REDEPMTION IN INDIGO by Karen Lord
Small Beer Press, 2010, 178 pages, 978-1-931520-66-9, Trade Paperback, $16.00

Genre: Fantasy

My latest review at BSCreivew is of  Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord. This book is unique, enjoyable, and quick to read. It’s also my first experience with “magical realism,” and I have to say–I think I’m hooked.

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KOBATO, vols. 1 & 2 by CLAMP
Yen Press, 2010, 163 pages, 978-0-316-08536-6, Paperback, $11.99
Yen Press, 2010, 160 pages, 978-0-316-08536-6, Paperback, $11.99

Genre: Manga/Shoujo

There’s somewhere that Kobato Hanato wants to go. Ioryogi-san, an aggressive and demanding dog that looks, conveniently, like a stuffed animal is willing to help her get her wish, but Kobato must follow his directions in order to earn it. She must fill a bottle to the brim with wounded hearts by helping those who have been emotionally hurt. However, Kobato finds this task more difficult than expected, particularly since her straightforwardness and frequent lack of sense sometimes scares people away. Still, she has a good heart and the best of intentions, so it’s inevitable that some things will go her way, even if she isn’t on the quickest path to success.

I stumbled upon Kobato by accident, to be honest. I’ve been so out of the manga loop–far too focused on trying to get one or two series finally finished–that I didn’t know there was a new CLAMP title out. Shame on me–despite it all, CLAMP is still one of my favorite manga groups, and I’d at least like to keep up with what they’re doing.

Style-wise, this manga is reminiscent of Cardcaptor Sakura. But don’t mistake Kobato for Sakura at all. Kobato, while sweet, has very little common sense and, at this juncture, is naive beyond measure. Much of Ioryogi-san’s grumbling and yelling is in direct response Kobato’s air headedness, yet he doesn’t abandon her, and he tries to steer her in the right direction. If anything, I’d like to know how the two of them came upon each other.

Reading the first volume, I wasn’t very clear on where the plot was going. As Kobato became involved with the kindergarten in volume two, however, it became more obvious. Whether or not she’ll remain with these same characters throughout the entirety of the story, I don’t know. If she wants to fill her bottle to the top, I can’t imagine that Sakaya and Fujimoto would provide sufficient wounded hearts. But how do I know? CLAMP always surprises me.

This manga is meant to be fun and silly–obviously a comedy. Parts of it become more serious–particularly as the story with Sakaya develops–but I’d say that, at this juncture, it’s certainly more lighthearted than, say, Wish—and Wish was pretty lighthearted at times. Still, there’s some intrigue going on. It seems that Ioryogi-san has a long time rival, Sakaya is in trouble with a loan shark who seems weirdly familiar with her, and Fujimoto has some deep-seated mistrust of other people. All of these things have yet to be explained, and seeing how Kobato’s influence will affect them should be interesting.

As with most CLAMP titles, part of the fun is seeing whether or not there will be any appearances by known characters. So far, it looks like Kobato will be living next door to Chitose Mihara, mother of Chiise and Chiho, characters which I’m sure most CLAMP fans will recognize. Will there be more? I suppose we’ll see.

Overall, Kobato was quick to read, pretty fun, and I’m curious about how it will play out. Since the specific place that Kobato wants to go remains a mystery, I’m interested in finding out exactly what a girl like her would wish for.

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GOOD OMENS by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Ace, 1996, 367 pages, 0-441-00325-7, Mass Market Paperback, $6.99

Genre: Fantasy/Comedy

Why so many mini-views, you ask? Because I’ve read a number of books in the last few months, but I haven’t had anything resembling enough time to write proper reviews about them. Not being able to write full reviews should not, however, mean that I don’t talk about them at all. And so…here we are.

As far as this particular book goes, well, I can finally, FINALLY (and happily!) say that I’ve read Good Omens. The only question you should be asking (because I’m certainly asking myself) is — what took you so long?

I purchased Good Omens back when it was first released in the States. It’s been sitting on my shelf for what…fourteen years? Yeah, that’s right–I’ve got the old school cover, too.

My god. I was a sophomore in high school back then. Er. . .let’s not talk about that.

