Magus of the Library Volume III By Mitsu Izumi

 Magus of the Library Volume III

By Mitsu Izumi

So we proceed with a series that is rapidly becoming a favorite of mine, Magus of the Library. Where our hero, the book-loving Theo Fumis, gives it everything he has to become a member of the central library. This is honestly a great series that comes from a love of just not books but of learning and texts of all sorts. The Library system isn't just about preserving books and ensuring that everyone gets access to them but also about preserving culture and knowledge; as well as promoting cross-cultural ties and understanding (It is what good libraries do, and why librarians are always awesome.  All Librarians Are Awesome.). I'll be honest folks, I'm all for it. It's not just celebrating books, which I agree is incredibly important; it's the idea that reaching out and understanding each other across cultural lines is a good thing.  We don't need to live apart and isolated. But let's actually review the story shall we?

Volume III takes place mostly in the city of Aftzaak, the city of books. Aftzaak isn't just the headquarters of the Library system or the location of the central library, it's a cultural and academic capital of an entire continent.  The city was placed in a central location on the continent.  This gives each of the six dominant cultures and races of the continent equal access to it.  These cultures are very different from each in their dress, traditions, and social codes but the library seeks to promote ties between them. Part of that is by promoting universal literacy and education.  This is to try and create a cosmopolitan class of people and prevent the rise of xenophobia. By some measure, they have succeeded as even remote villages have primary schools that are open to everyone free of charge (Universal literacy is probably the most important thing a society can do, and historically one of the first things a communist society does.  Someone who cannot read is virtually always at the mercy of someone who does, which is why, for instance, you should always be deeply suspicious about the motives of someone wanting to make English, for instance, the official language of the United States.  The powerful people who promote that position want immigrants with poor English fluency at their mercy.).

In this volume and the last one, we learned why over 90 years a great supernatural evil befell the world, and seven Magi from different peoples and cultures united to fight it. However, in the aftermath of the ruinous struggle, the races and cultures of the continent turned on each other, fighting over resources and space. This also led to a bout of ethnic cleansing or to be blunter attempted genocide (They’re the same thing.  Genocides don’t need to be complete to be genocides.). While the surviving Magi were able to stop it, there were still heavy losses and the library was their great gamble to prevent it from happening again. As the scars and memories of the last round of conflicts fade and a new generation of leaders comes to the forefront there is a fear that some will pursue their own narrow self-interest and choose violence.

Theo is not aware of any of this, as much of the “prevent war and genocide” agenda is something the library keeps under wraps. Even if he was, he has enough stress simply focusing on things like "can I pass the entrance exams or will I embarrass myself and by extension everyone in my home village?".  In the last volume, we saw that the first round alone was incredibly stressful. The written exam was designed to weed out people unable to manage their time effectively or use basic references. This was done by making the test so extensive and broad in subject matter that you simply couldn't just memorize everything it covers.  In fact, we saw some hopeful test-takers just crack under the stress and give up right then and there. (I am suddenly reminded of the movie Real Geniuses.)

In this volume, we see the second and third parts of the examinations, that being an oral interview and the final exam. The oral interview itself is glossed over in the story, which I thought was likely a good choice since it would have bogged down the pace of the story. Instead, time was devoted to Theo actually seeing the city. This is where the art of the story really comes into play and let me tell you the city is fantastically drawn, with spellbinding inhabitants and marvelous vistas. My biggest regret is again that the art is in black and white. We also get to examine the nature of Theo's own gifts, which is that he is naturally gifted with a large storehouse of mana. Water mana specifically, this mana also enhances his physical abilities which are demonstrated when Theo finds himself briefly in the crossfire of an emergency. (Which likely means he’ll also be learning magic at some point?{already knows a bit but I assume he'll be learning more})

Much of the book is focused on the third exam, which is a team project. I will pause for a moment while everyone who has had experience with a team project in high school or college winces and curses. I know I did, I mean it has been years and I am salty about a team project I did in population statistics (For me, it was Genetics.). Now, there are reasons that the Kafna do this to poor innocent teenagers just reaching out for their dreams. Some of those are even good reasons as if you're going to spend a lot of time and resources on training people, you better make sure they can actually operate in the environment and under the methodology required. Still, I can't really say I'm a fan, maybe that is my individualism over everything American side speaking though (We live in a Society.  And sometimes, regrettably, you have to work in groups.  Of course in the real world, you often get to pick your groups, or at least have a baseline level of competence and dedication in the group you’re working in.).

