Moonlight Reader started the TBR Thursday, and I think it's a good way to a) show what new books I've got and b) confront myself with my inability to lower my TBR. In fact, since I started recording it, it has risen significantly. I get the feeling I'm doing something wrong here...

My computer is giving up I think. It has shut itself down thrice in the last hour, which is not only very annoying but also worrying me. So this is going to be a fast post. I haven't read that much these last two weeks. (I never read a lot when I'm on holidays and somehow I'm not really feeling like reading the last week). Also, my Kobo is having troubles yet again and I haven't yet figured out how to solve it. 

My first review got sucked into the Review Twilight Zone, so here we go again.

Zatanna is an interesting mix of showmanship, jocular affability and incredible magical aptitude.  Her costume is a shirtwaist and tails, with a top hat, and she brandishes a magical wand.  Her enemies tend to underestimate her abilities, big time. She's more than capable of taking on the practitioners of the darkest of magics, as evidenced in the story arcs of this book.

This book was an improbably successful mix of a light-hearted vibe and kooky magic tricks and a glimpse into the world in which sorcerers practice dark arts and demons trade power for souls.  It shouldn't have worked, but it did.  I think it's because Zatanna successfully straddles that line of fun-loving, cheerful stage magician and truly talented wizard who uses her skills to protect humans from the world of evil sorcery that she is familiar with through past battles and a heartbreaking loss.

I am watching "Young Justice" on Netflix (fantastic show, by the way!), and Zatanna was on an episode I watched today, and it was serendipity that I had read this around the same time.  I think she's a cool character with a skillset that is distinctive compared to some of the more famous DC Comics heroes.  I found Justice League Dark at my library, where she teams with other sorcerers and wizards to combat dark magic, and I'm looking forward to reading more Zatanna graphic novel content.

I'd recommend this to readers who aren't too squeamish about sorcery and magical content.  One of the baddies is really, really bad, and some folks die in terrible ways due to evil magic, so not for the faint of heart.

My review is mostly the same for both volumes of this graphic novel. I didn't take notes while I was reading, so the finer points slipped out of my mind shortly after I read it. However, I did make some specific observations for part two.

One might think, why read a graphic novel version of a prose novel? I was one of those who asked that question. I am eating my words now. I can see why. While I tend to visualize the books I read as movies playing in my head in full color, it's still a pleasure to see how the author's imagery is brought to life as they work with the graphic novel artists and writers.

Harry doesn't quite look like my version in my head, but it's awesome to see how Butcher himself visualizes the character. Harry's "don't care what you think and don't tell me what to do" attitude comes through loud and clear in the graphic version. He's not quite as lanky/thin as I imagined, but his proportions aren't exaggerated into a beefcake version that doesn't hold true to the original. I did like the attention to detail given to Harry's outfit and tricks of the trade. I hadn’t quite gotten a distinction between Harry’s blasting rod and staff until seeing it in the graphic novel.

The climax has energy and excitement through the eyes and hands of the artist. It feels three-dimensional, much like a movie, and it makes me wish that the TV series had been better done and they had spent more money on it, because it would have been so well done if they had. Paul Blackthorne was an excellent choice for Dresden, in my opinion. The imagery of the dark sorcery committed by the villain stays in my head, and it seems very sinister even in graphic novel format.


This isn’t my favorite Dresden novel out of the four I’ve read so far, but it’s a very good start to a series, and I liked this graphic novel enough to pick up the next in the series, Fool Moon, which is probably one of my favorites from the series, although Grave Peril and Summer Knight are also excellent, IMO. It's made me excited to keep reading the books in graphic novel format.

I’d recommend checking this out if you are a fan of the Dresden prose novels. The artwork is well done and bright and the story follows the book very well.

One might think, why read a graphic novel version of a prose novel? I was one of those who asked that question. I am eating my words now. I can see why. While I tend to visualize the books I read as movies playing in my head in full color, it's still a pleasure to see how the author's imagery is brought to life as they work with the graphic novel artists and writers.

Harry doesn't quite look like my version in my head, but it's awesome to see how Butcher himself visualizes the character. Harry's "don't care what you think and don't tell me what to do" attitude comes through loud and clear in the graphic version. He's not quite as lanky/thin as I imagined, but his proportions aren't exaggerated into a beefcake version that doesn't hold true to the original. I did like the attention to detail given to Harry's outfit and tricks of the trade. I hadn’t quite gotten a distinction between Harry’s blasting rod and staff until seeing it in the graphic novel.

The image of Bianca with her human visage shed is terrifying. About as bad as I imagined. I can understand her pathology about wanting to be beautiful, seeing how she really looks vamped out. Susan looks just like I imagined and so does Murphy. Mister isn’t quite what I expected, but Bob stands up to scrutiny. The visual of the frog demon was something else alright, along with the giant scorpion assassin construct.

Overall, the artwork and lettering conveys the storyline very well. The artist did a great job of conveying the sinister and evil nature of the villain, as well as the essential personalities of other characters. Nothing was left out that I could tell, and the storyline seems quite sinister in living color. It’s been a while since I read this, so it was a nice refresher, since I didn’t have time to do a reread before the group read discussion we’re having on the book.

This isn’t my favorite Dresden novel out of the four I’ve read so far, but it’s a very good start to a series, and I liked this graphic novel enough to pick up the next in the series, Fool Moon, which is probably one of my favorites from the series, although Grave Peril and Summer Knight are also excellent, IMO.

I’d recommend checking this out if you are a fan of the Dresden prose novels. The artwork is well done and bright and the story follows the book very well.

So excited to have finally finished the 3rd book of The Gray Tower Trilogy! This is the trailer for the first book of the series--The Tower's Alchemist.