Red Hood's Revenge

Red Hood’s Revenge is the 3rd of Jim C. Hines Princess books. As the title implies this time the fairytale that Hines has elected to explore is that of Little Red Riding Hood. In the style of the series the author has altered the character from the story. Her name is Roudette and she goes by the professional name of Red Hood, so called because of the magical cape she wears. She’s no innocent child either, Roudette is a cold blooded assassin. The only one of her marks who ever got away was the Princess Talia Malak el-Dahshat (better known as Sleeping Beauty),and she is now one of Princess Danielle Whiteshore (Cinderella) of Lorindar’s best friends.

After Danielle, Talia and Snow (White) manage to bust Rumpelstiltlskin, break up his kidnapping racket, free the kids and send the nasty little creature, under heavy guard, to Fairytown to face trial for his actions, they receive a message from Roudette. She’s intercepted the prisoner, killed him, his human accomplice and his guard and sent a message to Danielle with her one remaining step sister’s Charlotte’s toes. The assassin knows that Danielle’s nature won’t allow her to harm anyone, even someone who was as nasty to her as Charlotte, and offers to deal with her alone for the return of the step sister. Naturally Talia and Snow aren’t about to let that happen, so go along with her. Roudette is taken into custody, but activates the spell she’s placed on Charlotte before she can be charged with anything, and the girls end up being transported with her to the eastern kingdom of Arathea.

Arathea is Talia’s home. She was meant to be it’s ruler, but then the spell that was placed on her plunged the kingdom into a long civil war. Rather than be used as a pawn by the new rulers, who had allied with the fairies that cursed Talia in the first place, and then ‘rescued’ Talia and forced her into a union with their prince, using her sons as insurance, Talia killed her husband and took off. She’s still wanted for that murder in Arathea.

Readers find out Roudette’s story, what made her into a killer and about the revenge she hungers for, she does a 180 from villain to hero. There is also the struggle for the kingdom of Arathea, and how the girls are determined to put things right. Someone from Talia’s past alters the relationship between she and Snow. This is likely to carry over into Book 4 (The Snow Queen’s Shadow).

I liked Jim Hines’ take on the Red Riding Hood legend, he gave it some more depth, she also carried a very interesting weapon. Talia has her zaraq whip and Roudette favoured a hammer. I love Arabian Nights flavoured tales and I’ve always hoped that Hines would use the girls to visit one of them, given Talia’s eastern origins. Arathea was right out of 1001 Nights with it’s deevs and peris and desert dwelling nomads. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get at least one djinn or flying carpet.

It’s a fitting addition to what is a fun series and I have to confess a bit of a guilty pleasure. The only misgiving I have with the books is the overwhelming female bias. I know that the author is male and the books are all about girl power, but I think at times it’s a little heavy handed and has been taken to extremes. All the major villains and heroes are female, most of the societys are matriarchal, while Lorindar is ruled by Theodore, and his reign will go to his son; Armand, everyone is aware that Queen Beatrice is the power behind Theodore’s throne, and I’ve rarely seen a prospective ruler as hen pecked as Armand. As a male reader I occasionally get the feeling that nearly all the male characters (good or bad) are either inconvenient or incompetent, quite often both. The only exception I can think of is the fairy ambassador; Trittibar, and he plays a fairly minor role. It doesn’t spoil my enjoyment of the books overall, but it does occasionally make me pause. You can write about strong female characters without having to marginalise or belittle the male ones.

An Anchor That's Going Places

A weird title, but very apt for the actual chapter.

It begins with Cerebus being roused out of his possibly prophetic dream. He's still in the cell with Astoria and now Powers has come to check with him. He also informs Cerebus of an imperfection with the sphere and that it has to be recast. He points out that Astoria is unlikely to provide much information with a gag over her mouth.

Grumpily Cerebus removes the gag and Astoria almost immediately launches into a diatribe that their God Tarim is not male, the name is Terim and it's a female, which is why no male will ever ascend and why Terim keeps knocking the tower over.

Cerebus confesses that the only reason he wants to ascend is to prove that he beat Weisshaupt by outliving him.

The conversation degenerates into Cerebus and Astoria screaming 'Tarim' & 'Terim' at each other according to their beliefs.

