A well-told story, where a simple, familiar plot is made likable and engrossing through very good characterisation, particularly of the two protagonists: the narrator and the title character. One of the book's great strengths in my opinion is precisely the chasm of meaning and emotion to potentially be read out of that discrepancy.

I'm a bit on the fence regarding the art. At times, it's fantastic, at other times, too abstract and simplified for my tastes, and for the most part, it operates somewhere in the middle. The average, though, is much closer to the positive end than the negative, and art has (oddly enough) never been the biggest factor in my enjoyment of a comic. There are also a lot of fun and memorable creature design, with my personal favourite being the snake-tailed cyclopean vultures.

The plotline is just starting to throw some slight hurdles and (at least potentially original) twists on the wandering last-of-their-people formula when the volume ends, so it's tough to say if it will get any more inventive as it goes. It almost doesn't matter, though -- I'm invested in these two, now, and will enjoy seeing them traverse their next storyline whether it is batshit out there, or more standard fantasy quest fare. ( )

Note: I received access to read this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Kaya is not a series I'll continue. The writing and characterizations are very juvenile and the story seems to follow an archetype of fantasy story telling without making any clever changes to the format. The environment art is nice, but not enough to pull me through to a second trade paperback ( )