same reason: out of fear of rejection.

At the beginning of the novel, she is in a relationship of convenience with Archer. She has affection for him, yes, and she does love him, but at the same time, it isn't love in the same way that she comes to love Brigan. During the course of the story she has to come to realize that not only is she worthy of Brigan's love, but her own essential morality will result in her actions taking during the rebellion being given accolades by the people of the capital, who come to know her, despite her strange, beautiful graced looks.

None of the characters of the original book, Graceling, show up here, except in small, incidental ways, and the beginning of the book seemed to have no bearing on the plot at all up until the last third of the book, which seemed slightly awkward for most of the book, as I kept wondering, "What did the beginning have to do with Fire and Fire's life and troubles?", but when that (seemingly) dropped thread is picked up again, it all became clear. Until that point, I thought the boy might have grown up to be Fire's father. I was wrong, but be assured that the beginning is important and relevant to the plot.

I ended up enjoying this book a lot, and while the ending brings out surprises of its own, I found Fire's story to be even more interesting and enjoyable than Katsa's. This book is a more mature and even deeper work than Graceling, and I'd recommend them both- and I am very interested in seeing what sort of story Kristin Cashore comes up with next, even if it isn't set in this world. She is an author to watch! Highly recommended.

The Underworld Cycle: Book one- Mob Rules by Cameron Haley

Domino Riley is the Chief Enforcer for the Rashan Mob, one of the many criminal groups that run L.A. Unlike in the real world, the mobs that rule this L.A. run on magical power, and the businesses they run confer not just money or drugs, but actual magical juice to the mobs that control that territory. Unfortunately for Domino, one of her mob's men, a tagger named Jamal James, has been killed in his apartment, and skinned, then hung on a bondage rack and left there.

Domino is summoned to the scene by another one of her gang, Anton Shevakov, the same guy who found the body. And while Domino knows that Anton had nothing to do with the death, the death worries her, because Jamal was a really excellent tagger. His tags could actually increase the flow of juice, or magical power, that the gang received from the streets. She wonders if another gang tried to take him out when Jamal turned down an offer to work for them, or just simply took him down as a preparation for some kind of gang war. But the fact that Jamal is missing his skin, and almost all of his magical power, is also rather disturbing. Jamal's been sucked dry like an empty juice bag, and there are very few things that could do that.

Not that Domino knows what those things are herself. But she has a Djinn trapped in a black and white TV in her home that may be able to tell her. Or she could just try and summon Jamal's spirit to tell her himself. But something is interfering with her connection to Jamal's spirit, and she can only get a few words out of him before his spirit vanishes. Domino thinks something with the way Jamal was killed is causing the interference, and nothing, not the genie she has imprisoned inside the television in her apartment nor all the spells she can muster up, seem to be able to get through the interference.

So, who killed Jamal and why? Jamal was a skilled tagger, able to create tags that sucked up lots of magical energy from the areas that her mob controls. And apparently, there were other mobs sniffing around, eager to get Jamal to work for them. But as far as she knows, Jamal was happy with her group and refused any and all such offers. But could that be a reason for someone to kill him, to deny his ability to Domino's mob? With not much else to go on, Domino investigates Papa Danwe's voodoo mob, who had been sniffing around Jamal.

But distracting her at this rather inconvenient time is Adan, one of her boss Rashan's sons. Domino has long thought Adan was hotter than the surface of the sun, but now he finally seems to be paying attention to her, when he isn't hanging out with vampires and other assorted lowlifes. He can't be part of his father's organization, because he has no magic whatsoever, but that doesn't stop him from being smoking hot, and Domino is quite attracted to him. But soon she suspects that he's been possessed, and that whatever is inside him is what killed Jamal. She wants to throw out the interloper and keep her lover, but that may not be possible. Another of her crew has also been killed in the same way as Jamal. a man by the name of Jimmy Lee, and Papa Danwe's crew has built some sort of magic cannon that just might be aimed at Rashan's outfit.

Add into the mix trips into otherworld to try and find out what is happening to Adan and to try and free him of whatever is possessing him, as well as a female fairy that seems determined to get into Domino's pants, and a magical gun that can kill whatever it hits, and Domino's day is shaping up to be very bad indeed. Can she survive the threats against her organization and save the man she is coming to love, or will the entirety of L.A. go up in flames before she can even find some time to be with Adan?

I don't usually find criminals all that interesting, but Domino caught me in her fist and drew me from the very first page. She's a pretty kickass magical girl, but nothing comes easy for her, and she also has a defined role in her organization. She's a troubleshooter, and given the magical nature of the gangs of L.A., the kind of trouble she shoots is all too apt to be the kind that shoots back at her.

This is the normal world, dragged ninety degrees off kilter from our own. Gangs exist, but they run on magic and magical power rather than guns, drugs and prostitution. Of course, many of the same activities gangs run in our world provide magical "juice" in Domino's world. Prostitution and gambling seem to be the primary illlegal generators of magical power, but more also comes from the feelings and emotions of people. The more juice that is generated in the streets, the more tense and unsettled things become on the streets, like magical feedback that ramps the whole thing higher and higher. Too much juice and there will be rioting in the streets, even by normal people.

And in addition to the real world, there is at least two more, one of which Domino visits during the course of the story. The end of the book sets up the situation for additional stories, and I honestly hope that things turn out better for Domino in future books than they did in this one. This book is an introduction to a strange new world, both slightly and very different from our own, but I can only hope that more books come out in this series, as I found it intriguing and fun to read. Highly recommended.

The Demon's Parchment by Jeri Westerson

Crispin Guest used to be a knight, until he was accused of treason for backing the wrong man to become King of England. Stripped of his lands and titles (and therefore his money) as well as his knighthood, he survives the hard streets of London by selling his services as a finder and Detective, becoming well-known as "The Hunter". But even as he struggles to keep body and soul together, he must keep out of reach of the King, who still bears Crispin a grudge and wants nothing more than to see him killed or banished from England permanently.

Now, it is winter, and life is doubly hard. Bur Crispin's aid is sought by a physician of the court. Some papers have been stolen from him, papers it is imperative that he must regain, even if he refuses to tell Crispin the nature of the papers or even how many there are. All he can tell Crispin is that the Papers are in Hebrew, and that it is absolutely imperative that he must get them back.

But that's not the only problem Crispin is confronted with. There have been deaths in the city, the deaths of young men, barely more than children. At the scene of the crime, a massive figure with a suspiciously tiny head has been seen, and in his wake, the bodies are found, along with small bits of clay. Crispin is retained by the Sheriffs of London to find the culprit behind these murders, thus obviating the need for the men to bestir themselves and look into something that personally frightens them very, very much.

