I was really excited about the premise and overall vibe of this, and while I enjoyed parts of it, the execution fell a bit flat for me. The art was really nice, and I loved the image and idea of these out-of-place characters in the city - the art of that was super fun. However, the story just didn't grip me, and I found myself losing a bit of focus. Maybe I'll come back to this and read it again when I'm in another place - the art is once again stunning, and I loved a lot of the concepts at play here!

Trust Brandon Sanderson to come with a concept that, even when illustrated, has characters, settings, and magic that is both convoluted and confusing at times; yet also engaging, elaborate, and elevated above (almost) any other graphic novel I’ve ever read. And I’ve certainly read my fair share of fantasy, horror, and science fiction graphic novels. With a cast of characters that span across timelines and worlds, real attention has to be given to not only what is being said, but what is drawn on the page and, thus, not being said through this first volume in the series.

Be forewarned, volume 1 ends on a cliffhanger. There are (at least) two more volumes to come; but nothing is said about publication timelines as of yet. Given Sanderson is heavily in the midst of a million projects (or so it seems) and has just released book five of ten in his penultimate Cosmere series, it seems fool hardy to hope for another instalment of The Dark One anytime soon. Therefore I suggest readers go into this one knowing that you may be just starting to unravel what is happening, and getting into the characters when everything comes to a twisting halt.
That’s not to say this isn’t worth a read, because it is. It’s merely the heads up that this is epic, elaborate fantasy. At this point I suppose we should all expect nothing less from the current reigning (and writing) master of epic fantasy.

I LOVED seeing some of Jackson Lanzig’s (co-writer) hidden references throughout. Something I’ve seen in all of Lanzig’s writing. The nod to Nirvana, when one characters says “all right now, entertain me”, was my favourite pop culture reference amongst a slew of tiny nods to rock music and known fantasy lore. I just can’t get enough of anything Lanzig has worked on; especially since meeting him at a local con. He is easily one of the most engaging guys out there in comic book writing. A super fun, really nice guy with a big outgoing personality, something not often seen in a writer.

I definitely look forward to volume 2, whenever that may be, continuing this story. In the meantime I’ll be sure to keep on watching anything and everything Sanderson does, in any format, as he has been establishing himself as this century’s Tolkien. The Dark One is just one more piece of what I believe will be a long lasting legacy of fantasy stories that people will never forget.

So I actually bought a physical copy of this and read it like that and I really enjoyed it. I’ve read a few books from Brandon Sanderson now and this one was nothing like I’ve read before but I could deffo tell it was him at the same time.
4 stars

I think that this is my favorite non-superhero graphic novel ever.

It really embraces the question of what predestination looks like while simultaneously being a great action/fantasy comic.
The art is probably only worthy of 4/5 stars, but the writing really carries it, and by no means is the art bad (just not brilliant).

I highly recommend this. It's a great start to a series!

Brandon Sanderson is amazing and the most wonderful story teller so to have a graphic novel to go along with that amazing story just makes things 100 times better. Thank you so much for the arc.

If its got Brandon Sanderson's name on it...I'll read it. As evident by my reviewing this. The premise is simple: we are following the "chosen one," Paul, which is a classic fantasy trope but...Paul is the chosen one for the Dark side. The enemies. Sanderson always takes classic tropes and flips them like this and it always draws me in. A quick enjoyable read.
Full review to come on my YouTube channel.

I'm not sure what it is about Brandon Sanderson graphic novels, but I never seem to be able to pull into the story the way I do with his novels. I have tried for months to keep reading Dark One. Hopefully some day I will be able to provide more feedback on the entire novel, but for now I have not been able to finish it and my pacing says it will continue to be a long journey.

Dark One Volume 1 was a fantastic and entertaining read!
ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A fun, dark, and compelling fantasy story that threw some interesting curveballs. Definitely a lot more twisted than other Sanderson books. The art was well-done, too. Really excited about where the story is going in future volumes.

I'm not really a graphic novel person but this was so entertaining! Also the art style is phenomenal!

Really loved the characters and the storyline! This novel was easy to follow and was quite intriguing. I really liked the illustrations

I am a big Brandon Sanderson fan so I was really excited when I saw this graphic novel up on netgalley.
I had really high expectations going into this in terms of storytelling as I just expect the best from Sanderson.

And mostly he truly did not disappoint. I am always impressed by how Brandon Sanderson is able to craft characters that you can really grasp, that are more than just a name and a description, in such a short time. It is an art he has mastered and it really shows in this graphic novel as well. I also love how Sanderson has a hang to insert weird / absurd / but always funny characters that take you a little out of the seriousness of the overall tone of his story. This also was done really well here.
Aside from the high expectations I already had it also had beautiful illustrations and it was easy to read.

I do think I expected a little more from the story - it was not mind-blowing or shocking. Although I am wondering if this is because I come to expect Sanderson to flip the narrative and he once again delivered just that.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this for an honest review. It has an interesting premise. I didn’t enjoy reading it. It was almost a DNF. The pacing was really fast and it seemed to just skip time

3.5 stars

The plot, world setting and the lore were really interesting but my biggest issue was the pacing. Why do graphic novels have the fastest pace but act like so much time has passed? Like Paul just met the princess and the next day, they hate each other and Paul is already turning to the dark one and rising an army. My other issue is that Paul is obviously wearing different style of clothing because he comes from another world but nobody is batting an eyelash and get shocked that he’s the dark one? I wasn’t a big fan of the art style but the story was really interesting, especially the plot twists and the ending.

Overall, I plan to continue reading the series because I want to find out more. I found it funny how every character had unique sounding names and then, there’s Paul.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy for an honest review.

I was looking forward to this book. However, some of it was good and some of it felt pretty rushed. I think I hyped it up to much in my mind. I will probably continue to read it.

DNF @ 40%. This was so disappointing. I love Brandon Sanderson but the dialogue was cringey and the plot was barely starting when I gave up. There are so many other better books to read by him that I'm okay with letting this go. I also did not care for the art style.

I have been reading about Brandon Sanderson's pitch for this idea for years and was super excited to finally see it come to life.

Like all Sanderson I loved the idea of the story. The world building is superb. And the twist comes at a great point in the story. I was a little confused by the ending, but I assume because that this is just Vol 1.

Feels very reminiscent of Birthright. Would recommend for fans of fantasy graphic novels.

Paul sees visions, at first he things they are hallucinations, but then he realizes that the visions are prophecies. I was sucked in from the beginning. I really enjoyed the story. All the best parts of fantasy were included. The art was great. The battle scenes were so cool. The separation between realities was a fun touch. I requested Dark One, but was unable to read the book before it expired. I was so glad that I hunted down a physical copy of the story. Great book and it made me want to try and find the novels.

Creative Team:
Written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly
Drawn by Nathan Gooden
Colored by Kurt Michael Russell
Lettered by Andworld Design
Created and story by Brandon Sanderson
Published by Vault

I received an eARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Dark and twisting, this is a fantastic graphic novel from Brandon Sanderson who writes so fantastically. Emotional and intricate this is a fantastic fantasy that seamlessly blends the real world with an alternate one.

It does remind me of some of Neil Gaimen's work, such as The Sandman, so fans of that will really enjoy this.

I really liked this story but it wasn't one of my favorites. I thinks Brandon Sanderson's work is best in novel form and not in graphic novels. But i'd still like to read the next volumes.