|
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Artesia
Review by Michael May
Written and Illustrated by Mark Smylie Additional Illustration Plates by Mark McNabb Edited by Mark Bellis Archaia Studios Press; $24.95 Man, there were a lot of Marks involved in this book. I should've got my brother Mark May to review it, just to keep with the theme. But that's neither here nor there. Just struck me as weird. Someone once gave me the following piece of advice. "Beware any fantasy book that includes a map." I don't know; I like maps. They help me know where I am and where I'm going and keep me from getting lost. That applies to the Hudson in my truck as well as Terry Brookes's diagrams in the Shannara books. And anyone who warns you off from Lord of the Rings just because Tolkien included some charts doesn't know what he's talking about. He'd also have you miss out on Artesia, and that would be a shame. I understand where he was coming from though. There's a certain amount of conceit that goes along with including a map and lineage charts and making up languages to go along with your fantasy story. And there's certainly the opportunity to focus more on the setting and less on the story. And sometimes abundance of setting and back-story can muddy the plot and confuse the reader. But sometimes it doesn't and that's the trouble with such black-and-white rules. At first, Artesia can seem a bit daunting. It's the first book in a trilogy and it includes all sorts of end notes about and illustrations of the various gods worshipped by the inhabitants of Artesia's world. I wanted to test myself and the story though, so I skipped all that stuff. Intentionally didn't read it. Still haven't read it. And what I discovered is that like any good Extra Material, the appendices and additional illustrations are actually bona fide Extra Material. They're not necessary to the story, but when you get done reading it, if you're interested, they're there to further flesh out the world. The only item that's fairly important to understanding the story is the map of the world and that is cleverly included within the story itself at an appropriate place. The basic plot of Artesia is simple. Artesia is a warrior-concubine to a feudal king. When the king rebels against his and Artesia's goddess and begins to hold another deity as his patron, Artesia in turn rebels against the king and takes most of her army with her. There are complications to it, but that's the gist. An ancient empire is threatening to take over the world, Artesia's brother is a spy and no one knows whom he's really working for, and then there are the immortals with whom Artesia is allied and who have their own secret agenda. Complicated but not inaccessible, Artesia is a story with several layers to it and it's wonderful going through it and discovering things hidden behind other things. It's beautiful to look at too. Smylie's art is as colorful and striking as his protagonist. He has an excellent sense of anatomy and making people look like people rather than comic book clichés. His style contributes a sense of realism that elevates Artesia above other fantasy material and gives it a mythic quality. If not actual events, Artesia at least reads and feels like actual legends. It's a book that haunts when you're done. You'll want to go back and read it again, not because you didn't get it, but because you want to spend more time with it, soaking in the art and getting to know the enigmatic main character better. Fortunately for you, in addition to being able to re-read this story there are also two sequels that follow. Artesia is available to purchase online at www.amazon.com. You can learn more about it at www.archaiasp.com.
| 
April 22, 2008:
February 4, 2008:
November 20, 2006:
A Comic-Con without the Captain
