GI Joe Volume IX By Larry Hama

 GI Joe Volume IX

By Larry Hama

Alright, I've been reviewing this series graphic novel by graphic novel, although I've been sticking to the main series and haven't touched the special mission graphic novels yet. This volume collects issues 81 through 90, which ran from December 1988 to September 1989. 

 My review of Volume 8 was way back in March of last year so let me spin you up quickly. GI Joe is a top-secret special mission force whose members don't use their real names. They're primarily focused on a fighting Cobra, a fascist terrorist organization hell-bent on world conquest. Unlike the cartoons you're likely familiar with, here Cobra is doing a halfway decent job of it. Cobra Island is recognized by the UN, the terrorists have corporate backing, a small army of lawyers, PR flacks, and secret agents work within western society to protect Cobra's interests and hamper law enforcement from stopping them. To the point that arrested Cobra agents can often get out of jail legally through relentless lawfare

However, Cobra is also in an incredibly vulnerable state. The Cobra civil war has ended and while the impostor Cobra Commander, a secret agent of Cobra who decided to try for the throne since no one really knows what CC looks like, has won, his grip on power is marginal at best. For example, Destro has more or less cut ties and is running around pissing in everyone's cheerios in the name of profit and opportunity. So the fake CC is leading an operation that has lost a lot of its assets and manpower and on top of that, the number of people who know he's a fake is growing almost daily (Ah, shitty Opsec, thy name is Fascist.). So instead of focusing on taking over the US or swinging on the Joes, he's pouring out resources on taking out competitors and trying to bring the officer corps of Cobra under control. 

To do that he's having to lean more and more on the Dreadnoughts, an Austrian biker gang turned international crime syndicate under the leadership of Zartan. Zartan is a mysterious character in a lot of ways, he's not a ninja but can go head to head with them and has many abilities that haven't been explained just yet. Honestly, Zartan is a Cyberpunk Assassin before Cyberpunk really took off and is another example of just how underestimated and undervalued Larry Hama is as a writer. That's right I'm still defending this hill, come at me, bro! We do learn a bit more about Zartan; that the real Cobra Commander began their long relationship by (I'm just gonna call him CC from here on out) hiring him to kill the Joe, Snake Eyes. Why did CC want Snake Eyes dead? 

 Because CC's brother was a drunk driver. I'll explain. See, CC never qualified for military service but wanted to, his brother did and volunteered for extended careers to make sure CC wouldn't be sent to Vietnam (Wait.  Huh?  If CC never qualified for military service, was that due to age, or something else? {They never get into it, of course, this is a matter of competing claims, CC claims he volunteered and was rejected, someone else claims his brother served extra tours to keep him from being drafted} ). His experiences in that war broke him and he drove drunk on the highways seeking death. He found it, by ramming the car that was being driven by Snake Eye's family coming to pick him up from the airport, killing everyone involved. This wasn't just Snake Eye's parents but his twin sister. 

CC, never a paragon of rational thought or proportional response, decided this was all Snake Eye's fault and hunted down Zartan and hired him to kill him. Although this may be an attempt to avoid dealing with his own feeling of inferiority and guilt by throwing all the blame on a fellow victim of a tragedy (Maybe?). The fact that CC did this before launching his terrorist organization and was in fact a used car salesman is honestly? Kinda impressive in a screwed-up psychopathic way that brings home just how talented CC was, while also illustrating just how deeply unwell the man always was as well.  I can't help but wonder how many people's lives would have been better if CC had just opted to get a therapist instead of hiring assassins... 

Zartan did give it a good old college try but ended up murdering one of the leaders of the ninja clan that had taken Snake Eyes in (long story, see past reviews) kick-starting a long vendetta with the ninja Storm Shadow. Storm Shadow on the flip side eventually abandoned the vendetta due to seeing several examples of how destructive a quest for revenge at all costs can be (those of you who are willing to dive deep should look at the character Kwinn). Instead, Storm Shadow decided to pursue a better life for himself and his loved ones. Zartan doesn't believe this for a second and will spend a lot of this volume hunting Storm Shadow to kill him (Seems like Zartan is just as big a piece of work as CC, bluntly. {He’s an assassin for hire and career criminal so…No surprise?}). It's well done but it's an early example of a later flaw in the series where everything becomes about Snake Eyes, ironically the character himself doesn't show up much in this volume. 

