Frank Burns reviewed Grandville L'Intégrale by Bryan Talbot
Review of "Grandville L'Intégrale" on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Let's be clear here, this is only not a 5 star review because its a steampunk setting. That's just grumpy old me knocking a half mark off because I have 'issues' with that type of setting. Otherwise this was glorious.
I had a couple of the smaller graphic novels of this back in the day that went in the great 'skip dump' of 2015. I had a vague recollection of not being too impressed by them when I read them but as that was probably over a decade ago it was a different me. Today me was much more impressed.
I bought this on paper and it is a weighty tome indeed. Too heavy to actually hold comfortably. It had to be thumped on a table like a grimoire, most satisfyingly as well. As I still have limited room for paper books these days, this was a worthy use of …
Let's be clear here, this is only not a 5 star review because its a steampunk setting. That's just grumpy old me knocking a half mark off because I have 'issues' with that type of setting. Otherwise this was glorious.
I had a couple of the smaller graphic novels of this back in the day that went in the great 'skip dump' of 2015. I had a vague recollection of not being too impressed by them when I read them but as that was probably over a decade ago it was a different me. Today me was much more impressed.
I bought this on paper and it is a weighty tome indeed. Too heavy to actually hold comfortably. It had to be thumped on a table like a grimoire, most satisfyingly as well. As I still have limited room for paper books these days, this was a worthy use of some of that room.
This is pretty much a mash up of Sherlock Holmes and James Bond in an alternate history world where France won the Napoleonic wars. Oh, and the world is populated and ruled by anthromorphic animals. Humans exist, but only as a despised minority. It leans fully into the premise and is pretty much just a straight up action adventure. This is in contrast to Talbot's other work which tends to have more depth. Not a criticism at all. Sometimes a good old potboiler is just the ticket.
Highly recommended.