Saga, Vol. 1

I can't leave my friend Beth's house, it seems, without at least one book in my hand. No joke, I have several piles of books I have borrowed from her throughout my apartment, and the amount of time it takes me to read the books she loans me causes me a lot of guilt and shame.

Especially in this case. 

It took me over a year to finally pick up Saga, the funny, violent, sexy, sweeping, emotional sci-fi masterpiece penned by Brian K Vaughn and illustrated by Fiona Staples. Reader, it was a wasted year. 

Saga tells the story of Alana and Marko, a couple with the universe against them - literally. After having met and fallen in love while fighting on opposite sides of a decades-long war between their home planets, the two have married in secret while running away from their respective governments. Volume 1 opens as Alana is giving birth to their daughter.

Saga is gorgeously drawn, intelligently written, and addictively readable. It's described as a sci-fi epic, which is true, but its real strength lies in the emotional reality of its characters. While it navigates the economic and social implications of war, privilege, and poverty, it deftly illustrates more day-to-day problems.

As Alana and Marko deal with parenting their infant daughter while on the run, they have to contend with differences in values, their lives before they met, and the deep-seated hatred that their races have for one another. Marko and Alana are both fresh from combat, and cope with the violence and trauma of their pasts and the uncertainty of their present in their own, sometimes self-destructive ways. 

In other parts of the universe, many people are offered copious amounts of money by the governments of both warring planets to hunt down Alana and Marko and their new child. 

Brian K Vaughn has created a new universe thrumming with life, populated by characters who are as complex and fascinating as the worlds they live in. With witty dialogue, smart characterization, and fearless parallels to our own world, Saga is, I think, the finest science fiction storytelling I have encountered in my lifetime. I implore anyone looking for a good story, who enjoys sci fi, adventure, or is interested in reading comics that aren't about superheroes/are easy to get into, to pick up Saga. I promise it won't disappoint.