A review by carroq
Wayward, Book 1 by Jim Zub

4.0

I read volume one of this series previously and really enjoyed it. This deluxe book (which I got as part of a Humble Bundle) contains the first two volumes of the series. Volume one was just as good as I remembered.

Volume two takes a hard shift in the story. It sort of makes sense based on where volume one ends, but it disrupts the flow of the story in this edition. I might not have had a problem with that if I had read the second arc separately instead of back to back as it is collected here. I had to reorient myself to the setting.

Once the story gets back on track and I could see how this ties into the first arc it was a lot more interesting to me. I really dig the characters. Zub does a good job of introducing them. The art team helps to make the important characters readily recognizable. And the setting is pretty cool. It's set in Japan and contains a lot of culturally appropriate mythical creatures.

The back matter goes in depth of a bunch of them to give the reader an idea of how they are identified and what they are capable of. This was one of my favorite parts because it shows how the creators actually thought about what they were using in the book.

Despite some issues in the second volume, I really enjoyed this book. I will definitely try to track down some of the later volumes to see what happens next.