From Eroica With Love 13
June 29, 2008
I’m not sure why I feel compelled to comment on the cover every time, but CMX chose my favorite image for this cover. It replaced this really terrible one from the original volume 13. We came out way better in that deal.
This story sort of started last volume, but it took me a bit to remember the last one ended with the Major snoozing on his roof. Things get underway here, and the Major winds up in Liechtenstein trying to locate a KGB cover company to access a Swiss bank account, while Dorian is there to steal the principality’s royal art collection. Things get off to a good start with Dorian in a suit attending a social function in London with a Lawrence look-alike trying to gain his favor since he’s apparently some sort of celebrity, being an Earl and all. Dorian doesn’t like it, and he also doesn’t like the fact that faux Lawrence got invited to the party in Liechtenstein that he was going to crash. Bonham points out, rightly so, that the Queen in his own country has never even invited him to anything, so why should he be invited out to another country? He also warns about not becoming too popular, which seems important.
Also important is the fact that Dorian crashes the Liechtenstein party dressed as a woman for no real good reason. He was the belle of the ball.
Klaus finds him.
Much of the second half of the volume is pretty serious and basically just deals with Klaus and his men tailing the KGB. Their mission morphs into one where they have to rescue a computer technician (one from an agency which I suspect is IBM) who is being kidnapped along with stolen technology to fix sabotaged Soviet computers. Mischa’s back, and both Klaus and Dorian have run-ins with him. The reactions for the various German agents being back at work are also pretty humorous. There are various jokes mixed into the espionage bits, but the plot without Dorian is quite good, and Dorian’s promise of revenge was enough to tide me over for the next volume.
Well, that and the fact that the volume’s cliffhanger, which involves Klaus needing to disrobe while passed out with certain key characters present.
God I love this series. I love it hard.
June 29, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Okay, I’m ignoring the majority of this review for the time being, considering that I had the release date of July 9th in my mind, and didn’t realize that the date had been bumped up until last night. I had just placed my order for this a moment ago, so, hopefully, I’ll be reading this sometime soon.
Anyway, I agree with you about the cover change. Even though Dorian is wearing a cool hat on the Japanese version of volume 13, the cover is meh otherwise.
June 30, 2008 at 2:14 am
I’m glad you got to review 13 for us. I just recently purchased it myself.
Volume 12 to me was hilarious, and rightly so. 13 was a bit more serious this time around, but then again last volume was almost all filler/side stories, so I guess it’s back to the grind for our heroes. It only sucks we have to wait until September for the next bit.
I’m not sure if you got the message I sent you about Love*Com, but I think it’s worth looking into.
July 2, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Actually yes, right as I was looking over this post again before I logged in, I thought about editing it to allow for the hat. It is pretty swift.
Most of it is pretty serious stuff focusing on Klaus, and some serious stuff for Dorian too, but the beginning bits with Dorian are pretty good, and any scene with him and the Major together is to die for, as always.
I’m sorry, I just now realized I archived your message instead of answering it. I have a bad habit of just archiving everything in my inbox, I don’t really get that much e-mail. I appreciate the recommendation, though ^_^; I’ll answer it properly tonight.
July 8, 2008 at 12:30 am
=) Thanks. I think you’ll enjoy it alot.