Arctica Vol. 3 The Prehistoric Passenger

Arctica Vol. 3 picks up right after volume 2 with Dakota, Mismy and the Child on the run from the Doge as well as the European secret service. Dakota's handler is fed up with not being kept in the loop and when he informs his superior of the situation they decide Dakota is a liability, and needs to be removed. Dakota though has other problems- namely the bounty hunter Costa who has followed him to the Cyclades. Dakota manages to get away with the help of Tatiana (Costa's girlfriend). 

They go to Istanbul where Dakota enlists the aid of his ex-wife to save the occupant of the cryogenic chamber they've been lugging around. The occupant of the chamber is the Child's grandfather, having been preserved in suspended animation for ten thousand years. They're able to save him but between the secret service and the Doge's people Dakota has no chance to catch his breath. Things get worse when the Child is taken and Dakota screws up the rescue- Mimsy gets taken with the Child to some underwater base, while Dakota is almost murdered by old colleagues when the secret service gets him. 

This was quite the fast paced installment. The series is really taking off now, and the forces arrayed against Dakota are quite ruthless. They kill anyone who gets in the way. He's got his hands full trying to keep the Child alive, and with him now separated I'm anxious to see where the two stories go. Dakota will need to find Mimsy and the child, of course, but in the meantime Mimsy is now the only thing between the Child and the Doge. 

I liked the art in this one. The scenery is amazing- there are nice shots of Istanbul and the early scenes in the Cyclades are beautiful as well. And this has the trademark twists and turns, as well as the sometimes sly humor, that I've come to enjoy in these comics. 

All in all this was a win and a great continuation of the story.  

Bookcover Spotlight #208

The Night Before was entertaining. So many twists and turns- it definitely keeps you guessing. Laura is a woman with a past- she has a nice job in New York City but she has a lot of deep- seated issues going back to childhood, and as the book starts out she's living temporarily with her sister and her family in Connecticut. She's just getting over a bad break-up and is starting to date again- in fact, as the story starts she's getting ready to go out on a date with a guy she met on an online dating site. 

This is a great cautionary tale about online dating sites, by the way! At any rate Laura goes to meet Jonathan Fielding- her date- and that's when the fun begins. She borrows her sister's minivan and promises to be back before morning- and when she doesn't show, her increasingly frantic sister Rosie and her husband Joe set out to find out what happened the previous night. 

The story is told from both Laura's and Rosie's perspective in alternating chapters, along with snippets of Laura's therapist sessions from several weeks earlier. I didn't really connect with any of the characters here- Laura is almost a deep-dive study in the effects that abuse or neglect can have on someone as an adult, but at the same time there are reasons for some things that happened- it doesn't make what happened okay, but everything here has a layer. And to be honest, I'm not sure how plausible it all is- I mean, by the end I was along for the ride but a little checked out from the realism of it? 

There are a ton of twists as we build towards the conclusion- and again, maybe one or two too many, but having said that I still enjoyed it. I wasn't sure if Laura was going to be unreliable as a narrator, and she has secrets in her past that slowly come to light- did she do this terrible thing that occurred years earlier? It was like a train wreck- I couldn't look away from the events of that night, even though I found Rosie's POV actually more compelling. Laura seems like such a loose cannon- I was just waiting for the spark to go off. 

All in all I liked this one. It's tense and there's this sense of a slow fuse waiting to ignite- I had to keep reading to see if what I thought was going to happen actually would. And while looking back at some of the clues and red herrings I could see the groundwork being laid, the story still managed to surprise me- several times. Good stuff. 

Movies That Suck #27 - Ghidorah, The Three- Headed Monster

Movies That Suck is a feature where I watch a bad movie and share my reactions to it in real time. Sort of like live tweeting without the tweeting. Spoilers ahead! 

This week is Ghidorah, the Three- Headed Monster! Just in time for the new Godzilla movie. The cool thing is Godzilla, King of the Monsters is almost looking like a remake of this 1964 film. I mean, you have Godzilla and two other monsters- Rodan and Mothra, taking on big bad Ghidorah, right? I have a feeling the new one is gonna be a little more put- together, but let's take a look back at the first appearance of Ghidorah- and see what Godzilla and company have in store. 

So it's 2:00 am as this starts out and some scientists are apparently waiting to hear from extraterrestrials. I don't know but then some meteors start falling. As they get excited about this, we segue over to Shindo, a detective who is being detailed to protect a princess Selina, visiting from the Himalayan kingdom of Selgena.  

