Month: March 2021

The Other Son by Alexander Söderberg – Book Review

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The Other Son by Alexander Söderberg – Book Cover

Sophie Brinkmann enters a criminal organization as an outsider (see: The Andalucian Friend). This profession is better learned from the ground up because if you just dive into it like Pilate into the Creed, you might end up making a professional mistake. Which could result in getting shot a few times.

So, an Other Son? Moreover, a stepchild?? He’s missing from her life like a hump on her back!

But let’s hear the good news instead: Alexander Söderberg’s second installment in the series is much more action-packed than the first. First off, it lacks that somewhat dull exposition. Then, what’s good about it is that the story is entirely unpredictable; you never know which direction the plot will take. And listen, in The Other Son, you might even find yourself genuinely rooting for a character. Or more than one.

The recipe for the second volume is familiar from the previous installment: two separate groups, two separate stories, the adventures of Sophie and Hector, who is just emerging from a karmacoma (see Karmacoma on YouTube), and the police investigation, which only converge at the end of the book. And speaking of police investigation: unfortunately, the same disappointing storytelling element enters here as in the first volume: the dirty cop effect; only while it was somewhat believable there, here, it starts to approach incredibility, as the slowly going completely crazy Big Chief Tommy would be much better off laying low, because this way nobody would tie him to the crimes of the previous part.

And how did this happen?

Well, there was a need for a villain, and there you go. Of course, it could also be explained by Alexander Söderberg’s love for creating messed-up characters, especially those in law enforcement (just remember the drug-addicted sociopath and his colleagues from the prequel). In Miles’ case, you can’t quite decide what the heck he’s doing in the story; his self-discovery and romance are entirely unnecessary from the perspective of the big picture, but nevertheless, these are perhaps the most noteworthy parts of the book. And the joint investigation with his colleague didn’t turn out bad either, even though you’d initially think it would fizzle out completely because they sniff around what was the main plot of the previous volume. So, you know what they’re going to figure out, but it’s still exciting to see how they keep moving forward despite all the obstacles.

However, Sophie, the well-meaning family woman sinking into the swamp of crime, has to experience the lesson behind the proverb “If you lie down with dogs, you get up torn into tiny shreds” if there is such a proverb in Sweden. Luckily, she also gets some help in trouble, namely from the two best characters from the first installment, Jens and our favorite Russian hitman, Mikhail. And as expected, by the end of the book, even this latter experiences some character development.

Unfortunately, though, overzealous employees can be found not only on the police force: hello, Aron, we’re looking at you disapprovingly, whose role is probably the same as Tommy’s: to somewhat forcedly and clumsily push the plot forward to the next volume (see: The Good Wolf). Because of these, this installment, while not as average as the first volume, – with more twists, more enjoyable scenes added to it, – is still much more variable in quality due to quite a few questionable moves.

7/10

The Other Son (Brinkmann Trilogy #2) by Alexander Söderberg
400 pages, Hardcover
Published in 2015 by Knopf Canada

False Gods by Graham McNeill – Book Review

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False Gods by Graham McNeill - Book Cover

In False Gods, the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet continues to march forward under the leadership of Horus Lupercal (and Graham McNeill). (See the previous part: The Horus Heresy by Dan Abnett). Their thunderous steps are guided by a complete lack of political correctness: fully armored, they crush anyone in THE UNIVERSE who is slightly different, or not human enough. Or perhaps human enough, just happens to hold an opposite opinion.

To start, the space marines smack down a few thousand living dead underground, during which Horus himself gets injured. As a result, the entire fleet deflates like a dried prune because they view their beloved leader as a demigod (and truth be told, after a while, you also get swept up in this incredible enthusiasm and start to admire him) even though this semi-divine being sometimes behaves like a narcissistic goose. One of the problems with False Gods is precisely this swooning, completely devoid of common sense respect that the guardsmen have towards Horus. And the way Horus turns towards himself, and who out of sheer pride and awareness of his own invincibility can walk into the most transparent trap. Yes, yes, at this point, you also start to wonder if the emperor’s little son is really the most suitable person to lead a fleet?

