Reviews

Ana and the Cosmic Race #1 by Amy Chu, Agnes Garbowska

mehsi's review against another edition

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4.0

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review!

Right from the bat, -1 star for the crappy quality of the images. The text bubbles are sharp and clear, but the illustrations/images are blurry. Which is a terrible shame, as I love the style of the illustrations. I just don’t get why this keeps being a problem in graphic novel/comic ARCS. I have seen this happen over and over again. I get that this is an unfinished copy, but really, why not make sure the image quality is at least good.

Ana was a really fun character, I liked her right from the start. She looks cool (I want that hairdo + colour) + she is a great student (I can imagine she is doing it to keep her scholarship, but I have a feeling even without that she would be studious and responsible). Though I had a laugh when she landed in old England in her fancy space clothes, even after she changed, I would think that having pink hair is something of a rarity in those times, but no one glanced at them.

Ekene? My second favourite character. Though I am confused about their gender. For most of the book I confused him with a her. For various reasons. But I guess he is really a he. Eh, it would have been fun if Ana’s biggest rival would have been a girl. I am not sure how to explain the whys, maybe because this combo always works in other books.

Zyx was a bleh character, I liked her when we first met her (at lunch), but when she stowed away on Ana’s ship? And then what happens next? Sorry, but can this girl please get a brain? You are not helping, you are making everything worse. Plus I just can’t forgive anyone who hates libraries. ;P
She was just too much of a little kid. If I didn’t know better I would have thought she was a kid.

There are hints of romance between Ana > Keio (my favourite) and also Ana > Ekene. I do dearly hope that we won’t get some silly love triangle. shivers

The race, the clues, the travelling through space? I loved it!

This first volume is all about the first clue, I am guessing there will be quite a few more books to come if every one of them is about one clue and the outcome of that clue.

The art was pretty great, well, from what I was able to see in crappy quality. I love the expressions on the characters (so hilarious), plus the way the characters were drawn was great.

All in all, I did quite enjoy this first volume, and I will definitely be keeping an eye out for the rest. I would recommend it to everyone looking for a fun space adventure comic.

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/

annieb123's review against another edition

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4.0

Ana and the Cosmic Race is a shojo comic (school romance aimed at female tween readers) from Papercutz under the Charmz imprint.

I really loved a lot of things about this comic. There's a romance element, true, but the first volume is full of strong female characters. There's also a cute slightly madcap sidekick (a shapechanging alien with 4 arms who's Ana's dorm roommate called Zyx), a mysterious gazillionaire (and in Willy Wonka style, he's giving his empire to the winner of the cosmic race), and a space academy full of supporting characters including Ana's potential love interests Keio Meida and Ekene Botha (see cover).

The art is charming and naive (in a good way), the action and plotting are fast paced. Yes, it's ridiculous and somewhat sappy, but it is shojo and my test audience (my daughter who is only slightly older than the target audience) absolutely loved it.

The creators also managed to sneak in some information/history along with the entertaining storyline.
Thoroughly enjoyable!

Four stars


Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.

byarsjp's review against another edition

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3.0

2022 read #45

3 stars! This was actually super enjoyable to read! I loved all the characters and the idea for the story is very well thought out. I will def read the next one when it comes out.

jellypbelly's review against another edition

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3.0

2022 read #45

3 stars! This was actually super enjoyable to read! I loved all the characters and the idea for the story is very well thought out. I will def read the next one when it comes out.

jpb's review against another edition

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4.0

2022 read #45

4 stars! This was actually super enjoyable to read! I loved all the characters and the idea for the story is very well thought out. I will def read the next one when it comes out.

akmargie's review against another edition

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3.0

A little flat but fun and mostly harmless.

ashlilitlist21's review against another edition

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3.0

This was a cute, short read. Love the graphics in this and the vibrant colors. It gives me Star Trek, meets Ready Player one, meets Triwizard tournament. Not sure if I’ll be interested in the next book, but possibly. Cute story, but not my favorite.

destdest's review

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1.0

Super cute illustrations but the story and characters are dry. Ana needs to be disqualified because both her love interests keep saving her butt, which is why she's inadvertently winning, and she has a whole other person with her helping cheat. -__-

alenka's review

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3.0

This is a cute, heavily manga-inspired romance/adventure comic about a human girl attending a fancy space school. Each year the school participates in the Cosmic Race, a sort of amazing-race style trek through space and time to find gems based on a series of clues. It can be dangerous but also involves research and cunning. Ana, the representative from Earth's North America, is excited to be selected, and to compete against the handsome human competitors from South Africa and Japan. However, her shape-shifting martian roommate sneaks into her ship and causes some shenanigans.

This is sort of a not-for-me book but is a great read for kids who really like manga that feature love triangles. Fun alien character designs, great colors.
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