Throughout the story, we get hints that not everything is as pleasant and harmonious as the Library would like it to be and it's very possible that Theo might be emerging into adulthood at a time when young men and women are going to be asked to put themselves on the line to keep the system from crashing down. The story itself remains rather light-hearted despite these dark hints, which even has a discussion between Theo and his mentor about how his mentor failed in his original dream but that failure has allowed him to do a lot of good in helping others like Theo achieve their dreams.

That lends the volume a bit of bittersweet depth, the idea that sometimes your failure can lead to you being the springboard for someone else's success. I don't know how much of a comfort that would be but at least you would know you had a positive impact on the world around you. Honestly, in my view, if we don't leave something positive behind for the people who come after us, what is the point? What does all the wealth and power and influence in the world amount to if you don't leave something good behind you when you go? (Nothing.  A lesson the Elon Musks of the world will learn when they are worked to the bone in the glitter mines after the Gay Communist Revolution.{Once again the views of the editor are not the view of the review as a whole and I take no responsibility for him})

With a healthy mix of lore and action to keep the pace moving and draw the reader more into Theo's world, Volume III helps us grasp the stakes of the story as well as shows us Theo's coming of age. It's well written and drawn with great attention to detail providing something very enjoyable. Magus of the Library Volume III gets an A from me.

I hope you enjoyed this review.  If you did, consider joining the ranks of our everwise patrons, who will with some luck be getting the first view on a special project in July.  You can join us for as little as a dollar a month at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads Next week Volume IV of Magus of the Library. 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

GI Joe Volume X By Larry Hama

GI Joe Volume X

By Larry Hama

So we have reached Volume 10 in our coverage of the original Marvel comic run of GI Joe by the legendary but still underappreciated Larry Hama. This graphic novel collects issue 91 which was released in October 1989 to issue 100 which was released in May 1990. That's right folks we've hit the 90s so buckle up (For queer liberation.  Oh, wait…this is GI Joe, not the actual 1990s, which we seem to be reliving in a traumatic way.  Don’t mind me, I’ll just be over here, trying to resurrect the Gay Liberation Front. {Considering you’re in Florida, you kinda need to}).

At this point, Cobra has been reunited under Destro's firm capitalist boot and he is vastly less interested in taking over the world than the old Cobra Commander was. Destro does instead take advantage of Cobra's legal status as a sovereign nation to provide a front for the activities of his own MARS corporation (As insane as it is, this isn’t even far off. So yeah, I’ll allow it!). MARS is frankly...  Well, imagine you took the worse parts of aristocratic tradition, Scientology, Blackwater, and Lockheed Martin. Then add just a dash of British Petroleum just to make sure the immoral disregard of anything besides profit is maintained. I mean, not only does Destro maintain a private army that he'll hire out but he'll push or even start wars to make a profit ending them(So, United Fruit, or US Steel? {A united fruit expy is actually one of the competitors that Destro tears down in this graphic novel}). He's also incredibly good at his job and will keep his word to the letter, which lets him build up repeat customers who will excuse his many sins. Because after all, it was only business.

Don't get me wrong, Destro is happy to further the Cobra agenda of destroying American democracy and rule of law from within and without but only to remove American industry as a competitor and turn the US into a possible market (*Snickers at the irony*). This has left the Joes flailing a bit as they were built to fight a fascist terrorist cult, not a slippery amoral terrorist corporation (*Laugh-Cries in Communist* {Look to fight someone like Destro you need a lawfare division and a PR Corps in addition to kinetic operations forces, the Joes simply don’t have that}). Still, they're able to check the greatest of Destro's ambitions and keep their forces in the field when everyone else has been crushed so that says something.

