Lenni Reviews: Abyss Deep: Star Corpsman Book 2

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(Image Source)

When Navy Corpsman Elliot "Doc" Carlyle is sent on a mission to diffuse a hostage situation and saves the life of a very influential alien species, he is "rewarded" by being sent on a mission to a planet that is half hellish storms and half unforgiving ice. Aptly named Abyss World, the mission is to find out why communications from a research facility have suddenly stopped. They are being hunted by a species called cuttlewhales -native to the planet - and the Grkr - not native but a major threat.

To be succinct, this book is Call of Duty meets Star Trek and I loved every geek fueled minute of it. Sometimes the long biological, geological, sociological, or technological explanations take you out of the story but for me (a HUGE science geek) I found them all fascinating. It does interrupt the story and it's a little jarring to suddenly leap back into the story after several pages of an advanced chemistry lecture but it was really easy to jump right back into the narrative since the mission is just so damn interesting. The marines and the scientists accompanying them are trying to learn about the cuttlewhales and not get killed by them while also trying to learn about the Grkr... And not get killed by them. Neither species seems very good at communication.

You'll have to bear in mind I have not read the first book so I cannot speak to how the story flows from that book to this one but as a stand alone, it shines just fine. You get just enough back story on Elliot and the surrounding characters to understand them and their roles in his life. So, if you like more space marines in your first contact stories, Lenni recommends this book.

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Lenni Reviews - Noble V: Greylancer by Hideyuki Kikuchi

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This novel is supposed to tell the story of the Three Thousand Year War from the Vampire Hunter D universe. Greylancer; vampire noble named for his weapon, is tasked with defending his race from anti-noble rebels and Outer Space Beings (aka: OSB's). 

I tried so hard to like this book. I enjoy Vampire Hunter D. It's one of my favorite animes but this book was so boring, I couldn't finish it. As a scifi geek, I found the holes in this book too large to ignore. People, places, and events pop in and out and you don't know why or if they were even important. I was so bored, I couldn't bring myself to care about anything anyway. There is nothing about the book that gives me the same sense as the anime or the comics of a dry landscape where humans struggle to survive in contrast with the decadent nobles who rule them. 

In general, this is a far cry from any book I've read set in this universe. I couldn't wait to put it down so I could go read something else. I'd skip this one if I were you, friends.

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Lenni Reviews: Ink by Amanda Sun

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Imagine life as you know it ends and you are dropped in a strange country where you barely know the language and a strange boy at school has drawings that come to life and attack you. Welcome to the life of Katie Greene; the unfortunate heroine of Amanda Sun's "Ink." After Katie's mother dies, she's sent to Japan to live with her aunt. With a rusty grasp of the language and customs, Katie struggles through school and tries to make some friends. She finds herself attracted to the resident bad boy, Tomohiro, who has these strange moving sketches.

This novel reads like a shojo manga; lost girl meets lost boy, one of the two is magical. and they fall in devoted love faster than the sakura bloom and fall. Most YA novels are following this pattern these days but the premise is very original and kept me reading despite how unrealistic the romance was to me. 

The love story was the only part of this book I didn't have complete fun with. I loved the descriptions of regular life in Japan as Katie gets used to an entire new set of cultural norms. Even adjusting to the food was noted which was fascinating. You really get the sense of friction and frustration as a complete gaijin is thrust into a world she barely understands. However, ALL the boys wanna know Katie, she's just the girl everyone wants to date. I'm sure there's the draw of the exotic; the excitement of a foreign girl with blonde hair as a fresh transfer student is bound to draw the attention of all the other kids. But I still had trouble finding the romance believable. They were in love and willing to die for one another so fast, I had to take a moment to catch up.

Then again, I think the same about most shojo manga and the stories are designed to be that way; a light, whirlwind romance with the spice of danger of the supernatural. It's a fun, simple read that will talk to the heart of every young girl dreaming of an otherworldly bishonen to fall in love with. I recommend this to any fan of shojo who is looking for a novel along the same lines.

