The Zombie Knight Eighth Oath: Rain and Sand Review

     I just finished reading the Eighth Oath of The Zombie Knight about 60 seconds ago. Time to review it immediately! I have a bunch of reviews to catch up on!

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR EVERY PREVIOUS CHAPTER OF THE ZOMBIE KNIGHT!!!!PLEASE DON"T SPOIL YOURSELF!!!!

     At the end of the Seventh Oath of The Zombie Knight, the focus was squarely on the goings on in Sair. Marcos was killed in Mariana's spectacular fight with a Vanguard goon squad, and Emiliana, who was on the verge of being allowed to live a normal life, manifest permanent physical mutations when her family is attacked. The Eighth Oath starts out with Mariana's attempts find a reaper to resurrect Marcos before his soul deteriorates and Emiliana's reaction to the fact that she isn't going to be able to fit into normal society since she now has a monstrous appearance. After a brief stay with the Elroy family, the focus of the oath shifts back to Hector.
     He's now patrolling the area around his castle by night and repairing it by day. He's also experimenting with using his power to travel, which is funny and pretty awesome, and I hope is leading to some more really imaginative uses of power in the future. We also get to see some of the public's reaction to Hector. His mom Vanessa is continuing to develop as quite an interesting character. And we start to get a few hints about how the two story lines are going to converge, both in some interesting facts that are revealed about some characters we've been following, and especially when Lynn shows up on Hector's door asking for some help on a mission the queen has sent her on. And if you've been wondering if there are any drawbacks to using an aberration bone gauntlet, we start to get some clues about that from Harper.
     I was thinking about knocking this oath a point for not having any big fight scenes, but it is such a joy to read. And The Zombie Knight is not all about the fighting either. Its greatness is thanks in big-part to how engaging and interesting it is even when things aren't going crazy. There is also a scene or two in this oath that wouldn't work in other writings. Some scenes seem like they are immature or something. But in The Zombie Knight, I know that these scenes are well considered and thought out and that everything that's happening is supposed to come off the way it does. In this oath, there was an instance where I didn't quite get why something was in a scene, and would have written it off as bad writing in another story. But knowing how smart George Frost is, I went with it, and found some great thematic reasons why said scene occurred. Just like a rock band that you know is great can do a song that you might not like otherwise, The Zombie Knight has enough cred that you can trust it and go with it and it will all work out. That's why this oath gets a perfect score too!

The Zombie Knight Seventh Oath: Lord and Castle Review

     The Zombie Knight is a story that is published on the web almost daily here: http://thezombieknight.blogspot.com. I currently read it whenever a new oath is finished. An oath is a group of chapters that form a story arc or a kind of mega-chapter. Actually, an oath is probably about the size of a very long chapter in a novel (there is another one out there now which I'm going to read when I'm done this review!). Many oaths string together until they become a novel-sized story arc.
      The Zombie Knight is one of my favorite...things. It's so great. In total, I definitely give it a perfect score. But I'm not going to review it in total, I'm going to review each oath as I go through them. This might prove difficult, as it's almost like trying to review just a chapter of a book. But hey, let's give it a try.

SPOILER WARNING! I'M SPOILING EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED BEFORE THIS OATH, SO IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT, PLEASE DON'T READ THIS!!!! IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE CHAPTERS BEFORE, STOP NOW!!! PLEASE!!!!

      Actually, maybe this oath is a good place to start. The big over-arching story line of Abolish trying to invade Atreya and seed a war is concluded after Harper's berserk rampage in the sixth oath. At Voreese's insistence Hector has accepted a castle as a reward from the queen for his work in defending the country.
      The castle is very, very interesting. We find out why Voreese cares so much about it as Hector works to restore it and moves in there with his mother, who seems to be doing better, and a couple of servants who are assigned to work for him. Of course it's awkward for him to have some servants and his mother around, but I have a good feeling about it. The castle, Warrenhold, has some amazing characteristics, the least of which is the fact that most of it is underground, and that it is very large. Voreese sheds light on why she wanted Hector to take this castle. Those reasons, and some of the other things revealed about the castle, range from amazing to downright revolutionary. Let's just say that Hector's new digs are something really, really special and I can see the place playing a major role in the story.
      Hector's good name is restored and he even has some contact with members of the public who know who he is and what he can do. Meanwhile Lynette takes up a new position within royal household and starts to get a reputation of her own.
     Lord and Castle follows our heroes around for a bit, then starts into an all new story with all new characters. I don't want to spoil who or what these characters are, but I will say we get to see a few days in the life of a family who serves one of the major groups in the story. They live in an interesting city in a different country, and their kids live ordinary lives, going to school, playing with friends, and pursuing crushes. But the lives of the parents are anything but normal. They are high-ranking servants, and this affects the children quite drastically.
     This oath is pretty laid back as Hector explores the mysteries of his new digs and new characters are introduced and go about their normal (sort of) lives. It's laid back, that is, until a big shake-up in the new characters lives leads to out-of-control action scenes. As is standard for The Zombie Knight, these are really imaginative and wonderful. I especially liked the scene where a character with a power-type that we've seen before that seems kind of weak really puts on a show in a scene that evokes a movie scene with lots of tight shots, similar to a shoot-out or a martial arts fight scene.
      By the end I was quite invested in what's going to happen to several of these new characters. I'm very excited to see where things go from here for Hector and his crew as well as what goes down with the new characters and how that is going to effect the old favorites.
     The Zombie Knight is one of the best stories around. This chunk of the story is excellent as usual. I'm giving it a perfect score because of how solid it is as the beginning of a new story, the way it works with the characters we know and love, and the directions it's taking the story into the future with both sets. It's a great story, tier 1!!! Go read the whole thing!

