Inkspot Fancy

Daisy's hoping that after the whole mysterious-eldritch-involved-drowning of the first book, things will be calming down in her life. The heavy tourist season is over for her town, and some of the various non-human creatures in the area go into some sort of winter hibernation. But life isn't usually kind enough to give a Hellspawn a break. And this time, it comes in the form of a personal disagreement that threatens the whole town.

Let me just warn you up front - this book starts out with something that might be uncomfortable for some readers. As she's relaxing and listening to a concert at the start of the book, our hero Daisy gets a call that turns out to be a satyr, who's gone "into rut" and the pheromones he's putting off have turned a gay bar into a huge orgy. It also nearly pulls in Daisy and her werewolf police partner, Cody. And while it gets resolved fairly quickly, it's also kind of treated in a weirdly glib way - like, there's not any real concern for the people involved, just a general sort of "Well, guess we better try to prevent that from happening again" sort of attitude. I guess the entire thing was just to set up a subplot that comes later, but it could have been basically anything eldrich. Though it does give us this passage - "Placing his hands on his hips, he nodded enthusiastically, giving his pelvis a little thrust for emphasis. Kind of like he was offering up the world's most startling door prize" - which made me crack up for some reason, so... small favors?

After that, we get into the meat of the story - Daisy has begun dating Sinclair Palmer, the tour bus driver from the last book. They're not sure exactly what their relationship is, but they seem to be having fun figuring it out. Except, that figuring out gets interrupted when Sinclair's cultured lawyer sister Emmeline Palmer shows up with an ultimatum - she wants Daisy to break up with Sinclair and sabotage his business so he'll return to his original home in Jamaica, to work with his mother and sister.

Even just on principle, it's a shitty thing to ask of someone. And it doesn't help that Emmeline is pretty unlikeable. She comes across as the better-than-everyone mean girl in high school, putting on whatever mask fits her needs from one moment to the next. I think she was something of a missed opportunity, since if I'd understood more about her and why she wanted her brother home other than "because home" and "because mom" there might have been more tension. As it was, she didn't feel like she had any stakes in the proceedings, like she was just there as a bit of a plot prop. This goes double for another character who shows up for basically one scene near the end, just long enough to unleash the biggest wrench into the works that the book gets, and then leaves again.

I do like that Daisy is getting more proactive in this volume. She does some proactive stuff with Emmeline and her threats. She also decides to start working on a database of important info on the eldritch community in the wake of that whole satyr thing at the start of this review. (She gets help for that from another new character who turned out to be surprisingly more than I expected from his introduction). She also proves herself willing to fight - physically fight - when tradition demands it of her in the book.

Cody the werewolf doesn't really get too much screen time in this one. (Page time?) It's a shame because I thought he was one of the weaker parts of the first book, and he didn't help himself in this one. But Stefan gets to play a big, meaty role and round his backstory, character and motivations out in a really nice way. Another nice surprise was his new lieutenant, a 200-year-old ghoul with a unique take on life.

Some other favorites from the last book, like Casimir, Daisy's mom and Lurine, are here as well, in roles of varying size. Daisy's best friend maintains her presence, but her sister gets an interesting twist on her story which I thought was fantastic I was really glad to see them all. Most of the inhabitants of this series' world are very interesting people.

Overall, this book turned out to be a weird case where I didn't care for the setup of the plot, but I liked the climax. The plot itself was exceedingly simplistic, but the final battle, etc., were actually pretty suspenseful and exciting. Bonus points there.

Overall, this book was okay - enjoyable and fun, dark without getting into gritty territory, but in some ways unsatisfying. Certainly enough to keep me going in the series, but part of me just wishes I'd gotten more from this.

I've been on something of a lore kick recently in World of Warcraft, including running the Siege of Orgrimmar for the first time. And that was great, because I did it just before I started reading this, and timeline-wise, yes, that's the way it goes.

Aye. A raid in World of Warcraft is the prequel to this book.

Two factions - the honor-in-battle Horde and the order-by-law Alliance, have just come together to put an end to the tyrannical and some say mad warchief of the Horde, Garrosh Hellscream. (I love WoW names). As he was brought low in battle, his old mentor, Thrall, is about to deliver the killing blow when - to everyone's surprise - King Varian, leader of the humans and, in many ways, the Alliance, stops him. It's not right for Thrall to take justice into his own hands, according to Varian - Garrosh has hurt far too many.

