'The Idhun Chronicles Vol 1: The Resistance: Search' by Laura Gallego, Andres Carrion Moratinos and Studio Fenix is a graphic novel adventure story.

I love a good adventure story, especially with fantasy, but this one has so much explanation and exposition that it makes a sadly boring comic.

To recap, a young boy named Jack is orphaned and finds himself suddenly in somethig called the Resistance. I wish the pacing and art and been up to the story potential.

I received a review copy from Diamond Book Distributors, Ablaze, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A friend of mine loved this series and recommended me to read this to start getting obsessed with it as she is. I'm definitely intrigued and want to know more. The story is interesting and captivating and left me wanting for more. I loved the art and how the different characters were portrayed. I know Spanish so I want to read this in its original language as well.

First of all I want to thank netgalley for providing me with this graphic novel, secondly I have to be honest I have not read anything about idhun, I have only heard about the book and the series that he currently has. To be the first time that I read something of this saga, I think it was a beginning, I am clear that the graphic novel is more summarized, but the way in which it is laid out, the characters as they were drawn, is a good way for me, for introduce me and tempt me to read the books (which are quite intimidating)
in this first part we are introduced as a young man who is orphaned overnight, he who was just a normal human, ends up joining the resistance to defeat the bad guys, along the way he will find and lose friends, but that will make him grow even more, discovering its true power.
As I said at the beginning, for me, reading this was a good incentive to motivate me to read the books, it has a captivating story and a world that Laura Gallego thinks is striking, something that the author usually does very well.
for me this deserves 4 stars out of 5

I really wanted to like this book, it felt like it has a lot of potential, and from reading the reviews by those who read the original source material, I was really eager to experience it. Unfortunately, actually experiencing it was a less than pleasant process. At times, it felt like this book forgot that it's supposed to be a graphic novel; the sheer amount of text in some places makes the illustrations feel like an afterthought rather than the integral part of the material that it should be. Without knowing the original source, I can't really comment on the quality of the adaptation, so I don't know if the abrupt changes in pacing are something inherent to the original source or something that happened as a result of the adaptation, but either way, it isn't good.

The Idhun Chronicles, Vol. 1: The Resistance: Search is the first part of the comics series that's based on the books. The books have been translated into my language too, but they were never really that popular and it's quite interesting how the series has gotten an animation now when the books are from 2004 onward. This comic is also from 2009, so not that new. Jack loses his parents as they are killed and he himself survives only to enter a weird and magical world that's not Earth. He and Victoria both are now part of the resistance and fighting against Kirtash, a lethal bounty hunter of sorts. The people can use magic and such, but it's not really clear what the enemy wants and what's the point of the whole thing. The comic is mostly talking heads and there's so much text. Mostly it's just everyone pondering and analyzing the situation, but it get's us nowhere.

The art is quite stiff and heavy. It's also quite simple and as I said, just talking heads. We hardly see anything of the world and nothing moves forward. This seems just like a retelling of the book and not a story in it's own right in a comic form. I can't really say I'm much wiser after reading this and the plot goes nowhere. We only know how much Jack wants to kill Kirtash.

Unfortunatly I could not open the book, because it was no longer available on NetGallery. The *acsm no longer worked, Pitty.

Laura Gallego is an auto-buy author for me. I read her "Guardianes de la Ciudadela" and I was smitten with the epic and original worldbuilding, the characters, the dramatic turns of events.
I found the same energy in this graphic story. I haven't read the previous books, and this introduction to the universe of Idhun - with vividly interpreted characters, dynamical and often page-turning action - welcomed me warmly to Laura Gallego's next hit.
The story has both middle-grade and young adult feelings to it. Coming of age is intertwined with some gruesome themes: loss, responsibility, compassion.
It's a great addition to the existing world, I hope to be able to read the sequels to this graphic representation of Idhun and its inhabitants.

Big thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for granting me the wish of reading this colourful and adventurous graphic novel!

I really enjoyed this graphic novel. The illustrations are great, although very manga like, and I found the story intriguing and fascinating.
After watching the show on Netflix I wanted to know more about the characters and Idhun and this graphic novel definitely satisfied my need! I'm looking forward to reading the following comics.

In "The Idhun Chronicles, Vol. 1: The Resistance: Search" we meet Jack after he's lost his family in a very tragic way. He soon meets Victoria and with her he'll start to discover the secrets of a new world where magic exists!!

The world-building seems complex and well-thought and I believe there's a lot more behind what we're seeing.
The characters are charming and fun, although you might connect better with them as a teenager, because as an adult you can feel exasperated with the decisions they make at times.

