Lucas Blogs About Books

Remember Cowboys and Aliens ? No? Me neither.   So, what's this book's deal? I thought you'd never ask, Hypothetical Reader. The deal with Lake of Fire  is that it's a comic book written, colored, and lettered by Nathan Fairbairn and drawn by Matt Smith. The pithy synopsis is that it's crusaders vs. aliens. Perhaps a less pithy synopsis is in order. Yeah, okay, have you heard of the Albigensian Crusade ? You mean the twenty year campaign of extermination against the Cathars in the Languedoc region of France in the early 13th Century? Yes, that Albigensian Crusade. Lake of Fire  takes place in 1220, about halfway through. After a couple of pages showing a spaceship crashing, we cut to Theo and Hugh, two teenage boys who have set off to join the crusade before the campaigning season is over. However, when they arrive they discover that a family friend, Count Henry, has been dispatched to bring them home and has overtaken them on the road. Sensing an opportunity to get...

Oooh, the cherry trees are in bloom.   So, what's this book's deal? The deal with The Golden Age, Book 1  is that it's a comic book by Roxanne Moreil and Cyril Pedrosa (translated from French by Montana Kane). It's got sort of a historical fiction vibe with a few fantasy elements. It follows Princess Tilda who is about ascend the throne when her mother and the regent stage a coup to install her kid brother instead. With the help of Lord Tankred and her childhood friend Bertil, Tilda is able to make her escape but is wounded by an arrow while being chased through the woods. She and her companions are able to briefly take refuge in a commune of women hidden away in the forest. These women try to live in accordance with the egalitarian ideals of a rare book detailing a fabled— Golden age? No points for guessing. Anyway, these women also have another visitor, Frida, who is translating the book and smuggling the translation out to fuel a peasant uprising. After a disturbance...

I suppose I could make a joke about how manly this picture isn't, but that seems out of keeping with the spirit of a book about being true to yourself, traditional gender roles be damned. Hmm, is pointing that out a way of trying to have my cake and  eat it? ‾\_(ツ)_/‾ So, what's this book's dea—oh, wasn't this in your Unhelpfully Specific Holiday Gift Guide ? Yep! I gave it to my first cousin once removed. She's a precocious eight-year-old. You mentioned that. What did she think? Well, her mom said it was a hit, so I guess she liked it. [ UPDATE:  I just received a thank you note in which she claims to have read the book ~2,000 times. There isn't a date on the note, but even conservatively, that's more than 100 readings per day, I think we can safely say that this one was a hit. - 1/9/2020] So . . . what's it about? Well, Jen Wang's The Prince and Dressmaker  is a graphic novel (but let's be real, it's a comic book) set in Paris...

I usually make some silly joke here, but I am legit diggin' this cover design. Good on you, Jeffrey Alan Love. So, what's this book's deal? You ever wonder what it would be like if bigfoot were real? Wait, do you not believe in bigfoot? Well, I believe it's possible that there's some sort of unkown hominid species, but I am unconvinced by the specific evidence that has been offered of such a hominid existing in the Pacific Northwest. Anyway, Wild Life by Molly Gloss is an epistolary novel made up of diary entries and other writings, mostly by the novel's protagonist: Charlotte Bridger Drummond. Drummond writes speculative adventure novels while raising five boys in turn of the century Oregon. Wait, the turn of which century? The Nineteenth to the Twentieth, of course. Ok, boomer. Wow, that meme must be played out if it's appearing on this  blog. Anyway, Charlotte's husband disappeared a few years ago, when their youngest son, Jules (a...

Yes, in certain lighting conditions the title and author's name are difficult to read. So what's this book's de–Oh, hey! It's one of those mangaka you mentioned in our discussion of manga . So it is. And it's one of the manga that he's best known for in America. Anway, Shigeru Mizuki's Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths  is about a company in the Japanese Imperial Army in World War II and is based on Mizuki's own experiences as a soldier in the Pacific theater. This isn't one some kind of right-wing apologia  about the conduct of the Imperial Army in the period leading up to and including World War II? No, it is explicitly not that. In fact, it's pretty much just about one company in the army over the course of a few months. The manga itself is episodic with each chapter following a couple of members of the Baien Battalion as they go through the drudgery of daily life in the army. We see new recruits being beaten by their commanding office...

Illuminated throughout! Hold the phone! Are you reviewing a book for children? Ugh! Is this gonna be a whole thing, Hypothetical Reader? Aren't you in your thirties? Isn't this a legit children's book? Like for children too young to read YA? Well, the back cover does say "Ages 10 up" so I think I'm allowed to read it. Sorry, it's just, you know, with all these adults reading/watching/playing media marketed to children aren't we just dumbing down our culture and - You can just shove that concern-trolling nonsense up your ass. This blog is called "Lucas Blogs About Books." If I reads, it ledes. That's definitely not an expression, but o kay. So, what's this book's deal? The Inquisitor's Tale Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog  written by Adam Gidwitz and illuminated by Hatem Aly is the story of, well, three magical children and their holy dog. Gidwitz took inspiration from stories about medieval ...