Looking For a Good Book

GRAPHIC NOVEL WEEK

I may be one of the few people who enjoy science fiction and dark fantasy who has never seen a single episode of the television series X-Files, though of course I am familiar with the main characters and the premise.  Had I known ahead of time that this book had a strong connection to the X-Files, I would never have requested it nor would have started reading it.  That said, this was a great opportunity to reach out and capture the attention of someone who is not a ‘built-in’ fan.

Though I knew who Mulder was (and fortunately I recognized him quickly in the art), I didn’t have a clue who any of the other people were or what their relationships with one another was.  The story didn’t make it particularly clear.  I trust that X-File fans knew what was going on, immediately.

In addition to a story that was difficult to follow, there was excessive dialog that slowed down the pace of the book.  This should have been written as a novel, or perhaps, with the amount of dialog within, a television episode or film.  But as a graphic novel, with a lack of action, this just plodded along.

The art was nice — appropriately dark and moody — and was the only thing that kept me reading through this.

This book is clearly not for someone like me – the casual reader – it is meant for someone already interested in the subject and story line, and is presumably a part of a larger story.  But because I can’t just pick this up and understand and enjoy it, even if it is a part of a larger story, then I can not recommend it.  I expect a comic book/graphic novel to have an on-going story, but each issue must capture a reader’s attention somehow.

Looking for a good book?  Perhaps fans of The X-Files will enjoy the graphic novel Millennium, by Joe Harris, but it’s certainly not a book that will be regarded well by general fans of the graphic novel medium.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Millennium

author: Joe Harris

artist: Colin Lorimer

publisher: IDW Publishing

ISBN: 1631403761

paperback, 120 pages