Black Canary was one of my favorite discoveries while watching Justice League Unlimited and I have been sadly bereft of Black Canary-centered comics. All [...]]]>

Cover by Trevor von Eeden

Black Canary was one of my favorite discoveries while watching Justice League Unlimited and I have been sadly bereft of Black Canary-centered comics. All of my previous experience with Black Canary featured her in a group or couple setting. She was either an important member of the Birds of Prey or the serious, rock steady girlfriend of Green Arrow. She was never particularly funny but she definitely played the “straight man” role a lot of the time. Therefore, I was surprised by how gritty this issue was. Byam emphasized the serious ramifications of being a superhero for Black Canary; she was troubled, not averse to violence and extremely serious about the job at hand. I liked it.

I’m still not sure how I feel about the way in which gender was handled in this issue. A part of me found it refreshing that Dinah was very much aware of her gender and yet did not dwell on a sense of Otherness. Yet I was also concerned by the very same fact that she DID draw attention to her identity as female. As a feminist comic book fan, I am still struggling with my own understandings of what it means to be equal or even taken seriously and also be female in comic book worlds. Does equality = gender neutrality; a complete lack of attention paid to gender differences? Or, is it in fact found in an emphasis on difference and a corresponding empowerment through this? In other words, should Wonder Woman celebrate the fact that she is a woman or simply ignore it and get the job done?

This is an issue that has plagued feminists for many, many years and we are no closer to an universal answer. If anything, the only answer we can seem to agree one is that there is no one correct way to achieve equality or be a feminist. What I find empowering, another woman may find demeaning and that’s all right. The important thing is that we have the choice to decide these things for ourselves.

It’s also difficult simply because in comic books, gender is so intrinsically linked to identity. Look at the titles bestowed upon our heroes: Iron Man, Batgirl, The Huntress, She-Hulk, Superman. Gendered binaries are unavoidable in comic books. Of course, there are awesome characters that have completely neutral names and therefore, the titles can be taken on by multiple characters of different genders (the Question and even Robin in The Dark Knight Returns immediately come to mind).

Black Canary, however, will probably always be a woman because of the feminizing implications of the word “canary”. It’s a girly bird, apparently, unlike Hawkeye; who, interestingly enough, was also portrayed by a woman, which then begs the question: is it more acceptable for a woman to emulate a man than for a man to emulate a woman?

What was especially interesting about this issue had nothing to do with the story itself. The fan letters at the end of the book were all focused on Black Canary’s role as a female superhero. Each letter, at one point or another either praised DC for diversifying its heroes and giving more women their own books or lambasted DC for its ham-fisted representation of a woman. Also, one letter called Black Canary a “Rambitch.” I’m not sure what that is but the responding letter from DC told me I should be offended. It should also be noted that every single letter was written by a man.

Furthermore, many of them commented on how great it is that more female characters are getting noticed and their time in the sun by DC. This sounded vaguely familiar to me, and then I remembered that I have read the same sort of comments on multiple comic book blogs and articles. Seriously, this comic is 18 years old, and we still haven’t gotten over our own congratulatory amazement that female comic book characters can be taken seriously and also just be plain awesome.

It seems that no matter what, we just can’t move on from the mere fact that female comic book characters EXIST.

“How can you read something so sexist?”

My mom posed this accusatory question to me after she overheard me describe the title and plot of today’s comic book to a friend.

White Cat by Holly Black

Buy It Now: Amazon: paperback or Kindle edition

Series: Curse Workers, book 1
Genre(s): Young Adult, Urban Fantasy
[Editor's Note: Big thanks to Deborah for contributing this review! Be sure to check out her blog and follow her on Twitter by clicking the links in her signature.]

White Cat by Holly Black

Buy It Now: Amazon: paperback or Kindle edition

Series: Curse Workers, book 1
Genre(s): Young Adult, Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Available Formats: Hardcover, paperback, ebook
Description: Cassel comes from a family of curse workers — people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they’re all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn’t got the magic touch, so he’s an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail — he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He’s noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he’s part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.

This review is based on a copy purchased by the reviewer.

Deborah’s Review:

There’s this thing I inevitably do with Holly Black novels where I tell myself I’ll only read for a few minutes, just crack open this delicious book about punk faeries or curse workers or whatnot — only to look up blinking at the clock, discovering it reads 2 AM, and wondering where the night went. Her books mug you, but in a good way – which I suppose is especially apropos for White Cat, the first installment in The Curse Workers series.

