Title: Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War
Author/Artist: Clive Barker
Pages: 512 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: October 2004
Where I got the book: Purchased

From the back cover:

Candy Quackenbush’s adventures in the amazing world of the Abarat are getting more strange by the hour. Christopher Carrion, the Lord of Midnight, has sent his henchman to capture her. Why? She wonders. What would Carrion want with a girl from Minnesota? And why is Candy beginning to feel that the world of Abarat is familiar to her? Why can she speak words of magic she doesn’t even remember learning?

There is a mystery here. And Carrion, along with his fiendish grandmother Mater Motley, suspects that whatever Candy is, she could spoil their plans to take control of the Abarat.

Now Candy’s companions must race against time to save her from the clutches of Carrion, and she must sold the mystery of her past before the forces of Night and Day clash and Absolute Midnight descends upon the islands.

A final war is about to begin. And Candy is going to need to make some choices that will change her life forever….

Review:

(For my review of the first book in the Abarat series, click here)

A lot of things happen in this book. It starts off with Candy and Malingo being followed by Christopher Carrion’s bounty hunter Otto Houlihan, aka the “Criss-Cross Man”. But Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War doesn’t solely follow Candy and her adventure. John Mischief and his brothers join a dragon slaying crew to discover the whereabouts of Finnegan Hob, the man who was engaged to Princess Boa before she was killed by a dragon on their wedding day.

If Abarat 1 was about Candy discovering the Abarat, then Abarat: DOMNOW is about her understanding the world around her. The book devotes a good amount of time in to the events that took place before Candy was even born. In particular, the relationship between Christopher Carrion and Princess Boa and the events leading up to her death. It kind of tragic and, as a reader, I began to feel sorry for Carrion who had become my favorite character in the series. Yes, Carrion is my favorites. That’s like saying that I liked Lord Voldemort more than Harry Potter, but there is something about Carrion in this novel that leads me to believe he is not really a bad person, just misunderstood. There are moments, particularly when he and Candy final meet, that I let my guard down and began to feel sorry for him.

The most epic part of this book is the final chapter when, literally, all hell breaks loose and Candy decides to return to Chickentown only to be pursued by Carrion and his grandmother, Mater Motley. There is an epic battle between all forces and it is truly epic.

One thing Clive Barker clearly has no problem with is killing off characters. I wont go in to much detail, but I will say I was shocked nearly every time a character died.

Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War is not a book you’re going to enjoy without reading Abarat first. It spend very little time catching the reader up on the events of the first book and you’ll spend a good chuck of time being confused. But for those who have read Abarat, DOMNOW is a fantastic continuation of the story already in progress. It add a lot of depth and reveals many mysteries surround Candy and the characters in Abarat. As with the last book, Clive Barker painted all the artwork featured in this book and it really makes this book stand out.

Closing Thoughts: I’ve read this book twice now, and I am still amazing on how captivating the final chapters are.

Question: Many. Like “Did _________ really die?!”. I’ve spend the last seven years wondering.

Title: Abarat
Author/Artist: Clive Barker
Pages: 528 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: September 2002
Where I got the book: Purchased

From the back cover:

It begins in the most boring place in the world: Chickentown, U.S.A. There lives Candy Quackenbush, her heart bursting for some clue as to what her future might hold.

When the answer comes, it’s not one she expects. Out of nowhere comes a wave, and Candy, led by a man called John Mischief (whose brothers live on the horns on his head), leaps into the surging waters and is carried away.

Where? To the ABARAT: a vast archipelago where every island is a different hour of the day, from The Great Head that sits in the mysterious twilight waters of Eight in the Evening, to the sunlit wonders of Three in the Afternoon, where dragons roam, to the dark terrors of Gorgossium, the island of Midnight, ruled over by the Prince of Midnight himself, Christopher Carrion.

As Candy journeys from one amazing place to another, making fast friends and encountering treacherous foes—mechanical bugs and giant moths, miraculous cats and men made of mud, a murderous wizard and his terrified slave—she begins to realize something, She has been here before.

Candy has a place in this extraordinary world: she is here to help save the Abarat from the dark forces that are stirring at its heart. Forces older than Time itself, and more evil than anything Candy has ever encountered.

She’s a strange heroine, she knows. But this is a strange world.

And in the Abarat, all things are possible.

Review:

The first time I read this book I was in high school. This was back in 2003 when John Maxwell Coetzee won the Nobel prize for Literature and The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions hit theaters. A year later, in 2004, I would go on to read the second Abarat book, but more on that in a later post. We’re here to talk about the first book in the Abarat series. I’m normally strongly against re-reading books (why bother when there is so many unread books to read?), but this book is one I’ve read three times in the past. I re-read it the first time before reading the second Abarat book and with Abarat: Absolute Midnight coming out next month, I needed to re-read the first two books again because it’s been a couple of years. I would also like to mention that I started reading Abarat before Harry Potter. Abarat is my introduction to YA Fantasy and thus is the book I will forever compare other YA Fantasy novels to.

