THE HUNGER AND THE DUSK by G. Willow Wilson and Chris Wildgoose is set in a fantasy world suffering from climate change where orcs and humans are increasingly clashing over the dwindling fertile lands, when the savage Vangols return to the continuent after centuries. Can the two races put aside their differences to fight off a worse threat? This is perfectly well done but nowhere near as distinctive as Wilson’s Cairo, her series Air or her novel Alif the Unseen — though someone who’s more a fan of epic fantasy than me might like her treatment of the tropes better.
DESTINY, NY: Who I Used To Be by Pat Shand and Manuel Preitano is set in a contemporary world where magic works and Chosen Ones are common enough that there’s a school for them. All Chosen Ones have to deal with “what do I do now that I’ve achieved my destin?” but Logan finished her mission at 13 and has been feeling lost ever since.
Now she’s getting a new lease on life as she strikes up a relationship with Lilith, daughter of a mob family. Unfortunately Logan’s fellow student Gia has just received a vision her destiny is to destroy the ultimate evil — and apparently it’s Lilith. My only complaint about this one is that while the final (as far as I know) volume and this one are normally priced, V2 is exorbitant, so I won’t be catching up on this series for a while.
THE NEWSBOY LEGION Volume II collects the rest of the series following Volume One, running from 1944 through 1947. This follows the same formula — the four newsboys stumble into trouble, the Guardian rescues them — but with various creators pinch-hitting for Simon and Kirby as they stayed busy with war work, it isn’t as charming (Curt Swan provided the cover to the right). Still a lot of fun, though.
Some years before Jack Vance followed up The Eyes of the Overworld with Cugel’s Saga, he authorized Michael Shea to write a sequel, THE QUEST FOR SIMBILIS. Once again Cugel is out to get revenge on the Laughing Magician; a new ally convinces him the best way is to locate the long-vanished master mage Simbilis, who will happily reward Cugel with triumph over his foe. The results are second-rate Vance, much as Shea’s later Color Out of Time was third-rate Lovecraft. The one quality of Vance Shea does master is misogyny, as he plays one woman’s demon-rape for laughs and Cugel assaulting a well-endowed prison guard later is supposed to be funny too. Forgettable.
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