The plot was great, with good pacing and structure and it kept me interested from the beginning.

I hope we get to read more of this author in English soon! Overall a very nice portal fantasy story, that is only just beginning.

I received a copy of this graphic novel through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Not too bad. At times a bit difficult to comprehend because there’s a whole new magic system and weird creatures and lots of stuff happening. I liked the art style and the story was pretty interesting. If I understand correctly it’s based on a fantasy novel series and thus there just is very much to cram into the graphic novel. Also there would seem to be a Netflix series as well. I might try to watch it, just to make the plot more understandable.😉

This is a pretty text heavy graphic novel. There’s a Lot of world building and lore for the reader to catch up with. It’s content appropriate for a teen reader and focuses on a young boy named Jack who starts with finding his parents murdered (pretty bloodlessly) at the beginning of the book. He’s rescued as the killer goes for him and is pulled in a magical world for a pretty genre typical bit of sword training and discovering the new weird world he’s in. I’d watched a single episode of the anime, got distracted from it by all the other quality shows out there. This book is good enough to make me want to go back to the anime and keep watching it.

At least the plot set-up here is going to be simpler than discussing the source of this book. Originally a humongous six-part Spanish prose fantasy, it was crammed into a fat-and-then-some trilogy, with eventually each volume being split into four graphic novels – and this is the first two of those, meaning half of the trilogy's first book, ie the first original novel. I think. Heck, the bloody origin is that it's on nutflux, so soak that up. It's only taken twelve years to translate into English, so it's going to be pants, anyway, right?

Well, no, not initially a least. Our young hero gets sucked into a magical halfway-house realm, when assassins come from a world of magic and kill his parents – little does he know that his ability to spark fire with his mind, and his dreams of dragon combat, are linked to the destiny and heritage he knows nothing of. What follows proves some positives and some flaws – he's a little too gung-ho and full of himself to be really likeable, and the way he comes on to a twelve year old girl is a little icky, at least in this translation; the book can be verbose and struggle with how it has to turn 400pp of prose into 100pp of sequential art. But at this stage, before the depths of the worlds' lore are plumbed and before each and every warrior has an alter ego and a sword name and no end of other things to get us annoyed, this is clear, pleasant, and direct fantasy for a young teen audience.

Until a red call box still has a phone book in, that is. Whoops. After that unforgivable blunder the flaws grow and grow and prove themselves more inherent – this is just a yack-fest, fantasy history and exposition crowding every page that doesn't feature standard young-warrior-improves scenes or the still-yucky 'romance' aspect, and demanding overtime of the letterer working in translation (although I am sure this uses new, bespoke bubbles and not that for the original Spanish, they just look too slick). I mean, I was never going to rate this high – it read as a standard book, and I could see it was going to get bogged down in terms, names and lore. Standard books should never be on anyone's priority list, either. So what this is is flawed, but something that might hold appeal to fans of rich, deep-and-then-some fantasy worlds, and as a companion piece to the Nutflux anime. It's look is apparently based on these volumes, so if it floats your boat go for it. Many will buy this and tire of it, mind. Two and a half stars, and those heavily skewed to the opening half.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a free e-ARC of this book. The following is my honest, unsolicited opinion about it.

The Resistance is a middle grade portal fantasy focusing on Jack. In one life-changing day, he suffers a great loss and discovers the existence of magic and alternate worlds. It is a graphic novel adaptation of the the 1st of a novel trilogy.

I have not read the original novels, but I did read and enjoy a different novel (El Bestiario de Axlin) by the author. I did not like this one as much. I like the character design, but the art seems a bit lacking in emotion and movement until the last couple of sections. The story starts off interesting, but some time jumps and skimming over consequences lessened the emotional impact. Then, in the middle, there is a huge information dump to explain the lore. This wall of text did not hold my attention. And there are some predictable plot turns and uneven pacing.

For a young reader, the above issues may not hamper their enjoyment, but I think it would be disatisfying for more experienced readers.

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.*

A complex and layered story featuring fantasy, fate, and friendships turned found family.

This was only the start of what promised to be an epic fantasy and a sprawling mystery, and as such there were questions posed on the periphery that went unanswered and even unexplored. Impressively so, over a relatively short amount of pages, the story managed to flesh out four main characters with expansive backstories all linking to, and adding to, the intricacies of the plot, yet all the while maintaining an air of mystery about them that suggested there was even more to learn about them in the future. The character interactions and dialogue were, at times, fantastically charged with high emotions and it made them all the more realistic as teen characters.

