When I read the premise of this graphic novel on Netgalley, it sounded so good… It sounded like the kind of graphic novel that I would instantly go for in a book shop. Alas, whilst reading it, I found it confusing and just straight up boring. 

Famed warrior Azarias has gathered a small army of varied adventurers on a quest to gather the dust of a distant island god in order to save the life of their king. Along the way, they encounter numerous beasts and monsters all in the process of gathering artifacts necessary to locate the island god before ultimately defeating it.

Throughout the course of the adventure, the band disperses into small groups with individual objectives in order to cover more ground in shorter order. These individual side-story adventures reveal more about each of the many unique and intriguing characters and their different interactions in different combinations. 

This expertly curated anthology approach builds to the ultimate encounter and resolution in the end, with each of the warriors in the ensemble receiving their due attention. A very intricate and original fantasy universe filled with a large cast of intriguing, complex, and diverse warriors deserving stories of their own.

The thing that really confused me about this graphic novel was that, when a new chapter started, there would also be a different kind of artwork, and then the different artwork would represent a different character’s point of view (see images below). This is a good idea, but it wasn’t executed well AT ALL. I had to Google whether the difference in artwork meant that there were multiple graphic novel stories in this one, like an anthology. I mean, I guess it was an anthology of sorts? It was an anthology of artists…

It also didn’t help that the story was confusing as well, I had no idea what was going on for about 75% of the time. The graphic novel actually started off really strong. With the amazing art work and a solid plot idea about a warrior going on a quest to save his King, I was excited to continue reading about his journey through different lands and completing different tasks. I think that if the first artist had done the illustrations throughout the graphic novel, and it didn’t keep switching perspectives, then this would have been a magnificent story. However, that just wasn’t the case. The story turned into one with weird artwork, and (sometimes) indecipherable lettering, so you really had to squint and concentrate to even make out the words which was so annoying.

It’s such a shame that this graphic turned out to be a 1-star, because I was really looking forward to it. But hey, you can’t enjoy every book that you’re going to pick up, are you?

Disclaimer: this book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review