That's not all that's going on though. We also see the end of the Zartan and Red Ninja Vengeance arc here. Vengeance and the price of vengeance have long been a running theme in this comic series. Earlier we had the epic feud between the mercenary Kwinn and the Cobra mad scientist Dr. Venom, Kwinn's pursuit of vengeance led to his death and the fear of vengeance led to Dr. Venom's death. Learning to let go of vengeance is what lets Storm Shadow rise above his own base urges and become a better person. It also allowed Snake Eyes to start rebuilding his life and consider pursuing a future with Scarlet.

In this graphic novel, Zartan has to make a choice as to whether or not to keep riding the road of vengeance and lashing out at the Joes in fear of them taking revenge for his actions, accidentally killing one of Storm Shadow and Snake Eye's ninja teachers, or to move on and try to atone. Honestly, this is the strongest part of the graphic novel and it doesn't involve a single member of the Joe team unless we count Billy, Cobra Commander's son.

Ironically the weakest part of the novel also involves the same themes. In this case, with Snake Eyes deciding to no longer live in the past.  He travels to Switzerland with Scarlet to see a world-renowned plastic surgeon. While Scarlet might not give a damn about Snake Eyes' face, he wants to be able to walk down the street and feel the sunlight on his own skin without invoking horror and to some of us even worse, pity, from everyone who sees him. He and Scarlet have an on-screen conversation about this and Scarlet can pick up his point from just a few gestures. This speaks volumes about how deep and strong their connection has grown over the time of this series, as I don't think they could have had this conservation back in Issue 1. This is what I mean about Mr. Hama being underappreciated, he shows us the depth that has grown over time here through character actions in the story.  Snake Eyes basically wants a life outside the shadows with Scarlet and frankly, he's earned it a million times over at this point.

Sadly he is betrayed and while he's being operated on the remote mountain villa that the surgeon works out of comes under attack by Cobra operatives led by the Baroness. This is where we get into the part I don't like. See, the Baroness is here to score vengeance of her own because she believes that back in Vietnam that Snake Eyes killed her brother. He was a humanitarian who was bringing in medical supplies for the Vietnamese people and I'm going to keep the details under my Captain America Hat but suffice to say there was a firefight, Snake Eyes was the only one standing and Baroness has never forgiven him.  That hate drove her to become an internationally hated terrorist just to find and kill him (People in this comic seriously need therapy. All of them. {Stalker and Road Block actually seem fairly well adjusted honestly. I would happily point to them as role models}).

On its own, it's not that big of a deal but considering that Snake Eyes is also connected to Storm Shadow, Stalker, Zartan, Cobra Commander, the defector Crimson Guardsmen Wade Collins, and even more... It starts to feel like the planet doesn't revolve around the sun, it revolves around Snake Eyes. I mean am I going to find out that he's secretly related to Hawk, Gung Ho, and Roadblock as well as the secret heir to never-damned-enough Cobra-La as well? Why not make Snake Eyes father the true heir to the MARS corporation while we're at it!?! Dear writers, you can over-connect your characters. Just to throw out an example. It would have been more interesting if Baroness had a grudge against Scarlet since she was supposed to be in intelligence before joining the Joes. I mean it would let Scarlet have something that had nothing to do with Snake Eyes right? (That would be nice, yes.)

That said the battle between Scarlet defending a Snake Eyes who is down under medical anesthesia from around two squads of vipers and the Baroness is tense and exciting, and the end result is something you’ve got to read. I also did enjoy Snake Eyes' reaction to this and the humanity he shows to Baroness... Eventually, there's a lot of Snake Eyes burning her world down around her ears going on at first but in all fairness, she did try to kill him. I just wish we didn't have yet another character whose entire motivation and origin were wrapped up with Snake Eyes. I mean, at this point we could have prevented the whole series by just having Snake Eyes arrive home one day earlier or later, and then Cobra never gets founded, the Hard Master is never killed tearing Storm Shadow's world apart and the Joes remain normal soldiers who likely serve their time and go home.

