Review: Levius/est Vol. 1 by Haruhisa Nakata

Honestly what really drew me into this book was the description. It depicted an epic arena battle between mechanically enhanced humans, and so that’s what I thought I was getting. What this book really was, however, was a kind of prequel to that, which don’t get me wrong was interesting, but I found it really hard to follow. You ever feel overstimulated? Because that’s how this book made me feel. It just had so much going on all at the same time that I couldn’t really follow any of it.

2/5 Stars 212 pages
Published November 19th 2019 by VIZ Media LLC

That being said, I loved the art. Not so cartoony like a lot of the others I’ve read, it was more realistic and I really enjoyed that about it. I think it perfectly captured the robotic parts of the people and had a kind of style that really stood out to me, and matched the story. If only I could have followed the story more closely. From what I got, there’s a boy named Levius who lost his mother really young. Then he flashes forward into some kind of scientific hospital and he’s being held unconscious to heal. There’s another man there Zack who knows him but who knows this other girl more, who’s being held in an artificial environment filled with robotic creatures and landmines so that she can’t escape and kill everyone in there. And then there’s another girl, Natalia, who also knows Levius, but wants to be with him. And they’re all crazy good at fighting. See what I mean? I’m not really one hundred percent sure on anything because I just had such a hard time following it.

I might just be completely lost because it’s the very beginning volume and not everything has been explained, but if the other volumes are like this one, I feel like it might just not be for me. If I get the chance to check out the next one, I might give it a chance just to be sure, but I’m not going to hunt it down. I think if you’re able to get into it more than me you should definitely give it a chance, because it totally could just be me not getting it at all, and I think that the art is worth checking out over anything else.

If you’re interested in checking it out, you can here.

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re doing well and staying safe.

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Failsafe (Failsafe #1) by Anela Deen Review

5/5 Stars 200 pages
Published May 20th 2018 by Fine Fables Press

This book, unlike the last book, was something that was right up my alley, and something I knew I was going to love from the moment I started it. In a time where humans haven’t lived outside a computer for many, many generations, their world is claustrophobic and dangerous. Outside of their settlements live drones that shoot to kill on site, and although they can grow their own food, they can barely grow enough for everyone, especially now when the supplies have stopped being delivered.

 

Sol is different, however. Though she has epilepsy, she doesn’t let that stop her from changing the world that they know, and trying to save everyone she know, and more. She’s not afraid of going out into the Interspace, and her unique dreaming ability lets her know where and when the drones are going to be around, and where the supplies should be. But this comes with a cost to her health, both physical and mental.

 

Though she lives in a time where people aren’t able to chose their mates due to the very little genetic differences between everyone in their settlement, everything changes when she meets Echo one day while out on a supply run. Though he’s not like anyone she’s ever met, and she’s a little scared to trust him at first, he proves himself to be an

Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com

amazing and very strong companion. The two will do whatever they need to do to change the world as they know it.

 

This book was exciting and interesting, and it was everything I wanted it to be and more. Though I wanted there to be a sequel, I think that it ended at such a place where I’m happy if there isn’t ever one. The characters and the story were both really easy to imagine and get sucked into, and though this doesn’t happen very often, I don’t have any questions or complaints or even thoughts leftover that I’m wondering about. In my eyes, this was a perfect book to get me out of my reading slump, and I think it’s something that I’d love to read again and again, that’s just how much I loved it.

 

If you love stories about young adults who want to change the world, no matter how different it is from out own, then you’re going to love this, and I hope you love it as much as I do. Definitely check it out if you get the chance, and it’ll make a beautiful addition to your collection! I’d love to check out other books by the author because of this one.

 

If you’d like to grab a copy, you can do so here.

Here’s a link to the author’s Twitter, if you’d like to keep up with them!

 

Thanks for reading! I’d love to chat in the comments if you have anything you’d like to talk about, this book or any other topic! Hope you have a good day, and stay safe!

 

**I’ve been informed by the author that there will in fact be a sequel!** Patiently awaiting that.

Human by Diego Agrimbau, & Lucas Varela Review

Human is so much more than just a super interesting looking cover and a nice red aesthetic. It’s the story of power, spiraling out of control. Of an ancient Earth, still living and healing long after people have deemed it uninhabitable. Human might be one of my favourite graphic novel’s that I’ve read lately, and I think it would make a really nice addition to anyone’s bookshelf, but specifically mine.

