By Cadic, Gheysens, Derenne & Paganotto
Publisher: Cinebook
ISBN: 978-1-905460-41-0

In this third and final volume Margot is at her lowest ebb. She is put upon and manipulated by her family and her husband leading to a hollow and lonely existence. Her brother, the King of France, is deeply unwell and the balance of power threatens to shift, but whatever the result it is not looking promising for the young Queen of Navarre. Until, however, she falls in love with the Comte de la Mole, a dangerous liaison that puts them both at risk, but it is not the only secretive pairing take place. Margot's scheming mother has a spy in the bed of her son, Alençon, and he is plotting the downfall of his brother the King by colluding with the enemy. His treachery is discovered at the same time as the Comte de la Mole's is accused of sorcery. Betrayals follow, and the Comte de la Mole's fate is sealed by torture. Margot pleads with her mother but is rejected and her lover is taken to the scaffold and death, an act that pushes Margot towards finally breaking free of her domineering mother's control.

This really does rattle along at quite a pace, and at times I think it could have been better served by spreading out the story to a fourth volume. It's a fascinating insight into the aftermath of the St Bartholomew's Day massacre, and the life of woman penned in by convention and family, for which the creative team can be justly proud of.

And if you liked that: Try and catch La Reine Margot on DVD

By Naoki Urasawa
Publisher: Viz
ISBN: 978-1-59116-641-2

For once I'm not going to review a single book but an entire series. Naoki Urasawa's Monster is a manga title presented in those paperback-sized books that seem to now dominate the graphic novel section of bookstores. Each book runs to around 250 pages, and there are 18 volumes in all, so it's quite a read. I'm still rather dismissive of a lot of manga, finding much to be impenetrable, but I'd read on a number of occasions how superb this series was supposed to be so I bit the bullet and bought the first book. Based on the title alone, I was expecting some sort of supernatural horror, but what I ended up with was something entirely different.

Monster opens by following a young Japanese brain surgeon, Dr Tenma, working in Germany in the late 1980s. He's brilliant at what he does and that brilliance buys him the attention of the hospital director's daughter and the approval of the domineering director himself. Despite Tenma's brilliance the director is seeking more power and endeavours to take advantage of Tenma's brilliance while at the same time making decisions that put the more disadvantaged patients at a lower priority when it suits his political purposes. When Tenma is ordered away from operating on a small boy who has been shot in the head to instead work on a different emergency that better suits the director's ambitions, Tenma refuses. He saves the boy, the other patient dies, the director is furious, and Tenma's privileged status is severely reduced, including the rejection of the director's daughter. But these are nothing to the horrors that await him. Unwittingly, Tenma's decision to operate on the boy have severe repercussions almost immediately when the hospital director is found poisoned and the boy (and his traumatised twin sister, also in the hospital) disappear.

A decade later and the shadow of those events still hang over Tenma's life. Events begin to repeat themselves and suspicion falls on Tenma who has both the motive and the opportunity, and yet Tenma knows he's innocent and his determination to find out exactly what is going on leads him to a harrowing and bewildering discovery. This discovery reaches far back into Germany's past, involving the sinister indoctrination of children, twisted psychological experiments and murder. Tenma is forced to go on the run and must reveal the dark conspiracy to save himself and protect so many others.

Monster is a masterpiece - a finely interwoven thriller, a complex but brilliant story, a fine array of well developed characters, and some of the most glorious artwork I've seen in a graphic novel in a long time. It's black and white throughout, but illustrated with such detail and precision, and with a movie director's eye for setting the scene and carrying the story forward, that it brings an enormous sense of realism and drama to the proceedings. If you've ever read Cerebus by Dave Sim with those amazingly beautiful finely-lined backgrounds by Gerhard then you'll know exactly what I mean.

This is a mammoth read, but it's absolutely well worth it. An instant classic for its scope, its scale and its consistency, it has picked up a hoard of awards and been praised around the world. A rare and engrossing read indeed.

And if you liked that: Urasawa is already and good way through his next epic, 20th Century Boys

By Roger Leloup
Publisher: Cinebook
ISBN: 978-1-84918-041-2

This is the fifth Yoko Tsuno offering from Cinebook, a series about a Japanese electronics engineer who gets tangled up in all manner of mysteries. This particular tale involves Yoko travelling to Hong Kong and coming face-to-face with a sea monster in the fragrant harbour separating Hong Kong island from Kowloon. Her tenacious personality is determined to get to the bottom of the encounter, leading her to discover genetic experimentation and a second mighty beast of an altogether different nature.

The whole story takes place before the handover to China, and as someone who has seen Hong Kong first-hand, the artwork is superb, capturing the crowded skyline on the city in fine detail, and incorporating many aspects of daily Hong Kong life.

It's a straight-forward adventure yarn with a definite appeal for younger female audiences, although that doesn't mean for a moment that this is intended just for girls. With its themes of friendship, scientific deduction and life-threatening danger there's something for everyone. Yoko is a strong, independent character who uses logic and reason throughout the story, rather than brute force, to do the right thing. This makes it somewhat refreshing to read and she's certainly not a role model you can object to.

And if you liked that: Take a peek at Blake & Mortimer

By Mézières & Christin
Publisher: Cinebook
ISBN: 9781849180382

As anyone who has ever sat down in front of an original Star Trek episode will tell you, Science Fiction does date awkwardly. As a society we're just not great at spotting those technological breakthroughs that transform our lives, and why should we? I'm, of course, ignoring the episode when Scotty upsets Spock by a post on his Facebook page.

This is the first of Cinebook's English reproductions of the classic and highly regarded Valerian series, with this particular title first seeing print in 1976. It involves time travel to that distant space-time destination of 1986, eight millennia in to the past from where the story starts off, ten years into the future from the creators point of view, and a quarter of a century in our current past (I hope you followed that). So, naturally, there are a few awkward plot devices, technological oddities and silly bits that would arise from such imaginative speculation being viewed in hindsight, but despite this, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the book played out.

Valerian is an agent of the Terran Empire who guards against rogue time travellers ably assisted by Laureline. A prisoner, Xombul, has escaped confinement to 1986 with plans to pervert the future, but when Valerian pursues him he finds New York flooded by the encroaching ocean. This is the creators' vision of their possible future, remember, and surprisingly prophetic it is. There's a good balance of adventure, humour and sci-fi thrills, and although, looking back, we can judge the fiction against the reality that came to pass, the story is strong enough to remain a good adventure yarn today. Certainly a book that's worthy of your attention.

And if you liked that: Try Clifton, also available from Cinebook