The Nikopol Trilogy [Hardcover]

Enki Bilal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2002

The incredible journey of Alcide Nikopol in the company of Horus of Hierakonopolis, the vengeful god and Jill Bioskop, the mysterious women with blue hair, from Paris to Berlin, Cairo to equator City. A unique mix of science fiction, anxiety, humor and strangeness.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Nikopol Trilogy brings together three previously published volumes Carnival of Mortals, Woman Trap and Cold Equator all impressive works of imagination meticulously written, drawn and colored by European comics artist Bilal. It's the year 2023 and Alcide Nikopol has been revived from a state of suspended animation after 30 years orbiting Earth. In the meantime, the planet has suffered two nuclear wars, and France is ruled by the ruthless dictator J.F. Choublanc. The immortal gods of Egyptian antiquity have also reawakened to revive their rule over humanity, and they now hover above the crumbling technopolis of Paris in a massive stone pyramid/airship. Horus, the renegade falcon god, takes possession of Nikopol's body, rendering him immortal, and concocts a conspiracy to overthrow the Choublanc regime. When Nikopol cracks under the pressure of Horus's possession, he is reduced to muttering the poetry of Baudelaire while he wanders the halls of a mental hospital. "Woman Trap" picks up two years later in a war-torn London. Blue-haired news correspondent Jill Bioskop dispatches stories 30 years into the past using a device called a scriptwriter, while she takes pills to eradicate the bloody memories of men she has murdered. In "Cold Equator" the story is further complicated as Nikopol's son boards a train bound for Equator City, an African metropolis afflicted with a freezing micro-climate of minus-six degrees, but surrounded by desert and surrealistically populated by sub-Saharan wildlife. Intricate plot twists and stunning color artwork mark this work as both an extraordinary comics literary achievement and a crackling good story.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

It's 2023 in France and the Egyptian deities rule from their home in the sky. Alcide Nikopol, hero of this graphic novel trilogy, awakens after a 30-year sleep and forms a strange pact with renegade god Horus. This pact allows Horus to seek revenge on his fellow deities in the Egyptian pantheon while punishing humanity and merging with Nikopol. A parallel plot line is formed by Nikopol's search for his son, who was not yet born at the time that his long sleep began. Unable to believe that this man in his thirties is his father, Nikopol's son thinks he has found a long lost twin. The graphics contain the requisite dose of violence, nudity, and sex, some of it central to the story. While there is an attempt to create a sense of urgency in the narrative, the gods remain undeveloped figures. The characters of Nikopol, the woman with blue hair, and Nikopol's son essentially remain unchanged by the story's resolution. Stephen Weiner, Maynard P.L., MA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Humanoids Publishing (March 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967240123
• ISBN-13: 978-0967240121
• Product Dimensions: 12.6 x 9.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,829,488 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Plot good, characters cardboard., June 16, 2005

By 

Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Nikopol Trilogy (Hardcover)

Enki Bilal, The Nikopol Trilogy (Humanoids Publishing, 2002)

There is no denying that the Nikopol trilogy is eye-catching. Artist and film director Bilal has created something of striking beauty in the three comics that come together to comprise The Nikopol Trilogy. And there's certainly the sort of weirdness one has come to expect from the plot of a graphic novel-- Egyptian gods who travel the heavens in a pyramid, a frozen astronaut, a paranoid mechanical soldier who gets roped into a gubernatorial race, a city on the equator where it never stops snowing... it's all here, pretty much.

Set against all that is the fact that the characters in this story are cardboard cutouts there solely to advance the plot. There are a few moves towards giving the characters a bit more shading (especially the character of Jill Bioskop, who in the film based on the book takes center stage-- hmm, wonder why?), but none is entirely successful; these are characters straight out of a fifties dime novel, with no more depth than the page they're printed on.

