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review 2016-06-11 23:41
Black Gate (manga, vols. 1-3) by Yukiko Sumiyoshi, translated by Ajani A. Oloye
Black Gate, Vols. 1-3 - Yukiko Sumiyoshi,Ajani A. Oloye

When people die, their souls move on via White Gates. However, there are also such things as Black Gates, Gates that forcibly suck the souls out of living humans, causing mysterious suicides, murders, or massive disasters. People known as Mitedamashi find Black Gates and close them.

Senju is a Mitedamashi taking care of a young boy named Hijiri, the world's only surviving Gatekeeper. In theory, Gatekeepers are even more powerful than Mitedamashi, possessing the power to close all Gates and end death forever, but Hijiri can't even manage to close the smallest Black Gate. This bothers him, but what he doesn't realize is that having his full Gatekeeper powers could put him in the same situation that ultimately led to his father's death.

Although I tend to be drawn to short series (so much less daunting than the ones with volumes in the double digits), it's rare to find good ones. I didn't go into Black Gate expecting much, and for a while it looked it it was going to be an okay but mostly forgettable series. Unfortunately, then it started to become boring and confusing. I slogged through it, hoping that it would get better. It didn't.

The setup was pretty generic, but that would have been fine if the characters had stood out more and been more appealing. Unfortunately, Hijiri was annoying (he reminded me of Naruto at his brashest and loudest), and Senju was boring. The characters introduced later in the series weren't much better. Tsurugi was cheerfully dense, and the way Sumiyoshi wrote about his attachment to his deceased younger sister made their relationship look almost incestuous (Tsurugi's older sister kept telling him to move on and find a girlfriend). Michitate and Michizane's antagonistic relationship was mildly interesting, but they had to fight all the other characters for page-time. While I liked that the rift between them took time to be repaired, the stuff with Michitate's mother was dealt with way too quickly and easily.

Hijiri's father, Yoshitsuna, just confused me. The explanation given for the two wildly different ends of his personality spectrum didn't work for me. Well, it did at first, but then the ending happened. I had trouble believing that Yoshitsuna would have needed to have the exact same epiphany twice.

Then there were the things that just didn't make sense: Hijiri asking Michitate, who he hadn't known for very long, about Michizane's mother even though he knew it was a sore spot; that the truth about Michizane's mother could have been hidden for so long; the stupid reason Michizane hid the truth from Michitate. It didn't help that the series' pacing was weird and jerky. The first volume in the omnibus had Senju and Hijiri dealing with Gate-of-the-week style stories, until the flashback to Senju's past. The next volume had Hijiri meeting and teaming up with his Guardians in order to investigate Mitedamashi deaths. The final volume had magical battles and most of the characters doing things that kept the story moving along but that were out of character for them. The time jumps at the very end felt like the writing equivalent of a face plant.

I can't recommend this series. It was bland, poorly constructed, and sometimes confusing. Even the artwork could have been better.

Extras:

  • Character profiles
  • Author's notes at the end of each volume (the first two are in manga form, while the last one is just text)

 

Rating Note:

 

For a while I thought this manga was going to end up with a 2-star rating. The badly executed ending bumped it down another half star.

 

(Original review, including read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

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url 2015-10-22 00:32
Take a Peek at The Art of Horror: An Illustrated History
The Art of Horror: An Illustrated History - Stephen Jones

Saw this post on Black Gate, and thought my Horror loving friends would find it interesting:

 

"Stephen Jones’s The Art of Horror: An Illustrated History, a gorgeous full-cover coffee table book, was published by Applause Theatre & Cinema Books in hardcover on September 1, 2015. It’s a beautiful retrospective of horror in theater, cinema, pulps, paintings, book illustrations and comics, and it’s the kind of book you really need to see to fully appreciate..."

 

Read more here.

