Starcraft (Reread)

Lol!!!  So apparently I read Simon Furman's Starcraft graphic novel years ago, but didn't remember it at all!  The only reason I discovered it was a reread is because I marked it off on Goodreads!

This story follows a band of mercenaries who were sent to do the Terran Dominion's dirty work.  They're betrayed and scatter.  But two years later, they're given the chance to clear their names if they do one more job: kill the mercenary leader Jim Raynor.

The beginning of the comic is really hard to follow, especially when you're trying to figure out who all the characters are (I got hung up for a long time on trying to figure out if someone was left for dead but survived and came back, or if it was another character coming after them). I also had no real connection to any of the characters and didn't really care what was happening.  But by about halfway through, I started to put the pieces together a bit better and found myself caring about what happened to them.

Of course, the story was greatly boosted by Jim Raynor appearing.  He's such a great character and really added the touch that was missing, particularly for Cole Hickson's backstory (that they knew each other from before, and that Hickson helped Raynor get through an ordeal at a POW camp they were both in).

Unfortunately the series was cancelled before the second arc was finished, so I don't get to read more about these characters. :(

Halo: The Fall of Reach

Geeze, The Fall of Reach is one of those books I've been meaning to read for a very long time (not that it is the only one...).  I think I meant to read it back around when Halo: Reach came out...seven years ago.  Better late than never, right?

The Fall of Reach tells the story of how the Spartans were chosen and trained for battle against the Covenant.  It shows how John-117 becomes the leader of all the Spartans, and how tightly knit the unit as a whole is.  It also jumps ahead and tells the story (or more accurately a story) of how Reach falls to the Covenant.  Unfortunately, when Reach falls, so do the majority of the Spartans (and the majority of humanity...)  

You have to pay close attention to the dates at the beginning of each chapter (particularly in the beginning half) because the book jumps forward in time a bit quickly.  This doesn't happen so much later on.  I did get a bit confused though when the book totally skips the prologue battle later in the book (I have no idea what that was even part of).

The book also suffers from a lack of editing.  It's not horrible, but there were moments where this knocks you out of the story (like at the beginning of Chapter 35, when Kelly shouts something to the Master Chief, even though she's not actually present - I think it was supposed to be Linda). 

I found The Fall of Reach to be a bit of a difficult read.  At times I loved it and didn't want to put it down.  But at other times I found it so boring.  And there never seemed to be a rhyme or reason for what was boring and what wasn't.  (Like sometimes I thought the space battles with Keyes were great, but at other times I wanted them to be over to get back to what was happening with the Spartans; other times it would be the exact opposite).  I liked in the earlier training bits, where the book showed how John learned teamwork and made friends.  But then we don't really get to see his friendships evolve at all - the other Spartans are just there following his orders.  I loved the scene where Cortana gets to link with him, but unfortunately that only happened the once.

That's something I also need to talk about - this story varies quite a bit from the one we're given in Halo: Reach. In the game, the Covenant infiltrate the planet sneakily and then start invading.  In the book, the Covenant show up with an armada for a full-scale invasion with the intent to glass the planet.  Cortana is already on the Pillar of Autumn at the beginning of the battle in the book, so there's no desperate attempt to get her to the ship like in the game.  And all the Spartans actually know one another in the book (unlike in the game where they don't seem to know you, the rookie to their squad).

Oh, I was also very sad to see that a lot of the cool lines from Halo 3 originate in this book....and are a lot lamer here.  And while I'm on the Halo 3 subject, it made me sad that like EVERYONE knew how lucky John-117 was (it wasn't just a Cortana thing, as she makes it sound like at the beginning of that game). 

Having said all of this, I am glad I finally read The Fall of Reach.  It just ended up a lot different from what I expected.

Four More Short Stories

Today was a nice and lazy day which I spent reading more short stories on my Kindle. This time I read "Paladins of Shannara: the Weapon Master's Choice," "Fable: Theresa," and "The Keeper: a Short Story Prequel to Forbidden." The first two were stories I had been saving for some reason...(I think in the case of "Fable: Theresa," I was planning on playing through the original Fable game before reading it, but never did finish it). Like with After Life, I have no memory of "The Keeper" but that's ok, I read it anyway.

