<em>Bezkamp</em> by Samuel Sattin and illustrated by Jen Hickman was interesting. In a world where history and the written word are basically condemned to the point that it is outright banished, the son of a warrior on a planet filled with terrifying aliens finds himself more fascinated with learning about what came before than he is in following in his father's footsteps. As everyone in the society sort of falls into their given roles, Nem rebels from his as much as he is able under the tutelage of his father and aunts until one day an unexpected disaster strikes that changes everything.

I was honestly kind of blown away by <em>Bezkamp</em>. From the deterioration of both the society's education and language, you're not quite sure what to expect from this story but as it progresses and piece by piece the truths of the world are revealed, you're left with a story that's actually quite brilliant. While admittedly a number of plot points are somewhat easily predicted, you still find yourself invested in the story and the characters.

As Nem stumbles through his shocking adventure, he happens upon a young girl who has sort of been left on her own in the world but holds many answers that he has been searching for. And together they continue on a journey to answer even more. What was most shocking to me, in fact, was how much I did care about what happened to the people of <em>Bezkamp, </em>a name that I didn't quite understand until later on in the graphic novel. It was one of those lightbulb moments for me, which was genuinely fun to experience.

The ending was, unfortunately, a bit rushed in the hope of tying up loose ends and leaving this graphic novel as a standalone, which I don't think was necessary. I feel as though this story would have worked far better with a sequel or perhaps a little bit more of a transition and less of an all-happy ending. Conflicts were resolved far too quickly for it to really be believable and a time jump just feels contrived.

The artwork worked for me, though I wouldn't say I was blown away by everything. While the characters were excellently drawn, the aliens were quite odd and the landscape somewhat bare. Ultimately, however, this didn't really affect much with my ability to enjoy the story. I'm actually rather fond of it all as a whole and I appreciated the fact that areas in which battles and wounds were depicted weren't too terribly graphic or disturbing, though one scene did stand out to me as slightly uncomfortable.

All in all, I'm definitely glad I got a chance to read this one.

<em>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</em>

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'Bezkamp' by Samuel Sattin with art by Jen Hickman is a graphic novel with an interesting SF story at its heart.

Nem is a disappointment to his father Migal. They live in a village called BezKamp and are at war with creatures on the planet. Nem would rather try to dig for old artifacts to try to figure out the past. In a world where reading and writing are banned, his choices make him unpopular. Migal is determined to make his son a warrior and teache him about "Creejun" which is used to terraform.

I liked this story, but it took a while to get used to the odd way the characters speak. A hint for readers might be to sound things out. The language is a derivation of English (as might happen without writing or literature). The art wasn't initially my favorite, but it also grew on me. By the end, I did enjoy this.

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

I don’t really see any interest in writing a review for a book I haven’t finished reading but here’s the thing: I lost myself in the storyline, got confused by the language used and that made me give up on this book. Definitely wasn’t for me.

2 stars = indifferent

Not too bad a comic, but one certainly with flaws. The world is an alien one, where society has devolved – the spoken language is a bastardised version of what we have today, people are stuck in one of only a few roles, and it's not an easy life. Our hero is a boy who doesn't want to become a warrior, but to explore what was left around by the people that were there before, and learn to write as well, which is a criminal act of sedition. All that would be well and good, if the artwork matched that outline, but it's no match for the action scenes, and when things get weird they stay weird with this cartoonish lack of clarity. I don't think people poised on the back of giant poodles really cuts it. The plot and script could get four stars, but the art really dumps this down to the two and a half mark.