The story is still very well written and I really like the characters despite my annoyance at the over-focus on Snake Eyes. Don't get me wrong, I like Snake Eyes but there are other Joes on this team! Oh, there's also a huge surprise in this volume, which means I'm going to tell you not to skip it but I don't want to spoil it. So I'll wait until we review Volume 11, where the return of a long-missing character kick-starts a huge pile of fecal matter hitting the old rotating blade. Until then Volume X by Larry Hama is gonna get a B from me.

We hope you enjoyed this week's review which was chosen by our ever-wise patrons. Our patrons vote every month for upcoming reviews as well as have discussions about theme months and new directions for the review series. For example, our patrons voted on a project I’ve been working on that should be ready for release this summer.  We’re gonna keep that project between us and the patrons for now though.  If you’d like to join us for as little as a dollar a month, head over to https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads hope to see you there.  Next week is Magus of the Library Volume 3.  Until then, stay safe and keep reading!

Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen

Black text is your reviewer Garvin Anders

Heroic Legend of Arslan Vol II By Yoshiki Tanaka

 Heroic Legend of Arslan Vol II

By Yoshiki Tanaka

So our first review of Heroic Legend of Arslan was just last month. So let me do an incredibly brief recap here. Warning there are spoilers for Volume I ahead!

Our story focuses on Arslan who is the royal prince of a nation called Pars (Death to all monarchists! {I’d like to note again that the views of my editor are not the views of this review}). Pars is an ancient nation steeped in wealth and culture, defended by its large army of renowned cavalrymen. Much of its wealth comes from its position on the continental highway, a vast trade route linking the east and west. This position and its wealth makes it a target, in this case for the religiously fanatical armies of Lusitania. A built-in weakness of the nation is that the people of Pars own slaves. A lot of slaves. The Lusitanian religion forbids slavery but their version of the religion calls for the slaughter of non-believers so I feel it's not as big of a virtue as it could be (I mean, no… but at the same time, I revere John Brown and Nat Turner so…{John Brown didn’t call for the execution of all non-Christians}). This is a pressing concern for our hero Arslan as his first battle ends up being a brutal defeat for the men of Pars. With his father the King missing (From what I remember of that King… good.), and the main field army scattered, Arslan is trying to escape capture and rally resistance.

Arslan is aided in this by the quick-witted and frankly scarily capable knight Daryun. In volume I, we watched Daryun kill pretty much an entire platoon of Lusitanian troops single-handedly to get young Arslan out of danger (That is… a disturbing level of competence.). Even with his terrifying killing skills, Daryun can't beat an entire army by himself. I mean if nothing else his arms will get tired by the sheer amount of killing that would take (Yeah, he’d get thirsty if nothing else.). So he takes his prince and flees to the smartest guy he knows, the disgraced noble Narsus. Now, Narsus is a genius in a lot of ways but he fell into disgrace when he pushed for universal emancipation of the slave class (Very good reason to fall into disgrace.). While this does make him the smartest and most moral man in Pars, it also made him a target of every wealthy man in Pars.

So our story takes us to Narsus’ mountain cabin, where he lives simply with a single free servant Elam. Here Narsus lives in nature and paints, pursuing the idea of leaving behind fine art for future generations to appreciate. The problem here is that while he's a genius, he's also a terrible artist (I feel seen.). So it's more likely some terrified art critic will burn the works after his death to protect future generations. Elam is an interesting character as well, the son of liberated slaves (Narsus freed the men and women of his estate as soon as he legally could), he is fiercely devoted to Narsus' well-being and comfort. This doesn't stop him from lecturing Narsus or berating him if he feels Narsus is acting foolishly, which makes for a fun dynamic (I’m getting bickering gay couple vibes.).

