The Affinity Bridge

The Affinity Bridge: A Penny Dreadful Review

            An airship crashes into a London park and the pilot, a valuable automaton, is missing. A strangler stalks the streets, supposedly the glowing ghost of a policeman out for revenge. To top off this situation, there are zombies lurking in the shadows. What’s an ailing queen to do? Put her best agent on the case. Sir Maurice Newbury and his assistant Miss Veronica Hobbes, working out of their office at the British Museum, puzzle out the strange occurrences in The Affinity Bridge by George Mann.

            This is an exciting mystery with a bit of a Sherlock Holmes flavor. Sir Maurice has quite a bit of depth, and this book hints at lots of secrets I’m just itching to uncover. Miss Hobbes is clever, indomitable, and very feminine. I do love an epilogue which changes my entire view of a character and thusly the story, and The Affinity Bridge has one of these. No, I will not tell you what it reveals. That would spoil the whole thing!

            There are a lot of different threads to this story. Some don’t seem relevant at first, but I assure you that they all have their purpose. This is an excellent mystery that keeps you guessing until the big reveal at the end. Bravo, George Mann!

            I give The Affinity Bridge four and a half gears out of five. I quite enjoyed this book, and I look forward to discovering the rest of the Newbury and Hobbes mysteries. They make a good team.

Your Correspondent From The Bookstore,

Penny J. Merriweather

Pretty Deadly

Pretty Deadly: A Penny Dreadful Review

            The Wild West is an excellent setting for a showdown of supernatural proportions. The sweeping landscapes lend themselves well to titanic struggles. The creators of Pretty Deadly, from Image comics, understand this well. I’ve read this comic twice through, and I still haven’t grasped everything that is going on, but the images stick with me, like a stubborn dream. Pretty Deadly is surreal. It’s morbid. It’s gorgeous.

            Death’s daughter roams the land in a tale told by a rabbit skeleton to a butterfly. Death’s agents pursue a young girl and her blind guardian across an epic, sparse desert landscape.

The script by Kelly Sue Deconnick reads like a folk tale. The art by Emma Rios has an eerie, flowing quality. The colors by Jordie Bellaire have an almost sepia tone, giving this strange work a mythological feel, as if the events within are a well-loved tale that happened long ago, when it is in fact only a couple of years old.

            I give this strange and eerie comic four gears out of five. It is beautiful and harsh, and definitely something to seek out.

Your Correspondent From The Bookstore,

Penny J. Merriweather

Peter And The Starcatchers

Peter And The Starcatchers: A Penny Dreadful Review

            Have you every wondered how Peter Pan got to Neverland? Ever wondered how he met Captain Hook? Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson know. They wrote a book about it and called it Peter And The Starcatchers.

            Peter is an orphan bound for servitude to the evil King Zarboff the Third. Sailing on the same ship as Peter, a ship which is called the Never Land, is ambassador’s daughter Molly Aster, and a mysterious trunk. A terrifying pirate called Black Stache, after his gorgeous facial hair,  has heard of the great treasure in the trunk, and will stop at nothing to obtain it.

This book also features some excellent illustrations by Greg Call. I dearly love an illustrated book. I feel pictures add so much. Here, they are exciting and beautiful. I think Black Stache’s luxurious facial hair grows longer and sleeker with each illustration.

This book is intended for a young adult audience, but it is so clever and magical that anyone can enjoy it. It would also be an excellent choice for reading aloud, so parents could share it with children who might struggle with a tale of this length. There’s a lot of humor and much potential for silly voices.

I highly recommend this new take on an old story. Peter And The Starcatchers is a great book. I rate it at five gears out of five. I shall treasure and reread my copy forever.

Your Correspondent From The Bookstore,

Penny J. Merriweather