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gabrielle_erin's review against another edition
4.0
This weirdly messed me up? Shockingly philosophical and oddly confronting, however also somehow raw, poignant and poetic. Nilsen got me feeling some kind of way, damn.
koiolee's review against another edition
3.0
Not a bad collection. I love the modern take on classic tales, though i could see this being a tough read for people who are unaware of the original tales.
chamblyman's review against another edition
3.0
Nilsen makes several stylistic choices with this book that I had a hard time embracing, but it's still an interesting look at how we construct stories/images of humanity versus those of some supposed "higher" order of being (Greek mythology, Judeo-Christian religion).
The use of second person narrative viewpoint in the text is one of those love it/hate it things, I suppose. Some readers seem to feel that it places them "in" the story. Others find it very distancing in almost the exact opposite way. I don't generally enjoy reading second person very much. Here, I think it sort of works in making the viewpoint of a godlike character more mundane, which seems to be the aim. But I couldn't help wondering wether first or third person wouldn't have felt more alive.
The artwork utilizes silhouettes, which emphasizes the flat, inhuman, unkowable-ness of the diety characters. Once again, this seems like a double edged sword that helps to juxtapose the mythological element against the contemporary human world Nilsen is twisting them into, yet also removes most of the possibility for visual nuance or emotion in the drawings. Probably very intentional on Nilsen's part, but I didn't find it to be all that effective. I'll admit that I also just miss the amazing detail that makes a lot of his previous artwork so beautiful to me.
Lastly, the accordion fold book construction. I can't see what this achieves at all. The art on individual pages does not really interact much visually when you look at a section of a bunch of pages accordioned "out". It makes the book a bit physically awkward to read. And once again, if anything, I can only see it as a further distancing effect on the reader.
I think Nilsen is an amazing and ambitious artist/writer (his Big Questions is a monumental piece of comics/graphic novel work), but this one was more of a curious experiment for me.
The use of second person narrative viewpoint in the text is one of those love it/hate it things, I suppose. Some readers seem to feel that it places them "in" the story. Others find it very distancing in almost the exact opposite way. I don't generally enjoy reading second person very much. Here, I think it sort of works in making the viewpoint of a godlike character more mundane, which seems to be the aim. But I couldn't help wondering wether first or third person wouldn't have felt more alive.
The artwork utilizes silhouettes, which emphasizes the flat, inhuman, unkowable-ness of the diety characters. Once again, this seems like a double edged sword that helps to juxtapose the mythological element against the contemporary human world Nilsen is twisting them into, yet also removes most of the possibility for visual nuance or emotion in the drawings. Probably very intentional on Nilsen's part, but I didn't find it to be all that effective. I'll admit that I also just miss the amazing detail that makes a lot of his previous artwork so beautiful to me.
Lastly, the accordion fold book construction. I can't see what this achieves at all. The art on individual pages does not really interact much visually when you look at a section of a bunch of pages accordioned "out". It makes the book a bit physically awkward to read. And once again, if anything, I can only see it as a further distancing effect on the reader.
I think Nilsen is an amazing and ambitious artist/writer (his Big Questions is a monumental piece of comics/graphic novel work), but this one was more of a curious experiment for me.
ashlikes's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
jmanchester0's review against another edition
5.0
anders nilsen is a genius.
I loved, loved, loved Rage of Poseidon.
It really blew my mind.
just_fighting_censorship's review against another edition
2.0
Where to begin...
The artwork is done in silhouettes which are often interesting but rarely add anything to the narrative.
The POV is 2nd person. In my opinion this should only be used for Goosebumps-Choose Your Own Adventure
The layout of this book is ridiculous...the pages are not bound to the cover but rather the pages are one continuous piece of paper folded accordion style...wtf? Do you know how hard that made it to read!? What's the point?