A decent read, but not something that will keep me coming back over and over again. ***

11 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Art, Lame Story, May 26, 2006

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Nikopol Trilogy (Paperback)

Originally published between 1980-92, the three books by Bosnian-French artist/writer/filmmaker Bilal that comprise this trilogy are collected here in a very nicely printed and bound volume. There's no doubt that they are a stunning achievement in illustration, however it has to be said that they are also a massive disappointment in storytelling. Set in a dystopian future in which the world appears to have reverted into some kind of city-state system, most of the first two books take place in Paris. The city's urban core belongs to the rich and powerful, and zones of increasing poverty and desperation radiate outward. Bilal's dense, detailed artwork is perfectly suited to capturing the dirty, grim cityscape, with crumbling buildings and train stations, ragtag people, and battered trains and planes. The fascist ruling elite are very distinctive, with uniforms and color schemes lifted straight from the Nazi palate and German iconography, accented by garish face paint rendering them horrorshow clowns.

The trilogy opens with a mysterious pyramid containing the pantheon of ancient Egyptian gods hovering over Paris. It seems they need fuel for their pyramid-craft and are negotiating with the fascist governor to supply them (gods who are hostage to fossil fuels, hmmmm) . It is these gods and their inscrutable machinations which drive the story (what story there is) forward, notably, the god Horus' desire to create a new world order. The vehicle for this is Nikopol, a man in stasis who pops out of a space capsule which falls to Earth over Paris (you'd think they'd have built in guidance systems to avoid populated areas). The body of this former dissident becomes the host to Horus, as the ancient god attempts to change the world.

This is all set up within the first part of the first book, and events grow rapidly more nonsensical as the story continues. Bilal has a gift for interesting notions, but is totally incapable of tying them together into any kind of coherent vision. Those who aren't adverse to impressionistic narrative may not mind this, but I found it pretentious and ultimately unsatisfying. There are plenty of funny little moments, such as the Egyptian gods playing Monopoly, or a little creature who lurks in a bar sink, cleaning glasses. There are also plenty of neat ideas about politics, such as the various turf wars in London between various ethnic groups, or the unholy industrial-religious alliance who rules over Equator City. But there are also many more bizarre elements which remain unexplained. The only robot in the book is a very capable AI-enabled construct who falls from the sky with Nikopol, why aren't there others? Why is the telepathic cat green? What are the gargoyle-like cherubs who are multiplying in Notre Dame all about? What's up with the giant egg bombardment in London? There are far too many scenes which don't seem to serve any narrative purpose, and seem to exist solely for Bilal's own amusement.

It also doesn't help that a lot of the dialogue and writing is really clunky and bad. This may be due to the translation, but I suspect that it's more to do with Bilal overextending himself. He's got an excellent visual style, but he should leave the writing to others -- for example, his collaborations with Pierre Christian are far better works. Overall, nice to look at, but not to actually read.

Note: Bilal wrote and directed a 2004 film called "Immortal" based on parts of the trilogy. It's almost entirely CGI , and according to the reviews I've read, visually stunning and totally incomprehensible.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars visually outstanding, but the story is rather insipid, December 2, 2005

By 

Robert J. Crawford (Balmette Talloires, France) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Nikopol Trilogy (Paperback)

Make no mistake about it: Bilal has a wonderful style as a graphic artist. I love to look at his art. Unfortunately, he did not stop there and tried to write a genuine sci-fi story.

I got this series when it first came out in France and was learning French, so had looked at the pictures and was intrigued to get into the story. Alas, dictionary in hand, I went through slowly and carefully and found it, well, stupidly unbelievable, with stilted dialogue, little hard sci-fi that reflected some current trend in reality (what can make sci-fi great literature), and silly characters with no resonance whatsoever.

So, if you just want to look at the images, I wd give this five stars - easily. Bilal's sense of scene and the atmosphere of decadence, the acuity of his characters' poses, and a mysteriousness that runs thru his work are wonderful. However, the writing is so bad as to be laughable, which a recent re-reading reinforced for me. Moreover, the Egyptian Gods are props and equally boring, without any dimension that makes them interesting in any quirky way.

Not recommended as a sci-fi experience, tho it is fun to flip thru as a visual extravaganza. Bilal should be an illustrator for a good writer.