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Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata – Death Note: Black Edition: Volume III | Review

Title: Death Note: Black Edition Volume III

Author: Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 416

Rating 4.5/5

After rating two installments in this series in a row a 4.5/5, I was kind of hoping for a 5* read with this one. Unfortunately, it went the other way, but that might just be because I’d read two of these back to back. It could also be because this is towards the middle of the series and so it could have the manga equivalent of middle book syndrome.

Still, it was an excellent read and I’m definitely enjoying the series, and I can’t wait to keep on reading and to finish off the second half. I’ll also be interested to see how the events at the end of this are resolved, as well as a few other story lines that have been ongoing. Death Note does that well – I’ve said before that it reminds me of Prison Break, in that each issue ends with some sort of cliff-hanger that keeps you going and that there are constant call backs to things that happened earlier.

It leaves you, as the reader, with the feeling that everything has been thought of beforehand. In the same way that the A Song of Ice and Fire books only work because stuff that was mentioned in one book is referred back to many books later, Death Note leaves you with that feeling of a master planner at work. It’s beautiful, like a painting or a tapestry.

What’s interesting about this part of the story is that the nature of it changes slightly. We still have the concept of Kira killing people by writing their names in a notebook, only it’s a different Kira and with a different motive. It almost becomes a tale of corporate crime, and while that might not be for everyone, I thought it worked pretty well and I enjoyed it.

All in all, so far the series has been so good that even if takes a dip in quality from here on out, it almost doesn’t matter. I’ll still recommend it no matter what, and I’d recommend this book no matter what too. Just make sure that you read them in order, because this isn’t the kind of series that you can dip in and out of as standalones. The good news is that you can get a pretty cool box set that brings them together.

Click here to Death Note: Black Edition Volume III.

Cassandra Clare – Clockwork Prince | Review

Title: Clockwork Prince

Author: Cassandra Clare

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 512

Rating: 2.5/5

Cassandra Clare – Clockwork Prince

Yeah, I’m still not a fan of this series. The Mortal Instruments has been okay so far, but both of The Infernal Devices books that I’ve read have been so dull and lifeless. I don’t like Clare’s depiction of Victorian London, mainly because I don’t think she actually bothers to do it too much, and I feel as though these books could just as easily be set anywhere else in the world at any time period given that they spend most of their time inside Shadowhunter institutes or whatever anyway.

I was also under the impression that this was supposed to be urban fantasy, whereas the two books so far have just been romance novels with maybe ten pages of fantasy thrown in. This one has a love triangle in, a trope which I’ve always hated, and Will Herondale is such an asshole that it physically pains me to read about him. I hope he dies in the next book. This book tried to explain why he’s such a douchecanoe, but I don’t think it’s any excuse.

Not that I really care for the other characters, either. Tessa is a wet blanket, Jem is okay but again, because such a big deal is made about the fact that he’s dying, I hope that he does actually die so that it’s not all a big cop out at the end of the next one. I’m pretty sure that some cure will be found or something, though. In fact, if her other books are anything to go by then he’ll die and be brought back to life, which is another thing that I hate. Death isn’t a joke and shouldn’t be used so lightly, and Cassandra Clare isn’t the only author to devalue it by constantly killing and resurrecting her characters.

Cassandra Clare

But I’m going off on a tangent. Part of the problem for that is that I just don’t have too much to say about this book. Nothing much happened because like I say, it was all about romance. A bunch of different people hooked up and then hooked up with other people like some giant game of pass the parcel where you don’t want to see what’s inside. Then it ended, and I already can’t remember what actually happened. And I only finished it a couple of hours ago.

Granted, I’m not necessarily the target audience for this book, but The Mortal Instruments series is at least tolerable. With this one, I’m just so over it and the thing I liked about it the most was the fact that it had massive print. When your favourite thing about a book is the size of the print, you have to start asking yourself questions about why you’re even reading it, and I’m actually not sure. I’d have given up on Clare’s books by now if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m buddy reading them with some friends. Eh. Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t re-read.