The title of the series is, of course, “The Heresy of Horus.” The second part jumps right into the thick of things because the main conflict revolves around Horus getting angry with the Emperor, his beloved and respected daddy, up until now. The quality of the conflict is somewhat diminished by the fact that it mainly plays out on a metaphysical level, specifically within Horus’s MIND. Horus’s attitude (who is, you know, a (BIG-)grown man) seems somewhat childish. He gets offended in advance because Daddy maybe wants to become a god sometime LATER; so surely he won’t care about him afterwards. Oh, and there’s a lot of bureaucracy too. That’s it. This is quite a thin foundation for a 50+ part book series.

From here on out, in the not particularly exciting remaining part of False Gods, you can agonize over whether Horus, who is essentially just a vain and arrogant jerk, will become a vain, arrogant, and EVIL jerk without any transition, based on a few silly visions. The fleet, apart from a few unlucky guys who get stuck outside the circle, will go along with him without a fuss, just like the legions followed the charismatic, emperor-rebelling generals in the Roman Empire.

In False Gods, there are also a few remembrancer leading a debauched lifestyle, who are actually just pebbles, ground-pounders, no one knows why they are with the fleet, and they just trail along after the events. When an ugly monster crawls out of the warp to devour a few of them, you just shrug it off. Bon appétit!

The quality of Graham McNeill’s writing is average, although sometimes a bit heavy-handed, and the characters often get unreasonably angry more often than necessary, but there’s not much of a problem with it. The main problem lies with the story: it all seems unprepared and off-the-cuff, like in a soap opera. If you keep reading this series, there can only be one reason for it: you’re curious (damn curiosity!) about what will happen to the noble Captain Loken, who is about the only character left in the story worth rooting for.

6.3/10

False Gods (The Horus Heresy #2) by Graham McNeill – Book Review
416 pages, Paperback
Published in 2006 by Black Library

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) – Film Review

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Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) – Movie Poster

If you haven’t seen the 1978 first installment of the film series, where old Max (Mel Gibson) zeroes out a motorcycle gang due to the murder of his family, it won’t be easy to identify with this new Max (Tom Hardy). This new Mad Max is mostly just some random dude, whom Immortan Joe’s somewhat anemic-looking subordinates drag out of his car and reclassify as a pedestrian in the first few minutes of the film. Might as well call him Jimmy the Pisser. Okay, the new Max is still a tad more than your average Jimmy constantly wetting himself, having developed parkour and acrobatic skills in the INFINITE AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK, which come in handy as he’s forced to jump around on various speeding vehicles for the remainder of the film.

And this new Mad Max falls short of the old Max (and Jimmy) in that he’s a jerk.

After realizing they’re in the same (motor)boat with Furiosa (Charlize Theron), Immortan Joe’s silently departing, disgruntled employee, and his former girlfriends, instead of giving them a nod and saying, “Hey ladies, what’s up? Let’s be best buddies from now on,” he pulls a gun on them, robs them, and lets them beat him senseless.

Not that Furiosa is much of a thoughtful personality either: after all, she drags Joe’s supermodel-like concubines out of their comfort zone into the ENDLESS AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK – and the foolish geese blindly follow; when all they should be doing is lounging around in the only remaining habitable place amidst the apocalypse, looking stunning, and occasionally delighting the grateful Immortan Joe (the poor man’s Darth Vader) with a new offspring. Joe, okay, really isn’t the most charming gentleman, but still isn’t lacking in charisma; and after all, they could easily end up with someone a hundred times worse after judgment day.

Immortan Joe - Mad Max: Fury Road 2015
Immortan Joe

The film’s main merit, the visual world, is okay, and mostly thanks to the former, the film’s atmosphere is as well: Desert, Sunshine, Apocalypse, although Little “M” angrily resented the excessive use of blue filters in the night scenes.

However, the action scenes are very hard to follow, the cuts are too fast, and the camera shakes as if there’s no tomorrow (or yesterday). You might find this especially problematic because the film “Mad Max” consists EXCLUSIVELY of action. If there’s an occasional brief break, it’s used to push you even deeper into boredom with sappy and sensationalist dialogues. And that’s the biggest problem with this film: after about half an hour, the constant action becomes deadly dull, and you can’t wait to finally be done with it.

