'Elric Volume 1: The Ruby Throne' - Moorcock, Blondel, Poli, Recht, Bastide (Titan Comics)

The laptop is working again! This blog might just see a little more activity from here on in...

It's a fact long ago established, on blogs other than this one, that I will read pretty much anything 'Eternal Champion' related that Michael Moorcock has written. Which means pretty much everything he has written doesn't it? I mean, from what I've seen it all ties together at one level or another. I have a lot of reading to get through yet then…

In the meantime though, it's the 'Eternal Champion' books 'proper' that provide an element of the comfort read but with characterisation and an 'edge' that really forces me to engage with what is in front of me. Elric may not be my favourite of the Champions (this changes between Corum and Hawkmoon with a little Bastable thrown in for variety) but, of all of them, he is the one with the tale that is really worth staying the course for.

That's the reason why then that you will see Elric pop up a little more in other mediums than the likes of Erekose etc. Especially in comics which offer the kind of 'wide screen' format that really suit Elric's sprawling, multi-dimensional adventures. All of which leads us to the latest comic book iteration of Elric's adventures…

The story itself will be familiar to fans with Elric battling the human side of his nature as well as his vicious cousin, Yyrkoon, who wishes to rule Melnibone and restore it to its old cruel glories. What is surprising though is the amount of backstory (and 'front story' too, if 'front story' is a term…) that has been taken out. This is a very much stripped down version of the tale with only the key moments happening and that's fair enough if you're a first time 'Elric reader' wanting to get a feel for things. Longer term readers may feel like there's a little too much missing for the read to be truly satisfying. That was how I found it anyway. The important bits are all there and the story itself doesn't feel disjointed in any way, just lacking the depth of the novel.

The artwork though… The artwork almost makes up for the skeletal plot with Robin Recht and Didier Poli combining to give the reader some quite frankly awesome depictions of Melnibone and its decadent inhabitants. Recht and Poli don't pull any punches when showing the readers the cruel and yet somehow strangely lazy excesses of Melnibone; this is not a book for younger readers (just in case you were wondering) with explicit scenes of torture that are exactly what Melnibone is all about. And those last scenes where Arioch makes his first appearance… You can almost hear his entrance, the artwork is that good.

I'm not sure where 'The Ruby Throne' falls then as the plot is a little too flimsy for the long term fan while the art might put off newcomers (it worked for me but I can see it being a little too evocative for some…) I enjoyed it for what it was though and am looking forward to reading 'Stormbringer' when it is published; just hoping there's a little more meat on that one...

'Cemetery Girl Book One: The Pretenders' - Charlaine Harris & Christopher Golden (Jo Fletcher Books)

Me and Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance/Whatever You Want To Call It (I don't even know if there is a difference anymore) decided to go our separate ways a long time ago. It had been kind of fun while it lasted but what looked to be a fairly interesting sub-genre swiftly became the same 'angst ridden sex' plot recycled over and over again. This may sound rich coming from me (the guy who has a bit of a soft spot for derivative epic fantasy) but there you go; I never once said I was fair minded ahout these things. Urban Fantasy and I were done... Until now that is.
You all know that I am a sucker for comic books (especially right now) so it was a bit of a no-brainer that I would give 'Cemetery Girl' a go.The blurb sounded interesting as well; go on, have a look.

Half remembered traumatic events lead to a young girl waking up in a graveyard with no idea of who she is, only that she must hide if she wants to survive. Others live in the cemetery but they are more interested in passing on to whatever life comes next, they are no danger to her.
What was a search for answers becomes a whole lot more though when our heroine witnesses an arcane graveside ritual gone badly wrong. Our heroine is on the run again with a passenger in her head who can't leave until justice is done.

'Cemetery Girl' is a very quick read, so this will be a shorter review than normal, but it was also a book that was incredibly easy to get into and read along. While I could probably take an educated guess at where the story is going, Harris and Golden's handling of the plot so far means that I will stick around for a while at least.

Harris and Golden make this first instalment a gripping one by dialling back the supernatural elements (making them more intriguing) and concentrating on the mystery of our heroine instead. Who is she? Where has she come from? Will she ever find it in herself to trust the lonely old caretaker? Okay, that last bit probably wasn't what the writers were aiming for but, for some reason, that one hit the spot for me.

There are loads of questions to be answered here and, on the whole, Harris and Golden do a good job of maintaining the readers interest. They do string things out a little too far though, there's only so much you can say about a character with no identity (when you're not planning on answering your own questions just yet) before it starts to get old. Luckily for us, Harris and Golden rescue things by allowing the ritual murder plot to have a little time. It's a good one too if resolved a little too simply.

On the whole then, 'Cemetery Girl' is a promising start to what looks like it could be a promising series. I wasn't too sure about the artwork (Kramer's work is good but missing a little something that I can't put my finger on, let me get back to you on that...) but there's enough here for me to give the series one more book at least. Maybe Urban Fantasy and I aren't quite done after all...