Starchild Awakenings

Starchild

by James A. Owen, Paul Chadwick (introduction)

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fantasy

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bits of this book are much more wordy than most graphic novels. The plot is a bit of a family story combining myth, magic, and mystery. It idolized storytelling/ers incredibly highly. There's some humor but I think it's more dry. There is a Neil Gaiman reference that made me chuckle ("Little Neil").
Overall, a good read. Not for people new to comics I think. Definitely for fantasy lovers.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story, fun artwork. I love the concept here of story tellers gathering every 100 years to share tales... of course nothing is as it seems and things go awry... but what can you expect in an enchanted wood with fae folk involved?

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art was beautiful, though it did not differentiate between characters enough to help me follow the convoluted story. I would recommend this to people who have read a lot of graphic novels and know how the rhythm of such artistically rendered stories are often told. This isn't one of those, and is different and exasperating at many points. It often tells what I wished it would show.

So, I enjoyed the story, once I was over a third of the way through the book. At that point, I had finally gotten past enough of the mystery and gathered enough tidbits of the tale to find the path through the overgrown wood, to follow the setting of this story. I certainly appreciate the hard work that obviously went into crafting this graphic novel. However, it didn't really click together for me until toward the end of chapter 10, which I'm sorely tempted to quote here for the fun reading of those who see this review and are curious about Starchild Awakenings.

Let's just say, to save the mystery and avoid the spoilers, that Neil Gaiman understands, “Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot.”

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautifully drawn, though a bit pretentious in the end. I found it hard to differentiate between the story lines, and the addition of humour (no doubt meant to break the mood) simply felt out of place and awkward.

I appreciated the references to Neil Gaiman and the Sandman series.