The Guin Saga : The Seven Magi Volume 1

My first impression? What the hell is happening in this story? It jumps right into the action and doesn't give you any time to get to know the characters. That's what I thought until I realized that I picked up a copy of the continuing saga and not where the saga begins. Yeah. Sigh... The saga begins in a collection of novels which have been translated into English. Now that I know this, I do remember seeing the novels in the fantasy section of my local book store. I hadn't given it much thought as it had a picture of a panther and half naked jungle ladies on the cover. I mean seriously.. I was thinking "oh it's one of those novels". I've told you before how I judge books by their cover.

At any rate, I may never read the Guin saga novels.. or at least not the entire 100 Volume Saga (wtf?). But I will read the 2 & 3rd Volumes of this spin-off manga. The story in the manga is taken from a storyline originally published in the saga in 1980 where Guin is king of Cheironia and on a quest to save his kingdom from plague. Um.. there's a girl in chains throughout most of the novel.. there is a bit of action... mostly I was just confused until the end. It did get a little clearer on the last page. It's got a cliff-hanger type ending so I actually do wanna see what happens.

I really like the artwork in this series. It has a style all it's own and if I knew more about artistic style of manga, I'm sure I'd describe it here. Maybe I'll just post some pictures instead.