thevampiremars's reviews
196 reviews

Alright so

this volume introduces the Metal Virus, a synthetic pathogen designed to turn the people it infects into metallic zombie slaves, or “Zombots.” Sonic himself is contaminated. He has to constantly run at top speed to prevent the Virus from converting him, and he has to stay away from others or he’ll spread the Virus to them. It’s interesting how this plays into and against his impulses; yes, he does like to go fast, but this is unsustainable and exhausting, and his instinct is to run over and help those in peril but he has to constantly check himself and remind himself he’s dangerous to be around.

It’s well done. It’s also worth noting this storyline started in 2019, aha... Hits different now.

The fight scenes and story beats do get a little repetitive, but I actually think that’s good.

It reflects Sonic’s fatigue; another city besieged by Zombots, another friend in danger, on top of the ordeal of having to outrun the Virus again and again just to keep it at bay for a while longer.

As with most zombie apocalypse stories, there’s more violence than would usually be permitted, eg: pushing villains down a refuse pit, and ploughing through a crowd with a truck. It is established that the Zombots are more or less invulnerable and cannot feel pain.

Still, I do feel a little weird about this. I dunno. Homogeneous hordes are not my thing. Then again, I suppose you can’t just do the Master Overlord arc again – you have to follow it up with something completely different.

Speaking of things that are completely different, this collection also includes a few comics from the 2019 annual, plus the Tangle & Whisper spinoff miniseries. I don’t have much to say about them but I liked them well enough.

CONTENT WARNINGS: infectious disease, zombie mindlessness, violence, guilt, evacuation

Background: I’ve always liked the idea of Sonic. I watched Sonic Underground as a child and I remember drawing fanart and even creating a few OCs (lost to time, unfortunately) but I never enjoyed the games – just not my style of gameplay. I figured the comics would be a good way for me to engage with the franchise. Also, I’ve been fascinated by Metal Sonic since Mario & Sonic: London 2012 and I’d heard the IDW series features him prominently.

I was not disappointed.

This was a lot of fun! I was worried at first that the pacing would be marred by having to introduce all the main characters before the story can actually start, but the comics did a good job of weaving the plot into those early scenes and getting the ball rolling immediately. The narrative flows well. There’s lots of action but also some contemplative moments. Fantastic artwork throughout. Not sure about the design of

Metal Sonic’s “Master Overlord” form

but in a way it kind of works, in that he’s straying too far from the Sonic model. Blaze was rad as hell. Silver was surprisingly cute. I had a great time reading this :)

CONTENT WARNINGS: war, violence, shock therapy

“Tell me, old worm, is there a monster penis hidden in that monster body of yours?”

God, where do I begin...?

I really liked how Leto was characterised to begin with – his boredom, his dry humour, his internal monologue (meta in its transcription as journal entries/the text of this book). After Hwi’s introduction he’s a completely different character. I have mixed feelings about this.

I understand that this shift in personality was deliberate on the author’s part and a key part of the story he was trying to tell, but I personally don’t care for the love makes you more human cliché, especially since Leto had been so compelling up to that point.

As for Hwi’s characterisation, well, we’ve already seen that Herbert struggles to write women with as much depth as he writes men. Although... in this instance I don’t mind so much.

Hwi is a plot device rather than a character, and the story is pretty upfront about that (again, in a slightly meta way); she literally exists to be Leto’s love interest.

I’m less forgiving when it comes to Siona’s inconsistent characterisation and disjointed arc. Like Irulan in Dune Messiah, the story revolves around her but she’s only actually present for maybe half a dozen scenes. She has the makings of a protagonist – rebellious attitude, charisma, nerve – and for a while I thought

Leto was setting himself up as the villain to be defeated to make way for the new protagonist, similar to Paul walking out into the desert and ending his role in the narrative. I guess that’s kind of accurate? But Siona only gets to topple Leto right at the end, and even then she’s largely overshadowed by Duncan Idaho. I’ll get back to Duncan in a moment.