So this book, in the aftermath of that, is a trial being held by the four celestials (it's more complicated than this, but they're kind of like gods) to determine the proper punishment for Garrosh - death, or imprisonment, or something else entirely. It's part clipshow of the recent past in the world of Warcraft, part character study of a good variety of characters and part uncomfortable accusation at the reader themself.

Yeah. I'm pretty sure part of the goal of this book, or at least an unintended consequence of how it was written, was to make me-the-reader uncomfortable about enjoying the very book I was reading. An interesting choice, and I'm not entirely sure a bad one. :)

The unique part of the trial here is that the Bronze Dragonflight (basically, they control the timestream) have created a sort of Time TV that lets the two sides show in full, actual detail moments from the past, when testimony alone isn't enough. So we get to see a bunch of major moments (or at least hear about them) from books, from raids and dungeons in game, even from fairly inconsequential quest lines. There's everything that happened with Theramore. There's the whole thing with Alexstrasza and the red dragonflight's eggs. We see the moment Thrall asked Garrosh to take the reins of the Horde - and what he did with it as time progressed. (Were you ever in Orgrimmar during Mists of Pandaria? Then you have some idea what this entails).

Garrosh early on refers to this whole trial as being akin to Darkmoon fair - basically an indulgent, voyeuristic show being put on for an audience. And as the book goes on, you start seeing more and more characters coming to that way of thinking as the device shows [personal, private moments, private pain that makes some people uncomfortable but others just fascinated. And after a while, it sort of felt like it was extending to me - I felt a little awkward reading those flashback scenes and welcomes a return to the story's present day. It's more consideration than I expected to give a video game tie-in novel.

The subplots give is little glimpses into a variety of characters - weirdly perfect human teen Anduin Wrynn gets some spotlight time, both for some decisions he made in the past and one big one he makes in the present. His friendship with Wrathion, of the Black Dragonflight, also gets a nice little frame here, showing both its good side and potentially it's not-so-good.

Two of the Windrunner sisters, longstanding figures of import in the game world, also get their own subplot where they come together in their separate but equally deep pain and loneliness and attempt to repair old rifts in perhaps the worst way imaginable. Baine, tasked with defending Garrosh, has to search his heart and figure out who and what he wants to be as the Horde moves forward. And Jaina, still raw from the losses she has suffered, has to make some deep and terrible decisions for herself.

All in all, this book was given a tall order. After all Garrosh has done, the main target audience - the people who play the game - aren't all that keen on cheering for him and they already know a lot of what's talked about in these pages. But it's portrayed with such a focus on the characters in the present that it worked quite well for me. I imagine some people will find it a little too procedural after some of the previous books but different tastes and all that.

Vitriol is a vampire hunter in a city overrun by the things, a lone man aiding the police in an attempt to save humanity. But now that the vampires are looking to solidify their hold, the city might need more help than he alone can provide.

This is a tricky book for me to review, because I really wanted to like it. I liked the art, I like vampire stories, I have a soft spot for urban fantasy - all the pieces were in place for me to really enjoy this. And during parts I really did. But a combination of a predictable story, occasional art issues and the fact that I was unable to really connect with the main character left me a bit disappointed when I was done with this one.

The idea of a city already infested to overrunning with vampires was different enough from other things I've read that I was intrigued. But once we met our main character, he didn't really distinguish himself for me from the dozens of dark and brooding vigilantes that came before him, and seems to borrow heavily from a few. I found he felt like a retread rather than a unique character. I suspect that a little more time would have helped, and I'll be looking forward to that in a second volume.

A small issue timewise, but the thing that struck me most negatively - one of the central relationships is Vitriol and the nurse who fixes him up after he gets beat up, but in general he's a complete jerk to her. I think it's supposed to read as him just not knowing how to be open with her, but since we don't really know him, it comes across as him being an ungrateful dick early on, for no reason. (And later, that person gets kidnapped as bait for him, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how the kidnappers knew the two were connected. I'm sure I just missed something, but I couldn't find it, even going back through).

I absolutely LOVE the art of this book stylistically. It has a real feel of Humberto Ramos by way of Tim Buckley (not in any of the bad ways) to me, and a lot of the time it exuded a lot of character and energy. Unfortunately, there were times when there were some hiccups from a telling-narrative-in-pictures standpoint. The art was sometimes just not clear about what happened - you could see the result, but not always what led to it. Still, those were pretty few and far between. The art in this book overall was really its strong suit.