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Lenni Reviews: Rogue Touch by Christine Woodward

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(Image Source)

Rogue is my favorite character. In fact, I stopped reading X-Men comics for years because I felt she didn't get enough screen time to warrant my money. That changed but now I'm broke. So, when Rogue Touch by Christine Woodward came across my desk, I was excited but reticent. It's just a kick in the chest when your favorite character and childhood idol gets a crappy novel but I went into this novel with an open mind.

This novel explores the life of a young Anna Marie; a runaway who's mutant powers have just manifested and left her boyfriend Cody in a coma. Eighteen and barely making it, she encounters fellow outcast James outside the bakery where she works just standing there watching her. After getting fired and her boss accidentally touching her skin, she goes on the run and encounters James doing the same. Together, they crisscross the country, getting closer but also getting into trouble.

Woodward absolutely nailed a young and lost Rogue, already feeling lonely and heartbroken in a world she can never touch. You just want to hug her; even though that would probably kill you. The poor girl can't catch a break so it's almost a relief when she says "Screw it" and bolts out of town with the handsome and mysterious stranger. The set up is pretty standard romance novel fair; guy with hidden secrets and girl with hidden secrets meet up, fall in love, and their secrets inspire wacky hijinks. Typical but certainly not boring or sappy. Rogue was always a warmhearted woman in the comics and it shows through in this novel with how she wants to get close to her fellow fugitive help him with his "I'm an alien being hunted by my own kind" problem.

I was rooting for these two with "Young Turks" stuck in my head. The story is told in Rogue's voice and I was very grateful to have the prose written out instead in her thick southern accent. While endearing, such accents can be difficult to read at times and using my imagination to hear that smexy southern drawl was much better and allowed me to flow right through the very evenly paced and tight writing. Just like any romance involving Rogue, all you want is for everything to turn out ok because they are so obviously attracted to one another but, as is wont to happen in this genre, the universe quite literally will not let them be.

There is a coming of age aspect to this adventure and it's a fun road trip story, even with the danger. I was excited to find out how it would all turn out and enjoyed every minute. If you like Rogue and you like a little romance with your mutants than you can't really go wrong with Rogue Touch. I enjoyed it and I think you will, too.

Rogue Touch will be released on June 18th, 2013.
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Lenni Reviews: The She-Hulk Diaries by Marta Acosta

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(Image Source)


Not having read much of She-Hulk in the past (me and her books never quite were in the same place at the same time) I was very curious to read this book. The She-Hulk Diaries are set in a time where Jennifer Walters, aka She-Hulk, is on probation from the Avengers for her rage issues and penchant for major amounts of collateral damage. As Jennifer, she sets a series of goals for herself and awards herself points upon their completion; such as 25 culture points for listening to opera or 100 points for landing a very lucrative job with a high profile law firm.


I did learn a lot about She-Hulk and have new insight to how hard it is to balance your superhero alter ego with your regular human life. In this case, it is doubly hard considering She-Hulk is a separate personality from Jennifer Walters and is difficult to contain in times of stress. However, this book struck me as a sort of Sex and the City with superheros. This is not to say the book is bad by any means; it is an entertaining piece of fluff peppered with some pretty cool superhero battles and the legal case she’s embroiled in involving bio-engineered organs failing inside their patients is very interesting; but this book was so vapid in some parts, I physically cringed.

First off, this book fails the Bechdel Test completely. I know this test is traditionally reserved for movies but when all Jennifer and her friends seemed to talk about was how to get a man, keep a man, and what men they've slept with or dated, I couldn't help but roll my eyes a little. I nabbed some of the She-Hulk trades to read to compare to this novel and it seems there’s so much more to both She-Hulk AND Jennifer Walters than who she’s boning, has boned, or will bone. On the flip side of this, the nitty gritty of the legal case against ReplaceMax for their defective organs is very touching; with She-Hulk making surprise visits to the sick plaintiffs and Jennifer getting very invested in the case. Next to the crime fighting, these were my favorite parts of the book.

