Milo’s World v2: Into the Swamps We Go

The first storyline concludes in this second volume.  It’s gray and murky out there, people…

Previously in Milo’s World

I reviewed Volume 1:

Everything You Need To Know

This book spells it all out for you.  Remember how the first book played coy with a lot of things?  Remember how Milo had no idea what was going on, and there was a big bad guy sorcerer type behind everything?

After this volume, Milo knows it all and the big battle against the sorcerer happens.

I was a little surprised at how fast Richard Marazano was willing to give up all the secrets.  Maybe he wanted to get everything out in case the series didn’t last past volume 2?

While it is nice to know everything now, this volume feels a bit like it’s cheating.  Giving up all the secrets so soon removes a lot of the mystery and initial exploration from the book.

That said, there are four more books in the series so far to read.  Obviously, Marazano has more stories to tell.  Perhaps he needed to get this origin bit out of the way as fast as possible to get to the good stuff.  That’ll be something to look forward to in the following books.

But volume 2, on its own and as its own thing, feels a bit like a letdown after the excitement of the first, to be honest.

Sit Back and Let Me Tell You a Story

There are a lot of explanations in this book.  The story stops in two or three places for knowledgeable characters to explain to Milo how everything works.

It turns out to be a lot of what you’d naturally suspect after volume 1: Milo’s father is involved.  Milo is something of a “Chosen One.”  The villain is a sorcerer with a lot of power who will be difficult to defeat.

It’s just that the forward momentum from the first book dies several violent deaths in this second book for the sake of exposition.  It’s good to flesh out the world, but it does feel slower and less exciting than the first book.

And then the book ends on a fight between good and evil that involves them shooting light out of their hands, having that light meet in the middle, and having a big old game of inverse tug of war.

Character Exploration

With that said, there’s a lot of opportunity here for the characters to grow.  Milo meets people who are very important to him and learns a lot about his life and his parents’ lives.  That can’t help but transform him.  His relationship with Valia is always fun to watch, almost like antagonistic siblings.  But then there are times when he feels a little whiny and lost.

Valia has a lot of character progression here, too. We learn about her parents and how she has to fight against their control while trying to be her own person. She has her moments of being a teenager and having to come to grips with certain unfortunate facts.  She’s in a bad spot, we learn in this book, and they only get worse before they get better. There’s also a bit of a twist that doesn’t ring completely true to me, but maybe I just need to reread everything with it in mind to see the hints.

While the characters were just cute at first, we learn enough about them in this book to see more nuance and more of the reasons for the way they act.  (Beyond just being kids.)

The Murkiness of Milo’s World

The first book was beautiful.  It started in a picturesque village with a lake and some woods and some lovely bridges and walking paths.  It transitioned to the land on the other side of the lake with its cute village.  The sun shone down on all of them. The book had a verdant glow.

In this book, the characters have a quest to go confront the sorcerer. They spend half the book in a murky swamp to get to him. It’s gray and featureless and foggy and, yes, murky.  It’s not appealing.  That’s followed by a trip to the Sorceror’s, which is also dark and featureless past its long walkway and cave-like atmosphere.  At some point while reading this book, I just wanted to look out the window and absorb some sunlight.

It’s not that Ferreira’s art got suddenly worse for this book.  His character work is just as good, and he tells the story well. It’s just that the material doesn’t give him too much to work with.  When the characters gather for a meal and some exposition on the beach, that’s about as scenic as things get.  A lot of this book is spent with talking heads telling each other stories.

Recommended?

Sorta. Less so than the first volume.  You need this one to get the complete story, and for that it’s worth it. But it’s something you sit through because it has to be done, not because there are exciting twists in the story revealed at the right time.

The first book is just more interesting to me.  The art is more interesting, the story holds more wonder because it hasn’t all been explained, and the action feels more earned. In this book, it’s a battle of magics, which always bores me.

Like I said before, there are four more books in the series, each pair telling a new story.  I’m interested in seeing what directions they go in next, and am keeping my fingers cross that they’re as curious and colorful and exciting as the first book.

— 2018.075 —

Buy It Now

Please note: The edition that Amazon/Comixology sells contains both volumes 1 and 2 together to tell the complete story.

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