Consumption – Page 20

Book review: Marquis de Sade: A Biography

November 29, 2018August 15, 2019 CaptainFez1 Comment

Marquis de Sade: A Biography by Maurice Lever.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars.

So let’s have a think about what comes to mind when you think of the Marquis de Sade. You know, Donatien Alphonse François. The famous libertine with a fixation on all things anal. The atheist who shagged anything that moved and put anything that didn’t up his backside. The corrupter of youth, the writer of obscenities. The beloved of surrealists. The perennial prisoner. This guy:

I dunno, I always figured his portrait would have more bare arses in it.

You’d think it would be something to do with sex that’d be the key driver of the guy’s story right?

Well, having read through all 600-odd pages of Maurice Lever’s biography, I gotta tell you that the sex shit is nothing. The real focus of ole DAF’s life was real estate.

I know, right? Mind blown. Continue reading “Book review: Marquis de Sade: A Biography” →

Book review: Batman: Earth One, Volume 1

November 25, 2018August 15, 2019 CaptainFez1 Comment

Batman: Earth One, Volume 1 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank.
My rating: 5 of 5 stars.

Lately I’ve been trying to get into reading more comic books. Yeah, mostly graphic novels but also some superhero stuff. Because when I was a kid, I never really read much of that stuff, apart from the occasional Phantom comic. Certainly, I had read a couple of Batman one-offs, but never anything extended.

There’s absolutely no way that this will go badly.

So I decided to plunge back into the world of rich guy vigilantism with Geoff Johns’ reinvention of the caped crusader’s origins – and man, was I glad I did. Continue reading “Book review: Batman: Earth One, Volume 1” →

Book review: The Scarlet Gospels

November 25, 2018August 15, 2019 CaptainFezLeave a comment

The Scarlet Gospels by Clive Barker.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars.

I first began reading Clive Barker’s works when I was a teenager. They were sexy and gruesome and intriguing and I inhaled them. (This is around the time Cabal came out, for reference.) I thought they were edgy and sophisticated and a bit terrifying, especially as they introduced me to ideas I hadn’t really considered before.

I probably should have left it there, in my teenage years. Because slogging through The Scarlet Gospels felt a bit like looking at your old yearbook pictures. You know, the ones with the fucked haircut and a carriage informed by what you believed was cool before you realised cool is bullshit. Continue reading “Book review: The Scarlet Gospels” →

Book review: Clive Barker’s Hellraiser Omnibus Vol. 1

November 18, 2018August 15, 2019 CaptainFezLeave a comment

Clive Barker’s Hellraiser Omnibus Vol. 1 by Clive Barker.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars.

I guess I must be a glutton for punishment? I mean, I recently reread The Hellbound Heart (and found it wanting, alas) after forcing myself to sit through all the movies in the Hellraiser series. So of course, it was only natural that the next cab off the cultural rank was almost 600 pages of comics set in the same world, eh?

Nag nag bloody nag. (Also, check out those guns!)

Thankfully, this collection wasn’t a waste of time or good suffering, which is probably a better deal than you’d get from a Cenobite drop-in.
Continue reading “Book review: Clive Barker’s Hellraiser Omnibus Vol. 1” →

Book review: The Hellbound Heart

November 12, 2018August 15, 2019 CaptainFezLeave a comment

The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars.

I suppose polishing off a Gothic fancy where death plays love’s fiddle put me in mood for something a little more grim, so I decided to revisit Clive Barker’s novella of puzzles and bad dates, The Hellbound Heart.

Jesus wept, indeed. Continue reading “Book review: The Hellbound Heart” →

Book review: Wuthering Heights

November 11, 2018August 15, 2019 CaptainFezLeave a comment

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.
My rating: 5 of 5 stars.

Let me in (ah) your window (oh ho ho ho).

C’mon, you were thinking it. I know you were. I was, the whole way through. As the introduction indicates, it’s a rare text that can not only birth film adaptations but also pop chart-toppers. (And accompanying dance routines.)

Continue reading “Book review: Wuthering Heights” →

Assassin’s Creed: Origins (2017)

October 20, 2018October 20, 2018 CaptainFez2 Comments

If you’ve read this blog for a while – I am shocked by the fact that I’ve owned this domain for almost twenty years, just quietly – then you’ll know that I’m something of a fan of a bit of period neck-stabbing action. You know, the Assassin’s Creed series, aka Ubisoft’s procession of Conspiracy Woo and Historical Shoulder-Charging Simulator games.

Undead Nefertiti is, unsurprisingly, METAL AS FUCK.

At one point, I played all of the games in a row on my PS3 – from the first up to the then-new(ish – I have a backlog) AC IV: Black Flag. I had a bit of a break then, because there’s only so much assassination you can stand in a row. But, like everyone else, I was pretty solid on the fact that the second game and Black Flag were pretty much tied for the title of favourite.

That was until I got my hidden blade into Origins. Or, rather, it got its talons into me.

Continue reading “Assassin’s Creed: Origins (2017)” →

Book review: My Friend Dahmer

October 18, 2018August 15, 2019 CaptainFez1 Comment

My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf.
My rating: 5 of 5 stars.

It’s not logical, really, that someone in search of some light graphic novel reading should end up reading a book about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. You know, the guy who killed men and had sex with them. The Milwaukee Monster.

This guy. Yeah, you know the one. Somehow, I ended up thinking that reading something written by one of his friends was A Thing To Do in place of, I dunno, reading about muscled science freaks with superpowers. Continue reading “Book review: My Friend Dahmer” →

Bang bang: a gaming update

September 23, 2018September 23, 2018 CaptainFez2 Comments

It’s been a while since I wrote something about what I’ve been playing. I know, world with bated breath and all that. I ploughed through a bunch of games in a row until the actual half-arsed reviewing I do had added up to a sizeable amount, and not doing it seemed to encourage more stress than actually sitting down and giving it a go.

So here, however belated, is my Examination Of What I’ve Been Playing Lately. I would’ve had it done earlier, but the cat ate my homework. Continue reading “Bang bang: a gaming update” →

Book review: Akira, Vol. 6

September 21, 2018August 15, 2019 CaptainFezLeave a comment

Akira, Vol. 6 by Katsuhiro Otomo.
My rating: 5 of 5 stars.

So. The final volume of Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira has rolled around on supercharged wheels. It’s carrying some kind of monster thing that I think was a kid once. There’s carpet bombing and from-orbit lasers. There’s annihilation and birth; grotesqueries of form and the simplicity of connection. There’s death, and there’s life.

There’s also a fair chance that for a reasonable part of the work, it’ll feel like you have no idea what the fuck is going on. But that’s ok, because the ending to this tale of conspiratorial struggles to contain universe-warping power really wants to remind you of one thing: everything comes down to the friends you make along the way.

Continue reading “Book review: Akira, Vol. 6” →