Manga Review: Akira Volume 1 by Katsuhiro Otomo

Pros: interesting story, influential manga turned anime

Cons: not my favourite art style but it grew on me, lots of violence some of which is fairly graphic (especially at the end), characters are hard to sympathize with 

While biking at night in a restricted zone near the blast that forced the building of Neo-Tokyo, Kaneda's band of 15 year old hoodlums runs into a strange figure, a boy with the face of an old man.  One of the bikers, Tetsuo, is injured and taken to a mysterious hospital where he develops psychokinetic abilities.  Meanwhile, Kaneda becomes involved with an organization trying to stop the military from gaining too much power and trying to free a mysterious entity called Akira.

Akira is a classic, both in anime and manga format.  While I watched the movie several years ago, I'm just now getting to the manga.  The first issue was interesting, though I'm not a huge fan of the art style.  I did find that the longer I read, the more it grew on me.  I'm also not a fan of graphically violent images in my manga, and this has quite a few, especially towards the end.

The story itself was interesting.  It's basically the plot of the film, with some changes (it's a longer arc, with more escapes from the military than in the film).

The characters aren't very sympathetic.  Kaneda's something of a jerk, and really clueless about women, pushing himself at Kai and not understanding why the school nurse (helper? she's pretty young, looking his age) is angry at him when he's using her to get drugs and ignores the fact that she's pregnant (with, the reader is led to assume, his child).  Tetsuo meanwhile goes insane with power.  Kai's interesting, but somewhat one dimensional as a terrorist/love interest. 

While I found this issue interesting, I'm not sure I liked it enough to read more.

Book Review: R. U. R. by Karel Capek

Translated by David Wyllie

Pros: first use of the word 'robot', social concerns of using artificial labour to replace humans, fears of uprisings and treating everyone the same 

Cons: product of its time with regards to depiction of black nanny*, Jewish accountant and infantile woman

R.U.R. is short for Rossum's Universal Robots.  Written in 1920, this play introduced the term 'robot' into the English lexicon, though the robots described in the story are human in appearance with skin and tissue rather than mechanical parts.  The play begins with the arrival of Helena Glory to a private island where a group of male specialists produce robots based on formulas created by a deceased scientist named Rossum.  After the prologue, the play is told in three acts, which take place ten years later, after robots have become indispensable to the nations of the world.

The story indirectly addresses fears of robots taking the jobs of human workers, becoming soldiers sent to kill humans, and finally rising up against their human overlords.  As the location of the play never leaves the island, the viewer learns about the social impact of the robots on the rest of the world through the interactions of the specialists, Helena, and her nanny.

The only con with the play is the obviously racist/sexist depictions of the characters.  While the accountant doesn't do anything stereotypically Jewish negating the need to refer to the character as a Jew in the first place (it's easy to overlook the casting direction when you're reading the play and his religion is never mentioned in the play), the nanny speaks in broken English and is treated in some ways as a child by Helena.  Helena herself is treated like an imbecile by the men, with them taking care to not to tell her what's going wrong on and off the island.

Aside from that, the play is very readable and at 55 pages, only takes a short time to read.  It's in the public domain, which means you can read it for free.  I found my copy at manybooks.net.

* According to a comment on this review on Goodreads by the translator, the nanny was meant to have a Prague accent rather than depicting a black nanny as I assumed.  I read her lines like the broken English you hear in films like Gone With the Wind and didn't consider the time/place of the play's production.  This is also something that would come across when viewing the play that's isn't necessarily easy to get when reading it.  My apologies for this error.   

Graphic Novel Review: Pariah Volume 1

Created by Aron Warner, Written by Philip Gelatt and Illustrated by Brett Weldele

Pros: varied characters, interesting premise, plays on politics and racism

Cons: artwork wasn't to my liking, not much info given as to how vitros were created and why they're so different 

This graphic novel collects the first four issues of the Pariah comic books.  Each comic details the background of a vitro character (or in one case a set of characters), and how they react when vitros are accused of blowing up a lab, releasing a virus into the environment.   Together, the issues form a complex picture of how vitros are treated, how they differ from 'normal' humans and how they're trying to survive.

