Dark One, Vol. 1

This clearly is a better graphic novel than White sand: the art is better, and the story has a better pace too. Although I love Sanderson's writing style - and I missed his prose here -, I still found this story enjoyable and full of surprises. It's not part of the Cosmere, but I can see the setting could become as big as the Cosmere.

An early Sanderson story gets a graphic novel take. The base concept - what if you were destined to be the dark one? - has been told a few times, and I am not sure this is the most subtle take on it. But what it lacks in subtlety it makes up in being pretty fun. Sanderson's easy writing styles translates relatively well into the graphic novel format. I think this one actually works better than the previous attempt (white sand). I do tend to prefer his full writing than the graphic novel takes on it though - his world building is so vivid that illustrating it almost detracts from it.

This is very much an origin story so it feels like there is a lot more to come on this. The graphic adaptation is solid if not phenomenal. I am intrigued to see where it goes and it was a solid start.

Rating: 3.5
I had to read this as soon as I saw it was by Brandon Sanderson. He knows how to write a good fantasy, with great world building, intriguing characters, moral dilemmas and a story that hooks you in.

On a high level, this graphic novel is no different, most of those pieces are still there in this story. It asks interesting questions around hero vs villain, destiny, and goes in unexpected directions.
There were parts that I really enjoyed, especially Feotora and what she does, Nikka and her backstory, the court hearing... Really, most of what happens for most of the book, is pretty good.

On the other hand, I felt a little lost at times in the formal language that didn't flow naturally at all. Because of this, I'm still not sure that I grasped everything. I especially didn't understand what pushed Paul to drink for example. Initially he was so opposed to it, but then the story that convinced him... It felt like that should have convinced him to not drink it at all. I didn't get it. And that was just one of the things where I wasn't fully following the character motivation. But once that happened, the story kind of lost me. It got me back with the court hearing, and I was intrigued enough to want to read the next one, but not enough to think it was a great read overall.
It's also possible that one of the reasons I got lost at times was because the story was missing narrative context. The dense-ness of the story didn't seem to fit that well into a dialogue only format.

Overall, I'm intrigued enough that I'd want to read the next one, and hope that Volume 2 will explain some of the parts that confused me.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.