Selina is fleeing for her life as her uncle wants to assassinate her. 

She hears a voice telling her to flee, and she steps out of her plane- apparent suicide- but we know better. And then her plane blows up so wherever she went she's better off? 

Some geologists are arriving to investigate the meteors that fell. They find one, deep in the mountains, that has strange magnetic properties. Mm-hmm. 

Naoko, a reporter, is assigned to cover a prophetess who is calling on the people of Earth to assume their proper role as citizens of the universe. 

The crowd is fairly rude, with one idiot telling her to do a striptease. Clearly misogyny was alive and well in 60's Japan. 

But ooh- the prophetess is the princess Selina- who now claims she's from Venus. She's disappointed no one will listen to her warnings, but Naoko says she'll listen. Selina claims the Earth is in danger, and correctly predicts both the appearance of Rodan in the mountains and the reappearance of Godzilla. 

Shindo goes home and we meet his sister, who is... Naoko! They're watching TV and see the Shobijin (Mothra fairies) performing. The Mothra fairies are priestesses, too, and they sing to Mothra and stuff. Shindo, meanwhile, sees a picture of the Venusian prophetess in the newspaper and realizes with a start that she's Selina! 

I think Shindo has a thing for Selina. Meanwhile the asshole uncle realizes Selina is alive as well, and sends his assassin Malmess to kill her. 

So yeah- not a good guy. 

Rodan meanwhile has flown the coop, and now Selina is warning the Mothra fairies not to sail back to their island, since Godzilla is going to appear. Oh, and the meteorite in the mountains is growing. Godzilla rises from the sea and incinerates the ship that the Mothra fairies almost sailed on, so... they made the right call. 

Rodan is flying around. Why doesn't he ever flap his wings though? He's almost like a fixed- wing jet- he just veers around with no discernible wing movement? Weird. 

Naoko has put Selina up in a hotel, but her uncle's assassins have caught up to her. They're about to kill her but little do they realize the Mothra fairies are in the room. A shoot out occurs when Shindo arrives but the assassins escape. 

Why is Godzilla here? I mean, now? So many questions. 

Okay, so the egg/ meteorite is hatching. 

Ghidorah! 

Selina relates her story- centuries ago Ghidorah ravaged her homeworld, Venus, and wiped out her civilization. And now it's here! 

The authorities are announcing it as Ghidorah to the people- but how do they all know its name already? 

Ghidorah is wrecking the place. 

And now Rodan and Godzilla are fighting. Why?? 

People running. 

The fairies are asked if Mothra might defend Japan from Ghidorah, and they don't think the caterpillar is powerful enough. But... what if Rodan and Godzilla were to cooperate with Mothra? Hmm... 

So the fairies call Mothra, and he starts swimming to Japan. Won't that take a while? Meanwhile, Godzilla and Rodan are still fighting! Don't they have anything better to do? 

Shindo and some doctor place Selina under hypnosis and realize... she is a Venusian. And the survivors of their catastrophe came to Earth millennia ago and eventually became Earthlings. Their only instinct remaining from their heritage being to warn of the impending threat of Ghidorah. 

Now they're going to do shock treatment on her?? Gah. And here come those idiot assassins. 

Rodan drops Godzilla on an electrical tower just in time, since Malmess turned the voltage up on the shock treatment that Shindo and the doctor are inexplicably giving to Selina. Talk about a shocking development! 

Godzilla is finally putting the smackdown on Rodan. 

Mothra is here! That was quick. And Godzilla and Rodan are literally throwing rocks at each other. Honestly. 

Mothra talks to them. And we have the fairies to helpfully translate. Rodan just wants to fly away, and Godzilla is like screw it- he's had nothing but trouble with people. Why should he help? And he and Rodan just want to keep fighting. Meanwhile, Ghidorah is getting nearer and he's blowing things up. Including the assassins, who get killed in a rockslide. Guess that's sorted. 

Mothra actually scolds Godzilla for his language. Trivia: this is only in the American version. The original Japanese cut doesn't have that moment. 

Mothra decides to fight Ghidorah on his own, since Godzilla and Rodan won't cooperate. How is it they're all coincidentally in the same spot though??? 

Ghidorah is blasting the you know what out of Mothra. Poor Mothra always get the shaft. But yay here comes Godzilla. He's not gonna let lil ole Mothra get the stuffing beat out of  him, I guess. Battle is joined! 

