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The ground-level areas of the planet Demetria are toxic, so most people live on floating islands, each of which is governed by a Minister and specializes in a particular industry or type of work. Meridian, whose people specialize in building airships, is one such island. Meridian's Minister is Turos, and teenage Sephie is his heir. Turos' brother, Ilahn, is the Minister of Cadador.

A pair of gods (or something) decide to shake things up on Demetria by imbuing a pair of siblings with great powers: one with the power of destruction and one with the power of creation. They pick Turos and Ilahn, but the strain is too much for Turos and his heart gives out. Upon his death, his power is passed on to Sephie.

Ilahn has always been jealous of Turos and sees this as the perfect opportunity to take over Meridian and remake it as he sees fit. Sephie is initially naive and trusting but eventually realizes that she'll have to stand against her uncle if her people are to survive.

I found this and the second volume in a used bookstore and bought it primarily for the nostalgia aspect. I read it years ago, and all I could remember was thinking that the colors were pretty.

The colors were indeed pretty, but this was exhausting to read, and I ended up stalling partway through. Weeks later, I finally pushed myself to finish it. Although it did grow on me a little, eventually, I wouldn't be continuing on if it weren't for the fact that I already own the second volume.

There was a lot going on here: details about the world and its politics, a bunch of different characters and their relationships, the gods (or whatever they were) adding their own complications for their own reasons, the old lady who was maybe connected to those gods, etc. I'd have liked it a little more of it hadn't been for the "all-seeing gods imbuing unsuspecting humans with powers" aspect - grand-scale stuff like that kind of annoys me - but I'd still have had issues with how hard it occasionally was to follow what was going on. The characters weren't always drawn quite on model (the biggest offenders: Jad, who looked like every brown-haired guy ever, and his father, who looked like Ilahn), and different issues had different pencilers and inkers, so I had to put extra effort into keeping track of who everyone was.

Here's hoping volume 2 makes for more enjoyable reading.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

Book Review Template

Kesel, Barbara. Meridian: Flying Solo. Canada. 2001.

Genre:

Graphic Novel

Themes:

Female empowerment, fratricide, science fiction

Age / Grade Appropriateness:

Young Adults, adults. Age 16+

Awards:

None that I could find

Censorship Issues:

Violence (kills his brother), perhaps the graphic style (tight fitting clothes of comic characters).

Art style:

Old world style, with muted color palette. Characters are dressed in older looking costumes (definitely not futuristic).

Plot Summary:

Meridian is the story of Sephie. Sephie is the only daughter of Turos, the leader of the Meridian colony. In the world created by the comic, the surface of the planet is no longer livable, leaving colonies that exist on floating islands.
The novel opens with a discussion by some “supreme beings.” The beings are discussing the lack of conflict which fuels their existence. To this end, they decide to mix it up by giving special powers to two individuals, one good and one evil. Sephie represents the good power, while the bad is represented by her evil uncle Ilahn.
In the first few pages, the readers are introduced to the idyllic world of Meridian. This ideal is shattered when the special power is given to Turos, who is too weak from poison that his brother Ilahn had given him, dies from the power. The power is transferred to Sephie as her father dies. Unable to believe that her father is dead she seeks refuge with her uncle, not realizing how evil he truly is.
Slowly, she begins to realize the evil intentions of Ilahn, and decides to escape Ilahn’s home colony, but not before she and Ilahn begin to experiment with their powers. She escapes, but falls to her “death” after her uncle sends ships to catch her. Miraculously she survives her fall to the surface of the planet (due to her new found power, which she has no control over).
The novel, which is a collection of the first seven issues of an ongoing comic book series, ends abruptly; which is intended to make the reader continue with the series in the next issue.

Critique:

The novel is told, mostly, from the perspective of Sephie, a young woman thrust into the role of leadership of her father’s colony. The graphic style is appealing for teens and the female lead character should be identifiable for young women readers. As a book for a library collection, is would seem unusable if the library is not willing to invest in the entire collection. The abrupt ending was upsetting. It could not exist as a stand alone story, even as a short story, as there are no resolutions to any plot lines and the panels only exist to serve as setups for future issues. The use of a female lead is important and worthwhile and , as the chapter introductions tell us, the authors took great pains to refrain from representing Sephie as an Adult that happened to be only a teenager. They intentionally gave her appearance the qualities of a teenager, not an adult.

Curriculum Uses:

As stated before, the lack of any conclusions of the story, make it hard to argue for its inclusion in any library collection, unless they are willing to purchase the entire collection. If used for curriculum purposes, the novel is useful for showing female characters in positions of power, not one of submission prevalent in classical literature. ( )