emrysmerlyn's review against another edition
4.0
This is a pretty concise story, bound in fairy-tale logic, that outlines the choices that eventually lead to the events of the main Bone storyline. Two princesses in a kingdom far away are endowed with different gifts, one with a pronounced and effective "Dreaming eye" and one who appears to be trapped in wait, hoping for her dreaming eye to open. one desperately wants the crown and one is better suited for the crown. An evil plot ensues.
I am really upset about the dog though. Like really upset about the dog. Everything could be okay in the future and the dog could have lives out her doggy life and things would have been fine.
I am really upset about the dog though. Like really upset about the dog. Everything could be okay in the future and the dog could have lives out her doggy life and things would have been fine.
williamsdebbied's review against another edition
4.0
Prequel to the Bone series.
Like the Hobbit did for The Lord of the Rings, Rose, a satisfying story on its own, sets up the events that take place in the series.
Many years before meeting the Bones, Gran'ma Rose was a young, brash princess. She and her sister, Briar, are called upon to defeat a rogue dragon who is terrorizing the countryside while possessed by the Lord of the Locusts. Though the red dragon tells Rose how to defeat the enemy, the information does not come without cost.
Like the Hobbit did for The Lord of the Rings, Rose, a satisfying story on its own, sets up the events that take place in the series.
Many years before meeting the Bones, Gran'ma Rose was a young, brash princess. She and her sister, Briar, are called upon to defeat a rogue dragon who is terrorizing the countryside while possessed by the Lord of the Locusts. Though the red dragon tells Rose how to defeat the enemy, the information does not come without cost.
absentminded_reader's review against another edition
3.0
This prequel to the [book:Bone] series was epic in scope, full of archetypal myths and the foundation for the battle to come. Although Princess Rose was well loved, she was not a perfect character. Her pride and naïveté were to be the near downfall of her kingdom. Normally, I am an enormous fan of Charles Vess' art, and certainly there were wonderful landscapes and magical touches here and there, but the faces were a disappointment. Their features seemed to swim from panel to panel and felt deformed at times. Still, for Bone games this will be a nice treat. Jeff Smith has captured the more serious aspects of his tale here without the comedic touches of the Bones. For some this will be a disappointment, but the Rose miniseries was not in any way a departure from his narrative skills. It fits nicely into the canon.
north_willow's review
5.0
It was really enjoyable, though I wish Jeff Smith was the one who illustrated it.
I love Rose's character and I hate that the flaw of her character ultimately led to the death of one of her dogs. In the end, it looks that Rose was not feeling the cheering of the crowd as they praised her for slaying the dragon. Maybe this is the point where she changes
I love Rose's character and I hate that the flaw of her character ultimately led to the death of one of her dogs. In the end, it looks that Rose was not feeling the cheering of the crowd as they praised her for slaying the dragon. Maybe this is the point where she changes
kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review against another edition
3.0
This isn't as good as Bone. In terms of a comic unconnected to Bone it is proably good, but like the Star Wars prequels, some of the plot doesn't match what came before. Which annoys me, though this is faaaaarrrrr better than SW.
I want to know what happened to the cows. There is horses here, not cows. There should be cows. I don't care if it is nitpicking. The cows were cool.
But what I really, truly didn't like was the whole Briar foreshadowing thing. If you've read Bone then you know Briar is the bad master. Here that is foreshadowed by three things. (1) Briar doesn't like dogs (2) Briar doesn't like the outside (3) Briar shows her cleveage. Simplstic characterstics of evil always annoy, especailly the dog one. The reversal of that is that everyone who loves dogs is good, and we know from history that is not true.
Yet, the story was overall engaging.
I want to know what happened to the cows. There is horses here, not cows. There should be cows. I don't care if it is nitpicking. The cows were cool.
But what I really, truly didn't like was the whole Briar foreshadowing thing. If you've read Bone then you know Briar is the bad master. Here that is foreshadowed by three things. (1) Briar doesn't like dogs (2) Briar doesn't like the outside (3) Briar shows her cleveage. Simplstic characterstics of evil always annoy, especailly the dog one. The reversal of that is that everyone who loves dogs is good, and we know from history that is not true.