Cassel is the only non-worker in a family of curse workers, whose powers range from the ability to instill emotion, to invoke terrible pain, or even to confer death with merely a touch. Although these powers each come with a pretty wicked handicap — killing someone with the lightest of touches means a piece of your body will wither in turn, for one — Cassel is pretty bummed about the whole non-worker thing. When the novel opens, he’s trying to distance himself from his worker family and the mafia they are tied to (because, of course, curse-working isn’t actually legal) by attending a boarding school and becoming someone who just blends. Cassel doesn’t blend easily. He can’t shake his family’s legacy, and we discover pretty quickly that he’s the school’s biggest and only underground bookie. (Bored students will apparently bet on anything, from who will hook up among the staff to who will catch the mouse currently eluding all pest control attempts in Stanton Hall.)

Cassel Sharpe fails at being normal, and the fact that he’s managed to sleepwalk to the top of a building is just the doom-icing on the cake — the administration is worried he’s been worked. That he’s cursed. Cassel wonders why anyone would bother. He’s no one in a family of someones, even if he does have bizarre and terrifying dreams about a white cat struggling to communicate.

Well, almost no one. He’s got a secret — as all the best con artists and tortured youths do — but not the one he thinks. He thinks that three years ago he murdered Lila Zacharov, the mob boss’s daughter and the best friend he’d been in love with since forever. He knows his family covered it up, which is the only reason he’s not dead yet. His actual secret is stranger still, and a mystery even from him. He unravels that mystery in spite of a meddling jailed mother, two brothers who are acting bizarre, and his grandfather who’s forcing him to clean out the hoarder’s paradise that is the old family place. Unsurprisingly, he finds himself once more embroiled in a realm of the mafia, murder, and illicit curses; surprisingly, there’s also one ubiquitous white cat. He almost gets expelled too, and somehow manages to make somewhat normal friends. Cassel’s on one wild and exhausting ride.

White Cat is a story about Family and family — about the mob, about those who are related by blood, about those we choose to call our own, and those we wish we could. It’s not always a comfortable book, considering the families it confronts are deeply dysfunctional, but it feels authentic and has the potential to appeal to a disaffected youth or those themselves from broken homes. The novel illuminates that you don’t have to be alone — and also that not being alone won’t fix all your problems, but at least has the power to make them a hell of a lot more bearable.

This first installment in The Curse Workers also features intriguing and delicious world-building. I am fascinated by the way Holly Black has so thoroughly imagined the social implications of these sorts of gifts, and find the blowback idea a stroke of relative genius to keep the world from being overpowered by minigods. Tragic demigods, sure, but not cavalier minigods. I appreciate her attention to the basics, and how she depicted a world where gloves are so entrenched that going out without them on is akin to going about without pants. She goes so much further, from suggested legislation regarding compulsive worker-testing to the extensive market for protective charms and more. I’m eager to see how she expands her world in the sequels.

Compulsively readable, with a surprisingly affecting plot, White Cat will demand not to be put down. I couldn’t agree with it more.

Reviews Elsewhere
Dear Author
Tea Mouse Book Reviews
Girls in the Stacks

On Friday, September 3rd, my 30-year-old self went and purposely lost my virginity. Today is Tuesday the 7th, and all I can physically do today is type while [...]]]> [Editor's Note: Say hello to LamoreVincera, everyone! A friend of our own Amanda's, she has graciously offered to share her DragonCon experience here on The Discriminating Fangirl!]

On Friday, September 3rd, my 30-year-old self went and purposely lost my virginity. Today is Tuesday the 7th, and all I can physically do today is type while I lie on the couch with my feet up.

I don’t have to be psychic to know that the reactions that this announcement are getting are 1) took you long enough, and 2) how the hell is this relevant to The Discriminating Fangirl?

As much as I wish my answer could be “because I lost it to Nathan Fillion”, that’s not it. It’s because it wasn’t my physical virginity that got lost, but rather that I gleefully popped my con cherry. I attended DragonCon in Atlanta for the very first time, and in keeping with the virginity allegory, if my first time at actual sex had been that good, I’d never get out of bed.

I arrived in a messy, crazy downtown Atlanta at 9 AM on Friday. I had a list of panels I wanted to attend and their locations, and my camera was primed. First on my list: a True Blood panel at 10 AM with Kristin Bauer Van Straten (Pam), Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette), and Sam Trammell (Sam). I got my badge, plopped myself down in line, and very quickly discovered the one thing that I would end up loving more about attending a con than any other aspect: communion with the other fans.

Me (and my Don't Blink' t-shirt), a Sally Sparrow cosplayer complete with attached Weeping Angel, and the Tenth Doctor.

