* * * 
3 / 5

The synopsis of Ravine, a high fantasy comic, sounded exactly like the kind of book that I would read. So I decided to give it a shot. Like most lengthy high fantasy novels, Ravine was hard to get into - with a massive cast, many different invented lands and cultures, it was seriously confusing - but it steadily drew me in. 

The art: The style of Ravine wasn't exactly my type of art - the colours were too bold and the lines too dark for my tastes, but it was definitely good in it's own way. The pages are like an explosion of colour in your eyes. Best of all, the style was consistent throughout the story. I did find some of the text hard to read. 

The story: In one word: confusing. In another: epic. We have dragons, we have magic, we have warring kingdoms, badass women and badass men. And so many characters it was enough to make my head spin just trying to keep track of them all on top of all the little references to religion, magic systems, politics and Chosen Ones. 

If you are willing to put the work into getting to grips with the world and story of Ravine, I'm sure you will be well rewarded. Personally, I put Volume One down at the end and felt a pang of satisfaction that I had read it all with no desire to pick up the next one.

This looked so cool! I thought the cover was pretty badass.

But I didn’t like the story as much as I had hoped.

I feel like it’s hard to do world building in visual mediums. These are always the most confusing parts of movies and comics. They try to fit so much in and it’s either confusing or tedious. Especially getting into the history of the world…this seems all too common in fantasy movies - you get a history to set up the story, and the history doesn’t make a lot of sense; or at least its confusing. The art was decent - but it looked almost too real - almost rotoscoped - in places.

But overall, it was an interesting story - I think it helped that I listened to Basil Poledouris’s <i>Conan the Barbarian</i> score while I listened to it.

There are some texts in the end that give a bit of the history of the world, but they don’t seem to directly inform the story; maybe indirectly.

Not sure if I’ll continue the story - though I am kind of curious how it will transpire.

<i>Thanks to NetGalley, Diamond Books, and Image Comics for a copy in return for an honest review.</i>

Artwork - fantastic, as expected.

Story, not so much. Hard to follow, and the font used in the history sections was really hard to read.

Presenting ravine: A High Fantasy epic that wins art-style of the year award.

When an epic high fantasy comic starts with a glorious rally speech for encouraging troops into battle, you know you're in for a treat. There are so many political and family mysteries. It makes my heart happy.


"it was a tragedy. Warriors of Aphelion...We stand here, far from home, facing an enemy none of us ever wanted to fight. A man who was once our kind leads our kingsmen and bled with us on Ravenona. They stand against us now, loyal to their king, even in his hour of madness. It's a hard choice for all. No one loved our king as princess Calisto and I did.

Let me just give you the quick info dump. A spell splits the world into two parts, resulting in a ravine. There's an evil guy named Nebexial Asheri, a classic trope of the "man who lost his family and seeks vengeance." There are people who oppose Asheri. But one thing everyone forgets to mention is how awesome these dragons are:

"Yesterday my court fool told me that were it not for bad news, I'd have no news at all. Sadly true.."
I really enjoyed the characters although I struggled to keep up with names. This comic definitely deserves a re-read to grasp the rapid fire pace and info-dump world building. But I absolutely love Lynn, the main character.

Character's get a calling for a specific weapon that can change the tide of war. This is a fantastic concept in the comic. Lynn gets chosen and she's pretty damn hesitant. I love the banter between characters and I'm excited to read more of the dialogue between them. It's realistic and fun.

I'm curious as to how the artist developed such a gorgeously hyper-realistic style. The artist poured painstaking detail into armour and character designs. The artist really breathed a life into this comic that makes it a cut above the rest.

Problems
The only difficulty my nit-picking skills found was that the comic is so fast paced it barely gives you time to get to know characters. If this were a slow burner, I would have given it five stars.

Beautiful artwork and a well told story. I really enjoyed this one! Well written, and the characters are unique and original.