George Miller couldn’t resist including the biggest cliché of the lonely and tough hero at the end of the film: Max, accompanied by Furiosa’s beseeching gaze, turns his back on his new friends and sets off into the sunset. But you know it’s all just a show, a projection, plain screwing around, because after just 27 minutes of wandering, Max will have to recognize that he’s in the last habitable place in the INFINITE AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK, so he’ll have to turn around and walk back to Furiosa, who, after pulling him close, whispers in her ear:

6/10

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) (IMDb)
Director: George Miller, Stars: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles – Book Review

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A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles – Book Cover

If the first chapter’s improbability, where Amor Towles’ protagonist jests with his humor-prone Bolshevik compatriots, doesn’t put you off, and the book’s verbosity doesn’t immediately deter with its many twisty and winding sentences right from the start, then suddenly you find yourself beginning to like Alexander Ilyich Rostov, this charming and kind-hearted bohemian. Although you might have started with the assumption that “A Gentleman in Moscow” is sure to be some romantic affair, full of whining, but then again, it’s not.

We’re in 1922, by the way. Ah, the finest years of communism! Wait, scratch that: The count is declared a class enemy and is sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life, confined to a attic room in the Metropol Hotel. Reluctantly, he has to start assimilating into the world of work.

As a reader, you might not tolerate all the babble, feel annoyed by the verbosity, and get chills from the unnecessary, unwarranted, and superfluous use of adjectives. I’m exactly the same way too! I’ll tell you that clearly, straight, plain, and openly. Nevertheless, I must admire with genuine astonishment when, for example, in “A Gentleman in Moscow”, the relationship between goulash and a type of wine is compared to the not overly sunny relationship between Achilles and Hector, and the metaphor then happily leaps onto a Trojan war chariot from there.

And then there are Montaigne’s essays, the Nizhny Novgorod apple cultivation, and family anecdotes in abundance, but all done with such elegance that it’s very difficult to extricate yourself from their influence. (Moreover, since Amor Towles is obviously a lover of Russian culture, after a while you find yourself surprised, deciding that you will definitely tackle War and Peace for the second time, which you abandoned thirty years ago when you got completely lost in the forest of Russian names.)

This verbosity, however, certainly won’t appeal to everyone. If you’re already annoyed by it at the beginning, it’s better to leave this book alone.

However, if you continue reading, you may feel that “A Gentleman in Moscow” is the MOST PLEASANT novel that has come your way lately: it exudes cheer, goodwill, and disarming humanity, despite being set in a dark era. Even towards the absurdities of Bolshevism, it is mainly addressed with gentle irony. The few chapters where it speaks more directly, such as the one about the Ukrainian famine, stands out from the novel like sore thumb.

And how long does the admiration last? Precisely until little Sofia appears on the pages of the book. After this, the count’s story visibly ends, but Towles’s book unfortunately continues – although it would have been advisable to end it with a masterful stroke. Instead, the focus shifts to Sofia, and indeed her story is much less interesting: a series of trivial, sometimes entirely boring and sentimental scenes. Strangely, even Count Rostov’s quirks resurface. But if you’ve made it this far, you probably won’t abandon the story, which becomes livelier once again towards the very end and turns into a more subdued espionage tale. Still, it slips down from a much higher rating to a

6.8/10.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
462 pages, Paperback
Published in 2019 by Penguin Books

Closed for Winter by Jørn Lier Horst – Book Review

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Closed for Winter by Jørn Lier Horst – Book Cover

Haven’t read any Scandinavian crime novels lately? No problem, they’re getting worse as the serious authors’ works run dry and they start shoving second-rate writers in your face. But hey, listen up, Jorn Lier Horst’s book “Closed for Winter” won Norway’s most prestigious literary award in 2011. Does that mean anything? Seems like it only means these Fjordlings are completely handing out their prestigious awards to utterly average books…

You read it, you read it, and you’re just about to mark it as boring as hell, but then you realize that somehow, a few pages in, you’re getting into it. Although not too twisty, it focuses more on depicting the nitty-gritty police work, and it specifically ensures that nothing happens to make you bite your nails to the quick with excitement, yet it’s complex enough to keep you from putting it down.

Horst’s crime novel is sometimes a bit on the nose, and the occasional clumsy sentence slips in, but there’s no overwrought soul-searching and tiresome lamenting, which are fundamental ingredients of Scandinavian crime novels. It’s just regular folks investigating an average, and later somewhat more significant, case.

