Rise: The Complete Newsflesh Collection
The Newsflesh series
Mira Grant
Orbit
Fiction, Collection/Horror/Sci-Fi
***** (Great)
DESCRIPTION: The zombie apocalypse known as the Rising reshaped human civilization, after nearly destroying it. From the viral origins of the dreaded hybrid Kellis-Amberlee contagion to a new generation that has never known a world without bleach and blood tests and the risen dead as part of daily life, there are countless stories to be told. This collection includes the short stories and novellas in the Newsflesh world:
Countdown: Two scientists work to cure disease, one cancer and the other the common cold, entirely unaware of each other's work... or how their breakthroughs, which could have ended so much human suffering, will instead nearly end the known world.
Everglades: A young woman reflects on childhood visits to Florida as she decides whether life in a zombie apocalypse is worth living.
San Diego 2014: A group of fantasy and science fiction fans gather for a weekend of cosplay and fun, only to find internet rumors of a zombie outbreak to be all too true when the undead crash the gates.
How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea: A prominent internet journalist travels to Australia to experience their radically different take on the apocalypse and visit the infamous "rabbit-proof fence" that contains their viral-amplified wildlife.
The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell: A Seattle elementary school thought it had effective protocols in place to prevent a zombie outbreak on the grounds, only to be proven disastrously wrong.
Please Do Not Taunt the Octopus: An off-the-grid scientist and her team find an emaciated, insane stranger, harbinger of an all-too-human threat.
All the Pretty Little Horses: After becoming heroes during the Rising, a Berkeley professor and his grief-shattered wife struggle to fill a gaping, child-sized hole in their lives.
Coming to You Live: After taking on top government agencies and losing too many colleagues, former internet journalists Shaun and Georgia Mason had thought that fleeing to the Canadian wilderness meant they could be free of the traumas that had warped their lives, only for their fragile peace to be broken.
REVIEW: Grant's Newsflesh world, based on solid viral research and understanding of human nature, expands beyond the core cast with these additional tales. From the origins of the outbreak, a tragic combination of unintended consequences and the fallout of fearmongering "fake news" journalism that doesn't care what wildfires it sparks so long as it feeds the lucrative outrage machine, through the chaos and tragedy of the early days and on past the end of the third book in the core trilogy (I have yet to read the fourth entry), Rise fleshes out what already felt like a solid world and fills in more details on several characters. Here, we get the backstory of the elder Masons whose artificial, camera-dependent "love" of Rising orphans Sean and Georgia left the two adoptive siblings so psychologically damaged, as well as the origins of the drug-addicted killer "Foxy". We also see how the rest of the world responded to the Rising, and what might be on the horizon if people can let go of their addiction to fear (and the power that some groups gain through manipulating that fear). Hidden in the cracks are glimmers of hope that a better future is possible, though there's also plenty of death and darkness and violence, enough to break the strongest wills. Through all the tales, the world leaps to life in its many well-researched details and distinctive characters. As in the original stories, the biggest threat is often not the hybrid Kellis-Amberlee virus or the undead, but the all-too-living terror and calculated monstrosity of people, though some of the worst damage they do is not out of malice at all. Short introductions by the author explain inspirations and intents. My only real complaint, one that I can't exactly blame this collection for, was that it had been long enough since I read the Newsflesh books that it took me a while to remember the whos and whats and wheres of the core cast and referenced events. The rest ranks right up their with the main series, earning it top marks.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Feed (Mira Grant) - My Review
Dread Nation (Justina Ireland) - My Review
I Am Legend and Other Stories (Richard Matheson) - My Review
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
Friday, September 15, 2023
Wolfwood (Marianna Baer)
Wolfwood
Marianna Baer
Harry N. Abrams
Fiction, YA Fantasy/Horror
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Seventeen-year-old Indigo Serra has grown up idolizing her mother... or the woman her mother used to be. Once, Zoe Serra was the toast of the New York City art scene, a young rising star whose Wolfwood series of watercolors is still talked about and sought after by collectors. But she hasn't picked up a brush in years, sliding into a deep depression that leaves her unable to function most days. Indigo tries to pick up the slack, working two summer jobs and talking their former landlord into letting them sleep (illegally) in the basement in exchange for cleaning services, sacrificing her own hopes and dreams to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table, but there's only so much a teenage girl can do... which is why, when a gallery reached out to Zoe about completing the Wolfwood series for a new exhibition, Indigo reached back.