The story in Abarat is about a girl, Candy Quackenbush, who accidentily gets taken to the world of Abarat, a world made up of twenty-five islands with each representing a different hour of the day. Her arrival in Abarat draws some unwanted attention, particularly from Christopher Carrion, the Prince of Midnight, who has ambitions to rule over Abarat. There are a lot of “bad guys” throughout the series. If it’s not Carrion then it’s the Criss-Cross Man chasing Candy or Kaspar Wolfwinkel music magic to see her thoughts. But for every “bad guy” there are people she will befriend and will travel with her as she explores the Abarat.

The first book really does feel like an introduction to the world of Abarat. The plot really starts to pick up in Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War, the second book. This helps introduce a majority of the cast of characters that will be making frequent appearances throughout the series. It should be noted that this is a very dark book series. We’re talking Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire type dark where people die. It’s not afraid to kill off characters, both good and bad. You can’t have a war without casualties and that series does not shy away from that.

One of the things that really, REALLY makes this book stand out is Clive Barker’s original artwork featured throughout the pages. Barker painted hundreds of paintings to help illustrate the fantastical world of Abarat. I read somewhere that Barker creates the artwork first and then crafts a story around what he painted. It’s a backwards way to write a book, and surely he has some ideas about the direction of the story, but really it does show the importance of the artwork. Without the art, the book would be sorely lacking. The world of Abarat is so fantastical that the artwork might be a necessary component of the books to help the reader understand what they are reading. The art doesn’t prevent the reader from using their own imagination to picture Abarat. Instead what it does is nudge the reader’s imagination in the direction in needs to go to prevent massive amounts of confusion.

This is one of my favorite books EVER. You should pick up a copy of this book (it get’s re-released today) and get caught up before Abarat: Absolute Midnight comes out on September 27th.

Closing Thoughts: I enjoyed re-reading this book for the third time.

Question: Will I have to wait seven years for Abarat 4 to get released?

For V-day I was given a print of Bill Mudron‘s Doctor Who/Dr. Seuss mashup which I felt like sharing. Bill also has some other fantastic pop culture artwork on his site, so you should check it out.

While shopping at Powells last week, I managed to find a hardcover, first-edition copy of Max Barry’s Jennifer Government. My paperback copy suffered some unfortunate water damage, so I needed a replacement copy. When I got home I found this (New Yorker?) cartoon between the pages. It made me worry slightly.

Anyway, I’ll probably still read the book with minimal worry. However, if I do contract SARS or something equally as deadly, please blame the used book industry.

Speaking of Max Barry, did you see that Darren Aronofsky is set to direct the movie adaptation of Max Barry’s latest book, Machine Man?

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game is based off of the popular Scott Pilgrim graphic novels (see previous post #1 and #2 if you don’t know what I am talking about). The story is your typical boy meets girl, boy lesbians girl, boy must defeat girl’s seven evil exes. In the book it is up to Scott to defeat the exes since he is the one dating Ramona. However, in the game you can play as Scott, Ramona, Kim, and Stephen. It’s possible to play the single player game as a character other than Scott but doing so completely destroys the story. Why would Stephen, the lead singer in Scott’s band, go and single handedly defeat Ramona’s exes. There’s nothing in it for him, nothing for him to gain. Same thing with Kim, drummer and Scott’s ex.

In order to make the game playable I made up stories that take the place of “defeat Ramona’s exes” in case I find myself playing as someone other than Scott. Let’s face it, without a story holding the game together it’s impossible to keep interested in this beat’em up game.

Ramona Flowers vs. the World: The Game
One would think that after an appropriate amount of time Ramona’s exes would have gotten over her. Instead they constantly send her friend requests on Facebook, are sending her Tweets, and have from time-to-time shown up at her work. She’s fed up with it. It’s time for Ramona to teach her exes what the meaning of “we’re through” is even if she has to beat it in to them. After beating all seven of the exes, Ramona enjoys to solitude. It might be a little lonely, not being the center of attention, so maybe she’ll get a cat. And one cat turns in to three or four and before you know, Ramona because that “cat lady” who lives above your apartment. Ramona will wonder why she can’t get another boyfriend, but you’ll know why. It’s the all of her cats and the smell that comes with them.

Kim Pine vs. the World: The Game
Kim comes from a broken home. He father left before her first birthday, and her mother refuses to talk about it. Her mom has dated other men, searching for a replacement father figure. But every time she got comfortable with them they left. After Kim’s mother passed away in a car crash one snowy night after being dumped again, Kim was forced to live on the streets and support herself. She learned to fight to protect herself from the scary hobos of Montreal. Life turned around and eventually was taken in to foster care (or the canadian equivalent) and started life over again. At last she had a family, but her anger towards men remained. Her violent outburst can not be contained and all of her friends are worried about her rage issues but are too afraid to say anything. Only after Kim’s seventh violent outbreak do her friends sit her down and tell her how worried they all are about her. There are tears and a lot of hugs. Too ashamed to face her friends after that, Kim retreats to the Chic-Choc Mountains where she manages the local tavern and is able to beat up the occasional drunk without anybody noticing.

