Manga Challenge Reviews October - December and Wrap Up Posts

Please post the links to your manga challenge reviews using Mister Linky below. If you do not have a blog please feel free to email me and I can post it for you. Alternatively please add it to the comments section on this post. Also please add a link to your wrap up posts to be eligable for a prize for completing.

Once again please feel free to read more than 6 if you have the time and money. I know I will be!

Pretties, Specials & Extras - Scott Westerfeld

Rating : 4.0/5
Number of Pages : 370
Series : #2 Uglies
Format : Teenage Fiction, Science Fiction
Reason for Reading : Scott Westerfeld Mini Challenge, to continue with the series

Tally Youngblood is back after the events of Uglies, but now she is a Pretty. The Pretty operation is what happens to everyone when they reach 16. They have their face and body changed to conform to Pretty standards. She lives with the other Pretties who form cliques/clans. They party all the time, have access to as many clothes and amusements as they want and generally have no responsibilities.

Tally is part of the Crim clique and their thing is pulling tricks like they did in their younger Ugly days. It gives them a buzz and helps them wake up from the Pretty haze that they otherwise live in. Tally is drawn to fellow Crim Zane and the two of them quickly start spending more and more time together. Events from Tally's past though don't stay buried for long and people form the Smoke start appearing to her with a series of clues and tests for her to follow. Trouble is, will she like what she finds at the end and where will it take her next.

This was a lot of fun. I like Tally and it was good to meet some new characters like Zane and Andrew Simpson Smith. The story moved on nicely and I am looking forward to the next in the series.

Rating : 4.5/5
Number of Pages : 372
Series : #3 Uglies
Format : Teenage Fiction, Science Fiction
Reason for Reading : Scott Westerfeld Mini Challenge, to continue with the series

The third and final in the main Uglies series. Tally and co return again this time as Specials. There is still tension between Tally and Shay, but it is surpressed now that Shay is the leader. They are still trying to stamp out the New Smoke and Tally is keen to get Zane to join their team to make him better after the events in Pretties. The Specials are fighting machines, they are Cruel Pretties designed to instil fear into others and were created by Dr Cable just in their city.

Shay leads the Crim group in a chase of the Uglies, but they capture Fausto leaving Tally alone to save Shay. They take Shay too and Tally decides to follow them and ends up meeting up with Andre Simpson Smith again to get coordinates. It takes her on a journey to the New Smoke and another city. She learns the truth finally and gets involved in a war.

A great conclusion to the story. I was glad it didn't have a completely happy ending, it was quite a realistic series despite the sci-fi elements and this made it more so. I am interested to see how Extras fits in as the story closes quite nicely.

Rating : 4.0/5
Number of Pages : 417
Series : #4
Format : Teenage Fiction, Science Fiction
Reason for Reading : Scott Westerfeld Mini Challenge, to continue with the series

Aya lives in what must have once been Tokyo, Japan. Their city works on a system of face ranks. Everyone has their own feed and those that are the most popular have a higher face rank and are more recognised and watched. Aya's rank is 451,369 and she dreams of being in the top 1000 so she can be invited to the thousands ball. She is a kicker, someone who writes about stories and uncovers hidden things bringing them into the open. Her brother if one of the most famous kickers in the city and she has a lot to live up to.

She stumbles across a group of girls one night who ride the mag-lev trains which is illegal and very dangerous. If she can get enough information and footage on her flying camera Moggle she can kick the story and really increase her face rank. The question is, is she comfortable lying and betraying her new friends? She has also started hanging out with Frizz, someone with a much higher face rank than her who had surgery making him unable to lie. He wouldn't take kindly to her lying to others either.

An interesting addition to the main series. It's a completely new story in a new city, but it does link back to Tally and her experiences as she is the most famous person and has a face rank of 1 despite never having been seen. There is more scope to add books to the series which I hope happens.

October Summary

Check out the awesome set of cat nail polishes I got yesterday, each colour has a different kitty picture on it. How cool!

Not a bad month for reading although I read mostly manga and graphic novels. I am at that time of year when my reading is really lagging and I still have so many challenges I want to complete. I did finish the RIP IV, What's in a Name II and Scott Westerfeld Challenges this month though so I can cross some off. I am still very behind with reviews, now a whopping 18 which is the highest so far. I just seem to have so many things pulling me in different directions at the moment. I am going to the gym more and am really into playing Disgaea on the PSP which have both caused my reading slump. I really want to finish the 666 and Vampire Challenges this year as well as the ones with Mariel and Nymeth so I will be prioritising these.