Source: rachelbookharlot.booklikes.com
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review 2015-05-01 00:00
The Gate of the Hundred Sorrows (Little Black Classics #24)
The Gate of the Hundred Sorrows (Little Black Classics #24) - Rudyard Kipling Rudyard Kipling is best known for The Jungle Book and his Just So Stories, which show his prowess as a writer and his mastery over words and their wonders.

The Gate of the Hundred Sorrows just doesn't cut it. It was terribly written and I almost forgot who had written it. His poetry is marvellous, his best and most famous being If, and his prose is just as good. He was born and grew up in Indian, which these stories concern.

It may be that I am not interested in India; perhaps that may be it. But there was nothing to grip me and, like a lot of short stories, they lacked a depth and roundedness that the longer format, or even poetry, contains.
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review 2012-12-13 00:00
Black Ops: The Gate - Bob Mayer Interesting concept, not so keen on the execution though.Mayer tends to give a lot of factual information in his books. Sometimes to the detrement of the story. The dialogue seems awkward and lacking in emotion. Yes I know it is a thriller and isn't supposed to be emotive, but the it lacks the finesse of conversational flow.Anyway back to the quite fascinating concept of nuclear bombs and the initial research and use of them. The story depicts a change of events that if true would certainly shape the image of history during WW2 in a different way.I received a free copy of this book for my review.
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review 2012-08-15 00:00
Black Gate 15 - Spring 2011 (Black Gate Magazine, #15)
Black Gate 15 - Spring 2011 (Black Gate ... Black Gate 15 - Spring 2011 (Black Gate Magazine, #15) - John O'Neill, Vaughn Heppner, Harry Connolly, Jonathan L. Howard, Howard Andrew Jones, Maria V. Snyder, Sarah Avery, John C. Hocking, Frederic S. Durbin I spoke with editor John O'Neill about this issue of Black Gate at Wiscon this Spring (incidentally, John may be one of the nicest people you'll meet in the industry - a real gentleman and scholar and nerd, which is meant in only the most complimentary of ways). He told me that his intention for this issue was to compile as many stories written by women that he could. That failing, he wanted to present as many stories that featured female characters, both protagonists and supporting cast-members, as possible. What? Women in Sword and Sorcery that serve some role other than modelling chainmail bikinis and wrapping dragon tails around their hips in suggestive poses?

You betcha!

The opening story, "A River Through Darkness and Light," by John C. Hocking, was a great, if predictable story about the Archivist and his friend Lucella. I absolutely loved both characters, Lucella for her non-chalance and matronly patience with the Archivist, and the Archivist himself for his vulnerability and likeability.

I was also impressed by "The Lions of Karthagar," by Chris Willrich. The main characters in this tale, the Weatherworkers Blim the Damp and Miy Who Sing Storms, whose friendship develops against the background of an invasion of an incredibly rich country by their armies, each of which seeks to take possession of the golden land. Poetic and even touching, this story tugged at my emotions like most Sword and Sorcery does not.

My favorite piece of fiction in the volume was "The Shuttered Temple," by Jonathan L. Howard (author of Johannes Cabal the Necromancer, among others). Kyth the Taker, a brilliant and rather glib thief, is the heroine here. This was a very clever story whose strongest point is less the adventure than the philosophical underpinnings that drive Kyth and Tonsett, her foil. Witty, funny, and thought provoking, I found this the best of this excellent volume.

I have to admit, though, that a piece of non-fiction overshadowed all the fiction in the volume. "Art Evolution," by Scott Taylor, is an epic article that touched a soft spot in my heart and made me wax nostalgic for role-playing days of old. This was as thoroughly-researched an article on the subject of fantasy-art in role-playing as I've ever seen. Of course, I'm hard pressed to think of other articles that have even endeavored such an undertaking. From Jeff Dee to Matthew D. Wilson, Taylor traces the history of art in role-playing. It's an incredible journey that is worth the price of the issue alone.

If you like your Sword and Sorcery in short, smart doses, look no further than Black Gate.
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