A review by lordofthemoon
Agatha Heterodyne and the Sleeping City by Phil Foglio, Kaja Foglio

4.0

Goodness me, I think this may be the best Girl Genius volume to date! Agatha has jump-started the castle and as it returns to full power, the full might and power of the fully armed and operational Mechanicsburg is unleashed upon the Wulfenbach hordes. In the middle of all this, the Storm King pretender, Martellus, kidnaps Agatha and teleports her to his refuge, far away. As you'd expect, it all goes horribly wrong.

What with a fully operational (and as twisted as ever) castle, and a full complement of Jagers, this book does not lack for action. The humour knob has also dialled up to 11 and there are many laugh out loud and 'punch the air' moments. The story is racing along and getting ever more complex, making these paper collections all the more important for those of us who struggle to remember what happened three hours ago, never mind the days between pages online. That doesn't stop me from reading them online, but you definitely get more out of it when you can read a whole volume.

The art, as always, is beautiful and the double page spreads definitely make an impact (moreso on paper than online). At the time of writing, this is the last available Girl Genius collected volume. No more binging, I'm going to have to start waiting a year or so between them which is nearly as frustrating as reading the story a page at a time. Ah well, I'm off to go and relieve the frustration by starting again from the start.