eBook Empire: A visual novel (Berkley/Windhover books) download

Fans of graphic novels and Samuel Delany alike will love this!

One of the best graphic novels en history. Incredible work between Chaykin and Samuel Delany. Chaykin is a pioneer in the graphic secuence in comics. A true classic!!!!!

"Fighting for her freedom and her life, a woman rages! The boy she had thought, for a moment, might be her saviour has abandoned her for the stars. Her friend fights beside her. But Qrelon knows the fight is hers alone."

"Wyrn's face expanded on the screen, almost as rageful in its fear as Loptix's was fearful in its rage. With a sudden wrench that obliterated both men from her mind, Qrelon kicked out at her captor!"

Now how much would you pay?

/Empire/ is both a groundbreaking graphic novel, and a potential cult classic of bad writing. It is allegedly written by Charles "Chip" Delany, who is a master of the English language. Was the text for the graphic novel ghostwritten? Is it a subtle parody of mass-market adventure novels and an angry jab at their readers? Or were there just too many drugs available in the 1970s?

The opening narrative dismisses common Dune-ish space-opera notions of galactic empires comprising a few plots and a few characters: "Webbing some three thousand stars, each star with two to ten worlds, each world no less complex than our own, is what might be called (if the term has any meaning extended over something so immense) Empire."

Empire immediately plunges into a caricature of just such a story. It has 7 named characters; and they rush around the galaxy and bump into each other by chance on different planets several times per day. The heroine, Qrelon, not only leads the increasingly-successful rebellion against the oppressive Kunduuke empire... she /is/ the rebellion. She has one follower. Qrelon is travelling the galaxy, collecting pieces of a powerful artifact that will destroy the Kunduuke. But not a fantasy artifact. A science artifact! Because it's science fiction.

She is pursued across the galaxy, not by a coordinated, giant military organization, but by the two security officers who accidentally bump into her in the first scene while en route to "the Kunduuke conference". (Probably similar to the annual Human conference we have here on Earth.)

The heroes escape and fly to another planet, where they follow a seldom-used secret passage out into the desert and are immediately ambushed by desert pirates, who have probably been skulking behind the sand dunes for years waiting for somebody to use that passageway. But it's okay; their leader is a personal friend of Qrelon. At that moment, a luxury spaceship full of tourists happens to land next to them. The desert pirates ignore it. The two security officers from the first planet appear out of nowhere and chase our heroes. Wyrn (hero number two) flees onto the tourist ship, and bumps into his old friend from Eyrth, who also knows the two security officers, and recounts a long adventure involving them that somehow happened in the time between when Wyrn left him on earth about one hour ago, jumped onto a spaceship and raced immediately here with those same security officers chasing him.

They fly off again and are attacked by space pirates - but it's okay; their leader is a personal friend of Qrelon. Plus, during the fight, Hero #2 accidentally bumped into one of the 7 pieces of the artifact that were scattered across the galaxy. This turns out to be due to some scheme of named character #3 (the one who showed up by chance in scene 1).

They land on another planet for an infodump from the preserved brain of a dead man, who somehow knows things no one else knows that have happened on distant planets since he died. We also learn that this vast, ancient, galaxy-spanning Empire was created by... one of the two security officers who is chasing them, who was also the friend of the dead-brain man! Just then, those two security officers burst in and start shooting.

Our heroes leave behind their "reluctantly wounded" comrades (nameless, and never otherwise mentioned or depicted), and blast off for the planet with the last fragment. Within a few steps of their landing site, they run into a secret conference of world leaders, being run by named character number 3 from scene 1. The Empire had decided to break it up, and by chance chose to send the same two security officers who had been chasing our heroes all this time (one of whom founded the empire).

At the inevitable hero-villain confrontation at the heart of the empire's homeworld, Qrelon stands next to a lever that will magically, I mean scientifically, kill her companion and save the Kunduuke empire she has been trying to destroy. The empire-creating security officer villain shouts: "Pull it, woman! If the Meta-Max reaches the heart of fire, Ice will topple outwards and the boy will live! Seize the lever and crush him and the Meta-Max... and the Kunduuke triumphs! Pull it, I tell you!" To the heroine. Who he knows has been trying to destroy the Kunduuke all along. While he stands next to the lever without pulling it himself.

I will not reveal the ending, to avoid spoiling it for you.

Chaykin and Delany are individually within the first rank of storytellers, visual and verbal respectively. This joint effort combines the best of both artists.

It's a swashbuckling story of the classic sort. A powerful device has been hidden, in pieces, across the width of the rapacious empire. Qrelon, whose planet was destroyed to feed the empire's greed, leads a small band of rebels. She and they risk everything to collect the pieces of that device. Once complete, it will be the one force that can destroy the planet-sized computer that drives the empire. Wryn, a student of archaeology, is thrust into the conflict in a very personal way: an imperial commander selects him, at random, as the one to execute the rebel leader. At the risk of his own life, he lets her escape. Then, the chase is on.

OK, the story is a lot like a lot of others. Christmas trees, the trunk, branches, and needles, are a lot like each other, too. In both cases, uniqueness and special meaning come details that furnish it, not from the main structure of it. Delany's narrative details distinguish Empire, and Chaykin's iconic imagery brings it to life. The art is a bit rough and sketchy at times, but that's a matter of style rather than ineptitude. His figures are bold and posed, without seeming static. Somehow, he manages to make every panel look like the most important one in the story. Once you've developed an eye for his style, you'll see how the younger generation of comic artists have learned from him.

It's a great story in a great presentation. The 70s printing from the Byron Preiss branch of Berkeley Publishing is hard to find now. It's long overdue for a reprint - stories inevitably pick up traces of the time in which they're written, but this one is still strong and fresh.

//wiredweird

This is one of the first "modern" graphic novels, and a GREAT addition to the Space Opera genre.

The art is early Howard Chaykin, and he is laying down a heady mix of European Metal Hurlant-inspired style with his own vision. The story is classic Delany space opera. He *can* right insightful and complex narratives and themes - don't look for them here. This is a homage to pulp SF, and as it came out soon after Star Wars (work had begun on this graphic novel by Delany before the film's release), the audience was certainly there for this retro romp.

This is FUN stuff, and rather unique in look and flavour, even 35-years later.

Back when Metal Hurlant (Heavy Metal Magazine)was first appearing in the US, Sam Delaney and Howard Chaykin teamed up to give us this unique blend of textual and visual storytelling.

This is a smart, fast-paced piece of space opera with plenty of substance and originality.

I'm not a big fan of Chaykin's style (I like more detail in the hardware designs...) but this book is full of interesting imagery and clever layout.

Worth hunting down, if you've any interest in Delaney, Chaykin, or Space Opera.

This rare graphic novel is just what I'd expect out of the creative genius Samuel R. Delany. It's sexy, exciting, and most Delany-esque extremely mind opening. It's a great read for any fan of Delany and those who are not.

A classic from my youth