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A review by versmonesprit
The Hunger and the Dusk, Vol. 1 by G. Willow Wilson
adventurous
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
One of the best things to come out of my work was the opportunity to read the first for issues of The Hunger and the Dusk. By the time I had gone through them with utter excitement and the brilliant feeling of having discovered a story that’s as immersive and captivating, I was hooked and already fretting over how I would read the rest. The thought of waiting for the next two issues was unbearable.
So when I saw this volume available on NetGalley, I again jumped on the opportunity. I was over the moon when I saw my request was approved, and set to read from the very beginning.
My reviews for the first four volumes are up, but to summarise I did love them very much, and had minor complaints for each, sometimes as trivial as them being too fast paced and abrupt. I still stand by my plea for a full length novel of this story, but the 5th and 6th issues left a lot to be desired.
I really love the artwork (top notch dynamism!), but was surprised to see how different the colouring on my phone was from how it appeared on my work computer. The display of my phone being miles better, I assume that’s true to the original — I actually regret that because the computer made the colours duskier, which you can guess felt so much more appropriate for a series thus named!
The storytelling immediately plunges the reader into high fantasy’s favourite times: the troubled, turbulent ones. The characters, very much like us, find themselves in a climate crisis. Losing fertile lands for their oxen to feed upon, orcs move further into human territories; but when the Vangol come back centuries after leaving the lands, clerics organise a meeting for a truce between the old enemies against this new, common, hungry enemy. As part of the treaty, healer orc Tara joins human Cal’s fighting company, which sets up further opportunities to navigate themes like prejudice, cultural differences, (de)humanisation of the Other, the impact of war, and extinction. None of the remarks is deep, but they still add dimension to the sociocultural structure of this universe.
A lot is done right, but a lot is done, if not wrong, with a bit less careful attention and/or conviction. One of the main issues is the timeline — the story is vague about how many days or weeks or months certain things take place, to the point it feels like it’s almost contradictory? and if not, certainly illogical… The second issue/chapter has an ending that really does not make sense considering everything we’re told in the story, and the fifth sees our characters suddenly acting quite juvenile and unfittingly dramatically: characters who previously show reasonable communication skills have a very unconvincingly shallow conflict and decide to burn bridges. And my biggest gripe: how little we learn about the Vangol. After the ending of the fourth issue/chapter that gave us a glimpse into the Vangol sociopolitical structure, I was convinced the later issues would finally reveal more substantial information about them … to my dismay, that didn’t happen, so this entire volume feels like a prologue.
Unfortunately the sixth issue/chapter of the document I was allowed to access lacked all text. It did go to showing how good the illustrations are because I’m pretty sure they already told the entire story that would’ve been told through text, but I still hope this was an error and not intentional. Either way, it did nothing to further the story in any shape or form, so it felt like a filler episode, which is a very questionable decision for such a short volume.
I still would read the second volume whenever it comes out, but I’m less enthused and hyped for it now that I know the first one does not end on a very intriguing point: I wasn’t fed enough crumbs to really crave the rest of the pie, which is a shame, because the first four issues had achieved that!
Thank you to NetGalley and IDW Publishing for the DRC, maybe I just wasn’t destined to meet my heroes.
So when I saw this volume available on NetGalley, I again jumped on the opportunity. I was over the moon when I saw my request was approved, and set to read from the very beginning.
My reviews for the first four volumes are up, but to summarise I did love them very much, and had minor complaints for each, sometimes as trivial as them being too fast paced and abrupt. I still stand by my plea for a full length novel of this story, but the 5th and 6th issues left a lot to be desired.
I really love the artwork (top notch dynamism!), but was surprised to see how different the colouring on my phone was from how it appeared on my work computer. The display of my phone being miles better, I assume that’s true to the original — I actually regret that because the computer made the colours duskier, which you can guess felt so much more appropriate for a series thus named!
The storytelling immediately plunges the reader into high fantasy’s favourite times: the troubled, turbulent ones. The characters, very much like us, find themselves in a climate crisis. Losing fertile lands for their oxen to feed upon, orcs move further into human territories; but when the Vangol come back centuries after leaving the lands, clerics organise a meeting for a truce between the old enemies against this new, common, hungry enemy. As part of the treaty, healer orc Tara joins human Cal’s fighting company, which sets up further opportunities to navigate themes like prejudice, cultural differences, (de)humanisation of the Other, the impact of war, and extinction. None of the remarks is deep, but they still add dimension to the sociocultural structure of this universe.
A lot is done right, but a lot is done, if not wrong, with a bit less careful attention and/or conviction. One of the main issues is the timeline — the story is vague about how many days or weeks or months certain things take place, to the point it feels like it’s almost contradictory? and if not, certainly illogical… The second issue/chapter has an ending that really does not make sense considering everything we’re told in the story, and the fifth sees our characters suddenly acting quite juvenile and unfittingly dramatically: characters who previously show reasonable communication skills have a very unconvincingly shallow conflict and decide to burn bridges. And my biggest gripe: how little we learn about the Vangol. After the ending of the fourth issue/chapter that gave us a glimpse into the Vangol sociopolitical structure, I was convinced the later issues would finally reveal more substantial information about them … to my dismay, that didn’t happen, so this entire volume feels like a prologue.
Unfortunately the sixth issue/chapter of the document I was allowed to access lacked all text. It did go to showing how good the illustrations are because I’m pretty sure they already told the entire story that would’ve been told through text, but I still hope this was an error and not intentional. Either way, it did nothing to further the story in any shape or form, so it felt like a filler episode, which is a very questionable decision for such a short volume.
I still would read the second volume whenever it comes out, but I’m less enthused and hyped for it now that I know the first one does not end on a very intriguing point: I wasn’t fed enough crumbs to really crave the rest of the pie, which is a shame, because the first four issues had achieved that!
Thank you to NetGalley and IDW Publishing for the DRC, maybe I just wasn’t destined to meet my heroes.