All about the books we love

My Neighbor Totoro 1 by Hayao Miyazaki

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This looks like a printing of the movie itself, in color. I'm not sure if its the paper quality or what but it is rather muted and dull but that is minor. My bigger complaint is this is about half the size of a normal manga for no reason I can see.

I have a fondness of My Neighbor Totoro which was one of the holy grail's back in the 80s because it wasn't shown anywhere in the States and you had to hunt it down, usually see it shown at a con and like many of us, I fell in love with it there.

Satsuki and Mei and their father have moved to a rural, old and 'haunted' house and this whole volume is that moment. It's the kids running around looking at their new home and opening it. We get our first hints of the paranormal with the soot sprites all over the place. Also there are acorns everywhere and yes it could be a squirrel or something but you know it isn't.

And literally that's all that happens. If I didn't know I loved this story I would have rated this lower because it's a bit slow. It's all set up. In the movie it doesn't feel slow because it's only a few minutes but when the entirety of a manga is two girls running around opening doors, it's not that engage. There a few other characters popping in, Kanta, a shy boy and Granny who is there for soot sprite exposition. The weirdest thing (to someone from outside Japanese culture) is dad taking a bath with his two daughters.



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Wraith Squadron by Aaron Allston

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This was absolutely duller than dish water. You know that part in the heist movie where they put together the team? I hate that part in general (though I know people love that trope) that's exactly what this book is except no one has one ounce of personality. The closest any of them comes is the one who hates Wedge Antilles' second in command for killing his family (but this is so boring I can't even remember his name). A 100 pages in and we're still assembling and training the titular Wraith squadron on simulators so there's no tension, no real end goal (other than to let Wedge win a bet that this type of team is possible), nothing that makes you want to read on.

I'll be honest, I wasn't much of a fan of the X-Wing series to begin with (I'm reading them more for the X in the title for a book challenge than for any other reason). As much as I love Star Wars, I have to admit, Wedge is such a minor character he never really engaged me (though I can see why someone would want to center a series around him, so much room to play without the constraints you'd have with Han, Luke or Leia).

All I remember of this is Wedge wanted to squadron capable of ground fighting too and.... that is as close to tension we get in the first third of the book. There are no stakes and without stakes there is no reason to bother.



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