 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | TOKYOPOP UK | | | ▪ | AUTHOR / ART: | | SUNAO YOSHIDA / THORES SHIBAMOTO | | | ▪ | FORMAT: | | WESTERN / B&W | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 182 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | T | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 08/14/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 09/30/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | SANDRA SCHOLES |
Vampires Malice and Millis corner young girl Sasha, who is frightened, looking nothing more than a sitting duck waiting to be murdered by them, though Sasha is relieved to have a rescuer. A stranger who promises to help her, but can he aid her against them? The two find out who the stranger is and when they discover he is sent by the vatican to put an end to the vampire threat tormenting the city, the two vampires laugh in the face of the stranger, but when he tells them he is a krusnik, a special kind of vampire who drinks the blood of vampires, they are not so cocky anymore. Father Abel Nightroad arrives at Istavan Central Station, luggage in hand, wishing he were somewhere much better than this, which was more welcome. Abel is there on business though and meets sister Esther Blanchette, and a strangely enigmatic man named Gyula. Settling down at the Saint Matthias Church thanks to the hospitality of Bishop Vitez, Abel wonders if he did not make a mistake coming there and feels his superiors tricked him into venturing there alone with no way of knowing where he was and no knowledge of how dangerous a place it might be. All Able knows is that he feels like a real fish out of water in this new town.
He has already met the notorious Gyula Kadar, the Marquis of Hungary. His clan have great influence in the town though the history of his dead wife leaves him harbouring a deep grudge against the Terrans who he believes are to blame. Abel is amazed at how much hatred Gyula has toward them, but he must not show how he feels about him as there might be hell to pay. Sunao and Thores make a great team on this novel, the first volume in a series that cover Abel Nightroad's journeys and life. There is the same amount of humour and cameraderie a reader would expect of a Sunao novel. With Abel and Esther as well as other charctrs in the book, but there is the nice touch of the characters getting into all kinds of problems giving the reader more of what they want. The novel picks up on one of the early stories of Gyula Kadar and the burden he has to bear of his wife being murdered due to her relationship with him in the town. His hatred of the Terrans makes him a villain of the plot, yet some would argue he was hurt, sensitive at her death and wanting revenge on her murder. So Gyula is not a normal textbook enemy in this novel. The story is full of references to place names in the world of Trinity Blood, namely Istavan, which gets mentioned mostly in this. Sunau has kept the book true to the graphic novels series, making the story interesting as well as shocking in places. Thores's artwork, mainly inked interior black and white plates in various intervals in the book are both illuminating and humorous, enhancing the overall look of the novel in a way that will be refreshing to the reader. Extras are at the end of the story in the form of a map of the world of Trinity Blood, complete with marked areas and place names, black and white plates of father Nightroad and sister Esther, with poetry and mini posters of other manga novels.
IN SUMMARY:
Trinity Blood: The Star of Sorrow is one hell of a book - deep, gripping and with art that defies belief. |
