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Posted: 17 Jun 2011 03:57 AM PDT

Northlanders brings the past alive and recreates Viking civilisation in a way never before depicted in comics.

WRITER Brian Wood wowed critics with his popular Vertigo series DMZ, which explores corruption, human suffering and war in a dystopian, near-future America. In Northlanders, which began in late-2007, he once again explores corruption, human suffering and war but a thousand years in the past – through the Vikings.

The bleak, wintry landscapes of Northern Europe may have replaced the grimy streets of DMZ, but the human theme is consistent: People will do anything to survive or to protect the ones they love.

This is why although it is set in an ancient time, Northlanders remains fiercely relevant. Wood has even purposefully used modern language (complete with modern swear words, which may seem jarring at first) to bring home the fact that the more things change, the more things stay the same.

"At its core, the story is about the old vs the new," said Wood in a 2007 Comic Book Resources article.

"The Vikings were forcing change on Europe, opening it up to trade and settlement, pulling Europe out of its dark ages, albeit at the point of a sword. But hot on their heels was the growing Christianity movement, threatening to replace the 'old ways', the ancient pagan religions and gods."

According to the same article, Wood, a self-confessed "Viking geek" consumed massive amounts of Viking-related information for research. Wood even travelled to Iceland, which is rich in Viking history, and to northern Scotland, where Book 1's story takes place. His research shows; the graphic novel carefully depicts weapons, architecture and the social mores of the time.

Northlanders is made up of a few arcs which feature different characters. (The exception is Book 3, which is a compilation of a few short issues.) So, each tradepaperback volume has a definite ending. The link that ties all the volumes together is the exploration of the indomitable Viking spirit: honour and courage, and its dark half: sadism and greed.

The series begins with an eight-issue arc which is handsomely compiled in Book 1: Sven The Returned. Sven is a "cosmopolitan" Viking. He has abandoned his home in Orkney Islands in northern Scotland to live the life of a mercenary. He is part of the Varangian Guard, a real-life squad of hired Viking warriors.

He only returns to Orkney when he hears that his father has died – but not for very noble reasons. He wants to get his inheritance, and get out of the place as quickly as he can – he loathes the place and his people. But when he witnesses and experiences the brutality of his uncle Gorm's rule, Sven begins to wreck vengeance on Gorm to ensure that he pays for his crimes in the bloodiest fashion possible.

The story is told via Sven's point of view, which is coloured by his ideas of pride and glory. This gives the narration a unique tone as he is often insufferably narrow-minded and over-the-top idealistic about the way he sees the world. He is not exactly a conscientious narrator either, leaving out chunks of information that makes you wonder what just happened. (Time, for one, flies by in an alarmingly unpredictable fashion.) But this all creates a sense of surrealism that turns Sven's story into one of those ancient tales sung by bards about invincible heroes.

The lead character of Book 2: The Cross + The Hammer is not a Viking. He is Magnus, an Irishman who refuses to kneel before the Northmen who conquered Ireland. He travels across the country with his daughter Brigid as they are pursued by Lord Ragnar Ragnarsson, who is as much a capable forensic scientist (he "reads the story of death") as he is a warrior. Unlike Magnus, who violently strikes without a thought, Ragnar hunts with a cool, methodical mind. Ironically, Magnus is more of a Viking than Ragnar.

The story contains a perplexing if intriguing twist at the end, which demands a more thorough explanation. However, as evidenced in Book 1, Wood is not very interested in tying loose ends as much as creating a mood of uncertainty, which permeates the entire series.

Book 3: Blood In The Snow, is a collection of short issues. There's the tale of Edwin, a young Christian boy, who dreams of glory as a warrior. He meets a band of Vikings who will change his life. In the single-issue story The Viking Art Of Single Combat, Snorri the Black and Egil Sleggja have a duel to the death on a bleak, wintry beach. And let's not underestimate the power of Viking women, as the two-part issue The Shield Maidens reminds us. Three women, widowed after a Saxon invasion of their home in Danish Mercia, decide to stand their ground instead of fleeing their pursuers. Sven, our hero in Book 1, returns in Sven The Immortal. Older and wiser, but no less formidable, he makes a final stand against the invaders of his home.

Book 3's short tales contain lots of chest-thumping glorification of Viking might and power, pretty shallow stuff compared to the more complex stories in Books 1 and 2. However, Wood makes up for it in Book 4: The Plague Widow, which is my favourite volume.

