Bookish Thoughts

Instead of reading The Goldfinch in December like I was supposed to, I found myself revisiting Saga. I read the first nine volumes more or less as they came out over the years, which really spread the story out. While I enjoyed the later volumes, I was occasionally confused by who a character was or why they were doing something. Then the ending of the ninth volume left me hurt and angry and then the whole story went on hiatus for what was supposed to be a year, but which the pandemic dragged out to closer to three years. In those three years, a lot happened. And I came to appreciate the ending. I found myself growing more and more curious about where the story would go next. I wanted to know what would happen to Hazel in the wake of her most recent losses. So I went back and re-read the whole story over the course of about two weeks. The compressed schedule worked really well for this story. Everything flowed much better than the first time through. I was able to hold all the charact...

I think some of the shine is wearing off this series. It might just be that it's so spread out. I go so long between volumes that I can barely remember who some of the characters are. That doesn't make it particularly easy to sympathize with them. But also, all this tragedy is getting a bit boring. Sure, they do a decent job of balancing it with hope and alternating happy endings with sad ones. And sure, the series is ultimately about war. But three characters died in this installment, and I barely felt anything. Maybe it would help if I actually went back and read the whole thing from the beginning, like I've been meaning to for a while now. I'm sure some of these hits would land harder if I could remember why I should care. Then again, the comic is now taking an extended hiatus, so who knows when the next volume will be released. By then I'll probably have forgotten it all again. At this point I think I'll wait until the series ends before investing any mo...

The eighth volume of Saga is all about the families we make and all the different ways we go about making them. It deals with some heavy issues, and I occasionally felt that it was a bit heavy-handed. That said it was nice for the authors to take such direct and clear stands on abortion and trans* issues. And it's all part of an ongoing story that's fantastic. So if I found a page or two a little after-school-special-y, well whatever. At the end of the previous issue, the fetus Alana was carrying died. Now the family is racing to find a doctor willing to abort it before Alana dies, too. Along the way we get a nice little story about what might have been, if Hazel's brother had been born, that dovetails nicely with a teaser ending about the (non-biological) brother she eventually finds. That's the other thing this issue has: long awaited reunions. And dedicated issues to catch up with a few other characters. No jumping around and only the bare minimum of teasing. It ...

The seventh volume of Saga deals with love and loss, mostly loss. Hazel and her family find themselves stranded on the comet Phang while their ship refuels. Phang, the book reminds us, is where The Will found Sophie. It's a poor, exploited, downtrodden war zone. But Hazel and her family end up enjoying some of the best months of their lives their. Right up until it all turns to shit. Hazel's older now, and it's fun to see her as a bratty six-year-old. She's dealing with conflicting feelings about her mom's pregnancy, lashing out at her baby-sitter, making new friends with the locals. It's all very sweet and heartwarming, but the impending doom adds a lot of tension. Things go belly-up pretty spectacularly. A new assassin has been sent after the family, but the two warring nations are also conspiring to just get rid of Phang once and for all. Why continue to expend resources when you can just cut your losses? It's always sad to lose characters, but if I...

The sixth volume of Saga takes a much-needed leap forward in time. While I've enjoyed the series a lot so far, I was starting to feel daunted by how long it was potentially going to last. If it was supposed to cover the life of Hazel and she spent the first 5 volumes as an infant (maybe she aged up to toddler? I can't remember), then the series would never end. But when the story picks back up, Hazel is school-aged, probably 6 or 7 years old. It's refreshing to have Hazel take a more active role in her own story. She makes new friends, pushes the plot forward, and is generally a lot more interesting than she was as an infant. It's nice that everyone else has been propelled into the future, too. It's allowed for some new normals to take hold, for characters to establish patterns and relationships rather than being in a constant state of upheaval. I'll admit that I was somewhat lost in parts of this volume. Even moreso than when I read volume 5, where I was ex...

I was hesitant, going into this volume of Saga. The fourth volume felt like so much treading water, moving pieces around without really advancing the story. Then there was the fact that it's been so long since I last read any Saga that I wasn't sure I'd still be able to follow the plots. I considered re-reading the whole thing. But I ultimately picked up just the fifth volume, figuring I could go back if I needed to. I shouldn't have worried. This volume does a good job of catching everything up in the first issue. I was a little lost on one or two characters, but it didn't matter too much. I was able to follow the story well enough and the emotional beats all landed as intended. Most importantly, I really enjoyed this volume, and I think that's because a fair number of plot points finally get wrapped up. There are new plot threads spinning out, but there's also a significant time jump which necessitates a few endings. Prince Robot IV finds his kid, The...

In the fourth volume, Saga finally jumps forward a little. Which is good. If this is going to be the story of Hazel's entire life, then we need some time to pass. Otherwise it will last forever. Hazel has gone from newborn to toddler. Her parents have found a safe haven of sorts, and her mom is working while her dad takes care of her. He's chafing at having to stay hidden. Ilana is chafing at her job. And everything begins to fall apart all over again. There's a lot of plot threads in this story, which means there's a lot to keep track of. But Vaughan handles it well, keeping most of the focus on the central family. I barely even realized that the bounty hunters and Lying Cat were missing until they showed up in the final issue. And in the meantime, the plot threads are starting to intersect in new and interesting ways. I'm really excited for Prince Robot IV to be basically switching sides in his quest for his kidnapped son. It's hard to really talk about ...

And so the Saga continues, and actually takes some big steps forward. Well, maybe not big steps. But steps nonetheless. First, though, it backs up. The ending of the second volume jumped forward a week or so in order to end on a cliffhanger. This volume goes back to see how everyone ended up in place for that cliffhanger and spends time building up some relationships that make it even more tragic. It was those relationships that were at the center of this volume, with everyone finding love in the "wrong" place, mirroring Alana and Marko's relationship and beginning to pave the way for Heist's utopia. First we're introduced to a couple of gay reporters who have been exiled from their home world for pursuing a relationship with each other. Then we begin to see the early stages of Gwendolyn and The Will's attachment and Klara's growing feelings for Heist just weeks after the death for her husband. There are hints that none of this ends parti...

In the second volume of Saga (probably, I devoured them both in quick succession and may have mixed a couple of things up), we start to dig into some of the themes that the series id going to deal with: family, war, pacifism, and hope. We also get some flashbacks that show how Alana and Marko met and fell in love, and how Marko was shaped by his parents and what his rebellion means in the face of that. The second volume contains the introduction of a family group to mirror the protagonists and implications of a third similar family on the horizon. Alana, Marko, and Hazel are still on the run with their babysitter, Izabel. Marko's parents also make an appearance and we can see the similarities between the two groups, with both women being much quicker to resort to violence than their husbands. The Will also finds himself teaming up with a woman who helps him rescue a small child before continuing to pursue Alana and Marko. The Robot Prince is also in hot pursuit, at...

Saga , written by Brian K Vaughn and illustrated by Fiona Staples, is a spectacular book. It's a great mesh of science-fiction and fantasy that spans an entire galaxy. It also manages to have an incredibly intimate scope, following the first week in the life of a child of two people whose races are on opposing sides of a seemingly never-ending war. That first week is, at one point, referred to as the opposite of a honeymoon, which is the perfect description, given how many things go wrong. The worlds of Saga are incredible. The art is amazing and the endless series of new aliens and technology is fantastic. There are highly advanced ships and guns, mixed in with magic. Robots operate alongside unicorns and a really freaky spider-woman hybrid. This book is mostly world building, setting the stage for the story to come. It's largely narrated by the child born on the first page, implying that the story will follow her life wherever that happens to lead. And since...