jueves, 30 de marzo de 2017

Reseña: The Good Earth (Novela Grafica)

+Digital copy gently provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review+


[Please note that my rating refers only to this edition.]

by 

Pearl S. Buck

 144 pages

Expected publication: July 4th 2017 by Simon Schuster
ISBN:1501132768 (ISBN13: 9781501132766)
Edition Language:English

 

BLURB: Pearl Buck’s 1931 Pulitzer Prize–winning classic about the rise and fall of Chinese villagers before World War I comes to life in this graphic novel by Nick Bertozzi.

In The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck paints an indelible portrait of China in the 1920s, when the last emperor reigned and the vast political and social upheavals of the twentieth century were but distant rumblings. This story of the honest farmer Wang Lung and his selfless wife O-Lan is must reading to fully appreciate the sweeping changes that have occurred in the lives of the Chinese people during the last century.
 


 Shelves book-to-graphic-novel, classics, graphic-novel, literary-fiction, netgalley, situ-1920s

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

[Please note that my rating refers only to this edition.]

Wang Lung is a poor peasant in China between wars, the story begins with his marriage to a poor slave of a rich house - O-Lan -, and continues through three generations in his fight against poverty, hunger, droughts and plagues , meanwhile a revolution is mentioned in the background. O-Lan and Wang Lung work very hard on their lands, and their efforts bear fruit although he never values his wife much in spite of being essentially a fairly good and honest man, which is seen especially at the end.

I had read this novel many years ago, it was among the books in my house and I remembered it with some nostalgia, so I required this book out of curiosity. I do not know where this fashion came from introducing great classics as graphic novels, but in this case the format frankly does not do justice to this tremendous classic.

Reseña: The Hollow Kingdom (Hollow Kingdom 1)

The Hollow Kingdom 

by  

Clare B. Dunkle


240 pages
Published September 19th 2006 by Henry Holt and Co. BYR Paperbacks (first published October 1st 2003)
ISBN:0805081089 (ISBN13: 9780805081084)
Edition Language:English
Series The Hollow Kingdom Trilogy #1
blurb: In nineteenth-century England, a powerful sorcerer and King of the Goblins chooses Kate, the elder of two orphan girls recently arrived at their ancestral home, Hallow Hill, to become his bride and queen...

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Shelves dwarves, fairytale, fantasy, goblins, king-and-queen, magia, magical-practitioners, 
Kate y Emily Winslow llegan a Hollow Hill tras la muerte de su padre, la tierra les pertenece como legado materno, pero pronto ni sus ancianas tias ni su guardian legal parecen poder protegerlas de peligros que las acosan.

Situado en lo que parece ser una Inglaterra del siglo 19, y en medio de un plot de semi-horror gótico te ves envuelto en un mundo sobrenatural.

“If that’s what you think my kingdom is like, I certainly know not to ask you to come.”
Hope swept through her. “You won’t?” she gasped.
Marak opened his eyes again and frowned at her eager expression. “Of course not.” He shrugged. “I’ll just take you there. No sense in asking.”

miércoles, 29 de marzo de 2017

Reseña: The Last of the Minotaur Wives

The Last of the Minotaur Wives 

by  

Brooke Bolander

Tor.com Online Fiction, 5 pages
Published March 8th 2017 by Tor.com
Edition Language English

When the first of the Minotaur Brides was set to be a concubine in darkness, she was warned never to try escape. She was given an explanation: you are a monster, and below the earth you & your kind shall stay.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Escrito para el Dia Internacional de la Mujer 2017 inspirados por la frase "Nevertheless, she persisted”, este es literalmente un arquetipo clásico de la resistencia femenina. Y de esperanza.






Me agradó mucho el estilo de escritura.
http://www.tor.com/2017/03/08/the-las...
The Last of the Minotaur Wives

martes, 28 de marzo de 2017

Reseña: A Gentleman's Position (Society of Gentlemen #3


A Gentleman's Position (Society of Gentlemen #3)

by  

K.J. Charles

246 pages
Published April 5th 2016 by Loveswept
ISBN:1101886072 (ISBN13: 9781101886076)
Series:Society of Gentlemen #3


Such an easy thing, to be liked. All you had to do was make sure people didn’t know you

right in the feels.

