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midici's review against another edition
3.0
Ashe is the creator of The Lurker's Guide, a small guide to the ins-and-outs of Amperstad, the flying city she lives in. Some of the information is practical - and some of it is revolutionary. Those in power don't like it when their secrets start to spread on the streets.
While the line-art is very good I do wish it was an inked comic - I wish I could have seen this interesting world in full colour. I'm not sure how solid I found the plot of this volume but I did enjoy a lot of the writing.
While the line-art is very good I do wish it was an inked comic - I wish I could have seen this interesting world in full colour. I'm not sure how solid I found the plot of this volume but I did enjoy a lot of the writing.
mellhay's review against another edition
4.0
Impressed! A graphic novel that kept my attention, surprised me as we went and in the end, keeping me in suspense and a kick butt heroine. I LIKE!
*****FULL REVIEW*****
Ashe is riding, while Tolban flies, around the city with other airships around them. Captain Skold is coming in, requesting permission to dock and asylum on the city after the hit his ship has taken by Vrussians getting to Apmerstam. The Provost is ignoring the request! Even with offer of money and supplies from Captain Skold, The Provost still resists. Captain Skold has something The Provost wants more than service and Ashe learns what it is. Ashe smells a story, and something more and dives into the depths of the flying city to find what it is.
The Provost left me skeptical about her in the last of the podcasts, and here we pick up where I don't trust her again. Ashe knows the Provost has done worse than what she's doing now, making slaves, and she is set on proving it and publishing it.
We do get to see the press page that Ashe publishes. The ACTUAL press page as it's published. This is neat to see her put things in her own words, and gives us the overall feel of what we see in the comic images and statements said by the characters.
We see the famous flying city in black and white. At last! It's awesome to see it after listening to the podcasts. Now I get to see all the different areas of the city I learned of in the podcasts as we follow everyone around to these areas. And yes, each section of town is noted so you know where you are. We see many of the characters: Tolban and his flying, Cardor from the hotel in his dress, and many others finally have a face.
The tattoo's on Ashes arms have all ways been a curiosity for me, here we see early in the book a design, created by someone we know, that is close to that on Ashe's arms. It brings the wonder back to the front of my mind with these similar designs and those on Ashe. What are they doing? How did Ashe get them too? Now I am curious with all that we have learned about the dreadful engine and these symbols, and the hints from Hanner Gatling that Ashe's answers are here as well. All is answered here.
The engine room!!! If you've been following my thoughts on the podcast, you know I've become increasingly curious about this room. What powers the engine? What happens to people down here? Well, it's here! It's all put together right here. I love seeing the secrets of the city, and how they might tie to Ashe.
Oh Ashe! We learn more about her past. We also learn the truth of Ashe's tattoos. Ashe has a nose for trouble, and finds it. Trouble and a great story. She finds herself in many scraps, and I love her for it. One tough lady.
We learn a little saying of kids on the flying city. "Through thick and thin, Through blood and ink, Clouddogs rule, And coppers stink!" The saying even has been adjusted to who they want to say stinks as well. Such world and culture growth here threw pictures and words.
I have to say this story still surprised me with happenings to our friends. Then in the end! Yes, it was a shocker to me to see what happened. I really liked that. Didn't know a graphic novel could hold so much suspense and story to tell. I really liked what I learned here, and the story told.
I do hope we get more adventures of Ashe in the future, and of what becomes of the flying city now.
*****FULL REVIEW*****
Ashe is riding, while Tolban flies, around the city with other airships around them. Captain Skold is coming in, requesting permission to dock and asylum on the city after the hit his ship has taken by Vrussians getting to Apmerstam. The Provost is ignoring the request! Even with offer of money and supplies from Captain Skold, The Provost still resists. Captain Skold has something The Provost wants more than service and Ashe learns what it is. Ashe smells a story, and something more and dives into the depths of the flying city to find what it is.
The Provost left me skeptical about her in the last of the podcasts, and here we pick up where I don't trust her again. Ashe knows the Provost has done worse than what she's doing now, making slaves, and she is set on proving it and publishing it.
We do get to see the press page that Ashe publishes. The ACTUAL press page as it's published. This is neat to see her put things in her own words, and gives us the overall feel of what we see in the comic images and statements said by the characters.
We see the famous flying city in black and white. At last! It's awesome to see it after listening to the podcasts. Now I get to see all the different areas of the city I learned of in the podcasts as we follow everyone around to these areas. And yes, each section of town is noted so you know where you are. We see many of the characters: Tolban and his flying, Cardor from the hotel in his dress, and many others finally have a face.