We're also introduced to the character Gieve, a freewheeling minstrel who is skilled in music and fighting. He's also a fairly mercenary sort and while he's willing to do a good deed, he's very much focused on finding a way to get out of the warzone. Preferably with as much loot as he can carry. To be fair to him, it's not like he's a soldier or this is his war to start with. On the other hand, he's also the kind of guy who thinks nothing of lying to women to get into bed with them and I find that rather contemptible at best (Definitely contemptible.). I've also found that if you'll lie to score some fun time in bed, you'll lie about other things so claims that such a person can still be a trustworthy and dependable sort seem rather dubious at best to me. A lie we all tell ourselves to avoid facing the fact that yes, such behavior is bad at worst. As you can guess, I'm not terribly fond of him so far but maybe I'll warm up to him later.

On the other side, we see more of a mysterious character only known as Silvermask. This is due to the fact that he wears a silver mask over the top part of his face and a long black cloak. He seems very familiar with Pars and has a hell of a grudge against the royal family (I can’t blame someone for having a grudge against royals…). This is paired with at least one member of the upper nobility openly betraying the royal family. This brings me to my biggest gripe with the graphic novel. Several times our traitor is asked by a former comrade in arms and his response?

“You wouldn't understand!”

Which is such a damn cop-out. I mean, I've never heard anyone with a good reason wail that, especially to people they've fought with, ate with, and socialized with for decades (Yeah, normally they have some kind of manifesto, or will recite their soliloquy.). Dear writers, please don't use this excuse, come up with something! I realize that our writer is trying to maintain suspense but he could have his traitor say he's been sworn to secrecy. He could have his traitor declare the men he's fighting damn well know why. He could point to the King being a dick or just flat-out lie. It is okay to have your characters flat-out lie to each other in the story by the way, in some cases that can improve the story! Hell, have the story cut away every time he does explain! Don't pull this lame you wouldn't understand crap though, because it basically screams that there's no good in-story reason for the character not to explain, but I don't want you the reader to know yet. Which yanks me right out of the story!

I wouldn't complain about it so much except every other part of this story is so well done. Narsus is convincingly written as smart and canny for example. On top of that other characters don't magically turn into idiots around him, which helps make him look smarter since he's surrounded by smart people being smart! Arslan continues to be a good and decent kid trying his best to do his royal duty to resist the invasion of his home. The Lusitanians are written in a very human manner, with the foot soldiers being true believers but still resentful of churchmen who didn't fight getting the first pick of the loot (And that’s your angle on how to turn them against the invasion…), as well as loathing churchmen who do nothing but torture and kill captives. Instead of an army of orcs, we get an army of human beings. Human beings who are behaving brutally, but current events are showing us that if anyone is capable of inhuman behavior, it's a person utterly convinced of their righteousness.

It's a single glaring flaw in a well-written story that is rather effortlessly pulling me in but it is a flaw. Otherwise, the tactics, the dialogue, and actions of the characters are all very well done and the characters themselves are increasingly complex and motivated by a variety of drives that make what could have been a very simple and boring fantasy war into an increasingly complicated and intricate 20 car pile-up of agendas and conflicting desires. I'm enjoying it and I do recommend it. However, Volume II is getting an A- from me.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s review which was requested by one of our ever-wise patrons. You can join us at  https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads where right now there is a vote as to whether or not to change our patron ranking and rewards.  So for a dollar a month you can not only decide what books get reviewed but what the patron structure will look like in the future!  Next week we’ll be covering our most requested review of the month GI Joe volume X.  Until then, stay safe and keep reading!

@Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen

@Black text your reviewer Garvin Anders

Atomic Robo and the Shadow from Beyond Time By Brian Clevinger

 Atomic Robo and the Shadow from Beyond Time

By Brian Clevinger

“There's no such thing as Time Travel” 

Atomic Robo... To his own younger self... 

(Fun thing, readers.  We are on the eleventh Review document.  Each one is a hundred pages long, on average.  So we have over a thousand pages of these things.) 

