Tag: Akira Himekawa

WWW Wednesday – December 13, 2023

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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

The Fifth ElephantI’ve made a fair amount more progress in The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett; I’m nearly at 100 pages in, though it still feels like the story is in its preliminary stages. Vimes has finally set out for Uberwald with Sybil and his retinue in tow, but it’s not gone much further than that yet. It seems the city watch back in Ankh-Morpork will still have plenty to do while he’s gone though, as a robbery and a strange murder remain unsolved. I’m curious how it will all tie together with Vimes’s diplomatic mission. Some detail has been given on what the fifth elephant is supposed to be, which seems to be dealing more with it as an idea than something literal, though there does seem to be a suggestion that one actually did exist. I don’t know why, but I assumed the story would be about it more actively, like as an active, existing entity. I’m sure this is a lot more interesting. Knowing more sure does make the cover funnier too.

Recently Finished

The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess 11Over the weekend I finished the 11th and final volume The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess by Akira Himekawa. The final fight against Ganondorf made for some great moments, especially with some more fan service involving the Hero’s Shade, aka the Hero of Time. There was also more attention paid to the romantic angle between Link and Midna without deviating away from the ending of the game, which I also appreciated. A marriage between narrative elements of this and the quest in the game really would be something. I couldn’t help being a little disappointed with this though, as it was really just the final fight and then the story quietly wrapping up. I can’t help but feel it would’ve been more impactful if all of this had been included in volume 10 for a grander finale (and a nice round number of volumes).

Reading Next

I still have plenty of time to finish reading Paper Girls, and I may have time to squeeze in a final small book too, I just want to prioritize The Fifth Elephant before I commit to anything. With the year winding down part of me is fine with just quietly finishing what I’m already working on with reading. We’ll see.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – November 29, 2023

RyanLeave a comment
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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

The Lost WorldI’ve managed to put another decent dent into The Lost World by Michael Crichton this past week, which is pretty good considering my track record with it thus far between the big reading days. Honestly, I’m a little taken aback with how much this novel might be back-loaded with action. Last night I realized that I’m two-thirds of the way through, but it doesn’t feel like all that much has happened plot-wise. I have a general idea of where things are going right now thanks to the film adaptation, but it’s so weird that what’s coming happens relatively early in the film but so late in the novel. It’s certainly a much more subdued approach, which isn’t inherently bad, but there’s a listlessness to it all that I’m still finding unfortunate. Also, I’m amused by Crichton retconning the whole “vision based on movement” thing with the T. rexes, though it seems it was all based on developing science, so I appreciate him trying to keep up to date with things too.

Recently Finished

Paper Girls 4Over the weekend I finally read through the fourth volume of Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughn and Cliff Chiang. I’m disappointed in myself that I’m not remembering key plot points right away when I find myself continuing this series. It’s hard with comics sometimes, as I don’t want to commit to a whole series if I end up not liking it, but if it’s good my reading of it will be so spread out that I don’t feel like I’ll wholly appreciate it. I’m going to make a point of re-reading this series sometime in the near future so that I can better appreciate it as a whole. Nevertheless, I really liked this volume, especially in how it fleshed out the different factions of future peoples embroiled in conflict that the girls are caught between. Their competing philosophies and methods are really interesting.

Reading Next

The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess 11I’ve got more Paper Girls and the final volume of the Twilight Princess manga on the horizon, and then I will by starting The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett, along with another small book, hopefully. It’s funny that this time of year always has what I’ve got left to read so clear, but I’m a little excited that it’s involving so many this time. I think I will feel very accomplished.

It’s unfortunate that this month I really didn’t post much at all except for these updates, but I am working on an Alien 3 review, which will hopefully go up before next Wednesday. Additional posts should hopefully pick up in December too, if I can weave them between holiday plans effectively enough.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – November 15, 2023

RyanLeave a comment
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

ScornI haven’t made any progress in The Lost World by Michael Crichton since last week, though I don’t feel all that bad about this because I actually had more books on the go than normal that took priority over it. I have continued reading Scorn: The Art of the Game by Matthew Pellett, though, and I’m hoping I can get that finished within the next few days too. I’m still enjoying reading it, though I’m finding the Kindle format frustrating; why on earth do some of the sentences overlap with each other? I had to convert the file into a shoddy PDF so I could read what one sentence was saying that had become completely illegible in the app. Otherwise, it’s introducing concepts that I’m really wanting to keep an eye out for in the game when I replay it, now that I have an idea of what to look for.

