Graphic Novel Review – Ringworld: The Graphic Novel, Part 1 by Robert Mandell, Larry Niven, Sean Lam (2/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Graphic Novel/Science Fiction
Length: 272 pages
Publisher: Tor/Seven Seas
Release Date: July 8, 2014
ISBN-13: 978-0765324627
Stand Alone or Series: 1st volume in the Ringworld: Graphic Novel series
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 2/5 stars
“In Ringworld: The Graphic Novel, Part One, two-hundred-year-old human Louis Wu is recruited by a two-headed alien named Nessus to join him, a catlike warrior alien named Speaker, and the infinitely lucky human Teela Brown to explore an alien artifact.
They find a Ringworld, a ribbon millions of miles long built around a distant sun. The civilization has fallen into savagery, though, and after crashing into the Ringworld, Louis must come up with a clever plan to get back to known space, hundreds of light years away.”
Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Ringworld graphic novel duology. I borrowed this from the library.
Story (3/5): Four beings journey to a mysterious Ringworld in hopes of having a place for sentient beings to flee to when the universe ends in 20,000 years. This is an old story redone in graphic novel format. I liked the concept behind the story but it seemed oversimplified here. I read the original book a really, really long time ago (in high school) and don’t remember much about it except I thought it was kind of boring.
Characters (1/5): I pretty much hated how the characters here were done. Nessus was not at all how I had pictured him. Louis Wu is an overconfident asshole. Speaker, the Kzin, is just always angry and has no more dimensions beyond his anger. And….don’t even get me started on Teela, she’s basically on the trip because she is lucky, super hot, and apparently Louis needed someone to have sex with anytime they take a break on their journey. They are awful characters and just well…awful.
Setting (3/5): I love the concept and setting of the Ringworld and it was portrayed okay here. We actually don’t see a lot of it in this book.
Writing/Drawing Style (2/5): The drawing in here is mediocre at best. Some of the action scenes are very hard to follow. There isn’t a lot of detail and way too much text is crammed in on the panels. The dialogue is awkward and the whole thing is generally poorly written and just didn’t translate well to graphic novel format. There is way too much over explaining as well. This is done in a manga-like format but without chapters and you read it in the standard English direction (front to back, left to right).
My Summary (2/5): Overall this was pretty bad. I finished it but I wouldn’t recommend it. The characters are poorly done and over simplified. The drawing and dialogue is awkward. The whole thing is just kind of a mess and this story doesn’t translate well into a manga-like format. I am not planning on reading the second volume and would recommend skipping this.