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Sera and the Royal Stars
Sera and the Royal Stars, Vol. 1
John Tsui, Writer / Audrey Mok, Artist
Vault, 2020
I pulled this off the pile next because it was noted as being by the same writer as the last one. Somehow I'd had the idea that is was along the lines of "Jem and the Holograms" or "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power" (probably from the font they used for the title) but it is not! It is a Persian-inflected quest fantasy about a Warrior Princess chosen by Destiny to Save The Kingdom from an Evil Curse. In this case, what she has to do is rescue the Royal Stars - so far we have met Aldebaran, Antares, Fomalhaut, Regulus, and possibly Draco. Basically the only characterization note we've got so far is that she loves her family and she's trying a standard Refusal of the Call but can't make up her mind on it for more than twenty pages.
I think I am maybe just the wrong audience for books about royal children who have been Chosen to go on a Quest to Save the Kingdom from Evil. I was going to say perhaps I've outgrown them, but honestly I'm not sure I was ever into that plotline, played straight? I've been thinking lately with everyone talking about Wheel of Time how I ought to have been 100% the demographic to have read that when it was coming out, but actually I never did, and even when friends talked about it, I was never particularly tempted. And when I think about the stuff I was reading - or, at least, the stuff I remember - from my glory days of reading five or six fantasy or SF novels a week, it was never the stuff that played the basic fantasy tropes straight. It was always the stuff that was trope-subverting or explicitly queer or full of bad puns or deliberately going for unusual stakes.
So I think this is a perfectly fine example of that if that's your thing! But I guess it's not mine and that's a weird thing to figure out at this age. And I am always interesting in personified stars, but this bunch are no Luminaries.
***Writing: It's fine, no particular complaints. I have no idea what is actually going on with the cursed stars - they just seem to occasionally turn up without Sera putting in any effort, and then she gets credit for freeing them - but I might be able to figure out if I thought about it harder, I'm just not interested enough.
***Art: Also fine. The linework style that sort of scratchy style that's not my favorite, although it's not an extreme enough example to really bug me, and in general the character designs are ok but I won't be sketching them in my notebooks. I skimmed most of the extensive fight scenes but I think that's as much the writing's fault as the art's, since I didn't miss anything by doing it.
****Stand-Alone-Ness: This is a first trade that collected five monthly floppies. The trade itself stands alone pretty well - the ending isn't a terrible place to leave off, even - and they made an effort to convey enough information that people picking up the floppies partway through wouldn't be lost. Probably as good as you could do with an ongoing.
Keeper? Probably not, I can't really see myself wanting to go refer back to it.
Will I be seeking out more? If I stumbled on a later volume somewhere I would probably read it, if only to see what the rest of the star designs look like! I don't think I will be actively looking though.
Discard score: 1/1, 100% A+
John Tsui, Writer / Audrey Mok, Artist
Vault, 2020
I pulled this off the pile next because it was noted as being by the same writer as the last one. Somehow I'd had the idea that is was along the lines of "Jem and the Holograms" or "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power" (probably from the font they used for the title) but it is not! It is a Persian-inflected quest fantasy about a Warrior Princess chosen by Destiny to Save The Kingdom from an Evil Curse. In this case, what she has to do is rescue the Royal Stars - so far we have met Aldebaran, Antares, Fomalhaut, Regulus, and possibly Draco. Basically the only characterization note we've got so far is that she loves her family and she's trying a standard Refusal of the Call but can't make up her mind on it for more than twenty pages.
I think I am maybe just the wrong audience for books about royal children who have been Chosen to go on a Quest to Save the Kingdom from Evil. I was going to say perhaps I've outgrown them, but honestly I'm not sure I was ever into that plotline, played straight? I've been thinking lately with everyone talking about Wheel of Time how I ought to have been 100% the demographic to have read that when it was coming out, but actually I never did, and even when friends talked about it, I was never particularly tempted. And when I think about the stuff I was reading - or, at least, the stuff I remember - from my glory days of reading five or six fantasy or SF novels a week, it was never the stuff that played the basic fantasy tropes straight. It was always the stuff that was trope-subverting or explicitly queer or full of bad puns or deliberately going for unusual stakes.
So I think this is a perfectly fine example of that if that's your thing! But I guess it's not mine and that's a weird thing to figure out at this age. And I am always interesting in personified stars, but this bunch are no Luminaries.
***Writing: It's fine, no particular complaints. I have no idea what is actually going on with the cursed stars - they just seem to occasionally turn up without Sera putting in any effort, and then she gets credit for freeing them - but I might be able to figure out if I thought about it harder, I'm just not interested enough.
***Art: Also fine. The linework style that sort of scratchy style that's not my favorite, although it's not an extreme enough example to really bug me, and in general the character designs are ok but I won't be sketching them in my notebooks. I skimmed most of the extensive fight scenes but I think that's as much the writing's fault as the art's, since I didn't miss anything by doing it.
****Stand-Alone-Ness: This is a first trade that collected five monthly floppies. The trade itself stands alone pretty well - the ending isn't a terrible place to leave off, even - and they made an effort to convey enough information that people picking up the floppies partway through wouldn't be lost. Probably as good as you could do with an ongoing.
Keeper? Probably not, I can't really see myself wanting to go refer back to it.
Will I be seeking out more? If I stumbled on a later volume somewhere I would probably read it, if only to see what the rest of the star designs look like! I don't think I will be actively looking though.
Discard score: 1/1, 100% A+
no subject
But I agree with you that by now, it's a well worn trope and needs more attached to it to make it interesting.
no subject
I kept thinking Sera and the Royal Stars was going to get interesting because her father is in the process of being violently overthrown by her uncle, partly because he's not doing anything to break the curse, and it would be interesting to see Sera realize her uncle is actually supportive of her quest and maybe he was right that her dad needed to go to save the kingdom. But I don't think it's brave enough to go there, it always leans back on 'uncle just wants power' eventually.
no subject
no subject
You always bring something special
I didn't know I was thirsting for exactly this sort of comic review until I read it.
THANKS!
Re: You always bring something special
Thank you! I still hope to do more of these, but I'm running into the predicted problem that the time of night when I want to sit and read is also the time of night when I turn on the red lights to get sleepy for the evening and can't see color anymore. Maybe I should add a rating for "grayscale-friendliness"!