A review by jsjammersmith
A Distant Soil, Vol. 1: The Gathering by Neil Gaiman, Colleen Doran

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.