Rat Queens Volume 2: The Far Reaching Tentacles of N'Rygoth
3 journalers for this copy...
Rat Queens is a great example of taking comedic action fantasy tropes and turning them on their heads, while giving readers a great selection of diverse characters. The plot in this volume felt a little weak and tended to get fragmented, since the main focus was on fleshing out our four heroines' backstories. Still, the humor kept it moving quickly along and the characters and art are enjoyable.
Sent out as part of a book swap. Tracking number is 9114 9999 4431 4715 9752 09
The package arrived safely today; many thanks! I've wanted to dip into the "Rat Queens" series for a while now, especially when tentacles are involved {wry grin}.
Later: Very entertaining book, with some kick-ass women demonstrating just how gritty the lives of fantasy-world adventurers can get. The story opens with a four-panel page showing each of the four main characters in bed: red-headed dwarven fighter Violet, who's snuggling with huge, grey-skinned, black-beared Orc Dave (of the Four Daves); smidgen (aka "halfling") thief Betty, who's having pillow-talk with her punkish girlfriend; Hannah, the surly elven mage, who's sniping at her hunky bed-mate Sawyer, roguish leader of the town guard - they seem to have devolved from lovers to friends-with-benefits, but the relationship is clearly volatile; and human cleric Dee, who... is alone.
Once they're all up and about, much banter and snarking ensues, very lively, funny, and crude. They're clearly anti-heroes at best - when they're summoned to the mayor's presence they assume it's because of having broken the genitals off of a huge statue! (Turns out that's not why he sent for them, and in fact he's grateful, as "the Concerned Mothers Decency Coalition finally shut right the hells up".) No, they get sent on a little seek-and-destroy mission. This turns out to involve mushroom-people, whom they mop up easily - with a hilarious side bit featuring Betty and her hobbit-like (er, smidgeon-like) love of mushrooms making her not care that seconds before they were sentient beings. But on the way home our heroines discover that something's gone terribly wrong...
Meanwhile, Sawyer's found evidence of the whereabouts of the missing Bernadette - since I came in at Vol. 2 I don't know who she is, but they all seem a bit worried about her - and goes off to find her, against the advice of his right-hand-guard Lola (who's tough enough to be a Rat Queen herself, but seems to be a LOT more law-abiding). Sawyer does find Bernadette, and sees what's happened to her... oh, gosh, that was nightmare-fuel! And of course he gets captured, for reasons that make a lot of sense even though it's hard to be sympathetic to a foe who'd do that to Bernadette.
The bad guy wants to unleash massive tentacled elder-god destruction on the poor little town where the characters all live, and that seems to be happening - along with involuntary flashbacks, which show us a lot about each character's past (Violet as a rebellious young dwarf princess shaving off her flowing red beard for the first time) and then have them wake to the horrifying realities...
There's a lot more going on here, with fast-moving action and a surprising amount of character background all folded together. Most of this has some effect on the current battle and the massive magic-blasts needed to try and contain the evil, but other bits seem to have been dropped as fuel for future plotlines.
In any case, I enjoyed the volume very much, and loved the many little touches showing how each character related to friends, lovers, and foes.
[There's a TV Tropes page on the series with some entertaining tidbits.]
Later: Very entertaining book, with some kick-ass women demonstrating just how gritty the lives of fantasy-world adventurers can get. The story opens with a four-panel page showing each of the four main characters in bed: red-headed dwarven fighter Violet, who's snuggling with huge, grey-skinned, black-beared Orc Dave (of the Four Daves); smidgen (aka "halfling") thief Betty, who's having pillow-talk with her punkish girlfriend; Hannah, the surly elven mage, who's sniping at her hunky bed-mate Sawyer, roguish leader of the town guard - they seem to have devolved from lovers to friends-with-benefits, but the relationship is clearly volatile; and human cleric Dee, who... is alone.
Once they're all up and about, much banter and snarking ensues, very lively, funny, and crude. They're clearly anti-heroes at best - when they're summoned to the mayor's presence they assume it's because of having broken the genitals off of a huge statue! (Turns out that's not why he sent for them, and in fact he's grateful, as "the Concerned Mothers Decency Coalition finally shut right the hells up".) No, they get sent on a little seek-and-destroy mission. This turns out to involve mushroom-people, whom they mop up easily - with a hilarious side bit featuring Betty and her hobbit-like (er, smidgeon-like) love of mushrooms making her not care that seconds before they were sentient beings. But on the way home our heroines discover that something's gone terribly wrong...
Meanwhile, Sawyer's found evidence of the whereabouts of the missing Bernadette - since I came in at Vol. 2 I don't know who she is, but they all seem a bit worried about her - and goes off to find her, against the advice of his right-hand-guard Lola (who's tough enough to be a Rat Queen herself, but seems to be a LOT more law-abiding). Sawyer does find Bernadette, and sees what's happened to her... oh, gosh, that was nightmare-fuel! And of course he gets captured, for reasons that make a lot of sense even though it's hard to be sympathetic to a foe who'd do that to Bernadette.
The bad guy wants to unleash massive tentacled elder-god destruction on the poor little town where the characters all live, and that seems to be happening - along with involuntary flashbacks, which show us a lot about each character's past (Violet as a rebellious young dwarf princess shaving off her flowing red beard for the first time) and then have them wake to the horrifying realities...
There's a lot more going on here, with fast-moving action and a surprising amount of character background all folded together. Most of this has some effect on the current battle and the massive magic-blasts needed to try and contain the evil, but other bits seem to have been dropped as fuel for future plotlines.
In any case, I enjoyed the volume very much, and loved the many little touches showing how each character related to friends, lovers, and foes.
[There's a TV Tropes page on the series with some entertaining tidbits.]
I'm sending this to BCer HI77 in Florida as part of the US/Canada wishlist-tag game. Enjoy!
*** Released for the 2017 Keep Them Moving release challenge. ***
*** Released for the 2017 Oh, the Places We Can Go release challenge. ***
*** Released for the 2017 Keep Them Moving release challenge. ***
*** Released for the 2017 Oh, the Places We Can Go release challenge. ***
If the world is full
of unmitigated choas,
make sure you have massive breasts.
of unmitigated choas,
make sure you have massive breasts.
