Critiques et Commentaires

it really is difficult! I cannot read this one without thinking about the previous books about zamonia. especially of course Rumo and City of dreaming books.

now: Hildegunst travels to an island to cure some problems, ever the hypochondriac, in a health spa. we take part as he is struggling with the harsh conditions on the island as well as the meager and odd cultural life here. and by the time he takes part in a fight against an evil power, which threatens whole Zamonia.

So what is the problem? all the satire is fine and sometimes hilarious. all the details about life on the island, all the new miniatures about life forms in Zamonia are really cool. but the novel as a whole seems to me just a reconfiguring of the bestsellers, a huge fanservice as you may call episode 7 (tfa) as well. ... and I really disliked the footnotes. Sometimes Hildegunst refers to some events in the previous book City of the dreaming books and a footnote appears. but it's not a funny or interesting remark, but only a dry page number. maybe it is a hidden joke and I was way to boring actually looking up, what is written there. instead I was constantly angered by the thought: what a lame try

it's a history of the uk from after the second world war to the present day and at the same time a history of the Beatles and the James Bond franchise. and it's filled to the brim with details and anecdotes about production and personnel of both pop cultural monuments.

a specality of higgs' concept of telling the story is the use of "death drive"' and "love"', borrowed in a vast sense from Freud's psychology. he applies these concepts as well on the personal lifes as on the society in whole. therefore he is able to connect the layers and to pin a certain quality to decisions and developments.

as long as the main characters with their background and careers are part of their peer, there is nothing wrong with it. although i'm not sure, how much use it is either. but as soon as they lose this connex, there are simply short biographies with an odd stressing on childhood and seperately there are events, which took place. but there are still a lot of interesting thoughts along the text.

i would say, it's an essay (or a couple of it), forced to be a book. but if you enjoy reading about the Beatles and James Bond --i do-- and a lot of pop culture...

i enjoyed A Closed and Common Orbit even more than the prequel one. (which has not enough story to keep up--for my taste at least) i think of it as a kind of double bildungsroman, with two developing characters between which the novel is split.

Chambers connects her scifi(-world) convincingly and smoothly with the problems most of us are facing and can relate to. it's how scifi should comment the present. and although the focus is always on the personalities, there are also a lot of social themes and thoughts.

a lot of readers mention the caring characters throughout the story, which make it so satisfactional to follow. I can support that! but it would be sad to think, it's just another form of escapism, a tweak to the genre. this is a shortcoming of understanding the themes Chambers is working on.

the real impact makes Chambers skill in building up and writing emotional scenes. and because i was listening to the audiobook: R. Dulude did a great job on this one (too).

(da ich die reihe seit den achtzigern kenne, und dies seit langer zeit mein erstes neues Mosaik ist, ist mein blick sicher nicht unvoreingenommen.) es handelt sich um einen sammelband (heft 507–519), der ins mecklenburger platt übersetzt wurde. das anlage der geschichte und die hauptfiguren nach all den jahren deutlich wiederzuerkennen sind, hat mich bei diesen kindheitshelden sehr gefreut. der aufhänger der schnitzeljagd, eine schatzsuche, durch den hanseraum geht völlig in ordnung und die nebenfiguren bekommen genug geheimnis und charakter mit, um nicht nur stichwortgeber oder erklärbär in der jeweiligen reisestation zu sein. überrascht war ich davon, das der größte teil der hauptcharaktere (nicht der Abrafaxe selbst, aber die figuren, die sie begleiten) über diese zwölf hefte/kapitel auch unangenehme seiten entwickeln durfte und damit die lösungen der eigentlich ganz typischen, erwartbaren konflikte doch wieder spannender macht. irritiert war ich davon, das der zeichenstil bei einigen nebenfiguren meiner meinung nach aus dem rahmen fällt, das habe ich so noch nicht in comics gesehen. als wären sie an ein anderes team abgegeben.

insgesamt aber eine gute geschichte (die erste hälfte eines größeren bogens) und ein sehr solider comic.