Shangri-la - Mathieu Bablet (4.2🌟)

Shangri-la is a science fiction graphic novel originally published in France in 2016 and translated into Spanish in 2017. To me it is mainly social and political critic in outer space dealing with issues such as mass media and crowd manipulation, ethics of genetics and creation of life, racism and discrimination. The scientific aspects of the work are also interesting to say the least. This is not hard science fiction, but the author takes the time to explain relevant topics effortlessly.

The events take place in a space station orbiting earth centuries after humanity made its home planet uninhabitable. There is no formal government at the station but a corporation called “Tianzhu” dictating norms and providing jobs for everyone who complies with their ideas of a perfect society. We follow Scott and the crew of a small vessel sent by Tianzhu to investigate an accident in a smaller station. They find everyone death and evidence of a small explosion. This is not the first time they find something like this and Scott goes back to Tianzhu to ask them for more resources to take his investigations further. However, Tianzhu are not interested and he is not given any explanation. Scott’s crew mates ask him to join a revolutionary movement to stop Tianzhu manipulating the population. However, he doesn’t understand their arguments and continues to be loyal to the corporation.

Not much time passes, and Scott is kidnapped by a strange man. But then rescued by his friends. While interrogating the man, he reveals plans to colonise Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. Particularly a region called Shangri-la. As earth is still uninhabitable they think Shangri-la is the best option for humanity. However, they don’t want to take the Station’s population there. They want to create a new human race from scratch. By recreating the conditions in the big-bang, or the collision of stars, (requiring huge amounts of energy hydrogen fuses into Helium, and with more energy, Helium fuses into Carbon which form the basic structures of life) they want to become the gods of a new humanity. It is not clear if this group of scientists is part of Tianzhu or not, but the ethical and moral dilemma of their actions force him to open his eyes. He decides to join his friends and fight for change in the station. Being a scientist himself he realises that the recreation of the big-bang in a small space station may be fatal to the rest of the population. He then designs a plan to destroy their laboratory.

Opinion: I really liked this novel. The story is gripping, and the art is a-ma-zing! We are given much more than a nice account in space, but social and political commentary embedded in layers on the story and which I enjoyed and recognised as relevant in our times: manipulation of masses, consumerism, critique of marketing methods, discrimination, slavery among others. We have the political and social dynamics within the space station, racism, discrimination, manipulation of masses. We have the secrets the Tianzhu heads keep from the population. We have a group of scientists playing god and all the ethical and moral assumptions this brings. We have (easy to understand) science explaining the way atoms are created, from Hydrogen, to Helium to Carbon which can lead to the creation of life, and how we can recreate this process with anti-matter and huge amounts of energy.

Although the art is of excellent quality, especially the panels of space and earth, the contrast with the space station, etc, one weakness I found is the design of the faces of the characters.  Not distinguishable between them and with little appeal at first sight but not a big deal after a while.  Also the social criticism, at points, came as too evident, or too much into the foreground, that it was distraction from  the main plot. I like social commentary but I feel it works better if it is subtly interwoven within the fabric of a story.

I have the third Spanish edition published by Dibbuks in 2018. 222 pages in total.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Michael Klastorin (4🌟)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The Ultimate Visual History is a beautiful book about the making of one of my favourite science fiction movies of all time. This was the first movie that blew my mind as a child and when I saw this edition I added it into my wish list right away. I was lucky enough to get it a few months later through Wordery give away 😊 Thanks!

The book follows the story of the creation of the movie chronologically in short chapters all of which are fully illustrated with behind the scenes photographs and pictures of concept art, story boards and scripts. We start with Spielberg’s first ideas and with selling the concepts to major Film Production companies. There are explanations of the negotiations and then his partnering with movie making people such as producers, visual, audio effects people, illustrators, photography directors, etc. We also follow his thought process in choosing the main actors as well as designing the sets, aliens, and particularly the Mothership. I think this last bit was my favourite. Of course the book also refers to problems, things that went wrong, changes of plans, additions, deletions, everything that happens during filming. Not much to say but to recommend it to any fun on the movie or any fan of science fiction in general.

My edition was published by Titan Books in 2017. It has 192 pages.