"The Weapon Master's Choice" was obviously a story about Garet Jax. A lady seeks him out, asking for his help saving her people from a warlock. The warlock is a dracul, draining the souls from her people. Jax agrees to help, and finds himself unexpectedly falling in love with the lady. It was an enjoyable story from one of my favourite authors.

I think "Fable: Theresa" was my favourite story of the three. The blind seer arrives in a town to find a young girl who is being overwhelmed by her dreams. Theresa knows the girl hasn't much time left. So she sets off on a quest to save the girl, seeking out the only person who may be able to help: the warlock named Raven. She needs the help of a Hero to get her there. Since time is short, the only one around is Elijah Stane, a washed up old Hero who is drinking his days away. He failed his last charge and so is reluctant to help anyone else, but reluctantly agrees to help the blind seer (because she is determined to go on her quest with or without his help). Theresa knows that they seek a miracle, and that even if such a thing exists, it will come with a price; will she be willing to pay it? I loved this story, but then again I'm a fan of Peter David's Fable stories so this wasn't at all surprising.

Of these three stories, "The Keeper" was my least favourite. But it is, as advertised, a prequel story. But more importantly, it's a prequel story to Forbidden, which I know nothing at all about. Two hermit brothers are approached by an unfamiliar man. He tells them that they and the world are dead, but that he can help them live again. I think he meant that they were emotionally dead, but it wasn't super clear until the end. This was by no means a favourite but it was interesting enough. Unfortunately it didn't make me want to keep reading the series right now.

Oh yeah, and yesterday I also read "The Boy With the Silver Eyes" by Bruce Coville. That takes place in his Unicorn universe. A Hunter makes his son eat the flesh of the Unicorn he had killed, which changes his son forever. The son's heart is restless and seeks some unknown thing. So he journeys out, finding the songs of Earth, Fire, Water, and Air in the hopes of finally putting his heart at ease.

Halo: Blood Line

I don't have a whole lot to say about Halo: Blood Line.  I've had this graphic novel for several years now (I think I got it around the same time I got Helljumper and Uprising).  Blood Line is the story about Spartan Team Black, a team of Spartan-IIs I've never heard of before. They're sent on a covert operation to kill some Covenant when their ship crash lands on a moon.  At the same time, a Covenant ship also crash lands.  Both sides are attacked by an unknown enemy, which captures members of both teams.  So the survivors (both Covenant and Human) band together to rescue their comrades.

Blood Line is also the story of family.  Team Black has become its own family through its history of growing up together and working together.  On the other side, a pair of Elites are brothers.  The strongest one, Ship Master Thon, has always looked after and protected his much weaker brother, Reff.  Blood Line is about what both kinds of families will do for each other (and also what family means in both contexts).

Finally, Blood Line is the story of how Iona, the AI of UNSC ship Long Time Coming ended up part of Spartan Team Black.

It's a little hard to follow all of the action, but overall Halo: Blood Line is an excellent read.

Fable: Edge of the World

Disclaimer one: before I say anything else, the ending of this book made me mad. It was the same anger I felt when I read Firelight; I had no idea this book would end on a "To be continued" kind of note (but I had my suspicions when there were only twenty or so pages left and no ending in sight). To make things worse, I have no idea if book 2 will continue the story (or even who book 2 will be written by) or if I'm just supposed to play Fable: the Journey to see what happens (which I can't because I don't have a kinect). So the ending made me angry, which is a shame because I was really enjoying the book.

Disclaimer number two: reading Fable: Edge of the World was a bit difficult becgause when I play the Fable games I'm usually a woman. So it took a bit to get used to everyone referring to the king and his father, rather than the queen and her mother.

Ok, with that over with, I'm going to talk about the story with some big spoilers. You have been warned.

Fable: Edge of the World is a story within a story. There's a framing narrative about some dwellers, one of whom is fascinated by the Heroes. He gets into trouble for telling the children tales of Heroes because none of them will ever be Heroes. This is the whole 'prequel to Gable: the Journey" part of the book, which I didn't care about and found largely boring.

