CET Writes

This 2018 Maverick List honoree and @CTXTeenComicCon guest speaker brings lush artwork and magical realism to the #WeNeedDiverseComics movement. #LibrariesRRock #RRockReviewsHS ​ #MaverickList #yartxla #CTXComicCon   |   @nidhiart ,  @01FirstSecond

In this 2019 #MaverickList honoree,  @strangelykatie creates a gentle world in which miniature dragons have more in common with house cats than beasts of destruction. Check it out to see what kind of Tea Dragon you will be!  @OniPress   |   #CETReviews #RRockReviewsMS #RRockReviewsHS

With messaging, more subtle than the original,  @MollyOstertag 's sequel to Witch Boy enriches the series premise and strengthens the characterization of the denizens--making it clear that this tale is more than a one-off.  #CETReviews #RockReviewsMS #RockReviewsHS   |   @GraphixBooks

In volume 2,  @gracecellis and  @shaebeagle continue this fantastic paranormal romance that delightfully navigates some surprisingly heavy topics with dexterity and levity!  #CETReviews   #RockReviewsHS   |   @ImageComics ,  @LibrariesRRock  

Image from  fantasticfiction.com “Marianne Velba and - Adrian track the mysterious fighter Richard Aldana into another universe to arrive in Paxtown, an illustrious modern megalopolis, where something sinister lurks behind the glitz and glam. There, mother and son enlist as a team in the Fighting Fists Funeral Cup, that world’s famous boxing tournament, in order to discover the ugly secrets lurking in Richard’s past. Marianne and Adrian soon realize, however, that they are not the only travelers from the Valley of Kings with a stake in the Funeral Cup…” - From the Publisher Although the quality is excellent, I cannot recommend this series for purchase by a school library because of thematic elements that might invite challenge - profanity, sexual content, sexual violence, nudity, drug consumption, and organized crime. Albeit these topics are tastefully navigated and are neither glorified nor condoned by the narrative, their prominence escalates as the series progresses. T...

Image from  amazon.com "When Richard Aldana disappears with the newly won Royal Cup, young Adrian is shocked-- and only further surprised when his mother, Marianne, is determined to pursue Aldana on an incredible vehicle she had hidden away: a motorcycle! Their chase leads them to a mysterious rift. Beyond that lies a strange world, where the greatest threat comes from those who uphold the law. Arrested as criminals by a gang of unruly enforcers, Marianne and Adrian now must take part in a physical court battle where might is right. Can they survive this legal circus?"— Back cover. Last Man is an excellent series that uses a blending of action, adventure, fantasy, martial arts, and romance to truly enhance what could have easily been merely Shonen - instead, giving the series a depth that will appeal to fans of many different genres. Unfortunately, the adult content that makes a brief, tasteful appearance in volume one escalates in prominence as the series progresses...

Image from goodreads.com Princess Decomposia is overworked and under appreciated, doing not only her job but that of her father as well. The king never quite feels well enough to execute his duties, so the princess is always left scurrying, running behind, and buried under paperwork. Luckily, she makes a good hire, friend, and helpmate in Count Spatula; With this charming vampire-chef by her side, our protagonist is guaranteed success! Like Mr. Woodhouse from Jane Austen’s Emma, King Wulfrun is seemingly so paranoid about his own and others' health that he is nearly helpless. He is against eating decadent foods and engaging in taxing behaviors on the grounds that they might damage the health. And, just like her Austenian counterpart, Princess Decomposia takes on the roles of caretaker and head of state, as Wulfrun is ostensibly incapable of taking care of King or kingdom. However, unlike Emma, this princess sees through her father’s ruse and outs him as a being “nothing but ...

Image from amazon.com In this second book of the Last Man series, Richard Aldana continues his unconventional winning streak as one half of an even more unconventional pairing - showing himself a likely contender for the Royal Cup. As The Royal Cup is to The Stranger , Empire Strikes Back is to A New Hope. This is the point in the series where the exposition, world building, and character development gel, creating a synergy that energizes the reader and propels the story. In short, things have just gotten good, and it will be interesting to see where this French manga takes us! Although one might be tempted to write this series off as merely Shonen, the blending of action, adventure, fantasy, martial arts, and romance give the series a depth that will appeal to fans of many different genres. Last Man:  The Royal Cup (Book 2) by Balak, Michaël Sanlaville, Bastien Vivès Secondary First Second 208pp. Published 2015 ISBN 978-1626720473 $9.99

The wizarding world woven by Rowling in her first volume of the Harry Potter series is inhabited primarily by characters who find its wonders unremarkable. Desensitized to what denizens of the non-magical, “Muggle” world would consider monumental powers and strangely capricious institutions, this parallel magical society is opened to orphan Harry Potter when he receives an invitation to attend Hogwarts, its premier boarding school, freeing him from the comically harsh home life of his aunt and uncle, the Durselys. Potter quickly discovers that he is a celebrity in this insular community, and in short order rejects false friends, finds true ones, and sets about uncovering a mystery which will lead him to confront the one who orphaned him. Keeping a quick pace, Rowling presents Potter as a character riddled with self-doubt as a result of his punishing upbringing at the hands of the Dursleys, certain that around each corner is his expulsion. However, life under such oppression has read...

