Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IDW Vol: I By Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IDW Vol: I

By Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were first created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird in 1984. The story being that during a brainstorming session Mr. Eastman sketched out a ninja turtle with a pair of nunchucks and everybody thought it was hilarious. The first issue of the comic (funded by a tax refund and a small loan from a relative) was partially meant to parody comics like Daredevil (the Foot Clan was inspired by Marvel's Hand clan of ninja's) and Ronin who were going through a celebrated run of stories using a gritty and dark tone. The first issue had all of three thousand printings and mostly sold at a local convention, but it caught attention because, dear readers, this was the eighties and there were powerful forces afoot in our entertainment industry: the Turtles caught the attention of the toy companies. By 1987 there was a cartoon series that would last for ten seasons (with more cartoon series that would come in the 21st century), later would come live action movies, more toys, a rock-band tour and of course during all of this was comic book after comic book. The Turtles survive to this day, despite the best efforts of Hollywood. Let's talk about the series creators first and I'll talk about Tom Waltz, who wrote specifically for this comic book series.

Kevin Eastman was born in Portland, Maine, in 1962. He was following a waitress he had met while working in a restaurant (He was dating this waitress, right? Not like, just following her? Because the way you put this is really up for interpretation{No idea, no source says, anyways it's not part of the review}) when he met Peter Laird. They founded Mirage Studios, the name was chosen because, having no money or facilities, the studio was more of a mirage than anything else (Okay, that’s actually pretty damn funny as far as I’m concerned). Eastman would try a number of things out besides creating the Ninja Turtles, such as founding Tundra Publishing (now defunct) and was the owner of Heavy Metal from 1992 to 2014.

Peter Laird, was born in North Adams, Massachusetts in 1954. Before the Ninja Turtles he was trying to scratch out a living doing illustrations for the local newspaper (which paid him the grand sum of $10 a picture) and local fanzines (I'll talk about these another day). It was that experience that lead Mr. Laird to set up a press kit for the release of the Ninja Turtles which helped them grab attention. Additionally Mr. Laird's Uncle actually loaned him the money to set up Mirage Studios, something that profoundly affected him. This led him to founding the Xeric Foundation, a charitable organization that would award grants to comic book creators to help them self publish. In twenty years they would award over 2.5 million dollars.

Now, Tom Waltz is a former active duty Marine serving during Desert Storm, he also served in the California National Guard, he is currently an editor for IDW and served as a writer for this graphic novel.

This collection serves as a reset on the Turtle Origin story. While a good amount of it is left the same as the other comic origins (where the Turtles and Splinter were lab animals, not pets accidentally exposed to the mutagen ooze). The turtles origin is in a botched case of corporate espionage, as they and the mutagen were stolen from the lab they were housed in by Foot Ninjas only for that to be foiled by Splinter in his pre-mutated state. Added is something only referred to a Psychotropic Compound, something that was injected into Splinter greatly increasing the rat's intelligence (thus he was a lab rat with human intelligence before he was mutated) and triggering something odd. Because in this origin the biggest deviation is the interjection of reincarnation. Splinter is not the pet rat of Hamato Yoshi, the wronged and murdered foot ninja, nor is he the ninja mutated into a rat. Instead he is the reincarnation of Hamato Yoshi and being injected with the Psychotropic Compound not only altered his physiology (as his blood now produces the compound) but awakened those memories within him. The turtles are also reincarnations, in this case the reincarnations of Hamato Yoshi's son's murdered by the Shredder many years ago. The turtles themselves don't have any memories of their prior lives but are able to learn the ninja arts at an accelerated rate, possibly due to being exposed to Splinter's blood when they were stolen by Foot Ninjas and rescued by Splinter (Oh wow… this is actually really touching in a way…). New characters are also introduced; in this case the figure of Old Hob, a mutated stray cat. His grudge against our heroes is the result of that botched break out, as a stray cat he tried to nab one of the turtles and fought Splinter. Splinter was injured and left bleeding, but Old Hob lost an eye and didn't get his meal. Old Hob seems to have taken that fight personally and made it his mission to kill the turtles and Splinter. Old Hob has also been exposed to the Psychotropic Compound through contact with Splinter's blood and uses his new intelligent for the twin goals of building an empire on the streets of New York and gaining blood soaked revenge on Splinter for daring to defend his loved ones.