The tattoo's on Ashes arms have all ways been a curiosity for me, here we see early in the book a design, created by someone we know, that is close to that on Ashe's arms. It brings the wonder back to the front of my mind with these similar designs and those on Ashe. What are they doing? How did Ashe get them too? Now I am curious with all that we have learned about the dreadful engine and these symbols, and the hints from Hanner Gatling that Ashe's answers are here as well. All is answered here.
The engine room!!! If you've been following my thoughts on the podcast, you know I've become increasingly curious about this room. What powers the engine? What happens to people down here? Well, it's here! It's all put together right here. I love seeing the secrets of the city, and how they might tie to Ashe.
Oh Ashe! We learn more about her past. We also learn the truth of Ashe's tattoos. Ashe has a nose for trouble, and finds it. Trouble and a great story. She finds herself in many scraps, and I love her for it. One tough lady.
We learn a little saying of kids on the flying city. "Through thick and thin, Through blood and ink, Clouddogs rule, And coppers stink!" The saying even has been adjusted to who they want to say stinks as well. Such world and culture growth here threw pictures and words.
I have to say this story still surprised me with happenings to our friends. Then in the end! Yes, it was a shocker to me to see what happened. I really liked that. Didn't know a graphic novel could hold so much suspense and story to tell. I really liked what I learned here, and the story told.
I do hope we get more adventures of Ashe in the future, and of what becomes of the flying city now.
ogreart's review against another edition
3.0
It was not a bad story. It just didn't feel like a great one to me. I thought it was a little rushed. Maybe if it had more development it would strike me as being better.
sjeckert's review against another edition
3.0
It was an okay read, but I didn't really connect with much of the story. I don't know if I'm missing something, but it just felt too superficial and out-of-nowhere. I might have been able to forgive it if the art was more engaging, but even the art style was just meh and difficult to follow. I had a lot of trouble figuring out what was actually happening from the drawing style. Writing-wise, Ashe could have been more interesting, but there wasn't much to her other than "ooo, tough girl! who's a journalist!" So? I didn't understand her relationships and her motivations were not fleshed out very well. There's a lot more that could have been done. I understand there may not have been room in this novel, but then maybe it shouldn't be just this novel. Maybe it should have been two. Or maybe it should have been longer. I really would have liked it to be a bit longer if it could just have strengthened the characters to something that made more sense. Don't get me wrong, parts of the story were entertaining, and I was really interested in what was going on with the Provost and Ashe...actually, that's the story I wanted. This one was a bit dull and what I really wanted to know was what actually happened in those flashbacks. TL;DR: was an okay read, but nothing to get too excited about.
sennacherib's review against another edition
1.0
I remember reading this book. I finished it with a burning distaste for every character involved. I have many gripes with The Battle of Blood and Ink, and the only thing that I learned from this was a clearer idea of the tropes I despised.
The plot runs at a breakneck pace. Most of the dialogue does nothing to develop the setting or plot. And with every sentence Ashe and her sycophants say I find myself loathing them even more.
The Battle of Blood and Ink is a slipshod assemblage of steampunk tropes. Flying islands aren't so impressive, but the least you could do with it is show how being in the sky affects things, rather than just hang up there like a monument for a nation's vanity. What i'm trying to say is, what purpose does this city being in the sky serve? This book tells us absolutely nothing. At least in Bioshock, Rapture's purpose for being underwater was to create an enclave for a political ideology that wouldn't be accepted anywhere else. See, when you want to build your story around a premise that involves worldbuilding, you must incorporate that into the plot. If you aren't, then you might as well set it in a boring groundbound city and allocate whatever's coming out of those poor tortured children to something reasonable.
And as we learn in the end, countless children are sacrificed to keep Amperstan in the skies. Oh no! See, as The Ones who Walk Away From Omelas would have it, modern readers are desensitized to this sort of thing. In fact, when we see something pretty or majestic we're always half-expecting to find a horrible twist behind it. And in The Battle of Blood and Ink we have the most contrived one of all. There is as much lead-up to this as there is conflict. The main characters (well, Ashe for the most part) are the most over-competent band of rogues to ever exist. The bumbling imbeciles, the coppers, pose zero threat at all, and the Vrussians don't influence the plot one bit. All we know about them is that they've been mentioned a handful of times in dialogue to create the illusion of in-depth worldbuilding.
It's also pretentious. It takes itself too seriously when its plot threads barely join together.