I would find this again and again, in every line I got in, no matter the subject. In a line for a Eureka panel, I geeked out with others over Nathan Stark’s return. (The panel itself rocked. Colin Ferguson was not able to make it, and the entire Q&A was held down impressively by Erica Cerra alone. She was cheery and witty, and admitted that she was geeking out just as much as we were.) In the “Firefly: Simon and Kaylee Reunited” line, I met a couple who run a local Firefly RPG, and in the panel itself sat next to a Kaylee cosplayer. When Sean Maher entered the room, she and I looked at each other, and we both knew exactly what the other was thinking. She grabbed my hand and grasped it in excitement as we both squeed loudly enough to burst eardrums.

In a line dedicated to the Eureka/Warehouse 13 panel, I met an older man who is an entertainment journalist and was friends back in the day with Gene and Majel Roddenberry. I listened to his stories, and told a few of my own, namely on how Star Trek: The Next Generation introduced me to science fiction as a kid (and to a terrible crush on Wil Wheaton).

True Blood's Pam and the back of my head. See? I have proof!

I walked out of the dealer room in something of a daze, and as I mulled over what had just happened, it struck me – if I needed to describe DragonCon in one word, “love” would be it. As I stood there, that’s all I saw. Lines forming, and at the same time, new friendships; adoration being proudly worn in the form of geeky t-shirts; affinity for fandoms, storytellers, and actors being shouted without words in lovingly made costumes. Glances were traded in mere seconds as people passed one another in the crowded hallways, and each person knew exactly what the other was thinking. I get you, I think you’re awesome, and I love your fandom just as much as you do.

This weekend, I went to a sci-fi/fantasy convention for the first time. I joke that I lost my virginity, but more importantly, I happily lost my heart to the wonderful insanity that is people getting together en masse to celebrate their shared geekiness.

Strangeness Review:

Strangeness Abound’s Review: I’ll preface this review by stating that I’m a casual gamer, but I’m a hardcore casual gamer. I may not touch a video game for several months, but when I find a game I love, [...]]]>

Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures

Buy It Now: on Amazon.com

Strangeness Review:

Strangeness Abound’s Review: I’ll preface this review by stating that I’m a casual gamer, but I’m a hardcore casual gamer. I may not touch a video game for several months, but when I find a game I love, I will play it TO THE END at the risk of getting bad grades in school and letting the food on the dishes in the sink dry to tough crusts.

But moving onto the review: you’d think it would be a great combination – Indiana Jones meets Legos© meets the Nintendo DS and several other gaming consoles. Despite the fact that it’s a game aimed more at older children, I find it to be fun most of the time. Lego Indiana Jones – The Original Adventures was released in 2008, but thanks to a friend of mine, I’m able to play it for free and on my DSi.

As you play through the adventures you see in the movies, you have the chance to play through a variety of key scenes from the movies (i.e. the rolling rock from the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the runaway mine trains in Temple of Doom and the Nazi castle in Last Crusade). If a character dies, you do not see blood or them dissolving into a puff of smoke – they fall apart per the Lego© style.

RUN AWAY! Image courtesy of IGN.com

Several times I exclaimed, “Aww, how cute!” And indeed, there were several instances, especially in the beginning of the game play where it was quite endearing. Seeing Marion Ravenwood gain the ability to turn into a monkey when she stands upon her special pad was particularly darling to me (Marion has always been my favorite character in the Indiana Jones film series). Getting to “build” structures to help Indy and his assistants along their merry way with enormous Legos was a blast as well. I never got tired to listening to the cute clicking noises as things were built – I’m easily amused, LOL. The theatrical sequences were quite a bit of fun to watch as they contained a bit of slapstick and a lot of situational comedy. Much of the tension that would be found in the original three movies was gone from these sequences. I wondered how the programmers would handle the violence found in Temple of Doom in developing Lego Indiana Jones, but I felt they handled it very well, especially considering that this is a game aimed at kids.

However, as I continued to play the game, I noticed that in order to move Indy through the side-scrolling format, I had to mash the D-pad in a variety of directions all at once to aim Indy exactly where I needed him to go. Aiming Indy’s whip was not an issue – the game did that for me automatically. However, I got the feeling that this game would be better suited for a console that utilized a joystick instead of a D-pad.

For the DS version, you do not need to use the stylus at any point – your “A,” “B,” “X” and “Y” buttons are all you need. “A” lets you crack the whip if you are Indy, “B” lets you jump, “X” lets you punch or attack and “Y” lets you switch between Indy and his partners for gameplay flexibility. I will admit to becoming easily confused between the functions of the “A” and “B” buttons in the heat of battle. The “A” button is traditionally used to jump or roll and the “B” button is traditionally used for attack (at least, this is the case with the Nintendo Entertainment System, however the DS is modeled after the Super Nintendo Entertainment System controller).

