Fiction Addict

Genre: Graphic Novel, Contemporary, Thriller

Publisher: Del Rey

Publication Date: October 2010

Reviewed by James Andrew Wilson

Odd and the gang are back with another graphic novel adventure. Odd is on Our Side is a second prequel to the 2003 classic Koontz novel: Odd Thomas. The first graphic novel featuring our favorite fry cook (In Odd We Trust) was released in 2008 to great success. It only makes sense to revisit Pico Mundo for another outing, right?

Well, almost.

Like a new dollop of pancake batter in the pan, Odd is on Our Side begins with syrupy potential. Unfortunately, someone forgot to add the extra special ingredient to the mix, and the book comes out tasting bland.

It’s not all bad. After all, this is still Odd Thomas, and any amount of time in his world is bound to be enjoyable. We get to see the first visual representation of bodachs, and they certainly do not disappoint—neither does our time with the famous character Ozzie Boon, or the banter between Odd and the always lovely Stormy Llewelyn. Queeni Chan’s artwork is wonderful and she does a brilliant job of capturing the small details and the over all feel of the story world.

The main problem with the book is the motivation of the villain. It would be giving away too much to explain exactly why this aspect of the story doesn’t work—but suffice to say that the nasty individual responsible for attracting all the bodachs to Pico Mundo is four eggs shy of a three-egg omelet when it comes to brains.

All in all, if you’re a fan of Odd Thomas, you’ll enjoy yourself with Odd is on Our Side, but I suspect in the end it will frustrate you more than anything. These little graphic novels are a fun diversion, but it’s time we moved on to the main course. Mr. Koontz, please serve us up a new grand slam Odd adventure—we’re hungry and waiting!

Review copy provided by publisher.

Genre: Graphic Novel, Suspense, Fantasy

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Release Date: December 2009

Reviewed by Josh Olds

The Circle Series Visual is a hardcover 3-in-1 edition of the original graphic novels for Black, Red, and White, which are in turn adaptations of the regular novels of the same name, authored by Ted Dekker. These novels retell man’s redemptive history through the medium of Story in a powerful way.

It all begins when Thomas Hunter falls and reawakens in the colored forest. At first, he thinks he is living in a fantastical dream, but soon comes to acknowledge the reality of both this Other Earth – this dream world – and Real Earth, the world of his present. He finds that when he sleeps in one world, he reawakens in the other. And the future of both worlds has been placed on his shoulders.

With information gleaned from the colored forest, which claims to be the future of Real Earth, Thomas learns that a bioterrorist releases a virulent disease, called the Raison Strain, which ushers in The Great Deception. In the colored forest, Thomas finds an Edenic type of reality, with the saga of man finding itself retold. In three stories of two worlds only one man can bridge the realities and do what is necessary to save both worlds.

New York Times bestselling author Ted Dekker first gained major popularity when his publisher, Thomas Nelson, declared it Year of the Trilogy and released the entire Circle trilogy in the space of a year (Dekker has since added a Book Zero, Green, to the saga). Such overwhelming success led to the graphic novel versions, here repackaged in a durable and hardcover format.

The art throughout the graphic novel gets better and better with each page. Ted’s words form pictures and we see the story come to life. Graphic novels are an interesting medium when they are adaptations from regular full-length novels. Obviously, one cannot render every scene or include every bit of dialogue, so the major challenge is deciding how to stay true to the story while yet creating an exciting visual story. The adaptation and editing team – Kevin Kaiser, J.S. Earls, Matt Hansen, Bob Strachan, and Mike S. Miller – did a great job in this respect, so while ardent fans of the series will undoubtedly note what is missing, they should also appreciate that the core storyline is maintained and that Dekker’s vision shines through.

There are many pros about this version and the graphic novel concept in general. From a purely pragmatic standpoint, for those wanting to dive into the Circle in living color, this is probably your best financial option. These graphic novels are great for introducing the Circle series to younger kids who might not have the time or attention span to consume a full-length novel, but will digest works such as this. While slightly smaller in size than the original glossy soft cover editions, this 3-in-1 is just as easily read as the original version. Text size is slightly smaller but barely noticeable.

