Trade Review #11--Rat Queens Vol 1.

I'm sort of active on reddit.  By active, I mean I read things, but I rarely post.  The one thing I do love are the reddit gift exchanges.  It's like themed secret Santa all year round. In my most recent exchange, I received Rat Queens Vol.1 and my secret Santa informed me it was their favorite series they've read in a while.  I finally got around to reading it, and here's what I thought:

Rat Queens Vol 1. (Image)
By: Kurtis J. Wiebe, Roc Upchurch, Ed Brisson

Your introduction to the Rat Queens crosses the first four pages in lovely one-page spreads.  If you had to ask me who I identify with based on their single sentence...Hannah...so we needed to see if I was right as I read through the book.  Essentially there are a couple of 4-5 person crews who are in prison because they are at odds with the law.  All of the teams are given two options, take an assignment given to them by the guard (like taking on goblins, ogres, bandits or cleaning the toilets in a barracks), or be punched in the face and banned from the kingdom.

All of the groups take their assignments, however when each group reaches their destination...there is nothing there.  After they all dig around for a while, they each face an assassin.  Some groups or individuals successfully get away, while others lose their lives.  Some of the teams eventually decide they need to discover who orchestrated their attack, and how to get their revenge.  There's plenty of drinking, drugs, and other debauchery along the way.  

I really enjoy fantasy books.  I loved this book because the women were taken from some standard fantasy tropes and then turned on their heads.  This book is pretty kick-ass, and I'm intrigued enough to at least check out volume 2!