Books 39-40
Vinland Saga Omnibus, Vol. 10 by Makoto Yukimura
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Thorfinn has found himself in an untenable situation. Floki wants to take over the Jomsborg viking enclave and make his young grandson the ruler. The Jomsviking now know Thorfinn is alive and want him to rule. Thorkell is around and just wants to kill people like usual. There's a new enemy working with Garm, a young spearsman who is even faster and more deadly than Thorfinn. Worse, he enjoys killing as much as Thorkell. And somehow King Canute is involved but no one knows just how.
But the truly bad part of this for Thorfinn is if he doesn't adhere to his promise to be a non-violent man, the revenge obsessed Hild will put a crossbolt into him before he can fight. She's just the woman to do it, too. But their friends have been kidnapped. If Thorfinn doesn't fight, they'll die. If he does fight, he'll die.
We're starting to get back into what made Vinland Saga interesting, the Machiavellian plotting and Viking violence, after long chapters of Slave!Thorfinn farming. It's so strange to me as I generally do not like endless fight scenes but I find this manga compelling (maybe because it's not the let's train train train and then fight stuff we see in so much of Shonen manga).
The art is so detailed and gorgeous as well. I'm looking forward to seeing more.
View all my reviews
The Monster in the Box by Ruth Rendell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Did I really give a Ruth Rendell book two stars and list it as something other than mystery? Yes I did. THis is way along in the Wexford series and it shows. The premise is rather outlandish. Years ago when he was just starting with the detectives, Wexford is involved with a murder case, strangulation, of a house wife and he KNOWS it's a short, stocky birthmarked man named Targo by the way the man looked at him while walking his dog.
He's relating this story to his current partner, as a much older man, because Targo is back in the picture. The closest anything Wexford could have pinned on the man back in the day was stalking (of him) and all he really knows is this man goes through wives (divorced, not dead) and he loves dogs more than people. HIs partner doesn't believe him because who would based on a 'look he gave me.'
We have another non-case that Hannah is following of Tamima a Moslem girl who decided not to go on to her A levels in spite of her intelligence and her teacher (wife of Wexford's partner) is sure she's being forced to marry which is illegal in England. Hannah prides herself on being super anti-racist (and yet still comes off that way sometimes which Wexford cheerfully comments on) but it ends up reading like the police harrassing a Moslem family constantly for no real reason other than they can't find the girl (which naturally they now think there is an honor killing in play).
The storylines eventually dove tail (it takes a full half the book for Wexford to relay his story and Hannah to hound this family) but it's so predictable when it does. It really looks like a case of the police wearing blinders. There is never any other suspects. Wexford is 100% sure he's right. And that's why it's not a mystery. We don't follow clues. We sit around waiting for Wexford to find one shred of evidence to prove himself right. It was rather dull.
Also you can tell Rendell was older when she wrote this. We have endless comparisons between how things are now versus how they were when Wexford was young and his complete disdain for a lot of the modern culture. I have to wonder is it Rendell or Wexford who is really complaining about 'mealy mouthed political correctness.' If this had been my first Rendell book, I doubt I'd have read another.
View all my reviews