ICO: Castle in the Mist (2008)

Author:  Miyuki Miyabe  |  Translator:  Alexander O. Smith  |  Page Count: 370

'Whatever it was that dripped from the cage, it was blacker than pitch,
the colour of melted shadow.'

The story as presented in the ICO video game (2001) was purposefully vague. It encouraged players to speculate about the backstory of the characters. The act of filling in the blanks created a more personal experience, making us not just the protagonist but also the teller, the narrator of the story as it was being lived in real time. Reading someone else's version of those events is interesting, but when put into context, isn't a published version of such simply fan-fiction sold at RRP?

Regardless of whether or not that's a fair assessment, I made sure while reading to judge the work for what it did well (or otherwise) with regards world-building, characterisation, etc, and not for being different to my own interpretation of the game's story; to have did otherwise would be a disservice to everyone involved.

I was wholly ignorant of Miyuki Miyabe's reputation in Japan. She has a huge catalogue of titles available. Castle in the Mist is her seventh novel to be translated into English. In all honesty I thought it was a first novel, period. The stiffness of the dialogue and the formulaic spoon-feeding of conventions that make the majority of fantasy novels so bland is adhered to from the very first page. The stiffness may in part be explained by it being a translation—there's a definite lack of love and flair inherent in that aspect—so I can't say with any certainty if a poetic sensibility is inherently absent from the work or just missing from the English language version. I'm not able to read Japanese.

Things pick up a little when the story delves into Yorda's past. The author is more comfortable and thus more successful exploring things from a female perspective, which makes sense, but even then the story never dares to break away from a safety zone or a trite, established way of genre thinking. It's a typical fantasy about a Princess in a castle, a cruel and overbearing guardian that stifles her, and a male saviour with selflessness and innocence in his arsenal.

Kudos to the publisher, Haikasoru, for being brave and taking a chance on it. The game didn't sell in huge numbers in the West, so I can't imagine the target audience for the novel was projected as groundbreaking, but, even so, they didn't opt for cheap paper to cut costs. It's a beautifully presented book.

1½ misshapen shades out of 5

The Incredible Hulk: Planet Hulk Omnibus (2007)

Author: Greg Pak | Illustrators: Carlo Pagulayan / Aaron Lopresti / Michael Avon Oeming / Alex Nino / Marshall Rogers  | Page Count: 384

"I didn't come here for a whisper. I wanna hear you scream."

The best Hulk stories are the ones that don’t rely on the Hulk Smash! clichés as an excuse to litter the page with the detritus of teenage wet dreams involving explosive violence and bloody carnage.  Planet Hulk avoids that for a while but eventually crumbles like a cookie in Hulk’s hand, and there’s so much “Finally. Hulk knows who to smash,” that my brain almost seeped out of my ears trying to get away from what my eyes were forcing it to assimilate.  It’s a great shame because the first half of Book I is bursting with promise, and even delivers upon some of it from time to time.

Prior to the story’s beginnings Hulk’s world is shaken by the realisation (or confirmation) that his ‘friends’ each brandish a back-stabbing knife and share a collective fear of his condition.  Instead of putting extra effort into helping him cope they take the coward’s way out by removing him from their space.

Stranded now on a world torn apart by a tyrannical ruler, the bulging green menace is forced to rely on his wits, and his (*chuckle) people skills.
For reasons I won’t go into, Hulk is thrust into the role of reluctant leader, which doesn't sit well because he’s not ever been what your boss at work would call a team player.  There’s a large cast of characters woven around his situation, and they exist in a world that’s well fleshed out with its own history and culture.

The strengths of the work lie in the perspectives taken, both literal (the art direction) and in how to view a hero / villain depending on which side of the fence you happen to lie.  In war the enemy is always the villain but both sides are an enemy.  Hulk is a monster but he’s our monster.  His goals are sympathetic to our goals, and our goals are noble because we are noble.  Does that make him more like us, or make us more like him?

When those kinds of questions are raised the story excels.  Unfortunately the chaos overshadows them, and by Book II, when everything turns to shit for the characters, the story suffers.  There’s a deeply emotional moment that knocked me for six but overall by the end of the chaos I felt physically drained by the experience when I should’ve been more emotionally drained.

The book collects together The Incredible Hulk Vol. 2 issues 92 – 105; Giant-Size Hulk vol. 2 issue 1; and ‘Mastermind Excello’ from Amazing Fantasy issue 15.

3 stupid names out of 5

Irminsûl (2002)

Author: Varg Vikernes | Page Count: 16

"He wants peace, but also war.

He wants wealth, but not too much – it only leads to decay."

In contrast to Sorcery and Religion in Ancient Scandinavia (2011), which was a thoroughly engaging work, Irminsûl (a kind of pillar) sees Varg go on a rant about how the Germanic gods relate to the expanding universe, and how a continued belief in them and a hatred of the Judeo-Christian religion can sustain both the individual and the world for an indefinite amount of time.

His view is as valid as the next man’s and is no doubt well researched but there’s a problem with much of the work: it’s quite possibly insane.

One of the things I do agree with is that modern schooling is essentially brainwashing.  I applaud his call to assertive thinking in response to that but it would validate his stance more if he stopped sounding like the guy from War of the Worlds who wanted to live underground.

