Seven Secrets, Volume 1 Review (Tom Taylor, Daniele Di Nicuolo)

The Order of the Seven has always protected the Seven Secrets with one Keeper and one Holder assigned to each secret, enshrined in a suitcase, and kept far apart from each other across the planet. Except now the secrets are being targeted by deadly enemies - and the fate of the world is in danger! New Holder, Caspar, joins the others in keeping the secrets safe - but for how long?

Tom Taylor and Daniele Di Nicuolo’s Seven Secrets isn’t a bad new series. It’s definitely got its flaws but I liked it well enough too.

The story is childishly simple: goodies and baddies chase magic boxes around the world. So basically the plot of the Justice League movie/s? Yuh huh! And it’s because Taylor keeps things so vague that it’s not easy to get invested in what’s happening. It’s a melodramatic game of keepaway. Yawn.

That said, while the story is underdeveloped, Taylor is instead able to devote space on focusing on the characters and it’s because of them that makes the book stand out. Our main character is Caspar, who’s a generic hero, but I liked his parents, Eva and Sigurd, and the strained dynamic that the Order placed on them and their potential relationship with their son. The scenes between Sigurd and Caspar were unexpectedly touching.

The bad guy, Amon, is basically Kylo Ren (you’ll see why if you read this), but wasn’t boring even if he was derivative. Canto, one of the Order, has a cool mask design (or just has a very unusual-looking face), and the art throughout was really good - the book looks like a first rate anime.

Taylor’s created a familiar but still strange world for this series, where two major factions can wage war without drawing the attention of anyone, the Queen of England is a young black woman, and then there’s the place this book ends on… no idea what that’s about! It works in the narrative’s favour though and the surprising weirdness piqued my attention.

This first volume follows the template of a lot of first volumes, particularly those with a martial arts flavour, so there’s a lot of table-setting and a predictable training sequence, before the game of keepaway kicks off. Still, I wouldn’t say it was dull to read either, just a bit too one-dimensional for its own good, even if it is intentional.

Seven Secrets, Volume 1 is a fine, if unimpressive, beginning to this new title.