Comic Book Review – Ghostlands
Author: Richard A. Knaak
Illustrator: Jae-Hwan Kim
Publisher: TOKYOPOP
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: March 2007
The conclusion of the Sunwell Trilogy doesn’t disappoint and definitely entertains.
The conclusion of the Sunwell Trilogy is satisfying, even if there aren’t any twists or real surprises. The good guys stay good, the bad guys stay bad, and the ending is the ending that readers were prepped for from the first book.
That said, this is more more than just a competent and servicable tie-in to a gaming franchise. I’m often disappointed by how mechanical and soulless such tie-ins can be, but I was happily surprised by this trilogy.
I don’t game, and I especially don’t involve myself with massive on-line RPG. This is actually due more to the fact that I have an old and slow computer and don’t really want to devote the time to such an undertaking than any real distaste towards gamers and the gaming community. (In fact, some of my best friends are gamers). I do have great respect for the individuals that devote such time and effort into creating their characters and creating stories and quests for them. I suppose that’s why I’ve been so disappointed with franchise books. I know the kind of passion and devotion that so many players put into the worlds of their choice and they deserve better than formula books with cardboard characters. Players are storytellers of a unique and dedicated variety.
There are good tie-in books available and I don’t want to trash an entire genre in my review because there are fine examples of really good fantasy literature available within the context of gaming universes. This trilogy is good and enjoyable read and I’d love to see more of this offered to gaming communities.
Readers who purchased these volumes when they were first published had to wait a year between the second and third volumes. I know that had I been forced to wait for the conclusion I’d have been frustrated and slightly angry. The final volume of the Sunwell Trilogy was, in my opinion at least, worth the wait.
There’s a summary at the beginning, just in case the reader needs a little refresher and there are some nice miniature character bios underneath the illustrations in the summary that remind the reader what we know about each of the heroes. There’s little about the villains because the majority of that information is revealed in this volume.
The heroes are once again united in the last elven outpost on their world. As the heroes have converged in an effort to save one of their own, the dark forces working against them have also made their way to the ruined city. There are some smoother introductions of new characters in this volume, especially since any reasonable reader would certainly expect the elves in this story to protect their ancient, sacred city. The meeting of the heroes and the evil undead army they face results in a climactic battle.
“Ghostlands” is, again, well-paced and full of action. The dialouge forwards the story and keeps the reader informed of pertinent information without threatening the flow of the story. There are little pieces of background thrown in to keep characters from being little more than stock pieces of scenery and it all comes to the expected but ultimately satisfying conclusion.
The artwork is, again, well done. I’ll refrain from using lovely or beautiful because there are parts of this book that required the artist to draw grotesqueries that were every bit as skillfully drawn as the parts that were pleasant to view. My only real quibble is that the elves all seem to look the same, which may just be the nature of elves in this setting, since the human and dragon characters are all quite distinct. Any “floating characters” in the book are actually floating so the lack of backgrounds makes perfect sense in the rare instances they occur.
I’d recomend this trilogy for those who particularly enjoy epic fantasy or for any gamers you know whom you may want to peel away from the computer for a little while. It’s got a lot of action and some gore but the gore isn’t particularly graphic, nor is it gratuitous.
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