Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind: Volume 1

Written and illustrated by Hayao Miyazaki
130 pages
Genre:  Manga, action, adventure, science-fiction, fantasy

Thousands of years after a devastating war, humanity has been reduced to small struggling tribes, as the world is slowly submerged in the ever-growing Sea of Corruption, a toxic forest full of poisonous spores and bizarre and dangerous mutant insects and plants.  In the tiny Valley of the Wind, lives the young princess Nausicaa who has an instinctive empathic bond with animals of all kinds, even the deadly giant Ohmu insects.  As a deadly war looms, and the Sea of Corruption grows ever bigger, Nausicaa may be the only one who can save the world.

This beautifully illustrated manga series was created, written and drawn by acclaimed animated movie writer/director Hayao Miyazaki, and formed the basis of his 1984 movie of the same name.  The artwork is beautiful and creates a stunning fantasy world.  It features many Miyazaki hallmarks, such as the environmental theme, and the intricately designed vehicles, particularly aircraft.

  

Ranma 1/2: Volumes 1 and 2

Written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi
360 pages
Genre:  Manga, action, comedy, romance, martial arts.

Ten years ago Genma Saotome promised his friend Soun Tendo that his martial artist son Ranma would marry one of Soun's three daughters and carry on the tradition of the family's martial arts school.  However there is a shock for the Tendos when Genma and Ranma finally appear.  While travelling in China, teenaged Ranma fell into a cursed spring, resulting in him changing into a girl every time he touches cold water, and only turning back into a  boy when she touches hot water.   Also Genma is a panda.

Ranma 1/2 is probably one of the most beloved manga series ever created.  Running from 1987 until 1996, this is a hugely entertaining blend of action, comedy and romance.  The story is constantly moving forward, with everyday events given a hilarious martial arts twist.  Takahashi's art style is beautifully detailed with a real vibrancy to the action scenes.

Consumed

Written by David Cronenberg
Genre:  Thriller
358 pages

This novel tells the story of Naomi and Nathan who are both writers and kind of have a relationship in airport departure lounges and hotel rooms and mostly through e-mail, Skype and text. Naomi becomes fascinated by the savage murder of a celebrated philosopher by her equally celebrated philosopher husband. Soon the two of them become involved in a bizarre world of sex, surgery, cannibalism and technology, in a tale that takes in political and philosophical conspiracy, 3D printing, North Korea and Sailor Moon.

David Cronenberg is best known as a movie director, and this is his first novel. It's intelligent and well-written but, like his movies, kind of cold and unemotional. It is definitely Cronenberg, but belongs more to his later work like Crash and Cosmopolis, than to The Fly and Scanners.  It's worth bearing in mind that, although there is some pretty horrific stuff in here, this isn't a horror novel.  It's more like a techno thriller.

It's worth reading, but it is too detached to be particularly involving or exciting, and there isn't really an ending, it just feels like it just stops.  I don't know if there will be a sequel or not.

For a debut novel, it definitely shows that Cronenberg has enough talent to be a really good prose writer.  

Ayoade on Ayoade: A Cinematic Odyssey

Written by Richard Ayoade
Genre:  Humour, cinema
307 pages

Richard Ayoade, actor, writer and movie director.  A multi-talented renaissance man.  Only one man can hope to unravel the enigma of Richard Ayoade, and that is Richard Ayoade himself.  He does so in this book of interviews with himself, alongside some of Ayoade's writings on the world of cinema.

Richard Ayoade is probably best known for starring in the TV sitcom The IT Crowd, co-writing and appearing in the TV comedy Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and appearing in the Ben Stiller movie The Watch.  He has also directed the movies Submarine and The Double.  This is his first book and it is basically a parody of pretentious, high-brow film books, in particular publisher Faber and Faber's (Director) on (Director) series of book-length interviews with prestigious movie directors.
The book really hits the tone of those particular books perfectly.   If you are a fan of cinema than it is worth checking out.
A lot of it is very funny, if you go in for Ayoade's wry, surreal brand of high-brow humour.