The premise, that kids created using a special in vitro technique meant to eliminate disease, which boosts their intelligence, is a very interesting one.  I wish more information were given about how they were born/what makes them different, but the series focuses more on the current crisis than their origins.

There's a variety of protagonists, offering several points of view with regards to what's happening and how the vitros should deal with it, culminating in Franklin Hyde, whose radical plan is enacted to unexpected results.

While I enjoyed the story the artwork wasn't to my liking.  This is purely a matter of personal taste and as the art didn't detract from the story it wasn't a problem.  But, unlike other graphic novels, this isn't one I pick up because I liked the artwork.   

This graphic novel ends with the characters coming together in unexpected circumstances, and the kind of cliffhanger that makes you wish the artist could draw faster.

Pariah Volume 1 comes out from Sea Lion Books on February 19th.

Magazine Review: Fantasy Short Stories Issue 1

Edited by Mark Lord

I should start this review with a disclaimer that until recently I disliked short fiction, so I haven't read many collections or magazines.  I'm slowly changing that, having read some SF stories, but it makes it harder to know if the stories in this magazine are comparable to what else is on the market for fantasy or if they're unique.  I will say that the first few stories certainly felt different and fresh in comparison to the novels I've been reading lately.

For the most part, I found this an excellent collection.  Two of the stories really stood out for me, "The Dying Elf" and "The Pivot".  One story however, "Demon Stone", surprised me by its inclusion as it didn't seem up to the skill level of the other stories.  There were a few typos, but those are easily overlooked.

About the magazine:

Fantasy Short Stories is a new publication established with the aim of publishing the best short stories in Heroic, Epic, and High Fantasy, and with plenty of Swords and Sorcery thrown in. Although many of our authors may be unknown to you, we aim to set high standards for publication, and to discover some great new talent in the world of fantasy fiction.

Learn more about it on it's website.

It's available for US$ 4.99 at Smashwords and Amazon US
And £3.08 at Amazon UK 

The Stories:

"The Dying Elf" by Mike Pielaet-Strayer

The ironically named Oberon fights for the first King of Men against the creatures of magic who destroyed his home.  At this, the aftermath of the final battle, Oberon wonders if what he's done was worth it.

This story was absolutely brilliant.  The writing was sharp, evocative and touching.  The best of the issue, I highly recommend it.

"The Empty Dark"  by C. L. Holland

A traveller from another world wakes to find his companion missing and a tale of locals vanishing in the night.  Using magic, he scrys his partner's location and sets off to rescue him.

Not quite as good as the first story, this one was still entertaining and showed magic with definite limits.  

"Demon Stone" by Jake Scholl

King Dagr Brightsword is surprised in his halls one night by a mysterious sorcerer.  In order to save his wife, the king must return with a magical stone.

Given how good the previous stories were, I was surprised and dismayed by how bad this one was.  The story made little sense.  Several important things were left unexplained (like where the king's guards were, why the king trusted this sorcerer enough to leave him in his keep, etc.).  The king had a magical sword and yet he only used it as a torch.  He never tried to fight the sorcerer.

Content issues aside, the story was also riddled with cliched phrases and grammatical errors.  Take this sentence as an example.  "Erion screamed a scream no other human should ever go through, ..."  I know what the author was trying to say, but the thing about writing is that people expect you to use words correctly.  And too often in this story the author didn't.  He also repeated himself in unnecessary ways.  "His face was filled with shock, his face turned pale as fresh snow."  Putting aside the fact that the author joined two sentences with a comma, they both say the same thing, that the man's shock showed on his face.  

Very disappointing.

"The Pivot" by Noeleen Kavanagh

The 'Peasant King' thinks of the turning point in his life that brought him from the farm where he grew up to a position of prominence in the king's household.

The story was well written, at par with "The Dying Elf", though without quite the same emotional punch that story had.  The fantastical element was minor, but interesting.

"Sparrows Falling" by Gretchen Tessmer 

An enchantress must come to terms with her benefactor, and teacher's, unpalatable decision.

This story was well written, lyrical almost.  It had a lot of details with regards to dress, hair, etc. but not as many details regarding the decision the benefactor made.  As such, I didn't like it as well as some of the other stories in the issue, but did enjoy the author's style.