Book Review
Title: Chimera: Book One – The Righteous and the Lost
Author: Tyler Ellis
Genre: Graphic Novel
Rating: *****
Review: The premise of Chimera was interesting, it reminded me of Six of Crows crossed with Star Wars, basically, it is about a group of thieves that must navigate hostile worlds in the middle of an interstellar holy war in order to complete their mission. The opening to Chimera was great, we are introduced to siblings living in the desert with talking animals (I’m talking Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy type of talking animals) hunting bloodthirsty locust. While this seems absurdly strange it really seems to work.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the story, we learn that the group of 4 thieves includes the siblings Alice and Charlie and they are in possession of a very valuable item known only as the Chimera. Both Alice and Charlie have pasts that are briefly discussed. Alice has links to the supposed God and the seven priestesses as she was their former champion, however, we get more background on Charlie. He was part of the coalition, which was basically a forced labour camp, where he fell in love with Gideon. Gideon wants to leave the coalition, but this is treason and while Charlie tries to dissuade him, he eventually relents but they are caught. Charlie is given the choice between killing Gideon or both of them being killed and while we don’t know the choice Charlie made it seems pretty clear right now.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the story, we jump backward and forwards in the story-line to learn more about the characters and the how they all came to be in their current situation. So far, I have absolutely loved the group dynamic as it really reminds me of Guardians so much. There is also a lot of humor hidden within some of the more serious moments that really make you laugh.
As we approach the halfway mark in the story, the fight for the Chimera keeps the group moving trying to dodge both the Gods and the Conclave but we also know that there is a traitor among them and we have been trying to work out who it is. When the traitor is revealed and the motivation for the betrayal we begin to sympathise more and more about how the traitor has been forced into this position, but they haven’t abandoned their friends yet.
As we cross into the second half of the story, the group have encountered the conclave, but the God is on his way as well and they know the only way they are going to escape alive is fleeing as soon as they can. The fight between them is hard but the group manages to escape with their lives, but they temporarily lost the Chimera but now it is a race to get it back before it falls into the hands on the enemy.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the story, we are beginning to unravel the lies we have been told since the start of the story and it makes for some very interesting reading. However, my favourite point so far is that Charlie has befriended a baby bug from the Queen’s brood and it helps them from time to time. Seeing the truth revealed through a character who seemed important yet insignificant at the same time was beautiful as it is interspersed with snippets of past and currents event that have all lead to this point.
As we cross into the final section of the story, the confusing start to this story is long forgotten and we have become very attached to the characters and the way this volume ends really broke my heart and I will definitely be continuing on with this series. I really liked the LGBT rep in this story and I hope that Charlie gets another love interest in the series. My favourite character would be a tie between Russell and Charlie because of their backstories and personalities but I also liked Nymph, but she isn’t a key character though she does have some key scene. I highly recommend Chimera and I will be reading volume 2 as soon as I can.
Buy it here:
Paperback: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
I received this review copy from NetGalley
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