The narrative is a collection of stories/chapters about Greek/Roman mythology, Odysseus and Prometheus, and Biblical stories, Noah and Abraham and Isaac, set in the 21st century. **Side note: it really bothered me that the author was not consistent with the names, using both Poseidon and Jupiter, Venus and Eros, in the same story, either use the Greek terminology or the Roman, not both.**
I didn't really get the point. The only chapter that I found to have any meaning or found to be the least bit interesting was "The Girl and the Lions", a story about Athena deciding to mimic Jesus and live on Earth as a legit human being, not just in the form of one. Athena, unlike the other Greek gods, is inspired after hearing about a Christian girl who allows herself to be eaten by lions rather than to renounce Jesus. This chapter best expressed the author's overall intent, but I think the other chapters just fell short.
Overall, I can appreciate the idea the author was trying to convey but the execution, from the ridiculous binding to the overreaching humor, left me rolling my eyes and scratching my head. I just thought this was trying to hard to be edgy and different.
The artwork is done in silhouettes which are often interesting but rarely add anything to the narrative.
The POV is 2nd person. In my opinion this should only be used for Goosebumps-Choose Your Own Adventure
The layout of this book is ridiculous...the pages are not bound to the cover but rather the pages are one continuous piece of paper folded accordion style...wtf? Do you know how hard that made it to read!? What's the point?
The narrative is a collection of stories/chapters about Greek/Roman mythology, Odysseus and Prometheus, and Biblical stories, Noah and Abraham and Isaac, set in the 21st century. **Side note: it really bothered me that the author was not consistent with the names, using both Poseidon and Jupiter, Venus and Eros, in the same story, either use the Greek terminology or the Roman, not both.**
I didn't really get the point. The only chapter that I found to have any meaning or found to be the least bit interesting was "The Girl and the Lions", a story about Athena deciding to mimic Jesus and live on Earth as a legit human being, not just in the form of one. Athena, unlike the other Greek gods, is inspired after hearing about a Christian girl who allows herself to be eaten by lions rather than to renounce Jesus. This chapter best expressed the author's overall intent, but I think the other chapters just fell short.
Overall, I can appreciate the idea the author was trying to convey but the execution, from the ridiculous binding to the overreaching humor, left me rolling my eyes and scratching my head. I just thought this was trying to hard to be edgy and different.
villagebooksmith's review against another edition
4.0
My mom got me this because the book place didn't have Big Questions, but this rules. Love the silhouetted illustrations, and the bit about god and rainbows.
hypops's review
4.0
An accordion-fold, illustrated series of stories that reimagine and remix Ancient and Judeo-Christian gods. I totally dig Nilsen’s blend of religious mythology, dry humor, politics, and philosophy. There are also in this particular book a number of seeds that become much more fleshed out in his subsequent work, particularly in the way he often sets his mythologies in present-day, war-torn conflict zones. It’s surprisingly poetic and unsettling at the same time.
moomooasaur's review
5.0
This graphic novel starts off with a snarky Poseidon who complains about how much he despised Odysseus and if snarky Gods who hate their lives isn’t something that gets your blood a-flowin’, I don’t know what will.
However, Poseidon’s story isn’t the only one in this, and the snarkiness that is Poseidon doesn’t carry out throughout the entirety of the novel. I was a bit disappointed by this, seeing as I kind of wanted to see Poseidon on a slip-n-slide, but needless to say, I still trudged on.
This is basically putting the ancient Roman and Greek gods in a modern day setting (along with one of the stories from the Bible which was really effed up), kind of reflecting on all the things they had done for humanity and how unthankful little twits we are, running around rampant killing off the oceans and setting fires to everything. It was really fun, and dare I say, Cute AF. It was really gripping for me and I didn’t want to put it down. Maybe it’s just the English major in me wanting to come out, but some of the sections came across as really profound.
There were parts that I thought would feel really fun as a video game – particularly Athena’s story. Like a little more fleshed out, and adding the ability to point and click to figure out what had happened, I think it would have read really well as a detective game because it had the right amount of mystery and intrigue that I think would hook audiences.
I loved the art in this. It’s very minimalistic seeing as it’s silhouetted, but it still portrayed really good emotion through body language and stuff. I’m not an artist so I can’t really say much more than that, but A+.