Books Read = 17, Total = 159
Pages Read = 4,156, Total = 35,955

Manga Challenge : 6/6 plus 14 alternatives
Scott Westerfeld Mini Challenge : 3/3 COMPLETED
Arthurian Challenge II : 1/6 (read 6-8 books)
What's in a Name Challenge II : 6/6 COMPLETED
Challenge with Nymeth : 1/5
Challenge with Mariel : 0/5
Graphic Novel Challenge II : 15/18
Guardian Challenge : 42/50
Vampire Challenge : 1/2
666 Reading Challenge : 18/36
GLBT Challenge : 5/6
Sookie Stackhouse Challenge : 0/9
LJ Smith Challenge : 0/6
RIP Challenge : 4/4 COMPLETED

100 Mile Challenge : 35/100

RIP IV Challenge Wrap Up

The annual RIP Challenge is now nearly over and I am all completed. Carl posed a series of Perils and I went for the First option which was to read 4 books from the following topics : Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Dark Fantasy, Gothic, Horror and Supernatural. The challenge ran from 1/9/09 until 31/10/09. I decided to mix up the types of books I read so I choose an urban fantasy, a manga, a graphic novel and an audiobook.

The four books I read with links to their reviews were :

1. The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters

2. Homecoming - Patricia Briggs

3. The Rest Falls Away - Colleen Gleason

4. Bizenghast v6 - M Alice LeGrow


I also read a few other books during the two months and am still putting up my reviews :

• Good Omens - Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
• Claimed by Shadow - Karen Chance
• Embrace the Night - Karen Chance
• Kith - Holly Black & Ted Naifeh
• Season of Mists - Neil Gaiman
  

All of the reviews can be found at the dedicated reivew site here.

Bizenghast v6 - M Alice LeGrow

Rating : 3.5/5
Number of Pages : 192
Series : #6 Bizenghast
Format : Manga
Reason for Reading : RIP IV Challenge, to continue with the series

Dinah is back releasing the ghosts in the masouleum. She is nearly at the final levels now and has gotten further in the job than any other human for the last 40 years. She is due to meet the third guardian, Eniri, to recieve a special gift that will help her with the final vaults. When she goes with Edaniel and Edrear to see her she is gone. It also seems that the seed of the mausaleum is missing too. It looks like Eniri has taken it which doesn't make any sense.

The three discover another shocking secret and when Dinah returns to the world above she finds the inhabitants of Bizenghast seem to have all gone mad. They need to figure out the dark secret of the town and fast. Edrear is still stuggling with his feelings for Dinah and she is really blossoming into a confident young woman.

Another gothic slice of beautifulness. The artwork is stunning as always and I am really intrigued to see how the final installment wraps everything up. I feel that there are so many loose ends at the moment and am not sure if they will all end in the final novel. Depending on how Alice leaves it, there could be spin off stories or follow ups.

The Rest Falls Away - Colleen Gleason

Rating : 4.0/5
Number of Pages : 347
Series : #1 The Gardella Vampire Chronicles
Format : Urban Fantasy Novel
Reason for Reading : RIP IV Challenge

Meet Victoria Gardella, the latest in a long line of vampire hunters. In each generation a Gardella is born with the innate gifts allowing them to hunt and kill vampires. It is up to them is they accept the call. If they do they must first pass a test and kill a vampire. If they succeed they are given a piece of blessed jewellry, a vis bulla, that gives them extra strength, power and healing.

Set in Jane Austen times when girls have coming out debutant parties. Victoria has to balance her vampire staking duties with balls, picking out new gowns and falling in love. Some of the other vampire hunters (Venator's) believe that you can either be a Venator or settle down, marry and have children. Victoria particularly butts head with Max who is a Venator by choice rather than family calling. He lost family members to vampires and has devoted his life to killing them ever since. Victoria has other ideas though and her Aunt thinks the best thing is to let her take her own path.

Think Pride and Prejudice meets Buffy. The setting made it stand out from the many other vampire series out there although it does take a lot of inspiration from Buffy (I love Buffy though so that's not a bad thing!). There is a twist near the end which was not unexpected, but the final ending was. It ends on a sad note and I am glad that the story is not completely romanticised. It made it seem more realistic somehow.

Homecoming - Patricia Briggs

Rating : 3.5/5
Number of Pages : 112
Series : Prequel to Mercy Thompson Series
Format : Urban Fantasy Graphic Novel
Reason for Reading : RIP IV Challenge, I love the Mercy Thompson books

Let's take a step back into the world of Mercy Thompson. This graphic novel sets the scene for the rest of the novels as it is a prequel and tells of Mercy first coming to Washington. Mercy is a walker, a magical being who can shapeshift into a coyote. She travels to Washington for a job interview to work in a school. The interview doesn't turn out quite as planned and she somehow manages to get involved in a gang war between two rival packs of werewolves.

