Reviewer

Alexander Hoffman

Alexander Hoffman is more often than not, studying for his latest exam. A student in Ohio Northern's six-year Pharmacy program, what time he has that isn't spent learning the ins-and-outs of the human body and the drugs we use on it, is spent on comics, Magic: the Gathering, and games of all types. Alex got his start in writing through short fiction and poetry contests, and began writing about games in the Spring of 2005 at Magic Deck Vortex. He started his blog, Manga Widget, in the Fall of 2008 to talk about comics, and he's been writing almost full-time ever since.

http://www.amazon.com/Hollow-Fields-Vol-Madeleine-Rosca/dp/1933164247/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_c

Hollow Fields Volume 1 (Written and Illustrated by Madeleine Rosca)

Seven Seas Entertainment

Genre: Comedy/Sci-fi

Age Rating: All Ages

Price: $9.99

Lucy Snow was just an average girl looking to go to a nice boarding school. By some twist of fate, she gets lost in the woods, and ends up enrolling at Hollow Fields, a school for the Scientifically Gifted and Ethically Unfettered - mad scientists in training, if you will.

Lucy, of course, is not a mad scientist, and neither are her parents. They're dentists. This provides much of the cute humor that is the trademark of this manga. Lucy is digging up corpses, merging species, building clockwork bombs, and doing all sorts of things she's never heard of before (and is frankly terrified of). She's not that good at mad science, and the contraptions she builds are part of the fun of the series.

Hollow Fields isn't just about a cute girl doing scary things. Behind the humor, a darker plot is outlined, and children who do bad at school end up going to the Windmill for detention; none of those children are ever seen again. Lucy's curiosity and her dedication to escaping Hollow Fields pushes this story along at a very reasonable, and readable pace.

The art isn't the traditional manga fare, and is quite good. I'm glad, because global manga like this, in my opinion, need to have their own unique style and flavor, something that Hollow Fields has in abundance.

7.5

Summing Up:

Hollow Fields is a world manga that shows a lot of promise. It's cute, but it manages to push a lot of story into the cogs and gears of mad science. Definitely worth a read.

Contact Information:

Seven Seas Entertainment

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