with Dave McKean
Weeks ago, I indulged and hit Half Price Books and bought a huge handful of anything I could find by Neil Gaiman. This is the first one I've been able to read, between revising books for re-release and reading a lot of books to judge for a published novel contest (and I can't review THOSE books because we're not allowed to talk about the books we read until after the winners are announced, just so you know ...) and other projects.
Oh, the GLORY of being able to just lie down and read for an hour or two. For FUN.
You'd think with all the shelter in place and stay home orders I'd have more time to read, don't you?
NOPE!
BLACK ORCHID is a new kind of superhero. Kind of. I don't see the current Black Orchid flying around the city fighting crime, because she doesn't allow violence or killing ... although as she discovers in the course of the story, it's hard to find a place where hate doesn't intrude. She's been tainted by the memories of other lives, the lives that gave birth to her, so when she finds paradise she can't be satisfied there.
A sad, lovely, thought-provoking, and sometimes mind-bending story. Mad geniuses and greedy, powerful, evil men and sadists and mentally damaged, and souls wrapped in new kinds of bodies and the dream of saving the rainforests ... there's just so MUCH in this story. Plus the jarring little dips into the darkness of Gotham and Batman and Lex Luthor and Arkham Asylum. *shudder*
Essentially, a heroine called Black Orchid is caught and killed, but when she dies some of her memories transfer to a new Black Orchid, who awakens to a quest of exploration, seeking answers, a reason for being, and hope for the future. If the cruel and greedy and psychotic will allow her. And that's about all I can tell you without giving away too much.
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