by Pierre
Christin (Author), Jean-Claude Mezieres
(Illustrator)
Publisher :
Cinebook, Ltd (July 16, 2012)
Softcover, 48
pages
This is the third
volume of the French science-fiction series, Valerian & Laureline:
Spatio-Temporal Agents. This was originally published in issues 570-592 of the
comic magazine Pilote from 1970-1971.
The Valerian series (for those who don’t know) is one of the longest running
series ever in French-Belgium comic history. It started in 1967 and finished
its final volume in 2010. The series became more complex over time, but these
early volumes are fresh, free of narrative encumberments. They are more along the
lines of science-fantasy than science fiction. It is only later that the plots
ramp up. In this case the story is fun and light. French sci-fi strips were
something of a rarity when this was published, so you can see the creators
having fun flexing their creative muscles.
Valerian
and Laureline work for the Spatio-Temporal Service which protects the planets
of the Terran Empire and guards against temporal paradoxes caused by rogue
time-travelers. The capital of Earth, Galaxity, is the center of the vast
Terran Galactic Empire in the 28th
century. Humanity has discovered the means of travelling instantaneously
through time and space. Thus are heroes adventures can happen anytime and
anywhere.
While
assisting human colonists who have settled in a distant star system they
discover a rogue planet is on a collision course with the planet. The pair jump
to the planet and find it to be lifeless, but their curiosity is piqued by some
phosphorescent lakes. Taking a launch from the astroship, they dive into one of
the lakes and are astonished when they emerge on the other side – it is a
hollow planet. Light is provided by the planet's core and there is a small
rocky moon in orbit. Inside they find themselves in the middle of a war run by
two cities, each attempting to prove the dominance of their specific sex. Our
heroes must solve this problem before fixing the planet’s trajectory.
For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.
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