Zaya by JD Morvan

Title: Zaya
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.

Naja by JD Morvan

Title: Naja
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.