Tag: talking animals

Animosity, Vol. 2: The Dragon by Marguerite Bennett

Animosity, Vol. 2: The Dragon by Marguerite Bennett

The plot thickens for Sandor, the hound dog, and his human, Jesse, as they attempt to make their way across the country to reunite Jesse with her half-brother.

“Jesse is growing up, and signs of it frighten Sandor more than they even frighten her. Sandor fears, so much, that he will be unable to protect Jesse from all pain, all terror, aware that he will not be there for her adulthood.”

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Now that all of the animals are sentient, the lines between human and animal, predator and prey have blurred. Certain species are starving to death. Other species are being farmed for their meat. It’s a dark story, but still fascinating in the way it flips reality on its head.

“The honeybees have retreated to some secret place, and the ants threaten blistering violence for the paw that reads the wrong mound, yet each seem unusual in their clannishness to their own kind.”

Along with their new sentience, some of the animals are considering the state of their souls… do they have one, and where do they go when they die? Others are banding together to fight against the humans or each other. And still others are protecting the only person or thing they care about, like Sandor.

My favorite part of this issue was the series recap at the end where the author, Marguerite Bennett, gives a brief glimpse into what’s going on in every state and country since the animals “woke”. Highlights include my home state of Illinois trying to figure out how to regulate the new reality (you know they would) and her description of the new Mongolia: “Little has changed.”

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Honestly, this book is worth reading if only for that section. I can’t help but be impressed by the imagination it took to combine the cultures, unique creatures and people of each corner of the world and provide its own mini-story.

The artwork, as you can tell from the cover, is haunting in places. You see animals wielding human weapons and wearing clothing. But it’s not cute, the overall effect is very disturbing. I won’t soon forget a deer lobbing a hand grenade into a group of shadowy figures in the forest and I think that’s probably the point.

Recommended for fans of dark science fiction graphic novels. Thanks for reading!

To read more of my reviews of graphic novels, go to
https://thehelpdeskbookblog.wordpress.com/category/comic-or-graphic-novel/page/1/


Animosity, Vol. 1: The Wake by Marguerite Bennett

Animosity, Vol. 1: The Wake by Marguerite Bennett

One day, animals obtained self awareness and the ability to speak. The world will never be the same.

They started thinking. They started talking. They started taking revenge.

There’s something profoundly disturbing when reading about animals embodying the worst of the human emotions. They’re angry, afraid, vengeful. Part of what draws humanity to the animals is that they’re not like that. They live in the moment. They operate from instinct. And the love they give is uncomplicated… the hate too.

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In Animosity, this paradigm is flipped on its head. Now animals can plan. They’re organized. They can make assumptions and mistakes.

When the animals changed, some pressing issues arose beyond the obvious problem of everybody hurting each other in the first panic and fear-filled moments following the change. How will the world feed itself? How will reproduction be controlled? Humanity had trouble providing for all even when not dealing with the quintillions of other lives on the planet.

And the love one dog has for his human can perhaps have some darkness in it that she doesn’t expect. There’s still loyalty. He’ll fight to protect her. But there’s some question to how much he’ll protect the rest of her family…

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Animosity is a surprisingly deep graphic novel that makes the reader question the role of animals in our lives and how the world could be a very different place if everyone, literally all life, acted like humanity. And how that might be an awful development.

Here’s my review of another book that is set in the dystopian world of Animosity: Animosity: Evolution, Vol. 1: Lex Animata by Marguerite Bennett

And thanks for reading!

The Autumnlands, Vol. 2: Woodland Creatures (The Autumnlands #2) by Kurt Busiek

The Autumnlands, Vol. 2: Woodland Creatures (The Autumnlands #2) by Kurt Busiek

The curious fantasy/science fiction graphic novel series The Autumnlands continues in volume two: Woodland Creatures.

In the last book, the chosen one, “Learoyd”, a violent and profanity-laden human from the future or, perhaps, the distant past, was summoned by a group of magic-wielding, sentient animals to save their world from the disappearance of magic.

But the effort of summoning Learoyd was so great, that it caused one of their sky-roving cities to crash to the earth. On the earth, there were tribes of violent and power-hungry creatures waiting for their chance to plunder the riches of the sky.

That entry ended with an epic explosion and fight with a bison tribe.

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In this book, Learoyd and Dusty, a magic-wielding pit bull who recently lost his father, venture into the wilds of earth to discover who is poisoning the animals and continue searching for a way to bring back the magic that continues to disappear from the world.

Dusty, though young, is no dummy and Learoyd isn’t quite what the animals were hoping he would be.

The great champion of legend- the hero we’d thought him to be- would have sallied forth just because it was the right thing to do. But this champion… I was learning that legends were a poor guide. He had reasons for all he did. His own reasons. Whether I understood or not…”

This graphic novel is surprising in its treatment of the themes of power, magic and betrayal. I like how the animals tell the story about how everything that happens one way, but the reality of what happens seems to be something else.

It is an interesting examination of the power of storytelling and the construction of legends. What is truth? How much is magic simply technology that isn’t understood yet?

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“This f-ing world. I thought it was a dream, at first. It comes off goofy, all badgers and warthogs in fancy robes and sh*t. Like a kids’ story. But there’s just as much sh*t here as there is anywhere, isn’t there?”

I didn’t particularly like how much Learoyd uses profanity, but it certainly gives him character.

This series is for adults. It contains adult themes, nudity, profanity and violence. And yet, I think it is worth the reading.

It asks big questions. It uses fantasy to explore strange worlds and the human condition. Recommended.

Thanks for reading!