Leto and Siona’s dynamic is an interesting one. Sometimes they’re clearly a tyrant and a revolutionary, but at other times it feels like they’re supposed to be interpreted as something more akin to a parent and a child, or, more generally, an elder and a youth. Leto is firmly authoritarian (I mean, he calls himself God Emperor for a start) and he rationalises his violence as an act of love; it’s for humanity’s own good. Siona resists his authority and values freedom, but is she a principled anarchist or an unruly teen? The way she’s depicted as both stubbornly resolute and also quite fickle

(plotting to kill Leto → sympathising and having intimate moments with Leto in the desert → suddenly back to revolution)

makes me think of her as immature. But then again Leto is a tyrant.

The homophobia in this book is... a lot. There are multiple scenes in which Duncan is screaming crying throwing up because he saw a butch. “Perverts don’t perpetuate!” “It should be stamped out!” It sucks. He does have a man out of time thing going on, so maybe his bigotry is supposed to demonstrate that? There is a tepid defence of homosexuality from Moneo: “It’s perfectly natural for adolescent females as well as males to have feelings of physical attraction towards members of their own sex. Most of them will grow out of it.” Again this idea that young people can be disruptive but will ultimately see reason.

God Emperor of Dune is preoccupied with sexuality in general, not only homosexuality. It’s an obscenely horny book. There’s frequent talk of genitalia and orgasms and yet there’s a fade to black in place of an actual sex scene. Honestly, Herbert should have gone all in, not only with the “disgusting sexual habits” but in all aspects. It’s like the writer shies away from the story he chose to write.

I dunno. There’s a strong setup, then stagnation, then it ends explosively but not in a satisfying way.

CONTENT WARNINGS: homophobia, sexism, rape (mentioned on multiple occasions but not shown), violence, massacre, death, dictatorship, eugenics (human breeding programme), body horror, horny shit 

So... I don’t listen to The Adventure Zone any more. I don’t hate it, I don’t think it’s awful, I just lost interest and moved on to other podcasts. I bring this up because my no-longer-a-fan status is relevant to my experience reading this book.

I remember The Eleventh Hour being my favourite Balance arc. I loved Roswell, I was thrilled to learn more about the PCs’ backstories, and the imagery of the purple worms cutting through the red-orange clay stuck with me. I also appreciated the arc being more focused on puzzles and problem-solving rather than combat, with the time limit imposing a sense of urgency. It’s a good arc, is what I’m saying.

That said, there are aspects of The Adventure Zone that I’ve come to dislike. I noted in my review of the Petals to the Metal graphic novel that there’s a tone issue, with goofy jokes and sombre moments coming up against each other and clashing. I think the problem runs deeper than punchlines/gut punches not landing, however. The way these contrasting moods are all tangled up makes it difficult for the listener or reader to know what to care about. One death will be mocked, while another will be mourned. One act of violence will be treated as harmless fun, while another is meant to be brutal. In the end you just have to turn your brain off and wait to be told how to react. Which I don’t like. But... it grew on me.

The Adventure Zone: The Eleventh Hour is mindless fun. A backhanded compliment, maybe, but it’s a compliment nonetheless. If you’re able to not think too hard about what’s going on and just let the scenes play out in front of you, you’ll have a good time.

It’s quite Taako-heavy, but I’m not complaining – I like Taako. Magnus and Merle have their moments. Roswell is indeed there!

The artwork is good. Some sequences are a little hard to follow and there are an absurd amount of sound effects, but the character designs and their expressions are solid. And I really like the way Taako’s hair looks in this one.

So yeah, it’s pretty decent! Heart-worming, even.

CONTENT WARNINGS: fire, death

“How many times do you think you can die?”

Harrowing.

CONTENT WARNINGS: death, racism, stalking, psychosis/dereality, suicidality, violence (including child abuse) 

I’ve looked at some other reviews, and it seems a lot of readers were left feeling let down or confused. Maybe they went in expecting a romance or horror story when, in reality, Our Wives Under the Sea is neither of those things. And both.

