After a few decades of reading, it’s a delight to find a new book and KNOW it is now one of your favorites. That happened with Octavia Butler’s KINDRED. Because I loved KINDRED, I was given this graphic novel as a gift. Hungry to extend the delight of reading KINDRED, I plowed right into the graphic novel. I may have done that book a disservice. I suspect I was probably rushing—looking for the familiar or anticipating highlights when I should have taken it on it’s own terms. That being said, I was disappointed. I was underwhelmed because it failed to match my imagination and disgruntled by the inevitable editing process of whittling extended text down to an image. While this may not sound fair, they are the pitfalls faced by anyone translating art from one form to another. The original can become an obstacle instead of an inspiration. The translator must find a way to convey the intangibles that is unique. (see Paul Karasik’s CITY OF GLASS: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL for a wonderful example) There is a harshness to the colors that is a nice choice for slave times but would liked to have had the modern times differentiated from slave times in some fashion—softer shades, more details. One of the great parts of the novel was that the longer one stayed in the past, one began to change—to gradually become a part of the past in mind and body. Perhaps reflect that change by gradually changing the colors and tones from modern to slave times. Unfortunately the tones were harsh throughout. Much of the story presented in the graphic novel just feels like a shopping list of activity. If I had read this first, not sure I would have found it interesting enough make me read the source novel. That would have been a pity.