The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf |
- Finding love, happiness and redemption
- 2012 - A year of marvels
- Compilation of Space Marine mayhem for 40K fans
| Finding love, happiness and redemption Posted: 28 Dec 2012 01:44 AM PST 3 Step Plan To Find Real Love GIRLS, bad news. You know how society – via movies, love songs and saccharine greeting cards – keeps telling us that we have to find our one-and-only soul mate? No such person exists, according to author Jean Cirillo. Instead, we should be looking out for what really makes a man worth loving for a lifetime – and it's got nothing to do with how good looking he is. The Sins Of The Mother THE world knows Olivia Grayson as the successful business woman who built a home-furnishings empire. Her children, though, see an absent mother, a distant figure who was never very involved in their lives. Now at a crossroads in her life, Olivia wants to make up to her family for not being there even while she takes her business to greater heights. But family love is a complex thing and it will take more than a lavish holiday or two for Olivia to face her past, make amends and gain the respect of her loved ones. Happiest You Ever: 365 Ways To Invite More Love, Sex, Fun, Friendship, Fellowship, Community, And Career Satisfaction Into Your Life – Each And Every Day! IN this reprint of a 2011 title, the authors claim to have a daily prescription for happiness in all aspects of life. Practical tips on making little choices, moves and changes can help the reader get a little closer to being satisfied with life. The tips are arranged around seven key elements: career, community connections, friendship, love, family, "me time" and relaxation, and spirituality. |
| Posted: 28 Dec 2012 12:59 AM PST From Avengers and Batman films to Prof X and Peter Parker dying(!), 2012 has been a momentous year for comics. IT'S that time of year when we recap the A-to-Z of the year's most significant milestones in the comic universe. It's been a great year in terms of superhero movies and earth-shattering comic book events, so here's hoping 2013 will be even better! A – Avengers Vs X-Men AVX was Marvel's answer to DC's ever-evolving 52 titles. Sure, pitting its two biggest teams against each other was a no brainer, but this year-long event sizzles by reintroducing the Phoenix Force, re-igniting the Mutant gene pool, leaving a trail of destruction from Wakanda to Kun Lun, and sacrificing mutant-kind's father figure. B – Better Bat From the Court Of Owls to the Death Of The Family storylines, this is one of the best Batman runs since Hush. The creative team of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo were destined to shake up Bat-mythos, and possibly the only challenge left for them is to direct a Batman movie! C – Crom! Conan! With or without Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robert E. Howard's greatest creation, Conan, got a second lease of life on the silver screen – and a more barbaric one too! D – Dark Knight Rises The year's best comic book movie, and my favourite Bat-movie ever (sorry, Adam West!). Special mention to Anne Hathaway for being the "purr-fect" Catwoman. Also, if you are still experiencing Dark Knight withdrawals, check out The Dark Knight Returns animated movie. E – Earth's Mightiest Heroes After four years of build up, the "Avengers Initiative" finally materialised, and to quote Thor – "'Tis a sight to behold!" From the Chitauri to the Thanos end-credits teaser, this was the most comprehensive Marvel movie to date. The movie's box office success did wonders too, resulting in spinoffs in the form of a host of Avengers titles, as well as unofficially endorsing shawarma as the breakfast-for-heroes! F – Father Figure Collectively, Bruce Wayne and Batman play a number of roles: billionaire, playboy, industrialist, philanthropist, Gotham's protector, and World's Greatest Detective. However, none of these could have prepared him for ... fatherhood! Since assuming parental custody over Damian (his love child with Talia Al Ghul), there are more unseen dynamics within the new Dynamic Duo. G – Green-er Lantern Sector 2814 welcomed a new Green Lantern in Simon Baz, the first Arab-American superhero, who made his first appearance in Green Lantern #00! H – Hitting the Mark (Waid)! While Geoff Johns has the whole DC Universe to tinker with, Mark Waid operates on a shoestring budget comprising second tier Marvel characters (Daredevil) and explorative works like AVX Infinite. Entertainment-wise, Waid has a slight edge over Johns, as his rollercoaster thriller stint on the Man Without Fear proves. I – I am the Law! If Conan can live on without Schwarzenegger, so can a Stallone-less Dredd – with Karl Urban as the new Judge Dredd, Mega City One's top law enforcer reaffirmed why he truly is The Law! Better