All around Furry Weekend Atlanta we found these interesting business cards — each with a character (usually an anthropomorphic) and the name of a planet. So we came home, followed the links… and found our way to Solar House, a science-fiction webtoon written and illustrated by Vanadium Valor. What if the planets, moons, and so forth in our solar system were each a person, with their own foibles and personalities? “It’s like if astronomy and furry art kissed! Follow the lives of the planets (and other objects) as they try to navigate their long company policies and even longer histories!” Each comic comes with some extra science facts to give a background in reality to the current story-line.

image c. 2024 by Vanadium Valor

While I could say that Song of the Summer King by Jess E. Owen is a very satisfying action adventure young adult book played straight (which is true; it follows a coming of age story formula and it knows it), there's a lot of subtle choices made by the writer which makes this book stand out: how inaction is in itself implicit action; how listening can appear to be a prophetic power to those who have never attempted empathy; how refusing to choose between two bad options can be a valid choice.

From the beginning of the novel, Shard lives passively: he's enthralled by a patriarchal society of fascist conqueror griffins who believe only the strongest survive. He lives in constant (well-founded) fear of never being trusted and eventual exile, which are his driving influences to seek strength and social accolades. But when Shard's own heritage gets foisted upon him, he has to choose between being comfortable or being ethically consistent with what he finds to be the truth, all the while reconciling his racial differences from the dominant griffin tribe.

Shard has to question everything when he discovers that the world is more complicated than he once thought, and that it is incredibly frustrating when those closest to him continue to live trapped in their oversimplifications about what it means to live a good life.

Spoiler warning: This review does discuss plot elements some may consider spoilers below the break.

Five Elements Press, 2012, $4.99 Kindle, $25 hardcover, $12.99 paperback (264 pages). Illustrated by Jennifer Miller.

Rabbit Valley Comics has expanded its digital product offering to include short stories by Graveyard Greg, digital versions of 2 The Ranting Gryphon's stand up comedy videos, as well as audio collections by JackRabbit and 2.

Rabbit Valley launched the digital items store this February, with novels by Alflor Aalto and Wolf and a host of comic books, including Spooo Presents titles, Circles, Fast Boyz Delivery Service, and The Royal Tale.

Two new Dragon's Hoard titles are also available: NomNoms #2 and Runt #2, featuring art from Dark Natasha, Enderis, Jace, NecroDrone, SalerthS, Sidian, and Skulldog.