Queen & Country, Vol. 1: Operation Broken Ground

Summary: Queen and Country follows the agents - known as "Minders" - of the Special Ops branch of MI-6, Britain's Foreign Intelligence Service. The story opens with Minder Two, otherwise known as Tara Chace, in Kosovo on an unofficial and unauthorized assignment to assassinate a Russian mobster and warlord. The consequences of that mission are far-reaching, however, since the assassinated man had powerful friends, and they decide to strike back... targeted directly at MI-6, and at Chace in particular.

Review: Political, spy, and special ops thrillers are not my usual genre of choice; in fact, I think they're probably on the far opposite end from my genres of choice. Therefore, I don't know that I am in any place to judge this book show more relative to others in the genre; it could be grittily accurate or fantastically off-base, and I would never know. I'm sure that I missed a lot of the subtleties of the inter- and intra-departmental conflict that was going on, just because I'm not familiar with the world or with the lingo. (In fact, the only reason I was able to follow what was going on at all was that I've watched the first season of MI:5.) But, lacking any comparative context, I did enjoy the story well enough, and I particularly liked the characterization of Tara. The thoughts and motivations of the people carrying out the special ops are always more interesting to me than the ops themselves, and while the characterization hasn't gotten too complex yet (it is still only Vol. 1), it's got a good foundation laid, and I'd be interested to see where Rucka takes the characters in the future. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Queen and Country would be best for people who like spy thrillers, but it also might be worth checking out for those who still think that graphic novels are only for folks who like fantasy, sci-fi, and superheroes. show less

I like Greg Rucka. This is from way back, and he's improved a lot since, but he was still pretty good in 2002.

You can't talk about MI6 without bringing up a bond comparison. I don't think he is trying to make his female lead a lady-Bond. He seems to be building a slightly grittier, less fantastic MI6. The main problem is that it comes off as a more than a little petty and too amateurish to be conducting assassinations around the world.

It looks like this series went at least 8 volumes. I will probably get volume 2 since its a Kindle unlimited/comixology freebie.

I had no idea what to expect but everything that I read and heard made me think I wouldn't like it. The art threw me off at first too. But once I started reading it, I really enjoyed it. I am glad there are more because I am really looking forward to it. This first book feels too short - not because the story is incomplete, it just goes by faster than I wanted. And once I started reading, I really enjoyed the art with the story. Well done.

A fantastic, and fantastically gray addition to spy fiction. Populated by dynamic, and flawed, human characters put in extraordinary situations.

Good stuff. Mature, fast paced storyline. I wonder why Rucka likes to make his strong women characters such heavy drinkers? Just asking.

My blog post about this book is at this link