In the end, this was okay, but I was left wanting more from the premise. I think the familiarity of some of the elements won't be a problem for a lot of readers, and the art is definitely great. If this sounds like something you might be interested in, you should definitely check it out. And if I get a chance to check out a second volume, I probably will.

Legal Drug was a fun manga that braided lighthearted moments and character development in with more serious backstory and moments in an effortless blend. When the first issue of Drug & Drop came out, I noted that it felt like the tone had shifted, phasing out a lot of the lighthearted stuff in favor of a more serious tone and approach. And in this volume, that shift gets even more prominent.

We finally get a lot of backstory about our four main characters - that is, in fact, pretty much all this volume was about. And while I can appreciate that none of it is particularly fun stuff, the serious-bordering-on-grim feel of the book made it feel like this volume almost belonged to an entirely different series.

It isn't a bad book. But given what led me to enjoy the original three books, it was an unwelcome change. And there's another crossover with another CLAMP work in here that feels really tenuous. I mean, the links between the works are numerous, but the explanation of how it ties everything together felt really weak.

It's a shame because bits of the backstory stuff were really interesting, and I think the reveal of the other entwined book could have worked. Heck, maybe they will still make it clearer how it all works, so it doesn't feel like a huge part of the overarching plot happened just *because*.

Hayate the Combat Butler 7

This book strung together a series of shorter events, just one and two chapters, looking at the absurd lives of the absurd characters in this absurd series. Nagi questions her life experiences, a builder of killer robots becomes a high-school teacher, Hayate gets an idea what a day in the life of Hinagiku or Isumi is like and the sharing of one's heart through chocolate gets a bit competitive.

This volume was... okay. I didn't dislike it - I don't dislike much in this series, given what it is - but when I think back on this series or try to explain it to people, there's nothing in this volume that I'd likely explain or even remember at first.

The one major thing that comes out in this book is that Nishizawa has a brother! And he's got one of the most awkward crushes in the world on Nagi. And unlike a lot of awkward crushes, this one doesn't leave me feeling somewhat uncomfortable on behalf of the young woman. So... bonus there!

Hayate the Combat Butler 8

After the hopping around of volume 7, this one focuses in on one arc that takes up a majority of the book. Due to an awkward moment at the end of the previous book, Maria asks Hayate to stay away from the mansion for three days to give Nagi some time to cool off. She gives him plenty of money for the span, but in true Hayate fashion, he manages to run through it swiftly without spending any on himself and finds himself once more on the street. People take pity on him, but that could lead to a whole lot more misunderstandings.

This book offers a bit of insight into Hinagiku, and how she and Hayate relate to one another, while also giving minor spotlights to other characters, especially Maria and Nishizawa. And it's somewhat interesting to see how Hayate impacts the people around him, as evidenced by how Maria finds out what happened. :) A really sweet, enjoyable and funny volume.

Since it seems to be going around lately, here's a brief rundown of what my star ratings mean.

* - I almost never give a book one star. This is generally reserved for books where a lack of effort feels clear in the work, or a DNF which is so rife with problems that I cannot recommending it to anyone in good conscience. Very few books are that bad, to me.

** - I didn't like it. I feel a 2-star book has major flaws which had a huge impact on my enjoyment of the story, and which would severely limit who I could recommend the book to.

*** - If I like a book, if I enjoyed it, I'll generally give it at least this rating, but a book with 3 stars has some notable flaws. They just weren't enough, for me, to prevent my enjoyment. Also at 3 stars are books which I find to be technically well-written, but which I did not enjoy because of their execution.

**** - A book I enjoyed unabashedly and would probably recommend to other people on a general basis, instead of a based-on-specific-tastes basis, gets four stars. They have to be fun, with solid plotting, quality writing and enjoyable characters. Also, incredibly well-written books which I neither enjoyed or disliked. 

***** - This is for the very best books - the enjoyable AND well written ones based on their genre and aims (so, a well-written all-ages superhero comic would probably cause fans of five-star lit-fic to turn up their noses. But I feel you have to take into account the aim of the work, in some quantity). And also, very rarely, it's for a book I enjoyed so wholly that I just can't seem to see or care about the flaws.

I'm sure I've said this before, possibly multiple times, but I think I may like the manga version of Tiger and Bunny more than the anime it's based on, and this volume really cemented that opinion.