The main story involves the king of Albion, the Hero you played in Fable 3, keeping in mind that this is just a version of Fable 3 they chose to write about. When you or I play the game, our Hero could be very, very different from this one. I really wish they put in the disclaimer about that that was in Fable: the Balverine Order. Anyway, the king is marrying his true love Laylah, a girl from Aurora, when he receives some troubling news: the darkness from Fable 3 has returned, plaguing the land of Samarkand. Gathering an army, the king goes to stop this threat, leaving the kingdom in the hands of his new bride. He takes with him a few notable Fable 2 characters like Ben Finn and the priestess Kalin, leaving Page to help his queen. The king's journey is a hard one, being plagued by hollow men, balverines, sand furies and worse at every turn. But he fights his way to Samarkand's capital, gaining new allies along the way, chief among them are the sand dragon Percy, who is in reality some magic thing that serves Heroes, and Garth, the Hero of Will from Fable 2. The king uses his allies and army as a distraction, hoping to secretly enter the city and capture the Empress. But things do not go as planned; the king finds himself captured.

Meanwhile, back in Albion, Laylah finds herself clashing with her husband's head of security, Jack Timmins. She finds solace in the friendship of Page until Reaver appears and weasels his way into her inner circle. He tricks Laylah into believing both Page and Timmins have betrayed her. Once the two have fled Bowerstone to escape imprisonment (and in Timmins' case execution), Reaver in actuality betrays her. Forcing her to betray both her people and the location of her husband's Sanctuary, she desperately sends word to Page through her husband's dog of what has happened and how she is sorry for doubting the former rebel.

The last time I read a book that split the action with political intrigue was Jon Sprunk's Shadow's Lure; I didn't like the political stuff there and was worried I wouldn't like it here as a result. Luckily that wasn't the case; Christie Golden wrote both plots so well that I constantly wanted to know what was happening in both of them. There were even some points where I was more interested in Laylah's tale than the king's! I love reading books by Christie Golden and Fable: Edge of the World was no exception. I just hope this story will be continued by her and soon!

Halo: Uprising

I really haven't had a lot of luck with the Halo graphic novels so far.  This is the third one that I've read so far.  And out of the three, I only really liked one of them; that one wasn't this one. 

Halo: Uprising is supposed to fill in the gap of what happens to the Master Chief in between Halo 2 and 3.  So going into this I was already a bit skeptical; I didn't think anything of note happened in that time.  As far as I was concerned, he jumped onto the Forerunner vessel at the end of 2, then jumped off it when he got to Earth.  But I like Brian Michael Bendis, so I was willing to give this a shot.

Unfortunately, I found it really hard to follow the story.  A lot of that was due to layout and art; sometimes it was a full page spread, but I had no warning of when that would happen so I'd get confused as I read down the page.  The art was also really busy and I often had a hard time following it, particularly when the Chief was killing Covenant, which happened in almost every picture with the Chief in it.

So the Master Chief was doing his thing on the Forerunner ship: killing Covenant, almost getting killed by Covenant, you know, the usual.  And then the story started following some guy on Earth.  A UNSC special forces soldier was captured by the Covenant and tells them about the Key of Osanalan, which is supposed to be located in Cleveland.  So the Covenant attack there, tearing the city apart for this mysterious Key.  In the middle of all that, the story starts to follow a hotel concierge named Ruwan, who is the only one who knows anything about the Key.

The story of Ruwan seemed interesting, but it was hard to follow what was going on (see my above comments about the art and layout).  I also didn't understand what the Master Chief was actually doing through most of the story, other than killing Covenant.  At the beginning he was fighting to stay alive; that much made sense.  It was the later stuff that kind of lost me. 

One thing that I really enjoyed in this graphic novel were the interviews at the end.  There were three: one with writer Brian Michael Bendis, one with the artist Alex Maleev, and one with Brian Jarrard (Bungie Studios) and Frank O'Connor (Microsoft).  All three were really interesting reads and definitely worth checking out if you are either a comic or Halo fan (or both!)

Short Story: Jack of Blades

I found "Jack of Blades" at the same time as "Reaver" (as well as "Theresa," which I have not yet read).  I honestly don't know anything about Jack of Blades; I'm guessing he's from the first game which I haven't played yet (but I'm going to first chance I get!)  Like "Reaver," "Jack of Blades" was a lot of fun.

