“Carthago” by Christophe Bec (writer), Eric Henninot (artist)
Translated by Quinn & Katia Donoghue and Montana Kane
Since the dawn of time man has been fascinated by what is hidden in the depths of the oceans ... The sea is too big, too big for man; even if he devotes his entire life to it, he will only see a tiny part of it, and as in terrestrial jungles, the realities of life are more astonishing than the fantasies elaborated by science fiction writers.
When a group of ecologists discover evidence of sea creatures thought extinct for millennia, they pulled into a world that global corporations seek to keep hidden and billionaire adventurers race to claim ownership. But beyond all that lies a revelation about mankind’s ancient history long thought forgotten.
Carthago takes a little while to grab you, but once it does you find yourself in a rich and complex world. It’s just a shame that the ending doesn’t quite live up to expectations
I got to read all 10 volumes of Carthago in one go thanks to it being included in a Humble Bundle collection. And I’m glad I had it all in one go. If I have read the first volume on its own, I don’t know if I would have bothered to wait for the next and carry on. And I would have missed out.
The plot starts off feeling like a rather generic monster story. A group of sea biologists discover that Megalodons, giant sharks thought extinct for millions of years, have reappeared. This embroils them with an oil company who've kept this secret for years so they can mine the area these rare species come from, and a billionaire adventurer who wants to capture one as a trophy.
So far, so pretty generic.
It’s not until we get into the next couple of volumes that we start to get engaged in the full story. Elements such as human evolution, Atlantis, and forgotten origins of human civilisation quickly build. Soon the giant sharks become merely a background element of the main plot.
For all its strengths, it’s not perfect. Bec builds a wonderful sense of scale to the world. But there are times where this makes things feel confused. There are times when the action jumps around a lot, in both location and time period. Mostly it's clear. But at times it feels muddles and a little unnecessary.
I have to say the ending was a little disappointing. I’m a strong believer in not answering all questions in a story like this. Sometimes the best part for me as a reader at the mysteries left for me to come up with my own conclusions. But Bec leans a little too far in this direction. The secrets and background of the characters had been built up so well, slowly tying the mysteries together. But rather than leaving the reader some unanswered questions, almost all of them were.
But, importantly, this didn’t leave feeling this weakened the overall experience. The story itself is still strong. And sometimes you just have to enjoy the journey, not the destination.
My only other criticism is that sometimes the dialogue is a little clunky. But this is something I happily put down to being direct translations from the original French.
Carthago is a great story once it gets going, building characters and a world that drew me in with its feeling of scale. And while it fails to stick the landing, the journey itself is enthralling enough to make it worth reading.