Dave uses an interesting technique to tell his story in these chapters. The panels are mostly irregular rectangles focussed on whoever has the stage at the time, as the chapter is largely a two hander between Cerebus and Astoria, with a cameo from Powers this is an effective way of drawing it, it also allows for minimal backgrounds and more words than most comics use.

This was the first time I could remember Terim figuring so largely in the story and looks like it may have been the beginning of the anti feminist stance that would prevail for the rest of the book's run.

Denoument

The 6th crises and the final chapter of High Society began in an unusual fashion. Cerebus was all alone in a cavernous hall, even his words echoed down the empty spaces. Eventually he found Astoria with the Conniptin commander. Because no one brought Cerebus his breakfast he has come to the conclusion that something is wrong.

Astoria is drinking wine and it is obvious by her manner that the glass in her hand is far from the first of the day. She informed Cerebus that the churches exodus inward had ended. The church has united and taken all power. Blakely and Filgate scared of the consequences have gone home. Cerebus' cabinet is now composed of Astoria and the Conniptin. Cerebus believes that the Conniptins give him the military strength he's wanted. However the forces of the combined church outnumber the Conniptins significantly and they'd be cut to pieces if Cerebus were to attack. Cerebus last hope was the anarcho-romantics, but they had been rounded up, arrested and were waiting trial or begging the Pontiff for his forgiveness.

Astoria says that Cerebus only course of action is to go to Lower Felda, as they are the only people willing to support him as Iestan Prime Minister in exile for the express purpose of embarassing the church. During the course of the argument that the conversation becomes we see some of Astoria's real reasons for orchestrating all this in the first place, she's a feminist, she wanted women to get the vote. I wonder if this was the beginning of Dave's anti feminist rant. The one that would get him in so much trouble later on.

Cerebus insists that he's not going to Lower Felda, he's going to Eshnospur. I don't think he really cared where he went, but he stuck on Eshnospur because Astoria wanted them to go to Lower Felda and he took a stand to prove that he did make the decisions for himself, not just blindly follow or agree to Astoria's plans.

As Cerebus leaves Astoria asks him what he's going to do and he says he has someone to find. Astoria correctly guesses that he's going to go looking for Jaka. She tells him that there are things he doesn't know about her. Cerebus responds by saying that he knew she was Lord Julius niece. Astoria's counter to that is that she too was once Lord Julius 'niece', he's had a number of 'nieces' over the years, the big difference between Jaka and Astoria is that he married her. I have admit this made me a little ewwwww! I'd always seen Lord Julius as Dave first presented him; a fantasy version of Groucho Marx. Groucho was undeniably sleazy, although Chico was sleazier, and he flirted all the time, but he was ultimately harmless and humourous. Jaka was twelve when she left Lord Julius.

Cerebus walked out on Astoria and found himself back in the Ambassador Suite in The Regency with the Elf. The Elf, as always, praised Cerebus, telling him that he was the best Prime Minister ever and who cared about the crummy ol' church. It will serve them right if Cerebus stays there for the rest of his life playing wickets with her. Cerebus tells her that he can't do that, he's leaving. The Elf asks if he will at least come back and see her. Cerebus says yes, but not soon. The Elf tells Cerebus that she'll miss him, will he miss her? The Cerebus did something I'd never expected to see. He started to cry, he said he had soot in his eye, but he was crying. He really loved the Elf and he hated leaving that life behind. The Ef held him until he composed himself. He picked up his sword, put on his vest and medallions, then kicked the sack of junk that he got from the mad artist. It fell open and the contents spilled out. Amongst the bangles and cups and plates was a statue of an albatross. Cerebus picked it up and threw it into the city where it shattered.

The book finished with some of the documents that we had been seeing throughout the crises, something that had been written by an anarcho-romantic who remained loyal to Cerebus. We didn't realise until this point who was writing those. These ones told the story of the author's arrest and imprisonment on a false charge of blasphemy. The final page was a ragged man in a dungeon cell writing on his walls by candlelight. The last panel is the word liberty.

Wow! That was one hell of a ride. Dave was going to find this a hard act to follow. To remain relevant, tight and funny for another 250 issues, that was going to be fun to see.