Reviews

Sea of Dreams: Liu Cixin Graphic Novels #1 by Rodolfo Santullo, Cixin Liu

ninj's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.5

An alien artist visits the earth and has discussions with a local ice artist, and demonstrates its ice-making capabilities, as it enthuses about art being the most important thing.
I was a little lukewarm on this one during the first half, but then I think when it expanded scope I found it a little more intriguing, though there was much to struggle with in suspension of disbelief.

mandapandaca's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

giljule's review

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

justaprilann's review

4.0

Weird but interesting! And I liked the messages of the story.

uosdwisrdewoh's review

3.0

In this graphic novel, a huge alien form comes to earth and sucks up all the earth’s seas and rivers to make an ice sculpture in orbit, indifferent to the human suffering it creates to do so. It’s a fascinating concept, but this works better for me in theory than in execution. This is an adaptation of a prose short story, and this is the rare comic work that I think would work better without the visuals. In this book’s climactic moment, the alien’s enormous sculpture is revealed in a gatefold page, and while it’s striking, it’s not as awe inspiring as it’s meant to be. It would have worked better if the reader were forced to imagine it. The reader is also taken out of the scene at that moment by noticing the entire ground is covered with snow, in a world where all the water was supposedly taken to create this sculpture, which brings me my main hangup with this comic—the world-building doesn’t ring true. It at once hints at yet downplays the immense suffering that would result in a world deprived of water. The book’s conclusion is also at once too prosaic and pat for such an ambitious premise.

Liu’s role in this comic's creation seems to have been left purposefully obscure. Rodolfo Santullo is credited as the writer, so at first I wondered if Liu provided an outline that Santullo fleshed out for the artist Jok to illustrate? I had to dig online to discover that this is in fact an adaptation of Liu’s prose story, but that’s not made clear on the actual book. Given that I came away with the impression that this was best served as prose, it’s not a very successful comics adaptation. Still interesting, though.

starryeved's review

3.0

In the vein of grounded sci-fi like Arrival, Sea of Dreams introduces a profound, lonely sort of beauty in discussion of unearthly entities and what constitutes art. Wish there were more for a deeper dive, but the foundations of a lovely story are there.

kcogman's review

adventurous reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

rhisus's review against another edition

adventurous reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

carleesi's review

2.0

I really enjoyed the basic premise of the book and thought the alien was conceptually very cool. I found the depiction of the artists really weird and felt like I was meant to get a meaning from it that I just didn’t.

lewipoint's review

adventurous challenging mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

It was an interesting short story. Maybe would have been more impactful had it been told in a longer form to give the weight of the situation more time to develop. The illustration style was lovely but I also found many panels very difficult to tell what was going on. Sometimes whole pages were a blur. Maybe a stylistic choice to emphasise the alienness of what was happening?