shanbear16's review
4.0
For the most part I felt like this was a really great adaptation of the novel. I loved the detail and faithful retelling. The first 7 chapters had fantastic art and I loved seeing some of my favorite characters and favorite institution of the series put into visual form. Unfortunately the 8th chapter is done by a different design team and it really shows. It's not the worst art I've seen (it's better than some of the Buffy season 8 stuff) but it detracts from the great 7 chapters before it. I know a lot of stuff went on behind the scenes which is unfortunate and uncontrollable. One unfortunate event was the passing of Robert Jordan. This definitely impacted how Chapter 8 appears. He had specific opinions and input on the first 7 chapters and this is why they came out to be as awesome as they were. Chapter 8 breaks the rules too much. If you read the bonus material you'll see the RJ specifically said no off the shoulder dresses and we see in several places women wearing off the shoulder dresses. It's a shame, but as a fan I'm just glad New Spring was completed.
patroklo's review
4.0
Super je bilo videti kako su zamislili likove, Tar Valon, Aijele... i što su malo produbili priču. Sve ono što je u noveli tek spomenuto (prvenstveno kako su Moiraina i Sijuan provele svoje početke u Beloj Kuli) ovde je dato malo više prostora i lepo objašnjeno.
vylotte's review
5.0
Loved it! New Spring is the prequel to the Wheel of Time massive series, and here it got graphic novel treatment, with full input from the author, Robert Jordan, before he died. I loved finally seeing Tar Valon, the White Tower, Dragonmount and many other reference points from the novels. Lots of "tasteful" nudity (no nipples!) which was distracting but very true to the books.
Also fun to see major players from the end of the series appearing as novices and bit players. Kind of ominous to realize just how many ended up eeeeeevillll.
Also fun to see major players from the end of the series appearing as novices and bit players. Kind of ominous to realize just how many ended up eeeeeevillll.
kukushka's review
3.0
I'm still making my way through A Memory of Light, but I came across the New Spring graphic novel at the library and thought I would give it a try.
It's been almost exactly a year since I first started the Wheel of Time series, beginning with the prequel (though it wasn't published until the series was already well under way, I wanted to get the plot in order). So it's been a while, enough time for the graphic novel to be a lovely refresher as I make my way through the culmination of the story.
I was reminded of how much I hadn't grasped when I first read the prequel. The biggest example of this is the Aiel. Since the descriptions of them in the book compared them to demons and dark friends, and their faces were always covered, and their culture was entirely alien to all the POV characters in the book, I had assumed that they were something more like trollocs than people. It wasn't until a subsequent book that I realized they were just meant to be another culture.
This made Lan's chapters difficult to read. I just didn't get them, I couldn't picture the battles in my mind. With Moiraine, however, enough was familiar that I could find my footing pretty quickly.
Having now fully submerged myself in the Wheel of Time universe, I was able to pick up a lot more from the graphic novel. For example, I had completely forgotten that Moiraine had met Cadsuane, and knowing who Cadsuane is now, that encounter makes a lot more sense. (Same goes for Elaida.)
As for the graphic novel itself, it was fine. The art was mostly very clean (except for the last chapter and epilogue, where there's a sudden change in style and drop in quality), and it was interesting to see how the characters were represented - even if the images don't always agree with what I have in my head.
I also felt like the artwork was overly sexualized. Most of the women are too skinny for their organs, and they all have perfect pert breasts. It's a little jarring to see characters who are identified almost exclusively by their intellects in the book to all be supermodels in the graphic novel.
This really comes through in Jordan's e-mails, provided at the end of the book. In the e-mails, he is correcting errors made by the adaptation team, and frequently has to remind them to de-sexy the female characters. It's unfortunate that, although he specifically mentions that there should not be any low necklines, and no off-the-shoulder dresses, on several occasions, and yet the final chapter (which I am given to understand was drawn after Jordan's death) includes them anyway. I guess because he wasn't there to to reign in the impulse for sexifying any more? It's a shame.
That said, I did really like the way that channelling was depicted. I've occasionally wondered how a graphic/movie adaptation could handle Weaving, given the way it's described in the books, and I think they did a really good job.
The dialogue was okay. They did that weird thing that I've noticed in comic books where they bold certain words, and I really don't understand it. My brain always wants to put more emphasis on those words because they are in bold, but then it interrupts the rhythm of speech.