Last but not least we move on to the most odious aspect of this book: the characters. Everybody in this book exists to kiss Ashe's ass or get killed and humiliated, and that's a surefire sign she's a Mary Sue. Every member of the main cast is alike in that they possess an insufferably snarky attitude that puts even Sanderson's worst attempts at being witty to a million shames. Sure, this may have been to drive in the 19th century feel, but holy shit, their passive-aggressiveness is something that belongs on twitter feeds. Ashe, whom i'll call Ashehole for the remainder of this review, is a belligerent, narcissistic harridan who bullies people weaker than she is while her beta bitch-boyfriend watches on. Nobody, and I say nobody, calls out her actions.
A particular moment that really stuck with me was when Ashehole discovers a man selling tourist pamphlets for a suspiciously high price. So when she finds out, she goes and beats the living daylights out of him. Before doing so she says. "My fists aren't very good listeners!". And yes, this is how they sound like every time she tries being badass. Ashehole swears like some twelvie on xbox live trying to sound tough and sophisticated at the same time. Her douche friends can't do anything but comment "Ooh! Looks like that hurt! You go girl! Bash that working-class man forced to pursue unscrupulous business practices by a lousy economy!". As you can tell, I don't quite remember the last quote, but it's something like that. Ashehole's scumfuck asskissers are sociopathic bullies presented as brave underdogs. Because right after this, she goes on like she did nothing and decides to go out to a ball with her boyfriend. There's a panel showing their two self-satisfied mugs facing each other. How charming!
That unnamed scam artist is the most likeable character in the whole story. I genuinely pitied him. He reflects the plight of the working class better than Ashehole ever could. An orphan who becomes a super thief out of nowhere is the most contrived backstory possible. But his is plausible, and could set him up for some internal conflict. I would write a story from his perspective, had he not been killed shortly afterwards. That would make for a good family grudge, so I suppose the protagonist would be his malnourished son.
Ashehole is immune to accountability and moral repercussions because she's a strong independent woman. Instead, she treats everybody outside her bitchy clique of sycophants like garbage while they suck up to each other and excuse each other's antisocial behaviours. Hell, there's one moment where Ashehoel blasts a copper point blank while he's unarmed. Then next panel she and her boyfriend gabble on about how much of a pussy the copper was for closing his eyes before she pulled the trigger. The moment a character holds somebody else to higher moral standards than they would to themselves, I lose all sympathy for them. Tell me, if somebody held you point blank, would you get scared?
The reason I give this two stars is because my one-stars are reserved for sonichu-tier works.
Also, the artstyle sucks.
If you want to read steampunk, I suggest Perdido Street Station instead.
The plot runs at a breakneck pace. Most of the dialogue does nothing to develop the setting or plot. And with every sentence Ashe and her sycophants say I find myself loathing them even more.
The Battle of Blood and Ink is a slipshod assemblage of steampunk tropes. Flying islands aren't so impressive, but the least you could do with it is show how being in the sky affects things, rather than just hang up there like a monument for a nation's vanity. What i'm trying to say is, what purpose does this city being in the sky serve? This book tells us absolutely nothing. At least in Bioshock, Rapture's purpose for being underwater was to create an enclave for a political ideology that wouldn't be accepted anywhere else. See, when you want to build your story around a premise that involves worldbuilding, you must incorporate that into the plot. If you aren't, then you might as well set it in a boring groundbound city and allocate whatever's coming out of those poor tortured children to something reasonable.
And as we learn in the end, countless children are sacrificed to keep Amperstan in the skies. Oh no! See, as The Ones who Walk Away From Omelas would have it, modern readers are desensitized to this sort of thing. In fact, when we see something pretty or majestic we're always half-expecting to find a horrible twist behind it. And in The Battle of Blood and Ink we have the most contrived one of all. There is as much lead-up to this as there is conflict. The main characters (well, Ashe for the most part) are the most over-competent band of rogues to ever exist. The bumbling imbeciles, the coppers, pose zero threat at all, and the Vrussians don't influence the plot one bit. All we know about them is that they've been mentioned a handful of times in dialogue to create the illusion of in-depth worldbuilding.
It's also pretentious. It takes itself too seriously when its plot threads barely join together.
Last but not least we move on to the most odious aspect of this book: the characters. Everybody in this book exists to kiss Ashe's ass or get killed and humiliated, and that's a surefire sign she's a Mary Sue. Every member of the main cast is alike in that they possess an insufferably snarky attitude that puts even Sanderson's worst attempts at being witty to a million shames. Sure, this may have been to drive in the 19th century feel, but holy shit, their passive-aggressiveness is something that belongs on twitter feeds. Ashe, whom i'll call Ashehole for the remainder of this review, is a belligerent, narcissistic harridan who bullies people weaker than she is while her beta bitch-boyfriend watches on. Nobody, and I say nobody, calls out her actions.
