In Review: Lament Of The Lost Moors – Siobhán

By Jeremy Briggs on November 20, 2013

Cinebook start yet another new series with Siobhán, the first book in the Lament of The Lost Moors series, a tale of dark ages swords and sorcery written by Jean Dufaux and illustrated by Grzegorz Rosinski.

In the land of Eruin Dulea after the death of her father, the White Wolf, in a climactic battle on the Lost Moors, Siobhán’s mother, the Lady O’Mara, marries her former husband’s brother, Lord Blackmore, who is prepared to give the two women some protection from the winner of that battle, Beldam The Sorcerer. Young, feisty and distrustful of her uncle, after the wedding Siobhán ends up in a fight with the emissary of Beldam whom she accidentally kills. In the meantime one of the monks of the Warriors Of Mercy lands on the shores of Eruin Dulea looking for the one person who can hear the Lament Of The Lost Moors, the person who it is believed can free the land from the rule of the Sorcerer.

Let’s begin by pointing out that Siobhán, being a Celtic name, is pronounced Sha-von and, just to confuse matters further, the French version of it is spelt Sioban. La Complainte Des Landes Perdues was first published in 1993 with the first story cycle lasting for four albums all written by Jean Dufaux, a familiar Cinebook name from Crusade and the new Barracuda, and illustrated by Grzegorz Rosinski the long standing artist on Jean Van Hamme’s Thorgal series. The Lament Of The Lost Moors series is currently on its seventh book in France with the artwork for the second story cycle having been taken over by Philippe Delaby.

As the synopsis above would suggest Jean Dufaux has created a complex world populated by warriors and sorcerers and does rather throw the reader in at the deep end in the first part of the book before things slow down somewhat and are explained in the second part. Dufaux’s Crusade was a series that I thoroughly enjoyed although I had my reservations about the first, and so far only translated, part of Barracuda. However Lament Of The Lost Moors is different, the story intrigues me with its political machinations and the amount of sorcery going on by both, from Siobhán’s point of view at least, good and bad characters. It is all a good grounding for the continuation of the story over the next three books.

Anyone used to reading the Viking swords, sorcery and science-fiction of Thorgal is well used to Grzegorz Rosinski’s artwork, in the past I have compared his style to that of John Ridgway, so moving from Scandinavian to Celtic environs presents no great problem for him. His work here is a good as in the Thorgal books, with wide sweeping landscapes, dingy castles and slightly caricatured secondary characters, plus his painted and somewhat creepy cover of Siobhán herself.

Lament of The Lost Moors – Siobhán is a strong start to a new ongoing series from Cinebook, a series that should readily appeal to the Thorgal readers, and I’m already looking forward to the next book.

There are more details of Lament of The Lost Moors – Siobhán at the Cinebook website.

The second book in the Lament of The Lost Moors series, Blackmore, is scheduled to be published by Cinebook in February 2014.

There are more details of La Complainte Des Landes Perdues on the Dargaud website (in French).

Cinebook will be appearing at Thought Bubble in Leeds over the weekend of 23/24 November 2014. Their sales table will be in the Royal Armouries Hall.

Jeremy Briggs

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