When I first picked this book up from the library, I figured that it was a really old copy because the binding was coming apart. (In my defense, the hardcover was ripping and had dents so it very well could have been fam.) Turns out, it was an artistic choice for an accordion format. It was really cool when I was reading it on my couch because I could lounge and the book would be a-okay. However, the problems started when I decided to more from the couch to my bedroom. Let me set the scene.
It’s time for bed. I come clobbering down the steps with a glass of water in my hands. I have a dilemma. Do I put the glass down and then get the book? Or do I carry the book and my glass of water? Let’s do the latter. So then, I walk over to the couch to my open book. Do I close it? Of course not, it’s a hardcover so eff if. It’s made to sit like that. So I pick it up from one end, and the other pages just tumble on out of the book onto the floor waking up everyone in the world and I, defeated, trudge back to my room disappointed because now I have a mess to clean up.
Anyway, this isn’t really the kind of book you read in bed. At least not for me. There were times when I absentmindly reached for water and the pages came tumbling down and smacking me. I eventually got to the point where I put it down for the night because I just couldn’t do it anymore, but that was for the better because the book is much better on a hard surface. To alleviate that pesky neck pain, I just picked the pages up out of the book as I went. Whether or not this was an artistic choice or if this way of packaging the book was just to make it seem unique, I kind of liked it.
Everything in this novel worked for me though, and I loved it and hope to pick up more from this author.
However, Poseidon’s story isn’t the only one in this, and the snarkiness that is Poseidon doesn’t carry out throughout the entirety of the novel. I was a bit disappointed by this, seeing as I kind of wanted to see Poseidon on a slip-n-slide, but needless to say, I still trudged on.
This is basically putting the ancient Roman and Greek gods in a modern day setting (along with one of the stories from the Bible which was really effed up), kind of reflecting on all the things they had done for humanity and how unthankful little twits we are, running around rampant killing off the oceans and setting fires to everything. It was really fun, and dare I say, Cute AF. It was really gripping for me and I didn’t want to put it down. Maybe it’s just the English major in me wanting to come out, but some of the sections came across as really profound.
There were parts that I thought would feel really fun as a video game – particularly Athena’s story. Like a little more fleshed out, and adding the ability to point and click to figure out what had happened, I think it would have read really well as a detective game because it had the right amount of mystery and intrigue that I think would hook audiences.
I loved the art in this. It’s very minimalistic seeing as it’s silhouetted, but it still portrayed really good emotion through body language and stuff. I’m not an artist so I can’t really say much more than that, but A+.
When I first picked this book up from the library, I figured that it was a really old copy because the binding was coming apart. (In my defense, the hardcover was ripping and had dents so it very well could have been fam.) Turns out, it was an artistic choice for an accordion format. It was really cool when I was reading it on my couch because I could lounge and the book would be a-okay. However, the problems started when I decided to more from the couch to my bedroom. Let me set the scene.
It’s time for bed. I come clobbering down the steps with a glass of water in my hands. I have a dilemma. Do I put the glass down and then get the book? Or do I carry the book and my glass of water? Let’s do the latter. So then, I walk over to the couch to my open book. Do I close it? Of course not, it’s a hardcover so eff if. It’s made to sit like that. So I pick it up from one end, and the other pages just tumble on out of the book onto the floor waking up everyone in the world and I, defeated, trudge back to my room disappointed because now I have a mess to clean up.
Anyway, this isn’t really the kind of book you read in bed. At least not for me. There were times when I absentmindly reached for water and the pages came tumbling down and smacking me. I eventually got to the point where I put it down for the night because I just couldn’t do it anymore, but that was for the better because the book is much better on a hard surface. To alleviate that pesky neck pain, I just picked the pages up out of the book as I went. Whether or not this was an artistic choice or if this way of packaging the book was just to make it seem unique, I kind of liked it.
Everything in this novel worked for me though, and I loved it and hope to pick up more from this author.
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