I have read all of Gabaldon’s Outlander series, so I put The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel on hold at the library. It came in a couple days ago and to be honest? Meh.

Although I love the universe that Gabaldon has created, her books are a bit uneven in their story telling skill. For instance, her last book (An Echo in the Bone) is one I own only because it is part of the series and I might want to reread the series one day–but on its own, I wouldn’t pick it up to read again. It uses the frame story device and that’s a difficult device to use well (by ‘well’ I mean in such a way that both stories are integral to the book and you can’t imagine removing one and not irreparably ruining the story).  There’s another one in the series that uses a frame story and I only read the chapters that take part in the past when I reread it. Gabaldon doesn’t really manage to integrate frame stories well (my main issue with An Echo in the Bone).

Enough about the book series and onto the graphic novel.

I don’t read a lot of graphic novels, but I don’t think that contributed to my apathy about this book. Particularly since I love the Mouse Guard books–I own two and reviewed the first one.

The artwork is lovely although not as intricate as I like. For graphic novels, I like art work where I can find things on subsequent readings that I didn’t notice the first time around and that’s not really the case with The Exile. I think part of the ‘meh’ feeling is that I don’t form images of characters in my head when I read and almost completely ignore character’s physical descriptions (unless it is relevant to plot) so having the characters visualized for me is a bit disconcerting.

The problem, for me, was more with story. As in: there isn’t enough of it.

This is supposed to be a prequel/retelling of Outlander from Jamie’s point of view, but it’s really more from Murtaugh’s point of view. Aside from an unresolved (and not particularly interesting because it is quite undeveloped) subplot about a couple other travellers (Gellie and her mysterious lover), there’s not much new or interesting here. It doesn’t really stand on its own because if you haven’t read Outlander you can’t really fill in the blanks, and it doesn’t really add much to the Outlander series if you have read the books.

Interestingly, according to the author’s note, Gabaldon started out writing scripts for comic books. Actually, that’s the most interesting thing I got from the book. I don’t dislike the book; it just fails to spark any real interest. Unless you absolutely must have everything to do with Jamie and Claire, I’d check this out of the library instead of buying it.

*drum roll*

And the winners are:

Belinda

RubyD

For those of you who have already entered, you’re still eligible for the next drawing IF I get another 12 entries (total of 100) by the 30th. If I don’t get 100 entries, there won’t be a fifth pack of books to give away, so if you know anyone who might be interested, now is the time to send them over. If you’re just hearing about this now, you can enter here.

If you’ve won, I’ve sent you an e-mail. I need to hear back from you within 72 hours with your mailing address so that I can pass it on to Hachette or I’ll have to pick new winners (you don’t want that, right?).

Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 by David Petersen was brought to my attention by Nymeth, who’s review was featured in my first Word of Blog Book Finds post, which appears on Mondays (normally).

Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 is a graphic novel for children, which probably explains why I hadn’t come across it before since I a) am not a child; b) nor a child-friendly person; and c) don’t read graphic novels. I was missing a gem.

Mouse Guard is about a society of sentient mice living in medieval times who form a guard to protect mouse citizens from the creatures that would eat them. Originally released as a comic book series, the issues of Fall 1152 have been collected in a hardcover edition.

What makes Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 enchanting is the art work by Petersen, which you can see on the Mouse Guard site. If you like the art work that you see there, you’re likely to like the book. Each panel is a detailed painting and I couldn’t decide between flipping the pages to see what would happen or admiring the art.

The story is geared towards children, but coupled with the artwork I was happy to sit down and spend an hour reading through the book (I still want to go back and linger over the drawings). Parts of the story strain plausibility (crabs cannot hold mice in their claws, let along eat them), but we’re talking about a society of medieval sentient mice in a children’s book so I’m not going to be as picky about that as I usually would be.

There are signs of humour to go along with the intrigue of a traitor among the mice. On the copyright page is the notice:

This is a work of fiction; any similarity to persons or mice alive or dead is purely coincidental.

During a fight scene in a mouse city town square where onlookers are placing bets on the winner of the duel, there is this exchange in the crowd:

“I’ll place odds on the one with the sword.”

“Deal”

[note: the other mouse is armed with a stick; I'd normal cite a page number but there aren't any]

I found Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 a satisfying and light diversion. I can’t wait for the hardcover of Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 this fall.