The Soul of Anime. Collaborative Creativity and Japan's media success story - Ian Condry (4🌟)

The Soul of Anime is a scholarly look into Japan’s anime industry, media and fandom. This is a “serious” book about a fun topic. Published in 2013 it recounts ethnographic accounts, interpretations and conclusions on participant observation and interviews rating since (as far as I could tell) 2004. The aim of the book, I think, is to develop the concept of Collaborative Creativity as the combustible which keeps the industry alive and working in synch with parallel industries and fandom. Condry defines the anime industry as being transmedia, that is it embraces/crosses/feeds other medias such as toys, figurines, video games, manga and at the same time feeding from them. So the study in the book contains references to all these media and their relationship with the anime industry. Collaborative Creativity arises from these relationships to create characters and worlds depicted in anime films but also recreated in toys and video games as well as fan created media (fan art, fanfic, fan videos, etc.) I don’t think I am capable to develop more this concept here but I guess I have given a slight initial approximation.

In addition to insights on Collaborative Creativity I found two aspects of this book extremely interesting. The first one is the ethnographic tales on meeting reputed directors and artists, participation in script, storyboard meetings and even voice recording for an anime film. The second one is the multiple references of interesting anime including some failures. I ended up with a short list of anime I didn’t know about but which I want to watch now: mainly Summer Wars and The Girl who leapt through time by Mamoru Hosoda who Condry actually met.

My edition was published by Duke University Press and it has 242 pages

Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata (4🌟)

Snow Country is a short novel, first published in 1956. It is considered a classic of Japanese literature. Not only it depicts traditions and social conventions of the Japan of the 1950s but immerses the reader in a gentle flow of emotions, subtle yet intense.

Shimamura is amarried man from Tokyo in a relationship with a young geisha, Komako, who is desperate in love with him. Both characters cannot be more different and their relationship is odd at best. He is from the city. She is from a small town. He is much older than her and has a family. She lives an isolated, lonely live as a geisha. One thing they have in common though is they are both looking for something to fill a hole in their lives. And their relationship isn't doing that but they keep trying in their own odd ways.

Opinion: this is the kind of novel that grows in your heart when you have the time to process and reflect on the meanings of metaphors and symbols embedded in the narrative. The story is filled with beautiful descriptions of the landscapes and surroundings, setting up brilliantly the mood between the couple's encounters.  There are some codes (to me) left here and there which the author uses to convey emotions, decisions or memories.  I took note of a few but I'm sure I missed many. For example: 

* moths by the window screens, death and stuck, until they fall to the floor.

* the milky way at night showing the way to the characters (?), 

fire, which destroys or ends lives, and 

* Chijimi (traditional clothes), which Shimamura compares to his relationship with Komako. If well kept Chijimis are ment to last for decades. However Shimamura's attitude towards the geisha is only comparable to the discarding of clothes.
* fire, which destroys and ends loves.

In addition to the above codes, the dialogues between the couple told much more than the words said. Distance and indifference from Shimamura, and love, desperation and loneliness from Komako. Won't say more but you have to read it.

My edition is a Modern Classics by Penguin Books. Published in 2011 and with 121 pages.

Classic Tales of Horror - Canterbury Classics

Classic Tales of Horror is a collection of gothic tales, dealing with ghosts, vampires, psychological fears among other popular themes of the nineteenth century horror literature. This is a beautiful edition by Canterbury Classics. Here the list of contents:

1. The Tell-tale heart by Edgar Allan Poe: the narrator tries to convince the reader of his sanity by recounting a murder he committed. - a masterpiece
2. Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker: an unnamed man goes for a walk, against all advice, in a forbidden village on Walpurgis Night (Saint Walpurga was known for battling fatal illnesses and witchcraft). He is confident nothing will happen to him until it starts to snow and wolves come. - another favourite, dark and mysterious.
3. The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving: a man sells his soul to the devil to get rich. - liked it.
4. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce: a condemned man is about to be hanged on a bridge during the USA Civil War. - liked it.
5. Kerfol by Edith Wharton -  a man who is looking to buy a house following the adivice of his friend, Lanrivain, gets to know the story of Kenfol, a house with dog ghosts. - a ghost story with hints on gender roles in late 1800s. Liked it!
6. The Elixir of Life by Honore de Balzac: a dying rich man asks his son to use “the elixir of life” on him once he is death. The son is sceptical but decides to apply one drop of the elixir on the body’s eye. After a few seconds the body opens its eye …. Loved it!!
7. The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe - a man visits and old friend at his house. The house is in a bad state and the friend and his sister are ill. The narrator tries to help but the situation gets worse.
8. The Case of Lady Sannox by Arthur Conan Doyle - a doctor, who is having an illicit affair with a married woman is called to attend another woman who has been poisoned with a dagger. - liked it. I liked the writing style a lot.
9. Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorn - a man leaves his wife to attend a secret meeting. The meeting is a kind of initiation into a cult. - didn't like much the writing style but the story is good.

