15 Jan, 2019
Translation
One-Punch Man Volume Two collects Punches (issues) 9 through 15 (plus some bonus material) of ONE and Yusuke Murata’s ongoing manga.
Determined to deal with an annoying campaign of harassment, nigh-indestructible powerhouse Saitama and his earnest cyborg acolyte Genos set out to confront the mysterious House of Evolution.
13 Jan, 2019
Because My Tears Are Delicious To You
1970’s World’s Fair 1992 is the second in Robert Silverberg’s Regan series.
Would-be xenologist Bill Hasting’s essay on the possibility of life on distant Pluto was far-out stuff, but intriguing enough to win the teen a year’s stay on the 1992 World’s Fair Satellite. It’s not a vacation: he will have to work. Still, he’s enjoying a trip that others must pay $$$ to experience.
Life on the station is less exotic than one might expect.
11 Jan, 2019
Doing What the WFC Cannot Do
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2018’s Temper is a standalone secondary world fantasy novel by Nicky Drayden.
A few pitiful singletons aside, every person has their twin. When one of the pair has a virtue, their twin will have the corresponding vice. There are seven virtues and seven vices; hence it is inevitable that one of the pair will have more virtues, one will have more vices.
Auben is remarkably vice-ridden; he has six of the possible seven vices. His twin Kasim has six virtues. Not that this bothers Auben; he enjoys his vices and is certain that he is smart enough to avoid their consequences.
Then Auben engages with Icy Blue.
10 Jan, 2019
Big Hair, Big Guns!
1987’s Voice of the Whirlwind is the second volume in Walter Jon Williams’ Hardwired series. It can be read as a standalone novel1.
Etienne Steward wakes to discover that he is a clone, the Beta, of the man with whose memories he was imbued. More revelations follow, none good:
9 Jan, 2019
Translation
Adachitoka’s Noragami Volume 9 collects issues 32 to 35 of the adventures of the stray god Yato. The manga was first published in 2013; the English translation was published in 2015. Included in the volume are
32. “She Who Invites” (誘な女 “Izanami”)
33. “Wielder of an Iron Will” (イシ椎い持ち “Ishi Tsutsui Mochi”)
34. “Such Were Their Desires” (斯く在りし望み “Kaku Arishi Nozomi”)
35. “Death” (死 “Shi”)
Things are not going well for Yato and his former shinki Nora. In fact, the two find themselves in hell.
8 Jan, 2019
Miscellaneous Reviews
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Malka Older, Fran Wilde, Jacqueline Koyanagi, and Curtis C. Chen’s 2018 Ninth Step Station is an anthology of serial shared-world cyberpunk fiction. It is published by Serial Box, who (to quote their site):
Serial Box is a publishing company and mobile app that produces and delivers team-written serialized fiction. We blend story production and distribution practices from television, book publishing and narrative podcasting to create professionally crafted serials that fit your life.
Following earthquake and Chinese invasion, Tokyo is divided between Chinese occupation forces, American forces, and of course the Japanese themselves. Crime is still a fact of life. It is up to Tokyo Metropolitan Police officers like Miyako Korida to deal with it. Because there is no job that cannot be made more complicated, Miyako has the privilege of partnering with Peacekeeper Lieutenant Emma Higashi of the US Navy.
6 Jan, 2019
Because My Tears Are Delicious To You
Although 1951’s The Day of the Triffids was not John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris’ first novel, it was the first that he published under the name John Wyndham. It established him as the master of the Cozy Catastrophe.
His eyes bandaged thanks to an injury, Bill Masen cannot see the wondrous meteor shower that lights up Earth’s sky. As a consequence, he is spared the side-effect that manifests the following day: total blindness. As most of the human population had ooh’d and ah’d at the sight, most of them are blind.
It gets worse.
5 Jan, 2019
Miscellaneous Reviews
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2018’s Hidden Sun is the first volume in Jaine Fenn’s Shadowlands series.
Disfigured in a mishap, aristocratic shadowkin Rhia disregards convention and indulges her scholarly interests.
Dej is also unconventional, but she’s not as lucky. She’s a skykin and so a lesser being in the eyes of the shadowkin who run the creche that raised her. Rhia can flout rules; Dej cannot. She is punished for disobedience and eventually sent back to her people, the skykins, who lead hard lives under the bright sun of the skylands.
Who would expect that these two women, of such different backgrounds and tastes, would ever meet?
4 Jan, 2019
Doing What the WFC Cannot Do
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N. K. Jemisin’s 2018 How Long ’til Black Future Month? is a collection of short stories. It is her first collection of stories. Nota bene: it’s only been out for a month, but that still makes it a 2018 publication and thus eligible for a 2019 Hugo. Just saying.
2 Jan, 2019
Translation
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Yeon Sang-Ho’s 2018 Psychokinesis is a superhero movie. It stars Ryu Seung-ryong, Shim Eun-kyung, Park Jung-min, Kim Min-jae and Jung Yu-mi.
Shin Seok-heon (Ryu Seung-ryong) is a bank security guard. He’s content to waste his life filching supplies from the bank and drinking himself into a stupor every night.
Then:
His estranged daughter Shin Roo-mi (Shim Eun-kyung) contacts Seok-heon with the news that his ex-wife is dead, killed in an altercation with thugs.
A sip of meteor-tainted water imbues Seok-heon with psychic powers.