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Red Sonja: She-Devil with a Sword (2005) (Collected Editions)
Red Sonja: She-Devil with a Sword, Vol. 13: The Long March Home
The She-Devil with a Sword faces her most fearsome foe yet: the time-lost vampire lord, Dracula! After years of wandering abroad, Red Sonja returns to her homeland of Hyrkania. Though pursued by two deadly adversaries - the armored maniac Omaju and a mirror-image doppleganger named Khala - the scarlet-haired heroine discovers an even worse threat waiting for her at home, as the legendary lord of the undead aims to conquer the past with his bloodthirsty legions. Can Red Sonja defeat Dracula... or will she succumb to his vampire bite and kill in his name?
232 pages, Paperback
First published February 25, 2014
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33 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 28, 2024
This has been one book where my full monty a 5 star rating has caused sufferings for some people who follow my ratings and reviews and have questioned my decision. I thank them for they have been discrete and have sent DM's.
This is a volume which I had rated and not put in my review like so many other books that are pending both ratings and reviews from my reading and completed collection. There are just too many of them to match the tables.
I will not justify my rating nor defend it although I still stand by it.
I had been reading the entire series at a stretch, including other Sonja graphic novels and also other graphic novels featuring a host of other characters. This started during the covid lockdown.
I loved this series and although I could understand why people have panned some of this series books, there seems to be too much wavering between storylines and just too many points of reference which spark off adventure spin-offs.
For me it was very clear from day one when I first picked up a graphic novel and fell in love with the genre, knowing that there were no boundaries and good art will enhance even a stark storyline and that's what has happened time and again in this series.
In this volume which was the last in the series, we have stories by many people and the difference in the arcs are plain to see. The art was great and one can also see a brooding, aggressive and more violent version of Sonja. The stories ebbs and flows in various directions as different pens take their imagining of Sonja to what they felt were their fit conclusions. I as the bystander and traveler just reveled in the adventures and took everything the stories threw at me with aplomb.
I had read the stark raw world created by Robert Howard and the Sonja mentioned there. The graphic books just reinforces some of that world and the current crop have been over the last couple of decades taken the character to places where Howard had never even dreamed.
This is a volume which I had rated and not put in my review like so many other books that are pending both ratings and reviews from my reading and completed collection. There are just too many of them to match the tables.
I will not justify my rating nor defend it although I still stand by it.
I had been reading the entire series at a stretch, including other Sonja graphic novels and also other graphic novels featuring a host of other characters. This started during the covid lockdown.
I loved this series and although I could understand why people have panned some of this series books, there seems to be too much wavering between storylines and just too many points of reference which spark off adventure spin-offs.
For me it was very clear from day one when I first picked up a graphic novel and fell in love with the genre, knowing that there were no boundaries and good art will enhance even a stark storyline and that's what has happened time and again in this series.
In this volume which was the last in the series, we have stories by many people and the difference in the arcs are plain to see. The art was great and one can also see a brooding, aggressive and more violent version of Sonja. The stories ebbs and flows in various directions as different pens take their imagining of Sonja to what they felt were their fit conclusions. I as the bystander and traveler just reveled in the adventures and took everything the stories threw at me with aplomb.
I had read the stark raw world created by Robert Howard and the Sonja mentioned there. The graphic books just reinforces some of that world and the current crop have been over the last couple of decades taken the character to places where Howard had never even dreamed.
January 8, 2018
So endeth this run of Red Sonja. And it is a good thing, it did end. The momentum of the series was really started to sink. Or maybe it was only because the creative teams knew "this is it, no more, can't care".
Sloppy art, boring stories tied to Prophecy mini series. At least only way is up, right?
Sloppy art, boring stories tied to Prophecy mini series. At least only way is up, right?
February 19, 2024
Oh man they did Trautmann so fucking dirty by jamming the conclusion to his run ("Sonja returns to Hyrkania in order to entrap a high-ranking Turanian official") into this double-sized volume, which also contains a completely unrelated post-crossover storyline by someone else entirely.
Kudos to Dynamite for having a single insert page that kind of explains what the hell that crossover was about, but it still results in a storyline completely untethered from what came before in which Sonja has little to no agency, and we're entirely back to big high fantasy bullshit, with constant shifts in the storyline focus, and what I assume are meant to be shocking reversals and twists between parties I care very little about.
Gail Simone save us!
Kudos to Dynamite for having a single insert page that kind of explains what the hell that crossover was about, but it still results in a storyline completely untethered from what came before in which Sonja has little to no agency, and we're entirely back to big high fantasy bullshit, with constant shifts in the storyline focus, and what I assume are meant to be shocking reversals and twists between parties I care very little about.
Gail Simone save us!
June 8, 2021
vampire nonsense
October 26, 2021
Entirely unrelated to the last 12 volumes, and honestly a dumpster fire of a storyline
December 13, 2021
What a terrible conclusion for this series. Definitely avoiding any other works from this writer.
May 3, 2019
TLDR: Trautmann's story is just as solid as before. His run was pretty good, so it's 4 stars easy. Jerwa's was utter crapola.
The artwork is the most rugged so far. Sonja is less calculated and more violent this time around. It's still somewhat consistent with what Sonja is first and foremost - a fighter. Then comes in the last writer in the series. He has brought Sonja to what I see as the lowest point in the whole series. It's surprising how awful the Dracula story is. So she is a vampire with an insatiable thirst for blood, vulnerability to the sun and is a target for monster hunters. It's all regular, boring vampire stuff combined with magic, alchemy, the fate of Atlantis and flashbacks (I think) - a real mess that didn't fit the main character at all.
Sonja faces Omaju, the torturer employed by Yezdigerd the sultan of Turan, to free her former companion, Wurkest. The two leave Omaju to bleed to death and reunite with Barannes and Johndro. Unfortunately, Omaju survives and is out for vengeance.
In the Dracula story the name Red Sonja has been tarnished by tall tales of her deeds. Some have begun to hate her to the point where they try to burn her at the stake. Sonja has no memory of why the people believe her to be evil or where the bloodlust she feels is coming from. There's some woman whose magic can control Sonja. She will heal Sonja and direct her to defeat Dracula.
The artwork is the most rugged so far. Sonja is less calculated and more violent this time around. It's still somewhat consistent with what Sonja is first and foremost - a fighter. Then comes in the last writer in the series. He has brought Sonja to what I see as the lowest point in the whole series. It's surprising how awful the Dracula story is. So she is a vampire with an insatiable thirst for blood, vulnerability to the sun and is a target for monster hunters. It's all regular, boring vampire stuff combined with magic, alchemy, the fate of Atlantis and flashbacks (I think) - a real mess that didn't fit the main character at all.
Sonja faces Omaju, the torturer employed by Yezdigerd the sultan of Turan, to free her former companion, Wurkest. The two leave Omaju to bleed to death and reunite with Barannes and Johndro. Unfortunately, Omaju survives and is out for vengeance.
In the Dracula story the name Red Sonja has been tarnished by tall tales of her deeds. Some have begun to hate her to the point where they try to burn her at the stake. Sonja has no memory of why the people believe her to be evil or where the bloodlust she feels is coming from. There's some woman whose magic can control Sonja. She will heal Sonja and direct her to defeat Dracula.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews