G. Willow WilsonRecensioni

I'm not sure what else I can say. Consistently good on all fronts. Love this series.

The best of what makes this series and this hero great. She is a spiritual successor to the old Spider-Man/Peter Parker stories. If you've ever felt overwhelmed by life and/or just not good enough, then this series--and this volume in particular--has plenty for you.

Not quite as powerful or entertaining as the preceding volumes, but a good continuation of the series.

What a wonderful character! I loved her in the first book, but I figured something out this time around. She's the second coming of Peter Parker. Not only is she witty and funny in the heat of battle, but she struggles with the same real life/super-powers issues that I remember from the Parker of my youth. More importantly, she articulates these things in an American voice that is desperately needed in pop culture.

I'm out of accolades. I love this character and series.

Excellent, excellent writing. Some of the dialogue is absolutely timeless in capturing the struggles of growing up a teenager in America, regardless of ethnicity. There were definite shades of Peter Parker for me. The fact that the new Ms. Marvel is a Muslim adds another dimension to the classic struggle without forcing its way into the story. Definitely recommended for tweens on up, regardless of gender.

series, issues #6-11 (rated T+, hoopla) - teenage hijabi Kamala continues to seek out the Inventor (who turns out to be a giant bird/clone of Thomas Edison) and help more runaway kids (who at first need to be un-brainwashed); she teams up with Wolverine (who has lost his healing powers) to fight some giant sewer Alligators, and later befriends a giant dog named Lockjaw, eventually meeting Medusa, Queen of the Inhumans. Takes place in Jersey City.

I didn't read this volume exactly, I read a dozen of the floppies (labeled #1-#12) I got from someone on an exchange group. After hunting around and realizing that Ms Marvel (2014-2015) is different from Ms Marvel (2015-2019), I'm pretty sure they're in here? (I seriously don't get how mainstream comics work.)

Nice art! I teared up reading her brother's wedding! Also, this has reminded me why I don't read Marvel and DC comics --- they're boring!!! Superhero comics all eventually recirculate the same 5 plots with the same 5 characters, and while I liked Kamala's family a lot, maybe the most of all, it's not enough to keep me reading more of the same! old! shit!!

This deceptively simple book shows the difference between religious faith and religion as a tool of power. This is not a romance, which is refreshing!

Finally a graphic novel that I like!!

This was a totally fun, action packed story about a freshly minted superhero trying to figure out her powers and how to use them all while trying not to make her parents too angry.

I'll read more of this series for sure.

** read this because it came in Book Riot quarterly box **

Story: 6.5 / 10
Characters: 7
Setting: 8.5
Prose: 6.5

I learned a substantial amount about Islamic culture from this book. Compare this to a piece of literary fiction, which will predominantly focus on cultural exploration without a plot and you'll understand why Alif the Unseen is so unique.

Nevertheless, I had generally mixed feelings about the book. Very slow start, picking up only when the urban fantasy elements were introduced. Note also that this is a different type of fantasy novel, opposed to traditional Tolkien worlds, making it more interesting than most other books in this same genre. Not recommending it, but not warning others away from it either.

I loved the scenes with her and Logan! Kamala is such an adorable and fun character. She's great for someone like me who's new to comic books.

Super good! quick read! want more!

Super good! quick read! want more!

Thought the writing was really weak in this volume, which is too bad. Flubbing a Loki cameo = great and tragic tragedy.

graphic fiction series - G. Willow Wilson Ms. Marvel (issues 1-5)
16 y.o. Kamala Khan somehow gains shape-shifting superpowers one night after sneaking out to attend a party in Jersey City, New Jersey; while figuring out how to control her abilities (and trying to stay out of trouble with her strict Muslim parents from Karachi) and helping her friend Bruno, she makes an enemy of The Inventor. A fun introduction to the teen superhero backstory.

Invisible Kingdom has a lot of great things going for it. It is a fast-paced narrative that happens to be quite relevant with wisdom and mind-bending visuals about a novice nun (none) and space courier for a major corporation discovering a conspiracy between the dominant religion and the all-powerful mega corporation. When they do, they become prey in a desperate interstellar chase in order to suppress the truth.