Meanwhile, the Joes are focused on rebuilding and trying to mop up whatever elements of Cobra they can get to. Their internal enemies within the US government have either been arrested or gone to ground so for once they can operate without too much trouble (Well that’s good.  And in a shocking twist, the US government can finally deal semi-effectively with fascist infiltration!). Their biggest problem is the fact that Destro and the fake Cobra Commander are both going at one another, having identified each other as their biggest rival for the control of a currently reduced but still incredibly dangerous Cobra organization. This often leads to confrontations where the Joes are honestly unsure of what to do. Do they back one side over the other? Do they turn these battles into 3-way fights, running the risk of uniting both factions against them? Or do they just sit back and let Cobra and Destro kick the crap out of each other? Also what kind of popcorn do you eat while watching your enemies destroy each other? (The obvious answer is to perform false-flag operations, to spurn them into destroying each other.  Then you mop up what’s left.  Also, chocolate-covered caramel popcorn.)

We also have one more storyline involving CC's son, Billy, who is being raised by Storm Shadow to be a ninja. It says something about this kid's life that the world-class spy and assassin is the best father figure he's ever had (Poor kid.).  Storm Shadow also provides the most stable and loving home environment and consistent moral instruction Billy's ever had. I joke, but seriously Storm Shadow comes across as a stern but loving father figure here, teaching Billy that violence is an addictive drug that should be avoided as a solution in most situations. However, when your life or the lives of those you love are in danger, you need to be able to reply in kind to the cyberpunk shape-shifting assassin who is hunting you (I mean, this is solid life advice.). This may involve a high-speed archery duel combined with a car chase through San Francisco but who among us hasn't had a Saturday or two get a bit out of control like that? Billy meanwhile has to deal with a figure from his past showing up and I won't tell you who because why ruin the surprise? 

There are parts of this comic I really enjoyed but there are times where I can see the Hasbro strings showing through. Such as the constant requirement to shove more and more characters into the narrative to sell toys of them. This means I got to put up with characters as silly as BattleForce 2000 or otherwise perfectly good characters running into a firefight in a bright white baseball player's uniform (Wut. {look up a Joe called hardball}). I'm also not a fan of the gold mask look for Destro, I prefer the old-school silver mask myself. When Mr. Hama isn't having his elbow jogged, he's telling a rather compelling story about the continuing fallout of Cobra Commanders' horrible life choices.  In addition, what happens after a civil war even when one side “wins.” Not the strongest novel in the series but not the weakest either I would say, Volume 9 gets a B from me. 

        I hope you enjoyed this week's review! It was voted for by our ever-wise patrons, whose ranks you can join for as little as a dollar a month! Join us at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads if you'd like a vote on upcoming reviews, be able to discuss upcoming theme months and reviews or would just like to help make these reviews self-sufficient. Next week, we're going to review Magnus of the Library Vol II. Hope to see you there and until then, stay safe and keep reading!

Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen

Black text is your reviewer Garvin Anders

Atomic Robo Vol II: Dogs of War By Brian Clevinger

 Atomic Robo Vol II: Dogs of War

By Brian Clevinger

I went into a fair amount of detail about the creators and publishers of Atomic Robo in my first review back in August of 2021. So instead of repeating myself, I'll ask you to take a look at that review before reading this one. Instead, let's talk about Robo and the time period of the book here. 

Dogs of War takes place almost entirely during World War II, with Robo serving in the US Army as a special agent. The US Army uses Robo mostly as a means to counter Mad Nazi Science (trademark pending) and to try to prevent World War II from turning into Weird World War (This is perfectly reasonable.  Though I now have a delightful mental image of that Hitler vs Stalin wizard fight comic…). Now Weird World War is a genre all on its own, where magic, paranormal abilities, or advanced/super-science is introduced into the setting of World War II (It is absolutely wonderful., I need more Soviet Sorcery, Communist Mecha, and Warsaw Ghetto Jew Golems in my life! Edelman Preym iz aktiv! Ale sistemen zenen arbetn, aun vepanz armd!). It's an incredibly rich genre with alternative history settings like GearKreig, Dust, Godlike, or stories like Life Eater by David Brin. It can range from anything from Captain America comics to stories of Nazi Clone Armies fighting Socialist Necromancers trying to protect the living soldiers of the motherland through the use of the dead. In this case, it's the US Army deploying a mechanical lifeform that is faster, stronger, incredibly intelligent, and bulletproof against the horrors of Mad Nazi Science (trademark pending). 

