FROM PANEL TO PANEL • Take What’s Rightfully Mine (The Stone Heart: The Nameless City #2 by Faith Erin Hicks)

[note note_color=”#9cbc84″ text_color=”#ffffff”]Kaidu and Rat have only just recovered from the assassination attempt on the General of All Blades when more chaos breaks loose in the Nameless City: deep conflicts within the Dao nation are making it impossible to find a political solution for the disputed territory of the City itself.

To complicate things further, Kaidu is fairly certain he’s stumbled on a formula for the lost weapon of the mysterious founders of the City. . . . But sharing it with the Dao military would be a complete betrayal of his friendship with Rat. Can Kai find the right solution before the Dao find themselves at war?[/note]

Where we last left off: Kaidu and Rat having thwarted an assassination attempt on the General of All Blades. Afterwards? Well…

Faith Erin Hicks is back with The Stone Heart, the sequel of The Nameless City. (For those who have not read The Nameless City, here’s everything you need to know about it.) And oh boy, friends, The Stone Heart will have you with your mouths open (so try not to catch flies in it when you read this great graphic novel).

While The Nameless City introduces the characters, the world, and political climate, The Stone Heart is where shit—excuse my language—goes down.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE STONE HEART

Not everybody wants a council of all nations within the Nameless City. This council, headed by Kai’s father, is an attempt to finally bring the different nations in the city together so they can have a say in what happens in the city. Of course, there are people who do not support this, despite it meaning a fight between all nations in the Nameless City will cease. One person in particular—Prince Erzi—does not want this council to happen. He sees his hopes and dream—being the ruler of the Nameless City since he had been groomed all his life for this—slipping away as Kai’s father and The General of All Blades inch closer to bringing together the council.
.The friendship between Rat and Kai isn’t as prominent in The Stone Heart, but readers can see how far these characters come to rely on each other. They might be from different social classes and race, but they’d defend each other fiercely. Even though they can’t completely understand each other, they try. They reveal more parts of themselves that they never tell anybody (like about their parents). I enjoyed seeing that despite their differences, they have each other’s backs, and I wanted to see more of that.
There are rumors an ancient power that has been lost and only the monks know it. This ancient power may be they key to bringing the nations together, but it can easily destroy the Nameless City if it gets into the wrong hands. After what happens in The Stone Heart, these characters are at a crossroad—they’re on the other side of the line—where war is imminent, but how and why? You gotta read for yourself.
The artwork is stunning—as expected. Every moment that Faith Erin Hicks portrays pop out of the pages. Readers will really feel like they’re thrown into the Nameless City.

Who will love this comic? Everybody! People who enjoyed the first book, The Nameless City. People who liked Avatar: The Last Airbender’s art. People who like fun and cute with Asian elements.