4 out of 5

Context can change everything.  So let’s take my contextless point of view into account for The Dark Island, book six of the Three Thieves series by the author, none of the other ones which I’ve read; perhaps when I’ve visited books one through five, and return to Island, I’ll say “this is the worst Three Thieves book ever.” But until that point, Dark Island is a thrilling YA comic adventure, with some pretty masterfully paced action sequences and enough interesting character nuance to have me surely wanting to obtain my missing context… with the suspicion that I’ll come back around to my current point of view, only fueled by Three Thieves fandom.

We’ll see, eh?  So, future me, please excuse any necessary plot details I relate here.

The Dark Island concerns one part of a rescue mission: Dessa traveling with two compatriots to a floating island (which, it must be said, didn’t seem all that dark), following a lead to her intended rescue-ee: her brother Jared. Meanwhile, we cut away to Jared’s part of this plight, filling in some (I can only assume from context) revelatory back-story to his current captors.

There are quirky mysteries, close calls, thrilling heroics, exhilarating action sequences, and – the overall main selling point for a reader like me – intriguing character development, wrapped up in bright panels and streamlined character design and well-chosen, commodious dialogue.

The pacing hiccups a bit between Jared’s and Dessa’s stories, preventing momentum from building up until you get used to the page-by-page divide (which admittedly doesn’t take long), and my contextless self suspects the Island and its “toymaker” might end up being a bit of a macguffin distraction, but regardless, I can’t deny how well directed this “distraction” is.  Maximum Thrill Power, as my Betelgeusian friends might say.

There are a pretty big handful of these YA comic series floating out there, attempting to do the world-building, mystery-baiting thing.  But doing this while keeping the writing / arting qualities high and not falling back on cheap plotting gimmicks is a tougher calling, and sometimes jumping in in the middle of a series is an easy way to tell if the story is just stringing people along.  I don’t feel strung.  So bring on more Three Thieves!