In Review: Darwin's Diaries - Death of A Beast

Writer Sylvain Runberg returns from the future worlds of Orbital with Death Of A Beast, the second of the nineteen century set Darwin's Diaries with art from Eduardo Ocana and colours by Tariq Bellaoui and which follows directly on from the first Darwin book, The Eye Of the Celts.

Naturalist Charles Darwin is in Yorkshire investigating, at the request of the Prime Minister, the attacks on the workers at a new railway construction site. When the army kill the hitherto unknown beast, Darwin returns with Suzanne Dickinson, the daughter of landowner, to report on the events to her father while the corpse of the beast is prepared for transportation to London where it will be dissected.

However the body of a child brought into York shows the citizens that there is still a beast on the loose and they turn on the travelling druids who appeared around the same time as the first attacks. Defended by both the army and Darwin, the druids are advised to move on but instead their leader decides to summon up an evil beast to take revenge on the city. Shortly afterwards the wagon with the corpse of the first beast, and its armed guard, are viciously attacked.

The first part of Runberg's story in the previous book was intriguing with its slow build up interspersed with the hi-speed violence of the beast attacks as well as developing a darker side to Darwin that the reader was not expecting. This second book develops the ideas that were set out there, leading to a climax that is unexpected to say the least and which I cannot even really hint at without, perhaps, giving too much away. It would be worth pointing out, as in one of Cinebook's The Bellybuttons titles, the last page visually gives away what the plot has been building up to and so this is not a book that is safe to flick through before reading.

Yet Ocana's artwork and Bellaoui's colouring encourage flicking. The moody art and the sensitive colours do much to enhance this story as the mysterious beast attacks the wagon, viciously dispatching the guards over some half dozen virtually silent, but none the less engrossing, pages. Like The Eye Of The Celts before it, Death Of A Beast is gruesomely violent and lives up to the 15+ label that Cinebook have tagged it with. Yet Ocana's art works just as well for the fine upstanding Darwin visiting a feminist school during the day as well as for the darker side of his nature with a prostitute in an alley that night.

Darwin's Diaries - Death Of A Beast lives up to the high standards of its predecessor continuing as it does the intriguing plot line with some beautifully realised artwork.

• There are more details of Darwin's Diaries on the Cinebook website.

• There are more details of the French Darwin's Diaries books, Les Carnets De Darwin, on the Le Lombard website (in French). The third album in the series, Dual Nature, has just been released in France.

• The downthetubes review of Darwin's Diaries 1 - The Eye Of The Celts is here.

In Review: Darwin's Diaries - The Eye Of The Celts

From the writer of the science fiction series Orbital, Sylvain Runberg, comes the start of a new series from Cinebook, Darwin's Diaries. With art from Eduardo Ocana and colours from Tariq Bellaoui, the first diary entry is The Eye Of the Celts.

It is 1860 and naturalist Charles Darwin has achieved notoriety with his publication on evolution, enough that when a mysterious creature attacks workmen constructing a new railway in Yorkshire, Darwin is summoned to the Prime Minister and offered a lot of money to investigate. With Suzanne Dickinson, the daughter of the landowner where the attacks have taken place, Darwin begins his investigation of a clawed beast that is fast, strong and very vicious, cutting both men and horses to pieces and that appears to be unknown to science.

This is a very new book having only been published in France in 2010 as Les Carnets De Darwin - L'Oeil Des Celtes and, like Runberg's Orbital tales, it is a two parter story so the tale is not complete in this book. However the second book, Death Of A Beast, has already been published in France and is due next year in English so there is not long to wait for the conclusion.

Runberg takes the reality of the time and gives it a slight nudge to one side, taking it to a place similar to where, for instance, Queen Victoria was chased by a werewolf in Torchwood House. This is an intriguing story with a slow build up as the danger from the creature is spelled out and we discover Darwin's interest in cryptozoology which then leads us on to Yorkshire and the strong female character of Miss Dickinson. The quiet thoughtfulness of the investigation is punctuated by the sudden and violent attacks of the creature, while other plot threads such as the druid travellers, perhaps the reason for the book's title, and Darwin's nocturnal escapade are left hanging to be hopefully resolved in the second part.

The plot is complemented by Ocano's moody artwork which, along with Bellaoui's sensitively dark colours, make for a book that impresses at first glance before even reading any of the text. However it is worth pointing out that Cinebook list it as a 15+ title and it is certainly a graphically gruesome book dwelling as it does on the remnants of the creature's victims as Darwin and Miss Dickinson discuss the case.

Runberg displayed his story telling ability in the Orbital books and Darwin's Diaries - The Eye Of The Celts shows that he is equally at home in the past as the future while Ocano's moody artwork does much to enhance the mood of the story. This is an impressive start to a new series and I look forward to the second and concluding part of the story.

• There are more details of Darwin's Diaries on the Cinebook website.

• There are more details of the French Darwin's Diaries books, Les Carnets De Darwin, on the Le Lombard website (in French).

In Review: Orbital - Nomads and Ravages

Orbital is Cinebook's longest running science fiction series after the Worlds of Aldebaran books and which, like the Largo Winch books, tells each story over two books. The second pair of Orbital books, Nomads and Ravages, originally published in 2009 and 2010 bring this series by writer Sylvain Runberg and artist Serge Pelle up to date in with all four French albums now having been translated into English.

In Nomads a galactic celebration of the ending of the Human/Sandjarr war is due to be held in Kuala Lumpar and Interworld Diplomatic Office (IDO) agents Caleb from Earth and Mezoke from Sandjarr have been assigned to oversee security for the celebrations. After an incident between local Malaysian fishermen and the nomadic alien Rapakhun, tensions rise but there is also something that is killing people and aliens alike and no one knows what it is. In Ravages the fatal contamination moves from the swamps into the city and Caleb and Mezoke can only prove the innocence of the Rapakhun in the mounting death toll by finding out exactly what is causing the mysterious deaths.

The original pairing of Orbital books, Scars and Ruptures, felt somewhat derivative - the pair of intergalactic diplomatic police officers being reminiscent of the Jedi pairing in The Phantom Menace, who were sent to a human colony world overrun by innumerable vicious creatures being reminiscent of Aliens. While the Confederation and IDO's political intrigue still feels like the Republic and Jedi from the newer Star Wars movies, this pair of books feels much fresher with the Indonesian setting feeling almost as alien at times as some of the alien races that have come to Earth.

Runberg's plot initially sets off in the expected direction before taking a few twists plus a major excursion off-world before presenting an alien menace that would have many artists cap their pens in despair at its lack of visual identity. This is a menace that is shown on the cover of the second book, but the reader will probably not even notice it without having read the story first.

Yet it is Pelle's alien creature designs that are the standout for me in these books, the Rapakhun in particular. The cover for the first books with its IDO flyer surrounded by flying Rapakhuns is striking in its simplicity while the second cover is more figurative, showing a scene that isn't technically part of the story, but still remains an attention grabber. Pelle's muted colour art is a delight to look at throughout the two books from the stark clean lines of his cityscapes via the dynamic ocean chases to the moody gloom of the jungles.

Orbital's combination of diplomacy and adventure in Nomads and Ravages may not be quite to everybodies tastes, but the mixture of alienness and familiarity in Runberg's story combined with Pelle's lovely art make this mission in the series well worth a look.

There are more details of all the English language Orbital books on Cinebook's website.

There is more information on the original French language Orbital books on Dupuis' website (in English).