A Jungle of Tales

              I love the Seraph of the End manga and anime , so when I heard there was a light novel in that universe focusing on vampire lore and Mika’s life as a vampire specifically, I was so excited! Unfortunately, almost two years after I heard of it, there is still no official English translation. So, having found a reasonably readable fan translation 1 I decided to dive into that. I was a bit disappointed to find that Mika’s POVs are essentially just bookends on the first and second volumes. However, the backstory provided for the relationship between the vampires Crowley Eusford and Ferid Bathory is interesting – by the second volume I was quite enthralled – and both storylines are relevant to some of the questions I and other readers had about world of the manga.   1. Seriously, some I ran across had the most eye-bleeding fonts I've ever seen!         ...

             This independent animated series – viewable on YouTube - starts out as a slightly dark workplace comedy about demons and ends up being unexpectedly heartfelt. The main character is Blitzo (“ the ‘o’ is silent ”), an imp who has started a business that offers earthly revenge-murder to souls in hell. His employees are the imp couple Moxxie and Millie, and a hellhound receptionist named Loona. Despite their bickering and bloody antics, it quickly becomes clear that when Blitz does the whole “this is a family” thing, it isn’t corporate double-speak: he really does want connection and, although he has some boundaries issues, he finds it more with his co-workers than anywhere else. Loona is actually his adopted daughter, and even with Moxxie – who he butts heads with the most – Blitz is adorably protective, repeatedly throwing himself between the smaller imp and danger. For their part, Moxxie and Millie’s l...

  I first read this book in 2015 and found it enlightening and rather inspirational in a “people power” kind of way. Re-reading it in 2022, it is still a good book but the feelings it triggers are more complicated. More on that in a minute, though! BTW, as the title will no doubt make prospective readers wonder: This is not a “violently seize the means of production” book, this is a more moderate “Neoliberal capitalism, specifically, has really bad effects on people and the environment; We should do something about that!” kind of book. The recommendations lean toward actions that distribute power to more people and communities. What is “Neoliberal capitalism”? Essentially the kind that took hold in the 1980s and ‘90s that favors always lower regulation, always lower taxes, privatization of previously government-run public services like railroads, and lots of international free trade agreements. As the title of the first section, “Bad Timing”, suggests, it is unf...

              I’m always excited to find science fiction that explores the POV of a non-human consciousness in a way that feels alien. Adrian Tchaikovsky is clearly the current reigning champion of this. In this book he presents us with five different intelligent entities – the humans and spiders we met in the first book, plus octopuses, a computer-based consciousness, and a parasitic alien – which all have distinct species-level characteristics to the way they think that make sense given their lifestyles and evolutionary history 1 . At the same time, individuals within the first three species also have distinct personalities. The focus of this book is very much on the challenges of communicating with someone fundamentally different from you, but also gets to dive a bit into the psychology of “purpose”.   1. For instance, both the spiders and the octopuses are better than humans at thinking in 3 dime...

              Born in Venice in 1365, Christine de Pizan was arguably the world’s first feminist author, and this book in particular is focused on defending women against the slanders of misogynist male writers. To do this, Christine depicts herself in conversation with the feminine avatars of Justice, Reason, and Rectitude as together they fashion a metaphorical walled city – similar to Augustine’s ‘City of God’ – that will house and protect all ladies of virtue and competence, past, present, or future. Like Dante starting his ‘Divine Comedy’ at a point in his life where he is lost in a “dark wood” Christine depicts herself as having fallen into despondency – for if so many wise men speak ill of women it must be true, even if it contradicts her experience, right? To which Reason replies: “Notice how these same philosophers contradict and criticize one another…Come back to yourself, recover your senses, and d...

  “I’m telling you stories. Trust me.”             This is a gorgeous little book. The evocative language and the odd events create a magical feeling; while I would ordinarily read a book this length in a day or so, this one took me four because I felt the need to savor it. Part one is from the point of view of Henri, a French villager who has joined Napoleon’s army and has seen his enthusiasm for the great man wane, and even begin turning to hate. The second follows Villanelle, a bisexual Venetian girl who has inherited the webbed feet of her gondolier father, and who works in a casino. And the third section brings these two characters together in the unlikeliest way…             The first lines of the book make clear that Henri’s role in the army is certainly not the glorious one he probably dreamed of: “It was Napoleon who had such a passion for c...