laura_seabrook | A Distant Soil (Reply)

I've been reading several collected volumes of A Distant Soil, which were in Morriset Library.

It's been years since I last read any of this. I had the first few issues of it, but couldn't find it anywhere after those issues. That was back in the 1980s - I remember it being a contemporary of Star Reach and Epic Illustrated (of which I once had a complete set), though that might just reflect Australian distribution of these.

Well! Nice to read the first three volumes of what is probably a four volume set, though volume 4 - Coda wasn't in the library at the time.

Gasp - what to say? The artwork both attracts and repels me. It is technically proficient, but reminds me (oddly) of both Curt Swan and Neal Adams, and I kept on thinking that the whole thing could easily be adapted as a manga. The story is really a power fantasy that is more token sf than anything else. What counts is the emotional integrity and development of the characters, rather than technological possibilities. The story could be told in a purely fantasy setting. In truth, it's an extended adolescent fantasy about being "special".

And yet, it was also compelling to finally read the story properly. I shall have to hunt down volume 4.