Alain Paris takes us on a journey into the icy past of Antarctica. A mystical world full of savage cannibals, strange magic and ancient beings from Atlantis that once ruled over the now frozen wasteland.
As always I will try my best to be spoiler free.
Art : Val, Notaro, Saverio Tenuta
Storyboards : Saverio Tenuta
Cover artist : Christian Højgaard
Antarctica 12,000 years ago — long before it becomes a frozen wasteland — is a thriving territory, divided into the kingdoms of Antarcia, Leng, and Valusia. When Antarcia’s first lady vows to kill Jaemon, the bastard son of King Abarugon, the mysterious Sozer foils the plot and carries the infant to safety. Bearing the mysterious mark of the Atlanteans, Jaemon must unleash his true potential and fulfill both his and the continent’s destinies.
Published by Humanoids.
French author Alain Paris puts together an action-packed story set atop the landscape of Antarctica that seriously intrigued me. He has created a world that may not be to dissimilar than others that we have seen. Although, it seriously has a heartbeat all it’s own.
The tale follows Jaemon, a boy who is saved just after birth from the ‘evil queen’. We follow him on his journeys as we discover his destiny and his origins and how they tie into the last survivors of the now lost Atlantis.
As I said, this was almost an epic. After the first two chapters the story begins a fast, inconsistent pace. Literally, in just a few panels, our hero Jaemon sets off to unite the tribes. Three or four panels later. He is returned with the tribes united and a wife who is pregnant. The third chapter continues this way and even a bit in the fourth. It almost felt as if when this story may have originally been presented, an editor said ‘sure, we will publish it but you have to tell it in this many pages’.Honestly, I would have preferred that this tale had been an ongoing series. It needed to be fleshed out much more. Paris created a whole land to pull from. Hopefully, we will see more from the Throne of Ice world. There are many more stories that can be told here. Alain Paris has definitely set it up that way and Throne of Ice barely scratched the surface what we could find in the unfrozen tundra of the worlds largest continent.
The world of ancient Antarctica is captured beautifully by the books artists Val and Notaro. Minor spoiler warning. I can only assume that the way Throne of Ice ends, it is a precursor to civilized life on the rest of the planet. That said, you can see many other cultures of earths history blended into the style that makes up the tribes and kingdoms of Antarctica. I do not know if this was planned. Regardless, it adds a nice element to the book.
With the graphic nature of violence and nudity in the book. (and there is a bit) I have to say it is very tastefully done and doesn’t distract from the overall sense and flow of the story. Nor is it glorified like it is in most tales of this nature. A particular HBO series comes to mind.
I am going to give Throne of Ice a 3 out of 5 on the Banana Scale. Even though the story is captivating, it loses it’s steam mid way through and has very blunt ending. Like I said, this could have been an epic but just fell short of the mark. Either way, I would love to see more of this world.
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