![]() ![]() They’re beautiful and stunning and classic, capturing a moment from the story as if it were a classic painting, all wrapped in a red ribbon. ![]() However, it’s the covers from Scott McKowen which are truly stunning. Adam Kubert’s pencils give the comic a rough look, like an etching that has aged over the years. It pretty much does exactly what it says on the tin, transposing the modern day Marvel Universe to 1602. Writer Neil Gaiman, however, crafted an especially interesting alternative to mainstream Marvel with 1602. Marvel Noir offers us the Marvel Universe as seen through a smokey glass-half-empty lens, with tales of Daredevil, X-Men and Spider-Man changed to fit in this strange new setting. Tales spin-off in so many different directions that these stories become viable alternative versions of the Marvel Universe, just with a variation upon a theme. ![]() Even discounting the Ultimate line, Marvel has produced any number of alternative continuity worlds within the past decade or so – not stories or chapters, but worlds. After spending the tail end of last year looking at the tangled inter-continuity crossovers at Marvel, I thought I’d spend January looking at some of the looser “out of continuity” tales at the major companies.Īlthough DC invented the term “elseworlds” to describe alternative continuities featuring familiar characters in unfamiliar settings, it was really Marvel who ran with it. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Perhaps the book benefited from me having a rare day to myself and reading most of it in one go. Like that book TWoS takes what I loved about 80's fantasy and grows it up for the more demanding, hard-edged tastes of today. ![]() I could perhaps have stood fewer discussions on the city's varied architecture but that's the very minor niggle on the back of a great deal of enjoyment.Īnd that friend of mine who wasn't a fan - she wasn't a fan of The Warded Man either, which I loved, and I have to say that this is probably the most enjoyable read I've had since devouring Brett's The Warded Man several years ago. The pacing is good and there are few info dumps. There's as much action as any reader could want, varied and interesting magic, tight plotting from a good number of interesting points of view. There are plenty of emotional scenes and even though I could see the strings being pulled, I still got drawn in. I call the book fun, and it is, but that's not to diminish it in any way. who knew? I don't enjoy every popular book but I do generally find out that there's a good reason why they're popular.īrent Weeks is a great story teller and his writing is plenty strong enough to carry the load. It turns out that I tend to like what people tend to like. In any event, my expectations were not sky high. though I could be over-reading 140 characters there. ![]() even Weeks himself seemed a touch apologetic about his debut when he saw my tweet about starting it. I'd read a couple of sniffy reviews about this book and a friend was very meh about it. ![]() ![]() Insecure but arrogant, abrasive but charming in Hughes' character were the seeds of his own destruction. ![]() ![]() He played several innings that count as all-time classics, but it's his tearful resignation from the captaincy that is remembered. Golden curled and boyishly handsome, his rise and fall as captain and player is unparalleled in cricketing history. _ Kim Hughes was one of the most majestic and daring batsmen to play for Australia in the last 40 years. **Voted Wisden Cricket Monthly's best cricket book ever in 2019** WINNER, BEST CRICKET BOOK, BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2010 _ Golden Boy is a blistering expose of the tumultuous Lillee/Marsh/Chappells era of Australian cricket, as viewed through the lens of flawed genius Kim Hughes. ![]() ![]() ![]() I would venture to say that the average Russian knows more fairy tales and fairy tale characters than they do Slavic deities and practices. I know there are historians and casual enthusiasts who know a great deal about it, and there are definitely practicing pagans in Russia today. Um, do Russians know of their pagan past? I certainly can't speak for the country as a whole. I found this journey (from wicked pagan god to giver of treats to children) absolutely fascinating, and I wondered what would go through such a character's mind as he was making that transition over the centuries. He evolved over the years from a pretty powerful deity to sort of a wicked fairy-tale creature, and finally (after some European influence) to Ded Moroz, the Russian Father Christmas. What I found interesting about this character though is he has his mythical roots in slavic paganism, as a dark god of winter and death called Chernobog. ![]() ![]() ![]() He features in multiple fairy tales …more So, Morozko is the name of the Russian Jack Frost, a winter demon who is sometimes benevolent and sometimes cruel. Katherine Arden So, Morozko is the name of the Russian Jack Frost, a winter demon who is sometimes benevolent and sometimes cruel. ![]() ![]() ![]() 3Īndrea Cremer is the amazing author of the Nightshade series, so when I heard she was writing a prequel series I couldn’t help but be interested. With action, adventure, magic, and tantalizing sensuality, this book is as fast-paced and breathtaking