Caramel reviews Cleopatra in Space: Target Practice by Mike Maihack

Recently Caramel discovered Cleopatra in Space, a series of graphic novels by Mike Maihack about the famed Egyptian queen Cleopatra and her futuristic adventures. Today he reviews the first book in the series: Cleopatra in Space: Target Practice. As usual, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, tell me about this book.

Caramel: This book is about Cleopatra who goes to the future.

S: Wait, the Cleopatra?

C: Yes the famous Egyptian queen. She is not a queen yet though. She is young, fifteen years old. And she touches a tablet, the Ata tablet, which transfers her to the future.

S: What kind of future? Cleopatra lived about two thousand years ago. Does she come to our time?

C: No, she goes into the far future. There are ray guns and stuff in this future.

S: Hmm, sounds science fiction-y…

C: Yes. It is quite science-fiction-y. She is supposed to save the galaxy, there is a prophesy, and she alone is supposed to save the galaxy. But it is not clear what she will need to do to save the galaxy in this first book. She will have to recover a sword, I think, but she also has to go to school in this future. In her own words, she says,

“Light years from my home planet, millennia in the future, and a supposed savior of the galaxy, and I still have to go to school?!”

Cleopatra

S: Hmm, she does not like school?

C: Yeah. She has to learn a lot of things, and she does not seem to like most of her classes. She is taking Algebra, Biology, Literature, Alien Languages, and Target Practice. But she likes Target Practice; it is her favorite class.

S: So what is she training to use in Target Practice?

C: She is learning to use the ray guns.

S: Hmm, so there are some galactic wars coming up in her future, I suppose.

C: I think so. But the war part has not started yet.

S: Hmm, so it seems like this book is just right up your alley. You like graphic novels, and the book is quite science fiction-y and …

C: And there are space ships! And I like space ships! Hers is shaped like a sphinx.

S: That sounds cool. So tell me three words you’d use to describe this book.

C: Colorful, exciting, historical.

S: So do you learn anything historical from the book?

C: Not much. But Cleopatra is from ancient history and it is fun to see her learn about the far future.

S: And the illustrations are pretty colorful, I agree. I saw that there is a TV series about these books. Did you know about that?

C: Not until now! Can we put in a trailer here?

S: Yes let us do that:

C: This looks cool! But I think Akila does not look anything like she does in the book. In the book she looks like a normal person. In the TV series, she looks weird, with pink hair and weird eyes and blue skin.

S: Maybe they wanted to make her look more alien?

C: Yes, she is an alien but in the book she looks like a normal human.

S: Hmm, so I am thinking you don’t want to watch the show?

C: No I did not say that! Maybe we can watch an episode or two. Maybe even tonight?

S: Hmm, we will see about that. What about the book series? Apparently there are five more books about Cleopatra in space.

C: Well, I checked out the second book from my school library already. I will definitely read that one.

S: Sounds like a plan. If you like it, you might even review it for our blog.

C: Yep.

S: So this is probably a good time to wrap things up. What do you want to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!