This volume is part of the Jake (an obvious riff on The Joker of DC comics fame) arc, and for my taste, makes several notable improvements to the story. While in the anime Jake more or less controls everything right until the end, this version not only lets the heroes shine and prove his philosophy somewhat wrong, it also gives them all something character-framing and important to do. And I love this book for it.

The big winner here is Rock Bison, a guy who really didn't get to shine in the anime and mostly has also been sort of pushed aside in the manga. He's an older hero (it feels like he, Tiger and Fire Emblem may have been contemporaries, with Sky High coming into Hero TV a bit later, but I'm not sure) and he lacks the flash of some heroes and the skill of others, but he has a lot of heart and is always there, doing his best. He's depicted as Tiger's best friend, and I love it when the two of them get scenes together. But, in this volume, I discovered I love it even more when he gets an awesome heroic moment. :D

'Course he's far from the only one. There are hero moments aplenty. And its making me almost desperate for the next volume because things were coming to a head and I want to know what happens next!

I feel like The Secret History of Fantasy has been on my "currently reading" for months, but honestly, I've only read the first couple pages and am considering taking it off for a while. Reading short story collections is oddly difficult for me, moreso when they're not all themes around particular characters or in the same world. :(

I have few things to thank Tumblr for, but one of them is introducing me to Raffles and Bunny, a gentleman thief and his earnest assistant. A Thief in the Night, the third of the Raffles and Bunny books, collects a number of short stories detailing some of the activities of the two over a span of years.

It's somewhat unfortunate that this book is never going to be able to avoid comparisons to Doyle's Sherlock Holmes books, both because of the author (he was Doyle's brother-in-law and dedicated the first book to Doyle), and because of their relative places in fiction history (Raffles being an extremely popular character in his time from what I've read, but the stories not having anywhere near the fame of the Holmes tales either then or in present day). And it's unfortunate because this works much better on its own than it does in Holmes' shadow.

The problem is that while the characters are enjoyable, the writing is not as deft, or maybe it's just that the plotting and the details of the cases are not as crisp and complicated. The miracles Raffles pulls off are supposed to make him seem extremely clever, but they only come across as moderately so, and occasionally Raffles will do things that made me wonder where all his vaunted brains are. And you can tell the author even realized this, because he usually makes an attempt to explain the question away, but it often comes across as more of an excusing of the situation than an explanation.

All this sounds like complaining, and I guess it is. But overall, the stories are entertaining, with a sort of evil-Robin-Hood sense of humor and a good variety of settings and set-ups. Our narrator, Bunny, is well-meaning and sometimes feels too nice for the life of a cracksman, or burglar and safe-cracker. He seems mostly to be in it for Raffles' sake - either to help him out or to prove himself to that notable. And at times you'll wonder why - Raffles is a gentleman and well aware of his own talents, and as a result is often yanking Bunny's chain to greater or lesser extents. He's actually enough of a jerk at times that I was waiting for Bunny to put his foot down and demand to be treated better, but the moment never came. I guess that's for fanfic.

As for this book, I don't think it's the best place to start with the adventures of these two burglars, as it references earlier works in ways that enrich the experience, but I think it's a decent standalone.

Hayate the Combat Butler 5

In this volume, Hayate faces a duel to prove himself as a first-class butler, then has to face a test of courage in an old school building, tries to find a special deadly technique, then has to protect Nagi aboard a startlingly... familiar? ship. Meanwhile, Nagi herself encounters her rival for the first time and Wataru has a crisis of understanding over a woman's feelings.

This story was made for me by the search for the special deadly technique, a hunt that leads us into the next volume as well. Upon meeting two other butlers, Hayate has it in his head that he needs one in order to successfully protect Nagi (and given that he challenged everyone who wants her fortune to go through him first, he's likely right). But these things rarely just show up in, say, the library or at school. Still, it doesn't stop him from looking in all those places.

We also get to see Izumi in her main work in this book, to an extent. She's the sort of vacant character I usually don't dislike, but also don't really care about. But for some reason, Isumi really amuses me. :)

Hayate the Combat Butler 6

I said in my review of vol. 5 that the search for the secret deadly technique would continue into the next book, and here we go!

After failing to turn the physically lazy Nagi into the winner of a race at school, Hayate is about to be fired. But there's a way out - if he can complete training at the Tiger's Pit for Butlers, he will be allowed to return. However, things are never as simple as they sound in Hayate's world, and he ends up having to deal with a violent nun, a ghost and worst of all - practical butler experience.

