Grrl Power #866 – Rooftop rally
This is one of those transitional pages that doesn’t by itself contribute a lot. It doesn’t really land any big jokes or develop any characters (we already know Cora is a bit cavalier when it comes to distribution of ordnance, for example) but is useful for general continuity.
I really wanted to include the first panel from the next page at the end of this one as an answer to Sydney’s question, but it just wouldn’t fit. At least not unless I made the panels tiny. I maybe could have put panels 4 and 5 on the same line, then scooted panel 6 over, but the panel 1 from 867 is visually a little complex, and would have been diminished by trying to cram it all in.
So, instead, let’s talk Space Opera. If you happen to have a series you adore, share it. I’ve been hankering for a new book to read lately, and there’s so many damned novels with space ships on the cover, there’s just no way to make an informed guess about what might be good or not. You guys know that I like Star Justice and Three Square Meals as I’ve recommended them quite a few times. I think the thing I like about them… well, they’re solid male power fantasy pulp. I don’t necessarily need a harem, but a decent romance subplot definitely doesn’t hurt a book. Really the thing I like is a main character that is mildly to wildly OP who goes around kicking a lot of ass for good reasons.
Wildly OP is really tough to get right though. TSM does it right IMO. I mean, without spoiling the MC’s origin story… he gets pretty fucking powerful – but there are always appropriate challenges waiting for him and his crew. Like fighting a literal dragon with a battleship level shield generator and plasma weapons strapped to its back. Yeah. TSM has dragons.
Honestly, a smaller cast helps too. I like a “cozy” book in that regard. I generally get lost when I’m reading about how the MC’s contact talked to the Subchancellor of Mission Comptrollers and there’s a 45 page chapter about the 90 people that work for that dude. A little politics is fine, but I want a book about a dude or chick righting wrongs with railguns and a spaceship that has a sexy AI that no one else knew about, because there’s always a sexy AI on the spaceship.
Allow me to recommend a book that is… well, not a space opera, but has some space stuff at the beginning. It’s called “Upon a Savage Shore” and it’s basically “Enemy Mine” but replace Louis Gosset Jr. with three alien catgirls. The author for some reason never collected it into a book and put it up at Amazon or elsewhere, so you can only find it at Literotica. It does have some sex in it, but the vast majority of the story is shipwreck survivors making it on an alien planet while the one human guy tries to navigate all the cultural pitfalls of his co-castaway’s society.
That’s another thing I like. Some good, hard xenoanthropology. I don’t know why, but it pushes all the right glands in my brain that squirt out the happy juice.
Oh, here’s a tip for you guys that do a lot of reading online. Get Calibre, then get a plugin called FanFicFare. It lets you paste in the first chapter of a story from a variety of sites, then the plugin rips all the chapters into an e-book. It does an excellent job 99% of the time. Then you can set up Calibre with your kindle’s email address and have it send those books to you without fiddling with USB cables. One warning though, since I’ve discovered this combo (along with another one creatively called “Generate Cover” my kindle has become littered with tons of “books” with shitty covers that came from various websites.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like!
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
I enjoyed reading the prequels to enders game about the first formic war the first one is called earth unaware by Orson Scott Card
I didn’t read the 5 pages of comments, so I apologize if it was already mentioned, but Gavin Smith’s The Bastard Legion series is a fun space opera, and not as time-confusing as some of his other works
Murderbot Diaries for sarcastic humor, though I don’t know if I’d call it a space opera. Download a sample. I’ve read the whole series this week, rather than, you know, work…
Something I’ve been wondering for a while.. Last panel reminded me… The ‘Orbs’.. they have a glow effect in the art but do they emit light? when not being touched?
They look like they emit light, (Including reflections.) to biological eyes, but every objective instrument, spell, psychic probe, and so forth, says they’re not there.
Interesting question whether you could use their nonexistent but visible glow as a useful light source in a dark room. Without tripping any light sensors, either!
Yup, a case in point being Dabbler’s examination of the orbs.
I would say yes.
A convention used through most of the comic is that we see things the way that Sydney does * (albeit that we can see her, so are not literally looking through her eyes, in most panels). Further DaveB does think about subtleties, in advance, and especially in connection with the orbs. So he consistently** shows specific things that the orbs do, like rotating around Halo in each panel. Not something easy to do in each and every panel on every page!
