There’s a huge treat to be found inside the pages of Persia Blues, the new fantasy/drama from Dara Naraghi and Brent Bowman.
 
The book is divided into two separate yet connected storylines. In one, Minoo Shirazi is a young woman growing up with a single, widowed father in modern-day Iran. In the other, Minoo is a mystic warrior, wielding dangerous energy blasts as effortlessly as she jabs her sword. In both stories, Minoo is beautiful and fiercely independent.
 
The story set in modern-day Iran is the more interesting one, but that’s simply because Naraghi has infused it with it so much heart and created such a compelling father-daughter storyline that it’s hard not to get swept up in it. As a young girl, Minoo struggles to accept her role as a female in Iranian society. Her parents are not religious, so she sees no reason she should have to wear a hijab or partake in the other controlling aspects of a religion she doesn't believe in. That attitude sticks with her into adulthood, where, as a college student, she wears Ramones T-shirts and drives bombastically through Shiraz using skills she picked up playing Grand Theft Auto.
 
It’s more difficult to select in which storyline Bowman’s artistry is better. In the fantasy story, his lush pencils are dark, swirled, majestic, full of portent. In short, they’re simply wonderful. But then again, how he captures Iran’s city of Shiraz, as well as simple scenes of a family at home or people interacting, is impressively subtle and evocative.
 
This is the first book in a planned trilogy, and both storylines reach satisfactory cliffhangers that leave us eager for another volume.