Recently Finished

The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess 10Over the weekend I read two graphic novels; the first I finished was the tenth volume of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess by Akira Himekawa. I liked this volume a lot more than the previous one, which I tried to have a positive attitude about, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it just wasn’t as good as I wanted to feel like it was. I even went back and lowered by Goodreads rating of it, and this isn’t the first time I’ve done that with this series. In this penultimate volume, Link, Midna, and the knights of Hyrule are charging the castle to oust Ganondorf and his horde of monsters. I’ve really enjoyed how this series has given the knights a chance to develop and actually feel useful instead making obligatory appearances that don’t matter or being comic relief. I’m excited to read the final volume, though I’ll have to wait a bit to get my hands on a copy.

on-a-sunbeamI also finally finished On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden after taking a break from it to read more spooky books last month. I enjoyed this book quite a bit, especially the art. I can’t remember if I mentioned previously, but there’s some really creative art direction with how the buildings and vehicles look. I was especially fond of the ships shaped like giant koi/goldfish, though the cathedral-like space stations were pretty great too. The only thing I found to be a shame was the story got especially interesting with its setting in the latter chapters, but it spent so little time there relative to the book as a whole that it felt like it ended just as it was getting really good. I would love it if Walden spent more time in this world expanding upon some of these ideas only touched upon, but it stands well on its own as a creative backdrop to good a coming-of-age story.

Reading Next

Shut Up Slow Down Let Go BreatheThough I have tentative plans with other books that I own, I am planning to read the poetry collection Shut Up Slow Down Let Go Breathe by Marcus McCann, which I came across recently at the bookstore and then borrowed from my library. I’ve realized that I don’t think I actually want to be buying much poetry, so the library will be the way to go with that going forward. It looks to be pretty short, so hopefully I will be able to get through it fairly quickly (assuming I don’t bounce off it, sometimes I have trouble getting into poems). It seems like its sense of humour will be up my alley, so I’m optimistic.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – November 8, 2023

RyanLeave a comment
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

ScornI’m not sure if I alluded to it another week, but I started casually reading Scorn: The Art of the Game by Matthew Pellett. I don’t read art books too often, but I really loved the visual style of this game, which I recently played through for Halloween, and I’m hoping it will provide further insight into some of the ideas behind the game’s world. So far, I’ve loved the deeper dive into what the artists’ inspirations were when designing the world, especially the emphasis on the Space Jockey from the film Alien rather than the titular monster itself. It clicked in my mind and made immediate sense to me, as that aspect of the movie is especially obscure and unclear; you know you’re looking at the body of an alien being, but it’s hard to fully make out what it is. This feeling was captured in the game’s art really well.

The Lost WorldI also started reading The Lost World by Michael Crichton; so far, I’ve put a lot of mileage into it from one sitting, close to 150 pages. Right of the bat, this book is definitely weaker than the previous book, though I am enjoying it. I’m like the idea that “Site B” is a well-kept secret by the now bankrupt InGen, so characters have to spend some time figuring out where it even is, but the way they start their expedition half-cocked with very little manpower feels too much like characters being uncharacteristically dumb. The children in the story are not insufferable, but their presence feels more forced than the first book. As it is, Crichton’s strengths haven’t been in his character work, in my opinion, so I’m not sure why he mixes things up so much by adding kids. He writes them fine, but I don’t think the nature of their perspectives gels well with his writing style, so I kept hoping their involvement would be more limited.

Recently Finished

The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess 9Over the weekend I finally continued The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess by Akira Himekawa with volume 9. This volume sees Link and Midna venturing into the Twilight realm to finally face off against the usurper Zant. This part of the volume I enjoyed rather well, especially as it did more to flesh out the Twili people and more of what life was like for Midna at court. The latter part of the book involves the subplot with Link’s hometown that disappeared when he pulled a strange sword from a stone as a youth, all elements that were not part of the original game. I liked that this made the Twilight realm feel bigger, but it was wrapped up a little too neatly for me by the end of this volume. I get that you want to give Link more of a backstory without derailing the original story, but this didn’t walk that line well.

Reading Next

Nothing cemented right now, as I’ve got a lot in progress.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – August 2, 2023

Ryan1 Comment
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Much to my irritation, for reasons unknown to me WordPress is not allowing me to resize images as needed in a post, so I’m not including any covers today, even though that bothers me to my very core.

