Reading Roundup - Mostly May 2017

So, it has been a terrible month for reading. To get even one proper book I've had to extend into early June. There are several reasons for this:

1. I've spent a lot of time not just commuting in and out, either being off sick or taking days for childcare or gaming, which means I lose about 2.5 hours of listening time per day.
2. My current Challenge book is Wild Swans, which is dense AF and I can't do it justice if I'm half out of it.
3. I lost a gang of listening time to Gladiator (Volume 1 of Wolf's Empire,) which was ultimately so meh I haven't managed to finish it.

That being said…

Saga is an ongoing series by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples about – more or less – the child of a pair of star-crossed lovers, one from either side of a techno-magical space war, and the various forces that want to eliminate/aid/capture them all. I came to it via Wil Wheaton's use of the character Lying Cat to respond to statements from the Trump administration. Volume 1 features the birth of our neonatal lead, a cadre of genuine ghosts putting the Scooby Doo on invaders, a spaceship grown from wood, and a six year old sex slave, which last is either going to be a bold move or a complete deal breaker. In this opening segment, bounty hunter The Will learns that his 'it's complicated' is working the same bounty and decides instead to visit a space brothel, and on discovering said slave girl determines to rescue her against seemingly impossible odds.

So, it's not a narrative without its problems, but overall it seems to be a largely hopeful story, and so I have hope.

Also, it has Lying Cat, who is pretty nifty.

My other read – in and out around Wild Swans – was Rick Riordan's The Dark Prophecy, book two of The Trials of Apollo. The now-mortal Apollo travels west with Leo Valdez and the (also mortal) ex-sorceress Calypso to Indianapolis, where the second emperor of the Triumvirate has his stronghold. The self-styled New Hercules is determined to remake the city as a monument to his own glory, but to do that he needs Apollo to help him fulfil a prophecy. Apollo, meanwhile must find another oracle in order to secure the second stage of his quest to reclaim control of prophecy and fate from the Triumvirate and so, hopefully, reclaim his godhood.

The Dark Prophecy sees the return of Apollo and his pre-teen master Meg, as well as Leo and Calypso, but there are also plenty of new characters. The Trials of Apollo are, despite the singular self-love of their narrator/protagonist, more truly ensemble works than most of Riordan's other works, which tend to focus on 3-5 individuals. Between the nails-hard lesbian moms Hemithea and Josephine, a frenemy goddess of nets, and Yoruban warrior-demigod/accountant Olujime, the novel continues to open out a world which originally seemed almost entirely focused on Camp Half-Blood. Apollo, meanwhile, remains an engaging narrator, despite his fluctuations between arrogance and self-pity around flashes of genuine humanity, and Robbie Daymond once more provides excellent voice work, despite some oddly stilted editing in the early sections.