There are also plenty of returning characters. April O'Neil returns as a college student, who while working as an intern Sees Too Much (™). Also we have Casey Jones, who returns as a troubled youth with a heart of gold and a drunken abusive father. Casey Jones is also Raphael’s best friend in this version and they get together at least once a week to cruise the streets and beat up criminals (Awww, they’re bonding!). There are also enemies that return here, such as the Shredder (can't really have a Turtles series without him can we?), along side of the Shredder are Kari, his granddaughter and right hand woman as well as the gang bangers Rocksteady and Bebop, although they aren't mutants yet (Aww man!). Also present in the background is the alien general Krang and taking center stage in this graphic novel, Baxter Stockmen, who was experimenting on the Turtles as a weapon development project for Krang. In this series, Baxter is a scientist and successful businessman. In fact he's the guy who develops the mutagen from the ooze provided to him by Krang. He also played a key role in the development of the psychotropic compound, but for reasons unexplained isn't able to replicate his work and as such funds (but doesn't aide) Old Hob on his quest for revenge as long as he gets Splinter's body reasonably intact at the end.

This is an origin story, a retelling of the origins of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their enemies. As such they do make it a point to make the characters work to find out just who the Foot Clan are and why Old Hob is hunting them. The series doesn't drag it out, knowing full well that most of us already know the answers to these questions so there's not much to be gained to prolonging the story. That said there are things that this series does pretty well. Perhaps due to the reincarnation angle, the feud between Shredder and Splinter feels more visceral, more driven by rage and loss then previous versions I'd seen. Additionally each of the Turtles gets an issue to themselves allowing work to be done on their characterization. The Turtles feel like individuals with their own family dynamics within the unit. Donatello, isn't just the smart nerd in the back, he's the one who openly doubts the idea of them being reincarnated people and is the one most willing to question Splinter while at the same time showing nothing but love and respect for his father. This makes him rather independent in a lot of ways. Leonardo is given more to do then just be consumed by the martial arts. He's the most spiritual of the group, the most willing to explore the idea that he might have been a Japanese teenager at one point in the past who was murdered by a warlord. He is also the Turtle most prone to accepting everything Splinter tells him, which is both a strength and weakness. Raphael is the angrest of the group but is also the first one to make a human friend. While he has a good amount of rage within, it's balanced by a desire to honestly help people. He's the one most likely to jump into a situation to help someone in trouble. Michelangelo might enjoy pizza and partying but he's also the biggest social creature out of the four and out of all of them seems to want to be able to be a part of human society the most. He's also the peace maker of the group, being the one to step in when any of the others are on the verge of brawling and reminding them of what's important.

This series carries the themes of revenge and family. Splinter wants revenge for not just his murder as Hamato Yoshi but the murder of his wife Tang Shin and their four sons. Old Hob wants revenge for his eye. What separates the two of them is that Splinter puts his love for his sons first and is willing to give up vengeance if it will be better for his children, showing a true devotion to fatherhood. Meanwhile Old Hob hates everything alive. The Turtles themselves are bound by brotherhood against a world that would hate and fear them if it knew they existed. On the flip side of that Shredder, Kari and the Foot Clan are held together by toxic and abusive versions of the family bonds that the Turtles display. We also see this in April O'Neil and Casey Jones, Jones family fell apart when his Mother died, his Father crawled into a bottle and never came back. Because of that Jones life is slowly circling the gutter and street violence is really his only outlet left. Meanwhile April's father has suffered a stroke but her family has pulled together to ensure his well being and that April finishes college. Having all these different versions of family as well as a look at revenge (for example Splinter certain has a better complaint then Old Hob but is willing to abandon it for the safety and well being of his sons. Old Hob won't drop his complaint even to save his own life) really ties the graphic novel together. I also found it a good buy in that it had 12 issues and 4 stand alones all brought together so it weights in at over 300 pages. Not bad in a world of shrinking comic page counts and rising prices. I'm giving Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol I an A.