2 thorn-like nails out of 5

Indigo Prime: Killing Time (1992)

Author: John Smith | Illustrator: Chris Weston | Page Count: 63

"...there's red on the train... on the window, the floor, the seats and the ceiling...  Shiny shiny Whitechapel Red..."

You won’t find the Indigo Prime back-story in this collection.  If you want a brief history lesson to prepare you, in case you decide to pick up the book, then click the button below.  If you'd rather not know, then skip to the next paragraph.

The Indigo Prime was an extra-dimensional agency responsible for repairing temporal breaks or distortions across a vast multiverse; when strange shit hit an interdimensional fan they cleaned it up. Agents were chosen if they held a rare gene, something that only one in twelve million people across the entire multiverse carried. If you fit the criteria, upon the moment of your death you’d be plucked from your timeline, and then given a new body with some cool abilities to clean the shitty fan. The concept opened up the possibility to add new recruits further down the line, allowing for an almost infinite number of stories, with an equally infinite number of unique characters.

Killing Time features Max Winword and Ishmael Cord, both of whom are ‘Seamsters,’ which means they deal with temporal matters.  Other roles existed within the agency that dealt with other problems.
The two Seamsters are sent to the year 1888 to track down Jack the Ripper; that’s not a spoiler, it’s revealed on the first page.  Jack’s misdeeds have consequences outside of just culling the hooker population.

The story resembles the kind of thing you’d get if you blended HG Wells’ machinations, Lewis Carroll’s imagination, and HP Lovecraft’s unease.  If that sounds pretty damn amazing to you, then you’ll get some jollies here.
The dialogue is consistent with the era and the social classes represented.

Chris Weston's art is wonderfully baroque, full of elaborate ornamentation and twisting lines which really help bring the work to life.
Colour is used in an unusual way; it’s not at all naturalistic but it works within the confines of its own twisted reality.

Smith & Weston's Killing Time is a great book that was much overlooked at the time.  2000 AD's current owners Rebellion have recently reprinted it so fingers crossed it gets the attention it deserves.

3½ stitches in time out of 5

I, Robot (1950)

Author: Isaac Asimov | Page Count: 256

"People say 'It's as plain as the nose on your face.' But how much of the nose on your face can you see, unless someone holds a mirror up to you?"

I, Robot is one of Isaac Asimov's most famous works. If you were to poll a number of dedicated book readers, you'd likely find that a fair percentage of them have heard of it even if they haven't actually read it - especially if they happen to be science-fiction fans also. It's a collection of nine short stories written over a ten year period that are loosely tied together by a frame narrative. It introduced Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, which were designed to be unbreakable:

1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2) A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Making them unbreakable didn't stop him spending the rest of his career bending them, or finding new ways to interpret them. That's where Dr. Susan Calvin comes in. Susan is a robopsychologist. When something goes wrong with a robot that can't be attributed to mechanical error, it's her job to figure out why. Was the order given in conflict with the Three Laws? Or was it open to misinterpretation by the robot? They are thinking machines after all, they need to be able to function autonomously, but are they given too much free will?

The prose style is simple and direct, which is an asset to the story as it lets you engage fully with the concepts without losing the narrative thread.

Albert Einstein reportedly said, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." Even though Asimov's technology is fictional, he understands it completely. He explains complicated scenarios in simple terms, without it ever feeling diluted. Mostly they're puzzles that need to be figured out, sometimes by connecting the dots, and sometimes by creating the dots from scratch. Once the puzzle is solved, there's an abrupt ending each time.

4 positronic brains out of 5

Iron Man: Extremis (2005)

Author: Warren Ellis | Illustrator: Adi Granov | Page Count: 160

“John Pillinger says the Iron Man suit is a military application.  I told him he was wrong.  I’m trying to decide if I was lying."

This work, perhaps more than any other, is responsible for the origin and aesthetic of the first Iron Man film.  Warren Ellis is a good writer, he’s not afraid to take bold chances with existing properties and it paid off this time, mostly.  Extremis was a new start for the character, bringing it up to date while still remaining faithful to the original team of Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Don Heck and Jack Kirby.  It’s less of a superhero approach and more of a sci-fi thriller; Iron Man is a weapon, not a flying hero in metallic tights.

In an abandoned slaughterhouse, a test subject is injected with a secret serum; it transforms him into something more than human.  Iron Man is called in by an old friend to fix the situation but he’s carrying around more baggage than just a heavy suit of armour.  It places Tony temporarily out of the convoluted continuity of the extended Marvel universe, and focuses on the man; it humanises him, exposes his flaws and shows that being a millionaire isn’t always just necking champagne and bedding bunny girls.  When it works, it’s fantastic.  He still finds time to have the obligatory fight scene with people lifting cars over their heads etc.

The real star here is Adi Granov’s amazing art.  He sketches in pencil and colours with watercolour, inks, gouache etc.  He takes that into Photoshop and renders there.  It’s a mix of the traditional and the new (like the story) and the result is emotionally charged and dramatically staged panels that often tell a story without the need for words.  It needs to be seen to be understood properly.  It’s a slow process, it took him a year and a half to complete the work but the finished product is definitely worth the wait.

The book collects together Iron Man vol.4, issues 1-6.

3½ pieces of shrapnel in an awkward place out of 5