I apologize, but I'm going to be giving some spoilers for this one. If you haven't read the story, go read it right now.  It's awesome!

"Jack of Blades" is about a guy named Xiro who wanders into a town taken over by Jack of Blades.  Xiro is told he cannot leave because Jack doesn't want his whereabouts being revealed to the outside world.  He then proceeds to accidentally kill two if Xiro's ten men (although the accident part is debatable.  There was a line to the effect of "his hand no longer shook" which led me to believe Xiro may have just been pretending to be unskilled).  In the wake of this, the villagers believe Xiro is a hero but he fervently denies it, claiming to be a no one.

Regardless of who Xiro is, his killings inevitably attract the attention of Jack.  Xiro kills two more of Jack's men in an "accidental" fire (I wasn't really buying the accident part) and is then brought to Jack's mansion where he is supposed to provide sport by fighting (or as they believe, dying to) a balverine.  After some incredibly bizarre stuff, Xiro manages to kill all of Jack's remaining men and reveals that "Jack" is an imposter   He listens to "Jack's" reasoning and then kills him as well.  The story never says exactly who Xiro is, but I thought it heavily implied that Xiro was the real Jack of Blades.

As I said, I don't know much about Jack of Blades, so I'm going to go play Fable 1 before looking into his character (having played 2 and 3, I'm pretty sure he must be from the first game).  But regardless, I really enjoyed reading this story!

As a side note, I'm not going to read "Theresa" until I've played through the first game.  I know she's originally from the first game so I want to play that before reading her tale.

Short Story: Reaver

I'm not going to lie.  I love Reaver.  So when I found a short story dedicated to him, I had to read it.

"Reaver" was a lot of fun (which I expected because it is about Reaver the character).  This is the story of how Reaver defeated Captain Dread, the self-styled pirate king.  In his witty and overconfident way, Reaver manages to undermine Dread's credibility before single-handedly taking on Dread and his crew!  The story can be a bit gruesome at times (there are some rather gory details) but it's a lot of fun!  Definitely worth the read, especially if you're a Fable fan.

Fable: Blood Ties

I recently went to Chapters with the express purpose of buying the Cowboys and Aliens graphic novel. I had a gift card left over from Christmas, and after really enjoying that book I decided I wanted to add it to my collection. Unfortunately, when I got to Chapters I discovered that they had their "buy 3 get the 4th book free" deal on. And as I started browsing, it became obvious there were four pocket books I'd like to get with that deal. So Cowboys and Aliens went back onto the shelf for another day, and instead I bought four books I've never read. Fable: Blood Ties was one of those four books.

After enjoying Fable: The Balverine Order, which was also by Peter David, finding Blood Ties was extremely exciting. I had no idea a new Fable book had been written. And unlike The Balverine Order, which was about some new characters, Blood Ties featured a couple of characters right out of Fable 3 (from the back of the book: Ben Finn and Page; while not mentioned on the back, Reaver is also in it). Finn is one of my favourite characters from Fable 3 (my most favourite is Reaver; he's so funny to listen to!) so naturally I was excited to read a book completely about his adventures after the game.

Blood Ties is a rather strange tale. Finn decides to leave Bowerstone and asks Page to accompany him; she refuses. So off Finn goes looking for adventure. He almost gets himself killed but is saved by a gnome (they appeared in the game and hurl insults at passerby's). After vowing he will not kill the gnome, the gnome decides to follow Finn around, insulting him and just generally making life miserable. Finn finds his way, gnome in tow, to a town that's under siege from a warlord. Unfortunately the warlord is the least of the town's troubles when

beast men show up. After this alarming discovery, Finn tracks the beasts down to their source and makes a virtual deal with Albion's entrepreneur devil Reaver. Blood Ties is told completely from Finn's perspective, which was quite a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, despite the great premise and my excitement over the characters, Blood Ties was a pretty slow read, particularly during the first half of the book. I don't know why, but I found myself not really caring about most of what was going on. It was honestly only when Reaver appeared to up the stakes that things picked up, but I still had a hard time wanting to sit down and read. In that regard I was rather disappointed; I loved reading The Balverine Order (well except for the premise - that needed a bit of tweaking in my opinion) and was expecting a similar reading experience from Blood Ties. Don't get me wrong, the story of Blood Ties was good and I'm quite glad to have read it. But it wasn't nearly as good at The Balverine Order was.