5/5 Stars 138 pages
Published October 16th 2019 by Europe Comics

Something from space not only breaks apart, but crashes to an Earth, filled with dinosaurs and apes. Turns out, it’s not just space junk, but it’s an actual robot. It’s eager to explore, but it doesn’t know why it’s here or what it’s supposed to be doing, which is a problem. Especially when it’s a hostile environment. But when it’s attacked, another smaller robot flies down and defends it. The two stick together until they find two more robots, and then a ship containing an actual human being.

 

This is peculiar, because not only is Earth missing it’s humans, but the man in the ship is still alive. And he’s missing his wife. This is when we learn that not only are they scientists, but his wife was going to be the womb of the new human race. Not completely sure how that would work out down the line, but at least they tried, right?

Photo by Adi kavazovic on Pexels.com

Overall, this story was exciting, haunting, cute and extremely gory at times, if you can say cute and gory in the same breath. I loved every minute of it, and like I said, I think it might just be one of my new favourite graphic novels. Scary and cute is the best mix, especially with a little science fiction and horror thrown in. I definitely recommend checking this book out, even if you’re not the biggest fan of any of those things, because I feel like reading this would change your mind.

 

You can grab a copy for yourself here!

 

Here are links to the creator’s Twitter accounts, if you’d like to keep up with them!

https://twitter.com/dagrimbau?lang=en

https://twitter.com/LucVarela

 

 

Thanks for reading! Let me know your thoughts below.

Hope you have a good day!

Babylon Twins by MF Gibson Review

Babylon Twins is a hilariously strange book following a set of twins named El and Clo, who have lived in the forest of an apocalyptic future earth for the past ten years, with their mother and little brother. The story is told through the views of both twins at the same time. El and Clo also have their own secret twin language that they speak throughout most of the story.

 

I have to say, that the cover and description of the book really doesn’t tell you too much about what’s really inside of it. Though the book is really, and I don’t say this lightly, weird, it’s so weird that it just makes me kind of love it. The twins go through their daily life until one day their mother just leaves, leaving them alone without really telling them why. This drives them to try to survive in the forest themselves, until things other than robots begin attacking them. This is when they leave the forest and venture out into the cities around them.

 

This launches the characters into an adventure that almost reminds me of a fever dream, now that I’ve finished it I keep thinking about it like, did that really happen? Full of robots and tentacle monsters and crazy people in general, this book isn’t something I’ll forget about anytime soon. It’s hilarious and kind of cute, and super descriptive in all the right ways. Before the end of the world, the twins were eight years old and fighting kids at school. Now, as eighteen year olds, they have to figure out their live all alone, as almost insane things happen around them, and they’re just trying to figure out what kind of women they need to be.

 

The book is available here.

Thanks for reading!

Off Planet (Aunare Chronicles #1) by Aileen Erin Review

Off Planet (Aunare Chronicles #1) by Aileen Erin 5/5 Stars 492 Pages Published March 19th 2019 by Ink Monster, LLC

Though Goodreads tells me I’ve read the second book in the author’s other series, Becoming Alpha, I don’t remember it and so I’m going to count this as the first book I’ve read by the author. Very different from her usual books, Off Planet follows a girl named Maite as she goes through life a halfer, half alien race called Aunare, a humanoid species that glows when feeling any exaggerated emotions, and has intricate glyph tattoos all over their bodies. This is one book I can’t wait to get a copy of for my bookshelf, and can see myself reading it again, I just love it so much. Now I know that I need to really check out other books by the author.

 

The story begins with Maite teaching a martial arts class, after all, she’s a girl who knows how to survive, and reminds me a little of a doomsday prepper. That being said, it’s only fair that she be prepared with the kind of world she lives in. She never forgets to tell her class that the macho company SpaceTech won’t ever save them, and doesn’t care about them, because it’s important for everyone to know what she does. Her best friend, Roan, is her teacher’s assistant, and works hard daily to make sure that no one finds out what she really is.

 

After getting an implant, something every human has, she comes to the conclusion that she’ll never be able to truly blend in, because her alien side is stronger than her human side, and the implant drives her insane. She’s been living on Earth since she was a kid, but it’s getting harder and harder to hide her true self as the years go by, and now as a nineteen year old, she must have the implant or SpaceTech will kill her. After all, everything wrong with the world is blamed on aliens.

 

When she gets home however, there’s someone waiting for her. The interplanetary police force shows up, and when she tries to escape and go to work for the night, a man sexually assults her before he arrests her. She manages to take off and call Roan for help, but it’s too late, as she’s not only caught, but sentenced and imprisoned. This leads her to an off planet work camp, and after a traumatic time in cryo, she realizes that the judge and people higher up in SpaceTech really have it out for her, when she’s assigned to a cooling job designed for bots on the surface of a planet dubbed Hell.

