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amalelmohtar's review against another edition
4.0
I REALLY like this! Oh man it is SO '80s it's amazing, and is doing ALL THE THINGS, and the men are SO PRETTY and look like ladies and it makes me happy that they do, and there are loads of brown people, and it hits all my kids-with-powers-on-the-run buttons (I have a lot of buttons!) and it's just super enjoyable and the art is like if Aubrey Beardsley were born in the late '60s and it's just so coooool.
I want to read more! More more more!
I want to read more! More more more!
jsjammersmith's review
5.0
I'll admit I didn't like this book at first, but by the end I was blown away by it. There are many books like A Distant Soil, but unlike those books Colleen Doran is able to balance the multiple storylines and mythos that she creates in this book. Much like Neil Gaiman's Sandman series which was able to create a completely new world that seemed just under or behind or before or after our own, Doran establishes a society of beings that live in the universe of human beings and wraps her narrative in the story of two young people who finds themselves pawns of government agencies before they find refuge in friends that include a police officer, a street tough, a novelist, fashion designers, a pair of queer lovers from the alien world that hold the secrets to these two young people's lives.
Readers who enjoy elaborate backstories and fantastic empires of alien worlds are sure to be satisfied by the book, but for my own part what left me spellbound was the art. using just black and white Doran is able to create moments and images that have never been seen before and are sure to leave the reader with a real feeling of the sublime. Doran believes that she can create amazing, incredible sights that have never existed before, and in this book she has succeeded.
Readers who enjoy elaborate backstories and fantastic empires of alien worlds are sure to be satisfied by the book, but for my own part what left me spellbound was the art. using just black and white Doran is able to create moments and images that have never been seen before and are sure to leave the reader with a real feeling of the sublime. Doran believes that she can create amazing, incredible sights that have never existed before, and in this book she has succeeded.
brokenfiction's review against another edition
5.0
I read the first 5 or 6 issues of ADS when it was released for the very first time back in the 80s and it's stuck with me ever since. I loved it, I loved Colleen's art style, I loved her writing, and I loved her imagination. I traced many copies of this book when I was younger attempting to learn how to draw, though I'm afraid it never took. However, I'm so happy now that I got to get a signed copy of this GN for my collection.
xterminal's review
3.0
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 [b:Watchmen|472331|Watchmen|Alan Moore|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175041710s/472331.jpg|4358649] 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
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 [b:Watchmen|472331|Watchmen|Alan Moore|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175041710s/472331.jpg|4358649] 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
silky_octopus's review
4.0
Glorious sci-fi space opera (with a dash of characters from King Arthur's court, speaking Welsh). This is interesting and original now, and must have been much more so when it was first written in the 80s; nice to see a gay couple in a long-term sci-fi story with huge scope, and one of them being one of the most powerful beings from a race of powerful beings was rather fun. I don't envy his hairdresser, though. The evil villains are definitely evil - and sadistic - and there's something touching about an avatar for immense power being a young girl whose highest priority when escaping from a mental institution was to make sure she recovered her bear, Mr Butterbear, too. I kind of what to see a crossover story between this, Jupiter Ascending and the Fifth Element, because it feels like there's a similar aesthetic at work.
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