Sylvain Runberg

It is far future and human space is controlled by Confederation. At its head is President, for all means and purposes tyrant. As a result of his rule rebellion is brewing and in one of the main battles one of the generals, Munro, is ordered to execute the destruction of entire city. He executes the order against his wishes - his appeals to reconsider being dismissed by the President - and in aftermath gets sentenced to prison because of the war crimes.

Then we move several years after that event. Rebellion executes the raid on prison colony in order to extricate four of their leaders. While this fails, unexpected group does manage to escape - Munro and 3 more prisoners that find themselves with him at the time. Presence of Munro with them will mark them all as enemies of the state, to be killed on spot. Only way is to take over the advanced battleship Munro commanded in his last battle and find refuge amongst the stars. Unfortunately things will take a very serious turn .....

Art is beautiful, reminiscent of Treasure Planet and Atlantis movies. Light, characters, environments are all drawn beautifully.

Story on its own is an action story, very much in vein of old samurai or western movies. Group of misfits thrown together, finding themselves fighting against bigger, almost invincible enemy. While art is cartoonish, events taking place are very mature - there is murder, scheming, assassinations, blackmail ...

Highly recommended.… (lisätietoja)

Story finale. Munro is shunned from everyone because of his war crimes - nobody is willing to hear him out, he is declared as a murderer and that is it. His plan to escape the world that wants him dead is changed - he is on revenge path because of the events in the first book.

What starts as a clearly specified mission goes off the rails as other parties enter the stage - pair of robotic scientists, crazed up rebellion leader that disowned her own daughter because she ended up with Munro, betrayal from within.....

It all ends as a huge tragedy. Not a clean revenge Munro envisioned, but as a trigger that engulfs entire Confederation into bloody civil war.

Ending is neat, very interesting - what can man who is cut from everyone and everything do besides killing himself? Yup, I think they found a very interesting ending to handle the situation.

Art, as was case with the first book, is just gorgeous.

Highly recommended to fans of space opera.… (lisätietoja)

Second volume of Ablaze's wonderful take on Conan stories.

First story takes us to the ever contested parts of the world that matches today's crossroads between Iran, Pakistan, China and Afghanistan. Conan, who established himself as chief of local brigand clans gets sucked into local political power plays that will bring him into conflict with dark sorcerer who enjoys a role of a king maker for a highest bidder.

Art is interesting, at times when author draws action scenes or character surprise, it is obvious inspiration is Manga or Korean variation of it. As is case with lots of Manga styles from the west this tends to create lots of sketchy art, so many lines that drawing loses its fullness. But in overall it is good, lots of details and when action kicks in it is amazing. I think that black and white approach here might work better. But again, I enjoy black and white comics in general so might be biased :)

Second story is famous story of Frost Giants Daughter. It is breath taking. Art, coloring, composition, everything is magnificent. Again, this being more adult version of stories sexual energy accumulates and it is visible. From the way Conan eyes this spirit, the way she teases him, her confidence that Conan is just yet another buffoon to be sacrificed to her father, playful exchange between the two that has such a serious and deadly undertones that Conan is not aware of at the beginning.

Again, art is so great that lots of frames would work without a single uttered word from any party. Conan here is such a powerful creature that during the final fight scenes I was truly expecting him to jump out of the pages. Spirit's fear when she realizes that Conan is not a person to be trifled with (presentation how fear starts to grow in her as she sees Conan is uncontrollable and how stressed and afraid she is on last pages after her failure to kill Conan (fear from Conan himself and definitely her father who lost his only two sons due to her scheming) - artist managed to capture every emotion, it is incredible, no frame requires any additional textual explanation) and Conan's charge at the Frost Giant! Epic! This is currently my favorite story from the two volumes from Ablaze.

Excellent book. Highly recommended to all fans of hero fantasy. Cannot wait for volume 3!… (lisätietoja)