A particular moment that really stuck with me was when Ashehole discovers a man selling tourist pamphlets for a suspiciously high price. So when she finds out, she goes and beats the living daylights out of him. Before doing so she says. "My fists aren't very good listeners!". And yes, this is how they sound like every time she tries being badass. Ashehole swears like some twelvie on xbox live trying to sound tough and sophisticated at the same time. Her douche friends can't do anything but comment "Ooh! Looks like that hurt! You go girl! Bash that working-class man forced to pursue unscrupulous business practices by a lousy economy!". As you can tell, I don't quite remember the last quote, but it's something like that. Ashehole's scumfuck asskissers are sociopathic bullies presented as brave underdogs. Because right after this, she goes on like she did nothing and decides to go out to a ball with her boyfriend. There's a panel showing their two self-satisfied mugs facing each other. How charming!
That unnamed scam artist is the most likeable character in the whole story. I genuinely pitied him. He reflects the plight of the working class better than Ashehole ever could. An orphan who becomes a super thief out of nowhere is the most contrived backstory possible. But his is plausible, and could set him up for some internal conflict. I would write a story from his perspective, had he not been killed shortly afterwards. That would make for a good family grudge, so I suppose the protagonist would be his malnourished son.
Ashehole is immune to accountability and moral repercussions because she's a strong independent woman. Instead, she treats everybody outside her bitchy clique of sycophants like garbage while they suck up to each other and excuse each other's antisocial behaviours. Hell, there's one moment where Ashehoel blasts a copper point blank while he's unarmed. Then next panel she and her boyfriend gabble on about how much of a pussy the copper was for closing his eyes before she pulled the trigger. The moment a character holds somebody else to higher moral standards than they would to themselves, I lose all sympathy for them. Tell me, if somebody held you point blank, would you get scared?
The reason I give this two stars is because my one-stars are reserved for sonichu-tier works.
Also, the artstyle sucks.
If you want to read steampunk, I suggest Perdido Street Station instead.
crowyhead's review against another edition
2.0
Ok, the beginning 3/4 of this book are delightful, and the artwork's a lot of fun -- not always 100% spot-on, anatomically, and sometimes people's faces look a bit misshapen, but overall it looks great. Very Indiana Jones or Prince Valiant-but-better, somehow. The setting's fun: a flying city ruled by an evil woman known as the Provost. And the main character is a spitfire young woman named Ashe who runs an underground newspaper and has a head of red dreadlocks. What's not to love?
Well, the ending, for one. And it's driving me crazy because I want to complain about its stupidity at length, but I don't really want to spoil it. Just suffice it to say that the main character had a method in her hands for fixing something horribly wrong with her city, and she very nearly kills everyone and then they're saved by... some kind of unforeseen third method that there was no hint would work. It made me want to bite someone.
Well, the ending, for one. And it's driving me crazy because I want to complain about its stupidity at length, but I don't really want to spoil it. Just suffice it to say that the main character had a method in her hands for fixing something horribly wrong with her city, and she very nearly kills everyone and then they're saved by... some kind of unforeseen third method that there was no hint would work. It made me want to bite someone.
sepia_witch's review against another edition
4.0
I'm torn between giving this 3 or 4 stars. I really enjoyed the strong female protagonist and even loved the female villain. I really wanted to explore more of the Provost's character (female antagonist). I wanted to know more about her motivations and her relationship with the mysterious assassin. I also want more of the protagonist, Ashe. I find both women to be compelling characters. However, I felt the male characters to be a little flat and needing a little more dimension. The plot was good but I felt some was missing near the end and more information needed to be doled out. Also, not a story issue but an art issue. I wanted some color! Don't get me wrong I enjoy black and white. Visually some color, even minimal, would have been nice. Just something to make the artwork pop and draw your eye to page.
akmargie's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting world, sort of steampunk meets western vibe. Art could be a little stronger. Story also seem a little rush and the ending abbreviated. Loved the lead character Ashe. She had spunk.
aprilbooksandwine's review against another edition
3.0
The Battle Of Blood And Ink by Jared Axelrod and Steve Walker is a steampunk graphic novel that takes place on a floating city called Amperstam and is an interesting read to pass the day away with. The Battle Of Blood And Ink explores the freedom of press and the risks of telling the truth in a gilded, brutal world.
Read the rest of my review here link goes live 7/1/12
Read the rest of my review here link goes live 7/1/12