Free (Kindle/Kobo/ePub) Le sommeil du monstre by Enki Bilal [French Sci-Fi Comics]

[ATDrake]

Le sommeil du monstre by Yugoslavian-born Enki Bilal (Wikipedia), is the 1st album in his Tétralogie du monstre science fiction quadrilogy, starring a man who flashes back to the Balkan wars of the 1990s in between navigating his dystopian future, free courtesy of publisher Casterman.

This is a real treat for French-language readers and graphic novel fans, as Bilal is one of the major talents in French bandes déssinés, with multiple awards and a rich body of work (and has had a solo exhibition featured in the Louvre, by the way), which is probably best known in English translation from his many stories in Heavy Metal magazine. (The albums from this quadrilogy have been translated into English by Humanoids Publishing, in case you were looking to check your francophone comprehension skills.)

This has been only the 2nd BD album from a major label which I've seen go promotionally free available to North America (the 1st one sadly expired unexpectedly after having been an iTunes Canada store featured supplementary freebie in the francophone section, so hopefully a lot of people got it during the month or so it was available), and I hope it's part of a trend for more French BD freebies.

Currently free @ Amazon (available to Canadians & in the UK), Kobo & Google Play (both available to Canadians). The Amazon and Kobo versions both require a certain level of compatible device/app to read.

Publisher Dargaud's own freebie album unfortunately expired, but you can still get a free issue of their dedicated in-house magazine/sampler, which contains sketches & mini-articles & interviews with various of their comic book creators: Dargaud Le Mag: numéro 2 — Les découvertes du printemps @ Amazon (available to Canadians & in the UK), Kobo & iTunes & Google Play (all available to Canadians).

And this has been the selected (bumped up in the queue since I had a sudden free slot due to the thing I was originally planning to feature being mentioned elsewhere right as I was doing up the post, oops, need to learn to type faster ) 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.

Enjoy!

Description
Nike Hatzfeld a trente-trois ans lorsque sa légendaire mémoire hypertrophiée le renvoie aux tous premiers jours de sa propre naissance.

Nous sommes en 1993. La Yougoslavie agonise, les obus bosno serbes pleuvent sur l’hôpital de Sarajevo. C’est là que Nike partage son lit et ses premiers jours de vie avec Amir et Leyla, orphelins comme lui. Son destin bascule lorsqu’il se souvient avoir juré, à l’âge de 18 jours, de les retrouver et de les « protéger toujours ».

Entre sa mémoire de 1993 et sa réalité contemporaine de 2026, Nike Hatzfeld subit une brutale contraction du temps, qui l’entraîne dans un tourbillon d’apocalypse religieuse obscurantiste, comme si les gênes de son futur de 2026 étaient inscrits dans son premier souffle de 1993.

Un bal macabre secoue la planète, ballotte le monde et ses démocraties, orchestré par un certain Optus Warhole, autoproclamé ; « l’incarnation du mal suprême »…Nike et Leyla se trouvent. Amir, de son côté, surnage avec Sacha, une fille paumée, quatrième pièce rapportée d’un puzzle en cours.

[septentrion]

Thank you for this one!