Jacopo Paliaga

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

It's hard to explain The Frontier. It's very much a Western but with several fantasy elements. It's as if Firefly and The Umbrella Academy got mashed together, and the result of combining the two was The Frontier. The plot does get a little confusing at times, but I think it's on purpose to keep up the suspense. The way flashbacks explain the character's backstories were handled in a smart way. Their backstories open each chapter, before promptly returning to the present events. The way the backstories were placed into the story works great. It gives you more insight into the characters and their motivations, while also keeping the suspense and plot steady. Learning how they got to where they currently are makes you more curious about why they're doing what they're currently doing. I am a little confused about how and why certain people have powers. Not everyone has them, but how did they get them in the first place? This is only the first volume though, so hopefully it gets expanded on in a later volume. The character designs are fairly interesting for the most part. The only qualm about the designs that I have is about the Native characters. Was it necessary to make the Native women scantily clad? They both basically have almost their entire chests out, with only their nipples just barely covered by a tiny bit of leather bits. I know this is sort of more of a fantasy Western, so it's not going to be historically accurate at all, but when none of the other characters are sexed up like that, it paints a poor picture. It doesn't help the other female characters are all clothed in pretty much historically accurate Western womans wear, with them fully covered. Well, except Nova, but I'm not even sure she's a person or something else masquerading as one, so she's not included in this complaint. Regardless, this first volume ends on a pretty big cliffhanger. This world is pretty wild, so I am actually interested in seeking out the second novel when it releases!… (meer)