This was just kind of a meh sci-fi graphic novel. The plot and characters weren’t very engaging and the story just didn’t have that “it factor” for me. The artwork was ok, but not as sharp as other graphic novels I’ve read before.

Unappealing art style, cliched story. I found myself just hating the characters and not at all interested in what happened to him, or invested in their survival at all. Couldn't even finish this.

The art is okay throughout, though I didn't much care for the way women were depicted. (Aren't we over everyone missing half their shirts and being the same Barbie body type yet?)

If you're looking for a horror-y alien novel, this will work. I think the Krael are fairly one-dimensional bad guys. It's said that they are hierarchical and can't operate if the leader is killed, but we never see what that would actually mean. They're mostly an excuse to draw teeth and tentacles, which is cool with me. I think the whole human extinction angle is only fascinating if there are humans you can care about, and none of the prisoners in the camp rose to the level of fully-developed people since Joe Human's interactions with them were all antagonistic.

Finally, I didn't fully buy Joe Human's arc from survival-motivated loner to selfless hero. It's clear from the beginning that we're missing his backstory, but each of his actions (especially in the first quarter) don't fully add up to the decisions he makes at the end.

It's set up for a sequel, but meh.

Received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am partial. I am a big fan of Kevin J Anderson. Iwould always read anything he writes. I also am drawn to this magnificent cover. Very intriguing and impressive. It calls to you.

I'm not a big sci-fi fan and this book hits on all I dislike about the genre. While war stories don't often bother me, this one was too much for me.

Kevin J. Anderson knows how to write a good sci-fi story. This one is set in a future in which humanity is at war with an alien race. When the crew of a starship is captured by the aliens against all common belief, it provides an opportunity to build the conflict in an interesting way. Sure, there is plenty of violence in this book, but I like what it does with two sides. There are a couple of rogue elements that don't quite fit into either side clearly too. I just like the setting a lot. The world where most of the action takes place is sort of bleak and ultimately is both not important and very important for what happens there. The way Joe Human (that name might just be the worst thing about this book) seems to be a catalyst for a lot of the events that take place and, despite being sort of a dirt bag, I want to read more about him.

The art is pretty good. I recall a few moments where it becomes kind of sloppy. For the most part, it captures the brutality of the war that is going on while highlighting some of the more interesting elements in the story. Even if I don't like every image, that synergy with the story that is being told makes it work.

This book was just too violent for me, therefore I could not enjoy the story. The art was well done and very vibrant. The comic does deal well with the effects of war and the trauma, such as PTSD that people can suffer from, as well as in concentration camps, and even addictions that can make people suffer.

I understand that war is unnecessarily violent and bloody. Bad things happen. I've read some pretty violent books like 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill and It by Stephen King. I could stomach all of that, because there were interim periods of goodness and kindness. I could stomach seeing corpses during my anatomy practicals, but I could NOT stomach this repetitive violence in Stalag-X.

The first page pretty much sums up what the sci-fi war is all about.

The humans are the good guys and the bad guys are called the "Krael". They're pretty much your stereotypical nazi-type aliens that seek and destroy with no mercy. The humans get captured by the Krael and are escorted by a liaison of the Krael called Jules. And so our manly men are stuck in Stalag-X, a concentration camp for our heroes.

This comic isn't anything new - it's a Warcraft, World War 2, Sharship Trooper rip off. The captives are going to be used as bargaining chips. The Krael are Cthulhu-like monsters, without the existential dread that usually occurs. There's no dimension to the Krael, which is insufferable.

But wait - that's when I realised the first chapter was pretty terrible. In the second one, the Krael peacefully co-exist with humans in some dream-like state of one of the traumatised prisoners. Krael teach human children how to read it, and vice versa. Then the scene cuts to more torture. It was so jarring and confusing

A human with secrets? Hmmmph. A rare gem but useless to me." - Mengele, the big bd wolf. There's a woman
who's cool, I guess. I really struggled to focus on this comic. It's too busy.

What I do enjoy about this comic is how it shows PTSD and trauma occur in concentration camps. This whole comic is an allegory for any concentration camps - whether the Krael represent Nazis or the Englishmen in the South African War.

The main character is a guy who calls himself Joe Human, and he seems largely unaffected by the torture the group must endure. From being ripped to shreds by a tentacle creature or shocked into the head, Joe is okay.

The baddie, Melatonin Manele is addicted to human emotion - love, pain - anything. this is a fascinating concept. There's also a gal addicted to him.

The style: ground control to major Tom - please save me from this bomb
The style grates and irks me. I didn't know men could have so many muscles ripples. The style puts me off so much. There are strange and asymmetrical styles like The Crow by James O'Barr and The Walking Dead, Book Two (The Walking Dead #13-24) by Robert Kirkman, but this style is disgusting.