     

The Wine-Dark Sea

Written by Robert Aickman
Genre:  Horror, fantasy
450 pages

This book is a collection of eight short horror stories (or "strange stories" to use the author's preferred term) by English author Robert Aickman.

An English tourist in Greece makes an unwise trip to a shunned island; two young women on a  walking holiday in northern England shelter from  a severe storm in a remote farmhouse, only to discover some disturbing secrets about heir initially friendly host; a lonely academic becomes obsessed with a series of strange telephone calls from a mysterious woman; a mother becomes terrified of her increasingly violent and ever hungry twin sons who seem to be growing at an unnatural rate; a man is haunted throughout his life by a faceless specter whose appearance always means death for someone close to him; a little girl receives a grotesque dollhouse as a gift which has such a strange effect on her that her parents get rid of it - years later the dolls seek revenge; a tourist in Venice takes a gondola trip with a seductive but sinister guide; and a woman visiting Sweden stays at a secluded sanitarium for a rest but it turns out to have a profound and disturbing effect on her  

The stories are creepy and subtle, with little graphic gore in them.  They tend to start out form a very realistic, but details increasing pile upon details leading to a final sting at the often enigmatic conclusions.  

John Constantine: Hellblazer - In the Line of Fire

Written by Paul Jenkins, with art by Sean Phillips and Al Davidson
Year of Publication: 2015

Magician and con man John Constantine has once more evaded damnation.  This time by splitting off the negative aspects of his personality and sending them to Hell in his place.  However, things are far form over for him.  Haunted by the loss of parts of himself, Constantine has to find out what kind of person he wants to be.  In the meantime there are ghostly dogs, haunted houses, demonic soccer fans and the spirit of England itself and more to deal with.  At the same time he has to confront the deepest and darkest of his own past in order to become whole again.

John Constantine was first created by legendary comics creator Alan Moore in the pages of Swamp Thing in 1985.  In 1987 the character graduated to his own title, John Constantine:  Hellblazer, which ran for 300 issues until 2013.  Throughout it's run Hellblazer was one of the cornerstones of Vertigo, the mature readers imprint of DC Comics.  In more recent years Constantine has become part of the more mainstream DC Universe. John Constantine was a working class English magician, who was always at best an antihero.  He was a con man, a manipulator, a thief and often extremely unlikeable but usually sympathetic, even when he succeeded, it was often more due to luck, bargaining  or trickery than any magical ability.  Fortunately for fans, Vertigo are reprinting Hellblazer in bulky large format books.  In the Line of Fire is the tenth volume collecting issues 97 to 107 which ran throughout 1996.  It's part of the hitherto uncollected four year run on the title by writer Paul Jenkins and artist Sean Phillips.

The book consists of loosely linked mostly one and two part stories and one three part story.  The story about the soccer hooligans and the demon is possibly the weakest, but it is still pretty fun and the rest are good slices of classic Hellblazer.  Interestingly, for an American comic published by an American company, the stories are very British and full of references to British politics, history and mythology.  Jenkins has a good feel for time and place and roots the comic very much in the Britain of the mid nineties.  The horror is rooted in the characters and is well complemented by Phillips' artwork which is at turns realistic and moody.

Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances

Written by Neil Gaiman
Year of Publication:  2015
Genre:  Fantasy, horror, Science-fiction

This is fantasy author Neil Gaiman's third collection of short stories (following Smoke and Mirrors (1999) and Fragile Things (2006)).  Here is a collection of short tales (some of them very short) and poems ranging over a variety of speculative fiction, from horror, to fantasy and science-fiction, fables, fairy tales  and dramas.  There is a story about Sherlock Holmes in retirement, a Doctor Who short story and a second short story follow up to Gaiman's successful novel American Gods (2001) (the first story "Monarch of the Glen" can be found in the Fragile Things collection).

As the title suggests, there are some pretty disturbing scenes and elements in the stories, so people who were turned on to Gaiman from his children's books may be advised to think carefully before reading.  All due to the range of the stories it may be too much of a mixed bag for some.  However, this collection is a great sampler of Gaiman's themes and is definitely recommended for fans.