Hilda is widowed when her husband dies from the plague. All she has is her daughter Karin, whom she fiercely protects even as her community disintegrates into anarchy because of a plague and the harshest winter in memory. She may not be able to wield a sword as expertly as her male brethren, but Hilda is by far the bravest Viking in the Northlander series. The lengths that she'd go to, to protect her daughter, is something any mother can relate to, and the tale is a study of how societies can disintegrate (and yet survive) when faced with extinction.

The art in the Northlanders series – done by different artists – is dark and gritty, the colours in muted browns, reds and black, like the withering leaves of autumn. Violence is graphically portrayed; it is visceral, bloody and wince-inducing.

All in all, Northlanders is an impressive series. It is a showcase of the human spirit, and the lengths the human species would go to, to survive. For us 21st-century human beings with our piped water and 7-11s, it's a reminder of how far we've come, but how it could all quickly unravel as well.

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The darkness within

Posted: 17 Jun 2011 02:42 AM PDT

The Girl In The Steel Corset

Author: Kady Cross

Publisher: Harlequin, 480 pages

IN 1897 England, 16-year-old Finley Jayne has no one ... but she does have a "thing" inside her. When a young lord tries to take advantage of Finley, she fights back. And wins. Surely no normal Victorian girl would be capable of knocking out a full-grown man with one punch? Only Griffin King sees the magical darkness inside Finley that says she's special, so the orphaned duke takes her in off the gaslit streets against the wishes of his band of misfits. He and his gang are investigating a criminal called The Machinist. But The Machinist wants to tear Griff's little company of strays apart, and it isn't long before trust is tested on all sides.

Revenants: Die For Me

Author: Amy Plum

Publisher: HarperTeen, 352 pages

WHEN Kate Mercier's parents die in a tragic car accident, she has to live with her grandparents in Paris. To cope with her loss, Kate escapes into the world of books and Parisian art. Until she meets Vincent, mysterious, charming, and devastatingly handsome. But Vincent a revenant, an undead being who is forced to sacrifice himself over and over again to save the lives of others. As she begins to fall in love with Vincent, Kate realises that if she follows her heart, she may never be safe again.

The Goddess Test

Author: Aimee Carter

Publisher: Harlequin, 304 pages

IT'S always been just Kate and her mum – and now, her mother is dying. Her last wish? To move back into her childhood home. So Kate is starting at a new school with no friends, no family and the fear her mother won't live past the Fall. Then she meets dark, tortured and mesmerising Henry. He claims to be Hades, god of the Underworld and if she accepts his bargain, he'll keep her mother alive while Kate tries to pass seven tests. Kate is sure he's crazy – until she sees him bring a girl back from the dead. Suddenly, saving her mother seems crazily possible. And if she succeeds, she'll become Henry's future bride, and a goddess.

The Chemical Garden Trilogy: Wither

Author: Lauren DeStefano

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 368 pages

AT just 16 years old, Rhine Ellery has only four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years.

Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.

When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, however, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can't bring herself to hate him as much as she'd like to.

But she quickly learns that not everything in her new husband's strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister-wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape before her time runs out?

Fox And Hen Together

Author & Illustrator: Beatrice Rodriguez

Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books, 32 pages

FOX And Hen Together continues the story of The Chicken Thief, focusing on Fox and Hen's life together. As the illustrations quickly reveal, Crab has become a fast friend, Fox and Hen have an empty refrigerator, and Hen has laid an egg. As to the fate of her egg, that will take a little longer to reveal itself. And here again, the chase is on, but this time it's Hen who is in pursuit!

Ice

Author & Illustrator: Arthur Geisert

Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books, 32 pages

THIS is a gorgeously rendered, wordless tale of discovery and adventure that is meticulous in architectural detail and bursting with inventiveness. Arthur Geisert's ingenuity engages the child's imagination as well as the adult's through seamless storytelling and zany wit.

Invested as always in his porcine universe, Geisert tells the story of a community of pigs that is suffering from the heat. Rather than be sapped of energy and miserable, they go on an adventure in search of ice. The pigs' inventiveness and great can-do spirit create a joyful tale of change and adventure.

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Malalai Joya: Afghanistan's bravest woman

Posted: 16 Jun 2011 04:57 PM PDT

Everyone should read this book about one woman who lit a single candle of hope amidst the gloom of a troubled country.

