While I was at a convention in Lexington earlier this year I purchased volumes one and two of Araura. Araura is a story starring a contractor named Renzia who is asked to provide protection and escort a woman named Anea Brandull and was chosen for this job by Anea herself. The problem is that a mysterious assassin lurks in the shadows and is after Anea claiming she is something called a Valura that will bring about the end of the world.

I find the story here to be rather interesting. It doesn’t do anything new or exciting at this point in time but what volume one does well is it sets the stage in letting us know who the major characters of the story are and a little bit about them. For example we see several moments where this mysterious assassin is just lurking and hunting down Anea and in doing so it does a great job at establishing this individual as a legitimate threat. The same can be said for our protagonist Renzia. He’s a seemingly carefree individual who has a demeaner that makes him easy to underestimate but clearly has some kind of combat potential. The most immediate similarity that comes to mind is Yusuke from Yu Yu Hakusho. Not the most intelligent character for the most part but clearly shows he knows what he’s doing in the middle of a battle and has a brash nonconforming attitude towards his peers.

I also really enjoyed how we get bits and pieces of other characters that clearly have important roles to play in the story but it’s not quite clear where it’s going with them. We’re introduced to a number of characters but what I like most is that each one of them is written to have their own distinct personalities. No two characters feel alike and it’s easy to recognize each one of them as individuals even with characters that have very little presence in the volume.

Normally with stories like these they tend to start slow because the beginning is usually a massive amount of lore building but I really like the approach taken here. The lore is spread out and given to us a little bit at a time. Just enough that when we’re introduced to new characters we get a little bit of dialogue that serves to help us understand their significance but only just enough to understand what’s going on in that particular moment. For example at one point of the story we’re told about how the assassin is a Taldaren and likely one known as a Sanstor an individual of unbelievable fighting prowess. At this point all we understand is the level of the threat they pose to our hero and their belief as to the threat this Valura posses on the world which is enough to understand that part of the story but clearly leaves room to introduce us with more lore to come. We’re introduced to a variety of different characters and factions such as a council of individuals, knights, tribes, ruffians and more. Clearly distinct titles or allegiances with their own notoriety and motivations and I think one of the reasons why we’re able to get such introductions is due to the fact that we don’t get thrown a lot of lore at once. This is a great way to keep an engaging pace to the story.

The dialogue is also really good here. One of the things I like most about the banter is how to the point it is. These characters are not overly chatty and the way the dialogue is presented it’s quick and easy to understand what’s going on. Even with very little detailed explanations the presentation is there to where I can easily follow things as they are being presented even though this is an introduction to a world that I had no prior knowledge of.

The art is rather good here too. I really like how the images are really big it makes them easy to follow for me in particular because where I work a desk job transitioning from that to reading anything can be a challenge due to the strain my eyes take on any given day which often is a deterrent for me to read in order to relax on the weekdays. Because the images and dialogue are presented well it’s no strain at all and it was easy to sit back and relax after a long day and do a little reading.

The only critic and I don’t really know if I view this as a positive or a negative to be honest is that we’re given such a tease for the importance for some of these characters and what they can do that I really want to know more about them. It makes me wish I knew just a little bit more as I finish the volume so I don’t know if I’m frustrated that I don’t know as much as I would like in this novel or entertained that I’m hooked enough to want to know more.

I’m particularly impressed with how all of the art and story is created by one person Ray Coffman who I had the pleasure of meeting at Lexington and he’s clearly a talented individual. Overall where this volume excels in it’s ability to set the stage. We know the main characters, their motivations and to some degree their potential but we’re not told so much that we can just read this and have any idea of what’s going to happen next. It’s presented in a way that’s very easy to digest and one of the things I really like is in various pages of the volume we get character descriptions to help us further understand the characters or have a nice recap for someone wanting to brush up on the details to say write a review. So while this story is one very much like many we’ve seen before and doesn’t reinvent the wheel, it’s still a wheel that you can get some serious milage on and I’m excited to see where this adventure goes next.

If you want to visit the world of Araura yourself you can find out more about it on their official website here.