Top Ten Graphic Novels

 

 Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week a new Top Ten list will be posted. Everyone is welcome to join. Link back to The Broke and the Bookish so everyone can check out other bloggers' lists. It's a fun way to get to know fellow bloggers.

This week's topic is all about the visuals. Top Ten graphic novels or comics or even picture books- whatever works. These are a mix of stuff I've enjoyed and some that I need to get to yet.     

Tuesday Tagline #24

"The only rule is there are no rules." 

Cover Characteristics Humorous SF

Cover Characteristics is a meme by Sugar and Snark- every week a characteristic is selected and we post 5 books with that week's theme.   

This week's pick- Humorous SF   

The rogue topics continue although next week I'll be jumping back on the official topics. I had this planned for a while so decided to go with it. Who doesn't love a bit of humor with their SF or fantasy? I know I do, so here's a sampling   

Sunday Post #179

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

January is almost over! Hard to believe. It actually hasn't been that bad weather wise (you know, for January). This week saw some alarming developments- someone somewhere said this was the ugliest first week of a presidency in memory- hard to disagree. And "alternative facts." The cool thing was the rise of "alt" park service Twitter accounts. After being muzzled early in the week a rash of alt accounts appeared spreading news of climate change and other things that we're apparently not supposed to know.    

I did some writing this week although it was mostly brainstorming. There's a chance that Trust Issues IV will see the light of day- I thought I was done with that story but now I'm not sure.    

This week I read How Will I Know You? and it was very good. I've been on a roll so far- this is the third really good book I've read in 2017. I'm already looking forward to my best of 2017 list- at this rate it's going to be interesting! I also read Freeks and am currently in the first Mercy Thompson book. Yes I'm finally reading them! 

Song of the week

Last Weeks Stuff:

Cover Characteristics this past week was all about the retro SF for Vintage SciFi Month. Tuesday Tagline was a good one I thought with not one but two awesome covers. My Top Ten was a freebie and I looked at my favorite SF locations of the last year  And then I reviewed Rising Tides (a dystopian) and shared Bookcover Spotlight #85.       

Next Week: 

Cover Characteristics will look at humorous SF covers. Tuesday Tagline returns and on Wednesday I'll be discussing stargates in fantasy/ SF. And I'll be reviewing Three Dark Crowns. Friday will be Bookcover Spotlight #86 and somewhere I'll fit in my reaction post for The 100 premiere (because The 100 is life).  

PULP COVER OF THE WEEK: 

NEW ARRIVAL/ UPCOMING REVIEWS:

BOOKISH LINKS

This woman is known for her bodypainting but you have to see this.  

  

Bookcover Spotlight #85

I like this cover a lot, it's just one that jumps out at me. I like the colors of it, the fact that it's a silhouette but also it looks like there are raindrops- there's a nice tagline too. 

Rising Tides

Rising Tides is a story I wanted to like. I mean the premise is there. A dystopian future where the survivors have settled on a floating city with a few others scattered in wandering bands or on New Eden, the only land left above water. Libby is a surgeon's daughter and a high member of society due to her fathers importance- not only is he a doctor but he is the only one who knows how to make nautilus men- people who undergo a procedure so they can breath underwater. The nautilus men salvage from the lost cities beneath the waves, so they're pretty important. 

The trouble starts when a young man from outside shows up and has the procedure- her father does it in secret and Libby doesn't know why. Her father trusts the stranger Cosimo and wants to leave with him afterward but won't tell her where they are going. And of course leaving won't be that simple. 

Like I said I wanted to like this- I just wasn't sucked in. It's not a bad book, it just didn't work for me. Libby is a great character, she's acerbic and hostile to Cosimo- he represents a challenge to her orderly life- and their relationship is a slow burn which is the best kind. No one else really stood out for me. The story itself is about secrets and betrayals but I have a hard time believing that seas rose so much there's only like one piece of land left. It just isn't very realistic. 

I've seen good reviews for this and I think it's a fine YA book. I think it'd be a great read for the right person. It wasn't for me but I stuck with it and if you like a quick YA dystopian with a strong female lead this might be a good pick.  

Cover Love- Hot Covers?

So let's talk urban fantasy covers. I've been thinking for a while how there's usually a pretty hot main character on the cover. I'm talking UF here since that's the genre I'm interested in and I'm sure paranormal romance is somewhat different (there seem to be a lot more guys). And not every urban fantasy cover is like that. They go for a certain look though. Is it something that we accept because it's urban fantasy but if it was high fantasy would seem problematic? And that got me thinking about different genre expectations.

Blood Bound in particular cracks me up- I mean, seriously? And there's the always present tank top- is that a costume requirement? I'm not trying to be sexist or generalize. If I was asking this on Twitter I'd probably be in trouble already. :)

Now the protagonist of your average urban fantasy is female and the readership is probably overwhelmingly female (I won't even get into the stats that show not a lot of men are reading) so they're not going for the male eye with these covers, are they? And I'm not saying women can't appreciate the female form- of course they can. Is it a case where the illustrator or cover design is assuming readers want to identify with a badass female heroine? And do we need to see other body types than the lithe sexy ones?  

Anyway- what do you think? Are hot women on UF covers just fine? 

Top Ten Freebie

 

 Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week a new Top Ten list will be posted. Everyone is welcome to join. Link back to The Broke and the Bookish so everyone can check out other bloggers' lists. It's a fun way to get to know fellow bloggers.

This week was a tough topic because it's a freebie and I had no idea. I finally chose to go with SF locales that I enjoyed. I've kinda confined this to stuff I've read more or less in the last year. So here are my Top Ten favorite SF locales I've read about recently.  

The Wayfarer- who wouldn't want to be a crew member on this ship? Just the meals alone- with that view! 



Union Station- about the coolest space station I've read about. Run by a benevolent AI and full of creatures of all possibilities this is a fun series- and super cheap. 



The planet Triton is a water planet and this was probably the best water planet story I've read. I thought I was there on a storm tossed world and the indigenous species and their way of communicating was ingenious. 



Coruscant- the capital of the Republic and a city- planet.   



Several worlds are explored in this one but a favorite of mine is Azeroth, the forest world with a vast grassland and a great worldgate.  



Sissix's homeworld. Here's how it is described- Theth dominated the desert sky, hanging close enough for her to imagine that she could reach out and brush its rings with her fingertips. Without the haze of city lights, shimmering colors shone down unhindered- the glow of neighboring moons, the murky purple gauze of the galactic cloud, and all in between , nothing but stars, stars, stars. Hashkath is a moon but has moons of its own, and it orbits a ringed planet.  



Jump station Heimdall.