Let's talk about our agent here. At this point in the book, Robo is a young man... Robot? Young person, Robo is a young person striking out into the world for the first time and wanting to help protect the world from evil. We know from the first book that before America entered into the war, he gained his citizenship and legal protection by working with the US Army to neutralize a Mad Nazi Scientist (Huh.  He had it easier than black soldiers at the time.  Is the US less racist in this series? Please tell me the US is less racist.{No real data there}). Afterward, he joined the Flying Tigers, a group of volunteer pilots fighting the Japanese in China(Always a worthy endeavor.). When the US joined the war, he offered his services and was quickly turned into a special agent to be sent out on missions against the maddest and weirdest horrors and war machines that Nazi Scientists could create with the limited funds and support at their disposal (Hitler was almost too obsessed with his Wunderwaffen you see.  He had like… ADHD for mad dictators.  In real life, there were enough projects that they hindered each other.  I can only imagine what would happen with actual Nazi Super Science, as opposed to Nazis On Meth Science.). 

This is actually a fun point in the book, where we see one of the scientists in question complaining to Otto Skorzeny that if Hitler would just pick two or three Mad Nazi Science (trademark... Okay I'll stop) projects they could win the war but because Hitler insists on funding and manning dozens upon dozens of projects, nothing gets enough funding or other resources to actually turn the tide of the war (Oh my God, I hadn’t even read this far and I knew… There is Historical Verisimilitude!). This is hilarious for me as it shows that it doesn't matter how creative or talented you are if you don't buckle down and devote the actual time and effort to something that; and it also rings really true. Because if there was one thing that the Nazis were terrible at, it was committing to a single set of wunder weapons. I mean, it's not the only reason the Nazis were bad at but it's one of the big ones! (I don’t know bro.  I think it is a good feature of Nazism. They self-sabotage.)

I mean, for example, there are the Nazi jets, the Tiger tank series, the V-rocket series, and the vast string of failed projects and screw-ups in real life (Like the peroxide-powered rocket planes that melted their pilots into a soup-like homogenate if it was looked at funny.). Meanwhile the United States more or less committed to creating the atomic bomb with a vast outlay of resources, money, and manpower (Including the lives of the Navajo) and created a weapon that haunts the nightmares of humanity to this very day (Yaaay?  Yeah, no Yay). A weapon that will likely terrify our children's children and powerfully constrain the strategic calculations of every power on the planet for generations to come. See kids that's the power of commitment and dedication, if you're willing to put in the time and effort, you too can create a lasting testament to your abilities that scares the crap out of the entire species! (Plus you get the Demon Core out of it.)

Anyways! Robo finds himself mostly opposed by the aft-fore-mentioned Otto Skorzeny. Now Otto was a real person (He was a real human. I don’t consider the SS to be people.), an agent of the Waffen SS who came up with the idea of training units to operate behind enemy lines, not unlike partisans. He not only trained a number of these units for the SS but was Hitler's go-to man for a number of complex operations and had a decent success rate considering the sheer improbability of a number of his goals. That kind of makes him a real-life supervillain if you ask me . Otto has been used in a lot of World War II because he's a colorful and strange character and Atomic Robo uses him as a foil to Robo. This version of Otto is given a wonderful dry wit and calculating attitude towards evil that balances Robo's youthful enthusiasm and sarcastic one-liners rather well. They even cover Otto's death, of lung cancer in the 1970s, where we see a much older Robo realize just how to exact the best revenge he can on Otto and ensure that Otto suffers as much as he deserves to. 

The book gives a series of battles between Robo and Otto as Otto tries to make the various Mad Nazi Science wonder weapons actually do something worth a damn on a Strategic level and Robo tries to stop the weapons from killing people. Robo isn't alone in this of course; we are introduced to the British super agent, the Sparrow, a young lady with a grudge against Otto specifically and Nazis in general. She and Robo hate working together of course. We also met Scottie, a rather invincible Scottish commando whose version of English has only a vague relationship to the mother tongue as we mere mortals understand it. I will mention that we find out that Robo's personality and Scottie the character are both loosely based on Mr. Clevinger's grandfather. This means the old man must have been amazing to be around if you ask me. 