Of course, since I’m a chronic book buyer, I ended up purchasing far more books after Good Omens, which caused it to get lost in the shuffle. Lately, though, I’ve been trying to dust off a few of my older, unread titles in order to give them some much-awaited attention.

Since this is a mini-view, I’m not going to go crazy with plot summaries and the like. Basically, I’m working off the assumption that everyone but me has already read this book (not true, but it ought to be).

Good Omens was fabulous in the way that only a couple of snarky British writers could make it fabulous. If you like this brand of humor (and why wouldn’t you?), you won’t be able to get through a chapter of this book without laughing so hard you cry. Honestly, I begin to wonder if the reason why I took so long to get through this novel was that I never wanted it to end. It always guaranteed hilarity, no matter what time of day.

Easily, my favorite bits of the book included Crowley and Aziraphale. Crowley is fantastically awful but not quite evil, if you know what I mean. Meanwhile, Aziraphale is an angel in a bookshop. I think from here on out I should start taking notes about angels in bookshops. Maybe set up a convention. So far the only two in attendance are Aziraphale and Lyda Morehouse’s Morningstar (who no doubt got his ticket through sheer force of personality—and probably for free).

There’s a lot about this book that you’ll enjoy, especially if you like clever humor. And ducks. Oh, I loved the ducks.

I tend to recommend it to people who’ve read and enjoyed The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The humor strikes me as similar, though the subject is different.

I think my only remaining question, after reading this book is, what happened with Hastur? I was sure he was going to come after Crowley again in the end. Either I missed it, or that wasn’t quite wrapped up.

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20TH CENUTRY BOYS by Naoki Urasawa
English Edition – Viz Media
Japanese Edition – Shogakukan

Genre: Manga/Science Fiction/Mystery

I doubt whether this can seriously be called a “review,” and as such I’ll be titling this sort of thing “Mini-View” in order to emphasize that it’s short, to the point, and doesn’t go particularly in depth about the story itself. But I’ll be happy to discuss anything further in the comments should anyone be curious about my take on things.

Today I finished reading 20th Century Boys and 21st Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa. I’m afraid I got tired of waiting around for the volume by volume releases, so I borrowed someone else’s translations. Frankly, I wanted to get to the point already. This is a wonderful series, but after a while, the complete lack of clues as to the identify of Friend gets absolutely maddening.

Of course, having already read the series isn’t going to stop me from buying all the volumes as they come out. But it was all I could do short of reading spoilers which, you know, I wouldn’t.

So, having gotten to the end of 20th Century Boys, all I really know is…Urasawa has a twisty turny mind. I have serious doubts as to whether I could create such a complex story. In fact I doubt that most people could and still have it come out coherently.

So, the two obvious questions:

Was it good?

Yes, it was quite good. Of course it was good. We are talking about Urasawa. His stories are epic. This one spans almost 20 years in 22 volumes (plus however many volumes are in 21st Century Boys, which functions as the conclusion of the series).

Did I like it better than Monster?

Actually, no. I still like Monster best. This has nothing to do with the quality of one story over the other. It’s just a personal preference.

You’re still my favorite, Johan!

So, here are a few things I’ve noticed about Urasawa stories based solely on Monster and 20th Century Boys (sadly, Pluto doesn’t really fall into this same pattern, but then Pluto isn’t solely an Urasawa work):

1 – Everything is about your childhood. If you turn out to be the most evil person on the planet, it’s because someone did something to you in your childhood that probably made you feel unwanted or unloved. And oh…you remember. You remember for a loooonnggg time. And you get your world takeover plans started early. If you don’t have it worked out by 6th grade, you’re slacking. In fact, you’re not even a proper Urasawa villain. Get out.

2 – Even if we start out with a male protagonist, there’s going to be a formidable female protagonist coming along anytime….

3 – Regular old bad guys can be turned into good guys. They’re not really bad if they don’t have Questionable Childhood Memories.

4 – Ordinary dark-haired protagonists get a power-up halfway through the story and become UBER.

And that’s about the gist of it.

Well, no, not really. That would be giving 20th Century Boys WAY too little credit. So much happens in this story that it’s near impossible to summarize in a reasonable length. It, along with Monster, would make great fodder for some kind of analysis paper. If only I felt like writing one….

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