Even with all the great press this book got, I almost passed on it as I’m just not crazy about the fey. I’m really glad I didn’t, as this is one of my favorite books of the year so far.
The Iron King tells the story of Meghan Chase, an awkward and lonely teenager whose biggest hopes are that the cute boy at school will notice her and that her mom and step-dad won’t forget her 16th birthday. Little does she know that everything in her life is about to change. When her 4 year old brother is kidnapped, Meghan learns the truth – that her brother has been taken by fairies, her best friend is fey and her father is a fairy king. Meghan must face a heritage she never knew she had and travel into the perilous fairy realm if she ever hopes to see her brother again.
This is very much a true fairy story, with all the standard fairy fare, such as the Seelie and Unseelie courts, pixies (or, as in the book, piskies), and the entire fairy cast of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (my favorite of Shakespeare’s plays, second only to Twelfth Night.) There are trolls and goblins and talking cats, and new fey for the internet age. I haven’t read a lot of fairy books, so I’m not sure how standard the summer and winter courts are, but I really enjoyed the descriptions of the contrasting fairy realms.
The beginning of the book felt a bit rocky, as it seemed odd to me that Meghan never saw anything strange even though her brother kept trying to show her the monsters he was seeing. Then her sight came right before she turned 16, and her brother was taken at the same time. The events felt a little rushed together. It also felt awkward that after so many years of keeping the fey world a secret from Meghan, Puck was willing to tell Meghan everything, just because she asked him a few questions. That said, I often find the beginning of books where the lead character does not know that supernatural beings exist feel a bit contrived. The beginning isn’t bad, per se, it just wasn’t as strong as I would have liked.
The fast pace continues into the fairy world, with Meghan having to learn quickly how to survive in a place where all the rules are different. Then the story slows, and there are a few sections in Part 1 and 2 of the book that meandered a bit. Meghan’s not really looking for Ethan and not learning much about the fey or herself. I found these sections frustrating and didn’t see how they added much to the tale. The main plot really picks up about 100 pages in, and from there it moves forward at a steady pace. While in the beginning I felt like the book wasn’t holding me, the last 180 pages wouldn’t let me go. I loved meeting the iron fey. Though the idea behind them isn’t new, I really enjoyed the way Kagawa handled it. I expected the book to become preachy, but it didn’t. Instead, the story built to a riveting climax and left me wanting more.
Camilla d’Errico is an artist from British Columbia whose work I’ve been following for a while now. She is a painter and comic book illustrator, and her work can be seen in comics such as Tanpopo, Sky Pirates of New Terra and Burn. Her paintings can been seen at one of her gallery shows, including her solo show, “Il Codice d’Errico”, which opens tomorrow at the Mondo Bizarro Gallery in Rome, Italy.
I first saw Camilla’s work at the Emerald City Comicon and was drawn in by the beauty of her paintings of wide-eyed young girls. The images evoke an innocence that often belies the actual content of the illustrations, giving them a complexity that might be missed on first glance. I got a chance to meet Camilla briefly and she was very friendly and down-to-earth. I was a little star struck but she put me at ease right away, and I’m now the proud owner of an autographed print of “Iguana.”
To see more of Camilla’s work or to purchase prints, comics, clothing or accessories, check out her website and store at camilladerrico.com. Here are a few of my favorites:
The premise of this book piqued my interest right away – a meaty werewolf story based on Little Red Riding Hood, only Grandma dies and Little Red Riding Hood grows up to be a werewolf slayer. The book starts out with the very definite promise of sadness, with Scarlett, the older of two sisters, having to defend younger sister Rosie from the wolf that killed their grandmother. Flash forward 7 years, and Scarlett, covered in scars and with only one eye, has devoted her life to hunting and killing Fenris, soulless men that transform into wolves to feed on young girls. Scarlett and Rosie are on their own, both having dropped out of school to train and hunt the Fenris. Scarlett’s best friend and hunting partner, woodsman Silas Reynolds, has just returned from San Francisco. Rosie and Silas are the only people in Scarlett’s life, and she drives them to hunt through guilt and their love for her. Silas, however, sees more in Rosie than a hunter, and Rosie starts to realize that while she owes her life to her sister, maybe that doesn’t mean she has to hunt beside her forever.
Pearce delivers two complex and passionate women in Scarlett and Rosie. Rosie and Scarlett each narrate alternating chapters, but in many ways this is Scarlett’s story as she has the most emotional growth ahead of her. Scarlett is physically strong and mentally determined, yet emotionally she’s a mess. She needs Rosie and Silas to hunt with her, to support her. Her strength of purpose isn’t enough to make up for her insecurities about her scars and her regrets about what life could have been for her, and she can’t see that she’s taking away Rosie’s choices just as the Fenris took hers.
