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bookdingo's review
3.0
Oh CMI III, I adore you! How inconvenient (but adorable) would it be to surgically place armadillos on your wrists to replace your not-nearly-as-cute hands? These armadillos make Psycho June Howard a killing machine in the boxing ring, but once she punches a mob boss (at his request, mind you), things get crazy.
Mellick cuts up his timeline and introduces a new piece of the timeline with each chapter so the reader can construct the exposition like a puzzle as the story proceeds. This is a quick, fun read and will make you want your own robotic dinosaur to drive.
Mellick cuts up his timeline and introduces a new piece of the timeline with each chapter so the reader can construct the exposition like a puzzle as the story proceeds. This is a quick, fun read and will make you want your own robotic dinosaur to drive.
adubrow's review
5.0
(Originally posted @ CSI:Librarian.)
4.5 Stars - First of all, I have to say that I could not have been happier to read that Armadillo Fists was influenced by Tite Kubo and Quentin Tarentino. This isn't to take away from Mellick's own creativity or to suggest that this book isn't entirely its own strange creature. What it does mean is that there was so much about Armadillo Fists that reminded me of my favorite sort of manga and my favorite type of films that I was completely beside myself with glee. I also tried to read the book as slow as possible so I could savor each page.
June Howard is a terrific female character, and just her fictional existence alone makes me feel so much better about being so picky about protagonists. Tony aka Mr. Torso aka Mr. Fast Awesome was really, for lack of a better word, awesome. He was also just as absurdly delightful as he was delightfully absurd. There were so many great lines and so many great ideas, particularly the Dop Convention where people met alternate versions of themselves. The dinosaur transportation was also humorous, but I think Mellick's real strength is, as he even points out in the introduction, his ability to care so much about the world and characters, that it's really not hard to feel a lot of empathy for them in a short span of time. Everyone in this book is on the verge of being incredibly ridiculous in one way or another, but the hell if anyone of them think so.
The villains also really make this book really fascinating particularly Mr. Slick and his yo-yo gun, Mr. Sorry and his black tears, and Mr. Happy who would really like to stop being happy at some point. They are a really bizarre and motley crew that reminded me not just of Tarantino's Resevoir Dogs and Tite Kubo's Espada from Bleach, but also Eiichiro Oda's Baroque Works from One Piece.* Their abilities are pretty far out there, they all are tattooed with numbers that rank their toughness, and they are all really fascinating to the point where I would happily read a prequel about each one of them.
I should point out that Aramdillo Fists timejumps a lot, but I didn't find it distracting so much as a nifty approach to keeping the plot's ultimate conclusion shrouded in mystery. The book also has a fairly strong Noir element, particularly towards the end that also enriched the plot. It also made me a bit sad, but I'm okay with that. The boxing aspect of June's life wasn't always prevalent but it was always relevant. There was a heck of a lot of violence of all kinds connected to boxing as well as virtually everything else before and after June got her armadilloes (named Judy and Jocko). But my one complaint, were I to be forced to have one, would probably be that I wish the book had been longer because it had no business ending. And I'm still a bit miffed that it did.
In conclusion, crazy awesome, touching, sometimes gross, totally action-packed, and occasionally hilarious. Armadillo Fists might not be for everyone, but it's worth checking out.
* June probably would have done well in Luffy's crew considering her armadillos... but that is a daydream for another time.
4.5 Stars - First of all, I have to say that I could not have been happier to read that Armadillo Fists was influenced by Tite Kubo and Quentin Tarentino. This isn't to take away from Mellick's own creativity or to suggest that this book isn't entirely its own strange creature. What it does mean is that there was so much about Armadillo Fists that reminded me of my favorite sort of manga and my favorite type of films that I was completely beside myself with glee. I also tried to read the book as slow as possible so I could savor each page.
June Howard is a terrific female character, and just her fictional existence alone makes me feel so much better about being so picky about protagonists. Tony aka Mr. Torso aka Mr. Fast Awesome was really, for lack of a better word, awesome. He was also just as absurdly delightful as he was delightfully absurd. There were so many great lines and so many great ideas, particularly the Dop Convention where people met alternate versions of themselves. The dinosaur transportation was also humorous, but I think Mellick's real strength is, as he even points out in the introduction, his ability to care so much about the world and characters, that it's really not hard to feel a lot of empathy for them in a short span of time. Everyone in this book is on the verge of being incredibly ridiculous in one way or another, but the hell if anyone of them think so.
The villains also really make this book really fascinating particularly Mr. Slick and his yo-yo gun, Mr. Sorry and his black tears, and Mr. Happy who would really like to stop being happy at some point. They are a really bizarre and motley crew that reminded me not just of Tarantino's Resevoir Dogs and Tite Kubo's Espada from Bleach, but also Eiichiro Oda's Baroque Works from One Piece.* Their abilities are pretty far out there, they all are tattooed with numbers that rank their toughness, and they are all really fascinating to the point where I would happily read a prequel about each one of them.
I should point out that Aramdillo Fists timejumps a lot, but I didn't find it distracting so much as a nifty approach to keeping the plot's ultimate conclusion shrouded in mystery. The book also has a fairly strong Noir element, particularly towards the end that also enriched the plot. It also made me a bit sad, but I'm okay with that. The boxing aspect of June's life wasn't always prevalent but it was always relevant. There was a heck of a lot of violence of all kinds connected to boxing as well as virtually everything else before and after June got her armadilloes (named Judy and Jocko). But my one complaint, were I to be forced to have one, would probably be that I wish the book had been longer because it had no business ending. And I'm still a bit miffed that it did.
In conclusion, crazy awesome, touching, sometimes gross, totally action-packed, and occasionally hilarious. Armadillo Fists might not be for everyone, but it's worth checking out.
* June probably would have done well in Luffy's crew considering her armadillos... but that is a daydream for another time.
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