Saga, Vol. 8

“Saga, Vol. 8” is a short intense episode in the ride that is the Saga world. In this episode abortion is the predominant theme/topic/issue discussed and while it might not seem as a good fit with a graphic novel, I thought they did a good job of humanizing and giving voice to both sides of the argument for and against. Just when you think you’re going to get some resolution to the myriad conflicts that have been sown throughout the previous 7 volumes, the last scene in the book leaves some MAJOR foreshadowing. What is frustrating is that the foreshadowing leaves a lot to be interpreted. My wife and I waged a debate on how this was going to turn out (maybe this was the idea all along?).

One difficult element about this volume is that I don’t exactly remember what happened in the last and there’s not a lot of recapping of previous events to catch me up. The first three quarters of the book deals with the principal cast of characters which helped me reestablish the context for where they are and what they’re doing. Hazel continues to narrate and now that she’s older she’s becoming a much more fleshed out character, which is a nice addition to an already intriguing cast.

The last quarter of the book leaves us with Ghus, Squire, and the two journalists. To be honest, I couldn’t tell you how all three ended up in the place they did and why they were in the situation they were. This was one of the problems with having such a rich, complex story is that some of the secondary plots don’t immediately impress themselves on your memory so the next time they pop up, it makes you want to reach for the previous volume to refresh. Which in retrospect may be why the author is doing this, so you have to buy the entire series and not just stand-alone volumes. Well done, Mr. Vaughan!

I’m still invested in this series and each time I can get my hands on the latest volume it’s like visiting with old friends again. I’ve begun collecting the volumes and once I get them all I’m looking forward to a read through. If you’ve been reading the volumes as they’ve been published, I highly recommend that you continue with this series. It’s still engaging, entertaining, and just good reading.