She just wanted to give her mother a little nudge, something to get her back in the studio: surely, with the deadline of an exhibition and the interest of major buyers, that would be enough to shake off the crippling self-doubt. Then she thought maybe Zoe would get her confidence back if Indigo transferred the sketches to full-sized watercolor paper... Before Indigo knows it, she's painting the pictures her mother refuses to even look at - and finding out just why Zoe walked away from Wolfwood all those years ago. Whatever she paints, she finds herself living: a nightmare jungle of monstrous plants and silent clones and four terrorized girls, all controlled by an unseen master known only as the Wolf. By the time Indigo realizes the danger, it's too late to stop - even if finishing the Wolfwood series might mean finishing her own life.
REVIEW: Wolfwood is a different, dark fantasy that vividly illustrates the damage done by unresolved trauma and mental illness down through generations, as well as the pain and shame too often endured because of deep poverty.
Indigo has every reason to hate her mother, and in some corner does harbor some anger toward their circumstances, but still loves Zoe deeply and fiercely, sacrificing her own life and future trying to help a woman who can't even admit the depth of her own troubles. For all the girl gives up, though, and hard as she tries, she can't fix someone else, especially when the mother she knows is only one facet of the woman Zoe Serra; flashbacks take the reader back to Zoe's own teenage years in the 1980's, where young love and teenage impulsivity lead her to a small Mexican town with a man she just met and a life that's too good, too naive, to possibly last. It's here that the iconic Wolfwood series of paintings has its roots, for all that Zoe wouldn't actually create them until years later... and it's here, or rather a twisted, nightmare version of the Mexican jungles, that Indigo finds herself transported when she tries to finish her mother's paintings. In the painted world, she takes on the persona of one of the four girls in the pictures who face horrific torments and torture, though it takes Indigo a little long to connect these "dreams" with her mother (especially as she's called "Zoe" by the other girls in the jungle world).
Meanwhile, in the real world, Indigo struggles to juggle this new obligation and deception, fending off increasingly pointed questions from the gallery owner and from an old friend, the owner's son, with whom she used to be close back when life was better and Zoe still worked as an artist. Her impoverished circumstances fill Indigo with dread and shame, not just from having no money or free time but from a nagging sense of guilt that it's all her fault somehow, that if she were a harder worker they'd have more money, or if she were a better daughter she could fix whatever's wrong with her mother just like she fixes their perpetually-malfunctioning refrigerator. There are people she could reach out to for support, places she could turn, but she's so used to hiding the family secrets and shames that it doesn't even cross her mind to try, even as she slips further underwater and the painted world exerts more and more power over her. She starts falling into similar mental patterns that led Zoe to where she is, the paralyzing fears and mental loops that have sapped the woman's will to live. Still, even when she sees from a friend's life how it's impossible to help someone who is not in a position to even try helping themselves, Indigo keeps trying, and failing, to be the perfect daughter and make everything better. The paintings, Indigo's mental health, and Zoe's condition grow darker and more twisted as they near the finale, even as the flashbacks point to the roots of Wolfwood's bleak narrative in Zoe's younger years, building to a reasonably powerful climax. Not everything is magically fixed by the ending, but there is a reasonably satisfactory resolution.
