A weird sci-fi story about the last humans in the far future cloning Leonardo da Vinci so that he could save them from an alien race out to exterminate mankind. The story was really hard to follow. It flipped back and forth between random moments in da Vinci's life and Leonardo 2's story. I had an extremely difficult time following it due to this. The linework of the art was exquisite though. Really stellar.

Leonardo 2 is a very interesting graphic novel that has a large reach. The artwork was very beautiful and engaging -- I loved the black and white tone and then the sepia that ran through it. You can tell the artist worked hard to imitate Leonardo da Vinci's original work in this graphic book.

The book itself is a space opera, of a sort, where the main character is a clone of Leonardo Da Vinci -- created from one of the artist's fingerprints. Leonardo 2, as he is known, if the only genius that can save Earth from destruction.

Very beautiful, strange and unique story that I definitely recommend!

This graphic book was incredible! I live Leonardo Da Vinci and this book was a piece of art!
I know so much things about the artist that somehow this book didn't give me anything special, but this is the part where I feel good since there is everything I need to know about Leonardo.
Highly recommend if you are a fan!

** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **
Copy received through Netgalley

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Leonardo 2, by Stéphane Levallois
★★★★☆
96 Pages


This was an intriguing concept – take Leonardo Da Vinci's work and place it as the main art and storyline of a space opera. I think Levallois did a great job incorporating the best of Da Vinci's work into the story, and the illustrations were stunning throughout. I liked that the present-day space storyline was in black, while the historical Da Vinci storyline was in his trademark brown/cream combo. It made it clear, and easy to differentiate the two timelines.
When it comes to the story, I feel that it was interesting, but I wasn't blown away. I liked the concept, but I feel it was a little rushed and the split timeline made it harder to keep hold of the space-opera storyline. I found myself getting lost and confused a few times, and not getting the full effect of the space-opera side of the story.
I also found the short length of the story meant I lacked the time and connection to the story that would have let me immerse myself in the character of Leonardo 2. Though the art was stunning and the story concept was clever and interesting, I had zero emotional attachment to the story and felt that Leonardo 2 – as a character – was a prop rather than a central character.
When it comes to reading ability – I found it REALLY hard to read. I got a copy from Netgalley, but due to life, it had expired by the time I was able to read this, so I bought my copy from Amazon. Even then, it was *really* hard to read, comfortably. I had to zoom in a lot, which was frustrating, and I could barely read the dates/captions without zooming in. But, as that's something that wouldn't be a problem in a paperback version – my preference for graphic novels – I'm not letting that effect my rating, but it is worth mentioning.

Overall, I probably would give this a 3* for the storyline, but a 5* for the art, so I'm taking the middle ground and going for a 4* review. It lacked an emotional connection and a strong central character to hold the story together, but the concept and art were impressive.

As much as I wanted to love and enjoy this book, I didn’t. I just couldn’t connect to the story and had a hard time following. All I just understand is the reborn, the memories and the invasion.

With that, I realize that this book is mixture of sci-fi and historical fiction and that is cool. However I just couldn’t grasp the story.

The art is beautiful, kudos to the artist. It was very pleasing to the eye, really elegant.

I'm going to be honest, I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into with this book, and even though I had read the description, It really didn't prepare me for what really happened. In this graphic novel is a collection of breathtaking works of art, and they are woven into an equally breathtaking story. I never thought scifi could blend so seamlessly with this style of art, and really Leonardo Da Vinci in general, but here I am, blown away and in awe of this book. I really enjoyed it, if you haven't gotten the message yet.

In the future, Earth has been ravaged. The only people left are aboard The Renaissance, a ship circling the planet. But they're not safe yet. An intergalactic ship has been tormenting the survivors with threats of war and destruction, and they're going to keep their promise. And the only hope that humanity has, is that by cloning Leonardo Da Vinci, they wish to tap into his genius and allow him to create weapons of mass destruction. However, things don't go exactly how they could have hoped.

With a beautiful art style unlike any of the other graphic novels I've read I think ever, this is a book that would really stand out on my shelf. Not only because of the art, but also the story. Woven together are pieces of present day Leonardo 2 putting his master plan into place, and snippets of the original Leonardo's life. He's haunted by his past mistakes, and hopes to correct them in this new life he's been given. And I think that's exactly what he does.

Overall, I don't think I'm going to forget this graphic novel for a really long time. I want to re read it, and hold it in my hands, and that's why I hope I can buy it sometime in the future. I would love to let my friends and family borrow it. I want everyone to know about it. And that's really just that. I couldn't get enough of it, and I can't recommend it enough. Definitely check it out if you see it around, I think you'll learn some new facts about Leonardo Da Vinci, just like I did.

(Radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com)

This was more a story in the artwork than in the text. This at once appealed to me and repelled me. Appealed to me because the use of color and Da Vinci's artwork throughout was masterful (although a few of the drawings seemed almost too incomplete). Repelled me because while I loved the outermost and the story, I got more understanding of what was going on from the blurb on the cover than from most of the book itself. The story does hold together well though and in full-size glossy pages would probably really be amazing. On a phone screen, it wasn't quite sho impressive unfortunately.
Well done over all.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read a pre-release copy of this book.