Stephen Stills vs. the World: The Game
In what may be the least expected plot twist (and the least cared about) in the Scott Pilgrim books was that Stephen Stills is gay. He finally came out to Scott 10 pages before the end of Volume 5. Nobody saw that coming. The reason for that was because it took 5 volumes for Stephen to accept who he is. At first he was like “Oh dude no, I can’t be gay. I’ll date a girl or something to prove.” But that, naturally, doesn’t work out. His confusion turns to self-hatred and he becomes incredibly homophobic. To prove his manliness, he sets out to beat up the seven toughest people around, who just happen to be Ramona’s exes. As he defeats each ex, he learns a little about himself. Upon defeating Ramona’s final ex, he earns the power of acceptance and is finally able to admit to himself and his friends that he likes dudes. Stephen and his boyfriend go on to open a bed and breakfast in Saint-Georges.

Next time, I’ll explore the story’s of the two hidden characters in the game.

Okay, because someone thought that this needed to be done.

I was given a copy of The Return of King Doug and burned through it so fast I almost wondered how.

I think the idea behind this book is incredibly funny and something that has never been done before. The idea of “The Chosen One” has been done so many times (Frodo, Buffy, Neo, etc.) that someone was bound to put a good twist on it, and they did.

Doug Peterson is a young boy who discovers the fantasy kingdom of Valdonia. It’s at the bottom of a well that sits in the backyard of his parent’s summer cabin. Being human, the creatures revere him as The Chosen one, their commander, who will lead them into battle against the wicked Queen who has taken over their lands. Together with the magic amulet, the Heart of Agnon, they will defeat her and crown Doug their King.

Sounds great, and even Doug is in, until he realizes that he is a little boy and this isn’t a game. It’s a real battle. There’s a chance he could get ripped apart.

So he goes back home.

25 years later Doug is a lazy good for nothing that can’t keep a job. He has since fathered a boy and we pick back up when it’s his weekend with his son. They end up at the cabin, his son goes off to play and well…I think you see what’s coming.

The Centaurs and the Tum Tums are in an even worse place. If it was bad before, now it’s REALLY bad and Doug must confront his fears and his bad habits to save his son and take back Valdonia from the evil Queen.

This may sound all epic but it’s very funny as well. I have been waiting for a fantasy/comedy that’s actually good and this one satisfied me. Aside from the story, the linework by Wook-Jin Clark is fluid and beautiful and he does a terrific job of really bringing Valdonia and it’s people to life.

It seems that I might be getting what I asked for. The other day I purchased a copy of Empire magazine which told me that Natalie Portman, James Franco and Danny McBride would be starring in a fantasy/comedy called Your Highness, and just today, when I googled “The Return of King Doug” all these images of Ben Stiller popped up. Apparently, he has signed on to produce and possibly star in….you guessed it…The Return of King Doug.

The Return of King Doug is written by Greg Erb and Jason Oremland

It is illustrated by Wook-Jin Clark

It’s published by Oni Press

I have been a fan of Kazu Kibuishi for a while now, having purchased the first volume of his book Daisy Kutter at the Stumptown Comics Convention several years ago. His style pulled me in at first but while reading Daisy Kutter, the story and storytelling intrigued me. Before I knew it I had a new artist I had to follow. From there I went on to read my new favorite series, Amulet, which I am dying to read more of.

Since there isn’t a new Amulet yet, I looked around for more work by Kazu and a friend turned me on to Copper. It looked familiar. I thought maybe I had seen Copper in a previous volume of Flight but I couldn’t be sure.

This friend turned to the back of Copper and showed me that it included a tutorial on just how Kazu creates the Copper strips. He takes it from his thumbnails all the way to his finished pieces and the digital coloring section was of great interest to me.

For me, I suppose that’s how Kazu Kibuishi gets me. He dangles a lovely carrot in front of my face and before I know it I have gone on an incredible journey with his characters that seems to end all too quickly.

Copper, he tells us in the introduction, began as a sticker and t-shirt design and has since turned into something greater. The adventures that Copper and his dog/friend Fred go on are interesting and filled with meaning if you pay attention. Some of my favorites include the mushroom jumping and the spectacled, blue-haired girl who they just can’t seem to catch.

I’m gonna go ahead and say that Copper often gives me the same kind of feeling I would get when reading my Calvin and Hobbes collections. It’s filled with possibilities, imagination and things you can even learn about yourself.