Book Review – Chimera Volume 1

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Book: The Righteous & the Lost (Chimera 1) by Tyler Ellis
Release Date: Feb 6th 2018 *
Tags: Graphic Novel / Full Color Illustrations / Sci-Fi / Planets / Aliens / Adventure / LGBTQ+ / Homosexual
*I’ve seen some conflicting dates for this but this is the date on netgalley.

Synopsis

 Haunted by their pasts, a crew of thieves is hired for a covert mission in the midst of a galaxy being ripped apart by an interstellar holy war. If they want to survive – much less succeed – they must navigate hostile worlds, vengeful aliens, a deranged demon, and betrayal from within

Review

 

Volume 1 of Chimera is the collection of the first six issues of this graphic novel series. Based on the synopsis, a crew of thieves and sci-fi, I got instant Six of Crows and Firefly vibes. It wasn’t quite that good. But I am interested in more.

Let us start with the art which drew me to click on this book on Netgalley on the first place. It has solid art for the most part, all in color. I did think that in the first two issues the drawn motion of full body and falling rocks felt stiff and unnatural. But as I was absorbed by the story I can’t remember seeing more of this later on in the volume. In the back there are a few gorgeous illustrations, including the front cover. They are stunning.

As mentioned this story focuses on a crew of thieves who are send on a difficult mission of retrieving something called the Chimera. Unwillingly this draws them into a holy war that is drawn out over various planets. The story is told through now and then pieces. There was a bit too much changing between the timelines for me which made it hard to keep all the lines straight as it concerned some of the back story of our cast.  I also felt there was a bit too much religious going on but that is a personal feeling.

I wasn’t sure about the characters initially but as the story continued they started growing on me and I especially took a liking to rough Russel. For that reason I hate the ending because, ouch, right in the feels.

There is still a lot left to explore in the world building, these characters and the plot. And I can’t wait to see where this is all going.