Next week, Elves.

This review edited by Dr. Ben Allen.

Log Horizon Vol IX: Go East Kanami By Mamare Touno

Log Horizon Vol IX: Go East Kanami

By Mamare Touno

So once again we have returned to the world of Log Horizon, where thousands of players found themselves trapped in the world of Elder Tales, a MMORPG turned real. The trapped players aren't helpless because they’ve awoken in the bodies of their characters and have gained their in-game powers and abilities.  Through the actions of Shiroe, in Akiba (Which is geographically Japan, we’ll get to that later), a government has been hammered together to bring rules to the interactions between player. Peace has been made with the People of the Earth, who in the game were computer run NPCs; but are now sapient people with their own goals, desires, and feelings.  That's Japan though, where the last 8 novels have focused but what about the rest of the world? Volume IX attempts to give us a bit of a peek at the rest of the world. As such it doesn't feature any of the characters from the last eight novels but instead gives us an entirely new group battling it's way across Asia to reach Japan. Let's met these folks.

Kanami, while never directly featured has been mentioned and discussed before in the series, as she was the leader and instigator of the Debauchery Tea Party, the old group where Shiroe, Naotsugu, and Nyanta meet and formed their friendship. Kanami back then was playing a swashbuckler but now is playing a monk and was online when the game pulled everyone in.  Only she was in Europe living in Italy, with her husband (who was a member of Doctors without Borders) and young daughter. As such she's fairly interested in getting back to Earth. Kanami is a fairly whimsical woman, whose main motivation is seeing new and exciting things, but she is also a lot smarter then she lets on and fairly brave. For example looking around the chaos of Western Europe, she was able to find and recruit two powerful companions and logically figure out her best bet in achieving her goals.  Kanami wants to get back to Earth, to that end she needs to figure out what exactly happened. Odds are high that it is related to the new expansion, Homesteading the Noosphere, which was only fully implanted on the Japanese servers before everyone was transported to the world of Elder Tales. Therefore she needs to get to Japan. Given how most characters are busy losing their minds in reaction to being transported to a fantasy world that looks like a video game they were playing... That's pretty impressive. Let's look at the people she's recruited for this.

KR is another member of the Debauchery Tea Party that Kanami was able to link with.  He's a summoner, a magic class that makes its bones by summoning spirits and creatures to do their fighting for them.  KR had decided to scout out the parts of Asia closest to Japan and used a summoner skill where he transported his conscious into the body of such a servant.  In this case a horse like creature called a hakutaku from Chinese myth. KR isn't able to do much more than advise as while the hakutaku is fast and able to travel quickly for long periods of time, it's not really a combat monster.  That's okay because Kanami has other members of the party to do the actual fighting and it's not like she's a lightweight in a fight being at max level. That said she does have company on the front line.

Elias Hackblade, is an Ancient, a turbo powered NPC.  The Ancients were high powered NPCs who played a major part in the video game's backstory.  They were presented as the last line of defense for the People of Earth, powerful magic users and knights who stand between them and extinction.  However all the Ancients have disappeared leaving the People of the Earth dependent on the Adventurers (the players who have found themselves stranded) in the exact moment that the Adventurers are least able to serve the role.  Elias himself was locked into a magical sleep until Kanami found him and rescued him, thinking that such a powerful NPC might be helpful. Elias had a fairly unique backstory written out out for him but with a rather harsh weakness.  He can't actually kill monsters with his powers, as that would be kill stealing from the PCs. Back when Elder Tales was just a game, Elias was just a background character but now he's a person with his own powers of reason and motivation.  Elias wants to find out what happened to the other Ancients, why it happened and who did it because if someone out there can wipe out every powerful NPC, it's likely they don't have good things planned for the people of this world. He and Kanami aren't alone however.

