The Culture

This, remarkably slim, book collects issues 0-18 of the ongoing series. It is mainly written by Michael Avon Oeming (#0-6 co-written with Mike Carey) and mostly drawn by Mel Rubi. Again both creators are new to me and while I liked the art I found the writing was not to my liking.

The story starts with Sonja hunting down who she believes is the leader of a cult responsible for her rape and the death of her family. She discovers that the cult is more widespread than she first thought and she works though several cells before meeting their leader – a piece of a god made incarnate through an inhuman birth. But at the end of the book she finds that she has been tricked into killing this demi-god so that the old god can break through into the mortal plain.

I should have thought that this was great. It has the elements of typical swords and sorcery stories but somehow it left me a bit disappointed. I think that the quest element of the story drags on a bit much for me. The writing was a bit laboured at times with odd speech patterns that did not always seem to be consistent, did not necessarily add to the atmosphere and so had the effect of destroying my suspension of disbelief at times.

Interestingly there were two theories proffered for Sonja’s wearing of the chain mail bikini. First, as most of her opponents are male, the scantiness of her attire could act as a distraction and give her an edge in fights. The second, more dark, explanation is that being a victim of rape she wears what she does to attract abusers and so take revenge of a sort on them and maybe change their ways, if they survive an encounter with her.

While the volume brings a story arc to a close, it is only the start of a new quest to battle with the newly manifest god and his armies. Although I struggled a bit to keep reading, I’ll probably give a second volume a try but would be more keen if the writer changes or the action speeds up.