Along with this, Crispin finds himself running into an old rival in love who apparently hadn't realized the depths to which Crispin has sunk in his time away from Court. Though he now holds Crispin's old estate as part of his own, he does his best to try and help his former rival in matters of the Court, helping him evade the men who would arrest him for merely entering the Royal Court, and proving himself something of a friend now that he and Crispin can no longer compete for the same things.

But in the matter of the Jewish Doctor's papers, Crispin is opposed by the man's son, Julian, who also happens to be his apprentice as a Doctor. Between the two of them, he discovers that the missing papers are copies of the words God spoke to bring the world into being, Words of Creation. But Crispin suspects that the Doctor's son, Julian, knows more about the crime than he is telling, and learns of how the words were used long ago, to construct a man of clay who was supposed to protect the Jews, but who fell in love with the daughter of the Rabbi who constructed him, ensuring a tragedy when the Rabbi wouldn't let his daughter marry the construct.

Could something similar be happening in London? Is there a golem going around murdering young men? And why is Crispin finding himself suddenly attracted to Julian? Could everything he ever thought or believed about himself be a lie? And who is collecting the clay to make another Golem, and does the Jewish community hiding in London know anything about it?

Wow, this book pulled me in a number of different directions while I was reading. I twigged to the "Golem" part of the story right away. As soon as they went into the Jewish Doctor whose important papers were stolen, yet he doesn't want to speak about what the papers are or why they are so important, my first thought was... "I bet this turns out to have something to do with the Golem, which was brought to life by putting papers with God's words on them into his mouth." And lo and behold, that's exactly what the papers were. I didn't really think of it as a surprise, but it was nice to see Jewish legend coming into the story.

And it was a further nice thing to see the main character, Crispin, actually questioning his sexuality when he falls for the Doctor's son. Instead of treating it as (Scream) "Ooh, icky cooties!", I found the whole thing handled in a mature fashion. Yes, Crispin feels rather repulsed by the feelings he has, but he doesn't spend his time flailing his arms and screaming about it. Instead, he approaches it in a fairly mature fashion, by discussing it with a bisexual transvestite he knows and is friendly with. (I don't know if you can really call them friends, but they are fairly friendly.)

But in the end, the story remains true to its noir roots in many ways. I am getting to the point where I am getting suspicious of any of Crispin's old friends who show up, because they seem to inevitably want to screw him over at some point, which happens to be a very noir trope. Seeing it here in a medieval mystery is refreshing, even if it feels like poor Crispin can't ever cut a break or find someone truly loyal to him except his servant/apprentice and some of the common people.

I found this book very enjoyable to read, with all the different threads that went into making it up, and some things I never would have expected to see in any mystery story. The combination of medieval and noir continues to interest and excite me when it comes to the stories. Ms. Westerson has developed a new genre of novels, one I never would have thought of myself, and I continue to look out for them because I know I will be assured a good story that's both interesting and amazing to read. Highly recommended.

Stargate: SG-1- Trial by Fire by Sabine C. Bauer

It's Thanksgiving, and since all the other team members of SG-1 are off doing stuff, and with no family to go home to, Daniel Jackson decides to head to a national park to do a little Rogue Archaeology. But while he is there, he stumbles across something that he never expected to find: a Phoenician stela in the midst of a Native American site. And worse, it has the Stargate symbol for Earth, the Tau'ri, on it.

Daniel isn't an expert on the Phoenicians, but he knows someone who is: Siobahn Kelly, a graying Archaeologist who wants nothing to do with Daniel after he disgraced himself and his professional reputation by insisting that the ancient Egyptians had really been visited by Aliens in Ancient times. Of course, that belief led to the discovery of the Stargate, and to the entire mission of Stargate Command, but Daniel can't publish his real findings anytime soon, so his professional name is still tarnished with the image of a crackpot.

However the very British Miss Kelly isn't to be fobbed off with false explanations, and as soon as Daniel has copied the glyphs from the other stelae she has discovered in an Ancient Phoenician temple, he returns to SG-1 to find out where those coordinates lead. Kelly follows him with the consent of her own government, who decide to let Stargate Command sort it all out, and General Hammond reluctantly let her join their mission to the new world they have discovered, which for some reason, isn't in any catalogue of gate coordinates they have ever found.

The team finds that the world on the other side of the gate is known as Tyros, and the people who are descended from the Phoenicians on the other side of the gate believes that the team are servants of their God, Meleq, sent to help them with their problems. Someone, you see, is stealing their young children, and they believe that these people are Phrygians. The Phrygians are heretics who don't believe in Meleq, but they also cannot be found when the children are stolen away.

SG-1 finds all this out from Hamilqart, one of the priests of Meleq. He, his wife Ayezebel and his son Luli live together in the town, and Luliis to be a Chosen One of Meleq. He is also pleased with the presence of Teal'c, who he thinks of not as a Jaffa, but as a "spirit" of Meleq. He has been taught all his life that the gate is a passageway to the Realm of Meleq and therefore, anyone who comes through a gate must be from Meleq.

At first, the team is concerned that Meleq might be a Goa'uld, but no one, not even Teal'c, can recall a Goa'uld with a Phoenician God's name, so that seems to be the High Priest and Council's way of enforcing order. But when Luli and the other children of age are taken away to the temple to begin their initiation into the rites of Meleq, O'Neill decides to slip out and find out what is really going on. Nor is he alone- Siobahn Kelly, whose peppery personality hasn't exactly endeared herself to the team- especially O'Neill, is extremely curious about these rites and decides to go mufti and do a little snooping of her own

But the temple is raided under the cover of darkness by the Phoenicians and both of them are captured. The men get Professor Kelly to give up and go with them by threatening to kill O'Neill unless she surrenders, and she reluctantly does so. They are taken by sea to another island, with O'Neill suffering the indignity of seasickness en route, and discovers that while the men might be sailors, they are actually Roman.

Once on the island, O'Neill gets into a fight with one of the men, knocking the man out, then suffering the same himself. When he's only half-conscious, he's drugged, and Professor Kelly finds her hearing O'Neill's nightmares of being tortured by the System Lord Baal, which both disturbs her and makes her feel some sympathy for him. The next day, he is taken to the leader of the group of raiders and find that they worship Ahura-Mazda, and they know that Meleq is actually a Goa'uld and evil. They are trying to rescue the children and let them grow up free and happy, away from the religion that worships who they see as Ahriman, the most evil one.