Secondly? “Shulky” is a terrible nickname and seeing text speak in novels when characters are not texting always makes my brain screech to a halt. When I was about 60% into the book; anytime a character said Shulky or described a man in conversation as “OMG! amazing” I wanted to bash myself in the face with my kindle.

In summary, if you can look past the horrid nickname and occasional conversations where “ppl tlk lke this, omg so HAWT!!” this novel is not a bad ‘day in the life of your favorite super-heroine’ story. You learn a lot about the character as a person and have some fun along the way. I identified with her insecurities and cheered for her when she stood up for herself in the face of some pretty harsh criticism and very human mishaps. This book is funny when it should be, touching when it should be, and thrilling when it should be. It’s a perfect piece of comic book novel candy. Read it and have some fun.

The She-Hulk Diaries will be released June 18th 2013.

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Lenni Reviews: Sidney Sheldon's The Tides Of Memory by Tilly Bagshane

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Political dramas aren’t really my thing. Real politics are dramatic enough and I find their considerable lack of elves, dragons, or space ships terribly disturbing. But while such books aren’t in my book queue, I cracked this book open with an equally open mind.
The novel follows Alexia De Vere, wife of Teddy De Vere and ruthless political darling of the United Kingdom’s conservative party. As the newly appointed Home Secretary (a position I hadda look up because I wasn’t exactly sure what a Home Secretary does), her hard ball stance on illegal immigrants and sentencing laws has earned her a sizable number of enemies. So, one can hardly be surprised when bodies start piling up around her.


Bagshane has some tight writing here and the characters are believable to the point where you can be annoyed by them. I had trouble identifying with Alexia not because she wasn’t written well, but because she’s a spoiled rich woman who seems to have nine lives when her mistakes come to bite her in the ass. I was curious about the outcome and it kept me reading to the end but didn’t keep me up late or anything. It’s pure and fun escapism, enough to keep me turning the pages and I’m an admitted avoider of thrillers and mysteries.

This book wasn’t good enough for me to go chasing down the other books by the same author(s) but it was a fun ride while it lasted. If you’re in to light political thrillers with a twisting plot and a fair amount of drama, you won’t be disappointed.

Lenni Reviews: Dreams and Shadows by Robert Cargill

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*This review has been framed as a letter. Because I can.

Dear Mr. Cargill,

I have a bone to pick with you, mister. Your book, Dreams and Shadows, has caused me to lose sleep, having been sucked so completely into your world. Once picked up, I could not stop. I can see you have created a very in depth and ambitious world of many mythologies and characters I fell immediately in love with. You have found my dark fantasy weakness, sir, with drunken genies, wild magic, and wacked out fallen angels.

Yours is a tale of innocence lost, love, tragedy, and strength. Some parts get lost in between the education entries about specific creatures, but the next chapters pulled be right back in to Colby and his best friend and trouble magnet, Ewan.

You have been compared to Neil Gaiman, my good sir, and your novel has done to me what Gaiman’s have done; created a macabre world of interesting characters that sucked me in from word one.

Now, since you owe me for some sleepless nights of ravenous page-turning, I must insist on being repaid with another book. Go write more stuff.

~Lenni

Lenni Reviews: Genocidal Organ by Project Itoh

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By Projet Itoh; Translated by Edwin Hawkes (Image source)

“Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”

So the old saying goes but as any fellow nerd who’s ever been called a name can tell you, this phrase is crap. But what if it was worse than crap? What if words could do worse than just break bones? What if words could be weapons of genocide? In a post 9/11 surveillance state, that is what intelligence agent Clavis Shepherd has been assigned to find out when he is sent after John Paul; the Lord of Genocide.