Now consider that every time you see an object (such as Sydney’s or anyone else’s hair) near to the orbs they always reflect the appropriate colour of light matching the nearest orb. And if two happen to be close then it will show both colours or a mixture of the two. And recall we are seeing the world the same way that Halo does.
Which means that provided the orbs are close to an object, she will be able to make out the glow emitted off it, and thereby navigate her way around safely. Even if a CCTV camera in the room showed it to be completely dark!
How far that extends is another matter. Logically it would probably be about five or six feet, clearly, or double that faintly, if comparing it to Christmas tree lights, as being somewhat similar (albeit not breaking quite so many laws of physics).
* e.g. whenever Sydney is holding the True Sight Orb, we see otherwise disguised aliens in their true form. Even if Sydney herself is facing in the wrong direction to spot the alien in the crowd.
** i.e. makes a conscious effort to keep to the way he has envisioned things. Which is not to say that he always remembers or does not make the occasional slip. But we can take it that something routinely portrayed in a specific way is being done so for a reason. Rare exceptions we need to consider carefully whether it is an omission or if there is something fundamentally different which is causing a premeditated change.
Except, cameras sometimes can see the orbs – the very recent selfie montage page shows the orbs in the photos. I was initially thinking that maybe the panels were showing the original scenes, but you can see the orbs on Sandy’s phone as well.
Seems like we’ve seen her in the odd selfie along the way too, but the few spots I checked didn’t have anything.
I wonder if that’s because she consciously wanted them to show up in the photo, and so they obliged her?
1. Possibly.
2. DaveB made a mistake.
3. We are seeing the moment that Sydney took the photos, rather than the resultant photos.
My vote is 3.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005QOX3ZY?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_0&storeType=ebooks
Main character is a woman rather than a guy, but the author put a lot of work into his aliens reasons for doing things, though it takes time for it all to come to the surface.
I only just noticed Syd’s hair is in a new style.
I like it.
Which begs the question: is Maxima’s hair cut table?
Cuttable. Damn autocorrect.
Possibly. At least the Barberian thought it would be. But he might just specialize in being able to cut hair like Maxima’s, plus he has superstrength.
I’d also think that how cut-able her hair is depends on how high a level her armor is at. She CAN be hurt – she HAS been hurt before. By Vehemence even before he was at superstrength, and presumably by others as well, even if it’s exceedingly rare since she’d usually have her armor up pretty high in fight situations (at least in her ‘golden triangle of strength/speed/armor balance’ levels).
It must be cuttable, even if she does it herself somehow. It’s not nearly long enough to have not been cut since she was a teenager.
Yeah, it’s only Les’ hair that is uncutable (fortunately, it’s also stopped needing to be cut due to length, not so fortunate due to the ugly mullet)
Human hair doesn’t necessarily grow endlessly long if not cut; The follicles go through a regular on off cycle, shedding hairs during the off part of the cycle. It’s just that, for hair on the head, the duty cycle is very high.
Hehe, she called her “Top.” =3
Maxi noticed, and ignored it
Maybe Max missed the double entendre because she got the “Aliens” reference.
And I was about to question if nobody noticed that Dabbler uses bdsm terms to address her superiors.
Good comic. Is exposing Sydney to New York, or vice versa, really all that wise though?
On the Space Opera thingy, good on those who recommended the Honor Harrington books by David Weber.
Those are moreish on an extremely high level.
But I see no-one has recommended the Vorkosigan Saga books by Lois McMaster Bujold? For shame, those are awesome too. Space opera, mercenary work, interstellar warfare and romance all bundled together and eminently readable.
Baen Books should have them.
Excellent. I came down to see if anyone else had recommended this. Memory is IMNSHO one of the greatest SF novels ever written, although you do have to have read the previous ones to know what’s going on, and Miles Vorkosigan is one of the greatest characters ever created.
Sydney has already been to New York, it’s when she found out wampire’s and verevolves
exist/strike> are real (one is grumpy, the other is fwuffy… and grumpy :D)Yeah honor harrington is great, bujold is better. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend honor harrington past the first 7-8 books, but the early ones are damn good. Also, David Drake’s RCN series posits a much less clean future, but it is also pretty damn good.