Meanwhile, Samantha Carter asks General Hammond's permission to send out a flying scout machine to see where the attackers took O'Neill and Professor Kelly, and then lead a party of natives to rescue them. She gets this permission, and convinces the natives to let her lead it when most of them think a woman cannot do anything. But the native priests have their own ideas about what they will be doing, and it's not negotiating the release of O'Neill, Kelly, and the children. They want to run in and cut them all down to prevent any future problems. But Hamilqart has a secret. His wife, Ayzebel, is actually a heretic who Hamilqart rescued from a village that was supposed to be wiped out. He found her too beautiful to kill, so he hid her and pretended she came from a different village when he married her.

The village no longer believed in the God Meleq or in his benevolence, and the "Phoenicians" had told them tales to make them believe this. She still believes it today, which was why she felt pain that her son was a Chosen One. And it was she who notified the raiders that the children would be in the temple, as well as telling them of a secret entrance and exit. She doesn't want her son to serve the God. Hamilqart asks the SG-1 Team not to blab his secret around, and they agree, but they also feel that something isn't quite sitting right about these stories about Meleq.

Back on the island, the Romans know that the Phoenicians are coming, and they hide the women and children, then go out to fight the priests and parents who have come along for the fight to get back their children. O'Neill, who has been initiated into the cult of Ahura Mazda (once he found out that Meleq was a Goa'uld, he agreed) goes with them to fight, and hopefully to prevent the sides from killing each other.

There's a big fight, but one of the sides of the canyon wall collapses, killing many of the Romans and even catching Sam Carter and Teal'c in its path, but Sam and Teal'c escape with only minor injuries. Due to this, the Romans are persuaded by Sam and O'Neill to surrender, and the priests round them all up and take them back to Tyros Island. But since O'Neill fought on the side of the Romans, he is imprisoned for a "cleansing" by Meleq. Now having heard the Roman's side, SG-1 does some snooping in the temple, with the help of Ayzebel, and Daniel realizes that Meleq isn't really who he says he is. He is actually Moloch, a god who delighted in children being burned to death in the altar statue, a hollow bronze bull that is heated by lava.

Worse, Moloch is actually another Goa'uld with a far better known name- Baal, the Goa'uld who had imprisoned and tortured O'Neill. And once O'Neill finds that out, he's eager to take the false God on.

Even worse than that, Baal/Moloch is also posing as Ahura Mazda. He set this whole world up so that it would constantly be rocked by religious strife and bloodshed for his own amusement. And neither side seems to realize this and certain of the participants don't want it to end. But how can SG-1 and the villagers, with only primitive weapons, take on an alien with the power of a God and the technology built into the temple? And will SG-1 be able to kill Baal so dead that even a sarcophagus won't be able to resurrect him? Because that's what O'Neill wants, and he won't settle for any less.

I really enjoyed this book. There were a lot of stories written for the Stargate series in the US, but these books are from England, and printed by an English company. Only one of the eight stories from there had also been published in the US ("Sacrifice Moon"), so I was glad to see these turn up in the donations at my library. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the stories, even if fan-written, are just as good as the licensed American stories already available here.

And this story actually managed to surprise me with a twist I didn't see coming.(that Meleq was actually based on Moloch), mainly because the Phoenician Gods are pretty much a mystery to most people. But the characters are right on target, character-wise, and dialogue-wise as well. I mean, even though the name of the publishing house is "Fandemonium", don't let that turn you off. There are a lot of really bad fan-written stories out there, but these are excellent, even if they are fanfiction. And I'm not sure that they are, I'm merely making a guess based on the name of the publishing house.

This story is excellent, and all the characters, even the original characters like Siobahn Kelly, are well done. She is something of a stereotype, but transcends the stereotype through the course of the story, and her interaction with O'Neill evoked some real laughter on my part. Her stereotype involves the "Stiff upper lip British gentlewoman" with a fondness for calling people "Duckie". And if her character pokes gentle fun at British people, well she still comes off sympathetic, and the ending made me smile. Well done!

I recommend this book wholeheartedly for anyone who loved the classic Stargate SG-1 lineup and humor. O'Neill is at his snarky best, and his grinding his teeth when Professor Kelly blithely ignored him, or treated him like a slightly dim package of testosterone, made me laugh, because I could just see it happening. In the end, they both come out of it with an appreciation of each other as professionals that was oddly sweet. Highly recommended.

Wolfsbane by Patricia Briggs

Aralorn is a green witch, shapeshifter and mercenary working for the country of Siovale. Her companion and lover is Wolf, an ae'Magi who is actually the son of the former head of the ae'Magi, the Archmage Geoffrey. Together, she and Wolf, whose real name is Cain, return to Reth, her homeland, and the place where she grew up, Lambbshold, to attend the funeral of her father.

Aralorn left Lambshold under something of a cloud. Not for anything she did, but rather for who she was. The daughter of Lyon's first wife, a green witch and peasant woman, Aralorn learned from her uncle how to shift her shape. When her sister Irreleth married a former Darranian mage named Nevyn, Aralorn grew infatuated with him. But Nevyn hated magic- he barely had enough to be trained, but the training turned him off magic forever. And when he, infatuated with her infatuation, gave her a much too steamy kiss, she realized that what they were doing was wrong, and fled, in the form of a mouse. This equally shocked him, and his opinion of her dropped precipitously, making it uncomfortable for her in her own home. And so she ran away into the night, and into the profession of a mercenary.

Now, she returns to find that not much has changed. Her family still loves her, but Nevyn still sees her as something unclean and tainted by magic and her own gifts. But much to her shock, when she lays a hand on her father in an attempt to say goodbye to him, she discovers that he is actually still alive- but kept in a near-death state by magic. ae'Magi magic, she suspects, but it's too faint to tell for sure.

Stricken by the knowledge, she informs her family and seeks out her uncle, Halven, to see if he can see more surely than she can. The Green Mages want little to do with the ordinary people of Reth, but her Uncle was working with her father to secure a homeland for the Green Witches in the further parts of his land, which he deeded to them in exchange for some help on and with the farm. The Green Witches want nothing to do with Aralorn or her family, but Halven agrees to help, regardless of the fact that he could be kicked off the Ruling council of the Green Witches for refusing to follow their orders. They need him more than he needs them, you see.

But that isn't the only magic swirling around Aralorn's family. For the current Archmage of the ae'Magi, Kisrah, is an old friend of the Lyon and is there for his funeral as well. He believes that if anyone has done this, it is the son of the former ae'Magi Archmage, Cain. Geoffrey, you see, had cast a spell of Charisma on himself so potent that he could easily play with people's minds, and he made everyone love him unconditionally- even after his death. It makes them almost unwilling to believe the truth, that he sought out the darkest, blackest magic because he was driven to be the greatest and the best (and most powerful) ae'Magi ever.