I dunno what it is about these Japanese imported novels but again, this book is freaking depressing and unflinchingly cerebral. You start with the brains of children scattered in the dirt then long discussions on the nature of God, Hell, language, and what it means to be free in a world where your every step, every purchase, every interaction is monitored and stored in a database somewhere. You can’t even order a pizza without having your fingerprints taken.

I had trouble with this book in some places. Even a literary nerd like me who is fascinated to hear discussions about the nature of language, how it evolves, and how it affects people hadda reach for a dictionary or re-read a paragraph because I didn’t get what the characters were talking about. It wasn’t boring but when the villain has the hero tied up at his mercy, you don’t really expect them to get into a linguistic debate. It reminded me a great deal of Ghost in the Shell (and to a lesser extent Ghost in the Shell 2 which I could rant about forEVER but I won’t) where the action is fast paced when it’s happening but the meat of the matter is in what the characters experience and how they are processed. As the audience, you take the tour of not only the drama of the chase but a massive shift in the way the characters think.

The translation is solid. Edwin Hawkes did a great job of keeping the flow of the text. I was able to read fluidly so if you chose to pick up this book (which I highly suggest) you won’t have a problem with the word flow. Heck, like me? You may wonder if what you're reading is changing your brain, too.

Lenni Reviews: Zombie Cat: The Tale of a Decomposing Kitty

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(Image Source)

With the recent success of “Go The F*ck To Sleep” I did expect a bunch more ‘kids books for adults’ to come out. For good or ill, there’s a market for these and since they amuse the hell out of me, I am proud to present a review of Zombie Cat by Isabel Atherton and Bethany Straker.

    One day, Tiddles is just chilling with his kitty friends when a nuclear power plant spill infects some field mice. One bites Tiddles and he awakens as Zombie Cat! It’s a cute story with decent art. The rendering of a decaying zombie cat was detailed enough to turn my stomach yet some gore is skipped. The scene where a pack of zombie cats attack a little girl is thankfully obscured. Still, this is not for the super squeemish or the very young. Unless you want to explain to your young child why Tiddles wants to eat his owner.

    I would recommend this book to older kids (say 15+ or a 12 year old with a decent sense of humor) who are into zombies or to adults like me who like a little gore with their cute every so often. If you like zombies, kitties, and silly, gory comics, you’ll enjoy this quick little tome.
 

"From Prison To Promise" By Booker T Huffman (Review)

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Title: From Prison To Promise: Life Before The Squared Circle
Author: Booker T Huffman & Andrew William Wright
Pages: 211

"From Prison To Promise: Life Before The Squared Circle" is the story of WWE Superstar and five time, five time, five time WCW Champion Booker T. In this autobiography, Booker T tells the story of his life in Houston, Texas before he became a wrestling superstar. Booker reflects on his life growing up in poverty, the death of his parents, depression and a life on the streets. Fans of Booker T will find this as a great chance, to see the beginnings of how Booker became the man he is today. People not familiar with the wrestling world, will find this book as a great tale of one man's journey into darkness and managing to find the light towards the end. 

From the very first chapter, the book captures you and brings you into Booker T's life. The first sentence starts off with "Freeze! Hold it right there." After reading that I knew that I wasn't going to be putting this book down till the end. The book does a great job of keeping the reader invested, interested and most importantly relating to the subject. Even if you didn't have a similar upbringing as Booker you feel a connection to his struggles. The book is very emotional and does a great job of painting a picture of his reality. The theme of redemption and closure are echoed throughout the book. Many times in the book Booker talks about leaving the street life, finding a way out, and fixing the wrongs he did. It doesn't get preachy, nor does Booker T point fingers or play victim for his situations. Instead Booker looks within himself and comes to terms with the cards that he was dealt. This made me relate and feel even more compassion for the superstar. There was times when I was reading that I felt that I was in a room with Booker, as he relives some of his most painful memories (the descriptions are that good).

