6/28/2023 0 Comments When rishi met dimple story![]() ![]() While I liked When Dimple Met Rishi, I’m once again going to be the black sheep here because I absolutely did not love it. ![]() ![]() It’s been a while since I’ve read this, but I’m catching up on old reviews so I thought I would start with this one. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways. The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not?ĭimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him-wherein he’ll have to woo her-he’s totally on board. ![]() If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right? Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. ![]()
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6/28/2023 0 Comments Artifice by Alex Woolfson![]() ![]() So by deciding to tell visual stories in comics form, it let me tell exactly the kinds of stories I want to tell."Īs wonderful as Alex's earlier projects are, especially Artifice, the gay sci-fi collaboration with artist Winona Nelson, nothing could have prepared Woolfson for the run away success of The Young Protectors. And in comics, you essentially have an unlimited special effects budget. And it was even more unlikely that Hollywood would want to fund a big-budget actioner with a gay hero. But you can make a “feature-length” comic for the price of a short film. Originally, I thought I might create films like that and so I became a filmmaker (which is still my day job)-but I soon realized speculative fiction films are so incredibly expensive that it’d be extremely unlikely I’d ever be able to fund them myself. And it didn’t take long before I realised that if I wanted to see those stories in the world, that I’d have to make them myself. "As a gay kid growing up, I loved science-fiction and action films and comics, but I never got to see what I really wanted to see and that’s kick-ass genre fiction with heroes, real heroes, who just happened to like other guys. ![]() 6/28/2023 0 Comments Starsight series![]() It’s my term for a storytelling problem common in sci-fi and fantasy. Spensa, though disguised, seems the perfect fit for the job.īefore I review Starsight, let me discuss The Golden Compass Problem. The Superiority rules much of the galaxy under the guise of peace, and they’re suddenly searching for adept pilots to join a task force. With the help of the semi-sentient ship M-Bot, she programs her bracelet to disguise her as the alien, then hyperjumps to Starsight, a major hub for the Superiority. The distant destination is fading fast from her mind, so she needs to act quickly. Spensa feels a pull to a location somewhere in space-this alien’s planned destination-and, using her cytonic spacefaring abilities, she thinks she can get there. One day, a mysterious ship crashes on the planet, bringing a message from a far-off world. ![]() There’s a lot to love in Starsight but the book suffers from some classic foibles.Īfter discovering The Krell are humanity’s galactic babysitters, Spensa and her plucky flight crew bust through the debris bordering Detritus and try to take them down. Starsight follows Skyward with another epic space adventure. ![]() Brandon Sanderson’s Cytoverse, in which the Cytonic series takes place, just got a whole lot bigger. ![]() 6/28/2023 0 Comments The genesis of misery![]() ![]() In fact, after the metric ton of them introduced at the start, we just keep getting more as the book progresses, almost all of which go unsolved. This novel feels more like Yang just threw a lot of cool worldbuilding elements into a pile and said “here you go.” Very few of the numerous plot elements introduced in this book are resolved. ![]() The word vomit that is the above description of Misery ’s plot nicely encapsulates my biggest issues with the book. So there is a lot going on, and not a lot of direction. To top it all off, Misery seems to be possessed by a demon and falling into the role of crusade figurehead for a space church. ![]() In almost no time flat, we find Misery at a secret government facility in a mech piloting school and in the cockpit of an otherworldly mecha and fighting a strange mysterious race of telepathic enemies. With almost no preamble, we are thrown into Misery’s head mid-shenanigan and expected to hit the ground running. Misery Nomaki is a nobody from a nowhere mining planet who possesses the rare stone-working powers of a saint (someone who can interact with the magical gemlike stones that litter the universe). Yet, while I think this is an imaginative and strange novel that combines different stories in interesting ways, after finishing I can’t help but wonder what the point of all of it was. ![]() The primary one being, “so what?” Described as a combination of Neon Genesis Evangelion meets retelling of Joan of Arc, I would say that Misery lives up to its promises. I am left with a lot of questions after finishing Neon Yang’s The Genesis of Misery. ![]() ![]() ![]() The lottery is a hugely important event for everyone in the community. Tessie states when being late for the lottery event that, “Wouldn’t have me leave m’dishes in the sink now” (Jackson 2). The winner of the lottery Tessie Hutchison holds a lot of meaning and symbolization in her character. Summers, and little Davy Hutchison which helps the reader feel more connected to the story. In the short story “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, she helps the reader better understand the story by using vast character symbolization through the characters of Tessie Hutchison, Old Man Warner, Mr. ![]() When one reads a story they often look for character development, traits, and symbolization to help them better understand the context. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() This really helps the little girl overcome her fear of thunderstorms. Once the storm hits, they bake their cake and eat it. They gather all of the ingredients while they watch for the lightning and count how far away the storm is. The little girl is terrified of thunderstorms so her grandmother helps her overcome her fears by baking a “thunder cake” with her. It is the story of a little girl who goes to visit her grandmother’s farm on a stormy, summer day in Michigan. What does this have to do with cooking?! Well, I’ll tell you! We read one of my favorite children’s pictures books of all time: Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco. We even had a guest speaker from the National Weather Service come to visit. We also talked about wild weather like thunderstorms, tornadoes, flash floods, and hurricanes. We learned about the sun, temperature, wind, and the water cycle. ![]() We learned all about the different types clouds and how they form. I just finished up an awesome week of teaching science to young children. ![]() ![]() Though clunky by today's standards, these stories retain a crude power, and it's enlightening to see comic book history in the making. There's some repetition of story elements and themes, as well a surprising disregard for human life on Superman’s part-not that this was unusual in the early days of comics. We do get the very first Superman story (reprinted from Action Comics) as well as the first two appearances of the original redheaded Luthor. Most of the stories here are fairly forgettable, notable more for their historic significance than their actual content. ![]() The truth is that Joe Shuster wasn't fast enough to produce the volume of artwork that Superman’s runaway success was causing DC to demand from the duo, so he and Siegel quickly set up their own studio to keep up. I did notice how the one story made extensive use of Benday tones. Jim Steranko, in his afterword, talks more knowledgeably about variations in art from story to story than I ever could. ![]() It's hardly surprising that story tropes were borrowed from comic strips and pulp magazines since that's all that was really known at the time. ![]() Even the idea of comic books that weren't simply reprints of newspaper strips was new at the time. While the story and art may seem crude by today's standards, these people were literally inventing superhero comics from the ground up. ![]() 6/27/2023 0 Comments Zero World by Jason M. Hough![]() ![]() In a former life he was a 3D artist, animator, and game designer ( Metal Fatigue, Aliens vs. Currently he's working on a sequel to Zero World entitled One Memory, as well as an untitled thriller (release dates TBA). ![]() His latest novel, Instinct, was released in Spring 2021. The book released on July 30th, 2013 and reached the New York Times Bestseller list the following week. Hough (pronounced 'Huff') is the New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, including The Dire Earth Cycle, Instinct, and the near-future spy thriller Zero World, which Publisher's Weekly said is "a thrilling action rampage that confirms Hough as an important new voice in genre fiction.” His first novel, The Darwin Elevator began life in 2008 as a Nanowrimo project. ![]() 6/27/2023 0 Comments Clean Room, Vol. 1 by Gail Simone![]() ![]() Gail Simone begins with an origin tale that immediately grabs my attention, in some ways, because it positions the villain of the piece as another victim. Replace fortune with sanity and Dianetics with An Honest World and you have the makings of Clean Room. What never goes away, though, is this: why? Why do people - seemingly smart, educated, privileged people - buy into it? What does something like the Church of Scientology offer that is so compelling that it would legitimize submission to a hazy-at-best faith? What could provoke so many people to hand over their fortunes to a group that won’t even share its secrets unless you buy up to them? Flash forward past a few choice exposes and documentaries, and the mystique behind a religion founded by a science fiction author looking to avoid taxation on his book sales starts falling away. ![]() It used to be, we all wondered what went on behind the scenes in the Church of Scientology. And beneath it all - beneath Mueller’s fancy headquarters, millions of book sales, and legions of followers - is the Clean Room. And she’s going right to the source: Astrid Mueller, author, prophet, and director of the largest new age religion in the world. After a botched suicide attempt, Chloe decides to get even. ![]() Her fiancé, her baby, and her will to live. ![]() 6/26/2023 0 Comments My lovely wife samantha![]() ![]() What separates them from others is that they both find excitement in their marriage by killing people. Based on outward appearances, they appear to be a fairly normal couple, with the same financial stresses and worries about daily life as anyone else. He’s a tennis instructor, and she’s a realtor. In My Lovely Wife, our unnammed narrator and his wife, Millicent, are a married couple with two kids living in the upscale neighborhood of Hidden Oaks. ![]() Plot Summaryįor the Detailed Plot Summary, click here or scroll all the way down. It is a disturbed story from cover to cover about a couple who decides to spice up their marriage by murdering people. I should start by saying that My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing is definitely not for everyone, and most definitely not for the faint of heart. By Jennifer Marie Lin on May 30th, 2019 (Last Updated Jul 10th, 2019) ![]() |