Cody

Banger. Ending was a little wonky for “grounded, street-level Daredevil,” but it still worked for me.

Banger

Something closer to 3.75 stars.
I loved the first half of the omnibus with Superman's son's introduction to all of the characters of the DC Universe. While latter half's plot didn't grip me as much, I stuck around for the touching moments between Superboy and his friend and family. Superman learning to be a dad and the son of Superman learning to be just that make for some very endearing coming-of-age stories, not the biggest, baddest, most consequential Superman stories, no world-ending threats or anything along those lines, but heartwarming, cozy, sitcom-esque adventures.

Particular stand out issue is the one where Lois, Clark, and Jon all go to the fair as a family. Adorable stuff.

A wild cocktail of eldritch horror, occult nonsense, noir crime, and a ton of mystery, Fatale kept me reeled in from start to finish. I loved the anthological approach that weaved a greater overarching story which often times provided unexpected twists and turns from one anthology piece to the next. The characters were great, especially Josephine (obviously since she's the driving character).
The story of the band in the 80s or 90s that got sucked into the crazy world of Josephine's stood out to me as a highlight.
Overall a great read with eye-catching art. Brutal, bloody, twisty, alluring, and wild. Would recommend.

The hype is real. In the early 90's, this trilogy jump started the entire Star Wars EU, and after finally reading this acclaimed novel, I understand why. While I love Disney's new Canon, I get why the fans of this trilogy were taken aback (to put it mildly).
The scale of this book easily trumps anything I've read in new canon (outside of the High Republic which feels still feels fresh and massive). The voice of the Original Trilogy heroes was captured brilliantly by Zahn, and the introduction of new characters and concepts fit so perfectly into the Star Wars galaxy that they still have ripple effects to modern Star Wars.
Brilliant novel with great pacing, well-crafted prose, and incredibly fun moments. I see myself revisiting this book in the future as frequently as some of the movies.

Just as thought-provoking as the first entry of the series—if not more so, “Children of Ruin” bent my brain a little bit. With grand questions of consciousness, language, emotions, legacy, and history, I found myself both satisfied with the attempts at the answers as well as dumbfounded. Although this entry is much headier, more philosophical, and inherently more alien than “Children of Time,” I did find it a bit less engaging narratively speaking. Simply by the nature of the less human (or Human, I should say) characters involved, the actual story being told slipped in the background as the intellectualism became more imperative to actually comprehend the ideas being portrayed. (Granted, this feels more like a side effect of the author just being intellectual himself, call it the “Dune” conundrum.)

Anyway, great book. Would recommend.

This collected edition of the first half of the Legends X-Wing: Rogue Squadron comic series starts out kind of rocky with a rushed introduction to the characters and setting in general. While the last two arcs brought this portion of the series home, diving me to pick up the next volume, it took a while for me to get there. Once the characters started to get some fleshing out and the familiarity with the relationships began to stick, the series reached engaging heights.
The art isn't my personal favorite as it's very unapologetically early 90's with the uncleanliness in the line work (not sure how else to phrase that). It can also be difficult keeping tracking of all of the white dudes that vaguely look the same.

While “Dune” took me several months to read, “Dune Messiah” took me a week. Fully engrossed in the hype surrounding the recently release 2021 movie adaptation, I sped right through hoping I didn't miss too much subtext (there's no way I was going to catch it all on my first read anyways). The completion of Paul's arc masterfully cements the entire theme of the first two Dune books. I was enchanted from the very beginning.

A thrilling canon introduction to Thrawn with the added perk of an origin story for Rebels character, Governor Price.
Vanto's character worked excellent as a surrogate for the reading, slowly (and eventually) rising in the ranks as he studies Thrawn and his methods and teachings just as I slowly began to understand Thrawn's methods and motivations. The reveal of his true reason for joining the Empire intrigued me. I hope the threats that terrifies the Chiss Ascendency gets explores properly.

Simultaneously feeling like Vonnegut's most personal novel as well as Vonnegut's most bull-shitted novel, Slapstick serves as one of the most Vonnegut-esque books. Goofy, crude, whimsical, and poignant, I found myself constantly thinking about one-liners and random lines of dialogue, just reflecting on their subtle brilliance that borderlines on obscenely dense. Love this book, and man, I love Vonnegut.

A shining example of a modern Space Opera, Leviathan Wakes blends all of the usual elements of world building, poignant characterization, and social commentary that you'd expect from such a genre.
It does it REALLY well though. The Solar System painted genuinely feels like the near future, and the characters remind me of people, friends, I know in real life.
A fantastic read that treads (for better or for worse) unexpected but familiar plot lines. While I did mostly really enjoy it, there were some elements I thought weren't executed quite as well.
However the world and characters completely made up for any missteps I felt the plot took.

The grand conclusion to The High Republic Phase I left me wanting. Wanting more time with fewer characters, wanting a more in-depth look at the forces at play, and ultimately wanting an actual sense of finality.
I think some of the deaths were undeserved and some of the characters didn't have enough to do to warrant including. The bloated cast causes the breakneck speed of some sequences feel reminiscent of the worst superhero crossover movies.
I have about a dozen other criticisms, but I think more than anything I'm salty that we won't revisit these characters for a while.