Coppelia is an interesting character in her own right.   A high level cleric who Kanami found in France, she doesn't really have goals of her own but is content to follow where Kanami leads.  We learn that she does however have her own reasons for heading to Japan even if she was unlikely to do so on her own. I can't really discuss her however without dropping large spoilers so I'll just say this: it's her relationships with the other characters in this book that are pivotal or maybe I should say relationship with one certain character that's important. Let's talk about him shall we?

Leonardo, named for a popular hero who is a ninja but totally not a turtle, is a New York Geek who fled his hometown during the chaos of the change (the world of Elder Tales actually uses a half size map of Earth, which is kind of clever.  I mean think of it, you could simply use Google Earth to design your overworld, that has to save on some man hours). He did so by leaping through a not completely functional fairy ring, an instant teleportation device meant to ease travel between cities.  The darn thing dumped him in Central Asia of places. Because of the lack of player base in Central Asia, it's very undeveloped in game content but as Leonardo finds out, underdeveloped doesn't mean completely undeveloped as he finds himself trapped in a raid event all by himself until Kanami and her crew get him out.  Leonardo makes for an interesting change but is also honestly the weakest character here and I don't mean combat-wise. Most of Leonardo's character arc is taken up realizing things that we already know or seeing him commit to being a hero like his name sake. We've kinda seen this arc in the series, most effectively in Shiroe himself.  So... Why is he even here then? Don't get me wrong, he's a cool character but I don't see what he's bringing to this story that hasn't been done already.

Additionally, I'm not convinced on Leonardo's Americaness.  He doesn't act like the New Yorkers I've known, nor does he act like an American Geek.  Instead his actions and preconceptions match pretty closely with the Japanese characters we've already seen.  As far as I know Mr. Touno has never spent a lot of time in the United States, so I'm not shocked that he's not quite able to nail an American character in his first attempt.  For that matter this isn't a unique thing on his part, I've noticed European writers have problems writing North American cities and characters as anything but Europeans with slightly different accents and I'm pretty sure there are North American writers who have utterly failed to get European characters (if you’re a European fan feel free to name names in the comments!).  Now I'm not saying that any nation or people is a hive mind and all Europeans, Japanese, or North Americans will act or think or even believe the same things but there are cultural habits, beliefs and actions that make us different from one another. I've been lucky enough to speak to French men, English folks, Indonesian students, and people from Vietnam and East Timour; and we all approach things from a place that's informed by what we're taught growing up, our experiences, and places in life.  An American Geek who models himself on a Ninja Turtle (sorry, frog) isn't going to act like a Japanese shut in. I suppose that while we should always remember the things that bring us together and that we have in common, we also need to keep in mind our differences as well.

Through this story we're given a peek at the rest of the world and we're shown that Akiba's government is a rare thing, perhaps the only example of it's kind in the whole world.  A government where guilds cooperate with each other and the People of the Earth. I'm not entirely sold on that either but I'm willing to go along with it to see what Mr. Touno does with that.  Although I would admit in such a real life situation I would be a touch disappointed in my fellow Americans. I mean really guys, not one of you would not try to follow the example of James Madison and write a Constitution?  Not one of you would try to be George Washington, or at least Thomas Paine? Okay, I'm being silly here, this is a Japanese story and I shouldn't be surprised that Japan and the Japanese take center stage. The book also gives us information on the different character classes, it appears each server got a pair of it's own unique classes and I like that touch.  It's something I could see a computer game company doing to help drum up local interest. Log Horizon Volume IX is interesting in it's change of scene, Mr. Touno clearly has been to Central Asia and admits as much with his vivid description of the environment and the sky. He also introduces new plot elements and clues in the ongoing mystery of how the hell did this happened.  That said, Leonardo kinda brings the story down and having to suffer through the same character arc only from square one is a bit grating. The other characters help to an extent but I find myself asking why couldn't Kanami have center stage instead of Leonardo, as she at least has her shit together and it's her goals and agenda driving the plot in the first place, not to mention it's her name in the title.  Log Horizon Volume IX: Go East Kanami by Mamare Touno gets a C+ from me. Not awfully done but Mr. Touno should be more careful in retreading the same character arc over and over.

Man, now I want to review some Ninja Turtles.  You know what let me post our schedule.

