leahrosereads's Reviews (1.04k)

Re-read 2016. Lost a star but still loved the story.

SAGA follows two fugitives, Alana and Marko. They are on the lam because they fell in love, and in that love, they created the narrator of this story, Hazel. Why would love cause two people to become fugitives?

The answer is pretty simple - their people are at war with each other. Alana's planet of Landfall and its moon, Wreath (Marko's world) have been at war for a very long time. Instead of staying on their own planets, the soldiers of both Landfall and Wreath have moved their battles to other worlds in their galaxy, as a way to protect both of their planets. This has caused a divide in the galaxy, and with no end of the war in sight, sides have been chosen, and the battles continue.

Alana and Marko have to work incredibly hard to keep their government's freelancers off their tails, and still attempt to raise Hazel in a peaceful setting. While they manage to stay alive, their lives on the run have been anything but simple.


Brian K. Vaughan had done a magnificent job creating characters that the reader can empathize with from page 1. Alana and Marko are particularly strong characters, but I also really liked being introduced to the freelancers that are after them. I think that Vaughan has done an excellent job creating some extremely solid characters.

His writing is just fantastic. Panel after panel, and page after page, I was rooting for Alana and Marko, laughing, and hoping for the best for our lovestruck heroes.

Fiona Staples art brings to life Vaughan's excellent storytelling. The vivid colors just completely enhance this story, and with each panel, she just adds this wonderful depth to Vaughan's writing.

Together, it's pretty clear that they've crafted something truly awesome, and I can't wait to start Volume 2.

9/10/16 Reread - it keeps a 5 Star rating! Still better than Volume 1 :)

So, I gave Volume 1 5 stars. Is there a way to give more, because Volume 2 was better.

The story itself progressed fantastically, and we still have Staples art just highlighting all of Vaughan's genius storytelling.

Our heroes are still on the run, but several new characters get introduced, including Marko's ex-fiance. The story just evolved into something with such depth, and the background we got with Marko's past was just a really interesting read. I hope we'll get to see some of Alana's history soon.

I'm just completely impressed with this series, and I think it deserves all the hype it's received.

Reread Sept 2016 - may have lost a star, still an excellent read.

Jan 17, 2015 Review
This SAGA series just gets better by the volume. That much is clear. The phenomenal writing and art are still here, and I'm pretty much expecting to love Vaughan's storytelling and Staples fantastic, vivid art at this point.


With this volume, we get several new characters (who are all exceptionally displayed), and we get to see Alana and Marko continue to try and live their lives. The plot progresses nicely, and I'm definitely looking forward to reading Volume 4, as soon as I'm able.


If you haven't read these yet, I highly recommend them. All the five star ratings are deserved. The hype has been right, and I'm officially a fangirl of this series.

Go me for never writing an original review. Will correct this weekend.

2.5 Stars - but I refuse to round up

So, it’s the end of the year, and I’m trying to get a couple more books completed for fun, and since YAs have always been really quick reads for me, plus all the hype surrounding SHATTER ME and this trilogy, I decided to give it a shot.


Hype not met.


The writing is gorgeous, but the characters are extremely one dimensional. I honestly felt like there was just a lot of fluff, and very little sustenance to hook me into this series. Maybe the other books bring this tale together more fully, but I’m probably not going to find out, because nothing about this book makes me want to continue reading Juliette’s journey. You can’t give all the awesome information in the last 10% of a book and expect people (me) to want to continue the series when I’ve already made my decision after reading 80% of the book.


Also, living in Juliette’s head for 300 pages was just this chaotic mess of metaphors and disappointment. Being stuck with her the entire time almost made me DNF this. She was honestly probably my least favorite main character of the year. Which is even worse, because I was hoping to end 2014 on a high note.

