Jean-Claude Mézières

"Every 100 years or so, the infertile people of Simlane send their champions to the sacred island of Filene, where the best among them, chosen via a series of tests, will find and bring back the next generation. This cycle, though, the local heroes seem to fail repeatedly, and the aging Simlanians have sent for heroes from other worlds. Valerian, chosen to represent Earth, will have to overcome the tests and his competitors in a dangerous odyssey ... "Back cover.

This first volume of the collection contains books 1 and 2 of the series: The City of Shifting Waters - in its original two parts, 9 pages longer format - and The Empire of a Thousand Planets. It also includes book 0, Bad Dreams, translated into English for the first time: the very first adventures of our two heroes, published after City and retroactively numbered. Finally, linking the volumes of this collection together, a long, exclusive interview with the authors and director Luc Besson is illustrated with new art as well as numerous sketches, studies and photographs from the latter's upcoming big-screen adaptation.