In no small part, he succeeded, but as his power grew, so did his capacity for evil. And Aralorn believes that he was trying to bring back a dark power known as the Dreamer for some reason, a power which had fueled evil magic and forced the creation of the ae'Magi, who were supposed to stand against this power. Even more disturbing to Aralorn is the idea that Geoffrey ae'Magi might somehow have cheated death thanks to his own power as a dreamweaver, and that this business with her father's deathlike state might only have been a snare to draw in and somehow destroy the two people who led to Geoffrey's death: Aralorn and Wolf/Cain.

To remove the spell on Aralorn's father will take more than one mage, for more than one mage cast the spell. But the cost of doing so must be a life. A life for a life. And Wolf knows it will be his own life that will pay the Price. But Aralorn attempts to forestall him by having the priestess of death marry them, knowing that the price for that is a soul bond. If one spouse dies, the other will as well. She hopes this will remain unknown to Wolf, but restrain him from doing anything too outrageous. But if the price is a life, whose will it be, and how will the family change in the aftermath of such a sacrifice? And who cast the spell to begin with?

I read Masques a few months back and just loved the story of Aralorn and Wolf. Aralorn, despite being a Green Witch and Shapeshifter, is very unlike Patricia Briggs' other heroines, and this is actually a good thing. She's not the same as Anna from the "Alpha and Omega" series or like Mercy Thompson from the Mercy Thompson series. She's unalike and complete unto herself, which made a nice change from her other characters. Plenty of people live inside Patricia Briggs' head, and that makes her a very versatile writer.

She's not as close to the animals she can take the form of as Mercy and Anna are, and yet, like both of them, she gives her heart completely to the man she loves. At the same time, she keeps her head and her ability to plot and plan, but she's not so good at it that Cain generally can't run rings around her. He far outstrips her in the ability to read people who aren't friends or close companions of his, but he can be remarkably ignorant about love because he was raised without it. And yet, thanks to their working together for so long, he and Aralorn are like a well-oiled machine. They fit and work together remarkably well as partners, not just as lovers, and he's comfortable enough around her that he drops the (very literal) mask he wears and shows her his scars as he is able to do with very, very few others.

In part, he reminds me a bit of Chirichi from Fushigi Yugi, hiding his feelings behind a mask and hiding his real self, too, in part because of shame, and in part because he really is more comfortable in Wolf Shape than in human form.

Reading this book was wonderful. The mystery of what happened to Lord Lyon and what and who was behind the plot drove me through the story, and the ending of the book promised something more... another sequel perhaps? I definitely hope so. The Dreamer is out there, and it is waiting. Waiting for what? And can Wolf/Cain, with his combined ae'Magi and Green magic, be the only man who could end up defeating it? I don't know, but I wonder. Highly recommended.

Pokémon Gold and Silver Adventures, Volume 9 by Hidenori Kusaka, Art by Mato

Gold has been attacked in the Ilex Forest while attempting to rescue a Charcoal Burner and his FarFetch'd. But his attacker is wearing a mask, and as Gold attempts to uncover who the villain is by having Aibo pull off the mask, he gets into a fight with the mystery trainer, who apparently is waiting for a shrine hidden in the forest to light up. But when the shrine lights up in the middle of their fight, Gold's attack prevents the mystery trainer from getting to the shrine in time. All Gold is left with is some gold dust from beneath the trainer's cloak, and the satisfaction of rescuing the charcoal burner and his Pokémon.

Meanwhile, he has arrived at Goldenrod City, but without any money. During the night, he is attacked by a Smeargle, and his face is painted. Gold chases it into the city and runs into a radio promoter doing a program in the city. He invites Gold, whose Pokémon have shown excellent teamwork, to be on the program. But at the program is the same Smeargle who painted his face, and his fight with it attracts the attention of Professor Mary, who is also doing a program there, and the Gym leader of Goldenrod City, Whitney, who gave Professor Mary the Smeargle. Gold and Whitney agree to a Pokémon bike race, but when the path is blocked by a huge tree, Whitney is kidnapped by a rampaging Rhydon and Gold and his Pokémon must rescue her, aided by the "tree", a Pokémon known as a Sudowoodo.

But afterwards, when Gold is napping beneath a tree, another Pokémon tries to steal the egg, and Gold's Pokémon try to get it back, causing it to hatch into a Togepi. Elm is happy to hear that it hatched, but all it seems to be able to do is play cards, pool and other games of chance, which make Elm tell Gold he's turned it into a juvenile Delinquent! He tells Gold to take it to the Pokémon Day Care Center, where it was found, and show it to the old couple who discovered the Egg. Unfortunately, they can't help with describing the creatures that laid it, but the old woman tantalizes Gold with the promise of special training for his Pokémon., and he decides to stick around for a bit.

Meanwhile, the old man calls a girl named Jasmine to come see the hatched egg, as she has been interested in it from the beginning. Gold is shoved into a cage to fight several highly evolved Pokémon, while the old woman gives him fighting tips. Gold's Cyndaquil evolves into a Quillava, and Gold can see the benefits to the training. But Ecruteak city has been hit by an Earthquake, and the old couple sends Gold to the city to see if he can find Jasmine, who would have had to pass through the city to come to the Daycare Center. She also gives him a King's Rock, saying it may come in handy.

Jasmine is definitely in Ecruteak city, trapped in one of the buildings. But not only is Gold on his way to find her, but Silver has also heard the news and come to investigate. Jasmine asks her Pokémon Ampharos to send out a signal, and it pulses with light, ensuring Gold sees it. He and Silver make it to the tower to rescue Jasmine, who is at the very top of the place known as Tin Tower. Silver pulls her out of the rubble and sends her off with the Ampharos, while the two of them are trapped in the tower as it collapses. Gold sees a statue in the tower of something called a Ho-oh, and he and Silver must trade Pokémon, including Gold's Poliwag, who has tranformed into a Poliwhirl, and now becomes a Politoed, whose power gets them out of the tower.