 If I have any complaints with the book is that it leaves us with a cliffhanger ending. The book alludes to another entry that will tell the story of his life in the wrestling ring. The book can also feel a little short for hardcore readers with only 211 pages. Other than those very minor complaints this a must read for wrestling fans, and if you're not a wrestling fan this is still a book you should check out. Booker's T journey is not only a testament to someone's will for a better life, but an inspiring story that shows you can overcome anything  with the will to be better than you were. This book is surely a winner and I'm looking forward to the next one. Now can you dig that SUCKA!!!



Lenni Reviews: Jam by Yahtzee Croshaw

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            The end of the world arrives not with a bang, not with a whimper, not with the groans of the undead but with the unsettling sound of strawberry jam squishing through the streets of Brisbane, Australia. Yes, my friends; the human race will face its greatest tribulations in the form of a man-eating condiment.
            The story begins with our protagonist, the gainfully unemployed Travis, waking up on a normal day and wondering how the job hunt will go. Except not a sound comes from the city outside his window and when he ventures out, the jam is up to the third floor of his building. Travis and a few other survivors make their way through the nearly empty city, meeting secret agents, battling plastic people, and a cult of office workers as they try to survive the jamocalypse.
            Facing this potentially hilarious circumstance, I had high hopes for this book. However, Travis is a dull narrator and the jokes at most inspired a mild chuckle. About 50 pages in, I was tempted to give it up but kept on out of sheer morbid curiosity. I mean, the city is covered in man –eating, strawberry jam. You gotta see how this pans out if for nothing more than to stop wondering who lives or who dies and to get to see the word “jamocalypse” in a sentence.
Few of the characters are likeable if you can flush out their personalities at all. They stand in as archetypes; The Normal Guy, The Roommate, The Jerk, The Girl, The Secret Agent, and so on. I couldn’t get deep enough in the world created in the book to really care about any of them. I felt tripped up by the uneven writing; sparse descriptions in some places, witty pop culture references in others, then some really great writing in between. It was enough to make me dizzy! If the effect was to make me feel like I was bobbing in the jam itself, it worked.
Overall, I cannot say I completely hated this book, but I didn’t fall in love with it either. It’s the overall premise that kept me reading; the novelty of the end of the world in a completely unexpected fashion. If you want to read this for a silly end of the world scenario and nothing else, then you could do a lot worse. But at 400 pages, that’s one hell of an investment and it may not be worth it for you. So, with that resounding “Meh,” my final word is this book will find its niche. Just not with me.

Lenni Reviews: The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor

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With the new season debuting this fall, with every Walking Dead fan’s favorite villain making his appearance, and with another Walking Dead novel coming out in October, it seems a good a time as any to talk about “The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor.”
I do enjoy zombie novels (even though I refuse to read them at night. A girl only makes that mistake ONCE) and Walking Dead is high on my list of favorite zombie tomes. But from the first few pages, one thing is clear: If you haven’t read the comics, the novel won’t be as fun. Oh, you’ll get it; zombies bad. Eat the living. That sucks for them. But the foundations the comics built are important to understanding some of the little nuances in this book.
I wanted to love this book, I really did. But it suffers from the same dragging as the show; long stretches of time where nothing is happening. Of course, don’t get attached to anyone. It’s just not worth it. I had a hard time feeling anything for these characters anyway since they all seem to be set up to fit into the inevitable events in the comic. The writing isn’t impressive. Very drab and full of clichés. Unless there’s zombie killin to be done. Then there’s some pretty stomach churning descriptions.
The title is deceptive. It’s not so much the “Rise of the Governor” more like “The 320 Page Slog To Get The Guy Who Will Be The Governor To The Town He Needs To Be In.” I'd want to know that but it's not why I picked up the book. I was hoping for more insight to how to the plague started; figuring it was part of how this man came to be. And when you get to the end… Oh, the ending…
This made just about as much sense. (Source)

 Alright, I grew up on Twilight Zone. I love me a good twist ending. But this wasn’t so much of a twist as a surefire way to make me throw the book across the room. I won’t spoil it for you but in this humble librarian’s opinion, the ending was a twist for the sake of a twist; lacking in sense and destroying the continuity. The Governor in the comic doesn’t quite make sense now that I’ve read the novel. I read the novel for clarity, because I wanted to know how such a twisted and violent man got to be so freakin awful and all I got was more confused.
Perhaps the next installment will explain how a man is capable of what The Governor did in the graphic novels. For now, if you like this villain, you may want to skip this book. Unless you want to just read a zombie book with Kirkman's name on it. Then by all means, go for it. Lenni suggests getting it from your local library.