All in all, this comic is ruined potential, which is quite sad for me to admit. I implore the illustrator and writer to keep going - one day you will make something great,

My recommendations for good sci-fi war books/comics: Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein, Ender's Game (Ender's Saga, #1) by Orson Scott Card and Columbus Day (Expeditionary Force, #1) by Craig Alanson

I liked the graphics, which reminded me—in a good way—of Bill Sienkiewicz's sloppier styles, while holding up good form throughout.

Stalag-X is a fantasy sci-fi about a human POW that was captured and experimented upon by an alien race called Krael. The book features the curiosity behind Krael's experiments on humans and the politics at play in a galaxy at war.

WHO WOULD ENJOY READING IT?
Fans of fantasy in a graphic novel format would enjoy this one.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT IT
There is a lot to be said about the art, but most of the characters in this book are mavericks with an interesting outlook on their existence. The plot is intriguing and I cannot wait to find out more in subsequent volumes.

.......

Stalag-X by Kevin J. Anderson, Steven L. Sears, Mike Ratera is available to buy on all major online bookstores. Many thanks to Diamond Book Distributors for review copy.

'Stalag-X' by Kevin J. Anderson and Steven L. Sears with art by Mike Ratera is kind of a cross between a space story and The Great Escape.

A group on humans are being held in a prison camp run by an alien race known as the Krael. The Krael run cruel experiments on the prisoners and aren't afraid of torturing and even killing them. A new prisoner arrives going by the name of Joe Human. The other prisoners know him and don't like him. He soon becomes someone the Krael don't like as well. He could be the best chance the humans have for escape. This version also comes with an additional prose story set on the same world.

I liked the story well enough. The art wasn't really to my liking. The humans had an odd look to them. The book is pretty graphic at times, but fits in with the nature of the story. The backup novella is not bad and has a few illustrations.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Vault Comics, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Goodreads Synopsis:
Best-selling author, Kevin. J. Anderson (DUNE: HOUSE ATREIDES, STAR WARS: TALES OF THE JEDI, STAR WARS: JEDI ACADEMY) and veteran screenwriter, Steven L. Sears (XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS, THE A-TEAM) team up with artist Mike Ratera, to bring you STALAG-X.

This DELUXE EDITION features an original prose piece by Anderson and Sears.

PUBLISHER' SYNOPSIS:
Joe Human―is taken to a harsh P.O.W. camp on a distant planet where he will be examined, tortured, and forced to endure experiments that rip into his very mind, as the alien Krael seek to answer the question: What is human? A question that, in their hellish situation, the prisoners are finding harder to answer.

My Review:
Everyone always says that the Krael don't take prisoners, but what they don't know is that they're making slave camps. Stalag-X used to be an Earth command base, but that was before the Krael took it over and modified it. There's a space war going on that's spanned seventeen planets and ten years in total. This book has an explosive start, and is super bloody with a lot of bright colours. I like the art style, and the cover really made me want to check it out the most. I didn't want to put it down, even when I was confused at what was actually happening. I'm stuck between giving this book a three and a four because of the confusing parts. The story bounces around a lot and it's sometimes hard to decipher what's really happening in the present tense.

The main character is a man who calls himself Joe Human, and he's really tough. He spends most of the book brutally murdering things. He's funny, though too. He's been experimented on, and seemingly he has zero secrets. This book is a crazy right and although it's all over the place, I felt good about reading it when I was done. Check it out if you get the chance and see what you think.

Here's a link to the author and artist's Twitter, and another link to the book itself on Amazon.

https://twitter.com/TheKJA
https://twitter.com/FSUWriter

https://www.amazon.ca/Stalag-X-Kevin-J-Anderson/dp/1939424283/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525904077&sr=8-1&keywords=stalag-x

Thanks for reading! Check out this review and more at my blog.
(Radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com)

Ho hum space POW camp story. With this author’s background, it is surprising that Stalag-X contains nothing innovative or even interesting.

A mysterious prisoner, known only as Joe Human, gets swept up in a space battle. Taken prisoner by the alien Krael, the other POWs at Stalag-X hate him for his seemingly special treatment by the science commandant called Mengele by the POW camp. Mengele has a human called Linda, who allows him to feel her emotions willingly. Deacon, a hired assassin, is also trapped on the ravaged planet. Respected by the Krael, she is allowed to move freely around the planet.