Dekker fans who do not already have the individual graphic novels will find this a must-have add to the Dekker library. Those new to the Circle will find themselves salivating for more as they close the cover. All in all a great job by a number of people to take an epic trilogy and offer it in an exciting medium.

Review copy provided by Thomas Nelson.

Genre: Graphic Novel, Historical

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

Released: September 2009

Reviewed by Jonathan Schindler

Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth is a fictional retelling of the life of mathematician, logician, and philosopher Bertrand Russell and his quest to discover the foundational underpinnings of mathematics. A book about a mathematical quest may not sound appealing and certainly not deserving of the word “epic” in its subtitle. But Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou, using the graphic novel format, have successfully created an engaging, clever, and ultimately satisfying foray into the world of logic and math that should keep readers engrossed even after they’ve finished it.

The book opens with author Apostolos addressing the reader directly, explaining what he’s hoping to accomplish in a book he’s working on concerning the quest for the foundation of mathematics. He wants to tell a good story whose heroes happen to be mathematicians and logicians, but in order to tell it well, he consults with a computer scientist friend of his, Christos, who can explain the deeper mathematical subjects as they arise in the writing. Apostolos and Christos meet in the studio where the artists are working on the preliminary sketches for this book, and Apostolos relates to Christos the story that Logicomix will tell. This is the first frame of the story: a group of friends in modern-day Greece telling the story of Bertrand Russell’s quest for the foundations of mathematics to each other.

The story Apostolos tells begins with Bertrand Russell in the United States in 1939, three days after Hitler invaded Poland, soon to give a lecture on the role of logic in human affairs. Russell is intercepted on his way to the lecture hall by a group of American anti-militarists who want Russell to rally others to their cause: keeping the United States out of World War II. Russell gives his lecture as planned, inviting these people to hear him. This is the second frame: Bertrand Russell tells a group of Americans his story to help them make decisions regarding World War II.

Russell’s story begins in childhood and ends at the Americans’ decision point. He relates how his childhood was filled with uncertainty, and mathematics provided the only stable grounding for his life, at one point even saving him from suicide. Discovering that there are portions of mathematics that even mathematicians accepted on faith, Russell devotes his life to establishing with certainty the roots of math. The story follows him through both his personal and academic life as he begrudgingly realizes that things in the real world do not always have a rational explanation.

While the discussions in Logicomix focus on sometimes heady subjects, the frames in this story provide a way for the authors to explain the concepts to the uninitiated. (As I mentioned before, Russell’s story—and the story of mathematics—is told among friends, who are not shy in interrupting the narrative when a concept doesn’t make sense to them. There is a “Notebook” section as well, which follows the story and provides additional information on key players and ideas in the quest.) By telling the story in frames, the authors are also able simultaneously to show the real-world implications of what Russell relates in his own tale and to explore the themes of logic and madness, belief and certainty, and temperance in all things in a variety of contexts that might not be possible in a straightforward narrative style.

Even if the story in Logicomix were not interesting, the book’s art would make it worth reading. Logicomix is a true graphic novel. The drawings are not just illustrations; they help to tell the story. In one place, for example, when young Bertrand Russell is learning Greek, the authors use different letterings for Russell and for his teacher to show their varying mastery over the language. Because the full-color art, beautifully rendered, does part of the storytelling, Logicomix is not overrun with bulky text. Even though the subject matter is harder to digest than some other graphic novel fare, this balance between pictures and words helps it avoid getting bogged down.

Logicomix presents foundational ideas of logic and math in a reader-friendly way that is both informative and enjoyable. Readers who like their fiction unencumbered by detailed (sometimes technical) discussions may prefer to look elsewhere for their next fix, but for readers who have an interest in philosophy, graphic novels, or just interesting and clever storytelling, Doxiadis and Papadimitriou’s book is the logical choice.

Review copy provided by Bloomsbury USA