"The Legend of Bold Riley" (Northwest Press, Graphic Novel)

[pkristen]

So yesterday I received a review copy of this from its publisher Northwest Press.

Blurb on the back:
"She has hunted the wildest game, romanced the most beautiful girls, but still she longs to know the world beyond the walls of the capital city of the Eastern nation of Prakkalore. princess Rilavashan SanParite, called Bold Riley, leaves behind her station and sets out through the distant lands where she will find forgotten ruins, fearsome enemies, inscrutable gods and tragic love."

"The Legend of Bold Riley is Leia Weathington's debut full color graphic novel, featuring art by Marco Aidala, Vanessa Gillings, Kelly mcClellan, Konstantin Pogorelov and Jason Thompson. Cover Illustrations by Brinson Thieme."

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Now, unfortunately, as you can tell by the fact I created a forum for my LGBT interests, I still have a HUGE backlog of stuff to read or watch and this needs to take its fair place down towards the bottom. But if someone else wants to put some thoughts about this book on this thread, feel free.

[pkristen]

So I forced myself to sit down and read the graphic novel without distractions (and trust me, that's saying a lot.)

Here are my thoughts:

The book is a collection of interconnected stories of Bold Riley exploring her world. Deep in the language and art of East Indian influences, it reads like a collection of fables where you follow the hero (or heroine in this case). The trick, however, is that you really have to like the hero in question in order to care about their adventures. If you don't, it's a long read -- if you continue to read.

I ended up reading the entire book as a reviewer trying to be fair, but not as a fan. I personally am not into highly romanticized and ornate story-telling, and Bold Riley may be an interesting character from a role-model perspective but the book didn't pull me in emotionally.

As for its strength as lesbian material? Well, the references of her being a seducer of women is really more talked about than shown in the first two-thirds of the book. And the final story focuses on her falling in love with another woman in what is supposed to be a character-growth moment for her, yet for someone like me who's seen and read A LOT of lesbian material, it felt very emotionally flat.

So yeah, it's got merit as LGBT material but if that's the main reason of why you're planning to read it, I don't know if it's strong enough to recommend for that alone. (But my standards for such stuff is much higher than most.)

It's appeal is its whole package of the stylized story telling, art and strong lead character. It's well executed, just not my personal cup of tea.