Author/ Artist- Vincent Perriot
Title- Negalyod- The God Network
Publisher- Titan Comics Statix Press
Publication Date- 20 July 2022
Genre- Graphic Novel
HC, $39.99/£36.99, ISBN: 9781787734708
On sale: 19th July, 2022
Comment- I received a free ARC from Titan Comics and the author. All opinions are my own and in no way swayed by lack of water.
Synopsis:
Negalyod follows dinosaur shepherd, Jarri, as he joins a rebel group intent on destroying the totalitarian government that controls his dystopian world.
“Dinotopia meets Mad Max in this extraordinary saga of futuristic human survival on a scorched Earth” – SciFi Wire
In a post-apocalyptic far future/alternate world, dinosaurs roam the desolate land, while the last denizens of humanity survive together in technological cities run by a military regime.
Review-
In this alternate universe, equal parts Mad Max and Dinotopia, dinosaurs and humans coexist and are ruled over by a mysterious force known as the Network.
Jarri lives in the middle of the desert along with his herd of Chasmosaurs and his faithful companion Stygo- a pachycephalosaurus- until one day his herd is killed by a Weather Truck passing by and shooting off an EMP. In one fell swoop his life and livelihood are gone so he decides to head to the City to get revenge.
While in the City he finds the Great Kam, a rebel leader/prophet who wants to fight back against the Network and gain freedom for the people. Assisted by Kam’s daughter, Korienze, and a former military leader, Jarri must help them to destroy the military regime and regain control.
The artwork within this book was just plain gorgeous. The simple palette of oranges and blues really gave the impression of an arid desertscape and dysfunctional technology. Entire page spreads illustrated the grand scope of the planet’s destruction and really immersed you into the story.
The illustrations had an almost Moebius-style feel; like Jean Giraud himself had taken his brush to the pages, but with a much simpler colour palette. It was very epic and vast and gave a voice to the huge world-building done. (Does this sound pretentious? Pretty pictures are good.)
As a Jurassic Park fan and an advocate of the apocalypse (we are seriously overdue), I thought that this graphic novel would be perfect for me and yet it wasn’t.
As amazing as the artwork and illustrations were; the story itself just fell flat. There were quite a few plotholes and places where I felt the whole thing was just far too rushed. Jarri, as our main character, had more of an arc and was given slightly more personality but still, we didn’t get to see enough character development to care much about his goal. His and Korienze’s relationship was far too quick with little lead-up and any ‘betrayal’ really didn’t register on an emotional level because we hadn’t had time to be invested in the relationship.
The main plot was also a little odd in that suddenly dinosaurs could talk but only to certain people, the Network acknowledged the victory and yet was still in charge and water suddenly came from nowhere.
Also what was with the weather trucks? What was their purpose? We didn’t get to see any real tyranny or military regime that was encroaching on people’s freedoms either.
I felt that someone just did amazing artwork and tried to place a story around the pictures.
However, the world itself has such a large possibility for other stories that maybe this is part of a series and we get to see more world-building and things start to make more sense.
I would recommend this book mainly for its artwork at the moment as I think the story itself could do with a little tweaking.
With thanks to Titan Comics and Will O’Mulane for the ARC.
https://titan-comics.com/c/1613-negalyod-the-god-network/
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