I loved this graphic novel of one of my favorite books! Revisiting the first book in the series in a different format was wonderful! Bobby is still as hilarious and goofy as ever, Press is mysterious and wise, and Loor is all anger and sass.

Bobby Pendragon gets whisked away to another universe by his mysterious Uncle Press, and with the help of other Travelers, tries to help a tribe of poor miners start a revolution or find justice through peace. But the evil Saint Dane is determined to push the war in his own favor, and destroy the world of Denduron.

I loved the art style! I loved the dialogue! I loved the characters, and the action, and the plot! I read it all in one sitting and enjoyed every bit of it. Of course, there's so many good bits of the story that are left out because it has to be condensed for a graphic novel, but the bones of the story are there and the characters are still well-written as themselves.

I liked the premise of this book: three young ladies who work as assistants to a scientist/inventor, a magician, and a fencing teacher. The girls team up to solve murders and save all of steampunk Victorian London, proving that they are just as capable and intelligent as their bosses. It's just good fun!

The plot moved a little too slowly for me. This 440 page book could have been told in 200 pages. It dragged on a bit in places, setting up relationships, setting up dialogue, explaining this and that.

I liked the characters of the girls, but I didn't love them. They are spunky and sweet and sassy and intelligent and independent, but somehow.... I wasn't particularly impressed.
Of course, the author killed off the ONE supporting character that I actually loved!

And then there was the S-word, which popped up about 10 times, and annoyed me every time.

The chapter titles are boring. This shows a lack of creativity. meh.

The villains and henchmen were decidedly unoriginal and one-dimensional; the sort that twirl their mustaches and laugh in deep baritones. double meh.

The one really good thing was Michiko, a Japanese girl living and working in London, trying to learn to speak English and feeling very out of place in a new and strange society. Her culture shock was well-described, and I loved her dignified attempts to learn a new language. She's a treasure!

I'm not particularly impressed with this book. The plot was thin, and the characters pretty good but not deep. The magic system of Shouting the fey spells was interesting, but needed more depth, history, and development. Every little section of plot was drawn out and lacked overall structure.

I suppose I expected more scope in the setting of a fairy tale, more of a journey to different fantastical lands, but the main character, Gorse, mainly stays in one location for 70% of the book, with one obstacle, one villain, and very few antagonists.

There's almost no buildup of tension and tougher and harder obstacles as the story progresses. There's no progression really! The plot is static. There are only two major events in the entire book.

I appreciated that Gorse is a sickly person, always prone to headaches and fevers, but still manages to be capable and resourceful and brave, despite her various maladies. That was a good character trait! However, by the end of the book, I got really tired of hearing on every other page about how her headache was worse, and then her headache was better, but then her headache came back again. Agh. That got boring really quickly.

I really liked Gorse's relationship with her Father, both of them reading like mad in his massive library! Their whole dynamic was the best part of the book!

I got the impression that Gorse is supposed to have a close relationship with her brother Dusty, but I didn't see that in their dialogue or anything. Dusty is just kind of .... there. He's not much of a character, and mostly made of cardboard and pepper.

A somewhat entertaining read. I read it all the way to the end, and I didn't hate it. I was curious enough to find out how the story ended for the characters.

The ending was really quick, and wasn't particularly inventive or exciting. Suddenly, everything is resolved and we all go home happy, and I needed more of a denouement.

I love and adore everything to do with Avatar, but this little book was really just a cut and paste of screenshots from the TV show, and that doesn't exactly work well for a book.

If there had been new art that was created for a book format, it would have looked better and flowed better for a written story. A lot of the time the action wasn't clear, because the panels weren't created to make that action clear on paper.

Other Avatar comics that I've seen (like The Search or The Rift) were actually created to be comics, and those are wonderful and work perfectly and the artwork is fantastic! So I was disappointed to see that this is so poorly organized.

As far as the story goes, of course I adore Aang and Katara and Sokka! The plot is perfection, the characters are marvelous, and the world building is phenomenal! I just wish this little comic did them justice.

