This is a beautiful book. Even if you have no interest in reading it I would recommend you pick it up and just flick through the art. Cai does a wonderful job of depicting the world of the whales. Really really beautiful.
The book itself is a retelling of Moby Dick, only from the perspective of the whales. Not your average whale though, these whales are hunters and their prey is man. They use harpoons, they have cities, they harvest people for meat and other sundry supplies, just as man harvests whales. And in their world one man is feared above all, Toby Wick, who has destroyed every whale who has come across him. Or almost every whale, because Captain Alexandra has gone up against him and survived. Now she yearns to get her revenge and drives her crew after the even rumours of him.
I loved it.
It is short, but it doesn’t need to be any longer. It feels very like a fable, or folktale, with at its heart the message that by fighting what we hate we become it. I know, that’s not a very original message, but it doesn’t make it any less true. who needs devils when you have men?
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This is one to appreciate certainly.
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