One podcast recommended Mathieu Bablet's Shangri-La. It sounded interesting book. I checked it. I want to wait for a while before reading it. So it is on wish list until I forget what podcast said about it. I think they told too much and I want to read it not remembering what they said. There was another Mathieu Bablet's on sale. Shangri-La and The Beautiful Death were his only books I found translated to English. I don't want to make same mistake podcast made. So I won't go too deep into story.
There was war between insects and humans which insects won. Few humans have survived in city. They keep surviving avoiding insects and looking for other survivors. First half is humans wandering in empty city. Around halfway story takes turn to other direction. I don't want to say anything more. I just say first half is post-apocalyptic hard science fiction and second post-apocalyptic science fiction. Second half brings interesting concept but I would have liked more if story stayed like first half until the end. Second part is good science fiction but I liked first part bit more.
The Beautiful Death relies on art. There isn't much text. Art is almost all you need. It shows emptiness and loneliness of post-apocalyptic city. Book doesn't need much text because art shows almost everything you need to know. Art is so beautiful you want to read the book slowly to enjoy it and see what it tells.
If The Beautiful Death stayed as it was during first half it would be one of my favorite comic books ever. I don’t like to say it because second half is good too. There is change around half way point which doesn’t make much sense compared to what has happened before. It starts to make more sense later and is actually interesting concept but it doesn’t get to level of first half during second half. This is good book. Recommendation if you want your science fiction dark, melancholic, hard and bit weird. First part is hard, second weird. I will definitely read Shangri-La soon and hope Mathieu Bablet's other books get translated too.