The Tiger Pit is a weird arc, absurd in the way I've come to expect from this series, but I think it might be one of my favorites. The references aren't always recognizable to me, but enough are to give me a grin.

Someday I really need to go through and rank my top-5 Detective Conan opening songs

I admit to being a sucker for nostalgia. It's bad enough that I spent a couple hundred dollars to go to a convention just to meet the voice actors and one of the original writers of the comics, Kevin Eastman. And since Ghostbusters and TMNT were huge parts of my childhood, this comic was basically like someone at IDW said "How can we get Liss to give us money? This? Would this do it?"

It absolutely would, and to be perfectly honest, this book was well worth the money to me. It would have been worth buying in a hardcover to me. I don't know if folks coming at this without the nostalgia will have the same attachment that I do, however.

Let's start with the plot - the Turtles are messing around with a new device Donatello and co have created that's meant to teleport them from one place to another in an instant (Mirage comics readers, yeah, it's what you think it is). Except when the turtles, along with April and Casey, give it a try, something goes wrong, because otherwise where would the story come from?

This is the excuse for getting the two together - the Turtles appear in the same place as a major ghost and when the Ghostbusters get there, they naturally think the guys are something supernatural. (I mean honestly, it makes perfect sense, right?)

So now we have our crossover set up, and I want to give it a piece of praise right up front - everyone is absolutely in character. All the turtles, all the Ghostbusters, all the supporting cast. Some get more of an opportunity to show off than others, but everyone is clearly recognizable, and I swear there are times you could cover up the pictures, jsut read the dialogue, and still have a pretty solid idea who's taking to who.

Additionally, it gives pretty much everyone something to do. Some have more, some less, but everyone does something to affect the plot. It can be a little hard sometimes with crossovers with huge casts to make sure everyone gets at least a corner of the spotlight. They made the effort here, and I think it really paid off.

In the end, there is a lot of standing around and talking in this book, and if I wasn't obsessed with the characters and the backgrounds of the franchises, there might be times when I found this to drag a little. But because I loved the way even the slow moments painted the characters, I couldn't hate on it.

This is going to have a place in my rotation of often-reread stories, along with such titles as the original Young Avengers run and Booster Gold. SO enjoyable and so very well presented.

I love when I'm reading a mostly-all-ages comic and I come to one of those jokes that you know the 8-year-olds in the audience probably have no idea about.

I love it even more when the people involved in the joke are Ghostbusters.

Especially Egon. <3

Like a lot of people, I got my introduction to Jacqueline Carey through the Kushiel books, so when I grabbed this one - an urban fantasy detective-style story - I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Lots of sex and gore? Complicated political setups? Doomed romance?

Well, no, no and maybe, in that order. But what it really was? A fun book with a fun main character. It was a quick read, and I'm looking forward to the second volume.

Daisy is literal hellspawn, the result of an unwanted tryst between a human woman and Belphegor. Luckily for her, her mother is a wonderful woman who raised her with love, and now she's more or less like everyone else. Well, except for the emotion control issues, and the possibility of destroying the world. Well, and the tail, there's that too.

She works as the liaison of Hel, the goddess of the underworld, to the land of the mortals, and as such is tasked with some law enforcement. Stop fairies from taking children, keep an eye on the locak swamp hag, that sort of thing. It's all pretty low-key for paranormal policing.

That is, until a frat boy turns up dead in the river and she's paired with a police officer to try to get to the bottom of things.

If you're looking for something amazing and new in the world of urban fantasy, this probably isn't the place to search. There's shades of a number of other urban fantasy books in this one - the setup has been seen before, of course she's a detective of some sort (though not really by trade this time!) and sure, she has to work with a hottie and encounter another, both of paranormal blood, in this inaugural offering. One thing that surprised me though, was that this book didn't seem all *that* concerned about who she would hook up with. She finds people attractive, sure, and thinks about hooking up with them, but the book never really does anything with it, which I found somewhat refreshing.

Also, while there are werewolves and vampires, they both take a backseat to what I find more interesting and unusual types of creatures. So, bonus points from me.

In the end, what actually happened in the mystery wasn't TOO hard to figure out, but the story was enjoyable, and I liked a lot of the characters. Hel was properly imposing, Daisy's mom was a treat and the faux-Jamaican tour bus guy made me hope he's in the next book a LOT more. Other notables included Lurine - Daisy's once-babysitter and now combination confidant and bodyguard - and Stefan the Ghoul, with his smooth talk and haunted outlook on things. I also really liked Daisy, though I found her werewolf detecting partner to be a little bit everyman.

