Reviews

Trees, Vol. 1: In Shadow by Warren Ellis

notesquotesscarletmotes's review

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dark mysterious reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

A beautifully interwoven story filled with more questions than answers. 

aaron_j136's review

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4.0

No words for this amazing novel.
I need the next one it needed on a cliffhanger!!!!

Update 2020; still haven’t continued

sequoia87's review

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medium-paced

5.0

jbmorgan86's review

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3.0

Mysterious extra terrestrial towers (called "Trees") randomly appear across the world. 10 years later, strange things begin to happen under the trees: in Norway, black flowers begin growing in the snow and taking over everything. In Italy, fascists take over a city when the mafia leaves a vacuum. In China, an egalitarian, post-gender (?) society takes root. But then things suddenly change.

This book was just weird. I'm curious enough that I'm willing to read volume 2.

palomapepper's review

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2.0

Meh. Intriguing premise, but the story itself felt rushed. The Trees themselves take a backseat to a number of character stories I couldn't make myself care about. Romances (hooray for LGBT inclusiveness!) felt "preachy" rather than flowing naturally. I also wasn't a fan of the art style - characters were hard to distinguish from one another, and I found myself confusing them.

damarginal's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

tigersmurf's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.0

schnoebs13's review

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2.0

We’re not the only one out there anymore and apparently humans don’t even come close to counting as intelligent to these new species. It’s been ten years since the trees have come to Earth and nothing society has can do anything to even have them take notice. Now it seems like governments are taking a new approach but also things seem to be stirring underground and the trees might finally be making a move.

I was really interested in going into this graphic novel but man oh man I had the hardest time following along to what was happening or even caring about the characters. I’m 100% a fan of dystopian and post apocalyptic and this gave me all the vibes with how things were happening closer to the base of the trees but he ending just made me question why we even read about anything for the entire volume. I enjoyed the conversations on gender and sexuality as well as the overall feminist themes in parts of the storylines but I couldn’t get on board. Honestly there was not enough here for me to even consider continuing on with the series. The concept was great but the execution fell so badly that it put me off from reading more.

pagesofpins's review

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3.0

A well-crafted graphic novel, but it doesn't lend itself to serial installments very well--it feels incomplete. The premise that super advanced aliens have landed and established "trees" that dump nuclear waste, but don't think of humans as intelligent or worth communicating with, was original and believable. The sets of characters were well developed, but they never interact with each other (we have an artist falling in love with a transgendered woman in one area of the world, a leader determined to use the trees to his political advantage in another, a woman prostituting herself to a mobster to survive and learning secret agent skills from a mysterious old man, and a scientist obsessed with aliens acknowledging their existence). Their stories were unique and far from predictable, but I'm not left with a clear sense of where the author is going with these or how they will tie together.

Also: Dr. Siva and Zhen look like twins.
Also also: Holy sexual liberation themes, Batman.

raloveridge's review

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4.0

Really compelling! I look forward to seeing where it goes next.