Meridian is the story of Sephie, a sheltered young girl whose life resembles nothing so much as a fairy tale. The beloved only child of the Minister of Meridian, she grows up with an entire floating city as her playground. Then her father dies, and she inherits a sigil imbued with the power to create. So does her wicked Uncle Ilahn, except that his powers are bent on destruction and domination. Suddenly Sephie finds herself at the center of a power struggle, and quickly she learns that there is more than love in the world. Kidnapped to the world of Calador, Sephie’s journey home to Meridian puts her in the path of many people good and bad that help her grow up and counter Ilahn’s plans to take over her world. Meridian is a floating sky island of shipbuilders ravaged by the occupying forces from Cadador, the island of merchants and contract holders. The Minister of Meridian, Sephie, has survived a trial by fire. Returning home, Sephie will use the strange healing powers she’s been given to banish the Cadadorians from her island. Unfortunately, her Uncle Ilahn was also given a sigil and its wonderful ability to manipulate energies – but his power destroys. Meridian is a coming-of-age story that appeals to the audience of "Harry Potter" fans with its magical battles and fantastic setting all narrated by Sephie. Featuring first Associate Artist program graduate Steve McNiven’s latest work, this book spotlights the work of an artist destined to be one of comics’ greatest.
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Editorial Reviews
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A former drama major, Barbara Kesel has been in the comic book industry since 1981, when she wrote a Batgirl backup story for Detective Comics while sitting in a tech booth monitoring a college play. Since then she has written for every major comic company as well as served as an editor at DC Comics and worked on almost every DC title, including Watchmen, and developed the DC/TSR line. She then moved on to Dark Horse Comics where she served as editor, then managing editor, and finally as liaison to the Legends line. Somewhere in all this she found time to play with her dogs, do charity work, head fund-raisers, and co-publish her local community newspaper. Now she's just responsible for training new writers and maintaining continuity as well as writing the stories that appear in the titles Meridian, The First, and Crossgen Chronicles.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The continuing adventures of Sephie!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Meridian v. 2: Going to Ground (Paperback)
This is an amazing continuation of the story of Sephie, the young hero of Meridian. Here Sephie begins to understand the nature of her new mystical powers, and to accept her role of leadership in a world threatened by tirany.I highly recommend this for readers of all ages and tastes.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Take to the skies with the high-flying, forehead-tattooed, but girl-next-door cool Sephie of Meridian,
By H. Bala "Me Too Can Read" (Just moved to posh Marina Del Rey, CA - where if you drop a quarter, why, you just keep on walking) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Meridian v. 2: Going to Ground (Paperback)
Some time ago the world of Demetria suffered a natural cataclysm which caused the earth to erupt and spew out behemoth boulders into the skies, where these boulders then remained afloat. With much of the surface world now rendered inhospitable, many Demetrians opted to make these gravity-defying islands their home, erecting city-states in the clouds, navigating the wind currents on wooden airships, and establishing an aeronautical system of trade and commerce.The floating city of Meridian is renowned for its expert shipbuilders and for its lush environment. Meridian is intensely coveted by Ilahn, Minister of the floating city of Cadador, for several reasons. But, perhaps Ilahn's overriding motivation is his harboring of a long-held grudge against his very own brother, the kindly Minister of Meridian. Then, too, Ilahn is just straight-up corrupted with power, his eventual mission to unite all the floating cities under his Ministry, be this by political maneuvering, by guile or by force. Sephie is Meridian-born and a down-to-earth sixteen-year-old girl, never mind that she's being groomed to eventually take over the Ministry of Meridian from her father. She's had an easy, sheltered life, and so she's not at all prepared for the tragedy which strikes as the story opens. Perhaps on a whim, some mysterious force grafts sigils of power on the Ministers of Cadador and Meridian. But Sephie's father is ill-prepared for this "gift" and so collapses fatally. And Sephie, cradling her dying father in a final embrace, unwittingly takes up his sigil (it gets branded on her forehead). Ilahn takes advantage of Sephie's grief to spirit her away from Meridian and into his own Cadador, ostensibly to better protect her. In her absence, Ilahn immediately deploys his soldiers to overrun Meridian. In the fastness of Cadador it takes some time for Sephie to learn of her uncle's duplicity and of the sheer dirtbagness of his nature. But she eventually does, and off she goes, tearing out of Cadador and making a beeline for her homeland. Except that things don't quite work out that way. Her journey home is sidetracked when, during pursuit by her uncle's minions, Sephie is catapulted from her airship and plummets the long, brutal way down into the earth. On the ground, Sephie, surprised to have survived the fall, finds herself welcomed in Akasia, a struggling city on Demetria's poisoned surface which specializes in dyed textiles. Sephie, a girl who tends to trust others at face value, at first feels at home in Akasia. But she soon learns a lesson: that, sometimes, a snarl lurks behind the smile. Sephie is betrayed. By the way, I just realized that I've actually summarized the events taking place in MERIDIAN Vol. 1: FLYING SOLO. Being kinda stubborn, I think I'll let it be and just go straight into MERIDIAN Vol. 2: GOING TO GROUND. In this second volume we follow Sephie's further adventures as she escapes captivity from the dye vats of Akasia and stumbles onto a logger