Second volume of Siegfried saga. This one is concentrated on Brunhilde as a background of Siegfried's journey to the mythical Land of Men. Followed by Mime, the Nibelungenian (I hope this is correct phrase :)) Siegfried finally enters the Land of Mist and starts on the path toward final confrontation with diabolical Fafnir. And [as I said] in the background there conflict between The Law (aka Odin) and his insubordinate daughter, so sad and emotional, not unlike opening pages of the story in volume 1. Odin starts to understand that he is losing more and more because of his scheme for defeating Fafnir. And so we find him standing on the precipice - how far is he ready to go to prevent the Rhein's Gold from controlling even him, The Law?

As always art is pure joy for eyes. Interspersed with story pages are magnificent two page sets of Odin and Valkyries, and incredible fantasy landscapes. Art is just incredible and it left me speechless as was case with other volumes.

Highly recommended to fans of epic fantasy and fine art, ( )

1610 ( )

I have a small fascination with Der Ring des Nibelungen. I read a book version in a comparative lit class. I listened to the entire opera on tape/CD. I watched The Met performance via PBS. Every time, I find something new and interesting about the story.

This version is exception. The art is stunning. It's a requirement to read the back notes from from the artist. ( )

This graphic novel/comic has some Norse Gods intervention into Siegfried's life as he tries to find his way in the world and on his quest to fight a dragon.

The graphics are highly detailed adding to the story line and characters. They also add a crisp edge to much of the feel of the story.

While the narrative is a bit formulaic, the humor and emotional relationships between the characters help to distinguish this version from others.

Overall, an interesting read. ( )

As mindblowing as the previous volume, The Valkyrie introduce us to a more calculating and cunning immortal character who watched Siegfried's journey as he goes from the past. In the beginning, Siegfried has successfully renew his father's blade but in the process it destroyed Mime's forest abode. Unable to ignore his destiny, Siegfried decided to venture out of the forest with or without Mime's help. Due to Mime's lies about Siegfried's past, Siegfried became increasingly distant while Mime regretted now that the boy he had raised was long gone. However the main focus of this book was the Valkyrie that have been a silent witness to everything that happened in the first book. She was one of Odin's daughter who are instrumental to Siegfried's heroic destiny but she was seeking a forest's witch advice about the future and what her choice would come to be.

The first volume focus more on the legend while in this book, the characterizations were given more priority as we became acquainted with the Valkyrie. Still as elusive as the Gods themselves, we're shown the desperation of whatever decisions that lead the characters to where they are now. The flow of the story is quite confusing as it was like the Inception of Norse mythology.

Since I was reviewing a low quality ARC instead of the real thing, I couldn't quite completely engrossed by the pixellated artwork and the fact that I was missing a couple of pages from the book itself didn't actually give me enough perspective on the book as a whole. I might in the future, will try to obtain the real volume of the book. But from what I have received, the volume focus on more descriptive scenery of the world Siegfried lived in. There were hints of things far bigger was at stake by the choices made by both Siegfried and Valkyrie.

It is a satisfying volume but a bit unnerving and disconnected as it was from another point of view. As a transition to the third volume, I couldn't quite find myself having those moment of enlightenment with the whole fantastic mysticism and allure that I get from the first book. I felt the story arc somehow didn't make sense and at times, pointless at the end. Generally, I definitely will be looking forward to the third volume now more than ever.

The ARC is provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )