3.5
The story it had some really strong points, but also a few things that didn’t totally work for me. First of all, the concept was super creative. The way fantasy and sci-fi elements were mixed together felt very cool, and I liked how the story didn’t shy away from darker or emotional topics. Billy as a character had depth, and I could see his growth through the story. I appreciated how the themes were handled. The illustrations were also really cool, at first I wasn’t sure about the style, but it actually fit well with the tone of the story. The part that was harder for me was the structure. The timeline wasn’t always easy to follow, and I had to go back a few times because I got a bit lost. It didn’t ruin the story, but it made the reading experience less smooth. I also felt like some scenes could’ve used more explanation. Still, I was glad I read it. Not perfect, but definitely worth checking out. Thank you so much to the author, IDW Publishing and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read the book in advance, I received this for free and I'm leaving a honest review

a weird terminator/ memento/ butterfly effect of a sci fi fantasy world where magic and technology have entwined in love, destruction and a race to save humanity
first knight and wizard of the court, billy, travels across radioactive ruins running from an enemy with secrets of billys past, present and future
as magic leaks into the kingdom citizens believe they are gifts from gods
using spy gear like weapon, billy sets out on a quest to save the princess' kingdom
but not everything is what it seems when billys enemy catches up with him

This one is not for kids. I don't know if there was a whoospie when I was browsing and it was marked youth, or if I mixed it up with some other title. Over all this was... a thing. I liked book one. I thought book one was solid. But books two and three took us from a classic story with a twist ending to... confusing and weird for no real reason.

But the art, specifically the colors?! 10/10.

The storytelling was a bit non-linear which made things confusing at time. With that said, I did find the overall story entertaining and unique. The art wasn't my favorite but it was well done and did a great job at depicting what was happening. The juxtaposition between the far future and medieval times was amusing, though I had to really suspend my disbelief that anyone during the medieval period would embrace "magic" in any capacity. All in all, a solid story.

This graphic novel started out super interesting but ultimately struggled. Chapter 1 felt like a complete story by itself, chapters 2 and 3 didn't add much and sometimes felt like the story was being too drawn out. That being said, I loved the art. The drawings themselves are simple but effective, and the colouring is absolutely stunning.

Gorgeous drawings, sometimes a bit hard to follow, but still very entertaining in the end. I would definitely read more books from this author in the future.

Reading Ionheart felt like stepping into a fever dream made of rust, radiation, and broken memory. Lukas Kummer has crafted a dystopia that’s not just visually arresting—it’s emotionally devastating. The world is scorched and metallic, stripped of sentiment, but somehow it pulses with a fragile kind of hope, buried deep beneath the wreckage.

I was drawn in by the stark beauty of it all—this blend of sci-fi decay and almost spiritual yearning. The protagonist’s journey feels less like a hero’s arc and more like a desperate excavation of identity, morality, and what it means to be alive when everything around you is mechanized, monitored, or dead. Every interaction feels laced with paranoia and melancholy, and I found myself constantly second-guessing what was real and what was manipulation.

There’s a lot of silence in this book—not in the writing, but in the space it gives you to think, to breathe, to feel the weight of the world Kummer built. It’s minimalist in the best way—like every line has been cut to the bone, and what remains is sharp enough to leave a mark.

If you’re into speculative fiction that leans literary and isn’t afraid to get existential, Ionheart is an experience worth diving into. It left me chilled, reflective, and strangely moved.

3.5
This was not at all what I thought it was going to be. It goes back and forth from futuristic and medieval times. From past to present. It was a bit confusing because of it, but it was a really good and intriguing story. Also loved the illustration in this, which is very colorful and simplistic.

Thank you to IDW Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was a really interesting premise. I liked how it was science fiction mixed with fantasy as I had thought it would just be fantasy. The story was compelling, but a bit confusing at times. The art was really beautiful.

Ionheart is definitely a wild ride. The art is cool - weird, bright, and it really brings the mash-up of medieval fantasy and sci-fi to life. I liked the strange world with knights, castles, and random bits of future tech showing up and being treated like magic. It’s a super creative idea.

But the story is pretty hard to follow. It jumps all over the place - different timelines, different dimensions, different genres - and I often felt lost trying to keep up. Some parts were really cool, like the brutal chase scenes or the world-building, but the plot felt too messy, and I didn’t feel much for the characters. I liked the ideas more than the execution.

If you enjoy trippy, experimental stories and don’t mind working to piece things together, this might be for you. For me, it had great potential but needed a clearer way to tell the story.

A much needed escape, the narrative moved slowly as points but I'm glad I took the time for this one.

2.5⭐️

Did I sometimes have no idea what was happening? Yes. Did I still enjoy myself? Also yes. But, at the same time, no...

The constant shifts in the timeline throughout each chapter really threw me off.

This book is a blend of sci-fi and fantasy, combining futuristic technology with medieval elements. At times, it can be quite gory and action-packed, and the neon-colored artwork is fun and stunning to look at.

It’s an interesting story, but I found it difficult to engage with, and I didn’t connect with any of the characters. Honestly, I felt like I didn’t really like any of them (sorry).

It might be one of those books that resonates with some readers while others simply don’t connect with it. I definitely fall into the latter category—I didn’t get it. However, I’m sure there are many who do understand and will appreciate this graphic novel.

Thank you Netgalley, IDW Publishing | Top Shelf Productions, and Lukas Kummer for an eARC of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review.

Ionheart has niche appeal, and I am not part of that niche.

First, the artwork is lovely, with some attempt at distinguishing storylines/time jumps with color palette. The generally warm, cheerful colors are an interesting contrast to most of the story.

