This collects two issues of the Talk-Stories miniseries and #31-35 of the regular series. The two Talk-Stories issues are pretty good, nice little snapshots of two of our protagonists before the war; I especially liked the one about Kippa the fox arcanic, of course. But then we're back to the regular series, and unlike volumes four and five which kind of worked, this one is again an aimless blob of confusing politics, overcomplicated mythology, and too many characters. When this series is over, maybe I'll reread the whole thing in one go and like it more then, but for now, I really need to give up on it.

Not much new to say about this one in terms of what I liked and didn't like: beautiful art, complex characters and story are pros, strangely slow pace juxtaposed with blurry action scenes that end too quickly are cons. This particular volume felt like it had a lot of housekeeping: several long-foreshadowed meetings took place and some new ones were set up for the future. And alas, there is almost no Ren.

Despite my grumps about pacing, the highlight of the volume for me were the first two chapters of "talk stories" that take place in Ravenna while Moriko and Kippa heal (surprisingly quickly). Kippa shares a story of her life in the refugee camps, a glimmer of happiness, and gets Maika to open up about one of the happiest times of her childhood. True, neither contributes much to the overall story...but the respite from violence and darkness was welcome.

Regular-plot-wise, Maika meets her Aunt and erstwhile girlfriend the Baroness at last. Strategic use of her allies--Zinn and her Ancient grandmother--keeps her alive long enough to face another human attack, this time supplemented with weapons developed by Maika's father...which aren't quite as targeted as grandmother Wolf probably wanted (her involvement has been so telegraphed in the past volume that I'm not counting this as a spoiler). Maika uses the fragments of the mask to merge with Zinn into a super-soldier capable of controlling the situation...and facing off against the team of Ancients that her father sends to help the fleeing survivors of Ravenna.

Throughout the story we get a few pages of check-ins with key political players, people we apparently shouldn't forget about just yet, characters who really feel like they ought to have had an entire issue by now, and the mother superior of the witches as she tries to access one of the Shaman-Empress's labs. Lots of moving parts, which I love...I just wish it didn't take quite so long for all the dots to connect.

Four issues that felt in large part like filler... I love this series, but do wish the pacing was a little more brisk. And that Ren would return. I miss that necromancer cat!

All that said, I continue to love Maika's character arc. The final pages of this volume indicate that it's got a lot more evolution ahead. I look forward to it playing out...probably over many years, at the pace the series is going. ( )

4.5 stars, the best epic fantasy I've read since LOTR. HBO should be making a series out of this instead of all those GOT spinoffs. Maybe Amazon or Apple will see its potential. For me this story has gotten better and better with each volume, Ms. Liu continues to surprise me with each passing volume and I just love Sana's artwork it surely enhances the story and is beautiful enough to stand by itself if the storytelling wasn't as strong as it is. ( )

intricate and deep. still the most realized graphic novel masterpiece of the last ten years, marrying the complex dark fantasy worldbuilding of Marjorie Liu to Sana Takeda's unforgettable artwork. ( )

Series Info/Source: This is the 6th volume in the Monstress graphic novel series. I bought this book.

Thoughts: At this point in the series I am not even going to try to rehash what is happening here, there is just so much going on. This volume starts with some cute stories about Kippa and Maika and their childhood and then goes back into the main story. War is still going on between the various races and countries. When threatened Maika and Zinn undergo yet another insane transformation. Maika is also reunited with Baroness Tuya.

I am going to be completely honest and say that I didn’t follow some of what was going on here. It’s been awhile since I read the previous books and the story has gotten incredibly complicated. Still, I at least got the gist of what’s happening and did remember a good portion of the previous story.

The illustration is magnificent and a joy to look at. Even without remembering what was going on completely, I still enjoy this complex epic fantasy and some of the revelations here. It’s well done and this is a very strong book in this series; I enjoyed it a lot. At some point, when this series is over, I will have to sit down and read all of these books one after another so I can get all the subtleties of this world and its politics.

My Summary (5/5): Overall this continues to be an incredibly well done (and complex) fantasy graphic novel series. The illustration is top notch and the story is interesting, the characters had a lot of growth in this volume. I am eager to see what happens in Vol 7 when it releases. I would recommend this series to those who enjoy complex graphic novel dark fantasy series with beautiful drawing. This is a bit hard to follow at points but I am still enjoying it. ( )