Sunday Book Review: Warlock Holmes, The Last Keyhole & Cursed Pirate Girl

 

 

This week I read three books.
Warlock Holmes A Study in Brimstone, is a Sherlock Holmes Mystery/Dark Fantasy Mashup which I purchased during my last Barnes&Noble Book Haul.
The Last Keyhole is a cute children’s ghost story which I purchased from the author at GeekGirlCon last week. This is the first children’s book that I have reviewed.
Cursed Pirate Girl is the first volume of a beautiful graphic novel series which I purchased at Golden Age Collectables in Pike Place Market a couple years ago. This is a re-reading.

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A regular feature to my blog, Elizabeth’s Sunday Book Review, is simply a review of the book (or books) I read during the previous week on Sunday. Since I started adding videos, I started doing stars. I do say what I liked and didn’t like. You will notice that some will be independent titles, some will be mass market books, others will be classics. I write a review on whatever I read that week.

Sprained Wrists + Books = Reading Rampage

So I sprained my wrists. Since I needed to take some time not typing, I used the time to catch up on some independent horror films which is not part of this blog post, and my TBR pile which is the focus of this post.

Isaac Asimov’s The Foundation Trilogy:

Elizabeth’s Review:  I’ve been meaning to read this book forever, so this was the first on my list. Our hardcover edition with gilded pages is a gorgeous book. As for the story, I enjoyed this book in the academic sense, but realized why I never got into it for pleasure.  Asimov’s use of language is beautiful, but as it is a history of The Foundation, I felt like I was traveling past these people at the speed of light, unable to truly connect to any character. After too-few chapters, their contribution to history had finished and time moved on. Regardless it is beautifully written book of 730 pages, which I read in four sittings. Even though at places it could be dry, the novel captured my attention. Four planets for an interesting book.

Prince of Pieces
Written and Created By Sam Miserendino
Art and Colors by Colin Blanton Letters
Cover by Matthew Mason

Elizabeth’s Review:
I picked this up from the author at CryptiCon. It was darkly funny and the biblical language/punishments was used brilliantly with the art. I thought the artwork was amazing. The story got convoluted in places. For example: why did the kid kill the butterfly? To show the evilness of the world? Little details left me asking “Is this part symbolism? Hmmm.”
Otherwise four crucifixes for a great book!

The Devil and My Daughter
Written by Josh Hancock

Elizabeth’s Review:  This book originally intrigued my husband at Crypticon, but I was awoken early by a noisy neighbor so I read it in a few hours.

Spanning a decade, this epistolary novel is written as if it is nonfiction. In this book, its important to read everything. The preface, the footnotes are all part of the story. Overall it took a serious look at what a real demon possession might look like. It follows a film crew who unleashes a demon with a song from their heavy metal soundtrack on to a young actress.

 Because the novel is told through police reports and news stories, some parts can feel dry and repetitive, however it is a fast read. The characters were well developed. I enjoyed the serious tone of the novel which added to the dark scenario. Five Demons for this scary novel!

 

Faminelands Book #3: Mareton’s Curse is in Beta Reading!

I finished the artwork for Faminelands 3: Mareton’s Curse in August, Maria and I have gone through the first edit. The next step is Beta Reading: which means we are having a few people take a look at it.

The story opens with Galdor’s wedding and follows Roan, Orin, and Lark as they leave the village and seek Mareton’s prince who has been kidnapped and about to be sacrificed in order to make it rain. Will they find him in time?

I am very proud of some of the artwork in the book. Also I would like to announce that this issue is also special, because it is Maria’s first writing credit. I will be talking about how the creation of this book was a little different than the creation of previous ones later in the week as well as how character’s grow over a series.

Release Schedule:

On October 10th through November 10th, we will be starting a kickstarter campaign for the cost of printing with some awesome reward tiers so look for updates on that.

Beta reading will end on October 31st.

After the campaign ends, I will be sending it to the printer in order to have it ready for Emerald City Comic Con 2013. It will be available on trade paperback and digital with extras on CD or download. The webcomic will restart the first weekend of January. Also at Emerald City Comic Con we will be having a raffle of some original character artwork of Lark and Orin each day of the convention.

More information to come….