The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf |
- Worlds of Wonder: Spooky street sister
- All Woman And Springtime: A tale of two women
- Sequel selection
| Worlds of Wonder: Spooky street sister Posted: 19 Oct 2012 07:23 AM PDT When there is something strange in Manila's neighbourhoods, they call Trese. Trese Vols 1-4 THE name's Trese. Alexandra Trese. She is the spook detective who protects Manila, the Philippines, from the evil and mystical monsters that roam its streets. Her partners-in-crime are a pair of Kambal (which literally means twins in Tagalog) bodyguards – floating half-paranormal beings in theatrical masks who might remind you of the Matrix twins. Trese's phantasmic abilities run in the family, and she became a Pinoy ghost-hunter supremo to continue her father Anton's fight against evil spirits after his death. It's not like she had a choice – the capital city of her realm is overrun by underworld creatures who have crossed the "borders" for, yup, a better life. They not only control the crime syndicates of the city, they also rule the high offices of government and business. Luckily, Trese has the backing of the city cops who have her number on speed dial for when their case turns weird, which in this horror/crime comic series by their homegrown comic writer Budjette Tan and artist KaJo Baldisimo, seems to happen a lot. I've heard a lot about the Philippines comic scene, especially those who had made their mark internationally at DC Comics and Marvel (since the 1960s!), but Trese is my first Filipino comic. And boy, am I kicking myself for not venturing there earlier. With Trese, Tan and Baldisimo created a dark world which melds the Metro Manila vibe to a universal intrigue that channels Warren Ellis and Mike Mignola. (The two would not stop raving about them in their prologues!) Each volume is designed as an anthology of crime horror stories that follow a certain formula – there is a mysterious crime with some kind of supernatural genesis, neighbourhood ghostbuster Trese parachutes in, nabs the ghoul and solves the case. Quite frankly, it could have quickly descended into monotonous drudgery if not for Tan's writing, which weaves engrossing grandmother stories that pack a surprise or two. There are inevitable traces of the X-Files, Twilight Zone and, most of all, True Singapore Ghost Stories, yet, he somehow manages to find fresh twists to the campfire tales and urban legends that we must have heard millions of times before. Credit also goes to Baldisimo whose gloomy art manages to capture the tightly wound suspense of Tan's plots while pumping up the action. For those wary of taking the creatures of Philippine mythology full on, really, you have nothing to fear. You will be surprised at how familiar many of the ghoulish criminals are, some even have almost similar names to our own ghosts - Manananggal, Tiyanak and sytan. There is even one that looks like a toyol (the little boy thief ghost). Still, you might want to have a glossary of Filipino monsters and mystical beings on hand – not that your comprehension will be hampered without it, but your appreciation of the stories will be heightened with the insight. This is most pertinent in Our Secret Constellation, story No.4 in Volume One. On the surface, it provides a cautionary tale along the vein of Twilight Zone. A young woman's life is destroyed after she is gang-raped, sending her brother out on a vengeance call. But as we later find out, she is attacked only because her brother had taken away her "weapon", to stop her from going out on her own vigilante missions for justice. Only those familiar with Philippines' legendary version of a Wonder Woman-like superhero, Darna, would catch the irony. Darna is an alien warrior who gets her power by swallowing a stone from her home planet Marte. In Tan's version, her brother hides the stone for her safety, but instead leaves her vulnerable to her enemies. Knowledge of the popular Darna mythos adds poignancy to this post-feminist twist in the story, which takes more than a swipe at Asian patriarchal beliefs. Another is the last story of Volume Four, Fight Of The Year, about the burden of a national hero, boxing champion Manuel, who literally has to box evil for the future and happiness of his countrymen. The thinly veiled homage to Philippine's boxing hero Manny Pacquaio gives new meaning to the salutary phrase "nation's hope". Amidst these two dark tales are the murkier yarns of your favourite lady-in-white accident victim ghost, suburban zombies, vampiric foetuses in the mall and an unholy conspiracy in a gated community. Not a fan of True Singapore Ghost Stories, my main grouse with Trese is that the cases are given prominence over Trese's own story. Sure, her genesis, as well as that of her Kambal bodyguards, is given in Volume 3 but beyond that, the character development in the series is sorely lacking. The crumbs offered about our kick-butt paranormal "police" – who runs a monster-friendly club, The Diabolical, when she is not ghost hunting – are barely satisfying. As enthralling as the paranormal creatures are, Tan and Baldisimo will need to start giving some page-time to their titular character's story if they want to get at least a quarter of the cult following of the popular Singapore series they seem to be emulating. Trese is available at Kinokuniya, Suria KLCC. |
| All Woman And Springtime: A tale of two women Posted: 19 Oct 2012 07:22 AM PDT A riveting and touching book that takes the reader from the depths of despair to the heights of hope. All Woman And Springtime THE friendship between the two North Korean protagonists is uncanny, for Gi and Il-Sun share an intimate bond that words can't describe. The girls work in a clothing factory, sharing the ups and downs of their lives in a tightly-controlled country. How controlled? Well, Gi and her family are thrown out of their home because of their accidental neglect of the portraits of the Great Leader, Kim Il-sung, and his son, the Dear Leader Kim-Jong-il. Too harsh? Definitely! However, that is life in the world's least known state. Il-Sun and Gi's relationship takes on a somewhat forbidden tone – but only to a certain limit, as though they are both afraid of crossing the line, fearing that doing so would jeopardise their closeness. This book is astonishing and provocative at the same