as the Nightshade novels. When the knights realize Eira, one of their leaders, is dabbling in dark magic, Ember and Barrow must choose whether to follow Eira into the nether realm or to pledge their lives to destroying her and her kind. She also finds herself falling in love with her mentor, the dashing, brooding, and powerful Barrow Hess. Once she arrives, Ember finds joy in wielding swords, learning magic, and fighting the encroaching darkness loose in the world. ![]() Sixteen-year-old Ember Morrow is promised to a group called Conatus after one of their healers saves her mother’s life. Chronicling the rise of the Keepers, this is the stunning prequel to Andrea Cremer’s internationally bestselling Nightshade trilogy! ![]() ![]() As Alessandra begins digging into ben Yusef's past, she is already in more danger than she knows - and when she is falsely accused of murder during her investigation, she is forced to flee New York. ![]() Feisty reporter Alessandra Russo heads to the UN hoping for a piece of the action, but soon becomes entangled in controversy and suspicion when ben Yusef singles her out for attention among all other reporters. His trial in New York City for crimes against humanity attracts scores of protestors, as well as media and religious leaders from around the world. Others insist he is a man of peace, a miracle worker, and possibly even the Son of God. ![]() Some say Demiel ben Yusef is the world's most dangerous terrorist, personally responsible for bombings and riots that have claimed the lives of thousands. ![]() ![]() ![]() I loved Livia Blackburne’s debut novel Midnight Thief and this is my second book by her. And amidst the constant fear of discovery, the two grapple with a mutual attraction that could break both of their carefully guarded hearts. Thrust together on a high-stakes mission to spy on the capital, the two couldn’t be more different: Zivah, deeply committed to her vow of healing, and Dineas, yearning for vengeance.īut as they grow closer, they must find common ground to protect those they love. ![]() Now escaped and reunited with his tribe, he’ll do anything to free them from Amparan rule-even if it means undertaking a plan that risks not only his life but his very self. Broken by torture at the hands of the Amparan Empire, Dineas thirsts for revenge against his captors. Now she’s destined to live her last days in isolation, cut off from her people and unable to practice her art-until a threat to her village creates a need that only she can fill. When Zivah falls prey to the deadly rose plague, she knows it’s only a matter of time before she fully succumbs. ![]() ![]() ![]() Because there are a number of challenges in releasing all three of those at the same time, and they don’t all have to do with just staffing or time.” “We’re having conversations about what that will be, leaning toward a staggered release. “We haven’t actually talked publicly about the release schedule yet,” said rules architect Jeremy Crawford earlier this month during a press briefing in Seattle. ![]() Trouble is, the publishing giant can’t seem to find a printing partner to make them all in a timely fashion. It plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the seminal tabletop role-playing game with a revision of all three of the best-selling 5th edition core rulebooks - the Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual. Earlier this month, Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast revealed its roadmap for 2024. ![]() ![]() ![]() Becoming Supernatural marries the some of the most profound scientific information with ancient wisdom to show how people like you and me can experience a more mystical life. The author of the New York Times best seller You Are the Placebo as well as Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself and Evolve Your Brain draws on research conducted at his advanced workshops since 2012 to explore how common people are doing the uncommon to transform themselves and their lives. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() This turn is evident, for example, in The Border Trilogy and No Country for No Men, famously adapted for the screen by Joel and Ethan Coen. Blood Meridian marked something of a turn in McCarthy’s work, away from the Southern Gothic subgenre in favor of the Western. In 1981 McCarthy won his highest honor to date, the MacArthur Fellowship, which he lived on while writing Blood Meridian, conducting extensive research for the novel by traveling in Texas and Mexico. ![]() He wrote both novels and screenplays throughout this period, living on fellowships and grants. The 1960s and 70s saw the blossoming of McCarthy’s career in fiction. McCarthy attended the University of Tennessee on and off throughout the 1950s, where he published his first short stories, although he never completed his degree he also served four years in the Air Force in this decade. ![]() He would later incorporate the sights and sounds of Tennessee into his novels, especially Suttree (1979), and many of his works treat what might be called a Catholic nostalgia. Though born in Rhode Island, Cormac McCarthy grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, where as a young man he attended Catholic schools and even served as as an altar boy at the Church of Immaculate Conception. ![]() |