The first volume (11) catches up with Canute and his allies; and Leif and his quest for Thorfinn. But this omnibus is all about the second volume (12)The first volume (11) catches up with Canute and his allies; and Leif and his quest for Thorfinn. But this omnibus is all about the second volume (12), in which an escaped renegade slave turns the lives of all on the farm upside down. The final chapter of this omnibus was an earth shattering Five Stare read with Makoto taking me on an unlikely and powerfully emotional journey. Can Thorfinn navigate all this and remain a man of peace looking to make atonement? Great art, thoughtful dialogue and a truly artfully created historically reality of the Viking times. A Three Star, 7 out of 12 read, I marked this one down mainly due to the weaker first volume (11) in this omnibus. [image] 2025 read...more
Welcome to the world of Viking farming! As the newly crowned King remakes the Viking approach to war in Briton; our hero Thorfinn has lost his purposeWelcome to the world of Viking farming! As the newly crowned King remakes the Viking approach to war in Briton; our hero Thorfinn has lost his purpose and maybe losing himself, after seeing his lifetime goal being snatched away from him during the King's ascension. Slave(!) Thorfinn works really hard, (sweating out his demons?) alongside Einar, buy they are ever at the mercy of both do-gooders and bad faith characters. I'm really enjoying this ride with such completely different story arcs, I can't even begin to imagine what's next. In case I haven't mentioned it before, this is my all-time favourite manga art-wise so far :). A Four Star, 8 out of 12 read. [image] 2025 read...more
Askeladd, Thorfin, their 'captives' and their allies finally have to face-off against Thorkell and his men!; instead of making that the focus of volumAskeladd, Thorfin, their 'captives' and their allies finally have to face-off against Thorkell and his men!; instead of making that the focus of volume 7, Yukimura artfully turns the situation into a huger turning point for the effeminate Canute. In volume 8 the re-aligned group reach the King's court, where reward or death could await! The beauty of this series, is despite being historical fiction is its wonderful unpredictability which surely is representative of the fluid everchanging allegiances of the Viking world? An easy Four Star, 8 out of 12 read. [image] 2025 read...more
What the Hell is Askeladd up to? Deep into winter , slow flurries about almost as much as mayhem =, massacres and the ever threatening Thorkell and hiWhat the Hell is Askeladd up to? Deep into winter , slow flurries about almost as much as mayhem =, massacres and the ever threatening Thorkell and his renegades. As for Thorfinn he has happy to stick with his commission as long as he's close to Askeladd with duelling opportunities! I feel these two volumes dropped the nuanced and clever references and story building present in the first two volumes, and sacrificed them for (clever) pure storytelling, still good, but not as good as the openers, one thing I have no doubt I am going to see this one through to the end, especially as Askeladd's true goal has now been revealed! Three Star, 7 out of 12 read. [image] 2025 read...more
The story moves to the UK where our darkest anti-hero of all-time Thorfinn spearheads the pillaging of a town in a dark and callous way! This series tThe story moves to the UK where our darkest anti-hero of all-time Thorfinn spearheads the pillaging of a town in a dark and callous way! This series takes no prisoners (just like the Vikings :D) and depicts the lethal underhand tactics the Vikings used, to mostly kill and pillage ordinary people's towns and villages. The fight scenes, especially one-on-ones are thrilling! I had no expectations of this historical fiction mange but it has impressed me on characterisations, world building and art! A Four Star, 8 out of 12 read. [image] 2025 read...more
The Goodreads blurb is a perfect summary of this book A God in Ruins relates the life of Teddy Todd – would-be poet, heroic World War II bomber pilot,The Goodreads blurb is a perfect summary of this book A God in Ruins relates the life of Teddy Todd – would-be poet, heroic World War II bomber pilot, husband, father, and grandfather – as he navigates the perils and progress of the 20th century. For all Teddy endures in battle, his greatest challenge will be to face living in a future he never expected to have. I only now just realised this was the second book in a series, and that explains why I felt like I was missing something; I thin we al make allowances for reading a book in a series, and I wasn't able to, because I didn't realise it was! In addition this book is reported to be funny in parts, well, it must have passed over me. But, a big but, Atkinson is such a good writer I can't say I didn't enjoy the reading journey, it's just there felt that there was nothing new here, nothing I'd not read or seen before. Maybe growing up in the UK in the 1970s where nostalgia reigned supreme, I have been flooded with the UK's past? A very well written Two Star, 5 out of 12 read, which is the lowest I have ever rated an Atkinson book! [image] <2025 read...more
A woman seemingly from the East in a bird cage with a book title like it has, I had to pick this book up at a used book sale, and you know what they sA woman seemingly from the East in a bird cage with a book title like it has, I had to pick this book up at a used book sale, and you know what they say about not judging a book by it's cover... Aging expat Arthur Grimsby washed up in Singapore in the 1960s, the era of the quickly shrinking British Empire; he is working on a biography of sorts of 'the man who collected woman' Alexander Hare, the epitome of masculine colonial exploitation. But is Arthur learning anything from his research or is it arousing and inspiring him! [image] A book that takes a look at colonialism mainly through the eyes of the colonialists and a few of the enslaved women , although not in much depth. A banal storyline, almost zero plotting work that dwells on the shrinking power of both protagonists, as their British Empire is reduced. CI can only think that only worthwhile reading of this book is for someone who doesn't know anything about colonialism, to them, this might be a bit interesting. a 2 out of 12 One Star drag. [image] 2024 read...more
It all began in 1941 for young sci-fi writer Larry Zagorski; from the vantage point of the 21st century this book takes a look back over the previous It all began in 1941 for young sci-fi writer Larry Zagorski; from the vantage point of the 21st century this book takes a look back over the previous seven decades; each chapter is from the viewpoint of one of the ensemble cast. Injected with many historical facts this is the purported secret history of the Twentieth Century spanning the United States, UK, Cuba, Germany and more, including the likes of Rudolph Hess(!), Robert Heinlein, Ian Fleming, L. Ron Hubbard and other real people! [image] A book that overall was just OK, but the constructed reality of secret history connecting Hess, 1940s sci-fi writers, a rocket scientist, publishing, the film and TV industries, and numerous secret service and military intelligence was so well put together, especially where it revealed the ‘truth’ about numerous Twentieth Century irregularities like UFO sightings and the appropriation of NAZI scientists by America. A 6 out of 12 Three Star ride. [image] 2024 read...more
This 2020 Man Booker Prize winner debut by Scottish-American Douglas Stuart detailing the ups and mostly downs of Shuggie, the youngest of three childThis 2020 Man Booker Prize winner debut by Scottish-American Douglas Stuart detailing the ups and mostly downs of Shuggie, the youngest of three children to an alcoholic mother and missing Father, in the post-industrial post-manufacturing wasteland of 1980s Glasgow. A tormented but at times beautiful novel relating the struggles of effeminate Shuggie growing up in 'hard-man' Glasgow; the book also centres around the struggle with, and then reliance of alcohol, for Agnes, his mother, and the impact of her disease on those around her. I almost feel that this is a love story, a story of the unbreakable familial love a son has for his mother as both struggle to survive in the mean cold modern world. BUT, it bored the pants off of me, I have to say it! I give this one a 7 out of 12 Three Stars, for the core concept and bringing to life the non-life of post-industrial communities. [image] 2023 read...more
It's the 1960s United Kingdom and despite surviving two world wars, a flu epidemic and the emergence of super powers what the the country wasn't readyIt's the 1960s United Kingdom and despite surviving two world wars, a flu epidemic and the emergence of super powers what the the country wasn't ready for was a determined and highly intelligent woman chemist - Elizabeth Zott, a fact that she herself would acknowledge. Despite her uncompromising (and I really mean uncompromising) approach to life as working in, even for its times, one of the most gender in-equal fields, she manages to fall in love, with hardcore grudge holder and Nobel-Prize nominated celebrity chemist, Cavin Evans. Life is not fixed and rule-based as chemistry, as years later single-mother Zott has turned her chemist skills into a basis for a highly successful cooking TV show! This is her story. [image] What starts off as an absorbing read about a fantastical fictional woman of 1960s showing no compromise to the misogynistic norm becomes a bit trite and banal in that Zott herself has no growth a a character. Now don't get me wrong, I know male 'nerd' characters in most fiction are the same, but I didn't like them either. A fun read that could have seen more development on the entire cast that all seemed to be playing fixed roles. An overhyped but somewhat entertaining 6 out of 12, Three Star read that will make hay as adaptation with such a strong core concept. [image] 2023 read...more
I was over 200 pages into this read after skimming a fair bit, and thinking about DNF-ing, when I decided to check if it was just me; initially I feltI was over 200 pages into this read after skimming a fair bit, and thinking about DNF-ing, when I decided to check if it was just me; initially I felt vindicated on reading all the poor reviews on Goodreads, when I suddenly decided to read the good ones! Inspired by these more positive reviews I went back to page one and started reading this one again! Young Gaby Baillieux releases the Angel Worm (computer virus) that allows hundreds of asylum seekers to walk free from Australian prisons... unfortunately it also infects 5,000 US Prisons! [image] Cool concept right? No! Because the book is about an aged reporter who's been paid to get Gaby's story; partially (or mainly?) because he knows her mother. Pretty well written this is a unassuming tale about said reporter's journey as he first seeks out in hiding (bailed) Gaby and then has to write her story based on the evidence he gets. Carey was 71 when this one was published, and this at times, clever look at Australia's 1975 constitutional crisis, the rise and fall of the Left and the interference of the Aussie moguls like Packer and Murdoch was the highlight with the chunk telling Gaby's life story, a close second. If anything, maybe Carey tries to cover too much in this book, and thus doesn't cover anything enough? A 5 out of 12, Two Stars from me. Lesson learnt, go with first reading instincts? [image] 2023 read...more