Pandemic Review

     Awhile ago I read Scott Sigler's first Galactic Football League novel, The Rookie. I didn't really like it despite enjoying a lot of its concepts and some of its action. But when I mentioned it to a friend, she stated that Scott Sigler's other books are amazing and that I should try them. I started off on the Infected trilogy. Pandemic is the 3rd book in that series. And what a series it is.
Small spoilers for Infected, Contagious, and Ancestor are contained in this review!

     Infected and Contagious both flirt with perfect scores from me (if I were to review them, which I probably won't since I read them awhile ago). Infected introduced me to Sigler's vulgar and horrifying style. It mainly focused on one man's experience with his alien infection. He slowly goes crazy, and slowly mutilates his body to fight the infection. The final scenes are telegraphed a mile away in a great use of foreshadowing. Foreshadowing something un-thinkable is a great technique. We also got a peak as to what the purpose of the alien virus is. And that revelation itself, although a small part of the book, is fascinating.
     Contagious sees the main characters from the first book combating a new strain of the infection and some of the intelligences behind it; a brilliant and awesome orbiting artificial intelligence and the high-jacked brain of a little girl. The book continues the brutal style of the first with many amazing moments and a crazy climax.
     Unfortunately Pandemic is the worst book in the series by a long-shot. Don't worry, it's still entertaining and a decent read, and it has a lot of the elements that made the other books great. But it's missing some of the magic.
     First off, it is pretty slow moving. It's about the alien virus going worldwide and pushing the human race to the brink of extinction. But the spread of the disease doesn't begin for a looong time in the book. I want to say it takes like half the book for things to really get going. Slower paced stories are fine, and I'm into them when they are appropriate. But this story could use a much faster pace. Instead Margaret Montoya and Clarence Otto spend a really long time on a boat studying the new strains of virus, along with Tim Feely, a character who returns from Sigler's stand-alone novel Ancestor. Crossovers like this sometimes seemed forced to me, but Feely fits right in as a character, thanks in-part to the way the island in Ancestor figures into the setting in Pandemic. In fact Feely becomes a main character that fits right in with Montoya and Otto.
     Once things do go wrong, in true Sigler style, they go really wrong. Montoya and the crew race down multiple paths for a cure to the infection. Of course, anyone can join the cause of the infection at any time if they become infected...
     Pandemic doesn't quite take things far enough though. The few people that do change sides don't really do much. There could have been some amazing moments featuring the traitorous actions of certain people, especially since Sigler has the guts to have anyone go turncoat at any minute. But these opportunities are mostly wasted.
     The final scenes are really cool, but don't hold a candle to a typical Sigler ending. The ending of Infected and the Ending of Contagious are both so outrageous and awesome. This one seems tame by comparison (although it's somewhat outrageous by normal author standards).
     It's true that there are a lot of cool characters and interesting ideas; deep sleeper agent Steve Stanton is very cool, as is the way his automated submarine functions and completes its mission. And the Navy Seal Klimas is a cool character. But something felt off. The magic of the first two books is missing. And there is a plot hole that's not so great. And a few of the concepts that the book slowly works you up to turn out to be a dud in my book.
     Compared to the first two books in the series, Pandemic is way too slow in the beginning and then never achieves the levels of insanity that the other books do. I had a prediction of what I thought might happen, and it would have been really over-the-top. What happened instead was tame by comparison. Sitting here, I can thinks of a few scenarios right away that would have made better endings or climaxes.
     I'm being pretty vague about everything as usual to avoid spoiling anything for new readers. Just so you know...
    Pandemic is an interesting read with a couple of good parts, but none of the building tension and stunning endings that the series is famous for. Unfortunately I have to give it a low score. The series still scores very highly for me. The first two books are some of the best I've read in a few years, and like I said, they may even be perfect scores. If only the finale to the series could have topped them both.... Instead, Pandemic is a Mediocre Book, tier 2.

Southpaw Review

      My mom pulled Southpaw by Scott Morse out of a pile of books she got at a thrift store or yard sale or somewhere and said, "You might like this." It is a little square book, maybe 6" by 6" or so. It is a fairly short comic that features one image per page. There is dialogue, but not a huge amount. Many of the pages feature pure imagery.
     And that imagery is nice. This story of a tiger boxer who is on the lam in the aftermath of some rigged fighting business is done all  in shades of orange, with the exception of the front and back cover. Skimming through it again quickly, it looks like just 3-4 different shades of orange, with many pages only having 2 tones. This works great with the art style, which is simple shapes for a lot of the backgrounds and objects, but more detailed texture on characters and certain objects.
     This book is really short. I read it in about 15-20 minutes while on break at work. The plot is pretty simple, but interesting. I really can't say anything about what happens without spoiling it since it is so short. There is a tiny bit of action and a handful of emotional scenes, and then it is over. It's quite a good read but it's not very memorable. I would definitely read more stuff by this artist in this art style though. Something longer would be great.
     Southpaw is a mediocre comic, tier 1.