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Barbarius Locked account

Barbarius@outside.ofa.dog

Joined 3 years ago

Mostly reading sci-fi, fantasy, and comics/graphic novels, but occasionally some other stuff too.

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reviewed Catwoman: Lonely City by Cliff Chiang (Catwoman: Lonely City, #1-4)

Cliff Chiang: Catwoman: Lonely City (Hardcover, 2022, DC Comics)

In a world without Batman...will Selina Kyle's old wounds tear Gotham City apart? Cliff Chiang …

The Catwoman Returns

I'll be honest, I wasn't really thinking too much when I picked this up off the shelf. The art looked good, Catwoman's an interesting character and a solo story would be cool, I guess?

Far out, this was a joy to read.

Basic premise: Catwoman/Selina has been in prison for the last ten years, after an event that killed most of the main characters in Gotham, including Batman. So she's now out, in her mid-fifties, and returning to a city she barely recognises. And while the cat was away, the mice did play.

So begins the story of a wonderful cast of characters--some new and some old, both figuratively and literally--and how they try to pay homage to the heroes and villians that both were and are.

Dare I say it, it can sometimes be a bit difficult to tell a fresh story in the Bat-verse. …

reviewed Batman: Killing Time by Tom King (Batman: Killing Time, #1-6)

Tom King, David Marquez, Alejandro Sánchez: Batman: Killing Time (Hardcover, DC Comics)

Three villians, one Dark Knight, and a deadly just gone wrong.

Catwoman, The Riddler, …

A nice story about a MacGuffin

The constantly shifting timelines, the mysterious narrator who only gets revealed on the last page of the second-to-last issue, the MacGuffin; they were all the teensiest bit frustrating.

But who cares, it's Batman!

Leonie Swann: Three Bags Full (Paperback, 2008, Flying Dolphin Press)

Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story (original German title: Glennkill: Ein Schafskrimi) is 2005 …

Not as good as I was hoping

The entire story being told from the flock's perspective – which is obviously very different in both perspective and starting baseline knowledge – is an interesting writing device, but ultimately that's about it. You end up finding out more than the sheep through conversations they overhear-but-don't-understand, which I found really unsatisfying. That is, the sheep ultimately act as narrator bystanders to the events occurring around them, much of which they don't understand, resulting in a sort of "second-hand narration". While it wasn't bad, per se, I don't think I'll be recommending it any time soon...

commented on Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann

Leonie Swann: Three Bags Full (Paperback, 2008, Flying Dolphin Press)

Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story (original German title: Glennkill: Ein Schafskrimi) is 2005 …

Most of the mystery here so far seems to be from the fact that sheep aren't people, and thus, don't know what people know...

Matt Black: American Geography (2021, Thames & Hudson)

Six years, 100,000 miles and 46 states: American Geography is a daunting exploration of poverty …

Basically what I got from this was

...that the US is a failed state that doesn't care about anyone at all. Why would anyone live there?

This pictures are great, though.

reviewed The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

Alix E. Harrow: The Everlasting (2025, Tor Publishing)

From Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of Starling House, comes a …

Overall: Great, I really enjoyed it and would recommend it. But there is this one bit...

Content warning Main critique involves a significant plot spoiler.