Rat Queens Volume 6: The Infernal Path

A great buy, arrived very quickly. A+ thank you. If you enjoy lady Mechanika and Anita Blake then you might love these. A great read.

Love this series. Felt that this plot line wasn’t as fun as previous ones but still a good addition to the collection.

Good read

Book six in the series of paperbacks that collect issues of the fantasy comic Rat Queens, all about a group of female adventurers in a Dungeons and Dragons style world. This collects issues 11-15 of the current run, and a one special 'Rat Queens: Neon Static', as well. It uses the covers as chapter pages, so you can tell where one issue ends and the next begins quite easily. As with other volumes, this features copious adult moments, gore and violence, and strong language. So is only for grown up readers. And since this does follow on some things from volume five, it's not a jumping on point. New readers should start with volume one. This one sees the Queens get a visit from a former member of their group. Who needs their help dealing with a group of marauding orcs. Dee doesn't come along though, because the events of the last volume lead her into a solo quest. One that gets a bit spiritual... Best way to describe this volume: nearly but not quite. It's been a series that has never quite lived up to the superb first two volumes, so I constantly hope it will manage that once again. There is a lot to like in the writing here. A great sense of sisterhood among the leads. And even Hannah who is usually just horrible is nice to her friends for a lot of this. There's some good plotting, bringing subplots that have been hanging around for a while to the fore and letting the move on. And whilst we still don't get to see Gary again [I think I might have to let that go] one character from an earlier volume who did feel like someone with potential does reappear, and get a good amount to do. Even the usually boring character of Violet does get a bit of decent material here, as her relationship with Dave the Orc is progressed. But: The artwork just doesn't do this justice. Whilst not quite as cartoony as book three, this is midway been that style and the look of books one and two, and really stills needs to be more like the latter to work. There are moments that look good. But others that look a bit silly when they would be better otherwise. And some changes in style, required by the nature of Dee's storyline, don't quite come off. There are big changes to the status quo here as well, which are quite bold, so hopefully it will run with those. Which will be in the hands of others, as this is the last lot of issues from the original writer. A new creative team has taken over since. I was expecting this one to be last chance saloon for the series for me. But it's not. I will be back for book seven. I just hope that the possible upward trajectory you see here will really take off there. Perhaps a new team is what it needs to make that happen. The neon static special is a stand alone story, Rat Queens in a cyberpunk rather than fantasy setting. the art really didn't appeal. The story didn't grab me. And I didn't really care. So avoid it. There is a gallery of issue covers right at the end.

Another great volume.

It's clear that Wiebe didn't really know what to do with the Rat Queens after a while (regardless of what was going on with the turnover of artists on the series), and the attempted revamp didn't seem to bring things back to the early heights. The main storyline in this particular volume is again fairly forgettable, the characters don't spark like they used to, everything just seems a bit worn out. Am looking forward to reading the next volume from the new creative team, hopefully I'll be more interested in that one. This is probably a 2.5* review but for the usual inflexibility of the Amazon system, and there's a nice spread at the back showing all the series issue covers to this point (as well as a short which transposes the Queens into Shadowrun-without-the-license, which is different if not actually all that impressive), so I decided to round up to three.

The first volume of this series totally blew me away. I think it was one of the freshest, most original, most fun graphic novels I'd read in a long, long, time. Volume 2? yeah, still pretty good... ish. After that it nosedived so steeply that I think only a sense of loyalty to the first two volumes that kept us fans buying them (check the reviews). By volume 5 I was bored out of my mind, and swore that I was done with the series. Then I read a review of this one, saying that it was back on track, a return to form, etc., etc... Nope. It's really not. I really wanted to like this, but by the half-way point I was skimming over dialogue, wondering how it could take so many pages to tell so little story. Sorry, but that's it. i really am done with this series now. I recommend the first issue or two, but when you feel your interest declining, save yourself some cash and don't keep buying. it really DOESN'T get any better.

Second only to Saga, Rat Queens is one of the most refreshingly original adventure tales I've read. The characters are lovable, the story is interesting, and this volume adds tremendously to the expanding lore of their world.

I love everything about this series! The characters, plotline, swear words, world building, atmosphere of the stories. So fabulous. So delish!

Was shipped fast and in decent condition.

Rat Queens is just an awesome series! Highly reccomend!

The last volume of Rat Queens was a bit... all over the place due to the arc, but this one was a fantastic addition and felt a bit more like the older volumes of the series while continuing to grow the characters, story, and world.