Lush watercolors move with fluid lines throughout this reimagining. Gods mingle with the mortals, and not heeding their warnings could lead to quick danger being mere men, Odysseus and his crew often make hasty errors in judgment and must face challenging consequences. Following Odysseus’s journey to return home to his beloved wife, Penelope, readers are transported into a world that easily combines the realistic and the fantastic. Hinds adds another magnificent adaptation to his oeuvre ( King Lear, 2009, etc.) with this stunning graphic retelling of Homer’s epic. However, the story suffers from consistent, frequent reinforcement of skinny and muscular bodies as most beautiful, with descriptions that quickly grow tiresome.Ī gripping flight into fantasy that is heavy-handed in its presentation of conventional beauty standards.

The plot offers high stakes, simmering romantic tension, political drama, refreshingly casual representation of queer and transgender characters, and an intriguing magic system that draws inspiration from Dungeons & Dragons. Chapters primarily rotate among the perspectives of Nausicaä, an exiled Fury with blond hair and suntanned skin who wields a katana Vehan, a blue-eyed, golden-skinned prince of the Seelie Court of Summer Aurelian, the prince’s lesidhe retainer and childhood best friend, who has light tan skin and Arlo, a white-skinned ironborn girl who is related to the High King. When the Courts dismiss a string of unsolved ironborn murders, four unlikely allies join forces to investigate. When the leaders of the magical community turn their backs on a spreading series of murders, dark magic and intrigue draw four young rebels together in this modern fantasy.Įight Fae Courts rule the Mortal Realm of magic, but, despite their supposed peace with one another, prejudice runs rampant against anyone who isn’t sidhe, particularly the ironborn whose red blood signifies human parentage.

A dark and hollow star series order