Adam - too perfect. Just this bland white knight wanting to rescue his princess. He’s not realistic, and honestly, he’s not even remotely a decent fantasy of a perfect character. I would love to have seen him as a more dimensional character, and by the time you see a glimpse of a potentially neat character, he’s already too boring to give a damn about.

Then there was Warner. Why he’d think Juliette would want anything to do with him, after what he does to her, is insane. And honestly, I don’t want to continue this series because I’m assuming that Juliette ends up getting together with this psychopath. He’s an abusive piece of shit, and I’d like to see him gutted and left for the buzzards. I don’t care if he ends up rescuing kittens later on in the series, he’s an obsessive freak who has his soldiers rearrange Juliette’s organs. How she could find this fucker even remotely appealing is beyond me.



However, there were parts of the plot that intrigued me. Mostly the world itself, but because the world almost felt like an afterthought in the last few pages of the book, it just wasn’t enough to hook me. Also, the above characters made me want to toss my tablet against the wall.


I’m pretty disappointed with myself for reading and finishing this book. I feel like I’m going to HAVE to find another book to read, because I’d hate to end 2014 on such a blah note.

1/31/17
First read and reread of 2017. The below review still holds completely true.

4/26/15
Neil Gaiman is pure fucking magic when it comes to writing.

I’m relatively new to his work, and I’m also pretty new to comics and graphic novels. So please feel free to take the following fangirl-gasming with a grain of salt. If you haven’t read this series yet, I highly freaking recommend you go to your library and start this, and soon. If this first Volume is any indication on what to expect from the future ones, then I know I’m in for one hell of a ride.


I don’t think I’ve read anything like this before. I love that every element of this story felt new and real and raw to me. It bewitched me. I’ve fallen hard for these worlds and characters, and I’m happy that I’ll be able to live in it for a little longer.


The art instantly drew me in to this comic. I loved the style, and I thought the artists did an incredible freaking job giving life to Gaiman’s characters and worlds.



Following Dream/Morpheus on his journey as he escaped a prison meant for his sister Death, was a really fascinating story, but it was only the beginning. There were so many other fantastical tales showing the evolution of Dream. The worlds were vast.

Some were familiar and some were strange and new to me, and I loved seeing Dream interact with the people/creatures/things in each of them. He’s Endless, and every story showed what he has done during his existence. The stories showed that he can be selfless and objective, and the stories showed that he can also be selfish and cruel. I enjoyed reading about all the different aspects of Dream.



Again, I highly, highly recommend reading this series!

Look at that cover! Look at it! This was the cover that caught my eye and why I picked up this series in the first place. So, imagine my surprise when it was my least favorite of the three current issues. Because the cover is amazing!


I think that this story is going to be epic, but because there are so many plots, subplots, characters, places, etc. going on, these beginning issues may suffer a bit, until the world is fully developed, and Warren Ellis is able to get into the meat of the story. It doesn’t happen in Issue #2 though, but the world is being fleshed out.


We see the scientists more fully, and Marsh is concerned about flowers now growing around the Tree at their arctic station. We don’t learn why they’re growing, but if I had to guess, black flowers aren’t really native to the arctic, or even to the world. Or, at least, I’ve never seen a black flower. So my guess - the Trees are branching out and growing these alien flowers.
They (the aliens) don’t believe Earth is populated anyway, so it would make sense if they are enhancing our planet for their benefit.


It was great meeting the rest of the research team, and I can’t wait to learn what they’ve learned about the Trees and these new flowers.


We’re also introduced to a couple new characters. In a small town in Italy, we meet Elgia and Tito. Tito is the leader of a local gang, and Elgia is his arm candy. We also meet the President of Somalia I believe, Caleb Rahim. His part is pretty small, but I think there’s going to be major conflict in future issues revolving around him and the Tree he lives near.


Again, this wasn’t my favorite, but it seemed to focus on introducing more characters, while also bringing about more plots and subplots that will most likely have importance later on.


I’m definitely going to continue with this series, and I am looking forward to reading more!

RTC