But no natural forces were behind the earthquake in Ecruteak. Instead, it was team Rocket and their Piloswine, whose burrowing and ramming took down the town and the tower. They want the Ho-oh, but Gold and Silver fight off Team Rocket and defeat them, causing them to flee. Afterwards, Gold realizes Silver is deeper than he thought, and challenges him to a friendly competition of Pokémon battles to learn about the Ho-oh and what Silver is up to. Silver accepts, and takes a one Pokémon handicap, because he is a better trainer than Gold. But surprisingly, Gold fights him to a standstill, and Silver must resort to using an extra Pokémon to win. In return, Silver acknowledges that Gold could have easily won, and tells him that the Ho-oh is a legendary Pokémon said to nest in the Tin tower, and that Team Rocket destroyed the tower to try and force the Ho-oh to return so that they could try and capture it. As for Silver, his job is to crush Team Rocket. That's what he's there for. Then, he must leave, and Gold now has even more questions.

Gold follows Silver to a lake, which is suddenly full of Gyarados. One of them, a red Gyarados, is sending out a signal that is causing all the Magikarp to evolve. Gold captures the red Gyarados, and succeeds in holding off the others, but Silver sees who is behind all this frenzy, the same trainer who attacked Gold in the Ilex forest, one with control over cold. As this trainer reveals his or her secret past with Silver, the two trainers will have to evade both the mystery trainer's gibes and powerful Pokémon. And meanwhile, far away, the trainer known as Red battles for the leadership of the Viridian gym. But can his weakened arms and legs hold him up through the battles? And can he prevail against a swarm of wild Pokémon attacking the gym, along with the help of Blue, Yellow and Fisherman? And can his arms and legs ever be healed properly?

Another excellently done Pokémon book. Now, the writer is mixing up Heartgold and Soulsilver with the characters from Earlier games like Red and Blue and Yellow, and even Misty and Brock show up. Not having played the game, I can't comment on how much Red resembles Ash and his rival Blue looks like Gary from the Old Pokémon TV series, and is also Professor Oak's nephew, just like Gary was. Are these the game versions of the TV characters? Red doesn't have a Pikachu, but still...

Since Team Rocket was disbanded in an earlier game, here they are once again being set up as villains, who are being gathered by one of the Gym leaders. As yet, we don't know who it is, but we are given clues. One is the mystery trainer's control over cold, and the fact that Red was hurt by a Team Rocket member with the same kind of control over cold. But who could it be? And Gold, with his designation as "Heart" over Silver's "Soul", wants to help the person who has become his friendly rival against Team Rocket. It's becoming obvious that this new series is going to drag in every one. But who will be the one who finally takes down the unknown Gym Leader? Gold, Silver, Red, or will they all do it?

This is better in storyline than most of the other Pokémon manga, but again, that isn't saying much. With the other stories of other characters intruding into the Gold and Silver stories, it can be taken that this is the manga with either the most inclusive storyline for other characters, or that the creator didn't feel that the characters of Gold and Silver were able to carry the story on their own, especially as the other characters seem to be getting more page time with each volume. But I am willing to wait and see what happens. In the meantime, I will say that this is recommended to Pokémon fans, and that even people who don't otherwise watch or read it will find it less samey than the other Pokémon books.

A Star Shall Fall by Marie Brennan

Irrith is a faerie, one who was originally from London and the court of Queen Lune, but she has spent the last years rusticating in the countryside. Now, she has returned to London, bearing a tithe of fairy bread, the bread that humans leave out for faeries and which enables them to walk among mortal humans without fear of Cold Iron and Church Bells, both of which are inimical to Faeries.

But the court of Queen Lune is caught up in a problem. A Dragon, an elemental being of fire unleashed in London at the time of the great fire, was imprisoned in Halley's comet the last time it passed over the earth. Now, the comet is returning, and the Faeries are seeking a way to deal with it forever, as the Dragon is only imprisoned by the ice and cold of outer space. With the comet falling back towards the sun, the dragon will reawaken, and if it gets free, it will be free to wreak fiery vengeance on London once more. And not just London, the entire world.

Ever since the last appearance of the comet, the faeries of London have looked for a way to either imprison the Dragon forever, or kill it so it will no longer be a problem. But in all the time since the Dragon was imprisoned, they have discovered no way to do either. Now, Lune is hoping that her Human Prince of the Onyx Court, Galen St. Clair, will find some way to do the impossible, if not with fairy magic, then with Human science.

But Galen is a young man, and a gentleman, and he doesn't know much about science. Worse, even though he is Prince of the Onyx court, it is meant to be a ceremonial position- an ambassador between humans and Faeries. And Galen has done more that served Queen Lune, he has fallen deeply and hopelessly in love with her, and hopes beyond hope that someday, she will return his regard, not knowing that she already lost the love of her life and it was a faerie, and she still mourns the loss of her love.

Worse for both Galen and the Court, several faeries are convinced that it was some weakness of Lune that has led to this pass and seek to overthrow her and put another of their choice upon the throne. They seek Irryth's support, though Irryth believes that Lune is just the ruler that the Fae of London need in this time.

As time passes, Galen befriends Dr. Rufus Andrews, a physician much concerned with Energy and movement. With Lune's permission, he reveals the Faeries to the scientist and asks him to help them with the Dragon. Unfortunately, Dr. Andrews is dying, but thanks to the Faeries, he receives more time to work on the problem, along with the help of Djinn traveling in England and a pair of Dwarves who have built a room where time passes more slowly. The answer that Galen receives from the result of their researches is the last one he would ever want: To defeat the dragon, with the power of fire and the sun, it will require a sacrifice, one of water and the moon, Like Lune, perhaps.

But as Galen attempts anything in his power to save the woman he loves, the forces inimical to Lune see this as their chance to be rid of an impediment to the throne. And Galen's father forces him to wed to assure the good marriages of his sister, which means he must marry into money to save his family. And he and Irryth fall into a sexual relationship, each aware that she isn't the one he really wants, and yet too deep into each other to let go.

But can Galen find some way to save the Faeries and to save the Queen that he loves more than anything else at the same time? What would such a sacrifice require, and can he save London, both Faerie and Human, from a threat that one doesn't understand and the other understands only too well?

It took me a fairly long time to get into this book, because it started rather slow after Irryth gets attacked on the road into London by a black Dog-like creature. Yes, that was actually a pretty fast start, but after that, the rest of the story slows to a pretty glacial crawl, mostly concerned with the return of the Dragon and Faerie politics. The course of the novel covers years, so it seems as though the story itself is very slow-moving when it is actually the pace of time in the story.

I would like to say that I got caught up in the characters of the story, but it was a distant sort of caring I had for them. Yes, I wanted the faeries to be saved, but as the story went on, I wasn't really all that invested in the main characters. I mean, I felt for Galen, loving a woman he could never have or possess except in the most superficial of ways because she wasn't in love with him and his position was ceremonial rather than having something to do with relationships or affection. At least, not the type of affection he wanted.

