spiders

Giant Spider & Me #1 – Kikori Morino

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Giant Spider CoverFull Title: Giant Spider & Me: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale Vol. 1
Series: Giant Spider & Me, #1
First Published: February, 2018
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy / Manga
Contributors: Kikori Morino (author, illustrator); Adrienne Beck (translator); Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane (adaptation); Jennifer Skarupa (lettering, retouch); Nicky Lim (cover designer)
Available: Amazon.com | Amazon UK

Nagi is a twelve-year-old girl living alone on a mountain. Asa is a giant spider. They meet and spend their days cooking and getting to know each other.

This is the first book in a manga trilogy. The interior is black and white, with a colour cover and title page. Though it’s a post-apocalyptic setting, this is one where nature has taken over rather than being destroyed. Lush vegetation has covered the remains of the old world. That feel is enhanced by the watercolour artwork.

There is a slice-of-life focus to the main story, with activities such as cooking, harvesting food and caring for the house. There is some threat from humans and a brief fight scene with a wild dog, though none of this is graphic and issues are quickly resolved (apart from the cliffhanger at the end of the book, though that is quickly resolved in the next book).

Initially, Nagi sees Asa as a human replacement, but soon realises that Asa is their own thing and can’t be expected to fit human expectations. This is shown in direct ways, such as Nagi considering that she needs to learn about what it means to be Asa. It’s also shown indirectly, such as referring to Asa with gender-neutral they, rather than trying to make the spider fit a human gender role.

Asa isn’t like a typical spider in some ways, as they have teeth and chew food to eat. They use two tentacle-like appendages to manipulate things. They also understand basic instructions. It’s uncertain where Asa comes from, but the leaves growing on them makes them seem very much part of the post-apocalyptic world.

Cooking is a big part of the book. Each chapter has a recipe, which Nagi shows in detail (with help from Asa). The ingredients are summarised at the end of the recipe. I chose the first recipe to try, which was chewy pumpkin dumplings.

Pumpkin Dumplings

Image Caption: Four pumpkin dumplings on a white plate with a purple cloth underneath. The dumplings have an outer wrapping of dough, which is light brown from frying. They’re flattened and roundish in shape, with dough folds visible on the top.

In general, I felt the instructions were easy to follow, though it did help to write them out rather than trying to use the original book. Later recipes have fewer timings included compared to the first one, so some cooking experience is helpful.

The choices in the recipe helped bring out the flavour. It was a good idea to steam the pumpkin initially and using sesame oil to fry the dumplings gave extra flavour to the dough. However, there weren’t any extra seasonings in the filling, so I did change things a bit. I split the filling in half and kept half plain (like the original recipe) and added ginger to the other half. Then I fed them to my family.

Unfortunately, sweet pumpkin just wasn’t really our thing, even with added ginger. I did have fun trying it and it’s clearly a recipe written from experience. It’s really just down to personal food tastes.

I enjoyed this book. It’s quiet and gentle. It focuses on food and friendship. Asa the spider is adorable, giant teeth and all. This was exactly what I needed, so I’m glad I read it.

Steamborn – Eric R. Asher

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Steamborn CoverSeries: The Steamborn Series, #1
First Published: 29th November, 2015
Genre: Young Adult Steampunk / Novel
Available: Amazon.com | Amazon UK | Smashwords

Jacob is a boy living in a walled city, under constant attack from giant invertebrates. When an attack devastates part of the city, he and his friends investigate the cause.

I read this because of my love of invertebrates. It’s a steampunk world where invertebrates can grow to giant sizes. There are knights who ride giant spiders, insects pulling carriages, and the threat from wild invertebrates coming over the walls. I liked that though the wild ones were dangerous, it wasn’t that invertebrates were evil. Predators will kill people because they hunt, but there were invertebrates who were tame, who were farmed for food, and so on.

It’s one of the few books that treat spiders as just another animal. As well as the giant ones people ride, there are large (several inches across) jumping spiders that live around the city. Not everyone likes them, but they’re mostly treated as harmless.

Class themes are important. Jacob is from a poor family, who live in the Lowlands. As well as generally struggling with money for food and medicine, the walls protecting the Lowlands aren’t as good. That means they’re at risk from attacks. The rich area of the city is at the highest point, with the best walls.

It touches on some disability issues, as amputees are common due to the attacks. Jacob gets to work making prosthetics for people. This also links to the past, when the city was at war with people who had very advanced steampunk cybernetics. Some as prosthetics for people who’d lost limbs, but also some who’d been turned into cyborg soldiers. This would have had more impact if someone in the main cast had been injured, rather than being something that happened to minor characters. Though dehumanizing people with these prosthetics was treated as a serious issue, it was all rather distant.

The characters weren’t particularly diverse. They were mainly men/boys. Though it’s claimed the people in the present of the story are a mixture of all the races of the old world, everyone looks rather white until a few characters at the end. They fit a lot of stock character types. The eccentric old inventor. The reckless young boy who’ll save the world. Alice, the only girl who really had a major role, was there as the sensible one who told Jacob off for being too reckless.

The result is I was a lot more interested in the world than the characters living in it. The history and the society built around giant invertebrates was fun to explore. The characters who did the exploring were not the major draw for me.

The book is a little heavy on capitalised new names for things, which often made it harder to understand rather than clarifying what things were. It’s also the first in an ongoing story. There’s some resolution at the end, but it’s more of a pause before continuing the larger narrative.

[A copy of this book was received from the author for review purposes]

I Like Rain

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The whole day was full of sudden bursts of rain, like the Earth’s gardener tipping out a bucket. It was also very sunny.

There was a rainbow. I had to go out. Yes, I was very soggy.

Rainbow

But it won’t be the first or last time I’ve gone out in the rain for pictures. My camera is very forgiving. And a bit waterproof.

Puddle

As well as bucket pouring, we’ve also had a run of spiders this year. I blame the new wheely bins, as they don’t really keep out the flies. Nature did its thing. More flies = more spiders. They go and hide when the weather is cold, but anytime we have a warm spell they’re out and about. Rain means warmth in the winter.

So I went out to photograph the spiders. Whilst standing on my front path with the camera, a delivery person arrived with a parcel. I got some funny looks. I also got the parcel, but it wasn’t for me.

Spider

Rain is fun and full of spiders.