There are times when the twisted tortures of the Wolfwood grow repetitious, and where Indigo's repeated denials that anything unusual is happening when she paints get tiring. A few characters and incidents also felt extraneous by the end. On the whole, though, Wolfwood is an interesting, often dark exploration of art and trauma and family secrets and how the ones we love can sometimes be the ones who hurt us most, even when they don't intend it.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Light From Uncommon Stars (Ryka Aoki) - My Review
Shadowshaper (Daniel José Older) - My Review
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (V. E. Schwab) - My Review
Marianna Baer
Harry N. Abrams
Fiction, YA Fantasy/Horror
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Seventeen-year-old Indigo Serra has grown up idolizing her mother... or the woman her mother used to be. Once, Zoe Serra was the toast of the New York City art scene, a young rising star whose Wolfwood series of watercolors is still talked about and sought after by collectors. But she hasn't picked up a brush in years, sliding into a deep depression that leaves her unable to function most days. Indigo tries to pick up the slack, working two summer jobs and talking their former landlord into letting them sleep (illegally) in the basement in exchange for cleaning services, sacrificing her own hopes and dreams to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table, but there's only so much a teenage girl can do... which is why, when a gallery reached out to Zoe about completing the Wolfwood series for a new exhibition, Indigo reached back.
She just wanted to give her mother a little nudge, something to get her back in the studio: surely, with the deadline of an exhibition and the interest of major buyers, that would be enough to shake off the crippling self-doubt. Then she thought maybe Zoe would get her confidence back if Indigo transferred the sketches to full-sized watercolor paper... Before Indigo knows it, she's painting the pictures her mother refuses to even look at - and finding out just why Zoe walked away from Wolfwood all those years ago. Whatever she paints, she finds herself living: a nightmare jungle of monstrous plants and silent clones and four terrorized girls, all controlled by an unseen master known only as the Wolf. By the time Indigo realizes the danger, it's too late to stop - even if finishing the Wolfwood series might mean finishing her own life.
REVIEW: Wolfwood is a different, dark fantasy that vividly illustrates the damage done by unresolved trauma and mental illness down through generations, as well as the pain and shame too often endured because of deep poverty.
Indigo has every reason to hate her mother, and in some corner does harbor some anger toward their circumstances, but still loves Zoe deeply and fiercely, sacrificing her own life and future trying to help a woman who can't even admit the depth of her own troubles. For all the girl gives up, though, and hard as she tries, she can't fix someone else, especially when the mother she knows is only one facet of the woman Zoe Serra; flashbacks take the reader back to Zoe's own teenage years in the 1980's, where young love and teenage impulsivity lead her to a small Mexican town with a man she just met and a life that's too good, too naive, to possibly last. It's here that the iconic Wolfwood series of paintings has its roots, for all that Zoe wouldn't actually create them until years later... and it's here, or rather a twisted, nightmare version of the Mexican jungles, that Indigo finds herself transported when she tries to finish her mother's paintings. In the painted world, she takes on the persona of one of the four girls in the pictures who face horrific torments and torture, though it takes Indigo a little long to connect these "dreams" with her mother (especially as she's called "Zoe" by the other girls in the jungle world).
Meanwhile, in the real world, Indigo struggles to juggle this new obligation and deception, fending off increasingly pointed questions from the gallery owner and from an old friend, the owner's son, with whom she used to be close back when life was better and Zoe still worked as an artist. Her impoverished circumstances fill Indigo with dread and shame, not just from having no money or free time but from a nagging sense of guilt that it's all her fault somehow, that if she were a harder worker they'd have more money, or if she were a better daughter she could fix whatever's wrong with her mother just like she fixes their perpetually-malfunctioning refrigerator. There are people she could reach out to for support, places she could turn, but she's so used to hiding the family secrets and shames that it doesn't even cross her mind to try, even as she slips further underwater and the painted world exerts more and more power over her. She starts falling into similar mental patterns that led Zoe to where she is, the paralyzing fears and mental loops that have sapped the woman's will to live. Still, even when she sees from a friend's life how it's impossible to help someone who is not in a position to even try helping themselves, Indigo keeps trying, and failing, to be the perfect daughter and make everything better. The paintings, Indigo's mental health, and Zoe's condition grow darker and more twisted as they near the finale, even as the flashbacks point to the roots of Wolfwood's bleak narrative in Zoe's younger years, building to a reasonably powerful climax. Not everything is magically fixed by the ending, but there is a reasonably satisfactory resolution.