This much lauded by the literati work on the Ethiopian defeat of fascist Italy in the 1930s, through the lens of Ethiopian volunteer woman fighters, hThis much lauded by the literati work on the Ethiopian defeat of fascist Italy in the 1930s, through the lens of Ethiopian volunteer woman fighters, has a very good heart and tells a much neglected tale but fails on some key counts. I can see why it was Booker Prize shortlisted, because although written by an African woman it could be just as well be written by an old white male European with it's humanising of some of the Italian characters and heavily literary writing style. So what, I hear some exclaim? This was a pre meditated attack on the only sovereign African nation by a fascist European state, eff the daddy issues of an Italian photographer, I only want to read as much as possible of the story of the amazing women that were part of this extraordinary episode in African history, without a Euro-centric balancing act or focusing on Ethiopian woman vs woman battles like this book does in its first half. [image] I know that it is loosely based on oral history, but the story is/was those woman fighters and nothing more. For the literati this is probably a smashing read, for a reader wanting an entry into Ethiopian history it feels watered down to appease European book critics. Maybe I'm too harsh? Come visit my re-read review in a few years. The literature and Italian stories made this a boring read in my opinion, I was always wanting more and never getting it. For the engaging and absorbing historical context, the least this book can get from me is a Three Star, 7 out of 12. Haile Selaisse! (And there's little or no real mention of the UK, Russian and French support of the Ethiopians.) [image] 2023 read...more
This first volume of this series introduces society outlier, homeless and on-the-run from the law, Nicaraguan immigrant, Marcus Lopez, who is saved frThis first volume of this series introduces society outlier, homeless and on-the-run from the law, Nicaraguan immigrant, Marcus Lopez, who is saved from a police sting by the mysterious and so very deadly Saya (american Japanese) who in turn introduces him to her school - The Kings Dominion School for the Deadly Arts! And that's just the first issue in this superb coming of age drama for disaffected and truly troubled youths in their late teens in 1980s California. [image] There's so much more in this from rock and indie music Easter Eggs through to gobsmackingly honest real interpretations of the actions and thoughts of the young mostly through Marcus's startlingly inciteful (at times) and self aware character. What starts off as a dark urban fantasy very quickly emerges to be (so far) one of the finest and entertaining portrayals of troubled youths in comic book history, an extraordinarily mature and innovatively drawn and inked ode to the 1980s. A easy Four Star, 9 out of 12. What the Hell have I been doing with my life, why did I not read this earlier! [image] 2022 read...more
A baby is born and then dies, as snow falls over England in 1910, fade to darkness. The same baby is born and lives to be named Ursula Todd. And this A baby is born and then dies, as snow falls over England in 1910, fade to darkness. The same baby is born and lives to be named Ursula Todd. And this is how this book proceeds with Ursula, or is that with us readers(?); for each time death comes to Ursula, the next chapter has a different outcome. There's always a second chance. [image] But this book is more than a parade of what ifs; through the minutiae of everyday life for Ursula, Atkinson maps the progress of England before, during and in between the two World Wars, the changing attitudes to the role of women in society, the evolving nature of familial ties, how we see and talk about death and more. Right now, right here, I'm saying that I'm going to read this again with in a year, but this time at a much more serene pace. 7 out of 12, Three Star read... with more to come. [image] 2022 read...more
Some of those in the concentration camps of the Second World found themselves seemingly in less deadly positions such as grave diggers, enforced prostSome of those in the concentration camps of the Second World found themselves seemingly in less deadly positions such as grave diggers, enforced prostitutes and tattooists; but in a way they were in more peril being so close to the SS. This is an adaptation of a true story, the story of a tattooist at Auschwitz, how he became the tattooist, what he did in his position, how he came to attention of true evil, and whether he survived.... and how he fell in love! [image] When I first began reading this, I was heavily engaged as always with a Holocaust read, but in the back of my mind I was asking myself, will this love story set in Auschwitz underplay the brutality of what happened to better tell its story. Only after turning the final page did I understand what a tremendous feat it is to find and fall in love despite the NAZIs attempt to totally eradicate you and your people, to dehumanise you, yet they did something very human, they fell in love. 8 out of 12. [image] 2022 read...more
In 1960s Cornwall, Dick Young is only half heartedly engaging with his family and the world he lives in. Why? Because he is addicted to going back intIn 1960s Cornwall, Dick Young is only half heartedly engaging with his family and the world he lives in. Why? Because he is addicted to going back into the past, to the 14th century, where he is consumed with the lives and intrigues of he court there. He has been using a new discovery of a professor friend to time travel, but can't be seen or engage in anyway with the past. He becomes obsessed in trying to change the past, and there's no way that will end well? [image] This essentially a speculative/historic fiction horror read, but although fairly well written, especially the contemporary story, it just doesn't work, far too many plot holes, seriously du Maurier writing sci-fi! The idea was/is interesting though and the overall theme and message is pretty thought inducing. 6 out of 12. [image] 2022 read...more
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