time. The reader is soon engrossed in the way the characters seem to desire something; something that is raw and tangible at times and yet unseen and ambiguous at other times. Author B.W. Jones doesn't skip a beat in describing her main characters, their strengths as well as weaknesses, all leading to the portrayal of a believable and likeable pair of young women. As the book moves from one phase of the girls' lives on to another, we are left wanting to linger over each little anecdote with its humour and quirkiness, and sometimes its tragedy and helplessness. As Il-Sun embraces womanhood and all the surprises it brings, Gi hovers nervously on the brink, looking to her friend to fill the void within her. When the time finally comes for escape, we are left gritting our teeth in suspense and anticipation. Will they make it across the border to South Korea? What ensues after the escape, however, is almost half-expected. Little things like fast food outlets and warm showers are potently pleasant to the girls as much as they are foreign and unreal. But none of the modern conveniences make up for what the girls have to go through to make their way in this strange, foreign land. Suffice to say that the book does not leave much to the imagination, as the girls learn to fight their own nightmares. By this time, the reader is left appalled by the way things are going for the girls and can't help but root for them as they make yet another attempt to escape their hard lives. From one let-down to another, it seems impossible for them to run away. After their plan fails, they discover that their punishment for escaping may just be the way out of their dreaded lives. In the last chapters of the book, we struggle to find a happy ending (or maybe just a better ending) to the story. The girls have gone through too much and the immensity of tragedy in their lives is almost too much for the reader to take in. In the end, the strongest survive, or so they say. If at first the book focused mainly on Il-Sun, then later it zeroes in on Gi, who finally finds herself in a land of opportunity, where her talent for mathematics is discovered, and we are left with the assumption that she pursues her dream of an education. All in all, this book is riveting and touching, giving us a taste of poverty, homelessness and starvation while balancing the misery with moments of happiness, contentment and, most of all, the beauty of the strong bond between women. The book ends rather suddenly but not without giving us renewed hope for Gi, as she embraces her new life. We see a ray of hope amidst the darkness that shines in the name of love, survival and the drive to persevere for a better tomorrow. |
| Posted: 19 Oct 2012 01:00 AM PDT Prince Of Thorns FOURTEEN-year-old Jorg Ancrath is the charming, immoral leader of a band of bloodthirsty thugs who make their living killing, robbing and raping through the countryside. But he wasn't always so. At the age of nine, the young prince witnessed the murders of his beloved mother and brother by the evil Count Renar, even as he was hung from a bush of thorns, setting him on his path of destruction. Now, he aims to retake the throne that is rightfully his, but dark magic and treachery await him in his father's castle. Vanish IN this sequel to Firelight, we meet draki shapeshifter Jacinda and her family as they try to get back to the hidden draki community after Jacinda reveals her secret to save her human boyfriend – and draki hunter – Will. Pursued by the hunters, Jacinda is ostracised by her fellow drakis for her actions, while her sister Tamra is now the favoured one after having manifested as a rare shader draki. However, Jacinda finds some consolation in the arms of fellow draki Cassian. That is, until Will, who supposedly had his memory wiped of her existence, comes looking for her and asks her to run away with him. Brothers To The Death THIS is the last book in The Saga Of Larten Crepsley, the prequel to The Saga Of Darren Shan, which tells us the origins of the vampire Larten Crepsley. The story starts near the beginning of World War II, with the Nazis trying to recruit the vampires as allies in their cause. But there is another war a-brewing as Wester Flack continues to try to persuade more vampires to aid his vendetta against the vampeneze. The final straw for Crepsley comes when he loses a loved one to the vampeneze Randel Chayne. Those who have read Cirque Du Freak know how the story ends for Crepsley, but the journey is more complicated than it appears. Through Her Eyes Publisher: HarperTeen, 374 pages SIXTEEN-year-old Tansy Davis is used to moving whenever her horror novelist mother starts a new book. That doesn't make it any easier, however, when her mother packs them up and moves them back to her grandfather's hometown of Cedar Canyon, Texas. In the house that they move into, the ghost of Henry, a troubled teen who committed suicide there decades ago, waits for someone to help him. Soon, Tansy discovers that she can experience Henry's world through her camera and a crystal pendant of his that she finds in the cellar, along with his journal and pocket watch. But as she gets more and more absorbed by Henry's world, she starts to lose touch with her own. Feedback AFTER the events in Variant, Benson and Becky have managed to escape the robot-run Maxfield Academy. However, with Becky wounded badly, they cannot run far. Benson discovers a town where people he recognises from the Academy live; people he thought he had killed, or had died. The pair discover that these are the real teens, connected to their robot counterparts in the academy via a chip in their brain. Benson vows to free them, but that means going back to Maxfield Academy.... Department 19: The Rising IT is 12 weeks after Lindisfarne, and 91 days until the Rising. Jamie Carpenter, Kate, and vampire Larissa are recovering at the super-secret Department 19's headquarters – Britain's classified government agency for policing the supernatural – after the events in Department 19. Dracula's ashes have been stolen, the vampires are gathering, and his Rising is imminent unless the department's operatives can find a way to stop it. The hunt is on to find out where the father of vampires is hiding before he can regain his full strength and become invincible. |
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