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A review by crookedtreehouse
Canto: If I Only Had a Heart by David M. Booher
2.0
The art on this book is gorgeous. It looks like an modern epic adventure story should. A dark fantasy rather than just a dark fairy tale. Vittorio Astone's colors set precisely the proper tone.
Unfortunately, I couldn't get into the story. I enjoyed the concept of telling a complete fairy tale in the first few pages and having it be a legend to our protagonist and other characters, but once we got to the characters, I lost interest. Replacing a heart with clockwork just feels like too trite a trope for the 21st century. You have to really add some intriguing character designs for that to work. And, unfortunately, having all the slave race in the same armor but with slightly different colored sashes didn't work for me.
I ended up skipping entire sections of the book due to a lack of interest. And then I found the afterword where the author first explains why he thinks L Frank Baum would like his story. Ummm. That has no place in your published book. Talk about the process of creating your book, and the books that inspired you, don't theorize which dead writers would be fans of yours. It's pretty gross.
If you're super into fantasy comics, this might be worth checking out, especially if you enjoy familiar tropes. It's also definitely worth checking out for the art.
Unfortunately, I couldn't get into the story. I enjoyed the concept of telling a complete fairy tale in the first few pages and having it be a legend to our protagonist and other characters, but once we got to the characters, I lost interest. Replacing a heart with clockwork just feels like too trite a trope for the 21st century. You have to really add some intriguing character designs for that to work. And, unfortunately, having all the slave race in the same armor but with slightly different colored sashes didn't work for me.
I ended up skipping entire sections of the book due to a lack of interest. And then I found the afterword where the author first explains why he thinks L Frank Baum would like his story. Ummm. That has no place in your published book. Talk about the process of creating your book, and the books that inspired you, don't theorize which dead writers would be fans of yours. It's pretty gross.
If you're super into fantasy comics, this might be worth checking out, especially if you enjoy familiar tropes. It's also definitely worth checking out for the art.