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Graphic Novel Review: Blackwood, Library Edition by Evan Dorkin, art by Veronica Fish and Andy Fish

Cover art for Blackwood Library Edition by Evan Dorkin

Blackwood, Library Edition by Evan Dorkin, art by Veronica Fish and Andy Fish

Dark Horse Comics, 2022

ISBN-13: 9781506731834  

Available: Kindle, Comixology, hardback  ( Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com )

Wren Valentine, Reiko Oyuki, Dennis Wolchinski, and Stephen Heller, teenagers with mysterious pasts and otherworldly abilities, enroll in Blackwood College after they receive hefty scholarships. Blackwood is no normal college, as they soon discover. The odd old lady at the train station is more than she seems. A well on the property has the power to resurrect the dead. The dean transforms into… something… shortly after the new students arrive, and then curses them and the acting dean, Dean Colby, binding them to the fate of the college. A two-headed monkey named Chimp Ho Tep wreaks havoc with the investigation into the mysteries of campus. Deadly mutant insects attack the school. Bodies go missing, or are stolen. Ins.P.E.C.T. (the Institute for Psychic Experimentation, Combat, and Training) is trying to encroach on the investigation. All hell breaks loose at a widely attended funeral when portals open and creatures overrun the campus. 

 

Lies and betrayal can be found around every corner. And nobody can find the Book of Despair. All the while, Dean Crosby, former Dean Ogden’s assistant Sherry Allen, Sherry’s son Jamar, and the rest of the faculty, plus the campus librarian, are trying to keep everyone safe and sane. 

 

There is so much going on in Blackwood, but the threads of each storyline are surprisingly easy to keep untangled. The characters are well written. It’s easy to like the students, and their interactions with each other and faculty fit well for their ages and the life experiences we are privy to. Sprinkled throughout are some amusing genre references. Keep an eye out for these.

 

This deluxe library edition includes the first two volumes of Blackwood and a sketchbook with character references, storyboards, and alternate covers and pinups by Jordy Bellaire, Becky Cloonan, Tyler Crook, Andy Fish, Andrew MacLean, Peach Momoko, David Rubín, Declan Shalvey, and Evan Dorkin with Sara Dyer. Artwork within and between the chapters is vibrant, and beautifully rendered. I read an electronic version of the book, so I have not seen a physical copy. It is advertised as an oversized format with 232 pages. The price tag on this is $39.99. Photographs I have seen show a gorgeous book, but it might be worth it to lay hands on the book before committing to it. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on February 25, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: The Order of Eternal Sleep by S.C. Mendes

Cover art for The Order of Eternal Sleep by S.C. Mendes

The Order of Eternal Sleep by S.C. Mendes

Blood Bound Books, 2022

ISBN: 9781940250489

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition ( Amazon.com )

 

This is the sequel to S. C. Mendes’s 2017 novel, The City. You must read The City first.The Order of Eternal Sleep will make no sense otherwise.

 

The Order of Eternal Sleep does a good job keeping the story going, but it’s a very different book from the first.  Almost all of the book takes place aboveground in San Francisco: the City that made the first book so spectacular barely shows up.  The story is a LOT more involved, with multiple plot threads, to the point that it gets confusing on occasion.  The characters have switched: the secondary characters from the first book have become the prime characters, and vice versa.  The changes don’t make it a bad book by any stretch. It’s still quite good, just different.  Overall, this book feels like a bit of a “bridge” book to the next one, which is likely to be a smashmouth finish to the series.

 

Detective McCloud takes over as the main character, while the star of the first, Max Elliot, has a much smaller role.  Ming also takes over as one of the primaries, and there are a host of secondary characters scattered throughout the book.  The main point of the story is to set up some of the details on the Mara (those lizard-men) plot to take over the world, and it has a lot to it.  There are Temples of Bone, nurseries of some sort, a black sun, and the Order.  McCloud spends most of the book trying to piece the puzzle together, finding obstacles everywhere, as the Mara have no shortage of sleazebags in San Francisco willing to do their bidding. 

 

McCloud’s character undergoes a nice evolution from the first book. He becomes a much tougher character then he was in the first book, willing to use any methods to get answers.  Ming has undergone a seismic shift as well, from a streetwise whelp to a hired assassin.  It’s a good change, as there is no way nice guys are going to beat the Mara: you have to be nasty to slug it out with them.  

 

Another change is that there is a group of people aboveground opposed to the Mara, called the Engineers of Light, although unfortunately, details on them are not forthcoming in the book.  Hopefully, more about them will be in the next book.  A good amount of the book feels like it is setting everything up for the next book, likely to be the climax to the series.  This book still holds its own, it just doesn’t offer any resolution and leaves more questions then answers.  It’s similar to how in the Harry Potter series The Order of the Phoenix was the transition book from the first four books to a blowout war in the last two.

 

Bottom line: if you liked the first one, you’ll like this as well, but it’s likely to leave you hoping the next one comes out soon.  If you’ve come this far in the series, you’ll be desperate to see how it ends.  Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on January 20, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: The City by S.C. Mendes

Cover art for The City by S.C Mendes

The City by S.C. Mendes

Blood Bound Books, 2017

ISBN: 9781940250335

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition  (Amazon.com)

 

The City is a well-brewed mix: one part early 1900s detective story, one part horror, and one part insanity.  It’s a potent recipe, and this book sizzles from start to finish, but it’s an extremely disturbing novel as well.  Some of what you read in this book, you may wish you could unread.  Despite that, it’s a powerful story that keeps pulling you along.

 

The book is set in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Max Elliot is the proverbial grizzled vet detective called back to duty for a murder case similar to the one that cost Max his wife and daughter.  The story quickly veers away from the usual, as Max learns of a city (the City, as it’s known) located many miles beneath San Francisco,  accessible only to certain topdwellers, and run by lizard-men called the Mara.  That’s where the case leads him, and where most of the book takes place.  Max finds answers, but he also finds a hell that makes Dante’s Inferno looks like a children’s playground.

 

This book has everything you want: outstanding characters and development, twisting plot, and a fast pace, but it’s the City itself that is the true star of the book.  That’s what will keep readers burning through the pages, wondering what else the City can throw at Max and his allies.  It’s a place of pleasure and pain, where every vice and perversion is available.  It’s somewhat similar to the attitude of the Hellraiser franchise.  Think of the worst things you can, then sit back and read, because the author thought of worse things and used them in the City’s pleasure gallery.  Readers who, (for whatever reason) have a knowledge of ancient torture methods will recognize a few, as the  bronze bull from Roman times makes an appearance.  It’s another world, and a very well thought out one: the location is a character in itself.  This is also where the true ugliness in the book takes place. It’s not the unspeakable atrocities performed on humans (although that’s bad enough) but it’s the people in the city that happily pay to watch such atrocities, often pleasuring themselves at the same time. If you have doubts about the nature of the human race, this won’t help.  The City is a depressing, bleak look at a segment of humanity, and will leave you feeling drained afterwards.

 

Bottom line here: this is phenomenal stuff, but it’s likely to make readers bottom out as well.  There’s no sunshine and roses, no happy endings; this is dark, sunless material.  If you liked Clive Barker at the peak of his storytelling abilities, you will love this. It’s the same wild nightmares on overdrive.  No doubt about it, based on this book, S.C. Mendes is a force to be reckoned with in horror.  Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on January 19, 2023 by , Reply
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