Trügerische Welten

Valérian and Laureline #7

by Jean-Claude Mézières, Pierre Christin

Valerian, shot to death in an Indian fortress. Valerian, dead in 19th century London. Valerian, gunned down in San Francisco’s Chinatown… And Laureline, paired up with an unpleasantly arrogant historian from Galaxity, forced to witness every demise of the man she loves on a succession of re-enacted pieces of human history. A very strange case that will take the two spatio-temporal agents to the limits of their endurance as they hunt down the mysterious architect of the false Earths…

Genres: Comics, Science Fiction, Bande Dessinée, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Fiction

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great set up with some really interesting ideas but all wrapped in an confusing and in the end nonsensical story. A shame really.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

Almost entirely lacking in anything resembling a plot, and with a major role for a character who is totally annoying. Coming on the back of Ambassador of the Shadows and Welcome to Alflolol it seems that almost everyone in this future human society is a total douche. Probably the worst of this series I have read so far. I would be tempted to give it a single star because it so utterly devoid of anything meaningful, but there are some nice scenes set in the 19th Century and for the first time since the first book there is the feeling that time travel is actually a meaningful part of this series, which seemed to have totally fallen by the wayside in books 2 through 6.

Maybe fine to read for completeness sake, but giving this one a miss would not cause anyone any problems.

[Drew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm reading these faster, perhaps because they feel like they're getting simpler.

This one's another morality tale that calls to mind something you might find in an episode of Classic Star Trek. The safest kind of preachy (War is Bad, Mmkay?). Hey, nobody's arguing with that! Except I guess this old historian who finds earth's various wars kind of fascinating, and an alien who draws from those periods great works of art, while Laureline burns through the straw men of colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism.

It has taken me until now -- book 7 (or 8 if you count Bad Dreams) -- to figure out how to read these books. They are not the grand space opera I took them to be when I started the series. Rather, they are short stories. Simple morality tales. More fantasy than science fiction.

I might also say they're for children, except for a nekkid Laureline (from the back only) in the previous book, or a full-frontal nekkid Valerian (from a distance) in this book. So . . . teenagers. Hormonal teenagers. Hormonal teenagers ready to tackle simple morality tales and feel so very smart about them.

Maybe?

I don't know. It's all so confusing.

[Douglas · Rating 2 out of 5]

In all honesty this has been the worst of the series so far. It starts fairly promising, sure. Valérian is involved in a series of action and espionage-like missions, each which seemingly end in his death, each where he races to discover coordinates. But inevitably he dies each time. We soon learn that each death is from a short-lived clone and that the real Valérian is aboard ship being "raw materials" for the next mission-taker. Also on this mission is a historian who has plenty of disdain for men and no regard at all for Valérian much to Laureline's consternation.

There's so much potential in this story, and yet it feels so underdeveloped. However, that seems to be par for the course for these stories. No, the real crime is the ending. It wasn't so much an exposition dump as much as it was a Roman vomitorium of exposition that went on and on. It made the action and mystery unsatisfying. In fact, by the end I was ticked off the historian got what she wanted at all, and that Valérian and Laureline just sort of limp off into the sunset. It's an unsatisfying story with some annoying moralization from Laureline almost as bad as she was spouting in Welcome to Alflolol.

It's still not enough to make me quit, but it is enough to tick me off a bit.

[Tristan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a 1981 hardback reprint in French from Dargaud. Originally serialised between 1976 and 1977 and published in book form in 1977, this is a truly extraordinary episode. It is a deep reflection upon the themes of the series, a reexamination as well as a reinvention of those themes, whilst being loyal to all that has gone before.

Valérian and Laureline return to their spatiotemporal agent roots. They are pursuing an entity that has plundered Earth’s archives and is recreating significant moments in history all over the galaxy, which may pose a threat to the tightly controlled timeline. Boneheaded action man Valérian has been cloned a couple of hundred times over to provide the cannon fodder, with no consideration for the personal cost to him. Once-again assistant Laureline is reduced to being the (snarky) chauffeur of an over-the-top pseudo feminist and aesthete historian (who is the perfect caricature of every insufferable history teacher I had to endure in French state schools). This ruthless historian discards clone after clone, sent to their deaths to infiltrate the mechanisms of the fake Earths and find the coordinates of the next target. She only thinks of catching her perfect artist foe, whatever the cost. And Laureline can only watch in increasing horror as her lover is killed again and again in increasingly tense set pieces.

This spiral reaches its climax when the historian sends all the clones and the original out to fight in a recreation of the First World War trenches, to get out of a trap set by the desperate quarry. Whilst the historian thoughtlessly fraternises with the creative alien she has finally cornered, Laureline is left to wander the deserted battlefield desperately seeking, amongst hundreds of corpses with Valérian’s face, her own original partner.