There are times when the twisted tortures of the Wolfwood grow repetitious, and where Indigo's repeated denials that anything unusual is happening when she paints get tiring. A few characters and incidents also felt extraneous by the end. On the whole, though, Wolfwood is an interesting, often dark exploration of art and trauma and family secrets and how the ones we love can sometimes be the ones who hurt us most, even when they don't intend it.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Light From Uncommon Stars (Ryka Aoki) - My Review
Shadowshaper (Daniel José Older) - My Review
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (V. E. Schwab) - My Review
Thursday, September 14, 2023
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (Mark Manson)
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck series, Book 1
Mark Manson
Harper
Nonfiction, Self-Help
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Accentuate the positive! Start each day with a smile! Everyone is extraordinary if they just let themselves be! Seek joy in all things at all times! Don't see the obstacles! Never give up! And if all else fails, buy this self-help retreat, or that product, or both! With all the motivational messages and admonitions against negative feelings or failures flying around these days, it's a wonder the world isn't chock full of literal superheroes by now, spontaneously combusting with enough extraordinary energy to outshine the sun... but it isn't, and despite the vast material comforts and opportunities available to many, we're possibly the most miserable, least satisfied generation ever. Maybe we're just not thinking enough happy thoughts, or reciting enough self-love affirmations in our mirror - or maybe, by avoiding all talk and experience of negative emotions and failures and sometimes-unpleasant self examinations, we're robbing ourselves of the vitally important experiences that lead to true growth and more fulfilled lives. Maybe we're just trying to give too many fucks about too many things that don't ultimately matter. Author and personal growth advisor Mark Manson offers advice without the shiny happy warm fuzzies.
REVIEW: There is an epidemic of positive thinking and self-esteem-over-self-growth messaging in the world today, not at all helped by social media and how it distorts perceptions: everyone else looks like they're either having the best time ever with the most positive hashtags or are the most picked-on and unlucky soul ever to emerge from the primordial ooze (and more hashtags), making everyone else feel awkward and inadequate and unable to compete on either end of the spectrum. Manson may not be the first to challenge this thinking, but he does it effectively, with more than a few curse words and verbal smacks across the face, along with some humor. All this positive thinking, he successfully argues, are distracting at best and harmful at worst. Failure and pain are essential to human growth and maturity, and things we need to learn how to cope with and learn from rather than avoid or cast blame about, but too many voices in society are urging us to reject this vital experience, even to feel shame or guilt for not always being happy or successful. Heck, many of us struggle to even tangibly define what success or happiness mean to us outside of parameters we've been trained to value by outside influences... or to redefine those terms when our previous ideas failed to come to fruition, or came to fruition and didn't bring us what we expected. Picking battles, picking where to invest our limited supply of fucks, is necessary. He even emphasizes the importance of coming to grips with our inevitable mortality as a part of personal growth, the one end-point none of us can predict or avoid.