 So the good news about these graphic novels, so far, is that each one tells a self-contained story. So you can pick up Volume I, II, or III, and without any prior knowledge sit down and start reading. That said, let me hit the high concept driving this series. First, Super Science, the kind you see in comics and some science fiction movies? Works. Second, Nikola Tesla was just as good and intelligent as the internet wants him to be (In reality he was brilliant and slightly insane.  He loved that pigeon…). In fact, he was so good and smart that in the 1920s he created a living person out of metal, driven by some unknown atomic energy. That person happens to be our protagonist and most certainly epic hero Atomic Robo Tesla and yes that is his actual factual legal name.

In Volume III, we got to see Robo in four separate periods of his life as he deals with a creature that seeks not only to destroy our world but our whole physical reality. Starting in the 1920s, when a pair of old associates of his father, Tesla, comes knocking at their New York home. It's revealed that Nikola himself once lived a life of adventure and now unfinished business is coming back to haunt everyone. This is a problem because Tesla is currently in California and they’ve got minutes to act. Luckily, young Robo is here with the power of science guns and the burning desire to be a hero (He’s so sweet and earnest.).

This introduces an interesting idea that Tesla has a large part of his life that he simply doesn't tell Robo about. Then again, isn't that the way with all kids and their parents (Not if you ask the reactionary fucks I had to listen to four hours at a school board meeting. They demand Total Informational Awareness of their kids, including whether they are LGBTQ, so they can proceed to abuse them into suicide exercise parental authority to teach them Christian values. {Weird how those values never show up in the New Testament but go on I guess (Oh of course not.  These people and their “Christian Values” would make Jesus puke.)}).  This volume does this by showing a father and son dynamic between Tesla and Robo. Tesla clearly wants Robo to be safe and seems to want to protect him from the outside world, and does that by isolating him (Which is accidental abuse in this case.  {Considering what’s waiting for Robo outside, I kinda get where Tesla is coming from}). I can understand why large chunks of that world would simply refuse to consider him a person. I mean, if I somehow became a super genius and built mechanical life in my garage, I could see any number of forces in our society go all out to strip that life of legal person-hood and reduce it to a commodity(Oh hell yeah.  In a heartbeat!). I mean, we do this to each other, which is one of the reasons I honestly believe that as a species we have no right to be attempting to create new sapient lifeforms. Not until we can work out our own shit and figure out how to treat each other with dignity and respect and guys, we're nowhere close to there yet (No we are not.. Take your collective desire for Artificial General Intelligence, fellow nerds, and put it on a shelf.  We are not ready.  All we’d do is create a mechanical slave-race.{Also if you have to ask why that is bad, you’re part of the reason we’re not ready!}).

On the flip side, Robo is alive and young and as such he wants to be out in the world experiencing it. This isn't the mainstay of this volume, however. What is the focus of this novel is how Robo at different points of his life deals with a threat that would reduce most of us to gibbering wrecks and might have been what drove H.P Lovecraft mad in the first place (Oh Boy!  Excuse me, I’m gonna be singing Shoggoth on the Roof for this one.  Who day and night must slumber in R’yleh, waving tentacles and dreaming nasty dreams?  And who when he wakes from deep beneath the sea, will drive humanity insane?  Cthulhu!). A threat he counters through a variety of means, whether by inventing an entirely new science, reaching out to his rival Carl Sagan or building an implosion device that goes off outside of all space and time (Wait…how does it implode? {how does it exist outside all time and space?}). Mr. Clevinger is clearly having a lot of fun just putting Robo in different periods and contexts to show us the contrast. He's able to provide a lot of laughs and fun doing so. For example, Robo's somewhat understandable but hilarious phobia of bugs is great. He'll face off against undead Nazi scientists with nothing but dry humor but one little swarm of bugs and he's screaming in horror (Arachnocommunist will do him no harm.).