What a concept! This is as high drama as any sci-fi can provide.

Thankfully, there’s a good dose of darkish humour and irony throughout. Valérian had fallen asleep far from the fighting, exhausted by the cloning process, in a wink back to his drunken antics in Le Pays Sans Etoile. And to balance out any gratuitous skin on display on Laureline’s part in earlier episodes, Valérian and his clones spend a lot of time wandering around in the buff. Full frontal too, which again is a bit unusual for the times, especially in a kid’s comic.

Laureline is the moral protagonist of this tale, and she once more has plenty to say about toxic culture. Following her harrowing ordeal, she delivers a knock out snark to her historian commander: to hell with the beauty and sophistication of history, as history is just a succession of battlefields strewn with the corpses of loved ones. Her subversiveness and compassion reach a peak here.

And the artwork. All the recreations of history are superb, and the alienness of the creation process for the fake Earths is a visual treat.

This is definitely a “wow”. Absolutely top notch stuff.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Valerian spends the entire book unconscious, more or less, while Laureline directs his actions under the command of a snobby historian (who is a bit of a straw feminist at times, attributing Laureline's love for Valerian to 'male superiority' and it's pretty clear we're supposed to not like her so I was like...oookay? We're going into some annoy-me territory.)

However the historian is actually very competent, which I appreciated, and at the end Laureline rather takes charge of everything, demanding her and Valerian's freedom, calling their ship "My" ship while Valerian says "It's sort of mine too."

... and they go to Bell Epoque Paris for a little post-mission down time, because remember, girls, it's okay to seek equal rights so long as you also love your man and get dolled up for him!

So yeah it's kinda like that.

But the art, again, is just GORGEOUS. And I found the way the 'false earths' broke apart and came together delightful.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A simple and clever little tale.

Very nice art by Mezieres that uses cinematic framing to depict several


SPOILER


historical earth eras. In each era Valerian is pursuing “coordinates,” but is discovered, hunted down, and killed by the period’s inhabitants, while Laureline watches in consternation from the starship.

At first I thought it was some type of virtual game, and much of the story keeps you guessing as Valerian hops from India to Victorian London to belle epoque France. But the real answer is more interesting — a series of clones which each live for 3 hours.

The clone beds are well designed, as are the protean, inchoate space landscapes, and the panels with dozens of Valerians are a novelty.

It turns out that Valerian and Laureline are hunting an eccentric alien curator who is enamored by earth’s past because his people have no imagination.

After the alien is finally cornered, the time agents determine it to be harmless, and so let it continue its crafting activities. The heroes then vacation in the past, entering into a Renoir painting.

There is also a secondary plot involving a prickly human historian who finds love with the weird alien.

The story turns on a simple conceit, like a Twilight Zone episode, but it’s well-executed and fast-paced. The opening suspense sections are skillfully wrought.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 5 out of 5]

Valerian is the best of my Cinebook/Dargaud/Egmont French Album obsession- it's always brilliantly rendered, exciting, interesting and fun! If it were only easier to attain these gems for modest prices from the U.K. (before or after arriving here).

Then there's the relationship between those two! My unerring love for Laureline and my jealousy of Valerian would keep me on a series no matter what surrounded it.

The French best prove what Puritans we are over here. You get Valerian rig-action more than once- completely unforced plot-natural of course.

This story involves the ultimate voyeur genius. Tantalizing huh?

Mézières (love those pyramid accents) always puts on quite a show with his meticulously researched and expertly presented environments but this one gives the most evidence of his historical accuracy and panache within. He also makes sure that every Album puts your attentive eyes in three dimensions- I spend plenty of time INSIDE of his lush spaceship interiors.

Within the large scope of Franco-Belgian bandes desinee devoured by this Europhile (precisely extranational globophile) I regard him as a master practitioner of the action sequence involving a tall drop-panel placed perfectly parallel against a double-stacked duo.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not up to the usual quality of the series for me.

The story follows Valérian as he chases down the mysterious architect of recreations in Earth's history, from Colonial era India, San Francisco's Chinatown to London in the 1800s, each ending in his death. All the while Laureline watches on helplessly in the company of an arrogant historian from Galaxity, until she can't take anymore and heads out to confront the architect.

That's about it in terms of story really. The artwork is stunning as always, with Mézières rendering the historical settings in great detail and blending them with the Sci-fi world of Valérian and Laureline.

Worth a read but a dip in the series for me.

[Luana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Valerian's bicycle getaway in a holographic Victorian London is one of my favorite sight gags of the entire series so far. While he is the main focus of this album, it's Laureline and her "Last Jedi" style tirade at the end of the book that pushes me into full love here, as she scolds a scientist for having a 20th century fetish, "with its colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism!"

