Review by Ian Keogh

Reloaded Memory concludes a two chapter story set around a proposed assassination that bumps the continuity of XIII forward eighteen months, the final pages filling the gap via a succession of newspaper headlines leading to preparations for a US election.

2,331 Yards both opened and closed with a stunning scene, and both are resolved in the rocket-paced events of Reloaded Memory. Not for nothing did Yves Sente take readers on a tour of the Mayflower Group’s capabilities in the last book, and Jason McClane having foiled their previous coup barely seemed to have put a dent in their plans as pretty well everything shown is employed in engineering the downfall of the US President. Sente maintains plausibility and makes it all seem relatively simple, so let’s hope no wrong’uns are taking notes.

As ever, Iouri Jigounov adds to the plausibility by ensuring everything looks as it does in the real world, and putting a great deal of effort in doing so. It’s usually opulent locations, exotic scenery and modern cities forming the backdrop, but here it’s almost all action all the way, and Jigounov brings cinematic panache to every page.

Were one to make a list of the setbacks McClane has endured over XIII’s run it would read as a preposterous succession of calamity, but Sente, like Jean Van Hamme before him, is skilled in ensuring that incident by incident they’re completely credible. Well, almost. There has been the occasional lapse, but not here. For regular readers the title dangles the possibility of McClane’s full memories being restored. Does it happen? Well, the Mayflower Group’s neuroscience was highlighted last time around, but then there was that shocking opening scene…

Cuba, Where it all Began continues McClane’s story in a very changed world.