It was with Rosie that Pearce really pulled me in. Rosie doesn’t have the physical scars from the wolf attack, but she has all the emotional scars. I wanted Rosie to have everything she could out of life. It made me root for Rosie, and for Scarlett.
Sisters Red is very much a book about sisters, but I also really enjoyed the development of the relationship between Rosie and Silas. Pearce gives all the hints and clues and allows the reader to anticipate the future and to ride along with Rosie as she experiences her first love. Unfortunately I didn’t feel as positive about the main plot. There were points in the story where the book felt stagnant and the characters seemed to be thinking and saying the same things over and over. Fortunately the sluggishness doesn’t last long as the main plot picks up quickly once the lovers are outed.
When Rosie and Silas started to fall in love, I was sure that the book would end in tragedy, with one of the main characters making the ultimate sacrifice for the other two. Pearce deftly pulls out an ending that I didn’t expect. Quite a few of the steps on the way to that ending seemed predictable, and some of the characters’ feats pushed on the borders of what I would consider believable, but by the climax of the book I was so wrapped up in the action that all was forgiven. All in, Sisters Red is an enjoyable read, and a reminder that sisterly love knows no bounds.
Vincent Laforet created this video with a Canon 7D as the first chapter in a series for the Canon video contest “The Story Beyond the Still.” Laforet was given a still image to interpret, and this video is his interpretation of that image. The video ends with another still, which contestants for the second chapter had to then interpret and build upon. The result is a story told by multiple filmmakers, each with their own style of cinematography, dialogue and film making. Each chapter has different actors, but the actors look enough alike that it’s easy to tell which character is which.
The contest will have a total of six chapters, and with four of the chapters now completed I’m curious to see if the contestants will ultimately be able to tie the story together in a neat package, or if we’ll end up with an ending that does not do justice to Laforet’s alluring beginning. With an impressive list of filmmakers on the judges’ panel, my hope is that they’ll be able to find an ending that will satisfy the viewers in both its storytelling and its cinematography. The completed chapters are available here on Vimeo, along with the contest details. Chapter 5 entries are due by June 10, but there’s still lots of time to complete an entry for the final chapter.
Being a huge fan of Twilight the book and not being a huge fan of Twilight the movie, I had mixed feelings when I heard that a graphic novel was in the works. It is possible to have too much of a good thing, especially when the supplemental materials to the original “good thing” aren’t nearly as good. Instead of ruling out the graphic novel as a simple money maker in the Twilight franchise, I decided I’d wait until the book was in stores to see for myself. I’m glad I did.
Twilight the Graphic Novel, Volume 1 is a hardbound book with an absolutely stunning cover depicting Bella in the now-infamous meadow, and the cover image is just the beginning. Young Kim’s art brings the characters alive, and they are the characters as Stephenie Meyer has written them, not caricatures of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. The drawings are done primarily in black and white, with subtle washes of color on some images and fuller color to call attention to dream images and significant events. While I very much enjoyed the selective use of color, I did feel like some of the drawings felt unfinished. I believe this was a deliberate technique to call attention to certain images and to decrease attention on others, but I would have preferred to see more than the guidelines for eyes on some of the characters, and more than faceless heads on others. Overall, though, the book is beautifully drawn, and pulled me thoroughly into the Twilight universe, the drabness of Forks and the discovery of a first love.
The only major disruption in the book was the frequent placing of speech bubbles over the characters’ faces. I found this terribly distracting and somewhat insulting to Young Kim’s art. Often there was space on the page to place the speech that would not overlap a face, making the placement that much more frustrating. Hopefully the publishers will resolve this issue in Volume 2. I also wondered while reading the book it I would have understood it or enjoyed it as much if I had not read the original novel, as it felt like a lot of the story was left up to interpretation. That might just be me, though, as I often wonder the same thing when watching movie adaptations of books I’ve enjoyed.
Stephenie Meyer states in the introduction of the graphic novel that working on this version of the story brought her back to her first experiences with Edward and Bella, writing, “The art made it fresh again.” I couldn’t agree more. Kim’s beautiful images brought back everything I felt when I first read Twilight and made me excited for the release of Volume 2. Even though I know the rest of the story I can’t wait to see the images that Kim crafts for it. I highly recommend this adaptation to anyone who loved Twilight; hopefully it will make it all new again for you too.
June 11, 2010, at 6:42 am
