REVIEW: Heaven Official's Blessing (Tian Guan Ci Fu): The Comic (manhua, vol. 1) original story by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, adapted and illustrated by STARember, translated by Mimi

Heaven Official's Blessing is danmei with fantasy and historicalish elements. This is the first volume of the Bilibili manhua adaptation of the story. I bought my copy new.

Review:

I think this is now the third format in which I've experienced this story. It follows Xie Lian, once the beloved crown prince of Xianle, now a god who has ascended three times and been banished from the heavenly realm twice. 

Xie Lian's third ascension caused some damage that he is being allowed to pay for with whatever merits he earns investigating a case for the Heavenly Emperor. There have been reports of brides being snatched from their wedding processions around Mount Yujun. The culprit is being referred to as the "Ghost Groom." Xie Lian has been tasked with finding and stopping this Ghost Groom.

This volume covers the whole Ghost Groom storyline, up to the revelation about what's under Lang Ying's bandages.

REVIEW: The Auctioneer (book) by Joan Samson

The Auctioneer is a blend of suspense and, I guess, horror. I checked my copy out from the library.

Review:

I can't remember how this book made it onto my radar. Maybe some sort of "small-town horror" list? Anyway, this is focused on the Moore family, made up of John, his wife Mim, their four-year-old daughter Hildie, and John's elderly mother. The Moores get by okay, doing work for others in the town of Harlowe and occasionally selling some butter and crops, but they're not wealthy by any means. Even so, when the police chief stops by to tell them that an auctioneer has moved into town, and would they like to donate something to an auction he's planning in order to pay for more deputies for Harlowe, they find a few things to donate.

The problem is that it doesn't just stop with that one request, and as Harlowe gets more deputies, the requests feel more and more like demands. Perly, the auctioneer, is all smiles and charm, but it seems like an awful lot of "accidents" have been happening to those who don't donate. 

A large chunk of this book is John and Mim worrying about the next week's request to donate and fighting about how far they're willing and able to let this go. Initially, they have enough junk that's broken or that they don't regularly use that it's easy for them to find stuff to give. And there's an element of peer pressure in it as well - it's to help Harlowe, so sure, why not donate a few old wheels or whatever?

As things progress, however, the Moores are faced with donating things they actually still treasure, and then things they still use. Peer pressure was part of the issue, but I got the impression that Mim was also kind of dazzled and flattered by Perly's attention, at the start. (Unless I misinterpreted things, it sure seemed like John was ragingly jealous.) When the flattery stopped working, word about the "accidents" started getting around.

REVIEW: Mesozoic Art II: Dinosaurs and Other Ancient Animals in Art (nonfiction book) edited by Steve White and Darren Naish

Mesozoic Art II is an art book. I bought my copy used, I think.

Review:

This was one of the books that caught my eye when I was on a Bob Nicholls kick. I haven't read/seen the first book, although I plan to.

This book features full-color artwork from 25 paleoartists. The full list: Andrey Atuchin, Rebecca Dart, Simone Zoccante, Brian Engh, Natalia Jagielska, Min Tayza, Bill Unzen, Beth Zaiken, Frederic Wierum, Simone Giovanardi, Curtis Lanaghan, Edyta Felcyn-Kowalska, Anthony J. Hutchings, Haider Jaffri, Lewis Larosa, Gaëlle Seguillon, Henry Sharpe, DJ Washington, Rudolf Hima, Stieven Van der Poorten, Ramón M. González, Maija Karala, Ashley Patch, Mattia Yuri Messina, and Bob Nicholls.

Each artist had a brief bio and then several pages of artwork, some of it full-page and some of it smaller, but all generally large enough to see everything well (there were only one or two pieces that I recall wishing were larger). Each piece included a caption that identified the species of animals and plants depicted, along with a little relevant info from recent research (aspects that the artist depicted particularly well, research that supports the artistic decisions made, etc.).

This was an awkward book to hold, but the large size meant that the artwork got a lot of room to shine. Much of it was intended to be realistic (sometimes to the point where it felt like you could reach out and touch feathers and scaly skin), although there were a few more stylized pieces. All in all, this was really enjoyable to look through.

REVIEW: Barbarian Lover (book) by Ruby Dixon

Barbarian Lover is sci-fi erotic romance. It's the third book in Dixon's Ice Planet Barbarians series. I bought my copy new.

This review includes spoilers. 

Review:

Of all the women stranded on this planet, Kira is most likely to hold herself apart from everyone. While many of the other women hope they'll find a mate among the sa-khui (and therefore a firm place in their new community), Kira knows she won't, for reasons she's afraid to reveal to her alien hosts. When she was a child, she contracted an illness that left her infertile.

Initially, the translation device that the other aliens surgically implanted on her ear gave her some useful skills. Now, however, she's aware that she needs to find some other way to be useful in case her infertility is discovered. Unfortunately, the translation device is proving to be more and more of a burden. It not only gives her painfully sensitive hearing (she is embarrassingly aware of who is having sex with whom), it also seems to be a way for the original aliens that were going to sell her and the other women as sex slaves to track her.

To protect everyone, Kira gets permission to travel to the remnants of the sa-khui spaceship to see if there's anything there that can remove her translation device. Easy-going and cheerful Aehako is one of the aliens who agrees to go with her and protect her - largely because Aehako is interested in sad-eyed Kira, even if their khui haven't resonated.

REVIEW: The Best Competitive Multiplayer Games (nonfiction book) by Ryan Janes

The Best Competitive Multiplayer Games is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

In this book, Janes discusses the gameplay and appeal of 60+ competitive multiplayer games. As in his other book, The Most Relaxing Video Games, everything is covered in alphabetical order, and each game includes information about when it was released, its publisher, developer, genre, number of players, and the formats/systems on which it can be played at the time of the book's publication. Each game also includes numerous full-color screenshots. 

I really liked Janes' book on relaxing games. I'm not sure he was the best person to write this book, unfortunately. I don't play a lot of competitive multiplayer games, but my dad does, and from watching and talking to him, even I know there are certain titles that would likely be included in a lot of lists of "best competitive multiplayer games" that weren't included here, although they were sometimes mentioned in Janes' write-ups of other games. For example, Counter-Strike 2, Valorant, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Fortnite aren't on Janes' list. It's tough to tell without a tally of all the genres mentioned, but it felt like the book was fairly heavy on party games in particular. A few shooters were mentioned, but I suspect Janes isn't as interested in that genre.

Another problem with this book was that the editing was horrible. Comma usage was a mess, and there were multiple instances of homophone confusion.

All in all, while I still generally liked the way Janes talked about the appeal and gameplay of individual games and appreciated the screenshots, this wasn't nearly as good as his other book. 

REVIEW: The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up: A Magical Story (nonfiction manga) by Marie Kondo, illustrated by Yuko Uramoto, translated by Cathy Hirano

The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

I haven't read Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, but I assume that this manga includes the same tips and principles as the book, just in a different format, with some edutainment aspects. Here, Marie Kondo has been hired by a new client, Chiaki, a 29-year-old sales rep in Tokyo, to learn how to clean up her fantastically messy apartment. 

Kondo's method requires you to divide the contents of your home up into categories: she recommends Clothes, then Books, then Paper, then Miscellaneous Items, and finally Sentimental Things. First, though she wants you to think about the kind of life you'd like to live in your home - it's a way to focus your priorities and then start to gear your living space towards those priorities.