As with many self-help books, he glosses over some pitfalls that can trap people (lack of money, for instance, or being stuck in repressive or abusive communities), but all in all he offers some solid food for thought.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Myth of Multitasking (Dave Crenshaw) - My Review
10% Happier (Dan Harris) - My Review
How to Be Perfect (Michael Schur) - My Review
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck series, Book 1
Mark Manson
Harper
Nonfiction, Self-Help
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Accentuate the positive! Start each day with a smile! Everyone is extraordinary if they just let themselves be! Seek joy in all things at all times! Don't see the obstacles! Never give up! And if all else fails, buy this self-help retreat, or that product, or both! With all the motivational messages and admonitions against negative feelings or failures flying around these days, it's a wonder the world isn't chock full of literal superheroes by now, spontaneously combusting with enough extraordinary energy to outshine the sun... but it isn't, and despite the vast material comforts and opportunities available to many, we're possibly the most miserable, least satisfied generation ever. Maybe we're just not thinking enough happy thoughts, or reciting enough self-love affirmations in our mirror - or maybe, by avoiding all talk and experience of negative emotions and failures and sometimes-unpleasant self examinations, we're robbing ourselves of the vitally important experiences that lead to true growth and more fulfilled lives. Maybe we're just trying to give too many fucks about too many things that don't ultimately matter. Author and personal growth advisor Mark Manson offers advice without the shiny happy warm fuzzies.
REVIEW: There is an epidemic of positive thinking and self-esteem-over-self-growth messaging in the world today, not at all helped by social media and how it distorts perceptions: everyone else looks like they're either having the best time ever with the most positive hashtags or are the most picked-on and unlucky soul ever to emerge from the primordial ooze (and more hashtags), making everyone else feel awkward and inadequate and unable to compete on either end of the spectrum. Manson may not be the first to challenge this thinking, but he does it effectively, with more than a few curse words and verbal smacks across the face, along with some humor. All this positive thinking, he successfully argues, are distracting at best and harmful at worst. Failure and pain are essential to human growth and maturity, and things we need to learn how to cope with and learn from rather than avoid or cast blame about, but too many voices in society are urging us to reject this vital experience, even to feel shame or guilt for not always being happy or successful. Heck, many of us struggle to even tangibly define what success or happiness mean to us outside of parameters we've been trained to value by outside influences... or to redefine those terms when our previous ideas failed to come to fruition, or came to fruition and didn't bring us what we expected. Picking battles, picking where to invest our limited supply of fucks, is necessary. He even emphasizes the importance of coming to grips with our inevitable mortality as a part of personal growth, the one end-point none of us can predict or avoid.
As with many self-help books, he glosses over some pitfalls that can trap people (lack of money, for instance, or being stuck in repressive or abusive communities), but all in all he offers some solid food for thought.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Myth of Multitasking (Dave Crenshaw) - My Review
10% Happier (Dan Harris) - My Review
How to Be Perfect (Michael Schur) - My Review
The Terminal List (Jack Carr)
The Terminal List
The Terminal List series, Book 1
Jack Carr
Atria
Fiction, Action/Thriller
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Lieutenant Commander James Reece has proudly served his country for close to two decades, a top Navy SEAL with an unparalleled reputation and track record. When new orders come down for an urgent mission in Afghanistan, though, something feels strange about the situation, but he is nothing if not a loyal soldier, and the intel seems solid... which is how he wound up leading his men into a deadly ambush. As one of the only survivors, Reece is shocked to discover that he's being made the scapegoat - and enraged when he learns why: multiple men in his unit, including himself, apparently have rare malignant brain tumors, too many to be mere natural coincidence. Clearly, someone up the chain is covering up something. Even then, there might have been a chance he could've swallowed his anger and followed orders, taking the fall - but then his wife and young daughter are killed in a "random" home invasion. Patriot he may be, but nobody hurts his family and lives to tell the tale. James Reece is now a man with literally nothing to lose. Even if he is staring down a death sentence, he can make what's left of his life count for something by bringing down the people who betrayed him, his troops, and his family.
REVIEW: On the one hand, this book is precisely what it claims to be: a testosterone-soaked tale of revenge, an ode to militant masculinity, draped in Old Glory and mounds of shell casings. If you're looking for a straightforward story of violence and vengeance and a red-blooded man sticking it to the corrupt politicians and fat cat private sector parasites, one that never drags its heels or dithers or concerns itself with wimpy ideas like "morality" or "legality" or "maybe pause a sec and think if turning into a one-man death machine is really the only possible solution to this problem", this story will not disappoint, especially if you love copious specs on weapons and tactical assaults. On that level, it certainly delivers in spades, drawing on Carr's extensive experience and research to add a nice ring of authenticity. On the other hand, there are the other levels...