At seventeen, Emery Land finds her life voraciously consumed by physical deterioration resulting from seizures.   Practically living in a hospital under constant surveillance by her scientist father and an ostensibly-skeptical team of doctors, she feels herself a lab rat; consequently, weighing the stifling emotional price of her caged existence against the physically lethal cost of freedom, Emery flees in order to pursue her theory that during her seizures she travels through time and space.  Inhabiting an emotional purgatory that exists somewhere between the heaven of free will and the hell of self-recriminations, she meets Asher Clarke who seems to be intimately entwined with her plight.  Together, they must race against the Doomsday clock to understand the truth of their complicated connection.  Above all else,  Flutter  is a beautifully-written, poignant tale of possibly-star-crossed lovers that questionably ends in death but certainly avoids b...

Image from  neilgaiman.com In Murder Mysteries , a murderer is granted an unsolicited gift, forgiveness. During a layover in Los Angeles, he visits and kills a former love interest. Upon returning to his living accommodations, the murderer meets a stranger named Raguel who—in exchange for a cigarette—recounts the tale of the first murder, a crime of passion between angels in heaven. This murder necessitated that Raguel—then an angel—be activated as the vengeance of the Lord. Upon solving the crime, he realizes that God engineered the entire debacle in order to test Lucifer, Captain of the Host. Concluding that although God is infallible he is not just, Raguel chooses to retain his memory of this incident and blesses the narrator with a patchy memory of his own crime. The realistic but simplified art of Murder Mysteries, particularly in its frame story, lends credibility to the narrative, even when it shifts into a fantastical setting. While not suitable for most sec...

Image from  neilgaiman.com Between the publication of the young adult novel by Neil Gaiman and its debut on the big screen, Coraline appeared in graphic novel form, adapted and illustrated by P. Craig Russell. Relating the tale of a self-styled girl explorer who is bored to tears by her busy parents and weird neighbors before discovering her too-good-to-be-true Other Mother just down a magical hallway, Russell renders his version Gaiman's yarn in a lush yet realistic style that is all the more disturbing when things take a turn for the horrific. Of particular interest graphically is the dynamic between the familiar world and the Other World and the look of the corresponding characters in each. While at first the differences are confined to the substitution of black buttons for eyes, as the story proceeds the two diverge in increasingly unsettling ways until even Coraline wonders how she could have ever mistaken the malevolent force she encounters for her real mom. As a narrati...

Having graduated from high school, Owen and Sadie - dragon slayers in training - enlist in the Oil Watch to serve their requisite four years and learn to work with their support teams. As per, the plan Siobhan - Owen’s bard and best friend, also joins up so that she might usher in a new era as she regales the world with his tale. Being freshly maimed and the first bard to enter the Oil Watch in a very long time, she struggles to hear the music that comprises this new world and fails to understand the part that she will play in it. This sequel to  The Story of Owen  surpases the original! Just as Owen concludes on a sharp inhale, leaving the audience ill at ease, its successor begins with the next breath - a similarly uncomfortable exhale. Since the plot begins where its predecessor ends, this tale is incapable of standing alone. In fact, Johnston masterfully shuns the temptation to recap the backstory (as some of the current top-selling series are want to do) while far exce...

Image from Goodreads A prequel to the Syfy web series, this novel serves as an origin story for Riese, an orphaned princess wandering her former kingdom, which has been overthrown by religious radicals who venerate machine technology. Cox writes for the newcomer to this multi-media narrative universe, but it is clear that in many places the story would be more meaningful for someone already acquainted with later events. The action occurs both in a frame story set in the present-day of the Reise universe, as well as in extended flashbacks to the protagonist’s youth at the time of the upheavals which lead to her change of fortune. Given the author’s background in television, it’s not surprising that the story reads like a long, possibly two-part, TV episode, with fairly predictable outcomes consistent with genre tropes. The world of the novel is liberally peppered with tellingly broad and sometimes oddly inconsistent references to familiar Earth culture, although Cox takes care not...

Image from  Goodreads I was gifted a free electronic copy of this book to review. While not an all-consuming read that compels the audience to come back when called away, this is an enjoyable fantasy escape. It is comprised of interesting characters who exist in a well developed realm of thesis and antithesis where every living being has a translucent doppelganger whose fate is intimately tied to his own. The magical realism of this mirror image world is breathtaking and awe inspiring as it deftly toggles between playful irreverence and shocking horror. Although middle-aged readers of high fantasy will likely be amused by the word play and whimsy, contrary to all of its efforts this novel lacks the ineffable quality that would grant it the power to make a significant impact. Bearing this in mind, the $2.99 digital list price for the Kindle edition seems infinitely more reasonable than the $19.58 print list price for a paperback. The Sound & The Echoes by   Dew Pe...