I came across this graphic novel at the library and decided to check it out just based on the cover and the fact that Steve Niles was involved.

I’m a little torn on this one. On one hand it has all the right beats of conflict and emotion, relatable characters, and cool black and white illustrations.

On the other hand, it’s pretty straightforward and simplistic. You read it, it does what you expect, and then it ends. Not a bad experience, but not what the hype online and from pull quotes would have led me to believe.

It’s one of those that people are either going to say is heartbreaking and deep…and others will say it’s kind of boring. You know those kinds of books I’m talking about? Normally I side with the critics, but on this one not so much. ( )

I’ve been rather maxed out on books about World War 2 for the last while, but I couldn’t resist this graphic novel. The Jewish mythology surrounding the golem (a being created out of clay and animated by prayer) is a longstanding tradition in Jewish literature, and I’ve seen it used a few times in WW2 narratives written for younger/teen readers, but thankfully it hasn’t saturated the market yet so when it’s used well it comes off as more of a delight than an expectation. I can’t recall a single other graphic novel utilizing this motif, so in a sense the illustrator got to work with an untouched palette, even if the author’s story wasn’t particularly unique. The plot reminded me quite a bit of a novel I read a long time ago (a young protagonist also has to take responsibility for waking the golem and saving their town), but the story’s graphic adaptation still made it seem fresh. It was simple and concise in its story and imagery, but the reader was still able to get a sense of a larger narrative through the framing device which tells how the protagonist grew up to become a soldier to defend his country, and how he may have to use the power of the golem again. ( )

I read a golem double-feature today - the other was [b:Brik Collected Edition|33590270|Brik Collected Edition|Adam Glass|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1499203853s/33590270.jpg|54403289] - and this was the less worse of the two by a sliver. Breath of Bones' main drawback is it is just dull as a lot of time is wasted waiting for a golem to be made. And then it fights Nazis. The end. ( )

Breath of Bones: A Tale of the Golem by Steve Niles is an omnibus collection of three comics that bring together the Golem of Prague story with an early WWII setting. A golem is used to protect an injured pilot whose plane has crashed outside of a Jewish village.

The location of the village and the timing of events are left sketchy. It's implied that the plane crash happened earlier in the war when the man who is now old enough to fight in the war was a boy. He explains how it was that the village made the ultimate sacrifice to save the pilot and their last line of defense, being the creation of a golem.

So now as things are looking especially bleak on the battlefront, the soldier must draw on his past experiences and decide if the same solution would work here. Whether or not his actions helped save his fellow soldiers is left up in the air though as the story is more about how he learned to make a golem, rather than how golems can be used or if they should. ( )

Recensione su: http://wp.me/p3X6aw-9W
Review at: http://wp.me/p3X6aw-9W ( )