Yet, the story was overall engaging.
pantsyreads's review against another edition
3.0
Review originally posted here.
Why I Read It: I read and ended up really enjoying Smith's Bone series earlier this spring/summer so I knew I had to read the prequel at some point. Spoiler-free review ahead.
A prequel Bone comic with Gran'ma Ben (though she's a strapping young lass here and nowhere near a grandmother) as the main character? HELL YES!! I was quite excited to read this, especially since the original comic series doesn't touch on the past with Rose and Briar all that much. You know it happened, but they never go into very much detail.
One thing I immediately appreciated about this story was that it was fairly self-contained, despite being a prequel. There's a little preamble at the beginning that talks about some important stuff so that readers who have never read the original Bone series shouldn't be lost. I do still highly recommend reading the original series though as you're likely to enjoy the story more, I would think.
The story itself was pretty good and made good use of the page-count it had, but there was something about the writing that was strange. It was written by Jeff Smith (despite not being illustrated by him -- more on that in a bit), but it didn't read like the original series at all. There was something about it that felt like it was written for a younger audience. One of the things I loved about Bone was that it *wasn't* written in this way, but was still appropriate for children as well as adults.
The drawing style used by Charles Vess for this story didn't really work for me either. His water-colour backgrounds were beautiful, but the way he drew characters was just... blehg. The proportions of the characters' heads looked all wrong, and it was not pleasing to the eye at all.
This review is shaping up to be pretty negative, so I want to make it clear that I *did* like this and I am glad I read it. It just wasn't on the same level as some of the later volumes of Bone.
Final Verdict: A solid one-volume prequel to a really good series. I think fans of the series will like this volume, but I'm of the opinion that it wasn't as well-written or illustrated. The writing style felt like it was aimed at a younger audience, and Vess's art style wasn't my favourite. I'm still glad I read it though, and would be more than happy to own it (whenver I get around to buying the rest of the Bone series for myself.)
nikki_in_niagara's review against another edition
3.0
Reason for Reading: A prequel to the series, but the last book published in the series.
This was a really hard book to give a rating to. The story is written by Jeff Smith and the cover illustration is by him as well but once one opens up the book all familiarity is gone. The illustrations are by Charles Vess, who has a completely different style than Smith, and the font used is actually a little hard to read. I loved the story but did not like, at all, the illustrations, even though Vess won an award for them. I was not impressed as I started to read because of the change in illustration but as the book progressed the story won me over and I stopped thinking about the artwork, however my rating does reflect my opinion of both the text and illustrations.
On to the story, which was as wonderful as I could have expected. Though being a prequel, it was predictable as we already knew the outcome. This tells the story of when Rose and Briar were young princesses together training to become one of the Veni-Yan. It tells how Briar turned evil and how the Lord of the Locusts started his plan to escape his trap, as well as why and how the rat creatures broke their centuries old peace with the humans. An exciting story with lots of action, an insightful look back at Rose's (Gran'ma Ben) background and her early history with Lucius. I enjoyed the story and the familiar faces (though there were no Bones) very much, but the illustrations did put a damper on it for me.
This was a really hard book to give a rating to. The story is written by Jeff Smith and the cover illustration is by him as well but once one opens up the book all familiarity is gone. The illustrations are by Charles Vess, who has a completely different style than Smith, and the font used is actually a little hard to read. I loved the story but did not like, at all, the illustrations, even though Vess won an award for them. I was not impressed as I started to read because of the change in illustration but as the book progressed the story won me over and I stopped thinking about the artwork, however my rating does reflect my opinion of both the text and illustrations.
On to the story, which was as wonderful as I could have expected. Though being a prequel, it was predictable as we already knew the outcome. This tells the story of when Rose and Briar were young princesses together training to become one of the Veni-Yan. It tells how Briar turned evil and how the Lord of the Locusts started his plan to escape his trap, as well as why and how the rat creatures broke their centuries old peace with the humans. An exciting story with lots of action, an insightful look back at Rose's (Gran'ma Ben) background and her early history with Lucius. I enjoyed the story and the familiar faces (though there were no Bones) very much, but the illustrations did put a damper on it for me.