COMICS REVIEW: Primary Relationship, Secondary World – Hien Pham’s ‘It Will Be Hard’
Welcome to the latest instalment of my comics review column here at Skiffy & Fanty! Every month, I use this space to shine a spotlight on SF&F comics (print comics, graphic novels, and webcomics) that I believe deserve more attention from SF&F readers. This month, I’m going to explore a new graphic novel with an innovative format that uses its speculative lens to look at two characters in a secondary fantasy world who aren’t trying to save the universe or the kingdom – they’re just trying to make their relationship work: Hien Pham’s It Will Be Hard. (This review contains spoilers!)
Book Review: Cold-Forged Flame and Lightning in the Blood by Marie Brennan
A woman appears out of nowhere, with no memory of who she is. She is bound to a task by a spell she cannot escape, as if she were a summoned demon (and perhaps she IS, she doesn’t know). The woman, even her name eluding her, makes her way on a perilous journey to obtain what is needed for a band of rebels to overthrow a tyranny. The woman remembers skills, certain very useful skills, even if things like her name and what she is elude her memory. She may not know who she is, but she can climb, travel through wilderness, and fight. Her story to find out what she is, who she is and what she was are intertwined with the quests she has been set, and later, undertakes on her own. Cold-Forged Flame and Lightning in the Blood, Tor.com novellas, begin to tell the story of a summoned spirit, an Archon, an Archon who learns that her name, or at least part of it, is Ree.
