Graphic Novel Review – White Sand Vol 1 by Brandon Sanderson, Rik Hoskin, Julius M Gopez (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Graphic Novel/Fantasy
Length: 160 pages
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: June 28, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-1606908853
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the White Sand series
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 4/5 stars

“On the planet of Taldain, the legendary Sand Masters harness arcane powers to manipulate sand in spectacular ways. But when they are slaughtered in a sinister conspiracy, the weakest of their number, Kenton, believes himself to be the only survivor. With enemies closing in on all sides, Kenton forges an unlikely partnership with Khriss — a mysterious Darksider who hides secrets of her own.”

This is the first book in Sanderson’s White Sand graphic novel series. There are three volumes of this series available right now. I enjoyed this book. This is a neat fantasy world and a good story. Everything was put together in a way that was easy to follow and not confusing, despite the different storylines. The artwork is decent as well.

Some of the pages were very text dense which did distract from the illustrations and the story does jump around between quite a lot of characters. While it wasn’t confusing, it was a bit distracting and messed up the linearity of the story.

There is some violence in here but I think it (at least this volume) would be fine for middle grade readers to read. My 12 year old son read it and really enjoyed all the sand magic.

Overall I enjoyed this and plan on continuing the series. This is a fun epic fantasy read that middle grade and older readers will enjoy (it’s rated teen). There is amazing world-building and a lot of action and magic. My only complaint is how much the story jumps around between different characters and locations.