Bookworm Speaks!- Amulet #6 Escape from Lucien
Bookworm Speaks!
Amulet #6: Escape from Lucien, by Kazu Kibuishi
****
After a long, long wait, the readership has finally received what it has been waiting for: Amulet Book 6! Was it worth the wait? Let’s find out!
Warning! This review may contain minor spoilers.
The Story: The journey of Emily and Navin continues with Navin journeying to the war-ravaged city of Lucien with his friends and Emily and the Stonekeepers must go into the Void to confront the voice at the behest of the wicked Elf-king. Many secrets will be revealed and things left undone will be resolved.
The Good: Kazu Kibiuishi’s skill as an artist is unparalleled. Nothing really more needs to be said about that. What does need to be said in this volume is the direction that Kibuishi is taking the art design. Where the artwork succeeds consistently throughout the series is in its ambience and atmosphere. This is a very dark book…dark in that a good portion of the story takes place in a crepuscular and raining setting. This brooding atmosphere fits very well with the setting an overall feel in those particular scenes of the story. A chase through dark, deserted ruins being pursued by relentless enemies, the rain and darkness really make the scenes feel alive.
In this volume, we really get to Navin come into his own, which is a great step in the right direction. While both siblings have developed in their own way throughout the volumes it has definitely been Emily who has gotten the most screen time. Here the focus is on Navin and his part of the journey. He actually gets equal if not more time than Emily. We really see his leadership capabilities come into focus as well as his skill as a warrior. Make no mistake that this is a story about battle.
His relationship with fellows is explored as well particular Allyson, the girl from Cielis. Some may be disappointed that there is not more romantic tension between the two, but the truth is that’s a good thing as this point in the story is not conducive to romance. Also, the whole prepubescent romance gig never made a whole lot of sense. That is not saying that the possibility would be entirely unwelcome in the future.
No spoilers, but a lot of previously introduced elements come back into play during this volume in ways that work very well, and a character is sent off in a way that is very satisfying even if the character himself wasn’t all that strong to begin with.
The action, of course, is excellent with great pacing and energetic sequences. What Bookworm has just noticed is that the author does a good job of making every battle different and having the characters adjust. The kind of enemy and its strengths and weaknesses are made different, the setting is different and thus every battle is unique in its own way. Very clever, on the part of the author and really illustrates his creativity and his awareness of how different elements can work together.
The Flaws: Once again, we are treated to another broken promise shown on the cover. The coolest thing introduced in the previous volume was the introduction of the Colossus mech and on the cover of this volume we see Cogsley, Navin and Alyson piloting the mech into battle and while we are treated to plenty of mechs in battle we do not see the Colossus in battle! Bookworm was really looking forward to that and we do not see it. We can only hope that the Colossus gets to punch things in the next volume.
Aside from that, we are treated to a similar flaw that occurred in the second volume.
In that we are introduced to a lot of information all at once, perhaps too much at once and the new characters that are introduced may not get the screen time they deserve in order to flesh them out. It’s not right to call it forced but its obvious they are important and we get that very quickly. The information is interesting, mind you, but once again this volume feels like a traditional piece, more about setting up events for the next chapters. There is indeed a lot of build-up throughout this story, more things are falling into place and the final battle will be close at hand.
Final Verdict:
Perhaps Kazu Kibuishi makes these filler volumes on purpose if only to wet our appetites for the next volume. Well…its working. Hopefully, the next volume will not take as long.
Four out of Five Stars.
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