We get to see a young and wide-eyed Robo, an experienced and somewhat brash Robo, a Robo who has been tempered by experiences, and finally a Robo who is just done with your shit. In giving us this tour, we also get to see the broad strokes of Robo's life up to a certain point. It's certainly looking like an epic and well-lived life spent in the pursuit of knowledge and driven by a desire to help people. As motivations go for a protagonist, I honestly kind of like it (It’s simple and pure.  I approve.). Atomic Robo is a character who invokes hope and that there's more to heroism than just the exercise of power and violence. That technology and science, despite all the problems we've created using them, can also be used by us to solve problems if we put in the effort.

I also enjoy Robo himself, who clearly has no illusions about humanity but likes us anyway. Despite everything, Atomic Robo believes that humanity has within itself the spark to be better. To reach a better state of existence and to learn and grow. This is despite or perhaps because of his experiences in World War II fighting the nazis and in the Cold War. Now I'll admit part of the reason I like Robo is that in a world where Skynet and Ultron are the usual representatives of mechanical life. Intelligences who take one look at us and decide “Yeah I'm going to kill them”. It's nice to have Datas, Visions, and Atomic Robo who believe in the better angels of our nature. That they also kill monsters beyond our ability to process so they don't eat all of time and space, that's a nice bonus as well. Atomic Robo and the Shadow from Beyond Time gets an A. It's good, two-fisted fun where math and a willingness to engage in unorthodox explosions save the day, what more do you want?

I hope you enjoyed this week's review, which was chosen by our ever-wise patrons.  If you’d like a voice in choosing future reviews or adding to the recommendation list consider joining us at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads for just a dollar a month!  As a quick note, I am considering a revamp of the patron rewards tier, I have already put one possible new version up for a vote by patrons, so join now and you can help decide how future patrons are rewarded!  Next week we look at Heroic Legend of Arslan, followed by GI Joe Classic Volume X.  Hope you join us, and 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 II 

By Mitsu Izumi

“What fun's a story without unlikely odds?” Master Ganan

Today we're going to review Volume II of the series Magus of the Library, which I started at the beginning of the month. If you haven't read Volume I yet... Go do it. No, I'm serious, go read the book, the review will be right here when you get back. If you have read Volume I, feel free to take a peek at the review below on Volume II since there will be spoilers for Volume I below. 

Volume II takes place about seven years after Volume I. Our protagonist and dare I say hero (Dare, Dare!), Theo Fumis, has grown from a small boy with a large dream to a strapping young man stepping forth to realize it. In those seven years, he has changed from a village outcast to a village success story. This volume covers his journey from his home to the grand city of Aftzaak, the city of books, and home to the central library. His goal is to take the test to become a Kafna. 

A Kafna is sort of an equivalent of a librarian but they not only maintain the library but repair the books and venture forth into the wilds to obtain new books for the collection (Oh that is an awesome thing!). This means some Kafna are adventurers worthy of being recorded in texts in their own right. Theo doesn't hope to become such an adventurer, however, for him simply becoming a Kafna and being to provide himself and his sister Tifa with a comfortable life is enough... Although he'll admit to wanting his own bookshelf of books. Considering my own library, the fact that he considers a single bookshelf an ambition is painful but considering the fact that Theo comes from a preindustrial society in a lot of ways is understandable (Yeah, Bro… to people pre-Gutenberg, either of our libraries would be insane.). 

That said Theo has a bit of a hill to climb. First is the fact that he's a poor kid from the middle of nowhere and Kafna are an educated elite. As such the job is usually filled by the daughters of educated, wealthy families. While it's never said in the story directly, I wouldn't be surprised if the Library, which is always hungry for funds, encourages wealthy families to send their daughters as a way of getting them to also open their wallets (Oh that’s really common historically.  Hell, the Prestige of passing the exam might be enough for alumni networks…). Parents are more likely to open their wallets for something their children are passionate about after all. Another issue is that Kafna is seen as primarily a woman's job. 

We see several female characters react rather passionately about this because like many societies the actual careers open to women are limited and even if being a Kafna isn't a road to wealth; it is a road to social prestige and economic independence, which in such a setting can be hard to come by for women without making rather harsh compromises. This is bluntly pointed out by Mihona Qoahau in that men frankly have more roads to advancement than women and some women will see Theo becoming a Kafna as taking a spot away from a woman. Although I would note she's not hostile towards Theo, just blunt. 