A Woman Among Warlords
Author: Malalai Joya
Publisher: Scribner, 239 pages

MALALAI Joya was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2010 and the BBC has called her "the bravest woman in Afghanistan". While these career-defining tag lines may do wonders for one's ego and self-esteem, they are also heavy accolades to bestow upon anyone.

But Malalai is neither a celebrity nor a current It girl; she is an Afghan woman in Parliament. Though that may not sound extraordinary, just being a woman in Afghanistan is a difficult thing indeed, as they are deemed to be on society's lowest rung – and yet, Joya is a woman with some political power!

In her memoir, A Woman Among Warlords, Malalai explains in acute and often graphic detail how she came to be called the bravest woman in Afghanistan. But the book is so much more than just her memoir, as it also provides descriptions of the truly harsh living conditions of Afghans.

Malalai was born in August 1979, four months before the Soviet Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Without sparing her readers, Malalai describes how her family had to flee Afghanistan and how they ended up first in Iranian and then Pakistani refugee camps. She is brutally honest in sharing the horrific and humiliating persecution that Afghans faced at the hands of Iranians while trying to survive day to day in the camps.

It was not much better in Pakistan, either. While the Afghans were not as ostracised in Pakistan as they were in Iran, many of the orphans in the Pakistani refugee camps ended up being recruited by the Taliban.

After a decade of occupation, the Soviet Union was driven out of Afghanistan with the help of the United States. However, instead of experiencing peace, the country was then ravaged by opposing factions of brutal warlords. Rapes, beatings, murders and tribal persecutions were rampant and common during the early 1990s.

One of the interesting points that Joya makes is that many of the opposing warlords that fought each other between 1992 and 1996 have since become part of the new Afghan government under current the current president, Hamid Karzai, who has the support of the United States and Nato (the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation). In effect, these once opposing warlords that fought for power a decade and a half ago are the ones sitting in Parliament and having a hand in deciding the fate of their fellow Afghans.

While the warlords fought for power and the Taliban wanted the country to return to the seventh century, Joya returned to her home province of Farah and taught women to read and write in underground schools.

As it was forbidden under Taliban rule for women to be educated in any way or form, doing this was a risky task that could have got Joya killed, but she did not shy away from undertaking it, and with gusto, too.

And it was also not all doom and gloom during her secret teaching sessions: Joya writes with tongue firmly in cheek that "It was a challenge to learn to eat ice cream under the burqa." She further explains how her students would gather together in each other's houses and generally have a good time without any men around.

Following the madness and chaos that was the global effect of the 2001 Sept 11 terror attacks in New York, Joya sensed that "many Afghans were not happy with how the country was being run. I chose to do something about it."

Prior to the 2004 elections, Joya travelled to the capital Kabul to attend the "Loya Jirga", a national meeting between representatives from different regions.

She writes that all the players that helped the United States defeat the Taliban were represented. These players had abused human rights at all levels, but at the meeting all were "wearing masks of democracy". Outraged, Joya denounced them and pointed out all faults of the warlords – and earned herself a position in Parliament.

Voicing her outrage in a room full of Afghan men earned Joya international recognition, but also scorn, hatred and death threats from her fellow male Parliamentarians. She now lives with the constant presence of a security detail around her, and she sleeps in different safe houses, any of which could become unsafe at any moment. In short, by advocating for causes she feels strongly about, Joya has made herself a target of vitriolic anger.

I have to acknowledge that A Woman Among Warlords is a very heavy read. Joya takes her readers into a very troubled country whose people have experienced centuries-old tribal conflicts, daily fights for survival, and being under the thumb of crooked warlords.

Those who are not familiar with Afghan history or politics need not worry, as Joya provides enough background information to keep readers engaged.

While the picture of Afghan economics and politics she paints may be black and pessimistic, Joya is quick to show that within all that doom and gloom, some light also exists. It may be a small light, but as Joya has shown, it only takes one candle to begin making a difference. To be a member of that lowest caste in Afghanistan, women, yet to dare to raise her voice in a room full of men and to continue to defy men's expectations of submission ... what can I say except that it takes pure guts. A Woman Among Warlords is not easy reading but this is a book that should be read by all.

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Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Jumaat, 17 Jun 2011

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

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