The book also gives us some important background and character information on Robo. We learn from an in-universe article by Dr. Tesla, Robo's creator, why there's only one Robo and why Tesla never shared the technology that created Robo. Firstly Tesla didn't write any notes on the creation process, which was likely wise of him. He also didn't allow anyone to take apart Robo to figure out how he worked because his stance was that Robo wasn't a product, he was a person (Interesting.  Because while I certainly agree that he is a person, the US government certainly would not. {Actually the US government awarded him personhood in the 1930s.  It was for services rendered but still…}). Since Robo was a person and the first of a brand new form of life, the technology that created him didn't belong to Tesla but to Robo himself. The wisdom and humility of such a stance is awe-inducing.  I devotedly hope we can rise to that level as a species someday. Also by displaying such wisdom, Tesla not only prevented the creation and oppression of a slave race.  He ensured that Robo could control his own fate. 

It's because of that we learn in another story that Robo, after WWII, decides it's time to stop being a soldier. While evil needs to be confronted of course and Robo never stops doing that, he realizes that he can do more good as a scientist working for the benefit of the entire world than as a footsoldier working for the interests of the United States. It's a decision that... I actually agree with. While I love my country, I'll be the first to admit that the interests of the US are not always the interests of the human race. The same goes for any nation-state honestly and while soldiers are necessary, the plain fact is that armies even when used wisely can really only stop greater evils. Scientists who are mindful of their obligations and the dangers before them can do much more. Whether it be through the creation of things like insulin or research into things like solar power or cleaning up the Pacific Gyre. An Army's power is through destruction, while the power of a research lab lies in creation and Robo decides he wants to help humanity and create (I thoroughly support his decision!). Although he will pick up a revolver and wreck things to protect the rest of us, he is after all still bulletproof. 

Atomic Robo and the Dogs of War is an action-packed romp through the greatest battlefields of history fighting a strange collection of what-if creations of science gone amuck. It's also a look at the formative experiences of our main character in his youth as he comes to understand just what is evil and how he can best do good. Atomic Robo and the Dogs of War gets an A. Go give it a read and enjoy yourself. 

    I hope you enjoyed this review, which was chosen by our ever-wise patrons. If you would like to be able to suggest books, vote on reviews or vote on upcoming theme months, join us at
https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads where a vote is just a dollar a month. Next week join us for GI Joe Vol IX! Until then stay safe and keep reading!

Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen

Black text is your reviewer Garvin Anders

    

The Heroic Legend of Arslan Volume I By Tanaka Yoshi

 The Heroic Legend of Arslan

By Tanaka Yoshi

Tanaka Yoshi was born October 22, 1952, in Hondo, Kumamoto prefecture, Japan. An interesting side note is that the city of Hondo no longer exists. It merged with its neighbors to create the city of Amakusa in 2006. Amakusa is the fastest depopulating city in Japan as the ever voracious city of Toyko seems to be pulling the entire country into it (Nothing can escape its ever-expanding event-horizon, which spews out Hawking Anime as it feeds.). Although there is hope that the emergence of teleworking in Japan will reverse the trend (This is a country that still uses couriers rather than email.  That is one hell of a shift.). Dr. Tanaka graduated from Gakushuin University with a doctorate in Japanese Language and Literature. His writing career has deep roots in his childhood as according to his mother he was always writing down story ideas. Right before starting graduate school, he entered a writing contest run by the literary magazine Gen'eijou and won. Unfortunately, they called him to inform him that he won while he was attending a funeral so there was some confusion as to his muted response. Thankfully this did not spike the wheel and Mr. Tanaka would go on to write not just The Heroic Legend of Arslan but also Legend of the Galactic Heroes (Which I just…Love.), as well as translate several Chinese novels and write his own novel series Sohryuden: Legend of the Dragon Kings. 

The Heroic Legend of Arslan is extremely loosely based on Persian myth, in fact, it might be more accurate to say inspired. The myth in question is mainly the epic poem called Amir Arslan-e Namdar. I have some faint knowledge of the poem and I'll just say they mostly share some names and basic ideas and that's really it. Mr. Tanaka also takes inspiration from other times in Persian history ranging from the wars with the Byzantines and the legends from the time of Cyprus the Great. Now there are several versions of the story here. First is the series of novels by Mr. Tanaka, about sixteen of them published from 1987 to 2017. There was a manga series that was released from 1991 to 1996. We're reviewing volume 1 of the 2013 series of which there have been sixteen volumes as of December 2021. But let's turn to the setting and story itself. 