Her mother is also posing a problem as she thinks Mercy is ruining her life and she is determined to sort Mercy out once and for all. We see how she meets Zee, Stefan and Adam for the first time. We also see how she first begins working at the garage which Zee later sells to her. There is also an interview with Briggs at the end which was really interesting as well as some character sketches.

I liked the style after I got used to it. There was quite a lot of nudity which Briggs felt apprioriate for Mercy changing shape. I have put in a couple of pictures of the strips to give you an idea of the artwork. The story was interesting and I hope Briggs decides to do some more graphic novels to expand on the existing novels.

The Sandman v4 : Seasons of Mists - Neil Gaiman

Rating : 4.0/5
Number of Pages : 224
Series : #4 The Sandman
Format : Graphic Novel
Reason for Reading : Graphic Novel Challenge, to review with Darla D

This is the fourth installment in the massively successful Sandman series of graphic novels. After volume 3 which mostly consists of indivual short stories, this is more of a return to the main plot following Dream/Morpheus and his family of The Endless.

So this is my first buddy review. Me and Darla D both read this graphic novel around the same time and she asked if we could review it together. We thought up questions and both ansered them below. My answers are in purple, hers are in red.

What did you like about the graphic novel?
I liked the story, the main plot that linked the separate comics together. After the previous collection it was a nice to get back to the regular storyline.
I love the dark atmosphere of the stories, as well as the mythological elements. The main story features gods and goddesses from different pantheons (Egyptian, Norse, Japanese, Christian, etc.), all interacting together. It was fascinating and often funny to watch them scheme to get what they wanted, playing off each other's strengths and weaknesses.

What didn't you like about it?
I would have liked to have spent more time with the Endless, but I am sure they will pop up again in future collections.
I can't really think of anything I didn't like about it. My expectations are growing with each volume, as I find the books get better and better as they go along, and I was not disappointed.

There were a series of different artists who worked on the novel, did you have a favourite and least favourite?
To be honest I though that the artists all worked really well together keeping a consistent style throughout no matter who did the pencils, ink and colour. The covers by Dave McKean were stunning as always. One thing I did enjoy reading were the spoof blurbs about everyone involved in it's creation at the back of my edition.
One thing I have come to enjoy about these stories is that even though I like some of artists' depictions of the characters more than others, they all manage to convey the distinct feel of each character despite artistic and stylistic differences. The Sandman is always, clearly the Sandman, no matter who is drawing him. I think my favorite illustrator of this particular volume is Mike Dringenburg, but it is a close call. I really liked all of them, but I think Dringenburg's style is the most visually appealing to me.

There was more from the rest of the Endless, do you have a favourite and least favourite?
Well obviously I love Dream and Death. They are the two I have spent the most time with. I also find Delirium really interesting and hope to get to know her better in the future. There aren't any of the Endless that I dislike and I am curious to see who their other sibling is who was not present in this collection.
Death is still my favorite, although I enjoyed getting to know the others a little better. I'm intrigued by Delirium and hope we'll learn more about her in future volumes. Least favorite I suppose would be Desire because s/he is such a conniving troublemaker - but then her trouble-making is a lot of fun to read about!

What did you think of the ending?
I thought it ended well, the main storyline was closed with a happy resolution for me.
I liked the ending. I liked that many elements of the main story were set up in earlier volumes, and that things I'd been wondering about (such Dream's relationship with Nada). Several narrative arcs come to a close in this volume, and while some were bittersweet, the endings all felt right.

Lucifer has a spin off series, do you plan on reading any of them?
I am definitely interested although I think they have had mixed reviews. I loved his work decision and as always Lucifer is one of my favourite characters. There is just something interesting about him and versions where he is not the bad guy we are told he is.
I did not know about the spin-off series - but I imagine that once I'm finished with the Sandman books, I'll be interested to check out other stories from this fascinating world.

Which was your favorite story and why?
This collection really read like one cohesive story so I don't really want to separate out the different comics.
This collection has one main overarching story as its focus, and I liked that story a lot. But I did also enjoy the rather grim one set at a school, which was an interesting interlude. As far as each individual story in the collection goes, if I had to pick just one, it would be the opening one - Episode 0: "In which a family reunion occasions certain personal recriminations; assorted events are set in motion; and a relationship thought long done with proves to have much relevance today." I liked this one because it gives us a closer look at the Endless and it sets up all kind of intriguing questions. Plus I loved the artwork.

What do you think makes the Sandman stand apart from other graphic novels?
I think it really helped comics becomes more main stream. It was written at a time when it wasn't cool to read graphic novels. It's a very dark series which I really like, but I don't think I can read too many too close together as they would give me nightmares ironically enough!
I think there are many elements that make this graphic novel series stand apart. One thing is the way the tone and atmosphere are portrayed by the various artists very consistently across the volumes of the series. Another thing that I love about this series is all the allusions to mythology, religion. and literature. And, of course, the characters are fascinating and the plot is surprising, never predictable.

