For the first time since I first discovered this minimalistic Norwegian artist and storyteller, I am disappointed.

The Last Musketeer is cute and wryly amusing. But the story seems curiously empty, lacking the amazing depth that usually defines a Jason tale.

It begins in France, where Athos -- one of the original Three Musketeers -- still wanders the streets today looking for wrongs to right and drinks to cajole from anyone willing to listen to his tales. Aramis is still around, too, but he's retired into business, and Porthos is disturbingly absent. But then Martians invade the city, and Athos finds a new purpose at last.

Commandeering a spacecraft, he flies to Mars -- only to be captured and imprisoned in the Martian emperor's dungeons. But Athos has always been a clever sort, easily able to turn adversity into victory, and he doesn't remain imprisoned for long.

The story is fun, involving the emperor's daughter, a faulty robot, swords, lasers and a mysterious figure in the tower. On the surface, it's quite enchanting.

But when I finish one of Jason's short but pithy books, I expect to feel a sense of awe, an awareness that I've just read something important in some indescribable way. Alas, The Last Musketeer ends and I feel ... nothing. Except some small sense of disappointment that, for the first time in my recollection, Jason's spare, dramatic artwork has been colored. Nothing against the coloring work of Hubert (who, like Jason, uses only one name) but somehow it detracts from the visual experience, rather than enhancing it.

I enjoyed this book, but I didn't love it. It simply lacked the punch of a true Jason moment.