Next Week, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the IDW Collection I.
After that, Delcourt Comics, Elves I
We'll kick off June with Maus Vol I and then Vol II.
Then we go historical with Trail of Hop and Black Wings.

Keep Reading!


This review edited by Dr. Ben Allen.

Dwarves Vol VI: Jorun of the Forge by Nichols Jarry

Dwarves Vol 6: Jorun of the Forge

by Nichols Jarry, Art by Pierre Denis Goux

“He's a legend and I'm nothing” Jorun, son of Redwin. 

In the dim past of March 2017, I reviewed a French fantasy comic with the rather undescriptive title of “Dwarves”, written by the prolific Nichols Jarry; who has a large number of comics and novels to his name in his native France published by Delcourt comics. They are still the 3rd largest publisher of comics within the French publishing world. It was then that I learned something marvelous and very frustrating. Despite our long political alliance and the fact that France is our 3rd largest trading partner in Europe, there doesn't seem to be a lot of exchange between us in regards to entertainment and fiction. There is some don't get me wrong, we all joke about French Art Films (I'm sure they joke about American Action Films) and such. But perhaps through an accident of history, we honestly get more comics, movies, and video games from Asia; especially from South Korea and Japan, or at least not a lot of French products end up here. I'm sure if this review series has any French fans, they would be quick to inform me that there is quiet enough American entertainment in France but back to the comic. The comic I reviewed was Volume I: Redwin of the Forge (go read it!), which dealt with the struggles of Redwin, a young Dwarf who had to learn how to control himself and just what it was he wanted in the world. I found the comic fascinating and bought the follow up volumes that, while set in the same world, did not really connect with Redwin's tale. Until now.

Jorun, our main character for this story, is Redwin's youngest son. Redwin has retired and given up on a life of violence and death, preferring to focus on being a blacksmith, husband, and father. For the most part he manages it but every child brings special challenges. In this case it's Jorun, a son who in his own eyes has inherited none of his father's talents in blacksmithing and fighting, but he has inherited his father's nearly bottomless rage and self loathing. It doesn't help that Jorun's older brother Ulrog (named for his grandparents) is a exceptionally talented smith and fighter; as well as charming, friendly and well... everything Jorun isn't,and that only feeds that rage further. This is sparked by a accident in Redwin's forge where Jorun scars himself as a young child and sets the tone for his entire life. People tell him what he should do to avoid getting hurt and angry with the world and he ignores them. He then gets hurt and lashes out. This pattern continues throughout his childhood with his Father trying to reign him in and only pouring fuel on the fire. This leaves both of them completely at the end of their rope with each other. Part of it is Redwin seeing himself in Jorun, his younger, self destructive, angry self that left a trail of death and ruin in his wake. Part of it is Jorun so damn sure that he’s inherited nothing of value from his father and refusing to consider any other options. This continues until after one last escalation, Redwin decides that there's only one step he can take to avoid a future where he and his son try to kill each other. He takes his youngest son and inducts him into the Iron Legion.

The Iron Legion is a mercenary army that takes in the reckless, the desperate, those with no hope and no future. It's a place where those accused of crimes or rejected by their families or even those who simply can find no other way to live can start over. All the Legion asks is utter obedience to their code, relentless training, and that you abandon your past and consider the Legion your new family. If this sounds like the Foreign Legion for Dwarves, you wouldn't be far wrong I think. Redwin sends his youngest son to them, leaving Jorun a magic sword as his birthright. Jorun for his part cuts himself off from his family entirely, burning the letters his Mother sends to him and burying himself in the Legion life. It's here that Jorun finds the mentor he needs, who strangely enough was an apprentice of Jorun's grandfather Ulrog. I mentioned in my last review that Ulrog's life was an utter mystery and here we are only given slight hints and clues. What did Ulrog have to do with the Iron Legion? Why did he leave? What drove him to adopt a strict pacifism that he would only drop to save his son's life? Under new mentorship, Jorun manages to contain his rage enough to have friends and even a lover but he's still just holding it back and he still cannot restrain his self loathing. However, he's going to have to learn to come to peace with not just himself but with his family and his past. Because his Father's past is coming and if they can't figure out how to deal with it, there might not be anyone around for Jorun to be angry with anymore. Because ye olde forces of darkness are marching on Dwarf lands once more and the divided Fortress states are dithering and quibbling instead of uniting. Jorun is going to have to decide what is most important to him and make decisions that will dictate the rest of his life from there on out.

