December Books 6) Aldébaran 2: La Blonde, by Leo

I enjoyed the first of this classic bande dessinée series, and am glad to say that the second volume builds on the strong points of the first. Teenagers Marc and Kim, still struggling to reach the distant metropolis after the destruction of their home village, encounter the mysterious blonde woman who is associated with their enigmatic saviour from the first volume, and Marc finds himself fleeing with her from a sinister dirigible controlled by the government priest Loomis. For the first time our heroes hear that they have grown up under a repressive government, and realise that they have fallen in with a revolutionary group. But apart from the human drama, we can also see that the natural life forms of Aldebaran are in symbiosis with their human colonisers, but inhumanly grumpy about it, and that there must be much more going on under the surface of the planet's mysterious seas. The flora and fauna again are glorious and surely inspired by Leo's native Brazil. Very intrigued to find out what happens next.