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Dog - A Fistful of Strontium
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1st
December 05 |
Strontium Dog -
A Fistful of Strontium
Jaspre Bark and Steve Lyons
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What to Expect:
Johnny and Middenface hunting their prey on a mutant paradise.
Review by Richmond
Clements
There’s been
a downturn in quality of the last couple of Blackflame novels I’ve read.
I’m glad to report though, that this one represents what I hope is an upturn
in the quality again.
Written by Doctor
Who novelist Steve Lyons and Future Shock and Earth War writer Jaspre Bark, this
book, to me, shows the kind of thing that the Strontium Dog universe should do
more often. This is a blistering comment on current US foreign policy and has
echoes, to me at least, of what happened in South Africa when ’peace’
broke out.
One of the characters
is a former SD agent and hero of the Mutant Army, who is now a member of a mutant
lead government which is in itself in many was as bad as the ‘norm’
government it is supposed to replace. The
satire and comment is laid on particularly thick in places, but necessarily so,
as the message is a worthy one.
The plot is a solid
one too, which is in pleasant contrast to some of the more recent novels in the
range. Middenface is drawn particularly well, and Johnny’s more or less
spot on. The supporting characters are an interesting bunch, with one in particular,
through his mutation, raising some interesting questions of the mutants. You say
you’re happy with your mutation? Well then, what if you could get rid of
it and become ‘normal’?
Something else
that demands attention is the talent these two writers have for names. One thing
I love about the Wagner/Grant tales are the horrible puns they have for names,
and in this book Bark and Lyons continue that proud tradition with aplomb, adding
some hilarious and some groan inducing names. They are pursuing a shape changing
mutant by the name of ‘Identi’ Kit Jones. That’s bad…
but just wait to see what they do with it later.
While I’m aware my opinion of this book may be coloured
by how relatively unimpressed I’ve been with the recent titles, this is
still a cracking adventure. Great action, great message, terrible jokes.
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this book from Amazon.co.uk
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