I also discovered several small glitches/programming oversights as I played through the story. More than once, I tried to use Indy’s whip to smash something and it wouldn’t smash. I had to come at it from a certain angle or else it wouldn’t come apart. There are also two occasions (in the Raiders arc and the Last Crusade arc) in which you must jump across the tops of moving vehicles. Several times, I unwittingly moved my partner down and under the wheels of the moving buses simply because I was trying to prepare for a jump to the next vehicle and they were in the way. The partners (with the exception of Marion – she rained bottles upon enemies without pause) were practically useless in battle. They often just stood around and got shot.

Frustration! Image courtesy of the Angry Video Game Nerd (http://www.cinemassacre.com)

Also, it would have been nice to hear something besides the music from the Raiders of the Lost Ark film recycled over and over for all three adventures. I often listened to my iPod instead of the game, but I would argue that the developers at LucasArts just got lazy and didn’t bother creating any more mp3 loops.

This is not the first game from LucasArts I have played. When I played Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine back in the day when it first came out for the Nintendo 64 (I’m a Nintendo baby all the way, can’t you tell? ;)), I noticed that it had several programming errors similar to those found in Lego Indiana Jones, so this may not be an isolated incident found just in Lego Indiana Jones, but rather something faulty in the way LucasArts programs their video games.

All in all, I give this game three and a half stars. It was fun when it first began, but the programming oversights were a bit of an irritant. The theatrical sequences and character introductions (see Dr. Elsa Schneider’s entrance in the Last Crusade game) were funny and worth playing the game. Clearly, I’d recommend this game to Indiana Jones fans simply because it was fun – when I was winning. ;)

I'd make out with that.

Product Description courtesy of Amazon.com: From the publisher of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies comes a new tale of romance, heartbreak, and tentacled mayhem.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters expands the original text of the beloved Jane Austen novel with all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, and [...]]]>

Product Description courtesy of Amazon.com: From the publisher of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies comes a new tale of romance, heartbreak, and tentacled mayhem.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters expands the original text of the beloved Jane Austen novel with all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, and other biological monstrosities. As our story opens, the Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon. Can the Dashwood sisters triumph over meddlesome matriarchs and unscrupulous rogues to find true love? Or will they fall prey to the tentacles that are forever snapping at their heels? This masterful portrait of Regency England blends Jane Austen’s biting social commentary with ultraviolent depictions of sea monsters biting. It’s survival of the fittest—and only the swiftest swimmers will find true love!

Buy it now: on Amazon.com

StrangenessAbound’s Rating:

StrangenessAbound’s Review: All in all, I think it was a pretty well-done book. Ben H. Winters definitely has a creative imagination to put something like crazed sea creatures in together with the adventures of the Dashwoods. Winters has inserted his own dialogue, situations, settings, and even changed some details in characters (most notably in Colonel Brandon) to make Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. For the most part, Winters does a good job of keeping in line with the period dialect and manner of speech, but this standard of Winters’ seems to relax towards the end of the book when several characters use out-of-period words and sentence structure. Some readers may be put off by the sheer goriness and graphic nature that Winters seems to take delight in and expect the reader to do the same (I was one of those, heehee).

Winter’s plot inventions along with the original plot of Jane Austen’s make for an interesting mix. In the original Sense and Sensibility, Marianne and Elinor Dashwood venture out with Mrs. Jennings and the Palmers to London. This is soon after Willoughby leaves Marianne in tears and without an explanation as to why he must leave. But in Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, the destination is not London; rather, Sub-Marine Station Beta, an enormous dome (think The Simpson’s Movie) that has an entire population underneath. This Sub-Marine Station Beta is the source of many experiments and exhibits as to how to tame the evil sea monsters that try to attack human beings whenever the opportunity arises.

Also, in the instance when Lucy Steele reveals her engagement to Edward Ferrars, Elinor’s secret love, instead of being at a party given by Mrs. Jennings and Sir John, Lucy and Elinor are rowing on the sea to Elinor’s home when they are interrupted and attacked by the Fang-Beast, a fearsome sea monster that haunts Pestilent Island (the name given to the Dashwoods’ home).

This fearsome, two-headed beast had been thriving in this dank weather, expanding its bulk, waiting for its chance to strike (Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, 2009).