Can I just say, as cheesy is this is, the music is AWESOME? 

Rodan joins the fray, and leads Ghidorah away. Godzilla offers to let Mothra hang onto his tail so he can keep up as they go after Ghidorah... awww. And wait... Rodan switches course and rams Ghidorah to the ground. You know, Rodan is kinda badass in this. 

Hurry up, Godzilla! Rodan needs help. 

Selina meanwhile is praying for salvation and... wait!... Malmess is still around! He's shooting at her and she falls off a cliff. Shindo climbs down to help and it's almost game over for them, but the monsters battling causes another rockslide and this time Malmess is toast. He was determined though. 

Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra are really taking it to the big G now. Ghidorah just blasted Godzilla in the bum with his lightning (I guess, in the fandom, those are gravity beams, but I don't know what that's all about) and Godzilla actually grabbed his bum as if to say... oww. I kid you not. 

Mothra is spraying G with silk and Godzilla is slamming him around now. They seem to have this somewhat in hand. Ghidorah's had enough and is out of there. And- surprise!- Selina is fully restored and no longer thinks she a Venusian. Her and Shindo have a nice moment and there is definitely something there- but she has to go home. 

Mothra and the fairies are going home too, but they say goodbye to Godzilla and Rodan as Mothra swims away. Aww... 

Top Ten Favorite Books Released in the Last Ten Years

  

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

This week is Top Ten books released in the last ten years. Wow- only ten? That's a toughie. 

 

Tales from Northern Michigan #6

Tales from Northern Michigan is a new feature that will appear irregularly here on the blog. The point of it is to share cool stuff from one of my favorite areas- northern Michigan. As many of you are aware Michigan actually has an Upper and Lower Peninsula, linked by the Mackinac Bridge, and I'll be showcasing the area that we in lower Michigan affectionately call "Up North." It could be anything from music to wildlife to bookstores- you never know what you'll find Up North, so who knows what will turn up here? 

So without further ado, here's a look at the beauty of northern Michigan. 

Here I'm revisiting Sleeping Bear Dunes- imagine hang gliding like this!

This week I saw that Sleeping Bear Dunes has scheduled their Star Parties for summer. These are night time meet-ups (everyone welcome) at various points within the dunes park to see the night sky. Here are some highlights- I'm not sure if I'll make any of these, but I would if I can. 

May 25th at the Dune Climb - binary stars, deep sky objects

June 8 - moon, Mars, Jupiter

Aug 31st - Jupiter, Saturn, Milky Way

The full schedule here. 

Here's a look at one of the wineries on Old Mission Peninsula. 

Paddle boarding on a half frozen Torch Lake. And then the second video is really cool- just as the ice is melting there are beautiful shots of a crystal clear bay   

Sunday Post #299

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

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews

It's Monday! What Are You Reading is hosted by Book Date 

  

We live in a post Game of Thrones world now at least as far as the show is concerned. And I'm glad to have seen an ending, because who knows what's happening with the books? The question now is- how close is this ending to what George has planned? And as I mentioned last week- there are sample chapters out there from The Winds of Winter- quite a few actually. Here are my thoughts on one.    

So... the Bookish Games are in full swing. The last few minutes of each Game Day are notorious for being tense as someone is getting voted out. True to form, this past week was crazy. Last Sunday we had the end of Day One, and one of the best finishes ever. 
   

The other thing about the Games is...anxiety. Yes, these Games can be nerve-wracking. Several people during the end of Day One mentioned anxiety! Why do we do this to ourselves? It's like the challenge is both exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time? At any rate, if you want to follow the chaos you can check out the Bookish Games on Twitter. This tweet chain about sums up last Sunday's elimination. 

Also this week I posted Movies That Suck: One Million Years BC and also another Song Lyrics post. This week will be Tales from Northern Michigan on Monday (Song Lyrics #3 will be back on June 3) and maybe even a review!

 

Song of the week 

PULP COVER OF THE WEEK: 

NEW ARRIVAL/ UPCOMING REVIEWS:

BOOKISH LINKS 

So here's the latest in my now weekly(?) sharing of Let's Play - Sea of Thieves. Seriously- as background stuff goes, you can do worse. :) Oh, and one of the commenters mentioned that they think in Pirate speak after watching these. Um, no comment.