El fiel valet y el caballero inglés.

jueves, 23 de marzo de 2017

Reseña: Siberia 56 (Vol. 1 a 3)

+Digital copy gently provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review+

Siberia 56 (Vol. 1 a 3)

by 

Christophe Bec

156 pages
Published March 14th 2017 by Insight Comics
ISBN:1608878619 (ISBN13: 9781608878611)
Edition Language:English
Series:Siberia 56 #1-3
BLURB: Trapped on a planet millions of light years away from Earth, five scientists must survive sub-zero temperatures and horrific alien creatures as they make their way across the dead, frozen landscape to their base in this action-packed graphic novel. It is the age of space exploration, and five scientists travel 80 million light years from home to study the planet of Siberia, the location of Earth’s 56th colony. Completely covered with dense snow and steep mountains, Siberia’s poles reach temperatures of -300° F with icy winds of close to 200 mph.
After their shuttle crashes, the surviving scientists must walk across hundreds of miles of frozen wasteland to find the terrain basecamp. Between the biting cold, devastating snow storms, and horrific alien creatures, their chances of survival are close to absolute zero. In Siberia 56, author Christophe Bc imagines a hostile and fascinating world that harkens to the very best of the science fiction and horror genres. Superbly illustrated by Alexis Sentenac, this stunning work offers a chilling tale of survival in the vast recesses of a dying planet.

My rating: 2.75 frozen hopeless stars

Siberia 56 is the name of the 58th colony of Earth, or maybe I have to say hope-to-be colony. For many years expeditions have struggle against a very hostil ambient trying to setle there. The story start with the last crew -the number 13- in the first volume, the replacement after eight years.

Do you remember those science fiction/horror films where they send an expeditionary group to colonize or exploit a planet that is tremendously inhospitable and there are very dangeorus creatures?

The idea is not very original.

miércoles, 22 de marzo de 2017

Reseña: Unicorn Crossing (Heavenly Nostrils #5)


+Digital copy gently provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review+

Unicorn Crossing (Heavenly Nostrils #5)

by 

Dana Simpson

176 pages
Expected publication: March 28th 2017 by Andrews McMeel Publishing
ISBN:1449483577 (ISBN13: 9781449483579)
Series:Heavenly Nostrils #5

BLURB: Time flies in this fifth volume of Dana Simpson's Phoebe and Her Unicorn! Follow the lovable duo as they experience somewhat-spooky Halloween parties, ecstatic snow days, and looming summer reading assignments. Although the journey of growing up can sometimes be difficult, along the way Phoebe and Marigold discover something more enduring than goblin fads, unicorn spa vacations, and even a Spell of Forgetting—their one of a kind friendship.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Is Halloween time in Phoebe and Marigold world, costumes and candy, and awkward parties.

I like this strip because Unicorn!, hehe, actually because there are BOOKS

readings and re-readings,

domingo, 19 de marzo de 2017

Reseña: El diente roto (Cuento)

El diente roto 

by 

Pedro Emilio Coll

Año de Publicación: 1890

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Cuento cortísimo acerca de Juan Peña, cuya vida cambia por un evento casual o debo decir tal vez crucial: unos rufianes le rompen un diente.

Ironia y mordacidad para narrar en un par de páginas como la sociedad ve lo que quiere ver.

La gracia de este breve relato es que se considera por muchos el gérmen -por no decir otra cosa- de la famosa novela y luego pelicula: "Desde el jardín" (Being There) de Jerzy Kosinski



domingo, 5 de marzo de 2017

Reseña: Scythe (Arc of a Scythe #1)


<

Scythe (Arc of a Scythe #1)

by  

Neal Shusterman


 435 pages
Published November 22nd 2016 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
ISBN:1442472421 (ISBN13: 9781442472426)
Edition Language:English


BLURB. Thou shalt kill.

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

 My bookshelves: ciencia-ficcion, dystopia, teen-protagonist, nanotech,

My rating: 3.3 inmortality is overrated stars

o cuando hacer de ayudante de la muerte es un trabajo indeseable





Spoilers menores , quedan advertidos.

Nos encontramos en algún punto del futuro después de 2045, y tatatá todo el mundo es INMORTAL . . . no, no es broma. La nanotecnologia permite que los seres humanos reviertan cualquier daño, incluida la muerte, y vuelves a quedar como nuevo.
--
Mortals fantasized that love was eternal and its loss unimaginable. Now we know that neither is true. Love remained mortal, while we became eternal.
--

A nadie le falta nada, ni trabajo, ni comida, ni hogar, si vives un poco al garete es porque asi lo quieres. No saben lo que es la enfermedad.

La cosa es, estimados, que no me lo puedo tragar. ¿Un planeta manejado por una supermegaentidad cibernética (eso lo hemos visto a cada rato en series csi-fi) que puede lograr un crecimiento poblacional constante por ya trescientos años? Santa-mega-catastrofe-ecologica en espera. Es por eso que hemos crecido sabiendo , en teoria, eso de que existe un límite de edad para mantener una población, o se limitan por fuerza de ley los nacimientos, eso sí tiene sentido. Que las abuelas con apariencia de veinteañeras sigan teniendo bebes... no. No me lo puedo creer, en las condiciones que sigue el planeta que se plantea aqui, sin enfermedad ni contaminación.