This is a story about family, what brings it together and what drives it apart. Whether it be a Mother's love for her son, or a Father frustration with being unable to communicate with his son or a son's inability to look past his self loathing and anger with the world. Like Redwin, Jorun has to learn to deal with his flaws and find his place in the world. The writing is well done, Jorun is not a very likeable character bluntly but he is sympathetic in a way, as you realize as much as you might dislike him, Jorun dislikes himself even more. That said he doesn't whine about it, this book wasn't dripping in angst but it does dictate his actions. The art as always is amazing. The Dwarves look distinctive from humans even without the height difference and it's done without venturing into the uncanny valley. The action is captured in a very dramatic style and the colors are used in very nice way. That said, I do have to state for the record that the Iron Legion armor design is bloody ridiculous. Stop layering spikes everywhere guys, it's actually more dangerous for the guy wearing the armor then anyone else and makes standing in a shield wall or any other close formation an act of bloody insanity. You cannot stand in close file if the spikes layered all over the guy next to you are as likely to stab you as the enemy. Still that only real complaint I have here. So I'll be giving Dwarves Vol 6: Jorun of the Forge an A.

Next Week? We head eastward, join us for Log Horizon volume 9. Keep reading.

This review edited by Dr. Ben Allen

Read my review of Volume I here: http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2017/03/dwarves-vol-1-redwin-of-forge-by.html

Bookburners season I By Max Gladstone, Margaret Dunlap, Mur Lafferty, Brian Francis Slattery

Bookburners season I

By Max Gladstone, Margaret Dunlap, Mur Lafferty, Brian Francis Slattery

In the grim darkness of last November, I reviewed a book called “The Witch That Came In From The Cold”. It told an interesting story but the thing that set it apart (other then it's setting and characters but I digress) was the fact that it was written episodically. The book was a collection of episodes, each telling a complete story set within a greater story line. I discussed that at length in that review and I think it was recent enough that I won't repeat it. If you haven't taken a look at it, I would encourage you do so and then come back here. There will be a link at the bottom of this review. Now let's take a look at the authors of this work.

Max Gladstone was born in 1984 and studied Chan poetry and late Ming Dynasty fiction at Yale, then lived and taught Anhui province which is one of the smallest and more undeveloped provinces of the People's Republic of China. As you might imagine he speaks Chinese, he also sort of reads Latin and is strangely proud of having a horse in Mongolia throw him (I think I like this guy). Margaret Dunlap is a producer and writer, known for among other things, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Eureka and more. Mur Lafferty was born in 1973 and is an American podcaster and writer. She was the host of Escape Pod from 2010 to 2012 and is the creator and host of I Should be Writing (why does that phrase echo in my backbone?). She is also the editor in chief of the short fiction magazine Mothership Zeta. Last but not least is Brian Francis Slattery, an American writer and editor at the New Haven Review, he has also written four novels with two of them taking place in a collapsed United States.

Bookburners however takes place in our own modern world, just in the part of the world most of us can't see. Our world with our concepts of orderly natural laws, is an island amidst an ocean of chaos. In that ocean of chaos live sea monsters, both great and small. When human wade out from the island we've painfully built for ourselves or dig a metaphorical channel for these monsters to come inland, we call that magic. Magic is dangerous. It's laws, if there are any, are obscure and full of exceptions. To deal in magic is to traffic more often then not with monsters or to deal with powers you can't understand. Your average magic user is a toddler with a set of medical scalpels, running loose in a kindergarten (Sounds like excellent Evil Medical School recruitment material. Wait what? Did I say that out loud?). To prevent the destruction of civilization and keep our world from being overrun by monsters from beyond the pale the Catholic Church (I feel like there are a lot of Helsing and Reformation jokes I could make here) has assembled a number of teams under the banner of the Societas Librorum Occultorum with a single mission. That mission is to hunt down magical artifact, relics, and above all else books; stop any active magic due to these objects; contain the magical object in question; and bring it into the Vatican Library (And now there’s a heist movie. Liberate libros!). Books are the single most dangerous of the items in question, not only because they can spread the knowledge of magic but because most magical books have sealed within them beings that we can only call demons due to their power and sheer disregard for human life and dignity. However the members of the Societas Librorum are also racing against the tide, because more and more magical events are happening every year and sooner or later one of them is going to spin out of control and become uncontainable. They aren't the only people aware of this however, there are a great many organizations and private individuals who seek to control or at least understand magic. These people also seek out the books, to use them or make deals with the creatures imprisoned within them.