It also helps that Jorn Lier Horst’s detective, Wisting, is a likable average guy who hasn’t become jaded by his work, remaining empathetic and kind-hearted, just like you and me – and this is quite a refreshing exception among all the cynical, alcoholic, and manic-depressive detectives. You might be skeptical now, but Wisting’s girlfriend and daughter are also completely normal people whom you’d welcome into your own family – Kurt Wallander and Erlendur detectives (see: Arnaldur Indridason: Reykjavik Nights) from Sweden and Iceland are undoubtedly snarling at them with jealousy-twisted faces.

It’s also certain that by about halfway through „Closed for Winter”, you’ll figure out who the mole is. I even guessed the killer a few chapters before the end, and I’m not one to usually figure these things out. And with that, I just want to point out that Horst skillfully avoids leaving you dumbfounded by the solution.

7/10

Closed for Winter (William Wisting #7) by Jørn Lier Horst
321 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published in 2013 by Sandstone Press

Past Tense by Lee Child – Book Review

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Past Tense by Lee Child – Book Cover

The “Past Tense” is the 23rd Reacher novel. When I stumbled upon Lee Child about 20 years ago, it was almost like a revelation. Well, maybe not that, but damn, it was good. After that, no matter how hard I tried with any other similar bestselling author, you can imagine the result. None of them came close. Not even in the ballpark. It was all mediocre crap from Linwood Barclay to Michael Robotham.

Twenty-three parts of roughly similar quality in a book series is really something. Hungarian national pride, the Leslie L. Lawrence series, became a parody of itself around the sixth installment. The first worrying signs for Lee Child started to emerge around the 20th installment. Of course, the series was always heavily coated with a kind of over-the-top feeling, which maybe isn’t bad until there’s a serious story behind it. This is missing now, for the first time, in the book titled “Past Tense.” Reacher’s attempt to turn a sleepy family tree research into a investigation turns out to be so thin that the author is forced to insert a parallel subplot with new perspective characters. The young female member of the couple is just as masterful an analyst as the major himself. However, while you can believe Reacher in this, the girl is just not convincing.

The lack of a solid crime foundation makes the familiar motifs mostly seem tiresomely contrived. The meticulous description of things that are usually mundane in investigative work can sometimes be mind-numbing. For example, the author elaborates on the structure and use of a computer mouse. Thank you very much, major, we’ve been using it daily for almost forty years! You also incredulously observe Reacher having to find out such trivial matters as where random supporting characters are going to sneak off for a little hanky-panky.

Jack Reacher, the perpetually sniffing unbeatable dispenser of justice, becomes an ordinary mortal as he handles official matters: and shows a great deal of insensitivity, such as gleefully using up poor Reverend Burke’s entire phone credit; or looking completely idiotic while demonstrating his special skill, – yes, just like Mr. Vekker – constant mental timekeeping.

To make matters worse, he routinely beats up a few disagreeable douches just like Tarzan (see Tarzan and the Leopard Men). Because, much to your regret, it slowly becomes apparent that Reacher, in fact, is a violent character who constantly abuses his physical superiority, sticking his nose into other people’s business whether they like it or not.

If you devoured the pages of the previous books, well, you won’t with “Past Tense”. This is the weakest part of the Jack Reacher series so far, and a warning sign for the sad future ahead. 🙁

6.9/10

Past Tense (Jack Reacher #23) by Lee Child
382 pages, Hardcover
Published in 2018 by Delacorte Press

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Other work(s) of the author:
Die Trying by Lee Child

Dawn by Octavia E. Butler – Book Review

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Dawn by Octavia E. Butler - Book Cover

The Earth’s got a tough deal. Octavia E. Butler’s “Dawn” serves up a background story where it’s not global warming or some similar modern catastrophe that puts us on the skids, as we’re just starting to experience firsthand, but rather the good ol’ Americans and Soviets doing the orthodox thing, nuking each other. Small detail. Here come the aliens, scooping up quite a few survivors. After a few centuries, they pull them out of cryo, and give them a choice: you can start afresh on the planet and mess it up again, assuming you agree to bear common offspring with us.

Big question: would you be down for a little hanky-panky with a tentacled alien if it meant the survival of your species? Hell yeah? Bucket on their heads and let’s go?