I noticed some typos, or perhaps just very poor word choices that made the dialogue more confusing that it needed to be. I think, though I may be wrong, that this occurred more frequently in the final chapter - where the artwork suffered as well. I suspect the two are related.
In all, I found it an interesting little exercise, as someone who has read most of the Wheel of Time series, to get to revisit part of the story in a different format. I couldn't recommend it to someone who hadn't already read the book, however. There's just too much going on, too many subplots, and the graphic novel just doesn't really do a very good job of providing backstory. I understand the constraints of the format, but I do think that the adaptation team could have done a better job.
It's been almost exactly a year since I first started the Wheel of Time series, beginning with the prequel (though it wasn't published until the series was already well under way, I wanted to get the plot in order). So it's been a while, enough time for the graphic novel to be a lovely refresher as I make my way through the culmination of the story.
I was reminded of how much I hadn't grasped when I first read the prequel. The biggest example of this is the Aiel. Since the descriptions of them in the book compared them to demons and dark friends, and their faces were always covered, and their culture was entirely alien to all the POV characters in the book, I had assumed that they were something more like trollocs than people. It wasn't until a subsequent book that I realized they were just meant to be another culture.
This made Lan's chapters difficult to read. I just didn't get them, I couldn't picture the battles in my mind. With Moiraine, however, enough was familiar that I could find my footing pretty quickly.
Having now fully submerged myself in the Wheel of Time universe, I was able to pick up a lot more from the graphic novel. For example, I had completely forgotten that Moiraine had met Cadsuane, and knowing who Cadsuane is now, that encounter makes a lot more sense. (Same goes for Elaida.)
As for the graphic novel itself, it was fine. The art was mostly very clean (except for the last chapter and epilogue, where there's a sudden change in style and drop in quality), and it was interesting to see how the characters were represented - even if the images don't always agree with what I have in my head.
I also felt like the artwork was overly sexualized. Most of the women are too skinny for their organs, and they all have perfect pert breasts. It's a little jarring to see characters who are identified almost exclusively by their intellects in the book to all be supermodels in the graphic novel.
This really comes through in Jordan's e-mails, provided at the end of the book. In the e-mails, he is correcting errors made by the adaptation team, and frequently has to remind them to de-sexy the female characters. It's unfortunate that, although he specifically mentions that there should not be any low necklines, and no off-the-shoulder dresses, on several occasions, and yet the final chapter (which I am given to understand was drawn after Jordan's death) includes them anyway. I guess because he wasn't there to to reign in the impulse for sexifying any more? It's a shame.
That said, I did really like the way that channelling was depicted. I've occasionally wondered how a graphic/movie adaptation could handle Weaving, given the way it's described in the books, and I think they did a really good job.
The dialogue was okay. They did that weird thing that I've noticed in comic books where they bold certain words, and I really don't understand it. My brain always wants to put more emphasis on those words because they are in bold, but then it interrupts the rhythm of speech.
I noticed some typos, or perhaps just very poor word choices that made the dialogue more confusing that it needed to be. I think, though I may be wrong, that this occurred more frequently in the final chapter - where the artwork suffered as well. I suspect the two are related.
In all, I found it an interesting little exercise, as someone who has read most of the Wheel of Time series, to get to revisit part of the story in a different format. I couldn't recommend it to someone who hadn't already read the book, however. There's just too much going on, too many subplots, and the graphic novel just doesn't really do a very good job of providing backstory. I understand the constraints of the format, but I do think that the adaptation team could have done a better job.
deepteareads's review
3.0
The artwork in the first seven issues was just beautiful, and really did justice to the imagery put forth in the book, but the drastic change in the eighth issue was rather off-putting, I'd say, if not completely disastrous.
adubrow's review
3.0
I'm trying to get myself in the mood to read The Eye of the World, one of my reading resolutions for 2011.
Parts of this graphic novel were kinda cool, but I was left with more questions than answers in regards to everything but the Aes Sedai. Then suddenly three characters had the same blue dress, and I have no idea what happened in the last two sections. At all.
Can anyone give me or point me to a spoiler-filled synopsis of that book?
Parts of this graphic novel were kinda cool, but I was left with more questions than answers in regards to everything but the Aes Sedai. Then suddenly three characters had the same blue dress, and I have no idea what happened in the last two sections. At all.
Can anyone give me or point me to a spoiler-filled synopsis of that book?
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