Month: December 2022

– – – – – – – – – Warning for HUGE SPOILERS – – – – – – – – –

I put aside my reluctance and read the latest Saga volume online. I really don’t care for reading a lot on screens- but this one wasn’t available at my library in paper copy, so I accessed it on Hoopla. That’s a different kind of experience. I spent several days on it instead of reading it in one sitting, but mostly because I’d stop after one chapter, ready to get off the screen and do something else. I didn’t spend the usual time lingering over the artwork, which is part of what I enjoy about a copy in hand. So didn’t quite feel as immersed in this one.

It continues the story of Hazel’s patched-together family. Her father is dead now. She hasn’t really dealt with the loss, shutting off her emotions. It gives her more common ground with Squire, son of the TV-head robot prince who lives with them. He’s quit talking entirely. Alana finds counseling for Squire, but struggles to keep up with payments. Living on yet another new alien planet, she’s fallen into shady lines of work (peddling dubious formula products on the streets and handling drug deals in other arenas) to support her family, and has a new business partner- a guy who’s also hiding his past. They all fall in with a new group of odd ones. Alana is standoffish towards their leader, a guy with moose antlers and a casual atittude masking his real intentions. Hazel is really taken by the band they have as a side gig, starts learning to play an instrument. Lots of mundane stuff in here about the music, the kids’ interactions (Squire admits he has a crush on Hazel, she doesn’t take that well), the generation gap. Alana’s parenting skills (or lack thereof) get called into question.

Other scenes on other worlds keep us in the loop about what’s happening with Gwen and the Will (who’s accompanied by Lying Cat again). I really could have done without the explicit scenes there. The sexual joke was so obviously set up it was cringe-worthy. There’s more politicking too, with hired hitmen from the Wings who now not only want to find Hazel, but do in everybody she knows, to completely wipe out the idea of peaceful relations her very existence personifies. And of course I loved the references to the fictional novelist Oswald, a running thread that links together some otherwise completely opposite characters. I hope that turns into something bigger.

Borrowed from the public library. Previous book in the series.

Somehow, I didn’t feel this one quite as keenly. Couldn’t put my finger on why, because it deals with some very emotional topics again . . . . Alert there are SPOILERS if you haven’t read this far yet.

This volume opens with Hazel’s family facing some tough choices. Alana’s infant died in the womb, but she can’t get treatment on either her home planet or her husband’s moon, due to their continued outlaw status. Instead, they have to seek help from a disreputable planet where people go for abortions. All kinds of social commentary about women’s freedoms (or lack therof) in there. But Hazel and Marko are just desperate to save Alana’s life, before the unborn child makes her critically ill. Alana finds a new source of strength. Hazel meets her unborn brother as a kind of ghost- a projection of future possibilities. (Maybe this is what felt flat to me. The scenes with Hazel and her little brother-who-would-have-been were very touching, but I just don’t care for ghosts in stories). Also I could have done without the monsters made from fecal matter- that just seemed absurdly juvenile, some potty-training kids’ nightmare. Oh well. Meanwhile, the tabloid writer/photographer team is trapped on another planet and facing starvation along with seal boy and the robot prince’s son. Petrichor- the trans woman- faces some adversaries on her own, and then finds -friendship?- from an unexpected side. Meanwhile, the Will (failed bounty hunter) has been taken captive and is being tortured by an alien entity, who wants revenge for their family’s suffering. Whom the Will doesn’t even remember encountering- mere side casualties of the war. Said torture involves making the Will relive a lot of memories, so we get flashbacks that explain some things. Very little of Gwen and Lying Cat in this volume. More about how the disparate characters are gathering together, into the circle of Marko’s family. Tender moments, but I’m ready to move on.

Borrowed from the public library. Previous book in the series. Next book.

Warning again for possible SPOILERS.

What’s happening now: the family is all back together again, with odd additions that you might have thought were their enemies in the past. TV-head robot prince is there, and kid Hazel sneaks into his room to see his dreams at night (um, never appropriate!) The pink ghost babysitter makes a reappearance, and then disappears for good (Hazel’s drawing of her made me so sad). Alana is expecting another child, and Hazel struggles both with the idea of soon having a younger sibling- but also that she might be expected to help care for it. The trans twisty-horned ex prisoner is a somewhat reluctant new family member too. They all end up on this hurtling asteroid, where a bunch of little meerkat-like people live. Who are cute, but overly religious. The younger critters’ interactions with Hazel are priceless. They’re trying to get their tree spaceship fixed and leave. Lots of scenes here hilariously made me think of Star Trek in that regard. But so many innocents in the crossfire of the ongoing war. Meanwhile elsewhere on another world, Sophie is still helping Gwen, but now has aspirations to complete vengeance on her own. It’s sad. Lying Cat has to choose between her and the bounty hunter, who’s lost his job and nobody knows what to make of him anymore. Including readers. Oh and now TV-head guy is reading the fictional novelist. That book is going to end up inflencing everything, just like people keep protesting! I don’t know what else to say. This one seemed to have more about the mindless violence and prejudice the different aliens have against each other, than the family building. The ending is abrupt and bleak.

Borrowed from the public library. Previous book in this series. Next book.