As a side note, the weapon code of The Balverine Order is a better draw than Blood Ties' dye pack. I don't know if I'll even bother redeeming the dye pack because I really don't care. My draw for buying Blood Ties was completely based off my expectations of Peter David's work.

Halo: Helljumper

I was hoping to learn a bit more about the Rookie from ODST for a blogging project I'm planning. So I decided I'd read Halo: Helljumper in the hopes that I would. Unfortunately Helljumper isn't about the Rookie at all. It's about Dutch and Romeo, two of the other Helljumpers from your squad in ODST.

Romeo and Dutch are best friends. But Dutch's girlfriend, who is also an ODST, was injured and is stuck planet-side. She wants Dutch to take a different position so they can be together. Unfortunately, Dutch doesn't tell Romeo about this (or about his decision) until they are fighting for their lives.

I also have to add, my favourite part of the graphic novel was when a pair of jackals was trying to figure out what was being said on a Helljumper's comm. They don't realize that "blow" means more than just "a strong breeze."

Overall, while I've never really liked Romeo (moreso from the game. He was okay here), I thought this was a great story that doesn't take long to read. It gave a little more background to the game and was just plain fun.

Starcraft

For some reason this graphic novel doesn't have a subtitle of some sort. But after a quick search online I was able to confirm that it IS book 1, which means that the comic series is still ongoing.

The Starcraft graphic novel tells the story of the War Pigs, a band of mercenaries who are reassembled on orders to hunt down and kill Jim Raynor. All of the War Pigs are criminals who were not resocialized, but allowed to retain their independence as a sort of experiment. Unfortunately, along with their independence comes their memories in graphic and sometimes debilitating detail. I found it a bit hard to follow at times (especially when people would start talking about other people who I don't think were mentioned yet but I might have just missed it), but overall it was a good story. I can't wait for the next volume, which will be able to jump into the story without the introductions that were necessary in this one (the War Pigs are, afterall, new characters for the Starcraft universe).

Fable: The Balverine Order

Fable: The Balverine Order was my first non-school book since the summer. I found it at work, but decided to buy it because it comes with a code for a free weapon in Fable 3. As I told a friend, I was hoping the weapon would be awesome (because I've been so busy with school, I still haven't actually redeemed the code so I don't know). As far as I was concerned, the book itself might be an added bonus if it was good.

I was a bit doubtful on that score. The very premise made me laugh. Two guys go off on a search for the rare and illusive balverine. This sounds like a great premise - except that within the Fable games that I have played, when you hit a certain level you can't go about 10 feet within the game without tripping over balverines (I exaggerate - the actual number is probably closer to 50-100 feet). So everytime someone in the book talked about the "rare" balverine, I thought it was really funny.

But hilarity aside, The Balverine Order was really good. This is the story of Thomas and his servant/friend James. Thomas is haunted by the past - when he was younger, his brother was killed by a balverine (which is kind of like a werewolf, but specific to the Fable universe) and he was the only one who saw it; everyone thinks this story is the imagination of a young boy because balverines aren't real (they say it must have been a big wolf that killed Thomas' brother). After years of being called a fool, Thomas' mother's death serves as the catalyst that sends Thomas off on a quest to prove to himself that what he saw was real. He is accompanied by James, his only real friend in the world. Together, they travel through Albion and beyond on their hunt for the illusive creatures.

This was the first book that I'd ever read by Peter David. Before buying it, I did a bit of research and he seemed to come highly recommended. And after finishing The Balverine Order, I am inclined to agree with the recommendations. It's a quick read, but it's filled with excellent characters and grand adventure; I really enjoyed it.

The Dark Templar Saga: Twilight

Today I started and finished the final book in Christie Golden's The Dark Templar Saga. And what a book it was! Like Shadow Hunters before it, Twilight ends right where the story left off. Zamara and R.M. Dahl managed to get the warp gate on Aiur functional, and everyone who could tried to run through to Shakuras. Unfortunately, R.M. and the other refugees discover the Protoss on Shakuras realized the Aiur gate was open; in an attempt to stop the Zerg from following the refugees through, they redirected the gate to an unknown destination - and Jake and Zamara are the ones who got redirected.