I would describe this book as weird fiction. It’s all about the vibe, the gut feeling that something is off. Armfield does a fantastic job of building that unsettling atmosphere through her haunting prose.
I don’t think I’d go so far as to say I was disappointed by the ending, but it didn’t quite work for me.

I think the compelling aspect of Leah coming back “wrong” was that it was hard to pinpoint exactly what was wrong with her. Maybe there was actually nothing wrong with her and it was all in Miri’s head; a hallucinatory rejection of Leah upon her return. The sea creature and Leah’s transformation made the horror too literal, too tangible, which kind of made it lose its grip (ironically). For me at least, the uncertainty as to what’s real and what’s imagined is precisely what makes this kind of horror work.

That said, I can’t deny the thematic resonance

(the idea of “letting go” as it relates to loss and mourning)

CONTENT WARNINGS: body horror, blood, sickness, suicide, death, grief, psychosis (hypochondria, hearing voices, dereality) 

Tiresias haunts this anthology.

I feel like Tempest sometimes gets a little carried away. They try to include every aspect of the Tiresias myth (childhood, womanhood, manhood, blinding, clairvoyance) in the poems about that figure, plus they get a bit lost in their admittedly enthralling rhythms. Basically, I think some of the poems overstay their welcome. But that’s okay.

I like “Tiresias” despite its flaws. I also like “Man down” and “The downside”

CONTENT WARNINGS: sexual content, some body horror, injury, war

Tempest’s poems whisked me away and put me – firmly, tenderly – in their shoes.

Without losing their distinctive voice, there’s a real variety of poems here; just look at “Party, 4am” (four short lines) opposite “Be careful that you don’t become a parody of yourself” (a full page of text with no commas or full stops or line breaks). It’s clear that a lot of thought has been put into how this book is put together.

Some favourites include “Even the youths shall faint and be weary,” “Wind in the tall trees,” and “You’re too soft.” And then, of course, there’s “Love song for queens, studs, butches, daddies, fags and all the other angels.”
I was lucky enough to see “... and all the other angels” performed live by Tempest at Trans Pride in 2022 (and again this summer). It was a deeply moving experience. The crowd fell silent. By the end of the recital, people all around me were sobbing and holding one another. I caught myself holding my breath. Reading the poem did not fully recreate that experience, but I know the power of these words.

Impressive.

CONTENT WARNINGS: dysphoria, some sexual content, alcohol dependence

The first ten poems are pretty samey, but there’s some variation in form after that. I liked “woodland burial” and I liked “thursday, i don’t care about you” except the last line – I get that it’s supposed to be awkward and shrinking but idk it just felt a bit too awkward for me, or maybe not awkward enough?
I think what will stick with me isn’t entire poems so much as individual phrases, like “bring a wolf bite to a cat fight”

CONTENT WARNINGS: death, suicide

I own a fair number of zines and I don’t usually write reviews for them, but I’m making an exception because a) this one’s pretty long and substantial as zines go (if it had a spine instead of staples I’d have no qualms about calling it a book), and b) I want to talk about it.

Surprisingly OK really resonates. I’ve read it cover-to-cover twice now, and I know I’ll be coming back to revisit certain chapters/passages when I feel the need to do so, because these are words I needed to hear and no doubt will need to hear again in the future. Some of the author’s observations are ones I’d already made myself, but having them corroborated and spelled out is always assuring. Others seem obvious to me in hindsight, because they ring true, but having them revealed to me made me go “oh!”
I feel like... maybe this is silly, but I feel like I’ve been given permission to know what I know to be true, to be curious, to put the work in to become a better version of myself, and to treat myself with the kindness and compassion I (do!) deserve.
Honestly, this zine is a relief.

CONTENT WARNINGS: trauma; the author is careful not to go into detail about traumatic events/experiences, though they do discuss loneliness and self-loathing and shame, with mentions of abuse and self harm