I'm loving the continuing story of Team Avatar in these graphic novels! In this one, there is political unrest in the Fire Nation as a band of traitorous rebels try to put the evil Ozai back on the throne. Zuko must fight to protect his newly-found family, but there are spies and enemies around every corner, and Zuko will have to call on Avatar Aang to help.

I love the artwork, and you can really feel the action moving the story forward. It's easy to imagine it playing in your head like a movie, because the dialogue and facial expressions and fight scenes all flow so well.

I love seeing Zuko settle into his role as Fire Lord! He's so confident now and radiates power. He's like a rock of safety instead of the angsty teen we knew before.

I like that Mai and TyLee are major characters in this story. I missed them in the last ones. They have some great dialogue and funny scenes! Mai has some big decisions to make, and I'm hoping to see a softer side of her character.
Of course, the Kyoshi Warriors make an appearance and have some great fight scenes too.

I love it!

Robbi and Azure are chosen from among their classmates to train for Laddertop Academy, a space station that hires gifted children to do maintenance work in the miles of tiny service tunnels. Laddertop space station was a gift from an alien race, but the aliens disappeared soon after. When Robbi begins her training, she finds out that Laddertop holds mysteries and enigmas that could destroy Earth or save it.

Robbi and Azure are excellent characters, with Azure providing some humor and Robbi being the serious-minded protagonist.
I really liked the interaction between all the children in training. They poke fun at each other, make friends and sometimes enemies, but it's never boring!

The world building is very intriguing! The Laddertop space station is set up in such a unique way, and the humans who run it don't really understand what it is capable of. I'm dying to know what those aliens are up to, and what role Robbi will play in their plans!

I really need to get my hands on the 2nd volume!

Ennara has to hide her identity as a child with magical abilities, because she would most likely be kidnapped, enslaved, and forced to use her magic to benefit evil masters. She wears gloves to cover the tattoos on her hands that mark her as a magic user, but her mentor, Tork, trains her in the use of white magic.
When a shadowy demon begins attacking her village, Ennara is sent on a quest with Tork to recover the only weapon that could defeat the shadows, the Sword of Gisilfrid. But the sword is hidden in a sunken city deep below the ocean waves, and Ennara will need the help of her friends to defeat the evil Fallen Druid and retrieve the sword.

Treachery, spies, shadow magic, elemental magic, adventure, magical history, quests, friendship, love, and of course the power of family... this book has a great story line! I love how there is such an emphasis on light and sunshine and warmth, as opposed to the darkness and shadows.

The world building isn't particularly original, but I liked the descriptions of the sunken city. The characters are fairly generic as well, but I liked them all pretty well and cared about them. The plot is interesting, but it felt a little disjointed, like the scenes just didn't flow well into the next portion of the story.

The most amazing part of this entire book was Smoos, the aquatic cat. This cat can breathe underwater, talk to dolphins, and generally accompanies a ship's crew to bring them good luck on their sea voyages. Smoos is intelligent and sassy without being able to say a word. His body language says it all, just as a real cat does! He has no dialogue, but he's my favorite character.

It's so hard to write a review for this because all the feels and expectations and everything. It was not what I expected, and it was both more than I expected and less in some areas. I think most of the things that I didn't like were because of the play format.

I thought the plot was really interesting. I know that there were some plot-holes involving Time-Turners, but I was able to ignore those problems and enjoy the story. I was surprised in every act and liked the emotional dynamic between Harry and his son, Albus.
I did think sometimes that there was too much focus on emotional conflict in relationships and it just got in the way of the story. Although it makes it feel like a more grownup story, it creates a very different serious mood rather than the fun adventure plot we have in other HP books. There's too much focus on relationships rather than actions and mystery and world-building magic.

The storyline is good! I kept trying to figure out, Who is the "cursed child?" and I didn't see it coming until the end. And all the problems from the past keep coming up and haunting everyone in their own individual ways, so that even while we have a new story, we're also revisiting the old stories too.

I really loved the theme about darkness and where it comes from, what makes people evil and what makes people good. How something seemingly small can turn someone bitter to the point where they embrace evil. It's deep stuff and comes up again and again with misunderstandings and mistakes, prejudices and rumors.

