PENULTIMATE QUEST

On a mysterious island, three strangers-turned-friends find themselves in an endless loop of fighting monsters; can they find a way to break the cycle?

Harald, James, and Alma spend their days battling ferocious beasts in endless dungeons on an island they cannot seemingly depart. For the most part, the trio enjoys their group dynamics and the fighting, finding gamelike satisfaction in always having another foe to defeat. But soon, Harald begins to question the nature of their reality; could there be something more to this life than an interminable circuit of creation and destruction? Is there a way off this strange island? The trio finds that they must confront their lives and the choices they made prior to their arrival on the island. Brown’s clever mashup smashes genre constraints, rendering this akin to It’s a Wonderful Life told through a delightfully snarky gamer’s lens, absent Christmas but heavy on the monsters. The full-color illustrations add a rich cinematic quality to the already nuanced storytelling. At times,the storyline can be demanding, with its intricate plotting and frequent and dizzying temporal jumps, but for all of its seeming recapitulation and futility, a heartwarming (but decidedly not cloying) conclusion awaits and should satisfy even the most cynical readers. The three main characters appear white; secondary characters encompass a broader spectrum of skin tones.

Complex, challenging, and ultimately rewarding.