Author: JD Morvan
Publisher: Magnetic press
Rating: WORTHY!
Illustrated by Bengal
DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this book nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by Net Galley. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration for this review.
I liked this graphic novel. The art was very simplistic, but it still looked good, and the use of color was wonderful. This novel owes a huge amount to the Kill Bill movie duo. It also owes a lot to Luc Besson's work, such as Nikita, or Columbiana or even The Fifth Element wherein he creates a strong and mysterious female character who has issues to say the least. And it also owes a little to the Kick Ass movie character Hit Girl, if only for her wig!
The eponymous main character named herself after a snake (Naja is the biological genus for the cobra snakes and also, as 'naga', the name of a group of Hindu snake deities. It also happens to be the name of a founding member of the band, Massive Attack...). Six out of the first seven novels on BN were titled simply "Naja" when I looked this up! Maybe some thought should have been given to naming it after a different genus of snake?!
The character, Naja, is cold rather like a snake, having no emotions. She feels nothing, not even pain. We never learn her real name; it's always, and quite literally, beeped out, which frankly was overdone and became annoying after a while. We never learn the real name of her best friend from her abusive childhood, either: a guy whom she rescues from prison at one point in this story.
Naja works for an anonymous person named 'Zero', who runs a team of assassins. Naja is number three, but her ranking doesn't bother her one bit. At a point early in the story, a strange guy shows up in her room and bests her in a struggle. This is a remarkable feat in itself, but after he ties her up (which she enjoys way more than any balanced person would), he reveals to her that number one wants her dead because he thinks she wants him dead.
The problem is that the more she pursues this - going off the books and planning her own assignment, which is something she's never done before - the more questions arise as to what is really going on here, whether anyone really wants her dead, who this stranger is, and what his motives are. The story eventually draws in all three assassins, and as they realize they're in a trap, they also realize they're mixed-up in someone's plot - but whose plot remains to be seen - and the answer might surprise you!
This story wasn't perfect. I had some issues with it. I mean, Naja is supposed to be emotionless, yet we're told often that she hates the denizens of whatever particular country it is that she's entering at the time, which seemed illogical at best. The narration - almost of the "dear reader" type, became truly annoying here and there, and the constant dislocation of the timeline was irritating (this was the bulk of the Kill Bill influence).
In addition to this, I lost the thread somewhere in the last part of the story (maybe the last fifty pages or so) and really had no idea what was going on for a while, which reduced the reading experience for me a bit. Also I would have liked to have had more back-story for Naja, of which we're deprived. Yes, we get her childhood in a big expository section and several minor flashbacks, but we get nothing of how she became the number three assassin in the world.
Those relatively minor considerations aside, I highly recommend this story. It was warm, engaging, interesting, easy to read and to follow (except for the last part, and despite the flashbacks!). In addition to this, it was not afraid to get out of the USA! There are too many stories obsessed with the US, like it's the only place of any value or interest in the world, but this novel said the hell with that, and took us all over the place: Britain, Columbia, India, and elsewhere, so all-in-all it was a very worthy read to me.
