Chandler Jechura

When it comes to comics, Watchman is a pure classic. It took comics from the childlike innocence that many people saw it as to the real world, with dark, morally flawed and ambiguous characters. Many of whom you are not sure who to root for, or even if you should root for them in the first place. As for me, this was my first time reading this, and wow, it was amazing.

This is a book that was excellent purely because of its gritty realism. These superheroes are ones that, with the exception of Dr. Manhattan, do not have super powers. They are normal people who have decided to take up a mask for a variety of reasons, not all of them savory. You won't find anyone fighting for truth, justice and the American way, nor to avenge the deaths of those gunndowned by violence. Many of the people featured have some fault or another, and many are just as durranged as the people they seek to fight, if not worse. This is the best element of the novel, and it is fascinating to see how their relationships unfold as we meet them and see them try and find the person who is killing all of the former, and current masked superheroes.

The art direction is also good. While the style is not perhaps to my taste, I did like the amount of detail that went into each and every one of the frames. It makes reading these panels an enjoyable experience that makes re reading them a requirement, rather than a desire. I can't wait to reread this to see what I may have missed before.

What are the negatives, you may ask? Well, this can be a bit of a heavy book, subject-wise, with graphic depictions of violence and sexuality that means you may want to look for something more lighthearted after this. Obviously, this should not be given to those in their Middle school years, at the very least. I'd say older high school, at the earliest. Still, these are mere warning, not anything truly wrong with the work as a whole. As an added aside, I did think that the ending with the giant squid thing was kind of stupid. Why couldn't half of New York been destroyed by a regular bomb or something? Still, overall, I liked this novel far more than I thought I would. This is a graphic novel that I know I am going to read again, of only to see the things that I missed the first time around. I give it a five out of five.

I believe that I have not read such a good fantasy book in quite some time. The only other book that I feel I can compare this to is Harry Potter, and these two are quite different, in and of themselves. This book is simply fantastic, and I think that this book could be a contender for one of the best books of the year.


And I think that is because of the writing. I have heard that Martin wrote for TV shows and films, and it certainly shows here. Each character is written very well, from those that you are supposed to like, to those who you want to see dead. Then, there are other characters that are written somewhere in the middle, which is most of the main cast. Many of them often go into the morally grey area, where there is no true right or wrong, only what they perceive to be right, and it is interesting to see how their actions play out in this story. If you are looking for a book that has both well written, easy to follow political intrigue and well paced action, this book will fit the bill better than any other I have read yet.


That does lead me to a word of caution. If you don't like fantasy books, especially epic fantasy books, then this one won't change your mind. Also, what occurs in this book is mostly set up for the series to come. Brilliantly done set up, but still set up nonetheless, so some may be turned off by that.


Still, this book is excellently well done, and I cannot wait to see what happens next. I give this book a five out of five.

Well, this novel was simply fantastic. This is one of those series that seems to get better as it goes on. In this series, we have people trying to kill Harry in a duel, a person trying to steal a mysterious magical item, and someone murdering people in a very gruesome manner. These three plot threads are handled well enough, though they can be somewhat muddled at times. I also really enjoyed the banter and chemistry between Susan and Harry. They were by far the best part of this book, and I felt sad for them by the end of the book. The writing was excellent as well, especially with the action scenes.

If there were a few problems with this book, one would have to be how we keep getting an introduction that Harry is a wizard and what that means in this world. This is book five, I think I know that by now. And the plots, while they were handled better than by other authors, still seemed to lead to convenient moments at the end of the book where everything seemed to be wrapped up a little too cleanly for my taste.

Still, this was an excellent book to read, and if you have not picked uo this series, then I highly suggest that you do. This series keeps getting better and better, and I cannot wait to pick up the next installment! I give this book a four out of five.

This novel was one that I wanted to like. When I first saw this at my local Barnes and Noble, I was interested because I thought it was a YA book with a Western theme. Imagine that, a WESTERN! We don't see many of those in mainstream Adult books, let alone YA. And this seemed to have come at just the right time. We seemed to be in that transition phase, where YA can't really make up its mind as to the next trend. Dystopias have been out for a few years now, and fantasies with kings and queens seemed to run its course, with only a few big series still going strong. Now, I thought that the YA genre was looking for the next big thing. At first, it seemed to be space operas, since Carve the Mark debuted to strong sales, but the controversy surrounding that release may have scared that genre off the market. Then next seemed to be fairy tale retellings, but those just seemed to be fine...not bad, or good, just fine. There there was Superhero stories, with the new Renegades novel by Marissa Meyer, but I've just heard that to be okay. So when I saw this book by Lyndsay Ely, I was thinking that this could be the next big thing, or at least this book was taking a sincere whack at the genre for teens. Unfortunately, it pains me to say that for something of a title like Gunslinger Girl, this novel tends to miss more than it hits.

