Valerian and Laureline Book 7: On The False Earths
Valerian and Laureline Book 7: On The False Earths, by Pierre Christin & Jean-Claude Mézières, Cinebook
EDGE OF Tomorrow, that Tom Cruise sci-fi movie had the actor reliving his life on a loop until the moment he can save the life of a damsel in distress. Put aside comparisons to Groundhog Day for a second and let us not forget that is has been strongly suggested that Pierre Christin & Jean-Claude Mézière's hit graphic novel series Valerian has been an inspiration to on a number of Hollywood blockbusters since Star Wars first appeared on the big screen.
The latest English translation of Valerian and Laureline was originally produced over on the continent back in 1977 as Sur Les Terres Truquees. The first half of the book is a fast truck through time as Valerian as soldier, adventurer, and explorer gives chase after artefacts and individuals only to find himself over and again killed by some misadventure or other. It offers some interesting locales and costume changes courtesy of Mézières’ art while Christin’s story up until this point has us quite excited, but obviously a little concerned about how our hero’s being reborn and what his eventual fate may be.
With the second part of the book events slow down as they focus on Laureline, on board her spacecraft and accompanied by Jadna, a female historian from Galaxity. There they have been viewing these past tragic events, for the spatio-temporal agent has been cloned many times over in an attempt to locate and apprehend a mysterious architect of replicate Earths. That these context heavy explanations are explained in an easy going manner is useful to the reader and prepares us for the final conflicts that must ensue, as Laureline attempts to save the real Valerine. Meanwhile, as this is going on, Jadna finds herself off on her own intellectual adventure with the alien who is at the root of all these problems - And I note that if this story itself was filmed you would find no better actors than Christine Baranski and Jim Parsons playing characters with similar personalities to those they do when appearing in The Big Bang Theory.
A strong romp through time and space, with danger, adventure and even a bit of humour along the way.
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