The nation of Pars sits on the center of the great continental highway, connecting the east and west in trade. Because of this they are a very wealthy nation and famed for their unstoppable cavalry, as well as their culture and art. There's a dark side to this wealth, as the nation of Pars economically sits atop of vast sea of slavery, slaves are called gholams. Gholams have little to no rights and are bought and sold without any say in their fates. The labor of the Gholam, as well as the wealth from trade, allows even the common folk of Pars to live well and avoid doing messy, dirty jobs (Have they dehumanized this slave caste, or is it more like mine and quarry slaves in the Roman Empire, where they are recognized as people but still treated like disposable garbage? {Does it matter?  From what I can tell the gholams are doing most if not all of the manual labor and Arslan mentions that gholams eat better than many free people in other countries} Just trying to get a sense for the form of slavery.). This wealth attracts envy and mass slavery brings condemnation.

To the west lies the nation of Lusitana, which is a monotheist nation worshiping the god Yalda-Brotha. Now usually this wouldn't be a problem, one of Pars' closest allies, the nation of Maryam, also followed Yalda-Brotha. Now, this religion forbids slavery but it seems that the Lusitanians have fallen into a version of it that calls on them to kill everyone who won't convert, including fellow believers of Yalda-Brotha who won't give loyalty to their specific branch of the faith.   So any brownie points for being anti-slavery are lost for you know... Being a bunch of psychopaths! (I don’t know, at this point if your enemies are slavers, and your co-religionists support the slavers despite religious prohibition… I can certainly see the impulse.  But I’m the sort of person who loves hookworm for giving Confederate troops horrible anemia and lead poisoning.{Yes but killing everyone who won’t convert to your god?} Hey, it’s not perfect…)  

We find this out by Arslan learning this from a child soldier of Lusitana, who is sending boys of the ripe old age of 11 to war (Yikes!  We’re in full RUF territory.). That said, this child soldier is frankly amazing as the kid breaks out of captivity, takes Arslan hostage, and precedes to escape the capital city of Pars via a fantastically drawn and paced rooftop chase (Good for him!).   While I'm deeply opposed to sending children to war, frankly this kid comes across as a pint-sized super-soldier.  In his case, if he really wants to go to war and is this good at it, how are you gonna stop him? (Something tells me he wasn’t given a choice, and just got good at it in order to not die.) The boy wouldn't have made it except for the fact that Arslan stopped anyone from shooting him in the back as he fled the city out of a compassionate impulse. 

This setup was set three years before the main plot but was well done. We learn that Arslan is a perceptive, compassionate but determined young man. He is generally well thought of by people who come into contact with him because of this. He's also a bit of a Disney Princess™ in that animals seem to like him.  The hawks of another character openly prefer his company to anyone else for example (Hah!). We also see that his relationship with his parents is distant and cold. The Queen barely speaks to her son and the King doesn't even look at him when returning home from war. Dismissing his son declaring he's glad his father is safe with a snarl that there's no way he could ever lose a war (So basically, animals like him because he models his behavior on everything his parents are not.  Gotcha.). 

This also tells us a lot about his parents, we see that his mother, Tahamine is incredibly beautiful but remote and I would hazard very unhappy. His father Andragoras frankly comes across as a brute (so you know, there may be a good reason Tahamine is unhappy). He's a man so incredibly sure of his own strength and near invincibility that he takes any suggestion for caution as evidence of cowardice (Toxic masculinity, thy name is Andragoras.). Honestly, my thought is that men like this make bad generals and worse kings (Good king is an oxymoron, however, there are gradients of terrible.{I think a King that leaves the people of his country better than he found him can be considered a good king,} Just grades of bad.). Anyone can lose, even if they do everything right. That's just the way life is sometimes and the best generals and kings are aware of that and don't place blind trust in their own strength. Also, I don't care for people who berate their sons for worrying about their safety or don't even bother to look at them when speaking to them. 