I'd like to separate the story and the art in this book.. The story didn't make a lot of sense to me, and it was confusing at times... I don't think I fully grasped the invasion, nor did I understand the context for the memories we were being told.
The art, on the other hand, is beautiful. You can see the effort that the author took with drawing characters similar to what Da Vinci has drawn, the attention to detail, picking up inspiration from different artworks, and combining them to make sense. Very impressive artwork in this book!

This graphic novel is something quite remarkable indeed. In terms of art style, it’s the most impressive GN I’ve ever read.

This space opera is set in the year 15014 after the Earth has long been destroyed by alien invaders. Aboard the ship Renaissance, the last of humankind return to Earth in search of a Leonardo Da Vinci painting within the ruins of the Louvre. On this painting, they find a fingerprint which they use to create a Da Vinci clone to help them win the war against the aliens.
Despite the excellent Renaissance art style, this story is incredibly abstract and surreal. It’s an artistic tour de force.

It’s no secret that I adore Leonardo Da Vinci. I’ve read many books about him, and have spent hours studying his artworks and sketches, so I immediately noticed that the artwork in the graphic novel isn’t just well-drawn, but primarily made up of reproductions of Leo’s actual sketches. The idea alone of using real artwork and sketches to create a graphic novel is highly original.

But what makes this even more mind-blowing is the fact that these drawings aren’t edited images of Leo’s work, but fresh, hand-drawn pieces by Stéphane Levallois that perfectly replicate Leo’s style, and look near identical. It’s no wonder this novel took two years to create. I’m unbelievably impressed by this feat. I once believed that Da Vinci’s art could never be imitated, but my god, this is really something.

I don’t normally enjoy black and white GNs, but once I realised what I was seeing, the style of the artwork was perfect. Leonardo’s sketches were never coloured, only shaded, so it made total sense to recreate the images in black and white also.

That being said, there was the odd panel here and there that may have been over-detailed, and I couldn’t quite make out what the images were. But despite that, the art in the novel is unbelievably stunning. The dedication to accuracy and attention to detail speaks of such care and love of Da Vinci’s works. I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys not just Leonardo’s art, but his genius on whole.

Big thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for sending me a digital copy to review.

This is a dreamy, ethereal work. If you're looking for a concrete, literal story, this won't be for you. It's almost gentle despite the topic, and feels warm and introspective. Of course this is probably due to the distinct da Vinci style the book remains faithful to. It's the kind of book you read on a rainy afternoon and just let yourself drift...

I would totally recommend this as a story you can visit several times a receive a new message each time.

(GoodReads review 09.22.20)

This was a beautiful piece of art. Truly, it shows how graphic novels can be an artform unto themselves. The story itself was nothing particularly special, in my opinion, but the artwork was so painstakingly created. It is a beautiful piece to read and view.

Future technology has allowed for one of Leonardo da Vinci's smudged fingerprints to birth his future clone. Planet Earth is under imminent attack and it is only the rebirth of this genius mind that can cause their possible salvation.

I adored the premise for this 100 page graphic novel but felt the confines of the page length limited my emotional attachment to the story. Everything felt too briefly touched upon and I longed for more than surface level understanding for all that was occurring.

The art style worked far better for me. Black and white or sepia toned pages were interspersed with bright spots of colour visible only in da Vinci's artwork. The research done to imitate his style is evidently immense and I thought Levallois did great justice to the originals, here.

ARC Copy...hmm to be honest I mixed on the story part of...in a "would Leonardo think-act that way feel" but the art (which resembles the great master) is beautiful and obviously great care has been taken in the research of the man's art style.

We start this graphic novel with a virgin birth – future scientists clone Leonardo da Vinci from a smudge of his fingerprint on a painting of the Madonna, and make sure he grows up learning just what the great man once knew. For there's an intergalactic war to win, and that is something they're needing his help with. While his training and production montages play out, as it were, we see back to the original, Leonardo #1, with a confession to us of his being illegitimate, a bit of a sodomite, and so on, and we're also shown him try and become the producer of wonders back then and fail. Wings for manned flight? Crashed. Canal diggers? Too costly. And so on.

I don't quite think the book really convinced on the sci-fi side of things; we're told the spaceship that houses Leonardo #2's creators is the last vestige of humanity, but I didn't really feel much concern for their/our victory. What I did like, especially in the light of other books from this graphic-novels-built-to-parade-the-Louvre-catalogue series, was how inventively different the conceit was, and how so many pages got to crib from the man himself, using da Vinci artwork and designs as background to this book's images.

Ultimately, despite some reservations (I didn't get the impression the translation of the text, scattered about different corners of every frame as it is, was as flowing and readable as it could be), I do think this something pretty impressive indeed. Yes, the sci-fi wasn't perfect, but it did resolve itself in very satisfying ways, yes the art was a true homage to the original, with a lot of talent needed to be so, and also yes, this book served as a true tip of the hat to Leonardo #1. If you come here knowing of his biography (the legend of his tutor retiring on the spot at the sight of the young man's angel creation, etc) you'll find a book that suitably talks about da Vinci, shows us a version of him and successfully uses him as base for something quite extraordinarily different, all at the same time. Putting all that into two covers must have been a stretch, and there were times reading this I felt it beyond this creator, but he did a damned good job of it in the finish. For being brave, and putting hard work back on the pages of graphic novels, I have to give this four stars.

Also from this publisher – 9781681122595 – Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance of the World
Also using the Louvre – 9781681122571 – Red Mother With Child, amongst others