![]() Unfortunately, Valente has resorted to two methods of storytelling that I personally feel are very weak the laundry list and the info dump. When building a world this complex, it’s important to figure out the best way to convey the information. Which unfortunately, makes for a lot of visual noise on the page. Everyone has a lot of personality and they’re all really, really proud of themselves. On one hand, everything moves super-fast, the action is quick, and the characters are spazzy. In my opinion, this works both for and against the story. The art has a familiar style it’s Shonen Jump all the way without being Shonen Jump. The “infection” young wizard Melie has reminds me of the Chameleon character in Piers Anthony’s Xanth novels. Seth himself sort of reminds me of the protagonist from the Earthsea novels by the late Ursula le Guin. The fairy tale elements reminded me of Uprooted by Naomi Novak (although this was published first, there are European influence in both stories). ![]() And truthfully, there are some elements, or even tropes, that might feel familiar to anyone who reads fantasy novels. Even worse, Seth can barely control his monstrous powers! It’ll take more than brute strength-although it’ll take that too-to get Seth’s quest out of the boonies and into the big time!Īs you can see, there is a very rich world in play here in Radiant. Seth has big goals of defeating Nemeses, but first he must earn the trust of the very villagers he wants to protect-not an easy task when those who use magic are just as feared as the Nemeses they fight. Along with other wizards, he travels the world in search of Radiant, under the sinister eye of the Inquisition… But Seth longs for a quest that goes beyond the simple hunt for monsters. His apparent immunity led him to choose a path that seemed to be perfect-to become someone who hunts and fights the Nemesis. Like all wizards, he is an “infected”: one of the few living creatures that has survived contact with a Nemesis, creatures fallen from the sky that contaminate all they touch. Seth is an aspiring wizard living in a pastoral village under the watchful eye of his mentor. The world is overrun with monsters called Nemesis-and a young boy infected by them will stop at nothing to defeat them all! I can’t help but wonder if Valente wrote his original book in French and it was the translated to Japanese, and the English translation I’m reading is a Japanese translation from French, or the original French version, or… ![]() And truly, he has perfected it this book seriously looks and reads exactly like Japanese manga. He moved to Canada while writing the series and there perfected his manga-style art. Radiant is a 2013 manga that’s actually not Japanese! Writer/Artist Tony Valente is French, though his debut manga Radiant was in fact published in Japan in 2013. Nerdbot wants to thank to Viz Media for the early review copy of ‘Radiant’ Vol 1 by Tony Valente.
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