East of West Volumes 6 & 7 by Jonathan Hickman REVIEW

Volume 6

Started: 12/03/22

Finished: 26/03/22

Spoilers: No

So brilliant to be back in this world with these characters. Been a while since I've picked one of these up and that ending did not disappoint!!

I admit the politics is getting a little complicated and of late I've felt the story has centred too much around the political machinations of the various world leaders and all the stuff with Ezra the prophet. Though interesting, I'm not nearly as invested in this side of things as I am with Death and his wife and his mission to find his son. I definitely feel like the Horsemen have taken a backseat in the story, but it looks like things are about to turn around. Things focus a little more on Death and his journey in volume six and it feels so much more interesting. Much more like those first few volumes before the politics took precedence over all other storylines.

I'm here for Death and this volume finally delivers.

Fantastic ending. Has me wanting to immediately dive into volume seven.

Volume 7

Started: 31/03/22

Finished:02/04/22

Spoilers: No

Totally awesome. This series feels like it's finding itself again, returning to its roots and what made it so brilliant in the beginning. Even though I never fell out of love with this series, I realise now there were a few volumes in the middle that, in comparison to these later volumes, felt samey and meandering, rehashing political intrigue and not quite moving forward as quickly as hoped. But now, I'm definitely rediscovering my love for this series and remembering what made it so special to begin with.

This volume is dark. There's a lot of war and death and betrayal. The action really steps up its game in this volume, so much so, I didn't even notice my favourite character, Death, didn't make an appearance until that very brief cameo at the end. This is how this series should be. If you're going to omit Death from the entire volume, you better distract me with a tonne of action and plot development to make me not even realise.

This volume also reaffirms why I love Lady Mao so much. Xiaolian is such a badass empress, the Bride of Death as they call her. I love where this volume leaves her and I can't wait to see her finally get some agency and start fighting back.

Things are really starting to develop in promising ways and I can't wait to see where this takes us next. Fortunately, I already have the next volume so I'm going to be diving straight in.