Dara NaraghiRecensioni

Winter 2020 (December);

I read this as research for a project this month, but sadly this fell flat from basically the moment it started until the last page of closing the story. All I really got out of this is that people worshipped the ground John walked on and needed to spend some time making ugly faces about the fact they were not the ones kissing him.

This had another one of those endings that is rare for fiction, but incredibly common among the Terminator universe for anyone who is not a Connor.

A collection of comics written by Naraghi and illustrated by various draughtsmen. Unremarkable, mildly interesting. something you might pick up and read bits of whilst waiting for that important phone call from outer Mongolia to be patched through.

I donated to the kickstarter for this book. Boy am I disappointed. Bad art poor storytelling. What a bad book. I do not see how they will be more volumes printed

I have mixed feelings about Persia Blues. I like the illustrations which switch from lush vibrant fantasy using soft brushed lines and detailed illustration to stark reality using crisp clean lines and minimal shading. This helps highlight the division between her fantasy life and real live which seem to be a conflict of her internalized duality between her Persian ethnicity and her Iranian nationality. I think this accurately reflects the identify conflict many Iranians seem to have while longing for the grandeur of Persia past yet trying to come to terms with the Iran they currently have. Unfortunately, the Iran that has come about with it particular brand of restrictive Islamic rule works against many Iranians pushing them away from Islam. To me as a Muslim I find this extremely sad. It shows how wrong Iran's restrictions are and is counterproductive to what their "Islamic Republic" seeks to bring about. The loss of freedoms to believe in Islam for it's beauty and truths is forced cause people to disassociate and turn away. Similar story lines are echoed in Persepolis and other writings about and by Iranian women especially those who have migrated to the Western world. One would hope that Iran gets the message someday and returns to the more tolerant Islam that allowed it to flourish in other eras of history. The character in both real life and fantasy seems to have no faith in God(s) at all but her fantasy self accepts Zoroastrianism by actually being visited by one of the mythical Gods. I've not read the second book or third at this point but I wonder if perhaps this foreshadows finding and accepting some religious truth in her real life story as well?

Overall the story itself is good, some of the writing seems a little off to me... out of place, strangely worded, I'm not quite sure. Some things just seemed unnatural in the way the characters were speaking. Perhaps it's due to the ancient themed fantasy that's reflecting modern life experiences and thoughts but I can't quite put my finger on what it is that seems off about the writing. the story is pretty interesting and compelling though and although there are still a lot of unknowns about the main characters relationships we come to really care for the characters and experience the bonds and trials their familial relationship have. The cliffhanger leaves you wanting to know more but also giving a somewhat satisfactory ending so that there is some sense of quest and story fulfillment even though there is so much still unanswered.

This graphic novel is based on the Witch and Wizard series by James Patterson. I was given the first issue of the graphic novel in exchange for an honest review. The full novel will be in stores October 2011.

I was a little disappointed with this work. The beginning felt stagnant and didn't draw me in as I had hoped. About half way through I started to feel as if this was something I wanted to read. There was just enough mystery that I want to read the next installment but I didn't connect enough to the characters to really care if I read it or not.
This is one of the problems with graphic novels, the development is different. I could see areas where the artist was attempting a connection but it was too far away for me. It's possible that Battle for Shadowland is not the first graphic novel series for Witch and Wizard. If that is so, then I suggest starting with the first to create a connection. If it's not, then perhaps that connection can only be made for those who have read the actual Witch and Wizard series.

Harry Potter meets 1984 meets Farenheit 451 describes this book. It was a very interesting tale about two teenagers who are kidnapped from their home in the middle of the night and begin discovering that they have magical powers which the New Order, the dictorial form of government fear. The first book was about their discovery of powers and escape from the hands of the New Order. It will be interesting to see where they find themselves in the second book.

I'm not a comic book/graphic novel fan... not really. I read them mostly when one of my favorite authors dabbles in the medium, or when their stories are adapted by others, as in this particular instance.

That being said, I liked "Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now", but I did not love it. It contains comic adaptations of six of Cory Doctorow's prose short stories: "Anda's Game"; "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth"; "Craphound"; "Nimby and the D-Hoppers"; "I, Robot"; and "After the Siege". I'd previously read all of these stories, either in Cory's short story collections or online and they are all wonderful examples of Cory's work. And the artwork here is beautiful. But it seems to me that the pacing of these comics is much too fast, you get no sense of the passage of time, and they are extremely over-condensed, the scenes are more like bullet points in an outline, there is no time for the story to breathe, and most of the setting, tone and flavor of the story are missing.

My opinion, "After the Siege" is the best adapted story in this collection. The story of a girl who fights to save her family in a war-torn, zombie-ridden, alternate-universe Russia, where the only man who can help her is the "Wizard", an outsider, a traitor, whose "magic" comes from 3D printers.

The artwork is the typical new computer style. The story is thin and the relationships between characters are too contrived. They tried to fit too much into this slim volume. It just doesn't have enough substance to be anything other than average comic book fare. That said, if you're a hardcore Terminator fan, you'll still want to read it.

Terminator: Salvation Movie Prequel (story arc titled, "Sand in the Gears") focuses on human resistance fighters, primarily in the locations of Detroit, Michigan, and Arlit, Niger. Leads into Terminator: Salvation movie (2009), but only in an indirect way. John Connor is heard broadcasting via radio to his fellow resistance fighers in this series (as he does in the movie), and is also seen in a few flashback scenes with one of the characters here, but otherwise is not present. Several of the models of Terminators introduced in the movie are also seen here.

Average enough (actually, "okay", at best), but hardly essential reading. Basically just fleshes out what others in the resistance are doing during this period. Art wise, perhaps not surprisingly, the artist (Robinson) does a better job of drawing the various Terminators and associated technology than he does the human characters.

Trade paperback edition also includes Terminator: Salvation Movie Adaptation Teaser #0, a one-shot apparently reprinting just the first part of the movie (which is what makes it a "teaser", I suppose). Didn't read this as I initially thought that it was a preview for a longer movie adaptation mini-series and I don't usually read such previews. Glancing through it, the art does look better than that of the prequel mini, though.½