The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 2: Fandemonium by Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Waste of paper. No, that’s not right. That’s offensive to the artists as the illustrations were brilliant, but there may as well have been no words. Seriously. Very little happens. At least very little that makes sense or contributes to plot progression. Only the last few pages have any real meaning with a humdinger of a cliffhanger that leaves you with multiple questions and countless theories.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1: The Faust Act by Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie

Rating:

What kind of teenager are you that you don’t have Class A drugs to hand? Hmm? Has The Daily Mail been lying to me?
Lucifer

Every 90 years twelve gods from multiple pantheons are reincarnated in young people to live for two years. The gods reincarnated are different each time and don’t necessarily live out the full two years, as the opening pages can attest with only four gods left at the end of the last cycle in 1923, skulls perched in the empty seats. Ananke is their guardian, goddess of fate, necessity and destiny. She’s their protector, but also their judge, jury and, if necessary, their executioner.

Selkie Stories Are for Losers by Sofia Samatar

Rating:

I hate selkie stories. They’re always about how you went up to the attic to look for a book, and you found a disgusting old coat and brought it downstairs between finger and thumb and said “What’s this?”, and you never saw your mom again.

If you know of selkie mythology, you’ll understand this opening quote, and if you don’t it’s explained within this short story (which can be read for free HERE).

The Golden Ass: Or Metamorphoses by Lucius Apuleius

Rating:

Bestiality. Kidnapping. Mugging. Ye olde carjacking. Burglary. Assault. Murder. Female paedophiles. Incest. Male rape. Adultery. Animal cruelty. Serial killers in the making. Poisonings. Homosexual priest gangbangs. Shapeshifting. Gods and goddesses. The Seven Deadly Sins. Evil mother-in-laws. Drama. Comedy. Tragedy. Adventure. Romance. Horror. Urban legends. Stories within stories. Inspiration for that Hannibal episode where a person was sewn into a dead horse’s belly.

What doesn’t The Golden Ass have?

Oedipus the King (The Theban Plays #1) by Sophocles

Rating:

Michael Sheen (Masters of Sex) did a brilliant job in voicing the title role of Oedipus in what I found to be an ‘easier’ to understand translation by Duncan Steen for the full cast audio.

I’m glad I’ve finally read the famous, fabulously sensational story of incest and patricide about the man who kills his father and marries his mother, after encountering Freud’s derivative Oedipus Complex in psychology class a decade ago.

New Zealand TV: ‘The Almighty Johnsons’ vs. ‘Top of the Lake’

2012 was the year of Danish TV for me, with The Killing gluing me to my screen, but 2013 was the year for New Zealand to impress. Three seasons of The Almighty Johnsons (IMDB) and the mini-series Top of the Lake (IMDB) have left me eager for more.

Top of the Lake

Starkly beautific natural rural landscapes are juxtaposed with the sheer ugliness of past and present events in the town ironically called ‘Paradise’. One shock after another is delivered like a punch to the gut. Answers are few to begin with. At the end of each episode you’re left pondering the possibilities: rape, paedophilia, drugs, people trafficking, kidnapping, paternity. And everything and everyone is completely fucked up.

Vampires: Folklore, Fantasy and Fact

Want to know more about the myth of the vampire? Or find out where Bram Stoker received his inspiration for Dracula?

This video is part of one of TED Ed’s lessons.

Did you know… Stoker wasn’t the first to write about vampires?

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson #1) by Rick Riordan

Rating:

I think I made a small mistake when I chose this to read. It was a little too young for me but I was impressed with the use of Greek mythology and the way we weren’t told right away what each creature was. This lead me to guess and when I got it right it fed my ego, and when I had no idea I wanted to reach for a mythology book to look-up the specific myth to see how closely the book followed the actual story.