(courtesy Harper Collins Australia)
I cannot begin to express how much I’d love the storytelling brilliance and imaginative bravery of Tim Probert’s darkly warm and beautiful Lightfall series.
Now four instalments in with the release of Lightfall: A Place Between, which follows from The Girl and the Galdurian (book #1), Shadow of the Bird (book #2) and The Dark Times (book #3), the series from the immensely talented writer and artist, Tim Probert, sings with a vivacious visual artistry and writing which is both bleakly honest and heartwarmingly, connectedly joyous.
Probert rather masterfully treads a fine and highly effective line between telling a full-bodied, dark with catastrophic consequences fantasy tale with all the epically expansive, possible world-ending trimmings and a beautiful story of found family, common purpose and the joy that comes from being part of something than yourself.
Even if, as is often the case in The Place Between, that bigness can feel far too overwhelming and beyond anything that any of the characters can deal with by themselves.
But that’s the central message is this wondrously good work of art, and it is indeed a work of breathtakingly and astonishing art – when you have likeminded and hearted people by your side, they draw strength, love and forward momentum from each other no matter how terrifying the enemy opposing them may be.
And the enemy in this case is the big daddy of them all – death – and while all of our characters ———- SPOILER ALERT !!!!! ———- avoid that fate for now, it’s made clear that they can’t escape life’s end for good, no matter how valiantly and self-sacrificingly they work to save their home planet of Irpa.
There is much said in the whole series, but especially in A Place Between about how much needs to be sacrificed to do the greater good.
We often talk about the fact that you are the standard you walk by and that evil only prospers when good people do nothing, and it’s a grave sentiment that all the characters in the Lightfall series, especially dear Bea and Gad, two lonely souls who have found a home in each other and with their other friends, Soot, Nimm and Arsai and new companion, Tod (who gives a huge amount to do the right thing) absolutely subscribe to, without hesitation (or at least only a little bit).
But being willing to sacrifice yourself for the greater good is one thing in theory and partially in practice, but when the rubber really hits the road and things like your own mortality are on the line, that’s a whole other level of terrifyingly intense.
If all that sounds grim, it is in parts but so fully realised are the close and unconditionally supportive bonds between our adventurers for good that even in the darkest and most pressing of times, there’s a lightness from the singular purpose and a deep down knowledge they are doing the right thing with the right people.
All of this impressively rich storytelling takes place through artwork that is indescribably beautiful and evocative, which feels in every panel like an exquisite painting sprung gorgeously and movingly and immersively to life; you don’t just read this stellar graphic novel, you live in it and breathe in it as if you are in the world along with Bea, Gad and the others.
It feels so privileged to see pain, joy, bewilderment and family all expressed in technicolour bright or blackest of night artwork but all of it so alive, and vital and fully and affectingly emotive.
Lightfall: A Place Between is a joy, harrowing at times yes and full of so many fateful moments but ultimately it is a celebration of self-sacrificial commitment, of family, of friendship, of doing good when it’s easier to do bad or nothing at all, and it will do your fantasy-loving heart good to see much goodness in some many beautiful wrought and narratively rich pages.
The Lightfall series is available from Harper Collins Publishers.