If you want a space opera, I have a wild one to follow. The First Contact series on Reddit’s r/HFY has been publishing multiple chapters a day since March. It is an epicly scaled space opera loaded with unique characters and crazy pop culture references. The last time someone tallied it the total word count was more than the first 5 Harry Potter books combined, and despite being written pretty much stream of consciousness by the author it maintains a high level of polish as it swings through multiple genres and themes.
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/f94rak/oc_pthok_eats_an_ice_cream_cone/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
I was thinking about posting the First Contact stuff on Reddit, too!
And it was around the length of those first five books about eighty chapters ago. We’re around 280 chapters in, so far. And I’d say three or four were disappointing. That’s about two night’s output over six months. That’s a darned impressive ratio. I’ve been a songwriter for decades. And I generally count on at least five or six crap songs for every keeper song.
For romantic space opera with great protagonists, you should of course read the first two volumes of the Vorkosigan Saga, Shards of Honor and Barrayar, by Lois McMaster Bujold. Once you’ve done that, you’ll probably read the rest of the series – it is a manic ride, and few readers can resist the attraction.
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Since you like superpowers and overpowered characters, a classic standalone sci-fi romance might also be in order. Specifically an Accidental Goddess by RITA award winning author Linnea Sinclair has a female starship commander/secret forces captain/sorceress as main character, and she is definitely OP for the setting.
Admittedly she doesn’t kick arse and take names during the early chapters of the book since she chooses to hide her identity and power as revealing it would a) interfere with her pursuit of the hot admiral in charge of the space station where she docked for repairs, and b) destroy the belief system of the locals.
Good though Shards of Honor and Barrayar are, readers really should keep going to experience Miles Vorkosigan in all his glory.
Considering LMB’s won multiple hugo and nebula awards for various books in the Vorkosigan saga, It’s well worth a read.
Have you considered the parallels between Miles and Sydney? Short, Charismatic, Mental issues that help and hinder, and the tendency to go off in every direction at a million miles an hour with crafty plans to get things done?
William D Arand does trilogies that are all great stand alone but slowly reveal an overarching subplot that ties them all together. All are a different genre, there’s one trapped in a vrmmo, one post apocolypse, one superhero, and one zombie apocalypse just to name a few. He’s also incredibly regular with publishing his next book, releasing a new one every 2-3 months. Oh and some of his books are released under the one name Randi Darren. But all of them contribute to the subplot. The very first book in the story line is Otherworld Dreams
Oof. “Unless they need a shooting … that’s basically how law enforcement works,” Is really tone-deaf dialog given current real-world events. I hope you rewrite that panel.
Some characters are “tone-deaf” given any “current events” which always change, and if he re-wrote it he would have to re-write it again given future “current real-world events.” That way lies madness and self-censorship, the strip should stay as-is.
No, that… is actually how it works
Or are you saying that someone shooting up a school doesn’t need a good shooting? Or carrying a bomb and about to enter a packed movie theatre?
I feel that you are being overly politically correct here. If there was anything to give a racial implication, yes it would reflect issues relating to mind black lives matters protests. And one does have to be cautious about using humour to support racism or oppression. After all it is a strong tool which could be used to support a path aimed at genocide.
But, as that is not present, the focus is on eternal policing issues, and addresses a fundamental concept that, at times, it is necessary for police to use lethal force. This is not just a USA issue, even the UK, with its highly restrictive gun laws and bans on all capital punishment, still authorises and practices (very rarely) shooting to kill … when the situation warrants it.
So, although it is dark humour, it is both a valid political commentary and an amusingly relevant observation.
And do bear in mind that Sydney is stripping the concepts down to their basics by using the word “basically”. If “somebody really needs a killing”, due to them being an immediate danger to the lives of others, and there is no other way to resolve the situation, then it is lawful for police to kill them.
Complicating the concept, by saying “but what if the cops are behaving criminally and killing somebody when it is not warranted?”, is going beyond the restricted scope of her comment.
We should not let thought police stop us from talking about things which may touch upon sensitive subjects. And we certainly should not be pushed into self editing, in an excessive fashion, due to overly liberal pressure.