I'm not sure if it was because I realized the story was not going to have a very happy ending, or perhaps I didn't sympathize with the characters quite enough, but I felt as if I was reading the story at a subtle remove and never was completely invested in them as characters or in their plots and plans. I didn't quite sympathize or empathize with them enough, and so by the ending, I just felt... removed and somewhat distant.

Is this an effective story? Yes, I did care for the characters and something for the outcome, but I didn't care enough to make it seem anything like real for me. When it was over, I felt a vague sense of disappointment, but that was it. And this was the kind of story that should have made me care more than that, should have made me feel much more invested in the story, in Galen's struggle to save Lune, Irryth and the rest of the Faeries, but in the end, I just didn't. So, Recommended, but I can't recommend it highly. It was interesting, but not enough to make me care about it to the degree I felt I should have.

Plain Kate by Erin Bow

Kate's father is a woodcarver, and her mother died in the birthing of her. With only her father to raise her, He placed a carving knife in her hand almost as soon as she could walk. She started with whittling, but by the time she was older, her skill at carving was immense. And since her people were superstitious about carving already, believing there was a magic in how things grew to shape from mere wood, they considered Kate halfway to a witch.

The town she was born into was periodically subject to disease, and when it came back, it caught Kate's father in its grasp. She and her father fought it as long as possible, but he died of it, leaving Kate alone. The villagers, still thinking her a witch, threw her out of her home, forcing her to live in her father's storefront, where she took the things that were left to her and made a life for herself with her carving, her old home being given to the new carpenter.

The villagers may have gone to him for the everyday carving, but Kate's talents can't be denied. She carves a marker for her father's grave, saves three kittens from death and starvation, and ends up with one staying with her-not the black cat or the white cat, but the gray. Soon, a man all over white named Linay comes to the village, selling charms and magic. Charms for love, for protection from the mists that come off the river and bring monsters, and all other sorts of charms.

Kate speaks with him but finds him strange and sly. He brings the villagers a huge haul of fish, but only Kate's stay around. All the others are simply gone the next morning. And when a strange gray mist creeps into town off the river, sending villagers into a sleep from which they cannot and do not awaken, the villagers look for someone to blame and settle on none other than Kate, who they already think a witch with her strange eyes and ability with a carving knife. Forced to flee, Kate sells her shadow to Linay and takes shelter with the wandering people, the Roamers. And in exchange for her shadow, he enables her to flee and gifts her with her heart's wish and the means to leave her old life behind and perhaps find a new one. In addition, her cat, Taggle, can now speak and think like a human, but still remains a cat.

Starting over with the Roamers means having to gain their acceptance to travel with them, both from the men and the women, like Mother Daj. Let stay with them because of her carving ability and because the Roamers, too, are often accused of witchcraft. Here, Kate makes a friend, Drina, who knows a bit of magic herself.

But before long, Kate realizes that something is wrong. More and more people are succumbing to the witch-sickness brought on by the fog, and she fears that Linay, and her own shadow that she gave up to him, may have something to do with the sickness. Cast out by the Roamers for her missing Shadow, she must find Linay and regain her shadow and figure out what he is doing to make people sick and why. But can a single girl on her own defeat such dark magic? And what connection does her friend Drina have to Linay and to Drina's dead mother?

This book I enjoyed, but it had a strange feel to it, as Kate constantly spends time with people she is outcast from. From the villagers of her home, who basically ignore her because of her talent, to the Roamers who she may join but will never be a part of, and Linay, doubly outcasr for his strange looks and use of magic. Kate seems a girl perpetually adrift on some strange and silent shore, never to have a true home or a place to rest where her talents are useful and valued. It actually made me feel alone and strangely lonely when reading it- it wasn't until the end of the book that Kate finally found a place where she could be herself.

The book itself is perhaps a little disturbing. The land harks back to Russia and its folktales, being dark and dreary through most of the book, and most of the characters have Russian names, Kate's being Katerina Svetlana, and her father being Piotr, and the Roamers, of course are the Romany, better known as the Gypsies. The book doesn't show much of Kate's growth as a person- she remains much the same throughout the book in character. Where she does grow is in self-knowledge and maturity. This is not a happy book and the cover art, which shows Kate walking over rooftops with her cat, Taggle, comes late in the book and is not nearly so carefree as the art suggests. It actually happens in the midst of a crisis.

The ending of the book is one many readers will find rather bittersweet, and reflects what Kate has come to know about herself during the journey, but remains true to her character at the start. It's almost completely unrelentingly grim. Kate never seems to know some kindness that isn't ultimately snatched away from her, and there's no romantic subplot in the book at all. But the words and imagery are wonderful and almost poetic. It's the kind of book that leaves a mark on your mind and your soul. I just wish that the ending had been slightly happier, but then that would have betrayed the Russian Fairytale feel of the text. Highly recommended, but not your usual sort of YA book.

"I'd Just as Soon Kiss a Wookie": The Quotable Star Wars Compiled by Steven J. Sansweet

Everyone who has seen Star Wars knows it has some of the most quotable, and most quoted lines ever. This book is lines from the first trilogy, enlivened by pictures and separated out by characters speaking and spoken about, from Han Solo to the Droids and covering most of the major characters from the series and even the minor characters like Lando Calrissian

Despite the large number of quotes, this is a very short book. In truth, its not really a book at all, but is more the size of those little pamphlets of bible quotes handed out by the Jehovah's Witnesses. But even so, it's really packed with the best quotes from the first trilogy and some really good pictures as well.

Because of its size this is a very light read, but it does make a good companion for the "Lines from the Star Wars movies that can be made better by changing one word to 'Pants'" list you can see on the internet. Or just for nostalgically remembering the best lines from the movies all over again. This tiny book makes a good present to a similarly Science Fiction-obsessed friend so the two of you can argue over which line was the best, or as a fairly cheap buy to add to your SW swag.

Light (very light) and tiny (Yes, very tiny, too), this book won't keep you satisfied for very long. It's like the Chinese food version of books, and while it's short and cute, it's also not very satisfying. recommended only if you are obsessed with Star Wars, even then, it won't truly satisfy.

Drink This, Not That by David Zinczenko with Matt Goulding

If you are on a diet and wonder why you don't seem to be able to drop the pounds as quickly as you want to, the answer might be what you are drinking, not eating, that is the culprit. The hidden costs of the nutritional choices we make in drinking, as well as eating, can be the difference between a flat belly or the gaining of 10, 20, or even 30 pounds in a year.