Throughout the book, Winters weaves in his own sub-plots that had me turning pages to find the mystery of the matter – for instance, the upside-down five point star that flashes in Elinor’s mind whenever Lucy Steele is mentioned or comes close to her. However skillfully and subtly Winters wrote these sub-plots, I was disappointed to read how they ended. The sub-plots and their finales were interesting enough, but it was the way in which they were finished that disappointed me. It felt like the author was in a hurry and simply wanted to be done with the whole project. The sub-plots turned into somewhat momentous events in the lives of the Dashwoods and yet they were given less than seven and a half pages to make their mark on the reader. In this case, the sub-plots were a swing and a miss.

Also, there is the matter of Colonel Brandon’s octopus face. Colonel Brandon and Marianne’s plot in Sense and Sensibility was my favorite out of the entire book, but here, Colonel Brandon’s character seems to be run through by the business end of a spear. Initially, in the original, Marianne made fun of Colonel Brandon’s age and the complaints that come with that particular office, but in Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, it feels the entire cast and even the narrator make fun of Colonel Brandon’s affliction behind his back. I didn’t particularly care for this portrayal, especially when I tried to imagine Alan Rickman with an octopus face (I REALLY didn’t like that).

That brings me to the inevitable question of whether or not it is ethical to take a classic work like Sense and Sensibility or Pride and Prejudice and give it a new twist, for which a modern author is responsible. A literary purist (and others) might say, “No, absolutely not, under no circumstances,” and I would completely understand their point of view. At the beginning of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, I saw no reason why it would be unethical, but as the novel progressed and I wondered if an editor had combed the entire book before publication, I began to think that maybe it was unethical; especially if the new twist on the novel is not as well-done as the original. With the exception of Jane Austen’s original fingerprint, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters seemed to fall apart towards the end, which was disappointing. The novel had a funny kick-off and was highly addictive to read.

In the end, I give the book three and a half stars. I would definitely read it again. Despite its flaws, it’s still a book that Austen fans or connoisseurs should pick up to enjoy. But I think I’ll go try Pride and Prejudice and Zombies next.

–

Thanks so much for having me on the blog today.

People occasionally ask me if there´s any other genre I would like to write. As of now, I have made all my dreams [...]]]> I am VERY honored to welcome Ann Aguirre, who’s dropped by this Fangirl’s blog on her Blue Diablo launch tour!

–

Thanks so much for having me on the blog today.

People occasionally ask me if there´s any other genre I would like to write. As of now, I have made all my dreams come true. I´m published in SF&F both, and my first romance will come out on December 1. Those are my deep, endearing loves.

No, not mystery. I don´t have the sort of puzzle-building brain required to write excellent mysteries, though I do enjoy reading them. Julia Spencer-Fleming and James Lee Burke are two of my favorite mystery novelists. Hm, I wonder why they both have two names…

At any rate, I do have a secret desire to write a big epic fantasy novel someday: one with a glossary, maps, and indexes. But if that day never comes, I will be totally satisfied with what I´ve accomplished. I´m tickled when readers contact me, and even more tickled when they say they´ve enjoyed my books. At heart, I am an entertainer. I want readers to care about my characters. I want them to invest emotionally in their journey. If I achieve that, then I am content.

Sometimes it´s a little bit hard, living in Mexico, so I can´t go to the bookstore and see my books on the shelves, anytime I want. Sometimes it feels a bit unreal because I live two lives. Here, nobody knows who I am. In the States, people occasionally recognize me. Which is weird but cool. I really look forward to those times when I get to come to the US and be an author because the rest of the time, I´m just an average person, going about my business here.

Therefore, the spotlight is rare and alien to me. To complicate matters further, I am by nature an introvert. In person, I listen more than I talk. I observe people and how they interact. (Some would argue that´s why my characters feel so real.) If I don´t approach you, should we happen to encounter one another in person, it´s frankly because I figure you have more interesting things to do. That doesn´t mean I wouldn´t be overjoyed to chat with you, but it´s shyness, not disinterest. So if you see me at a signing or a book fair or a convention, stop me. Talk to me. I want to meet you, but I´m a little freaked out by crowds. Chances are, I would love a friendly face and a wave or to spend fifteen minutes with you over coffee.

What authors would you guys like to meet?

—–

It’s giveaway time! One very lucky commenter will win a signed copy of Blue Diablo! Just comment and say you want to win it, and be sure you have a valid email address somewhere in your comment. If you do win, I encourage you to post a review and let the rest of us know what you think!

The contest ends at 9:00 a.m. CDT tomorrow (that’s Saturday, April 18), so be sure to enter quickly! And spread the word!