Currently Reading

I’ve been able to make yet more substantial progress in Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett since my last post; I’m just under 70 pages away from completing it. I typically enjoy the novels about the witches a lot simply for the love of the characters, even if the plot lines leave a little something to be desired at times (at least as far as I remember, I’ve read so many Discworld novels now), but I am really loving this one. Nanny Ogg, Magrat, and Agnes are all being given a lot of time to shine as characters, in some cases showing how much they’ve grown, and this is the most vulnerable we’ve ever seen Granny Weatherwax, though her gravitas is still maintained. The vampires continue to be an excellent force to be reckoned with, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how they are thwarted.

Recently Finished

Last week didn’t have much to show for it and my family suffered a sudden loss, so I didn’t bother posting anything. As a tiny turn of fortune though, the fourth volume of the manga adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess by Akira Himekawa turned up at my library after seemingly being MIA, so we’re back in business as far as making progress on that series goes. I’m surprised with how much this volume sped through certain story beats of the game; by the end, two dungeons are cleared and the subplot with Ilia losing her memory have been resolved. I don’t really mind it, and it does have me curious what the rest of the series will entail, as there are 11 before it wraps up. I like how much more the secondary characters are being fleshed out, so perhaps some of it will have to do with that.

Reading Next

Next week I will be away on vacation, so I won’t be able to post. Still, I have a lot of reading plans between now and when I post again. First and foremost, I plan to read volumes five and six of the Twilight Princess manga so that I can return them to the library before I leave. On my trip I intend to bring This is How You Lose the Time War by by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, which I’m hoping I’ll be able to finish while I’m gone. If I do end up reading through it quickly enough, I will then start Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. I doubt I will finish both books (there’s a good chance I won’t finish one), but they’re fairly short, so getting through at least one and starting another at least feels doable.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – July 19, 2023

RyanLeave a comment
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Carpe JugulumI managed to make a lot of great progress on Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett with the newly found reading time I’ve acquired, though it’s only on alternating Mondays. I managed to read well over 150 pages, which is really good for me, so I’ve gone from barely starting the book to getting right in the thick of it. Though I’ve enjoyed many of the others before, this may be shaping up to be one of my favourite novels about the witches, which is surprising considering how relatively little Granny Weatherwax is featured in the story thus far, though she was given one of the best scenes that now stands as one of the most moving in the whole series for me. Nanny Ogg and newcomver Agnes Nitt are getting a lot more of the spotlight, though, and I’m really enjoying their perspectives. The vampires taking over the kingdom of Lancre are also some of the more compelling villains the series has had.

Recently Finished

The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess 3Over the weekend I read through the third volume of the manga adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess by Akira Himekawa, which I was finally able to borrow from the library after requesting that they obtain a new copy. It was a good continuation of the story, though it felt a little less eventful. A lot of it had to do with Link being trained by the Hero’s Shade, and I’m curious if he will be given the same origin as he has in the game. In the game it’s implied he is the Hero of Time, a previous incarnation of Link, and Hyrule Historia confirms this, but I’m not sure if the manga is going in that direction. At any rate, it seems the golden wolf that takes Link to the Shade’s realm may not be one and the same as the Shade, which is not the case in the games, so I have to wonder. I want to read volume 4 asap, but it has been due back at the library since June 3, so I’m wondering if that one too is now MIA.

Reading Next

The Yellow Wallpaper 2I’d really like to read the next Twilight Princess volume, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen as soon as I’d like. Maybe I will finally read my little pamphlet of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, though I’ve grown to resent it a little as I’ve remembered a rather inexpensive copy that includes other stories that I would have preferred. I was a tad too impulsive with picking that up, but I ought to read it anyway. I will maybe try to finally read Tombs by Junji Ito before next week as well, though we will see; I just haven’t been all that excited about checking that out.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – June 14, 2023

RyanLeave a comment
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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Jurassic ParkI’m still making slow but steady progress with Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. We’ve been slowly introduced to more and more dinosaurs, though things haven’t hit the fan just yet. I’m noticing more this time around how much the book itself is giving itself an out for how its dinosaurs are represented compared to what the science says; Doctor Wu states that they’ve only recreated the past as best they can, not literally revived dinosaurs as they were, especially since they filled in gaps in the genome. It used to bother me when I was younger that the dilophosaurus was venomous with no scientific basis too, but as I’ve come to understand paleo-art more and more, I realize such an artistic liberty isn’t at all inappropriate: you just shouldn’t be using fiction as the entire basis for your understanding of something.