The bulk of the story has to do with the 2nd war against Lusitanians, who in a surprise assault have overrun the nation of Maryam and are now set to fall upon Pars. As the army of Pars marches to confront the invaders, strange events pile up.  Generals and nobles start acting strangely. Arslan is left feeling oddly isolated, although frankly you think he'd be used to that, considering his family life. The man who seems to have spent the most time actively mentoring and supporting the boy, Vahriz, who is also the commander of the army, seems deeply concerned about something...  To the point of making his nephew Daryun, swear personal fealty to Arslan and to be his bodyguard (Well at least someone cares about the boy.). This is a pretty good move since Daryun is outright terrifying. Daryun, while a thoughtful and considerate young man, can singlehandedly wipe out entire platoons of enemy soldiers (Woah that’s…impressive. {for the record folks when I say platoon, I mean a body of trained troops of roughly 30 to 40 men, I don’t just throw out words}). He's still growing in his skills and abilities, being rather young. Just the kind of fighter you want watching over a young man who might have a huge target on his back. 

Arslan is going to need all the help he can get as things go from bad to worse in this story. To tell you more would be spoilers so let me just say this, this is a great introduction to an interesting world. The plot is well told and the tactics and political moves are well thought out. Much is implied but not spelled out just yet which only increases the interest in the story. While the graphic novel itself tells a self-contained story with a clear beginning, middle and end. The Heroic Legend of Arslan Volume I by Tanaka Yoshi gets an A. 

I hoped you enjoy this review, which was chosen by our ever-wise patrons.  If you enjoyed this review and would like a vote in upcoming reviews and themes, join us at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads  A dollars month gets you a vote and May’s poll is up!  Hope to see you there.  Next week, Atomic Robo Volume II, until then stay safe and Keep Reading.

Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen

Black text is your reviewer Garvin Anders

Magus of the Library Vol I By Mitsu Izumi

Magus of the Library Vol I 

By Mitsu Izumi

Ms. Izumi was born on February 7th in the Kanagawa prefecture of Japan, which is a coastal prefecture just south of Tokyo. She is the writer and artist of today's graphic novel and is the author of another series, called 7th Garden. She's also the illustrator of the manga series for Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day. Beyond that, I couldn't find much about her and what web presence she does have seems to be locked to private so I figured this was a woman who valued her privacy and as such, I stopped digging (Good man). 

Magus of the Library first began as a manga series running in the serialized magazine Good Afternoon, on November 17th, 2017. Good Afternoon has been running since November 7th, 2008, and is published by Kodansha. Kodansha was founded in 1909 and is privately owned by members of the founder's family and the Noma Cultural Foundation, which uses profits from the publishing to fund literary awards, scholarships, and other nonprofit works throughout Japan (That’s pretty freaking cool, I’ll admit.). Let's turn to the graphic novel itself though shall we? 

Magus of the Library is set in an isolated village, where our main character is struggling through his life. He is disdained by most of the village for a couple of reasons, first of all, is that he stands out. Which is a bad idea in a small town.  He's of a different race than most of the villagers, who seem to be humans with tan skin, dark eyes, and dark hair. He has light skin, blond hair, and green eyes. Now, this might be forgivable to most but he also has pointed ears.  This tells everyone that at least one of his parents was nonhuman and everyone dislikes that (Damned Xenophobia.). Those ears have also earned him the nickname long ears from the cruel village youth. It doesn't help that his only surviving family is his sister who looks nothing like him and neither one is native-born to the village (How in the hell?  That does not happen often in a society where, probably, people live and die less than five miles from where they were born.{It strongly suggests that whatever she was running from it was bad}). So you know they ain't even from around here. I won't name him, because he doesn't provide his name until the end of the book, and it's honestly kind of a fun moment so I won't steal it from you. 

His sister and he are also rather poor (which is to be expected of an outsider of dubious parentage, in this sort of place…), she works several part-time jobs to afford to send him to school. Because she wants him to be more than a manual laborer and believes that if he can learn how to read, write and do math, he might have a shot at a better life (This is Next Level Big Sistering.). The boy definitely has the work ethic and ambition for it, as we see him put off playing to do his homework and sneaking into the village library to read books on the sly(Sounds like my kind of kid.). He is plagued by the desire to have a hero come by and lift him out of his isolated miserable life, where he has perhaps two friends and three people who care about him. 

