Britannia Volume 3: Lost Eagles of Rome
Having moderately enjoyed the previous two entries in this graphic novel series, I wasnât against continuing it, as just the idea of a detective in Roman times is pretty awesome. This time heâs searching for the army standards that were lost in battle against early Germans. Heâs also got a female sidekick heâs hot for but wonât take advantage of, despite the fact she makes it pretty obvious sheâd welcome it.
With so little real estate on each page itâs tough to show detailed detective work, but what there is, is fascinating, especially from a historical perspective.
Storywise, I find it humorous that heâs probably the smartest person in at least Rome if not further, and yet so naĂŻve at the same time. Just about every move he made was the right one at the moment but wrong in the big picture, and he doesnât get it until itâs told to him. Hopefully by the time the next volume comes out Iâll have forgotten how bad he screwed up so I wonât pity/disrespect him, which otherwise makes him pretty useless.
The art is pretty standard, complimenting the story but not enhancing it.
3/5
Dictionary of Dinosaurs
Colorful though not realistic drawingsâsome even look art decoâof dinosaurs dominate the pages, with plenty of information and graphics strewn about in the area still available.
Pronunciation, English translation, sizeâwith a human next to it for comparisonâwhen and where it lived, and diet are all included on each page. And it really is a dictionary, with the entries in alphabetical order.
As it turns out, very few of the lizards get drawings; I assume thereâs not enough known about most of them to illustrate them accurately.
Alvarezsaurus is certainly one of the strangest looking, though we can figure out how it was named.
Ankylosaurus would look cute and cuddly if it wasnât for all those spikes.
Bambiraptor does not mean what you think it means.
Thereâs quite a few variations on the old triceratops.
Giraffatitanâs name speaks for itself.
Ornithomimus doesnât live up to its grandiose name.
Oviraptor plunders the same things I do.
Pachirhinosaurus sounds badass, but itâs hard to take it seriously when its head looks like a South Pacific god head.
Hmmm, come to think of it, I learned a lot about dinosaurs. . .
3.5/5
Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots
Just like thereâs a site for everything on the web, thereâs a doctoral dissertation for everything in the libraries of academia, or at least in the sometimes-fertile imagination of grad students. Hereâs the proof, a book about sex robots, though the author would kill me if she saw me writing it so simply.
Right away in the intro thereâs humor and self-awareness, which is a good harbinger. Actually, the title starts that with a pretty good pun. From there it delves into the ancient history of dildos and vibrators. Not sure what this has to do with the topic, but it’s fun, at least for a while.
As much as I’m enjoying the writing, I’m a third of the way through and the author seems to have forgotten what the book is supposed to be about in her fervor to provide historical perspective.
Getting through this becomes so tough I long for the humorous interludes, my fave being her running a conference amidst accusations of “bouncing.” Every once in a while she’ll sneak in a line like “I watch sex doll porn so you won’t have to,” and it reminds me why I keep reading till the end.
Despite the humor and conversational style, it really is more like a scientific report than anything else. I learned a lot of things, but not so many on the topic. But the important takeaway is that, even if it felt long at times, I enjoyed reading it.
3.5/5
Space Police: Attack of the Mammary Clans
A British police inspectorâof which there seem to be thousands todayâwakes up from cryo to find himself on an orbiting space station above Earth, with only one leg. There’s some mention of how he lost it, presumably in a previous book, but nothing on why they took his cryo tube or whatever it is from Earth to the space station. Seems like an excuse to have a contemporary detective move into science fiction.
Right from the start it’s trying really hard to be Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. The scene with the microwave is right out of Red Dwarf. {Do I know sci-fi comedy or what?}
Though I’ve traveled through Great Britain a lot, there’s a bunch of Britishisms I’m not getting.
I wish that there was at least one character that isn’t a complete idiot, and that goes for the protagonist as well. Sigh.
This was more silly than funny, not much different than others I’ve read in this genre, except in space.
2.5/5
;o)