Words: Lavie Tidhar

Art: Paul McCaffrey

Titan, out now

London 1902 – the dawn of a new century. But old threats still must be dealt with – and Irene Adler and her friends are ready.

Lavie Tidhar’s league of extraordinary ladies is great fun from start to finish, with cameo appearances by various fictional heroes and villains, some of whom quite definitely do not end up as they’ve been portrayed previously. (Look out for a young David Warner as the inspiration for one of them.) We’re sort of in the Sherlock Holmes world – as much as something like The Irregulars is, anyway – even if the Great Detective is off dealing with something else so doesn’t get to make an appearance. If you’ve read Tidhar’s By Force Alone (and if you haven’t, then you should), you’ll know the way in which he treats mythological creations, and the characters who appear here are very much part of modern mythology.

Paul McCaffrey’s art is stylish – there’s lots of little details you might miss on the first reading. As well as the Warner-inspired character mentioned above, there’s a great moment when a young Parisian orphan is caught in the middle of a firefight and has the chance to throw a grenade… The look on her face is spot on.

There’s more than enough potential here for more stories, either told in comic book form, prose or on screen – although I hope someone’s also looked into the audio potential of this sort of Steampunk adventure.

Verdict: A thoroughly entertaining alternate history tale – recommended. 9/10

Paul Simpson

 

Click here to view a gallery of art from the book, and for our interview with Lavie Tidhar click here