Lenni Reviews: "The Future is Japanese"

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“The Future is Japanese,” edited by Nick Mamatas, Masumi Washington, and Haikasoru, features stories about and by Japan and Japanese people. It’s a solid collection of short science fiction stories featuring multiple subgenres. The collection features space travel, cyperpunk, dystopian landscapes, and fantastical time travel adventures.
This collection spares no punches, thrusting you completely into each world. Like many stories, they are a contemplation on what it means to be human or what we are doing to the planet and ourselves through ruthless pursuit of high technology or illogically clinging to the past. Over all I would have to say in this book the future is absolutely Japanese; and also incredibly depressing. The darkest of subjects are handled with candid and vivid clarity producing genuine fear, horror, and sometimes even shame. One of the stories was so dark, I honestly felt as if I needed a shower when I was done.
Not every story is connected to Japan or Japanese culture but they still fit in with the scifi nature of the collection. As a geek, I was enthralled by the different takes on what the future would be like. And for you mech fans? Yes, one story does feature giant battle suits. Some of the tech talk may lose some of the less die hard cyberpunk fans and authors just drop Japanese words as if we’re already supposed to know what they mean, but the action makes up for it. Not being familiar with some of these more famous authors, I don’t have their body of work to compare these stories to. The works in this book stand alone as some pretty darn good stories. The ones originally in Japanese are solidly translated so I wasn’t left confused.
Not all the stories are winners. There were times I felt preached to or as if I was sitting in a class on cybernetics or virtual reality. But hardcore Japanophiles and science fiction fans will not be completely disappointed by this collection. There is plenty here to enjoy and at 360 pages, there is a lot of meat in the book. I’m not sure I would buy it but it’s worth picking up from your local library or borrowing from a friend.

Lenni Reviews: "Flame of Surrender" by Rhiannon Paille

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I don’t intend to start every review with a warning but, this seems to be how life goes. So, my warning here is I have not read a Young Adult book in about 16 years. When I say I started this book and three pages into it, I’m all WTF, it’s my fault, not the book’s fault. It took a great deal of reprogramming to make my brain adjust to simpler words and shorter sentences but it got there. I also may have injured something so you guys owe me.
Flame of Surrender, by Rhiannon Paille is a good fantasy story about two young people in love when destiny conspires to keep them apart. It is also a tale familiar to anyone who has had to grow up and just didn’t want to. It’s not star crossed love that weighs the heaviest on Kaliel and Krishani, it is their coming of age, the weight of their responsibilities smothering their innocence before the bad stuff even starts.
Kaliel is a living weapon called a “flame” and she falls for a boy named Krishani, whose destiny is to follow deal and replace the Ferryman. While their world is rich and well built, the romance isn’t quite there in the beginning, the kids focusing on where their destinies are taking them rather than each other.
The fantasy elements are all here; magic, soothsaying trees, everything to keep my internal geek happy while I was reading. But only while I was reading. If I put the book down, I forgot about the characters. I found myself needing to refresh my memory by going back to the previous sections to remember who was who. The timing is off, too. I was often lost between chapters; not knowing how much time had passed. The romance is also forgettable. I literally forgot the two main characters were in love until the author told me they were. The story jerks forward in some places and drags in others, making the reading experience surreal. It’s a good story, but it needed more to really grip my attention even after I put it down.
If I had a rating system (I’ll come up with something) this book would be firmly in the middle. Not bad but not the best I’ve read. If you're a hardcore fantasy fan, I'd say borrow this one if you're really interested in it.