Recently Finished

The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess 2Last night I read through the second volume of the manga adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess by Akira Himekawa. This volume properly introduces the impish Midna, with whom Link reluctantly partners in order to return to human form and fight back against Zant and his incursion into Hyrule. This volume moved things forward a lot more. I appreciated how the first volume set things up, but establishing Link and Midna’s dynamic was a lot more fun, especially since it is typically one-sided in the game. It deviated a little more from the game here with how events unfold, as tracking things down and completing a dungeon don’t really adapt well. I can’t help but be a little bothered by it, but I understand why the change was necessary.

Reading Next

The Complete Poetry of Edgar Allan PoeThough I still want to focus on stuff I’ve already been meaning to read for a while now, I cannot help but be tempted to start reading The Complete Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, which I picked up last month. I try to read poetry on occasion, though I struggle with reading it a lot more, and I really like the poem “The Raven” and this book is pretty short overall, so I’m hoping I’ll enjoying getting into this. I haven’t started reading it yet at all, but I have put a bookmark into it, and I feel like that counts for something.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – June 7, 2023

RyanLeave a comment
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Jurassic ParkI’ve been able to make some more decent progress in Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton since last week, though nothing too major. The main cast has made their way to island now and the initial tour is underway. Though I don’t think I was blind to it the first time I read this book, John Hammond’s petulance around the island’s safety being assessed is a lot more apparent to me. It is actually making some elements of the film feel a little dissonant to me, as he is treated a lot more kindly there, yet workers have suffered fatalities from dinosaurs right from the start of the movie. I get that he’s a bright-eyed idealist, but that rings a little hollow when you think harder about how much he’s deliberately overlooking the deaths of his workmen. I think I’m appreciating how much more the novel is matter-of-fact than I did the first time.

Recently Finished

The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess 1Over the weekend I read the first volume of the manga adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess by Akira Himekawa. It was an interesting adaptation of the early phases of that game, as a certain degree of work had to be put into characterizing Link, which is typically only lightly done in the games. I was surprised with how deep they made it, giving him a bit of a tortured backstory that situates him in a specific place in Hyrule while also explaining why he already has some skill with a sword. There’s also an element of him being an outsider to Ordon Village, which is a nice touch considering even in the game he has pointed ears while nobody else does there. I’m especially looking forward to what his dynamic will be like with Midna, which it seems we’ll start to get a look at starting in the next volume.

Reading Next

Not making anymore concrete plans right now, other than obvious, i.e., the second volume of Twilight Princess. I’ve got plenty to get to that I’ve said I would already, no sense in repeating myself.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – May 24, 2023

RyanLeave a comment
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

I’ve read a little bit of Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton since last week, though I’m still in the beginning phases of the story; I’ve yet to even meet the main cast of characters. So, I don’t really feel I have much to update about this book as yet. Hopefully I’ll have more to comment on next week.

Recently Finished

Adventure Time Season 11I just finished reading the comic book Adventure Time: Season 11 by Sonny Liew et al., having recently finished rewatching the series in its entirety, including the Distant Lands specials. Unfortunately, before I even finished reading this volume, I learned that the creators of the show don’t consider this comic book to be a canon continuation of the show, as they had virtually no involvement in its creation. There are also references to comics-only continuity as well, so that was a bit of a bummer. The volume contained two stories, one a little longer than the other. The first involved time travel to 1000 years in the future, a concept the comics seem oddly obsessed with. It was just okay. The latter two chapters felt a lot more character focused, however, with Finn still reeling from losing his home and having other humans closer by. Despite the first story being a little middling, by the end it was a nice little epilogue to the series as a whole, canon or not.

Reading Next

The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess 1Though there are a number of books I’ve mentioned in this section that I haven’t started yet, I recently received a book I had on hold at the library: the first volume of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess manga by Akira Himekawa. I’ve been on a bit of a Zelda kick again, since before even the new game came out, and I’ve been wanting to read this manga after recently finishing Twilight Princess HD. I really don’t want to buy more and more volumes of manga, however, and this adaptation is a lot longer than the others, so I was excited to see a lot of this series is in my library’s catalogue (though volume 3 is maddeningly absent). Hopefully the due date will spur me on to actually read this soon.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.