To make matters worse, Zamara being in Jake's mind and sharing memories with him is killing him. And so they were on their way to Shakuras for help from the Dark Templar. Closed off from the very help they needed, they go in search of Zeratul, hoping the Prelate can aid them. But the Protoss they find is very different from the one Zamara remembers.

As usual, Christie Golden did a fantastic job bringing this story to life. I enjoyed every minute of reading it (especially when Zeratul was brought in; I have always liked his character). But more than that, The Dark Templar Saga will provide an excellent bridge between the two games. Fans of the first one are given more information dealing with certain "cliffhangers" brought up in Brood War. This whole series was an excellent read and I'm really glad I didn't wait for it a second longer!

The Dark Templar Saga: Shadow Hunters

A few minutes ago, I finished book 2 of Christie Golden's The Dark Templar Saga. Shadow Hunters picks up where Firstborn left off, but this time pretty much everyone has found out about Jacob Ramsey and the Protoss in his head. Kerrigan sends her forces, who mistakenly capture the wrong guy. The Heir to the Terran Dominion continues to pursue, sending his personal ghost into the fray. And Ulrezaj, an archon made up of seven dark templar is also after Zamara. Jacob and R.M. Dahl are hard pressed to stay ahead of everyone.

Following Zamara's directions, the pair makes their way to Aiur, where they discover the few remaining Protoss have been split into two opposing camps. While they are able to befriend the Shel'na Kryhas (Those Who Endure), the Tal'darim (the Forged) are bitterly opposed to the Shel'na Kryhas. And unfortunately, the Tal'darim are right where Zamara, Jacob and R.M. need to go.

Shadow Hunters was just as good as Firstborn. Like the first book, I didn't want to put it down. Unfortunately that wasn't possible, so it took me a bit longer than planned to read. But that doesn't matter. I can't wait to see how everything plays out in Twilight, and I can't wait to see what Zamara's been hiding.

The Dark Templar Saga: Firstborn

Firstborn came out a few years ago. As the first book of a trilogy, I wanted to wait until the final book came out before getting it. Unfortunately, the third book ended up delayed for a few years and by the time it came out the first two weren't readily available. I then decided to wait until all of the trilogy was published in an anthology like The Starcraft Archive, which collected the first three published novels as well as one story which was only released as an e-book. All of that changed when I went to Duluth and found them in Barnes and Nobel. I ended up buying both Firstborn and Shadow Hunters (Book 2) there, and I came home and picked up a copy of Twilight (Book 3) here (the only copy of Twilight that they had was in really rough shape).

Firstborn begins the story of the archeologist Jake Ramsey. He is given the chance of a lifetime when he is hired to excavate an abandoned temple. Inside he discovers the body of a Protoss and becomes bound to her spirit, a Preserver who brings with her the memories from the entire Protoss race. Jake is left trying to sort through these memories while hanging onto his own Terran identity. On top of all of this, the benefactor who hired him wants the extraordinary contents of Jake's modified brain and is hunting him down. Jake's only hope lies with both Zamara, the Protoss he has merged with, and R.M. Dahl, the very woman who betrayed him after he merged with Zamara and was then betrayed herself.

When I first saw that the entire trilogy was by Christie Golden, I was incredibly excited. Several years ago I read her Ravenloft book Vampire of the Mists and loved it. And even though I waited a long time to get my hands on the Dark Templar Saga, the wait was worth it! I love Christie Golden's characters, especially Jake Ramsey and Zamara. The story is great so far, with action and betrayal everywhere you turn. And Christie Golden even managed to make the events from Shadow of the Xel'Naga, a book I hated because it felt like it was written by people who had no idea of how the Brood War worked, seem more plausible. I can honestly say I devoured Firstborn (I read about 300 of its approximately 350 pages today) and loved every minute of it. I can't wait to see what happens in Shadow Hunters tomorrow!!!!

Library Book: Starcraft: Ghost Academy Volume 1

When I first found this book at the library, I was originally skeptical. A few years back, I read a Blizzard manga series (the Warcraft Sunwell Trilogy) and absolutely hated it. But when I saw that Keith DeCandido was the author, I knew I had to give this book a read. Keith DeCandido wrote Starcraft Ghost: Nova, which is a book I really enjoyed a few years ago.

