Thursday, February 4, 2016

X-23: Innocence Lost

X-23: Innocence LostX-23: Innocence Lost by Craig Kyle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Weapon X, a lot of time and money was put into him. He was an incredible weapon even after he escaped. Scientists in labs tried to turn test subjects into their next weapon, but they couldn't find anyone who could survive the adamantium bonding process. Eventually the man running the scientists decided to truly recreate Weapon X, but due to unforeseen circumstances they had to settle with something a bit different.
description

Innocence Lost is X-23's origin story. It took 23 attempts to recreate Logan and even then compromises had to be made. To some extent having a girl as a weapon is more dangerous, primarily because it's more unexpected. The comic book world like it's real world counterpart is a sexist place. No one fears a little girl until her claws pop out or she pulls a gun.
description
In the same extent I have to say I felt worse for her than I would have if she was a boy. It makes no sense, but that thought kept popping into my mind.

Reading Innocence Lost left me silently chuckling to myself. The reason is because no one has learned that a weapon that can walk, talk, and choose who it's going to kill is a bad idea. I mean haven't they seen any of the Terminator movies? Even their own history was bad, since Wolverine killed a good amount of the scientists and guards after he had adamantium bonded to his skeleton.

Innocence Lost is kind of a heart wrencher, which also means it's a really good comic.

View all my reviews

The Ghost Brigades

The Ghost Brigades (Old Man's War, #2)The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Colonial Defense Force is desperate. They've learned that three species are gearing up to fight a war against The Colonial Union. This isn't the most surprising or frightening part. The worst part is there is one human involved, Charles Boutin. Boutin is a genius CDF military scientist who knows all their secrets and who should be dead. The CDF is willing to do whatever it takes to learn why Boutin turned even going to the point of making a clone using something Boutin should've never left behind.

What can I say about The Ghost Brigades? First and foremost to me the overall story is incredibly generic. Now to be fair my father loves science fiction and I watched tons of those shows with him growing up. I watched all of Star Trek The Next Generation, most of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, a ton of Stargate SG-1, some of Stargate Atlantis, and who knows how many other short lived sci-fi series. The point in saying that is that I've seen basically all the space travel sci-fi storylines that exist today and that makes The Ghost Brigades particularly average for me.

The Ghost Brigades brings us back to the Old Man's War universe in the heads of multiple point of view characters of the Special Forces rather than returning to the mind of John Perry. The result is the reader sees and learns all there is to be known about The Ghost Brigade. Unfortunately the human factor and the humor that John Perry brought to Old Man's War is as absent as Perry is in this story. My favorite part of the series so far was Perry as an old man and immediately after he got a new body. Perhaps it's best to admit the space colonization and fighting doesn't really work for me.

The Ghost Brigades is a fitting sequel to the second half of Old Man's War. So if John Perry's time as a CDF soldier was an incredibly fun and exciting read for you then you'll undoubtedly enjoy The Ghost Brigades.

2.5 stars out of 5

View all my reviews