Red Seas Under Red Skies - Read Along Week 3

Welcome the third week of Little Red Reviewer's read along of Red Seas Under Red Skies. This week's questions come from Ashley at SF Signal. So what do I think this time around as we get right into the meat of this story?

1. Locke and Jean's ability to find themselves at the center of a serious mess seems unparalleled. At this point, do you think that Stragos will get the return he expects on his investment in them?


I'm sure Stragos will get some sort of return from Locke and Jean, whether or not it's what he expects is another matter altogether. Locke and Jean despise people like Stragos and they hate being MADE to do anything. They'll find a way to double cross him, no matter what.
2. Merrain's activities after our boys leave Windward Rock are interesting. What do you think her plans are?


Merrain is a really interesting character. Does anyone else ship her and Selendri? Sorry, that just slipped out. I can just see those two teaming up and creating havoc. I don't think she's dissimilar from Sabetha, well what we know about her. As to what game she's playing, I've got nothing.
3. Does anyone know why having cats aboard the ship is so important?


It's a cool sea going superstition that was in this book. Sailors are notoriously superstitious both in the real world and in this book. Cats bring luck, plus they kill the rats that get aboard ships. Because of this book I associate cats with ships.
4. The word "mutiny" creates a lot of mental pictures. Were you surprised? Why or why not?


Not really. Okay I have read the book before, but I could see it coming a mile off, particularly when their guide died.
5. Ah, the Poison Orchid. So many surprises there, not the least of which were the captain's children. Did you find the young children a natural part of the story?


The kids are a plot device, they give Drakasha a softer side, otherwise she's all hard edges. They're pretty cute too, and I enjoy the interaction between them and the rest of the crew, especially Locke, who is a big kid himself really and seems to long for a proper familial relationship, probably because he never had one until he came to Chains.
6. Jean is developing more and more as a character as we get further in to the book. Ezri makes the comment to him that "Out here, the past is a currency, Jerome. Sometimes it's the only one we have." I think several interesting possibilities are coming into play regarding Jean and Ezri. What about you?


Oh yes, I adored Jean and Ezri together and how they bounced off each other. 
7. As we close down this week's reading, the Thorn of Camorr is back! I love it, even with all the conflict.  Several things from their Camorri background have come back up. Do you think we will see more Camorri characters?


I don't believe any more ghosts from Camorr will pop up. Red Seas Under Red Skies is very much it's own book and is as self contained as The Lies of Locke Lamora was, for that reason you don't want too many Camorr memories. It's a little like when they cast George Lazenby as James Bond and kept referencing Sean Connery's turn as the famous spy. Lazenby failed in part because he was never able to get out from under that shadow. If Lynch keeps referencing Camorr he'd be doing the same thing to Locke and Jean.

Flashman in the Great Game - Chapter 2

Things don't improve much for Harry in the second chapter of Flashman in the Great Game.

Once he's seen Ignatieff he runs and tells Ellenborough, who at first can't believe it, but they both soon realise that Palmerston had to have known. The concerning thing is that for Ignatieff to know that the English were aware of the Russian's plans for Jhansi on some level they had to have a mole at the highest levels of the administration. Flashman is instructed to behave around Ignatieff until they can put the plan to insert him into Jhansi in action.

Harry plays it pretty well. In company of the villainous Russian nobleman he acts the part of the gracious former captive, but when no one else can hear them he makes snide comments about knouts. Ignatieff does let Harry know that Valla survived being thrown out of the sleigh and would love to have her revenge on him.

Things go quite well, with Harry reverting to bully type and making life uncomfortable for his enemy when he believes he's safe, that is until someone tells Prince Albert there are some roe deer near Balmoral. I'm not sure if Albert was really as bloodthirsty as he's portrayed in the Flashman books, or whether this was just something that amused George MacDonald Fraser.

They go off on a hunt and Ignatieff and his hairy moujik put Harry's Scottish ghilly out of commission and go after another prey. They don't want deer, they want to mount Harry Flashman's head on their walls! This section once again made me think of scenes from a Bond movie, it never actually took place in any of the Bond films, but it has that feel about it. Harry is rescued by a capable British agent, who was sent for this purpose expressly.

The sooner Harry gets to India the better, in fact it may actually be safer for him. Harry said incident put him off deer hunting for life.

Danger Girl The Ultimate Collection

Aside from the Fables collections I don't really review comics here, but I'm going to make an exception with Danger Girl.

Before diving right in a little boring explanation is required. I first became aware of artist J. Scott Campbell when he worked on Image's Gen 13 (published under their Wildstorm banner). I personally felt that Gen 13 lost a lot when Campbell left the title to work on another project. That project was Danger Girl. I liked the idea of Danger Girl, but at the time I was collecting about eleventy million titles and didn't want to add another one to them. As it turned out Danger Girl's run wasn't really that long. It pops up now and then, but they always seem to be limited runs, and J. Scott Campbell only seems to have worked on the first 7.