Of course, it’s not that simple. According to Butler’s “Dawn’s” somewhat sluggish story, the aliens’ obsession is the shared offspring. Just because. There isn’t really a sensible explanation for it, just the occasional clumsy excuse or exaggerated enthusiasm for our restless species’ gene pool.

From the closed spaces of the alien’s plant-based spaceship (haha! – in Saga, this might actually work), you initially associate more with chamber drama than sci-fi, and when the awakened characters multiply, you might think of a cross between The Real World and Naked and Afraid. There’s a bit too much soul-searching going on. And to top it off, the space manipulators, alongside their calm indifference, mostly try to achieve their goals through emotional blackmail.

And humans… humans are, well, humans. They are jerks. Impatient, clueless, and as usual, bickering; and whoever feels stronger than others also throws a few punches. But eventually – presumably against Octavia E. Butler’s intentions – you realize you can’t fully condemn them either, because in their sly, passive-aggressive way, the aliens are just as big jerks. And dirty MOLESTERS too.

Hard sci-fi? Yeah, my ass! “Dawn” is more like a promising basic idea clumsily unfolded, resembling at times a better-executed amateur novel.

6.5/10

Dawn (Xenogenesis #1) by Octavia E. Butler
248 pages, Paperback
Published in 1997 by Warner Books

UPDATE: Warning! The sequel goes even more off the rails. Just read the damn blurb, and you’ll rate it below 5/10 sight unseen…

Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon – Book Review

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Boy's Life by Robert McCammon - Book Cover

Well, it’s already clear from the introduction that you’re dealing with a verbose novel. But if that doesn’t scare you off too much, then everything’s okay, because the rest of “Boy’s Life” is not THAT dire. (Except for the very end: those three closing words are no small feat.)

Each chapter of the book is like a little novella. Some are better done (wasps), some less so (the UFOs), and by page 100, the story is still just at the exposition. And you’re waiting, thinking, “Okay, so what’s going to come out of this?” Then suddenly you realize that nothing special will. Then you also realize that it’s not such a huge problem; “Boy’s Life” doesn’t want to be anything more than just a boy’s and a town’s life through the former’s perspective, roughly over a year in the American South in 1964. But it’s certain that you’d be a wreck if all this happened to you in just one miserable year.

The chapters move the plot forward particularly slowly, and although some feel completely unnecessary and overwritten (Welcome, Lucifer or Get around), sometimes an event only makes sense much later – or has an impact on the characters. In short, there are also some that, besides being unnecessary and verbose, are also quite clumsy (Green-Feathered Hat).

Occasionally, the text indulges in commonplace preaching (both dream sequences).

However, the character portrayal in “Boy’s Life” is, hey, very well done; whoever emerges in the story is completely unique and memorable, and some characters are downright MAGNIFICENT, see for example, The Demon, the teenage monster, or The Lady, Vernon, or even the cosmic-paced Mr. Lightfoot, and you JUST CAN’T PUT THE BOOK DOWN because you can’t wait to meet them again. It’s rare to read a book where even the most minor character is so clearly identifiable. Also, the seemingly exceptional insight into human nature, from which the former presumably arises, is a rarity – thus, suddenly Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” or G. R. R. Martin’s “Game of Thrones” series come to mind, where the same can be observed (although in the case of the latter, the situation is made more difficult by the hundreds of bustling characters).

Robert McCammon’s book is mainly a young adult adventure novel, but not at all childish, because it speaks in the voice of a retrospective adult, with occasional glimpses of good-natured irony and mature wisdom between the lines. The text is pervaded by mystery, the typical Southern themes like racism, the supernatural world, and voodoo. But it also contains motifs of westerns and psychological drama – and of course, the crime genre, which frames the whole story, although this part is the thinnest, the most boring, and the least successful… when the parrot speaks, you immediately figure out where it’s all going.

In the infinitely sentimental (watch out, don’t cry!) and, needless to say, overly long epilogue, McCammon even sends some of the characters off in such a way that they immediately step out of their own characters (Gordo, Chile, and the poor Demon too).

And if this book has so many flaws, then why did it become such a freaking huge success?

Perhaps because “Boy’s Life” turns nostalgically to a time when family was even more defining, when the universal validity of love for each other was more pronounced. When kids were still kids and played outside, instead of sitting indoors in front of various screens, while everything slowly turning plastic around them. In the first place their stupid brains!