than its predecessor in every sense, this grittier remake also had an extra "oomph" thanks to Olivia Thirlby's Judge Anderson. J – Just Draw It! This year saw a few local comic artists taking charge of their future via Drawlaahhh!, a self-publication of their works. Check out their Facebook page at facebook.com/drawlaahhh for more details. K – Kicking ass Post-Kick-Ass, Mark Millar's Millarworld got even bigger this year with the release of Hit Girl (with John Romita Jr), Supercrooks (Leinil Yu) and Secret Service (Dave Gibbons). L – Lucasfilm acquired! Having already acquired Pixar and Marvel, Disney completed another strategic purchase with Lucasfilm (which included its crown jewels, Industrial Light & Magic, as well as Skywalker Sound and LucasArts). What this means for the Star Wars comic books remains to be seen, but for now, we can at least look forward to 2015's Star Wars: Episode VII! M – Malaysian Games & Comics Convention May 19 was a significant milestone in Malaysian comics' history, as local comic fans finally got a taste of a full-scale comic convention. Boasting the presence of international talents such as Leinil Yu, Carlo Pagulayan and a posse of Malaysian talents – including Billy Tan, Tan Eng Huat, and the Gilamon crew – there was also a comprehensive array of comics-based and digital-based events. It was a heart-warming experience and some even lost their hearts to the adorable Cosplay Queen, Alodia Gosiengfiao. A sequel is a must! N – Now THAT'S Marvel! With the success of DC's New 52, it was inevitable that Marvel would follow suit and reboot its own universe. The publisher finally did so with the "Marvel Now" brand, which promises a new direction for its universe, with emphasis on status shifts that has seen the Fantastic Four leaving Earth to roam the unknown universes, as well as the Hulk becoming a SHIELD agent! O – Original Mutants Despite the title, the All-New X-Men series welcomes back the old, pioneering X-Men team. Plucked out from their time by present-day Beast to avenge Professor X's death (see the letter "X" entry below), this "rookie-phase" X-Men team might just hold the right formula to combating the present day Cyclops, Magneto and Emma Frost team. P – Parker Passes In The Amazing Spider-man #700 (released yesterday), Peter Parker spins his final web as Spider-Man, dying at the hands of Dr Octopus. But wait! If Peter is dead, why does the issue's final page show Spidey standing victoriously over a dead Doc Ock, instead of the other way around? You'll have to read the book to find out, but the point here is, the Spider-Man we all know and love is dead; and come January, there will be a brand new Superior Spider-man that is NOT Peter Parker! Q – (I) Quit! After seven decades, Superman #13 saw Clark Kent quitting his job at the Daily Planet in protest over the mistreatment of journalism. With sensationalism preferred over reporting cold, hard truths, one of the world's most powerful beings found himself unable to express his thoughts through writing, which further amplified the impact of the decision. R – Rest In Peace Sadly, the world lost several great comic talents this year, including Jean Giraud @ Moebius (73), Tony DeZuniga (79), Joe Kubert (85), Ernie Chan (71), and John Severin (90). Rest in peace, maestros! S – Saga Continues After the end of Y: The Last Man, the Saga continues for Brian K. Vaughn via this "Star Wars meets Game Of Thrones" series. Set within a galactic war, Saga depicts the tale of two lovers, Alana and Marko, from opposing extraterrestrial races, and their offspring, Hazel. T – Toy "Awry" Story Like a Disney-meets-Twilight Zone tale, Fables' "Cubs In Toyland" story arc (Fables #114-121) reveals the dangers of playing with toys that possess "assertive intelligence". Prophecies concerning the kids of Snow White and Bigby are revealed; and one of the cubs, Therese, is abducted and taken into a toy graveyard known as Toyland to be their new ruler ... that is, if she can survive on a diet of plastic toys. U – Uncanny Avengers Post-AVX, a new team is formed featuring a union of key members from the Avengers and the X-Men! This power-sharing concoction is nothing new, but the Red Skull's removal of Xavier's brain is gruesomely awesome! V – Valiant reborn! After going through several failed reincarnations, the Valiant universe lives once again via the re-launch of five titles: X-O Manowar, Harbinger, Bloodshot, Archer & Armstrong, and Shadowman, with Quantum & Woody set to come, too (fingers crossed). W – Watchmen, Before Despite Watchmen co-creator Alan Moore's non-endorsement of a Watchmen prequel and sequel, DC went ahead with Before Watchmen, which manages to live up to the original's immortal status. Backed by a star-studded creative crew (from J. Michael Straczynski to Brian Azzarello), this