Trees Volume 1 (Trees Tp) (urspr publ 2015; utgåvan 2015)

Intriguing! Will continue reading. ( )

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A very interesting graphic novel. Not something I think I've read before.

It has been ten years since the 'trees' landed. And did nothing. Obviously, it is proof that there is an intelligent alien race, but why are they not interacting? Don't they recognize us humans as an intelligent species?

Following a lot of different story lines, set at different places in the world, While initially I has some trouble following the story, since a lot happens in the beginning, I did really like it. It was a shame really that the ending came so abrupt, before even the slightest of questions was answered.

Now I want to read the next volumes.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ( )

The art and colouring in this book is absolutely amazing, and is worth a 5 star review on it's own. The colouring especially was so well done, a great job was done emphasising different panels and giving them different emotional tones.

The story was also pretty great, with a lot of different characters given time to be explored. A lot of the plot was setting up the rest of the series, but I never felt bored and I didn't feel cheated out of a story by the end. And wow, what an ending. It was high-octane, honestly surprising, and left me very eager to read more.

I think the only criticism I have would relate to only a couple of pages, where the book got... I don't want to say preachy, but maybe a bit afternoon-special-y? It's like Ellis just discovered trans people exist and he wants you to know he's Fine with it. Really, He Has No Issues At All! Saying that, it is nice to have a trans character, so I can forgive Ellis's slight soap-boxing. ( )

Auf "Trees" bin ich zunächst mal durch den Titel aufmerksam geworden (für eine Challenge benötigte ich mal ein Buch mit dem Wort "Tree" im Titel). Aber die Geschichte reizte mich auch später noch, und jetzt lag es unter dem Weihnachtsbaum.

Im Kern ist es eine dystopische Geschichte, die zur aktuellen Zeit spielen könnte - nur, dass die Erde dann von einer fremden Lebensform besucht wurde, die scheinbar inaktive Artefakte pflanzte - die aber wohl doch aktiv sein müssen, da es sporadisch zu Müllabscheidungen kommt. Eine Kommunikation war in den 10 Jahren, in denen die "Trees" auf der Erde sind, bislang nicht möglich, im Text heißt es dann auch "Ten years since we learned that there is intelligent life in the universe but that they did not recognise us as intelligent or alive."

In der direkten Umgeben der "Trees" an verschiedenen Orten der Erde verändert sich die Gesellschaft dann eher zum Schlechten - und auch in der einen Forschungsstation auf Spitzbergen ist die Stimmung sehr angespannt. Dort wird dann auch eine bahnbrechende Entdeckung gemacht...

Insgesamt ließen sich die im ertsten Band zusammengefassten acht Teilgeschichten gut lesen und wurden durch die Bilder (auch wenn ich mich an den Zeichenstil erst etwas gewöhnen musste) gut unterstützt. Durch die verschiedenen Schauplätze blieb es auch abwechslungsreich, und es gibt auch einzelne Szenen, aus denen sich die "mature"-Einstufung ableiten lässt - in der Beziehung aber mehr als harmlos z.B. im Vergleich zu "Sandman".

Ich will jetzt wissen wie es weitergeht, da sich um die "Trees" herum so einiges entwickelt hat - der zweite Band wird also bald bestellt.

Klare Leseempfehlung für Fans moderner Comics. ( )

I am not a big reader of comics, but I do like the form for its ability to explore freely in genres like science fiction and fantasy. I am not a big fan of superhero stuff, and lately, I've been trying to find comics that i might find more interesting. Like all books, the writing is most important, because no matter how awesome the drawing/inking/paneling is, if it is written like a melodramatic tale from a high school boy's (o girl's) mouth, it becomes unreadable. I picked up Trees because it sounded very different in plot, where some alien pipes or "trees" land on Earth but do nothing. So there is no alien vs. human war, there is no invasion story per se, just humans doing their own thing after these things land on Earth. Of course, there is chaos, and governments topple, and people live in unruly cities where the trees have landed. But the story starts ten years after the landing, and focuses on four tree locations in Italy, Somalia, Norway, and New York.

As usual, I picked up the trade paperback that collects the first eight comic single issues in one, and I think this was a good choice for this story. I imagine if I had gotten them as singles, I'd have trouble keeping up with the different plot lines. All together, the collected volume is a very good format for the story, making it easy to flip back and forth to see where you are and who is who.

The New York story is the least developed in this volume. We see some of Somalia, but it does not seem too substantial either. This is probably because the other stories that take place in Italy and Norway are much more personal (less comic like and more novel like) and easy to invest in emotionally.

The story jumps from one place to another often, and at the beginning this can be confusing. Another advantage of the collected volume, where the change in colors is immediately obvious as you turn the page and understand that you've changed locations (as this may not be obvious form the first panel on a page).

I like the mystery of the trees, and I like the dystopian future where humans have made a mess of everything, again. I particularly like the scientific discovery about the flowers and am excited to see where it goes. ( )