 

Overall, I think this might be one of my new favourite books, and I can’t wait to see what happens in the series. I loved how the characters acted around each other, and they really stayed true to who they are, even in impossibly tough times and conditions. I really enjoyed imagining what the aliens really look like, and hope to see more of what they are and where they’re from in the future. I recommend checking out this book if you love books like Death of Clone, which also takes place on a place called Hell. My favourite character, without a doubt, being Maite.

 

The book is available here, and here’s a link to the author’s Twitter, if you’d like to keep up with her.

Thanks for reading!

November Favourites

Hey everyone! Hope you’re having a good day. I know I’m a little late for this, but here’s my top five favourite books I read last month!

 

In no specific order, the first one I’d like to talk about it Luke Cage: Everyman by Anthony Del Col and Jahnoy Lindsay.

“With Harlem in the grips of an unprecedented heat wave, the people look to their hero—the unbreakable man, Luke Cage! But the heat wave turns out to be the least of Harlem’s worries. Someone has their sights set on the city’s 1%, and the rich and powerful are dropping dead from mysterious illnesses. It’s up to Luke Cage to stop the Everyman Killer—even though he’s just received a grim diagnosis of his own… By the time Luke discovers the true identity of the Everyman Killer he’s too late to stop them from abducting one of the most important people in his life. Can Luke neutralize the killer in time to save his beloved city?”

Check out my full review here, and here’s where you can get the book.

 

Next of course is Long Lost, Book One by Matthew Erman and Lisa Sterle.

“The first trade collection​ of the critically acclaimed debut from Matthew Erman and Lisa Sterle, Long Lost is the story of two estranged sisters who find themselves drawn back to their small southern hometown after an invitation from an otherworldly creature. The pair is compelled to unlock the disturbing mysteries that are hidden in Hazel Patch in the hopes of uncovering the bizarre circumstances surrounding their mother… but they must deal with each other first.”

You can see my full review here, and here’s where you can get a copy of the book for yourself.

 

 

The next book I want to put on my list is My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and Jacob Phillips.

“Teenage Ellie has always had romantic ideas about drug addicts, those tragic artistic souls drawn to needles and pills have been an obsession since the death of her junkie mother ten years ago. But when Ellie lands in an upscale rehab clinic where nothing is what it appears to be… she’ll find another more dangerous romance, and find out how easily drugs and murder go hand-in-hand. MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN JUNKIES is a seductive coming-of-age story, a pop and drug culture-fueled tale of a young girl seeking darkness — and what she finds there.”

My full review is available here, and here’s a link to where you can get a copy of the book.

 

 

Second last is The Vision, Volume 2: Little Better than a Beast (Vision #2) by Tom King, Michael Walsh, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Jordie Bellaire, Mike del Mundo, & Clayton Cowles.

“Once upon a time a robot and a witch fell in love. What followed was a tale of the dead and the dying, of the hopeful and the lost, of the wronged and the avenged. And in the end, after both had fallen, the witch and the robot rose from their dirt and eyed each other across a field of blood and bone. Forty-five years in the making, this is the story of Scarlet Witch and the Vision. Before family, there was love. And war.”

Check out my full review here, and here’s a link to where you can get a copy of the book for yourself.

 

And last but not least, Hillbilly Volume 2 by Eric Powell.

“The second volume in Eisner Award winner Eric Powell’s Appalachian fantasy epic collecting issues #5-8. Rondel, with the Devil’s Cleaver, wanders the hills as the witchy and monstrous descend upon him.”

My full review is available here if you’re interested in learning more about it, and the book is available here.

 

 

 

I didn’t realize how many comics I read last month but I loved so many of them! I’m really happy to see that there isn’t single full length novel on my list this month, because, when does that ever happen? These are all amazing stories, and I definitely recommend you check them all out.

Thanks for reading!

 

Green Jay and Crow by D.J. Daniels Review

Green Jay and Crow by D.J. Daniels 3/5 Stars 384 pages
Published December 11th 2018 by Abaddon

Following two people, Green Jay/Eva and Crow/Brom, this story is about aliens, humants (part plant, part alien, part human people) and alternate realities. It has a beautiful cover and an intense description, and although the book is really unique in comparison to other books I’ve read lately, it just wasn’t my new favourite.

 

Crow/Brom is a delivery person. Usually, it’s something easy, though he never really knows for sure what he’s delivering. He has a friend named Mac/Blue Jay, who’s probably the smartest person he’s ever met. And the world they live in, though we don’t actually get to know a lot about it, is full of aliens they affectionately call tenties, that have the power to adapt to any situation.