The Temporal Void - Peter F. Hamilton (4🌟)

The Temporal Void is the second book in The Void trilogy. I read the first book, The Dreaming Void, only a few weeks ago and I couldn’t wait to read this one. This is a science fiction with space opera and fantasy-like elements. I say fantasy-like because the narrative in Inigo’s dreams (please read my previous post about the Dreaming Void) takes place in a strange world in a medieval setting. However, I was happy to read in this second novel that some scientific explanations are starting to emerge on the nature of The Void and Querencia, one the planet inside it.

I will not say much about this novel here as it is a sequel and I don’t want to spoil the first novel to anyone. Things I would like to highlight are the political conflicts and the turmoil caused across the whole galaxy by the Living Dream (a cult who believes the future of humanity is inside the Void) planning a pilgrimage to the Void. Really engaging political and social criticism, providing some food for thought. In terms of characters not much to say here. The plot progressed with little character development, except perhaps Edeard, the Waterwalker, the guy who lives in a planet in the Void who is the protagonist of the fantasy-like chapters.

My edition was published in 2014 by Pan Macmillan. It has 746 pages.

Catarsis - Moto Hagio (4.5🌟)

Catarsis (Catharsis) is a collection of manga short stories some of which appeared in "A Drunken Dream and other stories" (which is out of print and impossible to get.) This is the Spanish translation and it contains 12 short stories and here I will leave my impressions on each of them:

1. Mitad (Hanshin: half god): this is the story of conjoined female twins. One is beautiful but doesn't speak. The other one is intelligent but ugly. Her body is giving up as her sister takes all her nutrients from her. - Excellent, shocking,  loved it.
2. La chica iguana (iguana girl): a baby girl is born. Everybody likes her except her mother who thinks she is an iguana.  When her little sister is born, the "iguana girl" is relegated, ridiculed and despied by the mother. - Brilliant, moving, loved it.
3, Camuflaje de Angel (Angel Mimic): a girl is rescued by a man when she tries to comit suicide. She later realises that the man is her new biology teacher. - thought provoking, loved it.
4. Las Pildoras de ir a la escuela (School pills): a boy at school sees appliances instead of people's heads. He is always tired always do lacks motivation. The girl he secretly loves gives him special pills to give him more energy. However as they get  to know each other they discover there are other things that connect them.
 - nice, liked it.
5. Al Sol de la tarde (Evening Sun): a story about married life, family and routine. A married woman questions herself on the traditions and sexist behaviour she's been a victim off. However at the same time she is also exercises the same kind of behaviour with her own family. - thought provoking, liked it.
6. El Falso Rey ( The Fake King): a beggar follows a man across the desert, on his way home. - a story about vengeance. I liked it.
7. El Invernadero (The Greenhouse): the story of a teenager  and his younger brother. They became family when their parents married but they went to New York and left the children in their country house.  Feelings develop between the two of them until they find a strange greenhouse which seems haunted. - twisted, dark, liked it.
8. Marine: a 6 year old boy works hard to support her sick mother. One day she meets a young woman who helps him with a gang of boys. Years pass, the boy's mom dies and he moves in with a rich man's family who offers to help. He keeps seeing that young woman who seems not to age. Life is hard and he has to endure the abuse of the rich man's daughter. After a few years he moves out of the house to become a professional tennis player. His only motivation is the young woman he meet when he was a kid. - engaging, interesting,  loved it.
9. Catarsis (Catharsis): a teenager is struggling with his studies, the loss of a friend and life at home. He's got possessive, intransigent and intrusive parents. - this story hit close to home. I can definitely sympathise with the protagonist. Loved it!
10. El Niño que volvía a casa (the child who comes home): a teenage boys and her mother can see her lost son. - grieve, acceptance, family life.
11. Sayo se cose un yukata: Sayo is a beautiful fourteen year old girl. She is making a Yukata for three Odon festivities. She is using the fabric her mother bought her 2 years ago. In her mind she talked to her mother and remembers how she use to make her yukatas when she was little. - kind of cute. I liked it.
12. Amigo X: a young man remembers the time when he bullied a boy at school who got better grades than him. - it was OK.