Manga and werewolves and games, oh my!
Back at uni now. Except I've finished uni, so can I really say "back at uni"?
ANYWAY. Couple of mini reviews of things.
Firstly, new manga! I've started reading CLAMP's "Magic Knights Rayearth" which I found at a carboot sale for 50p! I love carboot sales! It's nice, pretty standard "people get sucked into magical world" stuff, but the characters are funny and this is where Misaki in Angelic Layer got the name Hikaru from. Also there's loads of references to what's happening to them being like an RPG videogame, which is both good and could get a little annoying if they do it too much. I think I'll try to check out the rest. Not much else to say there.
Next, Hunting Ground, by Patricia Briggs. This is the second book, after Cry Wolf, in the Alpha and Omega werewolf series which is a spin-off of the Mercy Thompson urban fantasy series. I like these series' because unlike other urban fantasy one of the main draws isn't sex. There are references to sex in the books, but with A&O a lot of that is to do with how Anna, the Omega wolf heroine of the series, was abused by her former pack and how she's recovering through her relationship with Charles (who technically isn't an Alpha wolf because he isn't the head of a pack I've just realised) and also them working out their relationship when their wolf sides sealed their bond as a couple before their human sides did. There's also a similar thing in the Mercy series which is treated quite tactfully and I know there's a gradual recovery thing with her too, but I haven't read the latest two books there so I don't know all the details.
On a side note: why are female werewolves so victimised? A&O and the Kitty Norville series both feature as the main female protagonist female werewolves who have been abused in the past. And in the A&O and Mercy universe female werewolves are pretty oppressed. Without a mate they are the bottom of the pack and when they have a mate they take their rank from him, so if a dominant female wolf marries a submissive male, her rank in the pack is as a submissive wolf. There are apparently reasons for this (to do with protection mainly) but I just don't like this bizarre little trend. Although Kitty does get away from this by being a very strong character and eventually becoming the head of her old pack after having to take down the former psycho alpha male and female who killed her best friend and nearly killed her in the first book. Anna may become a stronger character (I'm not saying she isn't strong now though), but the A&O series has been set so far in a very short time span so it'll be a very gradual thing. But my point still is: why can't we have a series with a werewolf heroine who isn't downtrodden in some way and doesn't have a major trauma in her past? Basically a woman who is a werewolf and just basically gets on with things. Might not be uber exciting from a characterisation standpoint some might say, but I'd prefer that to this ongoing trend.
Anyway, back to the book and this will have plot spoilers. Firstly gonna say that it's not as good as Cry Wolf. Whilst I enjoy the Anna and Charles relationship a lot and like them as characters, it was most of the book before what I thought was the main plot, French Alpha wolf killed and Charles is the main suspect, even started. There was quite a bit of action before that, like a fight with some vampires who try and kidnap Anna (and Anna ripped the head off one), but I thought they could have made more of the whole murder thing. It just felt like "yeah this guy (who is a psychopath anyway) has been killed, it looks like it's Charles, but we know it isn't anyway so whatever". Maybe they just should have reworded the blurb on this one because that murder really isn't that big of an issue. But the one person who I thought wasn't behind it was, which was interesting. It was the head werewolf of England, who I didn't suspect because his human mate was killed halfway through the book. Incidently the mental picture I have of him is like Herrick from Being Human. But this guy's name is Arthur and he really thinks he is the reincarnation of THE Arthur. To be fair he does have Excalibur. Basically he was trying to frame Charles to get him killed so that he could steal Anna who he thought was his Guinevere. No, seriously. The head of the American werewolves Bran is a laid back (but extremely dangerous) former Welsh bard who actually did know King Arthur and may be the basis for the monsters in legends and sin stories like Beowulf and we get the guy who is bat guano insane, how is that fair? anyways he was assisted by a fae woman who it turns out is Nimue, Lady of the Lake. Didn't see that coming either. I also thought she was behind the attack on Anna. Although she kinda was the final villain in the end, but whatever.
The pacing and everything was good and whilst I say again it's not as good as Cry Wolf (I missed characters like Sage and Asil) it was still pretty good read. It was also set in Seattle which I liked because when they mentioned the market I could go "I went there!". But I just hope that since Anna and Charles' relationship is more established now the next book can be more about action.
Okay, that one was more ranty than reviewy and a little all over the place, I apologise there.
Anyways, one thing whilst I'm back at uni is I've got a hold of Bioshock 2 and shall soon be playing and enjoying that. I've been waiting to play this game for so long and now I finally can. YAY! Definately gonna let you know how it goes.
Peace out