I don't collect any titles as such anymore, I even wait for Fables to be collected before I buy them, but I do occasionally cruise the shelves of a local comic store to see if there's anything of interest, and that's when Danger Girl The Ultimate Collection caught my eye. I always liked Campbell's overtly sexualised depictions of attractive women in Gen 13 (no one did Catilin Fairchild the way he did, even with the oversized glasses and dorky clothes she still looked stunning). So I thought it would be worth trying his Danger Girl collection.

As soon as I opened the book and saw a caricature of legendary B movie actor Bruce Campbell, complete with an introduction I knew I was in for something special. I'm a Burn Notice fan, so love Campbell's portrayal of ex Navy SEAL Sam Axe, I also liked him in Brisco County Jr (when is that going to be released on DVD, damnit!) Bruce Campbell nails Danger Girl in his intro:

The women all seem to have upturned noses - cute, but not snobby. They also have either a mole or freckles - depending on whether they are sexy or stupendous. Bad girls, it appears get to wear fishnets and plenty of make-up. Anatomically speaking, they're genetically impossible, but it's a comic, right?

Men, if they're good guys, have straight, pointy noses and chin dimples.The bad ones get bigger, bumpier noses and chin dimples, but all of them sport physiques a WWF wrestler would envy.

In general, there is very good use of sweat and/or water - those are the wettest heroine T-shirts this side of Ft. Lauderdale!

I'd say the dental work is excellent all around.

The story and many of the characters are straight out of James Bond, with a dash of Indiana Jones thrown in.

Danger Girl is not one person, although most probably give heroine Abbey Chase that title. Danger Girl actually refers to the organisation of beautiful women put together by semi retired British spy Deuce. Deuce's name probably refers to the 00 title given to MI6 agents licensed to kill, like James '007' Bond, and he even looks like an older Sean Connery, with a better build, a beard and slightly more hair than the highly respected Scottish actor best known for his portrayal of the British super spy.

Danger Girl consists of beautiful, statuesque knife expert, former KGB agent Natalia Kassle, the curvaceous, leather clad, whip wielding Australian adventuress Sydney Savage, techno whiz kid Valerie Silicon, she could work anywhere in the field of techno communications, but likes the adventure of Danger Girl and secretly longs to be a field agent, she's younger and not quite as gorgeous as the operatives and is in this and her largely home base bound status not unlike M's super secretary Miss Moneypenny. They also have a couple of occasional male operatives in handsome and egotistical CIA agent Johnny Barracuda (involved in a love/hate relationship with Sydney) and the mysterious, but deadly Secret Agent Zero. The team was put together to confront and foil an emerging neo Nazi terrorist threat. Deuce deliberately targets perky American archaeologist and antiquities thief Abbey Chase as what Danger Girl need for their latest mission, locating and recovering an ancient and magical set of shield, sword and suit of armour, as her skills with guns, knowledge of history and knack of escaping from even the most impossible of situations are going to be very useful.

The villains are even more over the top than anything seen in James Bond. The blind ninja Assassin X, who has a connection and some sort of history with Zero. The villainous, but ineffective dwarf Kid Dynamo (who is really a slightly more deadly Nick Nack from Bond's The Man with the Golden Gun) and the overweight arms dealer Mr Peach. They're only a small sample and they do get crazier.

The action sequences are brilliant and leap up off the page. The opening double page panel is a drawing of a Bond opening credit and J. Scott Campbell's sumptuous pencils of beautiful nude silhouetted women put iconic Bond title creator Maurice Binder to shame.

Each issue even opens with a Bondesque pre title sequence. There's wit and humour in the art and the script. I had an absolute ball with Danger Girl The Ultimate Collection and would love the news about a possible movie to be true. My only real criticism is that J. Scott Campbell only did these 7 issues and I've seen other pencillers do it, but they just don't have Campbell's spark to their work, nor do they capture the characters as well as their creator.

Towers Analogous

It's obvious that not all is well in Iest.

As the Bug continues his upward assent, carrying Elrod, and with Cerebus desperately trying to stop him, others in the city have begun to notice that the big tower like mountain that hangs over the city is starting to lean.

The Roaches ascent is drawn very cinematically. I don't know if Dave ever wanted Cerebus to be made into a film or if he studied movie making, but he drew a lot of the novel as if it were a very elaborate storyboard. As Artemis climbs he incurs a number of serious injuries, and catalogues them as he goes ever upwards to his goal. It's rather like a parody of James Bond or John McClaine, it doesn't matter how badly these celluloid heroes get hurt they just keep on going. From the Cockroaches frenzied muttering it appears he believes he has a score to settle with Thrunk (or as Artemis refers to him Epop). As always Astoria is at the heart of it. The insane 'superhero' thinks Thrunk has taken his beloved hostage.

Around the city the fall of the tower is being noticed. It crashes through the window of Powers cathedral. It is not known if the Bishop survives the impact. Thrunk appears not to notice it, but as he's a mountain himself it may not appear to be unusual to him. Astoria sees it happening and runs to the edge.

She sees the Roach and joyously welcomes him. It's highly likely she arranged this, telling Artemis that she was being held hostage, knowing that he'd move heaven and earth to rescue her. Imagine her surprise when he pushes past her with a growled 'Out of the way, bitch. I have a score to settle.'