The actual story will appeal most to those who prefer their main characters unlikeable and their storylines complicated. The narrative interweaves a high-tech future world with a vaguely medieval one. The two are connected via the manipulation of a few of the characters from the high-tech world. There are numerous time jumps, unreliable narrators, and shifts in perspective. The characters themselves are, at best, complicated, and mostly right bastards that aren't even well-realized enough to be interesting.

I finished this, but probably wouldn't have if I wasn't reviewing it.

If there was one suggestion I would make that would resolve the vast majority of my issues with Lukas Kummer’s Ionheart, it would be to add some sort of label to indicate what time of the story we are in. Though a fun and intriguing tale, the lack of coherency in the “when” of the moment was often jarring and, at times, took several moments to reorient to which piece of the timeline I was now reading about. And even then, I’m not certain I can say that the story should have jumped around as much as it did.

In the end, there simply was far too much piecing together for the reader to do for this book to exist as a true service to the story Kummer was trying to tell. And here’s the thing: the story and plot he put together? Pure brilliance. The world building? Excellent. There’s so much to love about the manner in which Kummer blends futuristic technology with interdimensional travel posited against a world whose advancement has not moved past what appears to be comparable to the middle ages.

Enter a world where technology is considered magic and the destruction of nuclear fallout was the only way to stop a power hungry tech bro from conquering other worlds. The survival of this realm something achieved through the well-meaning mistakes of a person with both great knowledge and great secrets. As a story, the plot and the twists were phenomenal. It’s more so in the execution where I think Kummer loses his readers—the difficulty of following the changing timelines, the manner in which he reveals the twists (unfortunately not as dramatic as it should have been due to the convolution of the story), and the condensing of everything into a single graphic novel (there’s an irony here, since I often have found it frustrating when a full story is not told, but there is a happy medium to find and I really think Kummer should have gone for it).

The tale also feels as though it ends rather abruptly, something that I think hits even harder given that so much of the graphic novel seems to be the main character summarizing all the events that brought him to his current state. I think this could have worked, too, had it not jumped around so much as he told the tale and been more of a reveal later on—perhaps even at the end of the first episode?

I suppose, at the end of the day, I think there were a lot of great thoughts and ideas thrown behind this tale. The artwork is fun and dark, though not exactly my personal style it still has a certain charm to it that really supports the reader in engaging in the story. Unfortunately, those thoughts and ideas could not make up for the haphazard presentation and so many of the exceptional story beats that should have elicited intense emotions feel rather flat instead. It’s a shame given the high level of potential I think the story has, overall.

Ionheart is a time-bending, graphic novel that fuses fantasy and science fiction together. It's set in a medievil fantasy town, complete with knights, towers and a princess, but there's also a portal from a future world that ocassionally spills into theirs, bringing with it magic in the form of future technology.

The magic system was excellent, and I really loved the idea of future tech appearing at random in this medievil setting and how that, and the people that understood how to weild it, being seen as magic. The illustration was wonderful and perfect for the story; it was simplistic but vibrant and the use of colour brought it all to life and gave such a vibe!

The story jumps around the genres, a lot! There's sci-fi in there, fantasy, and a murder mystery. Whilst I'd normally love that, it did feel like a bit too much in one story. The jumps aren't just between genres, as it also hops across timelines and dimensions, and it got a bit confusing and hard to follow at times. There were a lot of sub-plots and a drip-fed backstory, but there just wasn't enough context for me to get super invested in the world or the characters. It was an enjoyable read, but I finished it feeling a bit confused and wanting more depth to it.

This debut graphic novel is fast-paced, original, and packed with ideas. Like a medieval, cyberpunk <i>Dark Tower</i>. Definitely worth a read if any of that floats your boat.

So I just finished Ionheart by Lukas Kummer, and man, it's... something else. This graphic novel mashes up sci-fi and fantasy, creating a world that's just wild to look at.

First off, the art style? It's definitely weird, but in a totally fun way. The colors just pop, and it really makes this whole "techno-fantasy" vibe come alive. And get this, the story doesn't hold back – it gets super brutal and bloody sometimes, which was honestly a cool, unexpected shock. Seriously, there were moments with the relentless chase scenes that totally gave me "Terminator" vibes. Plus, the way they blend medieval stuff with futuristic tech, like a flying car being an "iron mare," is just genius and super creative.

Now, for the flip side. This book can get "way too weird at points" to actually follow. The storytelling is so non-linear and fragmented that you're often left scratching your head, trying to figure out what's even going on. It makes it pretty tough to get into the plot, and honestly, the main character, Sir William? Yeah, I just didn't like him at all. And it's not just him; most of the other characters are pretty forgettable, which makes it hard to care much about what happens.

So, here's the deal: if you're into something truly out-there, and you don't mind a story that makes you work a bit to understand it, "Ionheart" could be right up your alley. The art is awesome, and it's got some surprisingly intense moments. But if you're looking for a clear, character-driven narrative, this one might leave you feeling a little lost in the sauce.

Great use of time and space, the art is unique, and the non-linear plot makes for interesting storytelling and world building. There are a few translation errors, but nothing that takes away from the story. Excellent and looking forward to reading more from Lukas Kummer!

Eine interessante Graphic Novel in einem verwirrendem Endwelt-Setting. für Fans von Adventure Time aber in sehr erwachsen. Potential ist zwar da aber für mich war es einfach zu verwirrend. Es gab Zeitsprünge, die mich aus der Story rausgehauen haben. Es war definitiv eine Erfahrung.

there was just a lot going on with this one! it needed to pick more of a lane and stick to it, it was so intrigued but it fell flat sorry!