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On The False Earths (Valerian and Laureline Vol. 7)

Pierre Christin
Art: Jean-Claude Mézières

Reviewed by Lorenzo Princi
On The False Earths (Valerian and Laureline Vol. 7) by Pierre Christin
Cover Concept by Lorenzo Princi, 6 June 2017
Those galactic heroes! Always into action for action's sake! Your partner keeps wasting valuable time for us with his pointless heroics!

Valerian back in time, or is he? A shocking few pages open the latest episode that I won't spoil. I will say this, On The False Earths is another great grand adventure of Galaxity's best spatio-temporal agent team.

Once more, as in the previous installment Ambassador of The Shadows, Laureline is the focal point. While Valerian plays man on the ground across different eras in Earth's past searching a dangerous alien life form, Laureline must hold her temper while dealing with the difficult historian assigned to their ship who is heading the mission.

Whereas recent tales have focused more on space travel, this volume is the first time related story in the series since The City of Shifting Waters and the unique take on the trope allows Christin to examine some social-political ideas from a unique viewpoint and further build the Valerian and Laureline universe. Valerian himself becomes nothing but a plot device while the conversations between Laureline and the arrogant historian give us further insight into the Terran culture and it's past.

A race against time, through time, On The False Earths is another classic Valerian and Laureline adventure filled with grandiose concepts, dynamic action and trademark satire.

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