3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A ROMPING GOOD TIME, Feb 26 2002
By H_E_H - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Mercenary: The Trials / The Sacrifice (Paperback)
The MERCENARY series by Segrelles is a classic. Segrelles brings to life a world that is so amazing and inhabited by some good-time monsters. These creatures remind me of those sci-fi/fantasy movies where special effects consist of an iguana placed down on a scale model city and as it tries to escape, demolishes the toy structures.
Get every single volume of this series. Every page is painted with oil colors. cool stuff.
side note: Volume 2 ( i think it's vol. 2) has some curious censorship happening. Someone has gone through and placed a mesh shirt over a woman's exposed breasts. It's so badly done it makes me wonder how Segrelles must feel to see this. I mean it looks like someone went through the book and used a sharpie pen over all this gorgeous oil work. I've seen other copies of this volume and it appears in all of them. Strange.....
~john
4.0 out of 5 stars
Second double volume in the saga of "The Mercenary", Jun 6 2010
By Marshall Lord - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Mercenary: The Trials / The Sacrifice (Paperback)
This book, containing two graphic novels, is the second volume in the series of stories created by Vincent Segrelles featuring "The Mercenary."
These are beautifully illustrated adventure novels set about a thousand years ago, which are a mix of "sword and dragon" fantasy and science fiction. The books in the series include
1) The Mercenary: The Cult of the Sacred Fire & The Formula
2) This book, "The Trials" and "The sacrifice"
3) "The Fortress" (Link: The Mercenary: The Fortress)
4) "The Black Globe" (Link:The Black Globe (Mercenary Series))
5) "The Voyage" (Link:The Voyage: The Mercenary)
6) "Year 1000: The end of the world" (Link:The Mercenary: Year 1000 : The End of the World)
7) "Lost Civilisation" (Link:The Lost Civilization (The Mercenary))
8) "Giants" (Link:The Mercenary: Giants)
The first story in the series, "The Cult of the Sacred Fire" introduced the character of The Mercenary, and set the scene for his world in the following words:
"A great valley lost in the upper reaches of the mountains had remained isolated from the evolution of the planet. This rough, steep and arid area had evolved its own fauna. The great reptiles had not disappeared - natural selection had them evolve into great winged creatures. As for man, an unrelenting barrange of clouds had isolated him from the lower regions. A whole different civilisation had thus developed."
Also in the first volume, the central character of the series ("The Mercenary"), was introduced to an order of monks who live in a monastery hidden in a great crater.
In the first story in this second book in the series, "The Trials," the mercenary has applied to join this order and has to go through a very special entrance exam to see if he is worthy to be allowed to do so.
The second story sees the mercenary taking great risks to save a small boy who was about to be sacrificed by a vile cult: but this turns out to be just part of a complex plot hatched by his old enemy, Claust. And a sacrifice of another kind is needed after all ...
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous! A very enjoyable 5 star read., Aug 14 1999
By Jerry Dean - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Mercenary: The Trials / The Sacrifice (Paperback)
A very entertaining book. It provided what I really like to see in a graphic novel: fantastic art and a good storyline.
I will definitly read more of the "Mercenary." A solid 5 star read!