Book Review by Lenni - “Now A Terrifying Motion Picture: Twenty-Five Classic Works of Horror Adapted From Book to Film” by James F. Broderick

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Ever have this argument while walking out of a movie theatre?
“The book is better!”
“No, it’s not! The movie was way better!”
Then the conversation degrades into a series of grunts and clicks unrecognizable to any but the purest book or movie geek.
With so many books being adapted to film; “Harry Potter,” “Hunger Games,” and (may the literary gods help us) “Twilight” – not to mention the recent hemorrhage of comic movies – I’d wager you all have had or overheard this argument at least a dozen times in the last few months alone. This book takes you through 25 classic horror movies and their book counterparts in order to reconcile the two.
From Amityville Horror to Village of the Damned, Broderick takes you through the history of the book and its impact on the horror genre to the movie and the differences in the imagery in the movie as compared to the film.
For all of these titles, if you haven’t read or seen the source material, you’re getting full summary of each one. This can be tedious if you’ve already seen the movie or read the book but there are always cool little factoids about the authors, actors, or directors you may not have known before.
From a scholarly perspective, this is an interesting read. The discussion of the transformation of a printed story to film is fascinating; especially when you get into the mind of a man like Alfred Hitchcock or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Learning about the author’s style versus the director’s style and how the tension in the book is placed on the screen is fascinating, though it may drag in some parts of the book.
I would best recommend this book for very rabid fans of horror in any form. If you see a movie and not care about anything but what’s on the screen in front of you for 120 minutes, this book will bore you. However, if you want a detailed discussion of your favorite horror films and books, Broderick’s book is not a bad place to start.

Book Review - “The Navidad Incident: The Downfall of Matías Guili”

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Image source: Amazon.com
Let me start this right away with this caveat: This book is NOT an easy read. If you’re expecting a light hearted whodunit or a fast paced thriller about the disappearance of a buss full of Japanese WWII veterans and the frantic search to locate them, you’ll be disappointed.

“The Navidad Incident” is less about the vanishing bus than the fall of the president of the island nation, Matias Guili. Guili is in negotiations with Japan to store a cache of oil on Navidad’s shores. At the same time, the veterans come to visit, board a bus for a tour and are never seen again.

As you read, you learn of the complicated history of Guili and the relations between Navidad and Japan. Guili was an orphan who never knew is father; possibly a Japanese soldier who was one of many to occupy Navidad. Guili crawled his way up into power and hopes to keep his nation from falling under the influence of Japan again. He sees his goal as trying to do his best for his country, not seem weak to Japan, and locate this bus of missing people before it turns into an international incident.

“Navidad” is a slow book but that doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable. For me, it was like a 10,000 piece puzzle; riveting while in it but once you stop, it’s a job to pick it up again. The imagery is lush and the translation is smooth so you won’t get tripped up by poorly translated colloquial phrases.

If you’re looking for an interesting, intellectually challenging treatise on colonialism mixed with modern myth, I recommend this book.

BLEACH MASKED: OFFICIAL CHARACTER BOOK 2 REVIEW

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If there is one thing any fan of characterization love is an in depth look at their favorite characters. I just finish reading the second character book for the Manga "Bleach." The book is entitled "Bleach Masked: Official Character Book 2." The book takes an in depth look at the "Bleach" characters from the Manga volumes of 21 - 37. After reading this book you get a better understanding on the characters, why their appearances are that way, what blood type, height, even little cliff notes giving you a specific meaning of why things are a certain way. The book is pretty lengthy it's 272 pages long. The book also includes an in depth interview with Tite Kubo talks his favorite character, story arcs and more. 


Overall the book is well done. It gives a great insight on the world of  "Bleach." This is a really great book for fans of "Bleach" and people looking to get more deeper into the "Bleach" universe. It's worth the buy and geeking out over! Go pick it up!