 

Green Jay/Eva, is a double. That means she’s been printed from a 3D printer, a copy of a celebrity or someone like that, who will disintegrate after a few weeks of being alive. The only problem is, is that she hasn’t disintegrated. And the robots decided to help her escape.

 

The book switches between the two characters, though they don’t really have anything in common aside from being close with Mac/Blue Jay. That changes throughout the story. After obtaining a time locked package to deliver, Crow/Brom is torn through alternate realities. Eva claims that the package is hers, but he doesn’t believe her. The story moves on to a mystery when suddenly all the tenties disappear from the world.

 

Though I did like the plot of the book, I just couldn’t get into it. Usually I’m sucked right into the story, but for some reason that I’m still trying to figure out, It just couldn’t concentrate on it. Maybe this book wasn’t a perfect fit for me, but that doesn’t mean you won’t like it. It was really interesting, and it’s something I won’t forget about anytime soon. My favourite characters were probably the Tenties, just because they were so different from anything else in the story, and I also really enjoyed the time jumping part of it.

 

The book is available here, and here’s a link to the author’s Twitter.

Thanks for reading!

The Vision, Volume 2: Little Better than a Beast (Vision #2) by Tom King, Michael Walsh, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Jordie Bellaire, Mike del Mundo, & Clayton Cowles Review

After finishing the first volume, I couldn’t wait to see what I was in store for with the next one. I loved it, and I was

The Vision, Volume 2: Little Better than a Beast (Vision #2) by Tom King, Michael Walsh, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Jordie Bellaire, Mike del Mundo, & Clayton Cowles 5/5 Stars 136 pages
Published December 13th 2016 by Marvel

sure I was going to love this one, and man was I right. Beginning with The Vision and The Scarlet Witch laying side by side in bed, it shows a different life a long time ago. It goes through the motions, following their lives as Avengers and trying to continue as a couple, and they then get married and have children. They love each other, and that’s a very new thing for The Vision.

 

That is, until one day he loses his life. He becomes a completely different Vision, and although he technically is the same person, he’s lost his body and if he wants to be truthful, he’s not their father and husband. The Scarlet Witch falls out of love with him, and reminisces when he used to be kind to them. He leaves, and although he does eventually restore to his old self, it’s too late.

 

So that’s when he builds the family that we got to know in the last volume. It all comes back to The Vision at his family home. Only this time, we’re introduced to a new character, Victor Mancha, son of Ultron. What could go wrong, right?

 

I loved getting to see a completely different side of The Vision, and I was sucked in immediately to the story. The story itself is so interesting, and I love the characters. Though they’re very different than myself, they have their own problems that they need to work through. I’m glad I got the chance to check out this book, and I definitely recommend it to anyone who’s read the first book. I’m sure you don’t absolutely have to read it, the story makes a lot more sense when you read them together. It’s available here, and here’s a link to the first book if you’re interested. Here are the links to the creator’s Twitter’s, as well.

 

https://twitter.com/TomKingTK

https://twitter.com/Mister_Walsh

https://twitter.com/ghwalta?lang=en

https://twitter.com/whoajordie?lang=en

https://twitter.com/deadlymike?lang=en

https://twitter.com/ClaytonCowles

 

Thanks for reading!

September Favourites

Hope everyone’s having a good day!

This month was a tough choice for favourites. I read a lot of books that I loved last month, and had a hard time picking just five. But I did it!

Here’s my list, in no particular order.

 

 

1. The Vision, Volume 1: Little Worse Than A Man by Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Jordie Bellaire, Clayton Cowles, & Mike del Mundo

The Vision wants to be human, and what’s more human than family? So he heads back to the beginning, to the laboratory where Ultron created him and molded him into a weapon. The place where he first rebelled against his given destiny and imagined that he could be more -that he could be a man. There, he builds them. A wife, Virginia. Two teenage twins, Viv and Vin. They look like him. They have his powers. They share his grandest ambition (or is that obsession?) the unrelenting need to be ordinary.
Behold the Visions! They’re the family next door, and they have the power to kill us all. What could possibly go wrong? Artificial hearts will be broken, bodies will not stay buried, the truth will not remain hidden, and the Vision will never be the same. Here’s a link to my full review. The book is available here.

 

2. Skyward Volume 1: My Low-G Life by Joe Henderson, Lee Garbett, & Antonio Fabela

One day, gravity on Earth suddenly became a fraction of what it is now. Twenty years later, humanity has adapted to its new low-gravity reality. And to Willa Fowler, a woman born just after G-day, it’s…well, it’s pretty awesome, actually. You can fly through the air! I mean, sure, you can also die if you jump too high. So you just don’t jump too high. And maybe don’t get mixed up in your Dad’s secret plan to bring gravity back that could get you killed… Here’s a link to my full review. The book is available here.