And Starcraft: Ghost Academy Volume 1 did not disappoint! This manga details what happened to Nova when she was training to be a ghost. In the original book, Nova, this was a part of her back story that was missing. According to the Starcraft Wiki, this is the first of three books, although there is the possibility of more, and they will be followed by another novel.

Following a new training protocol, all of the ghost trainees are assigned to a team, which will build their social skills and allow them to work better with non-ghosts in the field. Nova's team is initially one person short, but later assigned the son of the finance minister, Aal Cistler. Cistler isn't a telepath, but he's able to get into the Ghost Academy because of his father's influence. Unfortunately, he doesn't really understand what he's gotten himself into. Meanwhile, Nova has to learn that even though she is incredibly powerful (she has a psi index of 10), she still has to learn to work as part of a team.

Keith DeCandido did a great job, and I'm really glad I picked it up! I can't wait for the next two, and now I'm tempted to try reading the Starcraft: Frontline series!

Shadowmoor

It's taken me awhile (I read the first story back in March), but today I finally finished the Magic:the Gathering Shadowmoor Anthology! And I have to say I really liked it! Right off the bat I was enchanted with the land of Shadowmoor, from the treefolk and giants to the merrows and elves. I liked that there were no humans present. It, and Lorwyn (the sunny, happier Shadowmoor), reminded me of a fairy tale land and I liked that. But if Lorwyn is the happier side of the coin, Shadowmoor is the dark, Brother's Grimm fairy tales. Almost all of the tales in this anthology are darker, and many have twists that end in death, destruction and suffering.

There were nine stories in total, most by authors I am unfamiliar with (unless they wrote stories in some of the other Magic anthologies I have read). Out of the nine stories, I really enjoyed five of them, and thought another three were alright. It was only "Expedition," the story about the kithkin doun trying to teach fear to one of its members, that I really didn't like. Shadowmoor was a great read, and I wish Wizards of the Coast would continue to tell tales from this dark land (and its sunnier counterpart).

The Halo Graphic Novel

I wasn't sure if I was going to include graphic novels on the List. But then I decided that they are, by definition, novels. And I don't read a whole lot of them, so why not use them as a break when I need a really quick read?

I was also really happy when I picked this up in Minneapolis a month ago; I was able to pay the American price ($24 I think) rather than the Canadian price ($40).

The one thing I was rather impressed with was the art. In two of the four stories, the artwork was AMAZING! (In the other two, not so much). There was also a gallery included after the stories with pictures from many different artists, and many of those pictures were also amazing! (I also found out that this is where one of my favourite pictures comes from, which I have included here).

However, I didn't really like the stories. The first one was incredibly hard to follow. It was supposedly about one of the Elites from Halo 2, showing how he lost part of his jaw. I scanned through the pictures a couple of times and I couldn't find where he loses part of his jaw. (There was one really cool part that looked like the flood he was fighting had a chance to bite it off, but I'm really sure he didn't).

The second and fourth stories had the worst drawings. The second one wasn't bad, and it was kind of fun. The fourth story was just okay; I really wasn't impressed with it.

But the fourth story was hands down my favourite! It was the story of how Sgt. Johnson escaped the flood from Halo 1. There were no words in the entire story, yet it was amazing! The artwork (as mentioned) was phenomenal. And they didn't NEED words at all!

So, overall, I totally recommend this for any Halo fan. While the stories might not be super fantastic, it is worth getting just for the artwork.

Starcraft Ghost: Nova

Alright, so I started reading this a few days ago while on a work break. I got through the prologue, but then didn't pick the book back up for a few days. Then today I picked it up again and read the first chapter before heading out to Sleeping Giant for the day. Finally, on the way home, I started reading. And I found that I couldn't put the book down!

Nova is one of the most powerful Ghost operatives of the Terran dominion. But she was originally a child of one of the Terran Confederacy's ruling families. This book details how her psionic powers manifested themselves, and how she went from her priviledged life to embrace the anonymity of being a Ghost.

Keith DeCandido did an amazing job bringing Nova's back story to life. After reading this, I am now even more disappointed that Starcraft Ghost has been put on hold indefinitely!