Eh, this one wasn’t quite as compelling as the first volume, and I’m scratching my head why. Maybe because the parts with giant naked alien monster were just too gross for me. Well, I did appreciate that there’s more backstory here, and setup for some interesting things to happen in upcoming volumes, for sure. Alana and Marko are still in their wooden spaceship, now joined by Marko’s parents- which is super awkward at first. They’re not at all keen on the fact his partner is a winged female. Very abruptly Marko runs off on a rescue mission with his mother- to get back the pink ghost babysitter, who was banished to another planet by magic. So there’s lots of interactions there where Marko and his warrior mum patch things up and discuss, while confronting the grotesque giant alien monster and gathering information. Meanwhile back in the tree spaceship, Alana is having prickly conversations with Marko’s dad, but slowly they grudgingly accept and even start to feel appreciative of each other. It helps to have a cute baby in the picture. Also that Marko’s father turns out to be a brilliant tailor who makes a new wardrobe for Alana on the spot. Flashbacks to Marko’s own childhood. More flashbacks to how Marko and Alana first met. Really interesting subplot about a romance novel Alana is obsessed with reading- something none of the other fighters get at all, ha. Meanwhile, in other parts the headhunter with the lie-detecting cat ends up meeting Gwendolyn- who was once Marko’s fiancée, and together they manage to free the slave girl from the crazy alien brothel- at a price. Then the details about the romance novel became more than just some little interesting tidbit on Alana’s personality- one of the TV head royalty weirdos tracks down the author of said novel because rumors are rife that the book is an underhand commentary on the current war- which nobody in power likes. The scene where TV-head guy confronts the author about his intentions in writing it (of which he had absolutely none) is hilarious. On to the next!
Borrowed from the public library.