One of those friends is Sakiya Menes, the daughter of the villain of this story. Not only does she stand up for him and help him out but she also sneaks him into the library. He shouldn't have to sneak, as the official policy of the library organization is that the libraries are open to everyone, no one is to be turned away for reasons of race, gender, or social-economic status. I have a feeling that the policy that our villain Ossei displays: keeping out the village poor and only allowing the affluent and their families in, all while complaining about allowing any children at all in, is more common though. Ossei's stance is that books and the information therein aren't for the plebeian masses, who should be focusing on working hard and being thankful. They're meant for refined, educated men who can properly understand and appreciate them. (But how are people to become educated and refined if you don’t let them read?  {By being born to refined and educated parents who teach them, duh} Of course, I’ve never accused elitist shits like this guy of having an ounce of sense.  Take it from this commie… Books are for the proletarian masses.  Knowledge is for you.  You are in fact probably pretty smart and can understand more than you give yourself credit for.  A lack of education is no bar on learning, whatsoever.)

I loathe that attitude. Intensely. Look, I'll admit I maintain a pretty decent size collection but I loan out books fairly freely. Do I expect the books back? Absolutely! But I give them out to people who I hope will read them and either learn or be entertained. While some knowledge, like say the US nuclear launch codes, shouldn't be public knowledge.  My stance is that hoarding knowledge, in general, is at best offensive and at worst outright sinful. Knowledge is meant to be shared. I don't mean gossip by this, people have a right to keep their lives private but knowledge of how the world works, the history of the world or the fact that entire groups actually exist should not be hidden away. To do so is vastly more shameful than anything in that body of knowledge and more harmful than any visual or thought could be. People who try to hide knowledge, to dictate what can and cannot be known about the world around us, and who get to know it are simply not good people and are grasping for power no one has a right to have. An attack on the freedom of the library to lend any book to any person is an attack on all of our freedoms because if your mind isn't free to learn what you would, how can you be free in any other way? (Yes.  All of that.)

But I should get back to the actual book. Luckily for our protagonist, a group of four young women is coming to his village on both an inspection tour and to retrieve a dangerous grimoire. Grimoires are magical books that hold spells created as weapons during a very destructive war in the past. The library is one of the few places where such things can be stored and maintained safely, otherwise, there is a risk that damage to the books (say wrought by mold or pests) will break down the containment allowing the magic to rampage uncontrolled. These ladies not only have to address the issues in the local library but track down the grimoire before someone gets killed. This might be a problem because all sorts of elitist and unscrupulous people will pop out of the woodwork to get their hands on such a thing.  Most of them won't know how to fix the damn thing either or might even damage it further as well.  So extra risk for everyone!

One of them, Sedona Blue is also a magic-user.  She has been brought along in case the worst happens but until then, she’d rather be as dramatic as possible to inspire the children around her to read more and reach for greater things (I like this person.). She also takes it upon herself to teach people that they're not as helpless as they think they are. Honestly, she's clearly having a blast in her role and she's fun to watch doing it.  It's also fun to watch the other three librarians take any chance they can to take the piss out of her.  The four characters have good chemistry and interplay going on, which adds to the fun.  So what happens when she and our main character meet? What does he have to do with the grimoire and why do I feel Ossei got off lightly? Well, that's all things you'll have to read the book to find out! 

This is not a great epic that will determine the fate of the world, there are no earth-shattering magics and the stakes are honestly maybe a few hundred people but it is an interesting story with well-written and fun characters. Our main character is a very earnest and determined young lad but one who struggles with a feeling of helplessness and low self-esteem due to the fact that he is constantly being dumped on. That said every time he is knocked down, he gets back up determined to get it right this time and I admire that. It's also a story about how important libraries are to communities. Now some might say that with the internet the time of the library has passed but I disagree (As do I.  Libraries are amazing community spaces.  It isn’t just the books, though those are important; but the learning resources, meeting spaces for groups, public programs, and everything else a library runs.  They’ll have de-stress days with therapy dogs after school finals, stuff like that.  But they are also one of the only indoor public spaces where you’re not expected to spend money you don’t have.). I'll save those comments for a sidebar, however. Magus of the Library is a fun book about a boy coming to terms with himself and learning that he's stronger than he thinks he is. Magus of the Library gets an A- from me and a recommendation. I hope you'll read it. 

I hope you enjoyed this week’s review.  If you’d like a voice in upcoming reviews join us at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads where a dollar a month gets you a voice among our ever-wise patrons. Next week, the patron selected Heroic Legend of Arslan!  Hope to see you there.  Until then, stay safe and keep reading.  

Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen

Black text is your reviewer Garvin Anders