Drink This, Not That points out the very worst offenders in nutritional choices that most of us never even think about when it comes to what we drink. Starting off with the twenty worst offenders in areas as diverse as soda to shakes, it shows how what you don't know, and aren't used to thinking about, can often be the worst offenders in our diet. Even things that were once somewhat healthy, like flavored waters, are being made sweeter and sweeter to satisfy our hunger for sweet foods. The best flavored waters have a very low calorie count, but some of them are so sweet that they are even worse for you than a soda would be! And that is just not right.

Drink This, Not That covers not only choices you will find in the grocery store, but also the drinks you will find being served at your local fast food chain, restaurant and coffee shop. If you find that what you are drinking is simply too calorie-laden for your diet, this book can show you better choices with far better bang for your nutritional buck, one that won't put too much of a cost on your pocketbook or your body.

Of course, part of the fun, and horror, of reading this book is the horror stories being perpetrated on you by the drink companies you patronize every day. One 20oz bottle of Sunkist soda has as much sugar as six Oreo Cookie Icecream Sandwiches- without the same filling effects of the ice cream and cookies. The one that made the #1 worst spot is the Coldstone Creamery PB&C Gotta Have it size Shake, with an unbelievable 2010 calories packed into it- more than the average person is supposed to eat in a single day, and the equivalent of 30 Chewy Chips Ahoy Cookies in sugar content alone. That one made me sick to my stomach- that's a lot of empty calories packed into just one 24oz Cup.

Even things you would think are more good for you, like coffee and tea, aren't immune to sugar inflation- and calorie inflation as well. A bottle of Sobe Green Tea has the equivalent in sugar to half a Sara Lee Cherry Pie. Yes, 4 slices every time you drink one down. Think about the effects of that on your waistline! Even a small Starbucks Vanilla Frappucino (13.7 Ounce Bottles) is the sugar Equivalent of 32 Nilla Wafers. Rockstar Energy drink? 6 Krispy Kreme Glazed Donuts.

But, thankfully, Drink This, Not That gives you the tools to make better choices. Really want to lose weight? Go for the plain water when you go out to eat. Or squeeze some lemon in it (or orange. Or lime.) But if none of that appeals to you, you can make much better choices thanks to this book.

This book was a revelation for me. I don't like the taste of coffee or tea, and I don't drink anything carbonated, which pretty much leaves me water, milk, or fruit juice, and I stick with water pretty much all of the time, seeing as how it's free from the tap, can be chilled in the refrigerator, which kills any nasty metallic or mineral taste, and as long as I have a bottle and maybe some ice, I can take it with me anywhere.

Yes, I am overweight, but after reading this, I was very glad that water is my tipple of choice, because I'd probably be two or three times my own weight if I was into soda. It's also good because it lays to rest the "High-Fructose Corn syrup is just as fine as sugar for you" that the soda companies have been selling us. This may be so, but sugar has a shorter shelf life, and is harder to blend, so HFCS was a godsend for the bottled drinks industry. What's insidious about this is that it's not just sneaking into soft drinks, but everything else as well, even foods that weren't traditionally sweetened, like whole wheat bread, so we are consuming more of it than ever before, in foods in which we might not know it's there. So when they say it's fine in moderation, how are you going to know what "moderation" is when it might be sneakily hiding in foods you weren't even aware contained it?

The book also goes over new sweeteners on the market, everything from the same old Aspartame to the new Stevia and things you may not have known existed as sweeteners, like Agave Syrup. Then they move on to wine, beer, and cocktails, giving you choices to avoid and better things to choose, both in the liquor store and at the bar.

This book was another real eye-opener for me, and again, made me very glad that I drink straight tap water with a chill on it. You may not be able to do the same, but this book can save you from making disastrous diet choices when it comes to the things that many people never think of cutting from their diets- bottled drinks, beer and sodas. Serving as both a horror show and a guide to what to do better, this book is invaluable when it comes to losing weight and revealing just how many calories are in those drinks you may be thoughtlessly gulping on a daily basis. Highly recommended.

Dear America: The Fences Between Us- The Diary of Piper Davis Seattle, Washington, 1941 by Kirby Larson

Piper Davis is an American Girl growing up in Seattle, Washington. The War is on, so there have been straitened circumstances in her home, and in the community in which she lives. She and her sister attend school, and Piper is sweet on her own special suitor, Bud, who just also happens to be her best friend, next to Trixie.

Piper's father is a pastor to a church composed of mostly Japanese and Chinese people, and now her brother, Hank, wants to go into the service and fight in the war. Piper doesn't want to let him go. She's afraid of him dying, and doesn't want to lose him, but their father tells him that he's old enough to make the choice and he's seemed to think it through, so he'll let him enlist. Piper is inconsolable, but agrees to write Hank letters and keep in touch with him while he's in boot camp and then in service. Before he leaves, the family's housekeeper, Mrs. Harada, gives Piper a journal for her to write and record her thoughts in. Piper at first thinks that is a bit babyish, but Mrs. Harada tells her than no one else can tell her what to write in her journal-only her, which Piper likes a lot.

Shortly after Hank enlists and Piper starts writing in "DeeDee", short for "Dear Diary", Pearl Harbor is bombed by the Japanese, with the loss of much life. The bombing enrages America, and sends them on to War with Japan. But other changes happening at home are more worrying for Piper and her family, for otherwise good American people seem to think that the Japanese in America had something to do with the bombing, and start taking it out on the people of Pastor Davis's church. Her father tries to keep the peace, but some people want nothing to do with the peace, and incidents of racism spring up, even against people who look oriental but aren't Japanese, like Chinese or Korean.

Sadly for Piper, even Bud, the boy she likes, doesn't seem immune to the effects, and causes her to break up with him. In the meantime, it seems that it isn't just the people of Seattle who think that the Japanese, the Nikkei and Issei, living in America are a threat, but the government does as well, for they start rounding up the Japanese and taking them off to "internment camps", along with their families and a few of their belongings.

Since Pastor Davis's entire congregation is Japanese or oriental and is rounded up, her father decides that he cannot leave them to suffer alone. It is his Christian duty to follow along and help the people of his church, no matter where they end up. Leaving behind Piper's older sister Margie to take care of his house and the things he stored for the people of his church in the basement of the church, Piper's father takes her with him, first to "Camp Harmony" in the old Fairgrounds outside the city, and then to Idaho, the "Minidoka War Relocation Center" in Eden, Idaho.

But Eden is no Eden, and some of the people there are just as prejudiced against the Japanese as the people in Seattle were. As Piper and her father deal with a neighbor who wants to evict them from their new house because they are giving aid and comfort to the Japanese, who he considers the enemy of the US, They also have to deal with the horrible conditions in Minidoka and trying to keep up the hope of the inhabitants that this will not be the rest of their lives.