Because, down this path, we end up with the censure of the political right, and their resentment at being stifled. Which can lead to “surprising swings to the extreme right” in elections. If people find that a broad range of their political views are being suppressed then they will be more inclined to vote for a government which will condone addressing the issues that matter to them. Even if it causes oppression or hardships to others.
As such we are best focussing our condemnation on things which are explicitly morally wrong. Rather than on things which are merely related to or (depending on interpretation) which could be taken in an abusive way rather than in the way clearly intended.
Had Sydney said something like “Sure, that is an excuse that us cops can get away with all the time too, lets go kill some folks we don’t like the look of.”, then I would have lept in on your side. But she took it the other way, so should not be censured for that.
I note that both have been mentioned before, but I would like to heartily endorse the following recommendations:
– Vorkosigan series, by Lois McMaster Bujold
– Her Instruments quadrilogy, by MCA Hogarth
The Vorkosigan series’ main protagonist is Miles Vorgkosigan, a brilliant and charismatic aristocrat who overcomes crippling deformities to have madcap adventures across multiple planets and systems, affecting events at the interplanetary government level, and in general causing all sorts of mayhem. There are romantic subplots in a few of the books, although it takes a while for “true love” to develop (which is kinda nice…for once the male and female that show up in book one aren’t destined to be married by the end of book 20. Like real life, there’s some trial-and-error first). No real OP, though, unless you count Miles’s insane luck and his ability to get people to do what he wants them to.
Her Instruments (which starts with “Earthrise”, which someone else recommended) features the crew of an independent trading vessel, not /quite/ poverty level, but definitely running close to the line, who end up way over their heads when they are called upon to rescue a kidnapping victim from a bunch of interstellar pirates. There is a definite romance subplot, and OP is present, although since it’s not readily apparent in the first book I won’t spoil by saying who is OP and how it manifests. I will say it is very well handled, and doesn’t unbalance the books at all (similar to TSM, the protagonist’s OP level tends to ramp up in response to increasing levels of enemy threat). If you like this series, it’s just one part of Hogarth’s Pelted universe, all of which are excellent and which tie together into an overarching mega-arc. Although fair warning, the Prince’s Game series starts out very dark, and the author has included trigger warnings for it, which you SHOULD PAY ATTENTION TO. She’s written a summary of that series in case you want to skip it and continue on with the rest of the books in the universe.
If no one has said it yet, [b]Deathstalker by Simon R Greene/[b] is a fantastic series and I truly think you’ll enjoy it. There are five books in the first part and three in the second. Give the first one a try and I think you’ll find it ticks the right boxes for you.
Apparently, I cannot bold properly. The name shall ever not pop… -_-
Try HTML angle brackets for most of the formatting here. Bold, italics, underline, strike, and links, and I think ‘quote’ and ‘blockquote’. I think there is also support for a ‘spoiler’ tag but that one might be the square brackets.
If like most websites, the slash should be inside the bracket in front of the “b”… So, [/b].
I really like his “Hawk and Fisher” series, despite them being fairly light reads.
Yes. An Old Great One, which immediately sprang to mind.
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If you’re interested in “hard” sci-fi try any of the books by David Webber. Oh, and while not a book, I cannot recommend the Data Chasers web comic enough. Deep storyline and background, characters that are well written and a fun story.
http://datachasers.thecomicseries.com/comics/first
Regarding David Weber: Maybe…just maybe NOT “Out of the Dark” or “Der Widerstand” (the books title here in Germany ^^)…i mean…the main part of the book is really good…but the final chapters are (imo) a kinda stupid twist, which ruined the story for me.
And datachasers i just cant say anything bad about it…discovered it a while ago and got hooked quite from the getgo.
Maybe not a book series so much, but for ‘ships of the line’ with ‘gunports open’ Babylon 5 fits ;)
CJ Cherryh’s Union/Alliance novels are what happens when hard Sci-Fi meets Space Opera
I Find WebtoEpub works well too. Book recamendations https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084PCMFY4?ref_=dbs_p_mng_rwt_ser_shvlr&storeType=ebooks https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D34NWH1?ref_=dbs_p_mng_rwt_ser_shvlr&storeType=ebooks https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B082K95Q53?ref_=dbs_p_mng_rwt_ser_shvlr&storeType=ebooks https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B087MMX2RR?ref_=dbs_p_mng_rwt_ser_shvlr&storeType=ebooks Altho the last one is more Dungon Core Space Opera
Old school classic, The Dragon Never Sleeps by Glen Cook. Never understood why this doesn’t get more love.
