Author: JD Morvan
Publisher: Magnetic Press
Rating: WORTHY!
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.
Illustrated by Huange-Jia Wei.
This is my 500th post since starting my blog! Yeah me!
Having enjoyed and favorably reviewed Naja by the same author in June this year, I was pleased to have a chance to take a look at this graphic novel, which is really rather breath-taking.
It has the appearance of steam-punk, and a sci-fi, and a space-travel story, and the artwork is a seamless blend of different styles which I'm naming the Huange-Jia style! If you liked Blade Runner or its origin, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, then more than likely you will enjoy this, although it's quite a different story.
The story here is about Zaya Oblidine, a retired assassin who now has twin children (shades of Kill Bill!, but who is called back into service in what appears to be a minor role for her in a major operation. Of course, it's never like that, is it?!
If I had one complaint, it would be over the use of 't' to represent 'Terra' in identifying time periods - such as t-years, or t-minutes. This, to me, is nonsensical. I railed against it when David Weber employed it in his Honor Harrington series.
Yes, I get that other planets necessarily have different lengths of day and year, but this doesn't have to affect the lengths of sub-divisions of those time periods, such as weeks and minutes. Even if it does, if everyone is always using Earth measurements - as they are here - then what is the point of specifying it? It seems to me that no-one would realistically do that, but then that's just my pet peeve.
I don't get what's with the use of 'Terra', either, for that matter. No one has ever used that as a name for Earth except in science fiction, so it seems completely nonsensical to me that it would be employed in reality! Maybe we can blame the translator for that? I don't know what was written in the original.
But apart from those quibbles, I loved this novel. I fell hopelessly in love with Zaya. More than this, the story has interesting and motivated characters who drew me in and made me want to follow them beyond this one volume. It had stirring, gorgeous artwork, and a real plot. I recommend it.