A whodunit for the ages!
As (one of) the murder mystery queen's magnus opus(es), I had high expectations going in, and I was not disappointed.
Tropes can be excused seeing as this novel — and other Agatha Christie books like it — is where the tropes originated.
A perfect execution of said tropes certainly help this book along as it masterfully juggles ten characters all with different secrets and fears.

A tremendous, easily-read tale that certainly has me wanting to check out more Agatha.

4.5 stars. A great, admittedly kind of predictable ending to a fantastic series, but it was only predictable because the foreshadowing was so great and the characterizations were so consistent.
I'll miss this series and the characters. I'll certainly return to it for a reread eventually.

3.5 stars. A few fun twists along with a few predictable ones. Although I didn't love every bit of it, and I thought the second act meandered a little bit too much, it was still very solid read overall.

Not only my favorite book of the series, but also one of my favorite books of all time.

A cute picture book, depicting the Great Disaster or Part One of Light of the Jedi. It obviously doesn't go into as much depth as Soule does in his novel, but Cavan Scott still does a great job capturing the direness of the situation and the triumph of the Jedi during the event in a voice appropriate for young readers.
It's also great to see depictions of the new High Republic characters and vehicles, especially on the cute stickers included.

Like a 3.7 star book with 4.7 star characters. While it's isn't my usual type of book, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” still greatly resonated with me. A book of relationships, grief, the existential passage of time, and video games, this was exactly the type of story that could resonate with me. I loved the perspective characters, and I loved how frustrated they made me. Explicitly human and clumsy and awkward and imperfect, the protagonists Sam and Sadie had me empathizing every step of the way. Although the plot itself sometimes felt meandering and directionless, the themes of the book were prevalent enough that the cyclical nature never felt unwelcome—and often even made more sense than a straightforward character arc.
Overall a very solid read.

It starts with some very intriguing and mysterious world-building that becomes muddled once the murder occurs. Ultimately the reveals fell flat for me though. It felt like the author wanted to use multiple different plot twists, but since he couldn't decide on which one, he just used all of them.
Not a terrible read, but the second half failed to keep the promise of the first.

My first exposure to Grant Morrison's writing, and I'm now extremely hooked. The existential themes along with the incredibly meta narrative boggled my brain. This is a comic that will stick with me for a long time, I'd imagine. In a field of its own, beyond the typical super hero adventures, this one left me pondering life's biggest questions.
Morrison's prose writing is colorfully refreshing and doesn't hold back. Every character's inner monologue when shown is brilliantly done, including and especially the one of the Dolphin's in a particular issue. The art is perfectly stylistic as most comics in the late 80's, and the classical lettering feels reminiscent of Silver Aged lettering. Both contribute to the whiplash I experience when the book begins to unravel and show its true colors. Seriously I couldn't recommend this series enough. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.

“Something is Killing the Children” is everything a modern indie comic should be: digestible, intriguing, and instantly iconic.
The story plants itself in the Stranger Things-type of horror — except way more violent. The dreadful tone had me on the edge of my seat, going so far as having me verbally express my concern for the characters out loud.
The incredible art and eye-popping colors (especially that blood red in the dark night) add layer upon layers of the horrifying story and awesome world building. The monsters feel real and the secret societies and mysteries feel intricately fleshed out.

Over all a fantastic, albeit tense, reading experience that wrapped up nicely in this oversized deluxe collection of issues #1-15 while still setting up the future stories nicely. Can't wait for Book Two!

Didn't love this one quite as much as the previous two installments, but it was a solid enough ending the saga told in the first 4 X-Wing books.
Most of this book was just set up for the final confrontation with sporadic dogfights here and there. Unfortunately this entry was bogged down with talks of grief and family politics, both being topics that understandably were addressed based on where the character arcs headed.
A fun ride overall, but not one I'll revisit for a long while unlike the prior three installments.

Well, I did it. Read the weirdest comic I've ever read. Overall a genuinely endearing story with rom-com elements that touched on broad topics such as trauma, mental illness, general existentialism, and the nature of human relationships—all within the story about people who stop time with their genitals.
Wacky concept, great execution, overall a good time.
I wouldn't recommend reading this to anybody I know personally though lol

A character study more than a story. Justina Ireland's prose writing never at any point clicked with me throughout this novel. The way she over explains, “tells and not shows,” characters' emotions and motivations contributes to the incredibly slow pacing of the story, a story I would've found dull and predictable anyways.
While some of the new character moments were nuanced, relatable, and generally interesting, most of the old characters didn't have much to do besides act as connective tissue to the High Republic as a whole.

First half is 4 stars, latter half falls into 3 stars territory. Overall a great read for any Star Wars fan though.
While I don't ever care for Larroca's art, Gillen's writing and introduction to the characters in the first half brings a brilliant addition to Star Wars to life. Doctor Aphra, a lovable, conflicted rogue archaeologist constantly gets tangled with Rebels, Imperial agents, unique cultures, and ancient Jedi artifacts.