Review: Turok, Dinosaur Hunter Vol. #1: Conquest

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter Vol. #1: Conquest by Greg Pak, Mirko Colak, and Cory Smith
Series: Turok: Dinosaur Hunter vol. #1
Published by: Dynamite on September 9, 2014
Pages: 128
Source: Purchased by me
Genre: Graphic Novel, Alternate History, Fantasy, Dinosaurs

"Shunned from his tribe, a young Native American named Turok fights to survive, making a lonely life for himself in the unforgiving forest. But his hard-won cunning and survival skills face the ultimate test when man-eating Thunder Lizards attack his people! Why are dinosaurs here? How have they survived? And will Turok use his abilities to save a society that's taken everything away from him?" (Source: Goodreads description)

My Thoughts: My personal experience with the Turok franchise has only been through brief moments playing the 2008 XBOX360 video game (click here for more information on this VERY different game).. Suffice to say, I was not at all prepared for the amazing journey ahead of me. I generally pick up anything that has a dinosaur on it, is about a dinosaur, or somehow involves treating dinosaurs nicely, so when I saw the horrific display of 'manhood' on the cover of Conquest, I was intrigued, but worried. Ultimately, I should have only been worried about whoever was against Turok and his soon-to-be-friend dinosaur companions.

I have always been fascinated with Disney's Pocahontas and Mel Gibson's Apocalypto for the same reason. (SPOILER WARNING FOR APOCALYPTO, KIND OF?) Both films/concepts introduce an interpretation of native, less technologically advanced human life in a region before European settlers came into the fray. Conquest depicts an even more alternate history version in which not only are Europeans coming to take over the land and displace natives, but they have brought along DINOSAURS to help do their bidding. It's not all as bad for the dinosaurs as the cover leads you to believe, and I really enjoyed the use of dinosaurs in a way that isn't simply scientific experimentation or time warping. I also really enjoyed the use of somewhat diluted and washed out colors in this graphic novel as a way of emoting exactly how dark and hopeless most of the storyline is. The content in the images was on full display, versus using bright, flashy colors to simply display the actual artwork itself (although the artwork itself was also very impressive).

My Rating: ★★★★

#FridayReads: Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang

Oh, weekend. You creep up on me and surprise me with a beautiful Friday off to enjoy some light graphic novel reading. Well, let me rephrase that.. Maybe I didn't choose the lightest graphic novel duology that I could think of, but it's been actually rather educational, to say the least.

"Boxers & Saints" volumes 1 & 2 by Gene Luen Yang

Published September 2013

This graphic novel duo tells a fantastical version of China's Boxer Rebellion, the "violent anti-foreign and anti-Christian uprising which took place in China ... between 1899-1901" (source: Wikipedia). To be totally honest with you guys, I honestly don't remember much about the Boxer Rebellion from school except the name, so I was actually pretty shocked that I decided to rent these from my local library. But I felt as if they were receiving a lot of good reviews and hype as of late, so I decided, what the heck?

Boxers follows a boy named Little Bao who has grown up in a small Chinese village. One day, a Christian man comes into Little Bao's town and causes absolute chaos. As a result, Little Bao and other member of his village decide that they will not put up with Christians destroying their culture, both in essence and in actual physical objects, and Little Bao begins to grow an army trained in Kung Fu to combat Christians, both foreign and Chinese alike.

Saints is the story of an unwanted fourth daughter who finds comfort and support in Christianity. Before her realization of faith, she is simply called Four-Girl, but she later comes to be known as Vibiana. As the Rebellion that Little Bao is fighting creeps farther throughout China, Vibiana must choose if her faith in Christianity or her country will win her support.

I'm not at all a history buff, but something about Yang's writing style and imagery really has me hooked in the first volume. He really mixes the historical event of the Boxer Rebellion with the fantastical idea of beautifully portrayed Chinese gods and goddesses to pull in the reader. I'm excited to see how these turn out and bring you guys a thorough review later down the line!

Review: In Real Life by Cory Doctorow & Jen Wang

In Real Life by Cory Doctorow & Jen Wang (illustrator)

Graphic Novel, Published October 2014

Plot Overview

Teenage girl gamer, Anda, is offered the opportunity for a free trial membership to a guild in the MMORPG Coarsegold Online. IRL, Anda is a slightly chubby girl, but in-game she can be the warrior princess she wants to be. Almost immediately, Anda discovers that users are illegally harvesting in-game currency to sell to n00bs for real-life money. She gets quickly swept up into the market of eliminating this players, also for real-life money. It's not long before she comes across a player that tells her the truth of 'gold mining.'

My Review

To be completely honest, this book seems a bit more suited to the sociology section of a book store. Before the novel even begins, Doctorow introduces it as a demonstration of economic and social organization. As I came to understand this idea, 'organization' is the ability humans evolved in order to either organize or participate in organized events or jobs. This book was pitched to me as a girl-gamer-friendly look into the MMORPG world, with a bit of realism thrown in with the darker side of gold-minding (or farming in-game items for real-life currency), so I have to admit I was a bit bogged down with this introduction. While I do agree that this is an interesting topic to research, I wish it hadn't been attached to seemed to be to be a teen-friendly graphic novel.

But for the actual content and illustrations, this book is beautiful and well-crafted. I loved the style of the illustrations and the playful, soft edges to everything. It seemed like the kind of image that was at times imperfect but still easy to identify, making it a lot easier to relate to the characters. I liked that Anda, a slightly chubby high school student, was not featured as being the chubby gamer girl but instead the focus was more on the game and her enjoyment of it. At the same time, I also felt connected to her experience in trying to have a safe time on the internet (i.e. her Mom is overprotective about her not talking to strange, older men online).

I think this is a great story, but not necessarily suited for teens. It dives into the more corrupt aspects of online gaming where people break the rules and lie about it to get more people to help them out. In addition, Anda comes to know a boy who is basically working in a modern day gaming sweatshop... Which, personally, I found really out of place for what this graphic novel was set up to be. Maybe it's just my own personal expectations for this one, but again, Doctorow's introduction really threw me for a loop and made me experience this book a lot differently than if I'd just read it bare without the socio-economic influences.

My Rating: 3/5 stars