Beyond the clouds vol 3 by Nicke

Mia and Theo continue to try to get the fortune teller to help them find a magician to help Mia, but the fortune teller refuses once more. Mia and Theo catch him after he's been ruffed up by a street gang, and Theo gives him some salve to help with his bruises. They learn that his name is Nora, and he has a "partner", a little ferret named Tama who "helps" Nora locate lost items. It turns out, Tama is extremely attracted to shiny things, and usually steals them, then Nora uses his "fortune telling" powers to help "locate" the item that Tama has stolen. The thugs come back and kidnap Nora. Mia, Theo, and Tama plan to rescue him. They turn out not to be the best rescuers, and Mia once again loses control of her magic, making it even more pressing that they find someone to train her.

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Despite there being a moment of darkness when Mia loses control of her magic, this series is fairly wholesome and one that might appeal to middle grade audiences. Despite Nora being uncovered as a fraud, Theo and Mia still see him as someone worthy of saving, rather than leaving him to an unknown fate with his kidnappers. Hopefully, Nora becomes a new companion or someone important to their tasks because otherwise, the quest Theo and Mia have undertaken isn't really furthered by this volume. 

The illustrations are a little bit hard to follow within the action sequences in this volume because there really isn't a lot of exact detail in any of the panels. Theo and Nora are very similarly designed, so readers will have to pay attention to which character wears goggles (Theo) in order to tell them apart. I definitely appreciated the art style much more when Theo was exploring the forest in volume two; seeing the etherial nature of the shading an inexact outlining on a cityscape is less enjoyable.

Sara's Rating: 7/10
Suitability Level: Grades 7-12

Reviews of previous volumes in this series: vol 1, vol 2
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Publisher: Kodansha
Publication Date: February 11, 2021
ISBN: 9781632369574 (Paperback)

Tags: Rating: 7/10, Suitability: Middle School, Suitability: High School, Manga, Fantasy, ​Kodansha