Customer Reviews

Starchild Awakenings

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I bought the Second-printed edition of this book at a Fan Expo last year because it looked like an interesting graphic narrative -- older, mysterious and unknown. But before I go on to some depth on the matter, let me expand on the rating that I gave this book.

Over all and after some thought I've given this book a 3/5. However, there are elements in play that I want to also apply ratings for, much in the way of Del Rey's old Writer's Workshop Critique-system. Here are my ratings for the following:

4/5 for illustration and setting / tone
3/5 for characterization
3/5 for plot

Now, let me get further into depth. The story itself begins with an exegesis of 'story' itself, allowed by some foreshadowing of the events that will come in the main story. For the most part, the beginning of Awakenings is more illustration of text than sequential art and it is easy to lose yourself in the words of that part. You as the reader are not entirely sure what is going on, and the narrative does meander a bit although it also does set the tone of the piece.

As you move into the story proper, it begins with letters between brothers -- Homer who has gone to an old mill in an old wood to do research and his brother Matthew. The plot-pacing is very slow and it is still difficult to discern what is actually going on -- though it does become clearer as the sequential art element is presented through the introduction of Matthew's meeting with Homer and his son Anders (Alexander).

This is where the main legend is told and events do start to become more focused. Interspersed throughout all of this, and after Homer's disappearance in his researches is the natural world of the wood which is rendered lovingly and in detail by Owen -- creating a real atmosphere of magic and old story. The rest of the work is a combination of illustrations and prose text conjuring up the power of stories and the sequential elements that deal with the adventures of Matthew and Anders who Matthew summons to the Wood.

I will say however that sometimes the illustrations, for all of its detail of line can get very confusing in terms of transitions from one scene to another, and being able to tell the difference between characters. While Matthew and Anders, and even to some extent Rumer and Rhysling and Ezkiel Higgins and some others are clearly developed, other supporting characters are much less so -- in the sense that you as the reader wonder why they are there to begin with.

It is clear that these supporting characters are homages to the comics works of Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller and Dave Sim, among others but while they do provide a certain degree of parody and comedic relief, one has to wonder what the entire purpose is to having some of them there. Some do fulfill a purpose in advancing the plot, but the roles of the others are much less clear to that regard.

I think that in the end while the greatest strength of 'StarChild: Awakenings' was its sense of mystery, it was also its weakness -- very much illustrated through the very anti-climactic and confusing end to the book after all the conflict and reasons behind every become clear.

But overall 'StarChild: Awakenings' is that kind of book that you can and should reread to get all the details in your mind on a mid-Hollow's Night Eve in an easy chair by the window watching the autumn leaves fall while sipping hot cider. It is a book of stories, and Fall, and magic that is not always clear and I am not sure that it should be.

In the end, it remains a Mystery Book.