Lucas Blogs About Books

Even in the New Year, I retain the same header image! The Intro Well, it's a new year and I'm starting it off (well, starting off the first entry in Whan That Month for the year) with a new to me tale. You may recall that we closed out Novembre with tales by the Squire and the Franklin. Then existing manuscripts break off, ending the fifth fragment. You know what that means, it's time to start in on the sixth, and it just jumps right in with— The Physician's Tale The Roman historian  Livy  tells (or, you know, Chaucer borrows from  Le Roman de la Rose ) the story of Virginius a wealthy, worthy, popular, and honorable knight, and his beautiful daughter, Virginia. After extolling Viriginia's beauty and chastity for a couple of pages, the Physician finally comes to the point of the matter. One day, when she's twelve and a half years old, Virginia walks through town, and catches the eye of Apius, a lecherous old judge who immediately comes up with a plan to abduct ...

There have been a lot of calls for a nondescript unity in recent days (particularly from members of a certain American political party that happens to be the party of a twice impeached outgoing president). And while I do think that unity is important, the thing that people unite around is equally important. And you might be wondering what this has to do with the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Junior? Well, in the US it's Martin Luther King Jr Day (at least for a few more hours) and his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" has a few passages that you might want to consider before calling for a nonspecific easing of tensions: "But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truth...

Don't graphic designers know that bloggers will be taking crummy, screen-glare-ridden pictures of these books? So, what's this book's deal? A Deadly Education  is the first entry in a new fantasy series called The Scholomance by Naomi Novik. Oh, she wrote that Spinning Silver  novel you blogged about a couple of years ago. That she did. You'll recall that I liked it. I do recall that. So is this another one of those fractured fairy tale type stories? No. This is more of a take-off on the magic school genre. You mean like a parody or pastiche? Hmm, maybe that's not quite accurate. The setting or characters are necessarily meant to invoke any pre-existing fantasy stories or series, but I also think that Novik is taking aim at some of the tropes of the magic school genre. But let's talk about the novel itself. We're introduced to our protagonist, Galadriel — yes, named for that Galadriel — or El, complaining about Orion Lake, the most popular boy in the Scholo...

  So, what's this book's dea—you've been reading a lot of comics lately, haven't you? Guilty. Lately it's been taking me forever to read regular books, but I've been ripping through comics pretty fast. Anyway, the deal with this one is that it's called The Daughters of Ys  and it was written by M.T. Anderson and drawn by Jo Rioux. It's based on a Breton folk tale. So like a fairy tale? Yeah. So less gruesome than say Head Lopper ? Hmm, it's still pretty gruesome. You know how fairy tales can be. Although I will admit that I first checked it out because I thought it might be a good Christmas gift for a young reader. Let's just say that the book was quick to disabuse me of this misapprehension. So not appropriate for kids? No. Oh, but let's actually talk about the book. Let's. So, it begins with King Gradlon adrift at sea after an unsuccessful attempt to quell a rebellion. He's rescued by Lady Malgven, a sorcerer's wife and almost c...

I mean, how could I not buy a comic called Head Lopper ?   So, what's this book's dea — Oh, this is that Head Lopper comic you mentioned two weeks ago . It is that. Specifically it's Head Lopper & The Island or A Plague of Beasts . It was written, drawn, and lettered by Andrew MacLean with colors by Mike Spicer, Andrew MacLean, Lin Visel, and Joseph Bergin III. How informative. Would you care to share anything else about it? Sure, it's a kind of swords and sorcery adventure comic about a wandering warrior by the name of— Let me guess: Head Lopper? No, Norgal, but everyone calls him the Head Lopper on account of his penchant for lopping heads off. Charming, so, just how much of a penchant for decapitation would you say that Norgal has? His sidekick is Agatha the Blue Witch's head. Fair enough. It begins with Norgal, recently summoned to the island of Barra in order to slay the Sorcerer of the Black Bog, who has plagued the island with beasts! Just like the title ...