None of that would be a concern for New York Police Detective Sally (Sal) Brooks. She just wants to be a good cop and be able to deal with the things she sees while on duty. However when her little brother Perry shows up at her apartment panicking because of a book he found, claiming he's being followed by “them” she finds herself pulled into a world that she had no idea was there. This is because the book that Perry found is called the Liber Manus, or The Book of the Hand in English, and is one of those books that could end the world if it isn't kept closed and locked away. Confronting the demon locked in the book that has taken over her brother takes a heavy toll and Perry is left comatose after suffering a demonic possession (Ouch. How did she confront the demon? Did she find an old priest and a young priest in the middle of a crisis of faith?). From there Sal finds herself assigned to Team Three, the team whose job is to find, confront, and contain the books and the problems they create. Sal is our viewpoint character as a rookie and an outsider on the team as she works to prevent magic from destroying lives; she also peels back the secrets of her team, the society it works for, and the Catholic church itself .

She's working alongside some interesting folks as well. There's Liam, a computer hacker whose life was torn apart when he dabbled with powers he didn't understand. Rescued by team three, he's a bit of a fanatic and is downright frightened of magic. This leads to him clashing with Asanti, the archivist and senior member of the team who studies magic and is less frightened and more fascinated by it. Grace, a woman from China whose relationship with the team and with magic itself is...it’s complicated but she provides the muscle needed to confront the things that go bump in the night. Father Arturo Menchu is a Catholic Priest and the leader of the team, his feelings towards magic are closer to Liam's as his introduction was the destruction of his home and loved ones while he was trying to save them. That said he tempers those feeling with his faith and his desire to help people. So as you can see even within the team there is a fair amount of conflict over what to do with magic in general. This actually makes the team and the people on it feel more real and it makes magic feel more real within the story. The team isn't a hive mind with everyone agreeing and anyone who doesn't being automatically wrong. Instead these are people with very individual reactions due to their specific experiences that inform their stances and prejudices. They do care about each other and are willing to put their lives on the line for each other. That doesn't mean there aren't times where they simply don't like each other very much or where their disagreements don't run the risk of driving them apart.

For that matter, as you might have guessed Team Three isn't the only team on the Catholic Church's roster. Team One, is who you call in when the only solution is pure violence (Even more Helsing jokes). They're a cross between magically powered special forces team and an anti-monster SWAT team. Meanwhile Team Two is the cover up team, removing evidence, planting false evidence, making sure witnesses stay quiet and they do this through some rather questionable means at times. So even while Team Three has its own disagreements they also have bigger disagreements with the other teams which are in turn dwarfed by their disagreements with the other side. So you get less of a feeling of a well managed organization devoted to a common goal and more of an unstable alliance of people with common experiences and understandings who dislike what the bad guys are planning more than what their allies are. What do I like about this is that the writers don't shy away from showing the implications and fall outs of such thing and make it pretty clear that this is a result of a failure of leadership (I feel like there’s some social commentary here.). When you have teams in your organization with such diverse responsibilities and goals there's going to be tension and rivalries. This is normal and in some ways healthy! When your teams turn into opposing ideological camps however, you've failed to keep everyone focused on their common mission and the things that bind them gather. Speaking from my own experience this could have been prevented by cross training and having members of each team working with an opposite number from another team for a mission or three. There are also certain operatives that should have had choke chains applied to their necks a lot sooner but you'll have to read the book for that (Next time on Adventures in Management Failure…). Either way the teams could have been prevented from descending into such open ideological differences with some basic leadership.