The world-building was intense and extensive, done so through not-so-subtle info-dumping and exposition. However, it was a necessary and not entirely cumbersome inclusion because everything in the story hinged on the world-building, without which the lore of Idhun would've been lost and character motivations would've made little sense.

Above all, this had a satisfyingly disastrous ending, and this may have been one of the only situations in which a bad ending for the characters was actually a good ending for the story. Everything that could've gone wrong for the protagonists did go wrong and the result was a spectacular catastrophe that left the characters in completely different positions from how they started. Seeing such great emotional and physical growth in all the characters was rewarding and the uncertainty created by the surprise twist ending boded well for what will be waiting for the characters in The Idhun Chronicles, Vol. 2: The Resistance: Revelation.

Esta es, originalmente, una trilogía cuyo idioma original es el español y tiene ya sus buenos años. Recientemente Netflix publicó al adaptación a anime (optó por ese formato de animación) en sus plataformas y, sinceramente, vi la adaptación pero no me encantó tanto como esperaba. Aunque es entretenida.
De ahí que en la tapa ya le hayan estampado ese característico sello de Netflix que detestamos porque usualmente no hay con qué despegarlo o directamente viene impreso en la tapa. Aún así, esta es una versión digital así que me ahorro eso.

Como ya leí la trilogía y vi la adaptación, la novela gráfica no me aportó mucha información nueva. Es más que nada otra forma de consumo, sobre todo si sos muy fan de la historia. Está bien adaptada dentro de todo, teniendo en cuenta la cantidad de información que tienen los libros de Idhún. Aunque también creo que juega en contra. Es por esa misma cantidad de información que las páginas se vuelven estáticas con los diálogos de los personajes que llenan las hojas de arriba a abajo. Hay tantos globos de diálogo por viñeta que a veces resulta confuso.

Si Idhún les llama la atención definitivamente les recomendaría que lean la trilogía. La historia de Jack, quien encuentra asesinados a sus padres y debe, inmediatamente, defenderse de Kirtash, su asesino, quien posee magia, es mil veces más dinámicas. A estos enemigos luego se une Victoria, a quien Jack conoce ni bien despierta en la guardia del "bando bueno". Victoria posee algunos poderes y proviene de Idhún, aunque no tiene mucho conocimiento sobre su familia, sabe que esta tuvo que ocultarse en la Tierra como muchos otros cuando Idhún fue atacado y llevado al borde del colapso.

Reafirmo que deberían leer al menos el primer libro, no sé si tanto leer la novela gráfica pero como la autora está muy implicada en el proceso creativo de todas las adaptaciones, también les diría que ver la adaptación en Netflix no es mala idea.

3/5 stars

I received an ARC of this book, and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

I'll start by saying I have not read the books this graphic novel is based on, nor have I watched the Netflix adaptation. I might have been able to appreciate the story more if I had.

This one just wasn't for me. It is intended for a middle grade audience, and I could see middle grade readers enjoying this a whole lot more than I did! I also think this story is probably better in either novel form or TV form.

The pacing was all over the place! It did not transition from scene to scene very well. There are also panels that are just completely filled with text that just gets dumped on the reader. By the halfway point, I had considered not finishing this, but I figured I would at least see volume 1 to the end.

I also wasn't a huge fan of the art. The cover looks beautiful, but the art throughout the book is not as well-done.

I think there are plenty of readers who would enjoy this, particularly those already familiar with the series or middle grade readers. I just had too many issues with it to get any real enjoyment from it. I might give the TV show a try, just to see if that is better at telling the story.

Content: language, death, violence

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Idhun Chronicles, Vol 1: The Resistance: Search by Laura Gallego, Andrés Carrión Moratinos, and Studio Fenix is an exciting YA fantasy graphic novel. The story revolves around Jack, whose parents are killed in front of him, and who is transported into another world full of magical creatures and secrets. He meets a girl, Victoria, and they join together with the Resistance to fight for the freedom of the world.

Overall, The Idhun Chronicles, Vol 1: The Resistance: Search is a lovely graphic novel that will appeal to fans of Huntik and Shadowhunters. One highlight of this book is the nice, slightly anime-inspired artwork. The characters were well-drawn. Another highlight is the equality of the main characters. I liked that this wasn't just Jack's story or Victoria's story. I felt like both characters had equal parts and storylines. If you're intrigued by the description, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in April!