The story line is pretty great, is often humorous, and has moments of wisdom. Christian Wards art is mostly wonderful, full of vivid and popping color work although some of the action scenes of quite busy.

If you love action-oriented, space capers - you'll love this. Check it out.

Fun! I enjoyed Wolverine's cameo.

Fun!

I'm still reeling a little from the abrupt ending, but I'm still marking four stars because I really want let it soak in for a while, then read it again.

This book had its problems, especially with the women characters. Some of those are highlighted well here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/758951337

As an Arabic speaker, I enjoyed reading the English translations of Arabic phrases. Whenever someone said, "My eyes," when asked a favor always got me. And "alhamdulillah," every time someone was asked how they were doing... I enjoyed that part a lot.

It took me a long time to put together the cover art with the story. Not the circuitry among the calligraphy (Molly pointed that out to me), but on the back, there's a hand that wards off the evil eye. Just made me think of The Hand that fought Alif. Interesting.

Minor spoiler: I wish she hadn't used Alif's given name, Mohammad. It was a funny quirk throughout the book to avoid saying his name, like the convert's.

I lived in Egypt a while back, and it was nostalgic to see the similarities between The City's culture and Egyptian culture. I also wondered if The City was Medina... Maybe so, maybe not.

The story was enough to keep me coming back and wanting to finish. Supernatural Arab story... I haven't read too many of those outside of Alf Layla wa Layla.

A fun story marred by a few problems.

I think this is for a younger audience (deals with teenage insecurities). Five stars for the representation alone.

The Bird King is a fantasy novel that begins with the fall of the last Islamic state on the Iberian Peninsula, the Emirate of Granada, to the forces of the Spanish monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand in 1491. Fatima is a 17-year-old concubine enslaved by the sultan who grew up in the palace, and her only friend is Hassan, the court cartographer. Hassan has the magical ability to shape reality with his maps which brings him to the attention of Luz, an outwardly kind but darkly zealous representative of the Spanish Inquisition.

Fatima and Hassan flee with the aid of the jinn Vikram who is half-man, half-dog. Eventually they are joined by a Breton monk named Gwennec. Their goal is to find the mythical island of the Bird King - a place not unlike Avalon - using Hassan's enchanted map. The book is a great blend of historical fiction with magical realism and really a great character study. It's also beautifully written.

Favorite Passages:

"It does no good to fake a conversion of faith. Remember that, my love. The people who want to burn you alive will find a reason to do it, whether you pretend to agree with them or not.”
---
What could she say? She could not envision a God who demanded such particularity of belief, whose mercy and forgiveness were confined to such a precise segment of humankind. Nor, if it came to that, could she fathom hell, which seemed a somewhat contradictory place: you could be sent there for behaving in the right way but believing in the wrong God, or for believing in the right God but behaving in the wrong way. And that, in turn, threw heaven into disarray, since those who both believed and behaved rightly were invited to indulge in the very pleasures for which those who behaved wrongly had been sent to hell.
---
The real struggle on this earth is not between those who want peace and those who want war. It’s between those who want peace and those who want justice. If justice is what you want, then you may often be right, but you will rarely be happy.”
---
“Once a story leaves the hands of its author, it belongs to the reader. And the reader may see any number of things, conflicting things, contradictory things. The author goes silent. If what he intended mattered so very much, there would be no need for inquisitions and schisms and wars. But he is silent, silent. The author of the poem is silent, the author of the world is silent. We are left with no intentions but our own.”
---
"Some ideas are so beautiful that even evil people believe in them. I thought the abbey would be full of saintly folk, but it wasn’t. Isn’t. It used to depress me. But I’ve come to realize that I must share God with the things that God has set askew.”

Solemn, respectful, reminding us who Kamala Kahn was and who she left behind.

Solid intro for an interesting new character. I'm glad it lived up to all the buzz I had heard and read.