This novel begins with our main character Serendipity “Pity” Jones, growing up in a patricarcial commune, mirrored on the old west. She finds out that her abusive father and jerk brothers plan to send her off (aka sell) to another commune that needs women in order to facilitate a larger community. Not wanting to live life as a pregnant wife to a stranger, Pity and her friend Finn decide to leave carrying only the barest necessities which include some water, food, and Pity's two silver revolver's that she got from her mother, which Pity is very talented at using. Sadly, that talent doesn't help much when a group of bikers run in to them, and end up killing Fiinn, and wounding Pity. She is soon picked up by a group of people who are a leading circus act called the Theatre Vespertine, located in a lawless city called Cessation. Pity is taken under the wing of Max, a painter for the local theater whom she takes a shining to, and she soon wonders if she can make a life for herself on the stage, showing off her sharpshooting skills. But not everything is so simple, and soon the theaters leader Seliana asks Pity to do more than she feels comfortable with. Can Pity do what needs to be done to survive in the only home she has, or will she have to use her guns for more than just cheap theater tricks?

This novel, despite its interesting premise, feels like it is ten years old. Pity is a girl who is a fighter, but this time instead of with a bow and arrow, she is a whizz with guns because she is a strong female character. She can kill when it is called for, but she feels bad about it and doesn't want to do it again, but she sure enough will because she is a strong female character. Max is a romantic love interest for her, but when he rebuffs her advances, she decides she doesn't need him because she is a STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER. You get the idea. There is very little built out of Pity other than that she is good with guns and hates killing people, but only when the plot calls for it. The main blurb of the book is that she is a mix of Katniss Everdeen and Annie Oakley, and she does feel like it, but without an interesting personality to call her own. As a character she is a blank slate that feels like she should have debued a decade ago.

The other characters are just as bland. We meet various different performers but they do not often make any kind of impression on the reader, to the point where one may even get them confused. As a result, when certain things happen, one does not really even care about the characters that may become hurt or even die.

If the characters are underdeveloped, the world building is even less so. We are given vague clues as to what may have happened to cause this dystopian mess, like a second Civil War, and groups like the confederates and the patriots, but it doesn't seem to stick in any fashion. They are all just named dropped and we are supposed to piece it all together for ourselves, which is not how I like my science fiction. In terms of this book, it felt like the world building was a vague excuse to bring the two genres of dystopia and western together, and it was not done very well. It was a poor excuse of a book as far as world building was concerned.

There is a saying in writing that anything can work, you just have to make it work. Sadly, Ely does not have the confidence or competence to match such an ambitious world with intriguing characters, and a compelling plot. I give it a two out of five. You may enjoy this book, but this is one I doubt I'll remember a month from now.

This is by far one of the best fantasy books I've ever read to date. This is one of those books that I both had to put down and couldn't wait to pick up. I say had to put down because, after I'd finish with each viewpoint, I would need to mull over what had just happened, and think about how this would reflect on the other characters in the future. At the same time, I could not wait to pick it up again and continue to see how the world of Westeros would continue to descend into chaos, as kings battle other kings, and the local villagers continue to suffer for it. Many fans consider this to be the best book in the series, and it is not difficult to see why. There are many different things that happen here, and they all ratchet up the tension, especially by the end of the book.

My favorite viewpoint in the book would have to be Jamie Lannister. With this viewpoint, we see someone who has been dispicable in the last two books gain some amount of respect, if not sympathy. We see, through a significant event, Jamie become more humble, and we see that has has changed through this novel, more than some characters throughout the entire series to date. He was fascinating to see travel from one various area to another on his physical and metaphorical journey, despite knowing that he was one of the catalysts for the entire situation currently taking place in Westeros.

As for the worst...I would say either Davos or Daenerys. I just could never get into why I should care about Davos' POV, and for some reason, I have not really identified with Daenerys POV either. Daenerys gets a lot more to do in this book, and she actually becomes threatening, but she never managed to grab me, like the other characters did.

I also feel that, like many of the things in a book over 1000 pages, some things do begin to drag (like Area's plotline, for instance), and then there is so much detail that it can get a tad overwhelming at times. I don't need to know about some fifth Lord's cousin slain at a battle fifteen years ago, and how it affects a squire that Catlyn is talking about on a random march unless it has to do with the main plot.

However, don't let that stop you. This novel is excellently done, even with the gripes I had above. If you maybe were hesitant about getting into this series because of the investment, then I would say not to worry, This novel is far better than the last installment, and I cannot wait to see where the story goes from here.