SPOILERS AHEAD!!
There are two story arcs in this seventh volume (the title suggests the movie “Seven Samurai”).
The first arc takes place in prison, where Loop is joined by Lono. This felt very much like OZ, the HBO series. There are many factions in prison, they all fight each other. Each faction has its own leader, and power is gotten from being good at fighting and standing up to the big guys.
But the most interesting part of this story is the conversation between Lono and Shepherd. Now we know why Graves and Shepherd had Loop and Lono arrested. They wanted Lono to train Loop in prison, so that he will be ready for what’s to come. Loop is already doing well by himself, taking care of Nine Train. But Lono will make him even better.
In the second arc we see the return of Jack Daw, who obviously didn’t kill himself at the end of his previous arc. It’s clear now that he is one of the Minutemen and Graves was just trying to shake him out of the drug addiction. That’s what happens in this arc. The premise of a place where people can kill wild animals is not new, but this is not the jungle and these people are not really hunters. They just want to kill animals.
Jack wants to go to Atlantic City for some reason, obviously something in his subconscious is telling him that he needs to go there. At the end he’s free from addiction and separates himself from his previous life by parting ways with Mickey.
If I had to choose the least favorite volume, this could probably be it. It’s not bad, it’s just not great like other volumes. It didn’t exactly reveal much about the past, and it didn’t advance the present plot, other than putting some players in the right positions. I also wasn’t completely blown away by the self-contained stories in prison and in Jungle Garvey. That said they were still very enjoyable and very good stories.