In the foreward of this first volume of Revival, Jeff Lemire writes:

You can only discover your favorite new comic once, so savor it.

And I'm thinking, "Dude, I read Saga." What beats that, right?

Well, nothing, but Revival matches it in its own way. Though it might sound like a zombie comic, it is very, very much not, and in a way that is very good (say more than that would mean so many spoilers). The only mark against it (and incidentally, the same mark the first volume of Saga got) is an unnecessary use of the r-word. Otherwise it would be five stars. 

At around page 464 of this 700+ page monstrosity, I finally had to admit that I just don't have any fucks to give anymore. The series started going downhill with book 3 and now it's hit rock bottom.

The story, at book five, has already reached Robert Jordan and George R.R. Martin levels of dragged out and plotless. The characters have all become unlikeable and irritating.The prose has grown juvenile, like a YA book written by someone who thinks all teenagers are stupid. All the villains are bunny boilers; evil is represented wholly in black by rapists, pedophiles, slavers and animal abusers--every last one. Characters' moral opinions are shoved heavy-handedly into the text, told rather than shown, over and over and over. Romances are all insta-love with absolutely no chemistry to speak of between any of the characters involved. And Karigan, once a great heroine, now acts more like Bella Swan. 

After all the plot threads left dangling in book four, you'd think at least one or two would be resolved here, but instead Karigan is tossed 200 years in the future and nothing, not a single thing these books were originally about, is solved. It is one hundred percent unnecessary to actually finishing the story, and I have to draw the line. I've given this series more chances than I normally do, but I am done, done, done. Not to mention the author writes at a pace that would make a snail snicker, so it's not like I'd remember what happened in this book by the time the next one comes around, anyway.

To all authors who take what was supposed to be a trilogy and drag it out over multiple long, plotless, 600+ page books, you are just taking advantage of your readers and to that I can only say: FUCK YOU.

I really wanted to write a good, detailed review for this because holy fuck, it's awesome. Of course, then I came down with a cold, and it's vicious, and I can barely focus on words right now. I'll put this here as a placeholder, in the hopes that eventually I'll be able to write something longer. But seriously, this was so good. If you want some sci fi starring a female character, but David Weber is too infodumpy for you and Ann Aguirre uses too many romance tropes, then this is probably what you're looking for.