The artwork was clear and the writing was acceptable but there is no originality here. The characters are cardboard cutouts drawn so broadly that the reader doesn’t truly connect with anyone. As advertised on the back cover, this is Bridge over the River Kwai redone in comic book form. However, the shortness of the comic medium makes both the plot and the characters not complicated enough to draw the reader in.

Many readers will have a connection with the author, Kevin J. Anderson’s earlier work on Tales of a Jedi and Dune. For those readers, this book is slightly recommended. For all others, Stalag-X is a pass. In a world full of great comics and graphic novels, it is easy to find something more imaginative elsewhere. 2 stars.

Thanks to the publisher, Vault Comics, and NetGalley for an advanced copy.

I have come to the realization that Kevin J. Anderson is not a very good author.

This is a graphic novel about an alien POW camp holding human prisoners. What should have been an interesting reworking of an old concept was just bland and predictable with average art.
And the introduction of another alien race was just lazy writing. Why not show human ingenuity to save the day?
Not a fun tale.

This was... OK. A prison ship is attacked by the Krael and survivors are taken to their prison colony, Stalag-X. Humans are being experimented on in a VR world to infect them with the dark ripper that takes away their leadership? It didn't make any sense really. And it takes a LOOONG time to get there. Then the shit flies in the last issue and there's a cliffhanger, but I'm not sure how much I care about reading the next volume. The pacing of this is really off. The art isn't anything special. Also included is a 30 page prose story that I didn't care enough to read.

This review is also posted in my blog :
https://onewordtoomuch.wordpress.com/2018/03/21/stalag-x/

Thank you to Net Galley for a free copy of this book in trade for an honest review.

For a graphic novel, this sure is not a quick read. The story is set in the future where humans are at war with a group of aliens called Krael. Somehow the aliens are curious on how the human mind works. And it involved taking some prisoners for research. It’s definitely not a lovely sight. Somehow, I don’t really like the story. Well, it’s a simple one, but I don’t quite enjoy it. It’s a simple science fiction story with lots of naked bodies, some gruesome aliens and cool background scenes. There are some reference to zombie as well (which is weird at some point). The story didn’t have too many twists so if you like science fiction with an alien based story, you might be able to enjoy this.

There are some surprises during the story, especially with the characters. Some of the characters have mysterious background. Things don’t reveal until near the end. It’s a great imagination on what will happen when human fight aliens and how if the aliens have their own enemy.

For the illustration, it’s quite detail. I have to give 5 stars for the illustration style. The alien looks scary and weird enough. For the human, they appear a bit muscular, including the women. All the drawing and the coloring are a solid style with solid black lines. The proportion of human and alien is also makes sense.

Recommend for those who like science fiction theme with alien versus human as the center of the story, impressive illustration and plenty of action. There are bits of blood and violence involve.

I liked it in general but a bit too graphical for my taste, too much blood and death. It feels like one of those known stories of humans against aliens where aliens are extremely cruel and humans battle till the end caught in the middle, as if you missed the first part. Nothing really original in this one either, the part where they put a creature on the back of one prisoner comes from a TV show I watched not so long ago, the parto of the sex with the aliens looks like someone's fantasy more than something really needed on the story. I would recommend it to someone really into this kind of graphical novels, but not to anyone certainly

Highly enjoyable, Kevin Anderson is on form as always. Highly recommended.

Tits and Ass? Graphic Violence? Lots of Blood? Women being "mind" raped? Yup, all there, and more.

If that gets you excited to read this story, great, go for it.

I found that I just wanted to read the story, not see all the rest of the stuff that was going on. Women dressed in tantalizing clothes for no other reason than they are.

The story, itself, is somewhat interesting. Aliens are trying to figure out the best way to destroy the human race? But, really, the evil doctor has an eye monocle? Is that so we can tell the aliens apart?

Too much violence, blood, rape, and tits and ass for me. I'm sure there are others out there who would enjoy this.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

Humanity is fighting aliens and losing badly. One of the few survivors of a battle is a prisoner who prevents the crew from self-destructing when boarded, which leads them to be taken to a prison colony.
Felt like it could have taken place in the Starship Troopers universe—especially with the big monster, the base, and the rallying cry (won’t even mention the Dizzy character)—with a little bit of Battlestar Galactica and V thrown in. One of the aliens is affectionately nicknamed Mengele, and for good reason.
The first “surprise twist” wasn’t much of a surprise, but the second one was. More to the point, the story gets too confusing. Would have liked it more streamlined. Ends in a cliffhanger, of course. And for once in my life I wish an author could have resisted putting some “alien sex” in there.
I can’t think of anything special to say about the artwork. As far as the rest of the presentation, at times the prose was too small to read. At the end there’s a short story about one of the characters, with only the occasional artwork, mostly words.