 

3. Poached: Inside the Dark World of Wildlife Trafficking by Rachel Love Nuwer

Journalist Rachel Nuwer plunges the reader into the underground of global wildlife trafficking, a topic she has been investigating for nearly a decade. Our insatiable demand for animals–for jewelry, pets, medicine, meat, trophies, and fur–is driving a worldwide poaching epidemic, threatening the continued existence of countless species. Illegal wildlife trade now ranks among the largest contraband industries in the world, yet compared to drug, arms, or human trafficking, the wildlife crisis has received scant attention and support, leaving it up to passionate individuals fighting on the ground to try to ensure that elephants, tigers, rhinos, and more are still around for future generations.

As Reefer Madness (Schlosser) took us into the drug market, or Susan Orlean descended into the swampy obsessions of TheOrchid Thief, Nuwer–an award-winning science journalist with a background in ecology–takes readers on a narrative journey to the front lines of the trade: to killing fields in Africa, traditional medicine black markets in China, and wild meat restaurants in Vietnam. Through exhaustive first-hand reporting that took her to ten countries, Nuwer explores the forces currently driving demand for animals and their parts; the toll that demand is extracting on species across the planet; and the conservationists, rangers, and activists who believe it is not too late to stop the impending extinctions. More than a depressing list of statistics, Poached is the story of the people who believe this is a battle that can be won, that our animals are not beyond salvation. Here’s a link to my full review. It’s available here.

 

4. Prism Stalker, Vol. 1 by Sloane Leong 

Far from the border of colonized space, a newly discovered planet teems violently with strange psychic life and puzzling telekinetic ecology. Vep, a refugee raised away from her devastated home planet as an indentured citizen in a foreign colony, is taken by a private military firm to assist in settling the new planet. What awaits her will test the limits of her will as she grapples with the strange power the planet exerts over her….

Here’s a link to my full review. The book is available here.

 

 

5. Identical by Ellen Hopkins 

Do twins begin in the womb?
Or in a better place?

Kaeleigh and Raeanne are identical down to the dimple. As daughters of a district-court judge father and a politician mother, they are an all-American family—on the surface. Behind the facade each sister has her own dark secret, and that’s where their differences begin.

For Kaeleigh, she’s the misplaced focus of Daddy’s love, intended for a mother whose presence on the campaign trail means absence at home. All that Raeanne sees is Daddy playing a game of favorites—and she is losing. If she has to lose, she will do it on her own terms, so she chooses drugs, alcohol, and sex.

Secrets like the ones the twins are harboring are not meant to be kept—from each other or anyone else. Pretty soon it’s obvious that neither sister can handle it alone, and one sister must step up to save the other, but the question is—who?

Here’s a link to my full review. This book is available here.

 

And that’s it! All of these books are amazing for different reasons. I noticed I had a lot of great comics this month, and I think that’s awesome. Definitely check these out if you get the chance!

The Vision, Volume 1: Little Worse Than A Man #1) by Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta , Jordie Bellaire, Clayton Cowles, Mike del Mundo Review

The Vision, Volume 1: Little Worse Than A Man #1) by Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta , Jordie Bellaire, Clayton Cowles, Mike del Mundo 5/5 Stars 136 pages
Published July 12th 2016 by Marvel

Wondering what the Vision is up to? Well it turns out he wants to be just like everyone else. Against his fellow Avenger’s wishes, he has created himself a family of three, a wife, Virginia, and two kids,  Vin and Viv, to share his new home with in the countryside. He still fights bad guys, but hopes to get a paying job soon enough so he can support his family. They’re not everything he expected them to be however.

I didn’t really know the characters very well, but I was really intrigued. Robots creating Robots, and they just want to be like everyone else. Aside from not being able to feel things, they have to now deal with emotions and the emotions of the people around them. They can’t always take the precise calculated way of things, and they find that out the hard way. I loved them from the moment I started reading, and I’m excited to learn more about them and see what happens next.

Inside this book is completely the opposite of what I thought it was going to be. Not only does it show the Vision’s day to day life, but it also shows what his kids are up to and his wife as well. The neighbours even brought cookies. I didn’t want this to end, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the next volume. This might just be one of my new favourites. The book is available here, and here are some links to the creator’s Twitter accounts.

https://twitter.com/TomKingTK

https://twitter.com/ghwalta

https://twitter.com/whoajordie?lang=en

https://twitter.com/ClaytonCowles

https://twitter.com/DeadlyMike?lang=en

 

Thanks for reading!