[Arensb · Rating 4 out of 5]

The series has come into its own, and is now more science-fictioney, although without forgetting its space-opera roots.
In this episode, we see Valérian dying, over and over: in colonial India, in Gladstone's London, and elsewhere, while Laureline has to figure out what these environments are and where they come from.
Not terribly deep, but fun.

[Wickie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A comic just for historians. Feels like the artist just wanted to visit interesting sites in the human past such as the Great War. Mixed it all up with some feminist stuff, or rather what happens if feminism turns intro extremism. Didn't quite like it although the drawings are as accurate as ever.

[Thorbjørn Sølver Lange]

Nostalgia from my 1980'es childhood.

Even though I now find the stories, plots and characters rather short
and maybe even shallow. I love the rich inspiring universe.
Also it's almost like a quest for Easter-eggs, to see how much other fiction since these came out, has been inspired from them c¨,)

[Joss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quelle histoire excellente. Digne des belles aventures multidimensionnelles qu’on aime encore quarante ans plus tard. Je suis en train de découvrir les Valérian et Laureline dans leur ordre de publication, et c’est mon préféré dans la collection jusqu’à maintenant.

[Botros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Första gången jag läste detta album så blev jag helt Knockad. Aldrig tidigare hade jag läst en tecknad serie med en så överraskande och komplicerad berättelse. Därtill kom de fantastiska teckningarna med historiska och framtida miljöer.

[Rex Hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Valerian at its best. A wild, weird tale that is impossible to guess the ending of incorporating tons of sci-fi elements into an amazing whole. I've just read three of these volumes in a row and this one was the most fun.

[M.i. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just love how these books push imagination and scifi whilst being able to dissect interesting subjects and topic matters. Its not a serious book, but I still love its message.

[Tapani Aulu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tuli mieleen Slartibartfast/Romppanen tämän kirjan maailmansuunnittelijasta.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concept intéressant qui m'a rendu un peu confus au début. Une fin un peu surprenante. L'art continue à être mieux.

[Dbgirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Visually good, but where's the story? And when the "mystery" is solved it feels rushed and I'm like OK. Had a potential with its great idea but lacks a good writing.

[Pascale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Faut pas essayer d'en passer une a Laureline!

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was another great tongue in cheek adventure. Love the 60s style feminism going on between Laureline and the lady she works with on this. Plus there are clones and they are handled very well.

[Norman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really this series should just be about Laureline. And probably talking more about the dangers of colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism.

[NoImporta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Woody Allen might have read this comic.

[Simon Chadwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most important and exciting aspects of science-fiction stories is that they can take a story in a direction that other narratives are unable to do simply by incorporating a potential future technology or situation that then opens up all manner of new possibilities. So in “On The False Earths”, we get Valerian struggling heroically against the odds in what appear to be moments in history on Earth but, more shockingly, his struggle ends in his death each time.

Laureline is observing all this from the comfort of orbit, but although she seems concerned, Valerian’s death doesn’t quite bring the trauma and horror you would expect. Laureline’s also having to cope with the presence of a difficult and unpleasant individual from Galaxity who is an expert in Earth’s history. It transpires that somebody is making small but perfectly formed copies of aspects of our home planet’s past and the only way to track down who is to send Valerian to each of these worldlets to face the inherent danger and obtain new co-ordinates. These will push them on to the next False Earth and, they judge, closer to the the architect of these worlds. But then there’s the problem that Valerian keeps dying…

For Mézières this is another opportunity to show his vast capabilities as an artist as Valerian is set down in the different periods and geographical locations, while Christin gets to flex his storytelling muscle by playing out the possibilities generated in such an extraordinary concept. We all know that they’re not going to bump off Valerian for real, so your interest is instead piqued by the how of it all.

The creators don’t rely on over-arching stereotypical baddies to pad out their plots, but how a fascinating idea could play out given the right circumstances. It’s for this reason that Valerian and Laureline is still, decades later, a captivating and enjoyable read that can still surprise and entertain. Exactly what good science-fiction should be.

[Sunila · Rating 5 out of 5]

By far one of my all time favourite series. And this would be one of my favourite stories.
It echoes my childhood day dreaming of other worlds.

In general I prefer the older volumes that were very psychedelic.

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lo leí dentro de los integrales de Valerian y me gustó mucho.

[Carlos Rioja · Rating 2 out of 5]

No está mal, pero es un tanto lioso.

[Markku Kesti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maapallolla vierailut olivat tämän sarjan tylsintä jaksoa.

[João Luís Ferreira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muito imaginativo e cativante.