Catching up on Some Reading on Day 24 of #Blaugust

Daily Ramble 22: Catching up on Some Reading

I followed along with a number of #BlaugustReborn posts today but I didn’t get a chance to formulate my thoughts related to them. Instead I look at a few of the things I’ve been reading. Avengers, Weapon X, and some Raymond Feist and I had a pretty good day of catching up on my reading.

Not Connecting with the Twins

I started up Prince of the Blood by Raymond E. Feist and so far I’m not liking the start of this trilogy as much as I enjoyed the first and second installments. I really enjoyed the Riftwar Saga and the Empire Trilogy but perhaps the reason I stopped reading this grand tale from Raymond Feist is that I didn’t really like this novel. I thought I read more of this series back in the day but I don’t recall much about this story so maybe I stopped. In any case, I’m just not getting into this one so far. Basically we’ve dropped down a generation from Riftwar to the twin sons of Prince Arutha and while some faces are familiar such as Jimmy the Hand, he’s now a much older version and he even gets married in the part I’ve read so far. I suppose I miss the characters I grew to love in Riftwar and while the Empire Trilogy was set in the same universe, it was on the other side of the rift so it had that going for it. As it stands, this entry in the series is definitely my least favorite so far but I’m gonna keep going with it and working my way through the series. The bottom line is that even though it’s my least favorite so far, it’s still a decent read. I just wish I had some of the more familiar characters in the world to latch on to.

Avengers on the Warpath

Ok, I don’t want this to be a completely negative post today but I’m trying to slog through the Avengers volume 7 and I’ve made it to issue #3. The time travel and paradox stuff is in full force in this issue as Vision traveled through time to kidnap the baby Kang. As that event broke the timestream, a bunch of evil Kangs start showing up and taking out the Avengers in their past until a benevolent future Kang helps the team to fight back and sorta restore time. The story is starting to make more sense even as it gets more complicated but I’m still overwhelmed by the art. I wonder if this would have worked better for me with a less dramatic art style or with a less confusing story. As it is, I like the story fine and I like the art fine but together I’m not so sure, I kinda feel assaulted and for a basic reboot (starting at issue #1) I’m not sure this works for new readers.

As opposed to Avengers, Weapon X #2 by Greg Pak and Greg Land works for me. Perhaps I know these characters better or want to see them fighting on the same side. And I got introduced to Warpath. Apparently he’s got some similar healing factor to Wolverine, he’s very strong and can fly. One thing that is slightly annoying though is how these Wolverine types always prefer to hang out alone in the wilderness where evil cyborgs can come and capture them. I suppose it’s good that there’s no innocents around to get in the middle of the fight but they also don’t have any buddies around to help out. In any case the story is firming up well and I’m interested in seeing where this is all leading.

Daily Ramble 22: Catching up on Some Reading