compilation of 10 interconnected titles (including the epilogue) not only pays homage to the original story, but also adds depth and breadth to the Minutemen, while connecting the dots to the original tale. X – Xavier While past experiences have shown that deceased X-Men have almost always returned from the dead, Professor Charles Xavier's passing (see AVX # 11) is still a significant milestone, especially since his death comes at the hands of his most trusted protégé, Cyclops. Y – Year Two The honeymoon is over for the revamped DC universe, and casualties were aplenty in terms of titles (Captain Atom, Grifter, Voodoo, Frankenstein, Blue Beetle, Legion Lost, Resurrection Man, etc) and creators such as George Perez, Gail Simone and Rob Liefeld; though in the case of Liefeld ... good riddance! Z – Zombie Milestones Alongside a successful third season of its TV series, The Walking Dead comic also achieved a significant milestone with its century issue. Unlike its past anniversaries where Rick Grimes always emerged victorious, he finally meets his match in issue #100. The build-up this year has been excruciatingly suspenseful, and there are times when you just wish that they had a cyanide pill in their teeth so they could just put themselves out of their misery! |
| Compilation of Space Marine mayhem for 40K fans Posted: 27 Dec 2012 04:06 PM PST Three anthologies serve up loads of Space Marine mayhem in chainfist-size chunks to delight Warhammer 40,000 fans. Treacheries Of The Space Marines (Warhammer 40,000) Tome Of Fire: A Salamanders Collection (Warhammer 40,000) Shadows Of Treachery (The Horus Heresy) THESE collections of short stories featuring genetically-engineered warriors known as Space Marines blasting the stuffing out of one another – and any mortals dumb enough to get in their way – make gripping reading for fans but are unlikely to secure new devotees, being a little too steeped in the series' sweeping mythology. If you've been lost in a warp storm for the last 25 years, Warhammer 40,000 (40K for short) tells of a distant and strife-torn future where the decaying interstellar empire known as the Imperium of Man wages what seems to be a losing war against ever-encroaching alien menaces, as well as renegades from within who have sworn allegiance to the ruinous, ancient forces of Chaos. Space Marines are massive armoured warriors created to be the Imperium's finest protectors. The trouble is, half of their legions rebelled against the Emperor who created them and went over to Chaos; the remaining loyal ones have since dug in their heels for a long war, becoming aloof and distant from the mortals they protect. The Emperor is a rotting husk kept alive by long-forgotten technology, his psychic will – basically, all that's left of him after battling a traitorous son – lighting the way for his starships through the depths of space. A thousand souls are sacrificed each day to sustain his essence. And, as the 40K preamble goes, in the grim dark future there is only war. That's the short version. Aside from the ongoing 40K tales set in the 41st millennium, publisher Black Library has also spun off a bestselling line known as The Horus Heresy, set roughly about 10,000 years earlier. The HH tales depict the massive civil war mentioned above, which left the Emperor in his current state. That Black Library's authors manage to keep fans enthralled in a saga where everyone knows the "ending" is proof of the rich mythology and vast potential for new tales to be spun. Today, we take a look at three recent short story anthologies set in this unsavoury future. Treachery most delicious With the word "treacheries" in its title, you may conclude (rightly) that Treacheries Of The Space Marines is mostly about those warriors that turned traitor, and they're frequently the more interesting to read about. Sometimes, those loyalist guys can get sooo drearily one-note with their "The Emperor protects!" this and "Purge the heretic" that (guys, you can't win a war with laxatives ... oh, maybe you can). Black Library's writers have frequently served up intriguing portraits of the "enemy", among them Aaron Dembski-Bowden's Night Lords books, Anthony Reynolds' Word Bearers series, and Graham McNeill's Iron Warriors stories (those are some names of the Traitor Legions, by the way). The nine-tale Treacheries opens with an 80-page story, The Masters, Bidding by Matthew Farrer – who, I must say, is not one of my favourite 40K contributors. Here, however, his mini-epic of Chaos champions engaging in one long brag-fest to prove themselves worthy of highly prized alien artifacts is quite amusing. You can sense there's a tongue firmly planted in cheek throughout the narrative with its highly exaggerated (and petulant) personalities. The tone becomes typically 40K-sombre soon enough once we move on to