Nimona Review
Friendship, betrayal, and dragon wings, now available from Harper Teen.
Nemeses! Dragons! Science! Symbolism! reads the back of Nimona.
You know those stories where if the author thought of anything remotely cool, they just had to throw it in? Like, sure we’re in a fantasy world, but what if there were robots! Or sure we’re in a wild-west shoot out, but what if that guy rode in on a velociraptor!
Isn’t it weird when they turn out to be really good?
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson is your classic high fantasy knights fight cybernetic mad scientist and his shape-shifting henchwoman as they bond and become platonic life partners kind of books. You know, that old chestnut.
And it does turn out to be really good. You start with 250 pages of adorable art, you add in rivalries, crooked government organizations, perfectly-paced comedy and two scoops of drama to get a solid and sweet adventure. Nimona and her boss, Blackheart (SYMBOLISM?) have lovely chemistry, their rivalry with Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin (a stupid name and he deserves it) starts off feeling like a Saturday morning cartoon until feelings get hurt, and when things start to explode, they REALLY start to explode.
The one real drawback of the book, in my opinion, is the protagonist-centered morality. It’s fun when protagonists make bad choices, and it’s useful when a book investigates why they made that choice and why it was a problem. That’s not always the case in Nimona, and in a story about what really makes a person heroic, villainous, or in-between it’s a missed opportunity. But hey. It’s still a charmer.
We were supposed to get a movie adaptation, but that was just cancelled earlier, which is a shame. So if you want to experience, NEMESES, DRAGONS, SCIENCE, and SYMBOLISM, you’ll have to read experience it in graphic novel format.
In-Depth Rating System
4 laser cannons out of 5.