Review by Frank Plowright
Alva is a burglar capable of accessing places others can’t, and we first meet on her starting a job that goes about as wrong as it can. There are rumours of someone with a hoard of gold, which proves to be true, except the way they access that gold is beyond belief and adds a second meaning of dark to Alva’s world.
What at first seems a straightforward crime story down to the grimy surroundings brilliantly provided by Daniel Hansen is in fact introducing us to a slightly different world. Or perhaps its ours all along and we just don’t realise. Craftsman maintain a secretive guild that protects their own and send fatal messages to those who cross them, while a terrifying nine foot tall woman known as a Svartefal Witch induces fear in anyone who mentions her name.
From those details Axel Studsgarth concocts a compelling horror thriller about even the confident Alva in above her head. Despite a length extending beyond two hundred pages, Alva in the Dark never feels artificially prolonged. A sequence where Alva and her friend Mini drive north occupies ten pages from stealing a car, yet rather than feeling decompressed, it’s insight into the characters as they reject CDs and make conversation, while Hansen’s imagination gives us the night journey through the different stages, accentuating the difficulty of it. The creators could have just picked up with their arrival, but it’s a mood so efficiently set, and all that’s before some essential background is disclosed explaining Alva’s capabilities.
While that background is of ancient races eventually beaten into submission and hiding by humanity, the graphic realism of an action thriller remains the prevailing aesthetic, and Hansen puts in a hell of a lot of effort to ensure that’s the case.
Alva as a lead character is an interesting study, as there’s little warmth about her to generate sympathy. She’ll do the right thing by her friend Mini, but is extremely matter of fact in reacting to whatever circumstances are thrown at her. She’s certainly resourceful and capable, but also maintains a coldness. Once she learns more about herself it’s something that can be taken to reflect her circumstances.
Rather than knowing more about the specifics, know Studsgarth has created a compelling story brought to stunning life by Hansen and there’s no disappointment in the well staged finale. There’s a continuation of Alva’s story available in Europe, and surely Titan can’t translate it fast enough.