the other stories. Dembski-Bowden contributes a story of the Night Lords seeking to settle a millennia-old score, while Reynolds' offering could well be the final appearance of Word Bearers Dark Apostle, Marduk (who has appeared in three earlier books). My favourite one of the bunch is the decidedly devious We Are One by John French, featuring the Alpha Legion – traitors notorious for subterfuge and manipulation. The story, about one of the Imperium's Inquisitors chasing down a particularly nasty member of the Legion over nearly a century (they bear long grudges in the 40K universe, this feud being relatively ... brief), reminds us why we can never have enough of the Alpha Legion as it comes to a mind-boggling conclusion. Also worthy of mention is Jonathan Green's Liberator, where the timeline of events is presented in reverse order; it's an interesting departure from convention that would have benefited from a more powerful payoff. As 40K anthologies go, Treacheries is a worthy companion piece to the three previous collections in this line (Heroes, Legends, Victories Of The Space Marines). Just one major glitch: the contributors' biography section fails to list Farrer, and instead there's biodata for Chris Wraight, who didn't contribute so much as an auspex whisper to this one. The Alpha Legion's vaunted misdirection at work, no doubt. Fireborn Tome Of Fire is much tighter in its focus, dealing almost entirely with the chapter of Space Marines known as the Salamanders. Onyx-skinned, fiery-eyed warriors that possibly look the least human of these transhuman warriors, the Salamanders are ironically the more compassionate of their brethren towards the plain old mortals they defend. This volume is meant to be a coda of sorts to author Nick Kyme's Tome Of Fire trilogy which covered the books Salamander, Firedrake and Nocturne. The series revolved around an ancient prophecy and Hazon Dak'ir, a lowborn human before he became a Space Marine, who could well be the one the prophecy referred to. The contents page quite kindly indicates the position of each story relative to the timeline of the three novels in the series. Be warned, however, that most of the stories in Tome have appeared in other collections; and the few that are "original" in this anthology aren't that crash-hot. At least the all-new stories do hold out some hope about the fate of the more outstanding characters from the trilogy, though there's a big question mark over whether or not Kyme will ever continue those sagas. Cast a traitorous shadow Each of the Space Marine legions back in the days of the Horus Heresy was led by a demigod-like primarch, and one reason the HH series is so popular among fans is that it often depicts these guys in their full glory. The arch-traitor Horus was one such primarch, and the fact that he was the favoured son of the Emperor made his betrayal sting that much more – though he was not the first heretic among his brethren. Shadows Of Treachery is the fourth short story collection in the Horus Heresy's 23 books to date. Like Tome Of Fire above, most of the stories here (five out of the seven) have been published before. Unlike TOF, the reprints are from much less accessible volumes – mostly limited-edition booklets published especially for special events; and one is the transcript of an audio drama. So I was quite thrilled to be able to read, at last, Graham McNeill's The Dark King and its somewhat linked cousin, The Lightning Tower by Dan Abnett. The two writers are among Black Library's heavyweights, having produced some of its finest books and performed a couple of interesting experiments in storytelling, too. These stories first appeared in a 2007 chapbook and were later made into audio dramas, and have not been made widely available in print until now. Alas, the anticipation proved more satisfying than the event, and I found these two stories to be just ... appetisers for when the conflict in the Heresy reaches its most critical stages. The two new tales in this anthology, the novellas Crimson Fist by French (that Alpha Legion guy) and Prince Of Crows by Dembski-Bowden, are the best things it has to offer. Both tell of large space battles and desperate boarding actions (by a loyalist force in one story, and traitors in the other), and focus on secondary characters in the 40K universe's roster of legendary heroes – Alexis Polux of the Imperial Fists and Jago Sevatarion of the Night Lords. The Horus Heresy collection is the best of the three on review here, for its two "unputdownable" framing stories, plenty of primarch-fuelled mayhem and the chance to read some rare stuff that most fans here would have only heard about prior to this. Here's hoping Black Library can keep the flames of heresy burning for a while to come. |
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