I wanted MORE Hermione. She's such a central character in my mind, and although there's lots of her and Ron and Ginny in this play... still I wanted more. I was relieved that Hermione is still herself, she talks and acts like the Hermione I know, just grown up. But still... it wasn't the same. I wanted more witty one-liners from her. I wanted HER to be the one to solve the riddle with her intelligence and save the oppressed with her compassion and just be an all-around kick-butt amazing woman. Mostly she makes speeches.

I wanted Hermione to be MORE Hermione, if that makes sense. More "LeviOsa". More punching Draco Malfoy. More "books and cleverness." More "always the tone of surprise."

Spoiler

I was NOT happy with the Hermiones in the alternate realities where she and Ron aren't married. She's a mean and bitter teacher? NO! That is not my Hermione. She's a fierce underground warrior? Well, that's a little closer, but still... NOT my Hermione.

I liked the interesting alternate realities changed by time, and it added suspense to think that Ron and Hermione weren't together and we have to "make it right" and get them together again... but... not worth it to see what Hermione supposedly "could" have become.

I think that no matter the circumstances, no matter the time, no matter the reality, Hermione would still be OUR Hermione. She's just too decided and compassionate a person to let herself become angry and bitter like that. Badly done writing. Boo.

Same thing with Ginny. She mostly mopes around and sighs, "Oh Harry" in this injured tone. Where is the kick-butt snarky girl who grew up with a massive family of brothers? Where are the clever lines and the determined attitude? I mean, all that is sort of in there, but not to the degree I expected or wanted. She IS mostly like a grownup version of Ginny, so I don't hate her or anything, but I am a little disappointed. (She sounds like "movie Ginny." You know what I mean.) Here she kind of waits around for Harry to make the decisions and take action, and the Ginny I know jumps into the fight! Apparently, she's mostly around to support Harry, not to actually do anything herself.

Ron is basically a pathetic fool, and the only reason people laugh at his lame jokes is because it's him making them. The Ron I used to know is delightful, but maybe something is lost in translation with these lines. Maybe if I saw it being acted out, then it would be the same hilarious goofy Ron as always. Somehow his dialogue just comes across as sad and pitiful in most scenes. There has always been a fine line with Ron's character, and it's a delicate balance that was not well straddled here.

The only one who really seemed exactly himself was Harry. He's still filled with angst about everything. He's still awkward in relationships, and has difficulty showing his true self to people. He's ready to sacrifice anything for his friends and family, but doesn't do well in the small day-to-day things. He's riddled with guilt about all the people who died for the Boy Who Lived. He deals pretty well with his celebrity status, but inwardly it gets to him. Same old Harry... Full of anger and angst and anxiety and guilt. Generous and idiotic, brave and loyal... that's our Harry!

McGonagall is absolute perfection, as always. She commands a presence in every scene she's in. Her dialogue is just exactly what McGonagall should be.

But where was Neville?!? He is mentioned a couple of times, but never appears. Where was Luna? She's not even mentioned once. Where is Teddy Lupin? Poor Teddy, he is utterly forgotten it seems. Where are Arthur and Molly? All those delightful Weasley brothers? I supposed in one short play, they couldn't include every single character we know and love, but I did miss them.

I loved that the children have their own personalities! They are not cookie-cutters of the Golden Trio. They have their own stories as separate people.
Albus goes through much of the book trying to assert that he is different from his dad, Harry.
Rose and James and Lily all seem to jump into Hogwarts life with a relish, their own little school concerns on their minds. But unfortunately, we don't see much of them and they have no development at all.
Scorpius, especially, is so entirely different from our preconceptions of what a Malfoy must be. He surprised me with every line he spoke! He was the best part of the entire book.



So overall, I liked it. I liked the plot line. I was disappointed in some of the characters, but mostly liked them all. I read it all in one sitting. It grabbed my attention and my heart-strings. I cried once! It's like really good fanfic, but it's not an 8th HP book. It doesn't have the same depth or scope or anything.

Repetitive and too long.