James Reece is the quintessential Navy SEAL, a self-avowed patriot who chafes at stupid things like gun laws and environmentalism, who doesn't feel any particular qualms about killing even innocent civilians (I'm not sure he recognizes that such people exist, especially if they don't speak English; his idea of freedom is a Navy ship loaded to the gills with munitions and missiles sailing off to threaten or blast American dominance into other countries) and wistfully considers America's best and boldest days to be when we tortured and brutalized foreigners in the wake of 9/11... even as he scowls at enemies torturing and brutalizing Americans. He's a soldier's soldier, a man's man, a patriot's patriot, and when he no longer has anything to live for or anything to lose, he becomes the worst enemy imaginable, seeming to revel in being let off the leash to perform acts of cold-blooded murder and utter sadistic brutality; blood and bullets are the only law and justice he recognizes as remotely legitimate, and courts are as distasteful as any foreign word in his manly American mouth. A key part of the plot is an experimental drug meant to reduce the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder on field soldiers... something apparently only lesser, weaker, flawed people experience, not proper men like Reece to whom killing is just another job a man does. It's just that sort of weak, lefty idea - that maybe constant warfare is bad for people, or maybe violence shouldn't be the only option on the table - that threatens everything good about America, and Carr doesn't exactly mince words driving home the theme that our country would be better off with more men like James Reece and less of... well, anything else.
In the end, I wound up splitting the difference. I can't exactly fault it for delivering the story it promised, after all, even if the execution often felt like being bashed over the head with a flag-wrapped rifle... and, yes, I have read far worse stories.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Forever War (John Haldeman) - My Review
Dogs of War (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
Phoenix Rising (Cynthia Vespia) - My Review
The Terminal List series, Book 1
Jack Carr
Atria
Fiction, Action/Thriller
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Lieutenant Commander James Reece has proudly served his country for close to two decades, a top Navy SEAL with an unparalleled reputation and track record. When new orders come down for an urgent mission in Afghanistan, though, something feels strange about the situation, but he is nothing if not a loyal soldier, and the intel seems solid... which is how he wound up leading his men into a deadly ambush. As one of the only survivors, Reece is shocked to discover that he's being made the scapegoat - and enraged when he learns why: multiple men in his unit, including himself, apparently have rare malignant brain tumors, too many to be mere natural coincidence. Clearly, someone up the chain is covering up something. Even then, there might have been a chance he could've swallowed his anger and followed orders, taking the fall - but then his wife and young daughter are killed in a "random" home invasion. Patriot he may be, but nobody hurts his family and lives to tell the tale. James Reece is now a man with literally nothing to lose. Even if he is staring down a death sentence, he can make what's left of his life count for something by bringing down the people who betrayed him, his troops, and his family.
REVIEW: On the one hand, this book is precisely what it claims to be: a testosterone-soaked tale of revenge, an ode to militant masculinity, draped in Old Glory and mounds of shell casings. If you're looking for a straightforward story of violence and vengeance and a red-blooded man sticking it to the corrupt politicians and fat cat private sector parasites, one that never drags its heels or dithers or concerns itself with wimpy ideas like "morality" or "legality" or "maybe pause a sec and think if turning into a one-man death machine is really the only possible solution to this problem", this story will not disappoint, especially if you love copious specs on weapons and tactical assaults. On that level, it certainly delivers in spades, drawing on Carr's extensive experience and research to add a nice ring of authenticity. On the other hand, there are the other levels...
