The young warrior Thorfinn is shackled to the ship of a Viking Raider, Askelaad. Askelaad's fleet of three ships successfully raids a settlement as mercenaries and recovers all the treasure for themselves before headed back to their village for the winter. Thorfinn has become a powerful and fast warrior, but treasure and ransacking towns doesn't interest him. He wants revenge on Askelaad for killing his father and stealing their ship. Thorfinn's childhood started in a peaceful fishing village full of proud Vikings. They were often visited by the explorer Lief Erickson, who would regale the children with stories of the beautiful country of Vinland, a place where winters are mild and the ground is fertile. After getting his revenge, Thorfinn would love to find the legendary country of Vinland.
0 Comments
Asa runs into a young man at a museum who has a photograph of the monster she saw when the typhoon took her family. He refuses to talk to a “nobody” like her and scuttled off with a ton of research on the monster. Asa and Mr. Kasuga are then conscripted to help identify the creature should it make an appearance during the opening ceremony of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Asa makes the acquaintance of The Blue Impulse - some of the best aerial maneuver pilots in the country - as they practice making the Olympic Rings for the Opening Ceremony. The Government is using this display as an important symbol of peace, and, because of this, the Defense Forced won’t be allowed to intercede during the Opening Ceremony should the monster return.
Amir and Karluk, along with their family and village, must fend off another attempt by Amir’s father to seize her and bring her back to become someone else’s bride. Amir is to be given to a clan of men who treat their women horribly, and their reputation is known far and wide. Amir and Karluk, along with another new friend, show Mr. Smith, an explorer, some of the sights, including a shrine that women would visit if they are wishing to become pregnant. Amir's family interrupts the outing in another attempt to take her back. Mr. Smith records much of the daily life of Karluck’s family, and investigates further after the tradition of “cloth preparations” is discussed.
Asa and Kasuga continue to fly and deliver rice balls and water, but the strange thing they found at the end of volume one is right where Asa’s house should be. They find two of her younger siblings and the doctor holding the newborn baby, and something else monstrous and strange. Kinuyo, the lady who owns the restaurant, notices Kasuga’s bloody arm from being shot, and worries he might lose consciousness. Kasuga starts to lose feeling in his arm, so he tells Asa how to fly and land the plane. Asa falls in love with flying. With her endless fiery spirit, Asa goes to make a deal with the owner of the plane, who was using it to do illegal things, and tries to get him to give her his plane.
On a morning in 1959 of a terrible typhoon, Asa runs to fetch the doctor for the delivery of her mother's twelfth child. On the way back home, Asa finds a burglar escaping a house with his loot and confronts him, so he kidnaps her, thinking she's the daughter of the wealthy doctor. Her kidnapper has just recently turned to a life of crime in a moment of desperation. He was a hero in WWII, a successful pilot who always brought his team home, but now can't afford a pilot's license. The two seek shelter from the terrible typhoon in a metal shipping container, and when they emerge, everything along the harbor has been destroyed. The pilot and Asa try to find their way back to her family's home, but Asa, ever compassionate, suggests they find a way to deliver food to those stranded on rooftops while they look for her family. The pilot steals a plane, Asa convinces a restaurant owner to make lots of rice balls, and the two drop the care packages from the plane using balloons tied to plastic bags. As they near where Asa's house should be, they make a startling discovery that means more than the typhoon was at work wrecking havoc on the town.
Amir has been sent to a neighboring clan to be married off to one of the sons there. Karluk, her husband, is twelve, and she’s twenty, Amir tries to be helpful with the family, offering to help cook, and she even hunts some rabbit to make a special stew. She has many talents and even makes her young husband a coat out of some cloth and the rabbit skin. She’s adjusting to her new life fine when, unbeknownst to her, her family decides that they would better benefit from her being married off to a different clan. Meanwhile, Amir and Karluk go on a trip to find Karluk’s nomadic uncle to deliver a special dagger sheath. After their trip, Karluk gets very sick with a cold, and Amir worries endlessly over his health.
William and his clan of super criminals continue to consult and carry out crimes against nobles who are able to get away with ghastly crimes themselves. In Volume Two, we met Sherlock and Dr. Watson, and Volume Three features them pretty prominently as Sherlock solves a murder for which he is being framed. Next, the Moriarty gang goes up against the Baskervilles, who are continuing the tradition of hunting humans - except they are exclusively carrying out hunts against children. Fred and Louis disagree about how to handle the crime, but in the end, the entire gang must work together to stop this terrible crime for continuing.
Illustrated by Nekokurage
Maomao is an apothecary who gets snatched up in a forest and sold into indentured servitude to the Imperial Palace. There, she’s tried to keep her head down so her kidnappers don’t earn much off her, but when she figures out the “curse” killing all the Emperor's children is really a poison, she is discovered as a learned person and an apothecary, and promoted to a lady-in-waiting for the Emperor's favorite concubine. She becomes an official taste tester for the concubine. A noble and administrator of the Emperor's court, Jinshi, has other plans for Maomao and her talents, but she seems to be immune to his tactics of seduction and persuasion.
Illustrations by Hikaru Miyoshi
Older brother Albert uncovers a plot to distribute opium to the masses, and proves his worth in discreetly taking out the organization without embarrassing any of the nobles who may be involved. He is rewarded with an appointment to the head of a secret military organization, MI6. William decides that the way they have been going about things has been too slow to affect change in the country, so he stages scene with a terrible noble in order to erode confidence in the nobility as a ruling class. While on the ship setting the stage, William meets a curious individual whose power of deduction could prove useful in his plans. The strange young man is none other than Sherlock Holmes. The last third of this volume follows Sherlock in his quest to find a new flatmate, and we are introduced to the famous Dr. Watson.
France continues to decay as the royal family amasses an amazing amount of debt, and the citizenry refuses to acquiesce to more taxes until an Estates General is called. Oscar’s father decides he will marry Oscar off to a wealthy noble, and claim a male child of Oscar's as his heir, but Oscar will have none of it, and sabotages the arrangements. The people of France demand the king reinstate a minister of finance who was sympathetic to the plight of the commoners. As the Estates General Meet and try to erode the power of the king even more, Louis I’d advised to bring in the military to squash the rumblings of the Representatives from the Third Estate (commoners). Oscar is torn apart by her sense of duty to follow the orders of the king and the military’s goal of protect her countrymen.
|
About MeI've been reading manga and comicbooks for years. Now, I write reviews and other helpful things for School Librarians, teachers, parents, and students. Search this siteRatings, Audience, and Subject Tags
All
Archives
April 2024
|