It’s more hard science fiction, but there’s a series of books by Steve White and David Weber that I enjoyed. The one I started with is called “In Death Ground”, but there’s two books before it in a loose prequel style, “Insurrection” and “Crusade” and one direct sequel called “The Shiva Option”
I don’t know of any good novels, But if you want a space opera Webcomic I highly recommend Zap! The link is in my website url. It’s about an amnesic goofus man that somehow becomes the captain of a special spaceship and joins the rebellion against an evil known galaxy wide empire. There’s misadventures, heartbreak, love, betrayal, battles and space squids! In short, everything that you seem to want wrapped up in a graphical novel and a pretty little bow on top. It’s one of the best comics I’ve seen in a long time.
Another webcomic I love is “the dreamland chronicles.” It’s not space or even sci-fi but it is a nice fantasy read. Also there is “A Miracle of Science,” which also fits the bill, but based inside our solar system. These are all complete webcomics, so there is no waiting on new updates. Enjoy!
If you want an older classic for a space opera, try the “Eric John Stark Saga” by Leigh Brackett. It’s a freaking awesome series. It’s kind of like Edgar Rice Burroughs but without the racism. The title character is a human that had been orphaned on Mercury and raised by aliens, then recruited into a space federation as a special agent/problem solver. He goes on “one last mission before retirement” to rescue his former mentor, who had flown off to investigate a backwater human colony that had been taken over by a technocratic cult and had gone dark. This series has everything — weird future cultures, rayguns, swordfights, explorations of alien vistas, giant mutant psychic dogs. Also a little romance, but not as much as I would have preferred. Occasionally delves into dark introspection and mild ptsd episodes; Eric John Stark is a classical antihero. Highly recommended.
If you are looking for an space opera that has a whole bunch of sex as well, you could try “Wings of the Seraph” by Sarah Hawke. Hapless petty space grifter on the lawless edge of the galactic rim stumbles into an epic quest, accidentally gets sucked into the middle of a maelstrom of wars and intrigue, and gathers a variety of highly-talented alien space-babes. Definitely a power fantasy, but the storytelling is pretty great and the characters are well-developed. Started as a series of short novellas, but has recently been collected into a completed novel.
“Bio of a Space Tyrant” series by Piers Anthony and the “Stainless Steel Rat” series by Harry Harrison are good’uns (was introduced to ‘Slippery Jim’ as a series of adaptions in the pages of “2000AD“)
Always enjoyed the cover to “The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted” :D
His smirk while the other recruits look like they are silently shitting themselves :D
So much said in a single expression :D
The Archon HQ architecture is interesting. Unless they are in an area where two of the floors are not separated (such as when we saw Sydney drooling at the shirtless male heroes), then Maxima appears (in panel 2) to be departing through a vertical shaft.* If so, then it presumably leads to the roof, given her statement about meeting Halo there.
Anyone wandering around on the roof better mind the step…
* Which would make sense in a building designed specifically for super heroes, especially when they are in limited numbers, so the need for them to urgently respond to situations is critical.
A safe way to have such a shaft would be to have, basically, one way hatches on every floor (or 2). That is, there’s a hatch on every floor (with a little alcove to one side so you *can* open it to go down), that swings shut automatically, but can be easily opened by pressing it from the bottom.
There is absolutely no reason not to have railings surrounding the opening on each floor. It would prevent non-flyers from taking an unintentional shortcut to the ground floor, while not impeding flyers in the least.
I don’t know if they are already mentioned,but as they are a bit older I think I can throw them in the ring:
Harry Harrison’s whole Stainless Steel Rat series.
They are a great read. Also Asprin’s Joker Company is quite funny as well, though there are only three books to my knowledge.
Yes, mentioned Slippery Jim just above (even provided a like to one of the great covers :D )
Wait, wasn’t that “Phule’s Company”? Meant to include that but forget at the time :(
Possibly. At least the Barberian thought it would be. But he might just specialize in being able to cut hair like Maxima’s, plus he has superstrength.