How do you think this fourth collection compares to the first three?
I think I liked it the most so far. I felt the story held together the best to date and I really look forward to seeing what Dream and his family have planned for the next one.
This series just gets better and better with each volume. The last volume was composed of one-off stories, which I enjoyed, but this one was a bit more gripping because it had a longer, more complex storyline that was intriguing and very satisfying.

Darla's post is up here.

Read-A-Thon : End of Hour 24

Currently Reading : Rises the Night - Colleen Gleason
Books Completed :
Pages Read : 1184
Time Spent Reading : 12 hrs 45 mins
Time Spent on Computer etc : 3 hour 45 mins
Time spent on cat related distractions : 2 hour 10 mins
Time Spent Sleeping : 5 hours 20 mins

End of Event Meme

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? - I went to bed from hours 14 - 18 and a bit as I was so tired and had a stomach upset.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? - I really enjoyed reading some more manga and the Gardella Vampire books were great. Fast paced and easy reads.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? - No it is great as it is.
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? - Having even more participants was great, it meant more people stopping by and cheering you on.
5. How many books did you read? - 5 in total, I just managed to hit my target although I do feel I got a lot less reading done this time around.
6. What were the names of the books you read?
Rises the Night - Colleen Gleason
The Rest Falls Away - Colleen Gleason
Bizenghast v6 - M Alice LeGrow
The Tarot Cafe v1 - Sang-Sun Park
Kingdom Hears v1 - Shiro Amano
7. Which book did you enjoy most? - A toss up between Rises the Night and The Tarot Cafe.
8. Which did you enjoy least? - I enjoyed them all but possibly Kingdom Hearts just because I knew the story from playing the computer game.
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? - N/A
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? -Yes I am sure I will be participating in more. I would like to be a reader again and hopefully run a mini challenge next time.

Read-A-Thon : End of Hour 23

Currently Reading : Rises the Night - Colleen Gleason
Books Completed : 4
Pages Read : 1137
Time Spent Reading : 12 hrs
Time Spent on Computer etc : 3 hour 35 mins
Time spent on cat related distractions : 2 hour 05 mins
Time Spent Sleeping : 5 hours 20 mins

Over the last 3 hours I have spent some time with the cats/kittens and done some laundry. I took a break from Rises the Night to read Kingdom Hearts v1, a manga based on the game of the same name. It made me really want to play the game again and I must finish Kingdom Hearts II and Chain of Memories so I can play the new one. Off to hopefully finish Rises the Night before the last hour ends.

Read-A-Thon : End of Hour 19

Currently Reading : Rises the Night - Colleen Gleason
Books Completed : 3
Pages Read : 820
Time Spent Reading : 9 hrs
Time Spent on Computer etc : 3 hour 05 mins
Time spent on cat related distractions : 1 hour 35 mins
Time Spent Sleeping : 5 hours 20 mins

I'm back as promised! I still have an upset tummy which is very annoying, but at least I am up and reading again. I have just fed the cats which should keep them distracted for a little while at least and my husband is still in bed sleeping (it's now just after 7am here now that the clocks have gone back). I wanted to finish 5 books ideally, but it looks like I may just have time for 4 now :(

Read-A-Thon : End of Hour 13

Currently Reading : Rises the Night - Colleen Gleason
Books Completed : 3
Pages Read : 801
Time Spent Reading : 8 hrs 40 mins
Time Spent on Computer etc : 2 hour 45 mins
Time spent on cat related distractions : 1 hour 35 mins

I finished another book and am back to reading Rises the Night. My husband came home from a day at the anime and manga expo in London with stories and a couple of awesome gifts for me which held up my reading. My tummy is still sort so I am going to go to bed. I am aiming to be up again in a few hours to continue reading and hopefully feeling better. Sorry guys, sleep beckons for now...

Mid-Event Survey:

1. What are you reading right now? - Rises the Night by Colleen Gleason
2. How many books have you read so far? - 3 compelted
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? - To finishing Rises the Night as I really enjoyed the first book in the series, The Rest Falls Away, that I read to kick off the read-a-thon.
4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? - Yes I sent my husand out of the hose for most of it!
5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? - Cat related and Alex getting home. I sent him to bed not too long after he got home! The cats are slightly more of a distraction, but they are so cute I don't mind one bit ^_^
6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?
7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? - No this year and the past 2 have been great.
8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? - Try not to get a tummy upset?
9. Are you getting tired yet? - Yes and am off to bed in a minute.
10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered? - I still think reading manga and graphic novels is great for breaking up longer novels and for when you start getting tired.