What I read in April ’17

What I read in April….

This is your obligatory spoiler alert. So… yeah… I’ll be talking about some books and possibly giving away plot details. You have been warned.

April has been a very busy month for me and I’ve been very bad with my time management and allocating time to actually get things read for me to write about them. So here’s what I have for you this month. Sorry the pickings are so slim.

Deadly Class Vol. 5: Carousel (w/ Rick Remender a/ Wes Craig)

First off for those unfamiliar with Deadly Class, it’s fantastic. All the bad guys send their kids to this school, Kings Dominion School of the Deadly Arts, to help them become bad guys like their parents, bosses, benefactors, etc. You have all sorts in attendance. The first four volumes followed the freshman year of a new student named Marcus and a bunch of kids he fell in with when he first arrived. But Freshman Finals proved a little too difficult for Marcus and his friends. So starting with volume five, Freshman Finals are over and the survivors move on. A new wave of freshmen arrive at Kings Dominion. My favorite of the new group of students is an East German metalhead named Helmut. He’s into Dungeons and Dragons and killing KGB. But sadly this volume wasn’t so much about Helmut but about the enigmatic Saya. The Yakuza girl that kind of killed her boyfriend, Marcus (Yeah, it’s the same guy I mentioned earlier)  in volume four during Finals. She’s being personally groomed by the school’s headmaster, Master Lin. She’s a skilled fighter and master of the sneaky-sneaky, but for a budding assassin she sure harbors a lot of guilt about killing Marcus. Also ambushes, fighting, betrayal and a valiant rescue attempt of a character we thought was dead by another character we thought was dead. What can I say? For a dead guy, Marcus is a bad ass. All in all, just another day at Kings Dominion.  4/5

DMZ  Volumes 1-5 (w/ Brian Wood a/ Riccardo Burchielli)

READ. THIS. BOOK. NOW! The book takes place during the Second American Civil War. Manhattan is the DMZ and focal point of the series. Both sides of the conflict have been unable to claim and keep it and exist in a unsteady ceasefire. The DMZ exists a sort of no man’s land where the rules change block by block. The residents that couldn’t or wouldn’t evacuate get by however they can. This is where the book truly shines, when it focuses on the lives of the residents and dealing with the fact that life goes on, war be damned, people still need to live. Matty Roth is an intern. His daddy is a high mucky muck in the American government and pulled some strings to get him this assignment. Matty is to a famous photojournalist into the DMZ and provide the world with its first look at what life is like in the  DMZ. Sadly the helicopter convoy is ambushed and Matty is the sole survivor.  A local convinces him to do the job anyway. Matty’s got the sort of “No guts, no glory” attitude that will serve him well in the years ahead. He makes contact with his news agency. They say they want to pull him out and try again later. He’s like “but I’m here now. Let me do the job.” The only thing that irks me with the book is the politics seem a bit muddled and ill defined, but other than that, the storytelling is excellent the artwork is beautiful and I’m loving the ride. 5/5

So like I said, not a whole lot this month. I’ll try to have a bit more variety for you next time. As always questions, comments and recommendations are always welcome. Until next time.

-Will