WINGBORN

A magical girl works to unearth her origins and seek her destiny.

Zuli, who’s held captive aboard a floating ship alongside her owl companion, Frowly, and her friend Orien, a green-skinned, winged creature, is about to be freed—or perhaps captured by someone else—while plotting to pursue her own noble quest. That journey, established in the saga’s previous volume, involves saving the souls of birds held in a purgatorial parallel world. This follow-up is full of political machinations and worldbuilding ideal for fantasy lovers. But the story is ultimately rooted in the personal: Zuli’s attempts to understand and contend with her connection to the fearful witch-queen Zara. Both seek to save the birds and preserve their world but by drastically different means. Kum’s elegant character studies visually recall a family-friendly iteration of the Saga space-opera comic book series. The backdrops are beautiful, but the constant conversation bustling the narrative along doesn’t always give these majesties space to breathe. Its most meaningful moments are those of eerie, ominous quiet: mystical visions of the past, apocalyptic red skies over a burnt-out city, and a glowing ghostly world. Zuli and Zara are Black humans, while most other characters appear in animal forms.

Intricate, ambitious fantasy with a thoughtful, glowing heart.