I’d also think that how cut-able her hair is depends on how high a level her armor is at. She CAN be hurt – she HAS been hurt before. By Vehemence even before he was at superstrength, and presumably by others as well, even if it’s exceedingly rare since she’d usually have her armor up pretty high in fight situations (at least in her ‘golden triangle of strength/speed/armor balance’ levels).
This was meant as a response to Too Old To Be Cool’s question, but the website messed up at an inopportune moment.
I haven’t read all of the comments, so I don’t know if it’s been suggestef, but try a book called “Midshipman’s Hope”. It is a touch preachy for Christianity, but not enough to be unbearable. The rest of the series is VERY formulaic though- and not in a good way. The first book does stand well on it’s own though, and is a very enjoyable read.
The Automatic Detective by A. Lee Martinez is a fun pulp/noir sci fi novel that I really love. Main character (Mack Megaton) is a cab driver robot, though his chassis was designed by a mad scientist and intended to be one of said scientist’s conquering army, so he’s super strong and tough. His neighbors go missing and he decides to do something about it. There’s a little romance, too.
Repeating what I said on the Patreon post:
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/33726/first-contact
It’s a crazy epic story about galactic war that starts with a bug guy stealing ice cream, and the rest is history. READ IT!
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/16946/azarinth-healer
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/22518/chrysalis
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/26294/he-who-fights-with-monsters
I really recommend this one too. Currently on hiatus, will resume in September.
I feel like that top right panel is incredibly eery if looked at wrong.
If you want some humor in your space adventure/Opera
Bill The Galactic Hero series By Harry Harrison is a good place to start.
Phules Company by Robert Asprin ( take 2) is a good one too.
Forgot about Bil (only officers or gentry are allowed two ‘L’s in their name :P ) :(
Long time reader, first time commenting. I found Elizabeth Moon to be a very enjoyable author, I’m mostly interested in her fantasy books (The Deeds of Paksenarrion is worth a read) but her sci-fi books were fun as well. Hunting Party is her first sci-fi book and other than a really detailed descriptions of horses and horse racing that feel almost out of place in a science fiction book, I very much enjoyed both it and the sequel Sporting Chance before being dragged back to a fantasy realm. http://www.elizabethmoon.com/ has a list of her work.
Oh yes, absolutely adored the Deeds of Paksenarrion books
Been reading sci-fi nearing 60 years now, 5000 or more Easy (And that’s just what I have in my house)
and all of these suggestions are good, and I’m particularly fond of Harrington,
but where space opera is concerned you might want to go back to the beginning and read EE Smith’s work.
the man pretty much invented space opera with the Lensmen and the skylark of space series.
People have been borrowing stuff from his work for Almost 90 years now.
DC admits the Green Lantern Corps are his lensman with the serial numbers just barely scratched off,
the man invented the death Star -he called the maulers- and by the end of the series
he had dozens of them in battles with thousands of ships,and they weren’t even the most powerful.
he Also invented the idea of the AWACS back in the early 40s Among other things.
I had the honor of meeting and talking with him at a worldCon Once, but I had nothing to write with or on
and he passed away about a year later so I never did get his autograph.
I’ll always recommend The Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell. The basic premise is that Commander John “Black Jack” Geary (having been posthumously promoted to Captain after his “heroic last stand”) is found in a dying cryopod nearly a hundred years into the war which started with his “death”. The fleet which picked him up is going to perform a daring strike at the enemy home world; it’s a trap of course. Now after the death or capture of every officer above the rank of Captain, John finds himself trapped deep behind enemy lines, surrounded by people who look at him like a living saint, and worst of all, in command of the survivors.
Falling for Max in the first panel hard :).
#DefundArchon
Tanya Huff’s Valor books are good too.
Not sure if it has been mentioned, and I did quickly skim through 5 pages to try and check, but for something different, how about a small band of humans transported back in time into the middle of the 30 years war in Germany. The 1632 series by Eric Flint and friends has a large pile of books now. They do a good job of examining how history would change if people knew the future, and you get to see the up timers interact with many famous people of that time period, both heroes and villians.
MAN your art has really improved! Even in the beginning it was decent, but now it’s REALLY good! Guess practice really does pay off.