Like Theo, Mihona is also journeying to Aftzaak to take the test. She's a rather dramatic and blunt young woman. Desperate to come across as a cool, calm, confident beauty but in her rush to do so she rather self sabotages herself(That also happens a lot.). That said, she is clever and resourceful and I rather enjoy having her around. She certainly doesn't hesitate to help Theo out when she can. Plus, given the fact that she isn't any older than Theo, I can forgive her ambitions to look cooler and more confident than she really is. After all, don't we all want to make a good impression? (Also teenagers are just like that.)

On the flip side of this, we have Alv Tlaloque, who is a cool and confident young man, if not a trifle brash. It's easy to go too far with characters like him and make them seem arrogant and self-absorbed, but Ms. Izumi manages to keep him from going too far. Mostly by having him show off his coolness by helping Theo through a combination of cunning brashness and challenging Theo's intelligence to get the help he needs. This makes Alv an interesting fellow, who will help you by providing you the tools you need to succeed but who will also step back and let you fail if you don't have the talent or education to make use of them. (Well, we do learn through failure…) 

We also met Master Ganon, Theo's mentor and boss.  Master Ganon is known as both a drunk and an educated man, as well as the master-builder of Theo's home village.  Upon finding out Theo's ambition, Master Ganon not only challenges Theo, but helps him study and puts him to work so Theo can not only hone his mind but also his body.  Also, this helps Theo gather the money he needs to afford to take the exam since Theo has decided to refuse charity (I can understand wanting to stand on your own two feet that way…).  He's an interesting character but Ms. Izumi uses him sparingly so Theo has to solve his own problems in each of the towns we visit. 

Speaking of towns, the book takes us through a couple on the way to Theo's goal. Towns such as the Creator of Itzamna, also called booksellers row. A town where there are more bookbinders and booksellers than anywhere else on the continent. There's also the town of Espleo, the town of water wheels where industry is starting to stir as vast paper mills rise up to feed the ever-growing need for paper. These paper mills are staffed by workers from across the region, giving Espleo a rough working-class feel compared to the middle-class Itzamna and the firmly upper class and rarefied air of Aftzaak. 

Ms. Izumi can communicate these class divisions through her excellent writing, without bluntly saying it through the dialogue of each settlement's natives but also through the pace and plot themselves. Rather than saying "this is a working-class city and this is not'' we have it shown to us.  We see used booksellers and people standing in line for the newest hottest novel release in Itzamna. We run into pawnshops and cocky troubleshooters for hire in Espleo and in Atfzaak, we run into the Kafna and their exams. Ms. Izumi isn't just limited to her writing, but also uses her frankly lovely art. Her art is amazing as she draws beautiful looks into the countryside and the wildlife as well as detailed scenes of the city life and a wide variety of detailed costumes for her characters based on real-life cultures. This makes the book not just fun to read but a treat to simply look at and enjoy. That said the art is in black and white so if you need color, you'll be disappointed. 

Volume II is still rather low stakes but gives us a look at a young man willing to confront high barriers to entry and long odds to achieve his dream. It's also, much like the first volume a bit of a love letter to books and reading which shockingly I approve of. It's a good relaxing and fun read and I encourage everyone to give this series a try. Oh, one last note, on the title page you'll see a note saying it's based on Kafna of the Wind. This is an in-world book, not a real one. We'll discuss that a little more in the future but for now, just know you shouldn't spend a lot of time looking for it. Magus of the Library Volume II by Mitsu Izumi gets an A. 

    So this review was a bit late due to my moving to a new place. So let me thank everyone for their patience. If you enjoyed this week's review considered joining the ranks of our ever-wise patrons! You can join us at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads for as little as a dollar a month! Next weeks review was selected by our ever wise patrons for example and I hope you'll join us for Atomic Robo Vol III. Until then, stay safe and keep reading! Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen

Black text is your reviewer Garvin Anders