Questo è seriamente uno dei peggiori fumetti io abbia mai letto. Arrivata a metà ero tentata di non finirlo, ma raramente lascio le cose incompiute. Mi son sforzata di finirlo, ma è stato davvero una tortura.
Sin dall'inizio sia i disegni che i testi sono stati davvero faticosi da leggere e seguire.
La valanga di testo che si è obbligati a leggere non serve assolutamente a nulla, perchè la lore che cercano di farti conoscere è talmente confusa e raffazzonata insieme che non solo avrei voluto saltare intere scene di righe e righe di parlato, ma appena dopo averlo letto non mi ricordavo assolutamente niente.
Per quanto riguarda i disegni sono al limite della sufficienza. I personaggi sono totalmente piatti, l'unico che risalta leggermente rispetto agli altri è il cattivo, probabilmente il preferito dell'artista, perchè agli altri personaggi non disegna nemmeno la pupilla nell'occhio...
E sto parlando solamente dell'aspetto artistico. Non voglio nemmeno iniziare a parlare di quanto siano tremendi i caratteri dei personaggi.
Un po' meglio per quanto riguarda gli scenari di sfondo, ma per il resto non ci siamo proprio.
Lo scorrimento di alcune scene è davvero costruito male, ci sono buchi di trama e alcune cose devi capirle per puro intuito.
A proposito di intuito...ma perchè diamine non viene spiegato le loro mille intuizioni da dove arrivano e perchè ce le hanno? E perchè nessuno si domanda perchè ce le hanno?
E poi dai....è palese che chi stanno cercando sono proprio loro stessi! Mi sembra totalmente ovvio...
Insomma...tirando le somme, questa è una storia che va raccontata con altri media, con un romanzo o una serie tv. Assolutamente questo è un fallimento come fumetto.

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This is seriously one of the worst comics I have ever read. Halfway through I was tempted not to finish it, but I rarely leave things unfinished. I finished it, but it was really a torture.
From the very beginning, both the drawings and the texts were really hard to read and follow.
The avalanche of text that you are forced to read it's of no use at all, because the lore they try to feed you is so confused and botched together that not only I would have wanted to skip entire scenes of lines and lines of speech, but just after reading it, I remembered absolutely nothing.
As for the drawings they are on the verge of sufficiency. The characters are totally flat, the only one that stands out slightly compared to the others is the villain, probably the artist's favorite, because to the other characters he do not even draw the pupil in the eye ...
And I'm just talking about the artistic aspect. I don't even want to start talking about how awful the characters' characters are.
A little better in terms of background scenarios.
The scrolling of some scenes is really poorly constructed, there are plot holes and some things you have to understand by pure intuition.
Speaking of intuition ... but why on earth their intuitions are not explained, where they come from and why they have them? And why doesn't anyone ask why they have them?
And then come on .... it is clear that who they are looking for are themselves! It seems totally obvious to me ...
In short ... summing up, this is a story that must be told with other media, with a novel or a TV series. Absolutely this is a failure as a comic.

Unfortunately the file is corrupted so I couldn’t read it to the end. What I did manage to read did make fabulous story and I am looking forward to watching further by streaming tv.

[eARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review]

The story itself is fine--a standard portal fantasy where a human teenager is drawn into another world. The protagonist is an average boy who is suddenly orphaned and is a part of a prophecy to save magic itself. It's not overly generic, but nothing is unique enough to write home about. Perfectly fine world, perfectly fine story.

The issue with this graphic novel is how dense it is. The pacing is far too fast; the first episode of the show is about 2/5 of this graphic novel. It overcrowds its pages with text, to the point where it's hard to read. There's more dialogue than there is in a standard adult graphic novel, much less a middle-grade graphic novel.

The content of the story itself is perhaps 3 stars-- an average read that middle graders would probably enjoy. Due to the sheer difficulty of reading this book, I'm lowering that to 2 stars, as it's a huge barrier to entry.

Ahhh, I'm feeling so emotional right now. I've been dreaming of Idhun getting translated into English for YEARS and I'm still not losing hope that the books will get translated, too, because Idhun is the best.

The comic is pretty text heavy but as I love the Idhun books, I loved how well the comics followed it. It's a great adaptation (as is the Netflix series and no one will convince me otherwise).

I don't know what to say, I'm just emotional. I love this world and these characters and I'm so glad to have found the eARC on Read Now on NetGalley, I really needed the comfort and distraction of one of my favourite fictional worlds. I've been considering reread but going through the massive volumes in German again is daunting (my German isn't all that great bit for Idhun I embraced it to keep on reading the story - only the first volume was translated into Polish).

I'm so so happy this comic will be out in English soon and here's to hoping that the books will get translated, too!

*Thank you NetGalley for the eARC! *