Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Amulet, Books 1 and 2



While I'm counting up results from the Bond vs Bourne comments, how's about a quick reading recommendation?

I’m two books into Kazu Kibuishi’s Amulet series of graphic novels and am plenty impressed. There are a lot of stories in the world about kids and a newly single parent who move to a remote, run-down, inherited estate where they discover a family secret involving dangerous magic. I love that concept more than I usually enjoy the stories that come from it, but Amulet is living up to its potential.

For Emily and her brother, Navin, the magic takes the form of an amulet that gives its bearer strange powers. Unfortunately, another power craves the amulet and abducts the siblings' mother, transporting her to a fantasy world that’s been overrun by evil elves. The kids go after her and meet their great-grandfather, a dying man with a walking house full of small and cute, but courageous robots. As the kids plan to rescue their mom, they’re also trying to understand this world and why they’ve been pulled into it. Kibuishi does an awesome job filling it with awesome, steampunky architecture and a cast of talking animals and fantasy creatures. I hesitate to compare anyone with Miyazaki (and Kibuishi’s art is stylistically very different from Studio Ghibli’s), but the setting and the epic scope remind me a lot of films like Castle in the Sky and Spirited Away. It's a world I'm very much enjoying and looking forward to spending more time in.

2 comments:

Erik Johnson Illustrator said...

Talk about an incredible coincidence. I just finished reading Book 1 last night and also got a Miyazaki vibe from the setting and creature design.

Michael May said...

Cool! You'll like Book 2 even better, I bet. I love one of the new characters it introduces.

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