7.6/10

Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon
610 pages, Paperback
Published in 2008 by Gallery Books

Legends of the Fall – Film Review

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Legends of the Fall - Film Poster

Colonel Ludlow, weary of the Indian massacres, settles down in the remote Montana long-long ago, three sons are born, and so on. And when the youngest brings his bride, the STUNNING Suzannah, even the other two boys start to drool over her. As if that wasn’t enough, World War I breaks out just then.

And what’s the point? It’s not good to throw around big words, but there’s nothing to be done when this is the situation. Now listen: the film drama “Legends of the Fall” teaches you that no matter how diligently you obey all laws of God and man, you can still end up with EVERYONE loving someone else who outrightly flouts these laws. Can you do anything about it? Nothing, you just got screwed. Thanks a lot!

At most, you can toughen up your soul, because this film is shamelessly and unabashedly manipulative, every effort aimed at bringing tears to your eyes.

Little “M” for example, kept watering the mice, so eventually I had to keep a list, and in the end, it turned out that Edward Zwick’s esteemed masterpiece brought tears to the little one’s eyes precisely a dozen times during viewing. Quite an achievement!

This goddamn film affects the viewer like this, even if you know exactly that most of the characters’ troubles – alongside the damn scriptwriters – are caused by stubbornness bordering on stupidity or incomprehensible self-will, and they wouldn’t get into such a mess if they showed a little more empathy or at least some PATIENCE towards each other.

So if you feel as tough as nails, but just to be on the safe side, you want to check, watch “Legends of the Fall.” And if your eyes don’t well up once during it, well then you really are!

8/10

Legends of the Fall (1994) (IMDb)
Director: Edward Zwick, Stars: Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Aidan Quinn, Julia Ormond

V for Vendetta by Alan Moore – Comic Book Review

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V for Vendetta by Alan Moore - Comic Book Cover

The England of the 1980s wasn’t exactly a cheerful place (hello, Mrs. Thatcher). But Alan Moore anticipated that it will be even less cheerful in the future — although in hindsight, the nightmare vision of complete fascism seems a bit exaggerated. Anyway, the main message of “V for Vendetta,” which essentially says, “Fascism is bad, mmkay?” remains relevant forever. However, the other essential part of the message, which claims, “Anarchy is good, mmkay?” not so much.

V, the vengeance-seeking vigilante with a Guy Fawkes mask, sets out to dismantle the system like a crazy kid smashing a snowball, increasing your satisfaction with the repugnant demise of the dictatorship’s revolting figures in the opening chapters. For a while. Then you start to worry that okay, okay, but this is a bit one-dimensional, when the detective subplot intensifies and the mystery factor briefly elevates the whole thing, and you REALLY start to wonder who this immensely theatrical character behind the mask really is:

A mad genius, a master strategist, a bulletproof martial artist, and the luckiest guy alive, who’s good at EVERYTHING? Untouchable by anyone? Yes. And that’s precisely what diminishes the enjoyment of “V for Vendetta.” The many evil bastards are no match for V. The outcome of the game cannot be in doubt.

In the final third of the comic, as V’s master plan reaches its climax, and you observe the machinations of the insignificant, petty side characters, you might start to grow weary of the whole shebang. Especially when you realize that they’re all chess pieces on V’s board. Sometimes, unfortunately, you can’t even distinguish one from another due to the blurred, faded drawings. These drawings, however, provide an excellent BACKGROUND for the dark, gray, oppressive England, where radioactive ash falls from the sky, and Nazi propaganda blares from the speakers.

Regarding Detective Finch’s case, the grand plan stretches the bounds of credibility, as it’s highly unlikely for a drugged, deranged individual to stumble exactly where you cleverly calculated. Likewise, it’s highly debatable whether the most suitable person for the task is the one you’ve prepared for it.

According to Alan Moore’s philosophy, there are two types of anarchy: destructive, which breaks down the undeserving system, and constructive, which ideally follows afterward — during which people take control of their destiny. Now that’s something you really wouldn’t want to bet heavily on. It is highly likely, however, that these upstanding citizens, in the midst of constructive anarchy, would trample over each other’s heels to rally under the banner of the first nauseating figure promising them a “brighter future”.

6.5/10

V for Vendetta by Alan Moore & David Lloyd (Illustrator)
296 pages, Hardcover
Published in 2005 by Vertigo