Fun though. So, so fun. I'm definitely excited to see more of what this series has to offer.

Hayate the Combat Butler 3

If there's a prize out there for the most over-the-top manga in the world, I might recommend this one. Nothing in Hayate is done by half measures. So, our main character Hayate doesn't just have bad parents, he has parents who steal money from him, then sell him to the mob to pay off their other debts. Our main female character , Nagi, isn't just rich, she's Scrooge McDuck-style loaded and buys companies on a whim just to make some trivial pursuit simpler. Her friend doesn't just have a bad sense of direction, she can get lost just standing around. No one can just have a misunderstanding, it has to be a protracted, awkward misunderstanding exacerbated by both sides. And so it goes.

So if that doesn't sound like a good time, turn around right now. A lot of the humor in this book is in the absurdity of its very premise - Hayate, sold by his parents to pay off their debts, ends up being saved by Nagi and serving as her Butler. This involves not only cleaning and generally helping around the house, but also combat to the death, dealing with in-home tigers, and death robots with vendettas.

In book 3, we have a duel for Nagi's affections, a trip to an amusement park on the grounds of Nagi's home, and a lesson learned for Nagi.

Really, there is a bit of poignancy when Nagi, who mistakenly believes Hayate and her best friend Izumi are in love, tells Izumi she'll sell Hayate to him for the original price she paid the mob. It's telling that because of the tone of the book, it comes across as childish and silly, but there's that undercurrent of discomfort as you realize just how awful a thing she did - and in the moment when she realizes it too.

Overall, though, there's nothing deep here. It's generally a light read, and you'll know pretty quick whether it's for you or not.

Hayate the Combat Butler 4

Summer is almost over and it's time for Nagi to go back to school. But before that, we have to deal with a ... kidnapping? Nagi goes along with a fake kidnapping in a misguided attempt to see how Hayate really feels about her, but she underestimates the lengths to which people will go for those other than their romantic partner (a commentary on mass media? I am thinking yes). It's absurd, but also pretty pointed.

Then we get into the school arc, and this is another place where the serious stuff sort of sneaks in when you're not paying attention. Nagi doesn't want to go to school. She's antisocial, plus she's very smart, and that leaves her feeling out of place at a school, especially the prestigious one she's enrolled in. Since her view of school is so negative, she doesn't think about how Hayate (who has been out of school since the whole being sold thing, and returns to find his parents asked for a refund of the tuition *he paid himself* so he cannot even return) feels about basically not being allowed to continue his education. Once she does, her reaction is very sweet... but predictably, it all goes horribly, horribly wrong.

I love this volume in part for the introduction of one of my favorite characters in the entire series, school student council president Hinagiku. She's basically a less confident Maria, for times when Maria cannot be there.

First things first- don't be thrown off by its appearance. This isn't a book for young kids, despite that only books for young kids have ever been sold to me in this tall, thin, hardcover format. that expectation made the overly technical and rote opening all the more surprising, and not in a good way.

Once I got past expectations and into the book itself, it was okay. The art is cute and I love the premise, but the pacing is really weird and the dialogue never really grabbed me, making this feel a LOT longer than it should.

The pacing may be the bigger sin though. The opening is a fight scene which, with more engaging characters and dialogue, might have been solid, but in this case just felt like I'd seen it before. The character I liked best was one who's probably not even in later issues of the series. Instead we have Molly, who's basically Superman if he were stuck looking like a little girl and were surrounded by sociopaths, and Austin, her new pilot who breaks all the rules and is every hotshot character ever.

Having read through this book twice (it's short) I still don't entirely know if I understand what's going on. Austin is a hotdog and the book pays lip service to that being a bad thing, but it seems no REAL consequences have ever been handed out for his behavior, and for most of the time, he gets rewarded. In the book, despite being told not to get familiar with Molly and not to make friends, he absolutely does and no one seems to notice. So, there's a couple options, and I'm leaning toward his intentionally being given latitude with Molly in an effort to give her an emotional connection, since this is apparently something they felt she needed after 20 years on Earth.

I have a feeling a lot of my issues with this book would have been eradicated if this were a collection with multiple issues of the story. But with the odd motivations, the strange pacing and the overly technical dialogue at times, I just couldn't get into this one.