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Title: Distant Soil, Vol. 1 by Colleen Doran ISBN: 1-887279-51-2 Publisher: Image Comics Pub. Date: 01 January, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.7 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The classic SF/Fantasy graphic novel!
Comment: This book has been around ahwile as the artist/author began work on it while still a high school girl. This only makes the depth of characterization in the story and drawing skill displayed here even more remarkable! "A Distant Soil" tells the tale of a fifteen year old girl, Liana, (strongly resembling the author herself) who inherits an amazing power, the power of the Avatar, able to draw on the collective psionic force of all the people of her father's (Aeren's) homeworld. Having fled to Earth as an exile many years before and leaving two half human children hidden there, children who are exploited for their psychic abilities, it turns out that he was a rebel who was helping the current Avatar overthrow the ... government of his world. Now that Liana has grown to be an Avatar herself, she is a danger to her own people and is under an assasination order. How Doran manages to fit Arthurian legend and everything else but the kitchen sink into this tale (now in three volumes--and I am waiting with bated breath for the fourth) is a long story you had better read yourself...just make sure you do read it. I can't recommend it enough! Later volumes get even better!
Rating: 3
Summary: Good, but flawed.
Comment: Colleen Doran, A Distant Soil, vol. I (1998, Image Entertainment)
I should preface this by saying that Colleen Doran's A Distant Soil is the first graphic novel I've read since The Watchmen, some thirteen years ago, and so I may be missing some of the subtleties involved. If so, mea culpa.
I've just finished the first volumes of the A Distant Soil trilogy (at least, it's a trilogy as of this writing), and I've been trying to decide whether I want to continue on with the other two books in the series. Still haven't decided one way or the other. Doran seems to be trying (as Neil Gaiman says in his introduction to the book) to cram just a little too much into the space provided.
The story centers on a brother and sister who have grown up in a mental institution-cum-research facility. Both have psychic powers, but are unaware of the extent of those powers, as are their keepers. The two of them, after a crisis situation, escape and are separated. They find themselves aiding two different (and possibly conflicting; it's impossible to tell) branches of an alien resistance force, along with an odd assortment of characters both alien and human, including Galahad (yes, THAT Galahad).
There is, without doubt, a lot going on here. And once you've got a handle on things, you can probably keep track of it all, but it takes much longer to get a handle on things than it should. Again, Gaiman's introduction rings true here; Doran's work got better as she got older. If you're willing to get through the earlier parts in order to get to the later stuff, you'll find much to enjoy here.
The problem, though, is that some of the failings persist until the end of the novel. Cuts in location and time aren't indicated in any way, and the segues remain jarring throughout. The atmosphere is minimal; a good thing in some cases when telling a story, but generally not so good when one is working in the graphic realm. (One of the things that made The Watchmen so excellent was Moore's constant use of atmospheric detail, which is lacking here.)
Hard to really say. I liked it, but I still haven't figured out whether I'm going on to volume II. ** ½
Rating: 5
Summary: Fantasy, space opera, political drama, romance!
Comment: I haven't read this book in years. In fact, the last time I read it was sometime in the 1980's, back when it was at another publisher (and I only bought it because my name was similar to that of the artist!) This is a very different version than the edition I read. It has been rewritten and redrawn entirely, with superior results. Not only does the story move more coherently than before, but the drawing is a great improvement. The story is about a half-human young girl who is an Avatar. She can control the life force of all the psionic people on her planet. But this makes her a danger to the homeworld of her father because an Avatar is a kind of weapon being used by an alien government to rule it's corner of the universe and there can be only one at a time. And they already have one. So, the girl has to go. Lots of convoluted stuff is going on and it is kind of amazing how Colleen Doran manages to take all of these unlikely people and events and put them into this strange stew and come out with something that is moving, funny and entertaining. I can't imagine anyone else being able to pull this story off and make it work. I think she just loves her work so much that you can feel it coming through the paper. You can tell this is a book by someone who loves her characters and the world they live in which is rare in a world where people just seem to want to make a buck. This is not a camera ready book, being made to put out a movie or cartoon. If you want an experience that lets you step into another reality, then this is it. You walk into this world with its strange rules and it works. The characters are so real and likeable that you are compelled to keep reading. Manga and shonen ai fans will like this, too, especially the romantic moments. I really liked this book.
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