That said , it's this ideological conflict over how we should treat and interact with magic that drives the overarching story; while many of the episodes are focused on chasing down magical artifacts and the monsters that love them. There are as I mentioned entire societies devoting themselves to studying or using magic and they exist in a state of conflict with the teams of the Catholic Church. So I find myself less interested in their conflicts with the demonic creatures of darkness and more with their conflicts with other human beings. This is because the conflict with the demons that show up here is fairly simple. They want to destroy our civilization and reduce us to chattel and livestock. We don't want that and work to stop them. There's frankly not a lot of room for argument there, you’re either for or against us. Don't get me wrong, there's still a lot of compelling storytelling that can be told in a conflict like this and the writers of Bookburners manage to tell a good, compelling story with raising stakes in such cases. For me however, it's when the team comes face to face with a collector of books who is actively seeking the very powers they're trying to lock away and they have to deal with the ramifications of such things that is way more interesting.

Another thing I like is how magic is portrayed in this book. In a lot of fantasy series, magic is basically a tame force. It responses predictability and consistency with any risk in it's practice being given lip service at best. This can work perfectly fine in a fantasy setting on another world but in an urban fantasy setting that takes place in our world, you're left asking... Why isn't the use of magic public and openly studied if it's so predictable and safe? In Bookburners, there's nothing predictable or safe about the use of magic. Magic means dealing with alien and often malevolent intelligences to alter the universe in direct defiance of the physical laws we know and understand. It means playing with forces whose rules we do not and maybe are unable to understand and as such the reactions of our poking it are unpredictable. Something as innocent as a wish to make your restaurant the best restaurant in town can end up enslaving your wait staff and turning your kitchen into some strange meat pit from hell (Welcome to Meat Hab). Simply reading from the wrong book can end up burning out your brain and tearing out your soul, leaving you a puppet to an invading force that considers sapient thought the prefered spice for a good meal. When magic behaves like that and carries enough risk that the average magician can accidentally end human civilization through a round of drunk casting, it makes perfect sense for large groups of powerful people think that it simply isn't worth the risk of poking. This is a force that makes things like gunpowder and electricity look like a child's toy in its potential to destroy and ruin. So even if you don't entirely agree with the Catholic Church's methods and goals... You understand why they're doing this because magic set free doesn't just pose a risk to individuals but to everyone. On the flip side, we see just enough potential for what magic can do that we can see why some people would think it's worth the risk (I’ll be honest… I’d be really tempted to Read the Latin(™){This is why you never get recruited to fight ye olde powers of darkness}). The magic here has more to do with H.P Lovecraft then Disney.

This is one of the better urban fantasies I've read lately, if one of the darker ones. There are a lot of mature themes in this story and it's held up by well done characterization of all the members of Team Three. It helps that while Sal is our viewpoint character, we do get to spend time in the heads of each team member and we get to understand not only what they think but why they think it. The writers also do an amazing job of keeping the tone of the work and treatment of the characters fairly consistent throughout the book even through each episode in the book has a different writer. That can be hard to do and takes a lot of communication and trust between the members of the group. So I would like to take a moment to congratulate the four authors of this book just for that accomplishment. Not to mention taking a group that in many stories would be the bad guys and giving them their own space to present their case. Bookburners by Max Gladstone, Margaret Dunlap, Mur Lafferty and Brian Francis Slattery gets an A from me. You can pick up the print version like I did on Amazon or your local bookstore or buy the season digitally from serial box, see the link below.

Whew... I just finished and reviewed a book with... 790 pages... In a week. I think it's time for something short readers. So next week, we're returning to the dwarves, join us for a graphic novel. Keep Reading!

You can read bookburners on line at https://www.serialbox.com/serials/bookburners?season=1

You can read my review of The Witch Who Came in from the Cold at  http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-witch-who-in-came-from-cold-created.html

This review edited by Dr. Ben Allen.