But after the way the US has treated these people, when the military gives them the chance to enlist and serve their country, how many of them will take the opportunity and go? And when Piper's brother Hank is injured, will Piper and her father get back in time to welcome him home?

Needless to say, the idea that America imprisoned its own citizens during the war just because they happen to be of Japanese ancestry sounds ridiculous these days. Did America imprison people of German ancestry? Italian Ancestry? Yes, but not in the numbers of the Japanese interned in the US. The Japanese interned in the US were interned mainly for reasons of racism, not military necessity. They already couldn't become citizens in the Western states by law since 1920, and the Japanese removed were not only strong and healthy young men and women, or adults. They took everyone, including children, babies and the elderly. Over 110,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans were interned, compared to about 10,000 Germans and 400 or so Italians. After the war, and some lawsuits, America admitted what it had done was wrong and paid reparations to those who had been interned.

Some readers may think that this story is out there. But it is based on the true life story of a minister from California who was Pastor of the Japanese American church who also lost all his Parishioners to Internment and followed them with his family. And the diary atyle of the book and the understandable attitudes and feelings of Piper as she is uprooted away from all her friends and the rest of her family makes the book very touching. It details a very sad period in American history, when Racism made her imprison her own citizens. It shouldn't be forgotten.

I had known that Japanese-Americans had been interned, but not Italians or Germans until reading this book impelled me to do some research. It's an affecting book that takes you into that period of American history, but you still won't understand what made people do those things. Nevertheless, as a book and a means of presenting the truth and making you want to find out more about that period in history, this book is wonderful and really makes you think. Highly recommended.

Tron: Betrayal by Jai Nitz, Jeff Matsuda and Andie Tong

Long ago, there was a computer system that belonged to a corporation called Encom. Encom had started as a science tech company in one man's garage, and gotten large and powerful. Employed by the company was a computer programmer named Flynn, one who spent his free time coding computer arcade games, until his ideas and code were stolen by a fellow programmer named Dillinger, who used the power and money this generated to become the President of the Company. Flynn quit in disgust and opened an arcade named Flynn's, where he made money playing the games that he'd developed.

Also part of the company was Flynn's ex-girlfriend. Lora, and her new boyfriend, Alan Bradley. Alan had created a program, Tron, that would monitor the Master Control Program that ran the systems at Encom. The MCP didn't want this, as it was breaking into other systems and stealing programs and data from them, even from the systems of other governments. When Alan was locked out of the system, he and Laura approached Flynn for help, as Flynn was a master programmer. Flynn had his own reasons for wanting to help- he wanted to look for the proof that Dillinger stole his work. Alan and Laura helped him get into the building, and Flynn went to work.

In the lab where the scientist who formerly owned the company was working on a program and way to tranlocate objects, Flynn tried to break into the MCP of Encom. The MCP utilized the equipment there to digitize Flynn and draw him into the computer, where he was treated as a program and sent to the cruel gladiatorial games the MCP ran inside its mainframe. But Flynn had powers as a user the other programs didn't, and used them to escape, along with two other programs, TRON and RAM. Coming under attack from creations he had developed, a tank game and constructs known as "Recognizers", they came under attack and were separated, RAM was injured, and Flynn confessed to RAM what he was before RAM died. Together, Flynn and TRON took on the MCP and its henchman, Sark, and freed the Encom computer from the MCP's control. Flynn was returned to the real world, Dillinger was arrested and indicted, and Flynn took over from Dillinger.

But afterwards, Flynn found himself returning to the world inside the computer, dealing with its problems and working with TRON to restore order and harmony. But at the same time, on the outside world, Flynn's girlfriend Jordan Canas is pregnant with his son, and between the world inside the computer, his job as President of Encom, and his real-life concerns, he is being pulled in three very different directions that each need him to be everything. To help him in the digital world, Flynn resurrects a program he once created called CLU to be his deputy in the world inside the computer.

At first, they work well together, and everything seems to be going fine. But when Flynn's son is born, and Jordan dies, CLU starts getting resentful of Flynn's life in the world of the users, and wonders why he can't have as much concern for his life inside the computer. He also disagrees with Flynn about new programs showing up on the grid, called ISOs. CLU wants to exterminate the ISOs, certain that they are poisoning the new system, but Flynn wants to let them be and develop at their own pace so he can see what happens with them and where they go from here.

But when Flynn decides that his life belongs to his son, and steps down from leading Encom, leaving Alan in charge, and stops coming to play in his digital world, what will CLU do to retain control of his digital kingdom? And what lengths will he go to, to enforce his control?

This comic attempts to bridge the gap between the original TRON movie, and the new TRON movie that came out this year. In that, it's somewhat successful. We don't get to see how Flynn met his lover (since she doesn't take his last name, I'm not entirely sure that they were married), but it's certainly possible that they were together at the time of the events in the original film, and we just never saw her.

But more of the conflict comes from something else of Flynn's creation: CLU. Part of the problem is that CLU, as a computer program, can't understand that Flynn's son'd needs come before his own, and since programs might be able to fall in love, they can't have children. Therefore, CLU will never understand Flynn's relationship with his child and why Flynn needs to be there for his son first. In fact, the ISOs, too, are Flynn's children, in a way, born from the seed of a computer that he programmed. And so it is something of a dynastic battle between Flynn's children. CLU versus the ISOs versus his son in the real world. CLU sees Flynn preferring his other children over CLU, and acts out to try and focus Flynn on doing what CLU thinks is important.

Or some sort of God and Lucier/Satan analogy, with CLU being Satan who is hurt by Flynn/God's attention on something he detests and looks down upon, and so he rebels against what Flynn wants- but he hasn't been cast out, not yet.

The comic makes Flynn's vision far-reaching in other aspects as well, such as the fact that Encom should expand into other markets in the far east, and the fact that oil as a power source is on the way out, making Flynn into much more of a visionary than he seemed to be in the original movie. I can't really say it's out of character for him, but I did find it fairly startling.

I ended up enjoying this comic a good bit, and there were certain startling aspects of it for me as well. The art is okay- the characters generally resemble their actors from the original film, but I didn't recognize them until the comic named them. Okay, except for Flynn- Alan only appears in one scene and I don't think we see Lora at all. There's a blonde that could be her in one of the scenes when Flynn arrives at Encom, and she and Alan appear (from the side) in one panel in a flashback sequence with a Flynn that doesn't in any way resemble himself in the rest of the book or the movie. So, the art is only okay. But otherwise, I had no real complaint, with the story or the comic. Recommended, but not really for the art.