A legendariously legendary kickoff.
Nail-biting battles spun off in graphic format from the immensely popular Clash of Clans and Clash Royale video game franchises.
In action-crammed panels, Yang makes good on an opening promise of “eye-smackingly good” smashing and bashing by pitting the awesomely muscled, hammer-wielding Hog Riders of Triumphica village against the seemingly defenseless town of Jazzypickleton—where the invaders on their porcine steeds are first met and sent reeling by a giant battle machine. Then, in a rematch, they are battled to a stalemate by an even more powerful secret weapon. It seems that in Triumphica, Barbarians march only with Barbarians, Wizards with Wizards, and so forth, each to their own. But in Jazzypickleton, as diminutive and despised Hog Rider Terrodicus discovers when he creeps in to spy but stays to become part of the mixed and wildly successful Jazzypickleton Cucumbers Royale team, diversity is key to achieving a “win condition.” Let the bashing begin! Though the cast comes in an array of typecast Valkyries, Goblins, Minions, Barbarians, and more, the Hog Riders are depicted with brown skin, and the other human-adjacent sorts are shown in a mix of hues. The backmatter features strategy tips for gamers as well as preliminary scenes and sketches.
A legendariously legendary kickoff. (Graphic fantasy. 12-15)Pub Date: May 30, 2023
ISBN: 9781250816269
Page Count: 144
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Visually stunning but there are many better—because they are less rigidly traditional—versions around.
A stately rendition of the Arthurian legend, garbed in sumptuous dress.
With much use of rich golden tones and his customary fanatical attention to detail, Riddell fills every available space, from page corners to broad pictorial borders and wordless full spreads, with grave knights in extravagant full armor, slender damsels and crones in flowing silks, luxuriant castles and chambers, and frighteningly bestial giants and other monsters. Crossley-Holland’s retelling of the Matter of Britain is less impressive, though he does cover the main Christian-inflected storyline (with a few additions, such as the tale of Gawain and the Green Knight). By adding care for the Earth as a knightly task, he introduces a contemporary note. But the women are still malign witches, flighty incompetents, or temptresses—and along with having Sir Lancelot mansplain early on that “women are the same as us, but different” (“Strange creatures,” says Sir Tristram. “Their feelings are so strong,” whines Sir Geraint), the author doubles down later by mystically declaring that the Holy Grail is actually Mary, at once male and female. But if the sex all takes place behind euphemisms or closed doors, at least, there is much rousingly explicit gore in narrative and visuals, and both Arthur and the annoyingly all-knowing Merlin wind up as properly available for return comings. Some of the Round Table knights, such as Sir Lamorak, are depicted with brown skin.
Visually stunning but there are many better—because they are less rigidly traditional—versions around. (Illustrated fantasy. 12-15)Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1265-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Candlewick Studio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
A grand finale, presented with a touch light enough to buoy all the self-actualization. Also: giant space worms!
Hotshot pilot Spensa Nightshade completes her apotheosis in this series closer, as human rebels and their alien allies mount a climactic assault on the galactic empire.
Having progressed from eating rats to being a cytonic superwarrior, Spensa is bonded by ties of loyalty and lust to former Skyward Flight leader, now Defiant Defense Force admiral, Jorgen—and also to a traumatized, planet-killing, interdimensional delver named Chet. Spensa would be well on her way to full-blown pacifism if the Superiority’s war of extermination against humans were not ramping up to a newly active phase. Nothing for it but a massive space battle, complete with dogfights, huge explosions, feints, betrayals, and tragic sacrifices…not to mention a swarm of ravenous, vacuum-dwelling vastworms eager to chow down on both sides. Though slowed by Spensa’s and others’ wrestling with conflicting impulses and weighing moral imperatives, the plot features more than enough large- and small-scale action set pieces to please space-opera fans. Better yet, the deliciously expansive cast includes not only humans and AIs but a broad array of aliens and semi-aliens from blue-skinned humanoids and a furry, haiku-reciting, fox-gerbil samurai with a (wait for it) laser sword to sentient crystals and empathic slugs. “The more different types of people we got into the flight, the stronger it would be,” Spensa reflects, and indeed, it’s collective action that proves decisive in the end.
A grand finale, presented with a touch light enough to buoy all the self-actualization. Also: giant space worms! (Science fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Nov. 21, 2023
ISBN: 9780593309711
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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