I adore Judith Tarr (I don't know why no one else seems to read her!) but this one wasn't a standout for me, possibly because I knew going in exactly how it would end, as it's Cleopatra after all. Dione isn't a fantastic heroine/narrator for me - she was okay, but not as good as Meriamon in Lord of the Two Lands. And Tarr couldn't pull off the sexual awakening plotline as adeptly in this book as in that one, considering that this heroine is a mature woman with two children. I just wanted them to get to it already. The unexpected character death at the end threw me, though. Why did Tarr have to do that? (Only because it's exactly what that character would have done but still!!) Anyway, it was a book that bothered me, and in that sense Tarr was successful, I suppose, but this isn't one I'll reread.

Graphic novel. The art was beautiful and evocative of summer as a kid.

I've been looking forward to this a while. Only three stars because at this point this series has gone on so long that I can't remember who everybody is anymore and sometimes there are plot points around events from previous books that I don't remember the details of. Overall I liked the ending (while I agree with the reviewers who say that the character death was broadcast early and was too easily gotten out of, I was still glad at the way things turned out).

Can't remember when I read this, so I'm just going to say "Octoberish".

Reread in October 2014. Incidentally, this is the one volume I didn't have when I was younger and had to find later when The Internets became a thing, so I've read it a few less times than the others; on this reading I found some new stuff in it. Fun.

Reread this in October 2014. Because it's awesome pulp sci fi and it never gets old.

Found this in the children's section of the library and had to take a look. It's really kind of odd, but fun. The vampire added to the original artwork is not always seamless, but often really hilarious.

Probably my favorite in the series yet. We finally got to the big reveal in the Marika plotline, which was exactly what I'd been expecting for ages, but that was fine because Yaginuma made it about friendship instead, and it was really beautiful. Love these books.

Now I'm getting into content I didn't read in the original comics. ( Read more... )

I thought the overall story arc was really compelling, and I liked the subplots with Satsu and Dracula. Lots of really funny moments here as well as the obviously heart-breaking one.