James Reece is the quintessential Navy SEAL, a self-avowed patriot who chafes at stupid things like gun laws and environmentalism, who doesn't feel any particular qualms about killing even innocent civilians (I'm not sure he recognizes that such people exist, especially if they don't speak English; his idea of freedom is a Navy ship loaded to the gills with munitions and missiles sailing off to threaten or blast American dominance into other countries) and wistfully considers America's best and boldest days to be when we tortured and brutalized foreigners in the wake of 9/11... even as he scowls at enemies torturing and brutalizing Americans. He's a soldier's soldier, a man's man, a patriot's patriot, and when he no longer has anything to live for or anything to lose, he becomes the worst enemy imaginable, seeming to revel in being let off the leash to perform acts of cold-blooded murder and utter sadistic brutality; blood and bullets are the only law and justice he recognizes as remotely legitimate, and courts are as distasteful as any foreign word in his manly American mouth. A key part of the plot is an experimental drug meant to reduce the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder on field soldiers... something apparently only lesser, weaker, flawed people experience, not proper men like Reece to whom killing is just another job a man does. It's just that sort of weak, lefty idea - that maybe constant warfare is bad for people, or maybe violence shouldn't be the only option on the table - that threatens everything good about America, and Carr doesn't exactly mince words driving home the theme that our country would be better off with more men like James Reece and less of... well, anything else.
In the end, I wound up splitting the difference. I can't exactly fault it for delivering the story it promised, after all, even if the execution often felt like being bashed over the head with a flag-wrapped rifle... and, yes, I have read far worse stories.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Forever War (John Haldeman) - My Review
Dogs of War (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
Phoenix Rising (Cynthia Vespia) - My Review
Wednesday, September 13, 2023
The Storyteller's Handbook (Elise Hurst)
The Storyteller's Handbook: 52 Illustrations to Inspire Your Own Tales and Adventures
Elise Hurst
Compendium
Nonfiction, CH? Creativity
***** (Great)
DESCRIPTION: Artist Elise Hurst offers numerous detailed images of whimsical surreality to spark the imagination. With a foreword by Neil Gaiman.
REVIEW: A bit of a sparse description, I know, but there is no other way to really describe this "handbook". After Gaiman's remarks, which form an introduction of sorts in the form of a fairy tale, the book is mostly just what the subtitle indicates: a series of often-peculiar pen and ink illustrations full of animals, people, buildings, wildlands, skyscapes, seascapes, and more. Most contain hidden details and little flourishes and hints of secretive shapes and meaning that reward repeated perusal or merely lingering over the pages. Almost any part of any picture, from a small detail to the overall milieu to the general emotion to what possible symbolism could be at play (if one doesn't take the images literally), could spark ideas in readers of all ages, for everything from stories to poems to songs to even original artwork. It gets top marks for sheer imagination and delivering precisely what it promises.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Animalia (Graeme Base) - My Review
Journey (Aaron Becker) - My Review
What Do You Do With an Idea? (Kobi Yamada) - My Review
Elise Hurst
Compendium
Nonfiction, CH? Creativity
***** (Great)
DESCRIPTION: Artist Elise Hurst offers numerous detailed images of whimsical surreality to spark the imagination. With a foreword by Neil Gaiman.
REVIEW: A bit of a sparse description, I know, but there is no other way to really describe this "handbook". After Gaiman's remarks, which form an introduction of sorts in the form of a fairy tale, the book is mostly just what the subtitle indicates: a series of often-peculiar pen and ink illustrations full of animals, people, buildings, wildlands, skyscapes, seascapes, and more. Most contain hidden details and little flourishes and hints of secretive shapes and meaning that reward repeated perusal or merely lingering over the pages. Almost any part of any picture, from a small detail to the overall milieu to the general emotion to what possible symbolism could be at play (if one doesn't take the images literally), could spark ideas in readers of all ages, for everything from stories to poems to songs to even original artwork. It gets top marks for sheer imagination and delivering precisely what it promises.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Animalia (Graeme Base) - My Review
Journey (Aaron Becker) - My Review
What Do You Do With an Idea? (Kobi Yamada) - My Review
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