This is volume II of the New Age fantasy epic of French artist Marc Bati, a disciple of Jean “Moebius” Giraud. In volume 1 a bumbling wizard released an evil entity, the Dark Star, into a world of elves, trolls, and dragons; it was revealed that techno-observers were monitoring the planet’s evolution on behalf of an advanced galactic civilization, and we met the mysterious girl Aurelys, who had an unknown relationship with the planet’s grid of mystic crystals.

In this volume techno-observer Lorcan, his elven sidekick Altor, and Aurelys flee the troll army into the realm of the burrowers. When pursued even there Aurelys is able to transport herself and her companions to safety on the mystic Unicorn Island. Meanwhile Lorcan is captured by the Dark Star and his superiors at galactic central must decide how to address the Dark Star’s intrusion.

This is very light fantasy with no dark corners. Although the author alludes to deep meanings in his post-script these cannot be much more than a theory of purpose-driven Gaia-ism and an anti-war sensibility. There’s no character development and it’s obvious that the magical Aurelys, awakener of crystal magic, will easily overcome the techno-evil of the “Dark Star,” a big-haired drama queen who rants about global domination. The pluses are GORGEOUS artwork (despite some anatomical awkwardness) and a highly pleasant imagination in action.

The negatives aren’t much more than that this is the comix equivalent of Yanni or Andreas Vollenweider, pleasant and inoffensive (there’s no sex or graphic violence.) As is typical for euro-comix this isn’t a stand-alone volume, and it’s a pretty short chapter at 48 pages.

The epic has progressed to seven volumes but only the first three have been translated into English. The tale continues in “Aurelys Secret.” The latest volume, available from Dargaud, the publisher, is “Les aventuriers du trou blanc.”
Rating: 4 / 5