Redwall: The Graphic Novel

For those who love Brian Jacques's Redwall, there is now a graphic novel edition of the first book. One thing fans need to keep in mind is that you should approach a graphic novel version of a book like it is a movie based on a book. You get the basic idea of the story but not the details like the character's thoughts or the setting description. Ideally, the illustrations should take the place of setting information.
Redwall: the Graphic Novel is beautifully illustrated. If you can't get enough of the cover art of the series, the graphic novel is sure to please. Bret Blevins, a comics artist, did an excellent job. The main character, Matthias looks less like the type of mouse you see scurrying around but by no means cartoonish. The rats, badgers, birds and other animals are also drawn in a manner that makes them appear more animated than on the cover art of the series.
If you are familiar with the series, you will notice the story is an abridged. The graphic novel retains much of the basic story in the conversations and in the action. It depends on how you feel about condensing stories to fit a certain format. I can't speak as someone familiar with the series since I read the graphic novel before reading the actual book. This helped me learn the basic story and become familiar with the characters. However, I think the condensing of the story resulted in a feeling like something was missing. Reading the book filled in those gaps and made me wonder why I had never tried to read the wonderful series in past. The graphic novel is a great way to introduce people to the Redwall and possibly encourage them to read books in the series.

Listening to Stories

Reading is something I enjoy doing a lot. I can't stand it when I don't have time to read. Working and going to school can really eat up any extra time you have. Reading a gazillion research articles is nothing compared to a good story. So I tried audio books. They are great- especially when it read by an excellent reader/actor like Jim Dale ( reader of the Harry Potter books). I say actor because a really good reader uses different voices for the characters and conveys what each character feels. Anyway, so I begin borrowing audio books from the library. Sometimes they were available immediately and sometimes I had to wait. But many times I didn't want to wait. So I downloaded audio books from the library using Overdrive or bought books from Audible. But one of my favorite ways to hear new stories is listening to podcasts like Escape Pod. Escape Pod presents science fiction short stories for the public. The readers are good and some are writers of short stories also. Most of the stories are between 30 to 60 minutes long. Go to the site and listen to a story. There are at least five years of stories waiting for you to try.

Mind Voyages: Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Challenge

I will try one more challenge. Science Fiction is my favorite genre. I do read fantasy sometimes but I prefer sci-fi. The Mind Voyages: Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Challenge is being hosted by Robin of My Two Blessings.

Here are the rules.

• The challenge will run from January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010.
• Participants may join at any time.
• All forms of books are acceptable including e-books, audio books, etc.
• Re-reads are acceptable as long as they are read after January 1, 2010.
• Books may overlap other challenges.
  
• Create an entry post linking to this blog.
• You don't have to decide before hand what you will be reading.
• Come back and sign up with Mr. Linky in the "I'm participating post" below this post.
• You don't have a blog to participate.
• There is a Mr. Linky for participants to post book reviews.

I will be trying the Sling shot back to Earth which is reading three winners from the Nebula list.

Here is my tentative list.

1. Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin (1990 winner)
2. The Quantum Rose by Catherine Asaro (2001 winner)
3. The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon (2003 winner)