Dean Ormston

Once again Wood breaks with his previous storyline and instead collects a handful of standalone stories into one volume. Each has a very distinct flavour so it looks a little like he's trying to cover all the bases in one go.

I particularly liked the Shieldmaiden's story, since it explored the role of Viking women more than previous volumes were able to. These women are thrown into their warrior aspects seemingly by chance, but they prove that they can surprise (and beat) the almighty Romans show more with their intellect.

Less intriguing were the stories about Sven of Orkney (a familiar face) and the single combat warriors. Both were well written, but they also seemed a bit shallow on closer inspection; we've done the whole battle thing already. show less

I recently reread Sandman, and while I do love it for its own sake, I must confess that my real reason for trekking through Gaiman's epic was to get to Carey's equally majestic, albeit much-less praised, story. Frankly, I'm not sure why that is, as in many ways, I think Lucifer surpasses its origin story. Both boast rich, and mostly independent cosmologies, but whereas for a significant part of its run, Sandman exists as a framework for Gaiman to write any kind of story he wants, Lucifer is show more surprisingly single-minded in telling the tale of the title character's most recent war against his creator. And frankly, I'd rather read about cunning, crafy, cold, cruel Lucifer than mopey Morpheus.

Volume one does little more than establish the setup for the rest of the series. Lucifer gets his Macguffin, and we meet the Basanos and Elaine. Sadly, Mazikeen gets short-shrift, but it's hard to do much with a character who can only barely be understood. But mostly, this book exists so that we can see what a brilliant bastard Lucifer can be. show less

Ostensibly a mystery, this story covers four time periods: 1890, 1940, 2014, and 2050, with each time period illustrated by a different artist, which helps the reader keep track. Detectives in each era discover a body of a naked man curled in the same position in the same alleyway in London. Each detective has a secret except for DS Hasan in 2014 who is dealing with being a female Muslim police detective at a time when Muslims come under suspicion. How these cases are connected forms the show more heart of the story and it wasn't what I expected. While things could be clearer, the story does take some interesting turns, and I found it entertaining. show less

I suspect I enjoyed this book's methods more than the story it thought I would absorb, but I'm okay with that and hope Spencer continues bending plot conventions with the aid of a posse of talented artists.