Review: The Way of Shadows, Graphic Novel

Alright then,
I've read a few comic book adaptations of popular fantasy novels and I must say that I can really appreciate this one.
Most adaptations have either alot deviations from the source material, which isn't a bad thing in itself (for example; taking the character of Conan and building new stories around him. The Dark Horse line has some great stuff), or they adhere too strictly to the source material (like for instance the First Law comic, which wasn't and now never will be finished, despite its good start - in opposition to that though, the Game of Thrones comic book is pretty great whilst being far more faithful to the novel than the show is).

First up, the Book itself;

Naked Book!

Silver reflective letters on the spine...

...and a pretty cool fold-out.

Published by Yenn Press this book is a complete adaptation of The Way of Shadows, book 1 of the Night Angel trilogy. It stays very close to the source material, bringing some things into focus and leaving out the less important plot points. A pretty good balance all in all.
Another good thing; it's finished. The comic book ending might not stand up that well on its own but, at the very least, it makes for a decent companion piece for those who have the novels, it works well to refresh your memories for those getting ready to dive into book 2 and for those who haven't read the novels it might tempt you into trying out the trilogy.
Beware, there are some loose ends that only reading book 2 and 3 will answer.

The art by Andy Macdonald is black and white, functional and stays pretty consistent throughout, except at some scenes near the end which felt a little rushed to me. But it might be the problem of the scene transitions from the book manifesting themselves in the comic and anyway, since this is a comic it's easily forgiveable.

Seeing the characters on the page and grasping how young they actually are was quite startling. It did bring home how messed up some of the earlier stuff is. Though the depictions of those scenes were kept vague, they weren't vague enough not to let your imagination fill in the blanks. Very well done.

Eleven years old...

So to reiterate, a good adaptation that mostly works well on its own, though there are some loose ends and the ending itself is abrupt. Those two things make me think this would be best reserved for readers of the novels.

Vague SPOILERS for the ending after the jump. A tiny personal rumination, if you will.

As I said; the ending is a little abrupt and I was thinking there definitely should have been some kind of epilogue more along the lines of what the book did.

Some of that last scene also brought home how weird some stuff from the story got. Think Dumbledore waiting for Harry in the misty train station in the Deathly Hallows. Still an odd scene that...
It's always hit and miss and occasionally bizarre when novels tackle the afterlife.

Likely there will be explanations in books 2 and 3 for this scene. I've already read most of book 2 and there were some tantalazing references but nothing really concrete. So far it's really one of the more interesting things about book 1. And I'm happy that it's being explored.