community and, later, into a series of underground caverns, where she encounters a secret cadre, a hidden society which not only safeguards an ancient heritage but also harbors ties to Sephie's family. In leaving her uncle's good graces Sephie has taken on a quest to gather allies for her upcoming stand against her uncle, and the end of this second volume finds her having made some progress. Writer Barbara Kesel's clear and solid narrative continues to expand her world-building by frequently shifting focus from Sephie to her supporting cast. Occasionally we catch up to the doings of her fellow Meridians, those who've managed to evade Ilahn's clutches and now seek a haven to call home. Somewhere in this crowd is Jad, Sephie's resourceful best friend and possible love interest, who comes to believe that Sephie had perished in that fall. Kesel also doesn't neglect Ilahn, his sour perspective being a crucial story arc in MERIDIAN. All the players move around in a low-tech backdrop, the level of technology being perhaps on par with that of the Renaissance Age. This adds a charming touch. I like that both Ilahn and Sephie don't instantly have a grasp of their new powers, that they stumble along, learning by increments. Ilahn has the better of it in the sense that he receives obscure guidance from an enigmatic, old, orange-eyed woman who styles herself the Muse of Giatan. Sephie, at first, seems to be on her own, although it's a plot-twister when the Muse also then begins appearing to "aid" Sephie. Ilahn is also visited by an ambitious young woman who covets all that Ilahn possesses. She easily worms her way into his inner circle, a quick understudy to Ilahn's underhanded shenanigans. Ilahn further gains an edge over Sephie when he encounters one of the Firsts, the gods of the Sigilverse. Sephie's really up against it. Included is CrossGen Chronicles #3 which offers a 36-paged MERIDIAN tale veering away from Sephie. Instead it tells of two brothers who become rivals over a beautiful artist. The artist is, of course, Sephie's mother Ideria and the brothers, her father Turos and her embittered uncle Ilahn. George Perez does the pencilling honors, and he's terrific, as always. This is a touchstone issue as Barbara Kesel injects several key elements which become the wellspring for later arcs down the line. There's a running theme of duality. The most obvious is that Ilahn's sigil lends him power over decay and destruction, while Sephie's revolves around life and renewal. Ilahn is cold and calculating and a scheming political creature; Sephie is sunny and compassionate and trusting. The city of Cadador is bleak and deals in the harsh bottom-line; Meridian is bright and lush and inhabited by creative craftsmen. In GOING TO GROUND, Sephie and Ilahn continue to unearth new dimensions to their sigil-borne abilities, with a particularly abrupt discovery of Sephie's, while under duress from deadly surface monsters, providing a perfect complement to her personality. The story moves a bit faster here than the leisurely pace set in FLYING SOLO, with Sephie getting more chances to play the heroine and even show off a little bit (all in service of her quest, of course). In trying to pigeonhole this comic book into a genre, the closest thing is that of adventure fantasy. In its ethereal essence and sensibilities, in the backdrop of a corroded world with its dwindling resources, MERIDIAN is something that legendary director/animator Hayao Miyazaki would be perfectly comfortable in adapting into an epic animated film. Plus, it even espouses an eco-friendly message. From the very start, the mission statement of MERIDIAN was to draw in young girls for its readership base. As such, the protagonist Sephie is written as to be readily relatable to them. Sephie is a great character, and I like that she isn't depicted as a straight-up uber-capable heroine. She isn't an accomplished fighter, although she clearly demonstrates spunk and courage and a certain thoughtfulness to her methods. She has a wonderful character arc, bridging that gap from innocent child to unveiling her potential as a dynamic leader. Yet, throughout, I dig that Sephie retains that sense of freshness and purity. I can see why people would choose to follow her. The art is instrumental in lending a distinct charming look to MERIDIAN. First, Joshua Middleton and now Steve McNiven favor a carefree looseness in their pencils which purposely evoke a style that is vaguely cartoony and manga, although this doesn't at all take away from the detailed craftsmanship of the artwork. There are wonderful architectural designs to ogle, with the soaring airships and the city-islands impossibly tethered to the sky and the blighted land serving as a somber counterpoint. Sephie is marvelously drawn, but never more marvelously than when she's gliding in the clouds. MERIDIAN ran from 2000 to 2004, to the count of 44 issues. One of the tragedies of CrossGen Comics abruptly going out of business is that the company never had a chance to finish re-publishing its titles in trade format. MERIDIAN was intended to have a seven volume trade release, but only four have emerged. If you get a chance, try to get your hands on all four. MERIDIAN may have been targeted towards the younger generation, but, like the works of Pixar and Mr. Miyazaki, it also succeeds in netting old codgers like me. MERIDIAN Vol. 2: GOING TO GROUND collects issues #8-14 of the monthly series, as well as the MERIDIAN story from CROSSGEN CHRONICLES #3. Here are the other available trades: - Meridian: Flying Solo (Meridian Digest Edition) reprints issues #1-7 and the 5-paged Meridian story in CROSSGEN CHRONICLES #1 which takes place between MERIDIAN issues #1-2. A cool thing is that each chapter is prefaced with a behind-the-scenes mini-essay about all things MERIDIAN. - Meridian v. 3: Taking the Skies collects issues #15-20. - Meridian v. 4: Coming Home collects issues #21-26.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A GREAT book,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Meridian v. 2: Going to Ground (Paperback)
Bought this for my daughter (I know NOTHING about the subject), but she found it to be a great book.So, I HIGHLY recommend it!
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