This review is being written at the request/suggestion of Meado and I am a little concerned about that. You might ask why? Well, I didn't like Inverloch, but I am not sure it isn't for personal reasons or opinions. Still, I'm going to do my best to do a faithful review of the work.
Technical point first: Inverloch is by Sarah Ellerton, who apparently also has some other works I might look at, especially since she herself said her new work is considerably better. I, for one, would be interested in seeing what she has come up with.
The first thing I think of when I think of Inverloch is that it is short. This might sound odd given the webcomic is over 600 pages long, but the story is extremely slow (one of my major gripes with it) and thus while it might take you 100 pages to get beyond the most basic introductions, you're still only so deep into a character.
But let's back up and talk concept. Inverloch centers around Acheron, a young male Da'kor (a diminutive race of furry, horned cats... I think) who is not as violent or hot-tempered as his brethren. He befriends a young elf girl, whose people are distrustful of the Da'kor, and agrees to seek out her former betrothed, even though he clearly loves her himself. Acheron's quest then centers around finding Kayn'dar and reconciling his relationship with the elf woman he also loves. It is a tried and true premise, which is not a bad thing, but it has been done better. The setting of the world is very original, traditional fantasy or not, but everything in the comic is revealed by lengthy speech-bubble exposition, which often obscures the very, very nice artwork that was one of the high points of the comic.
This really aggravated me and made it difficult to get through the beginning of the comic. It is so slow, so agonizingly detailed in its background, it can really detract from the character of Acheron. As my readers may have discovered by now, I really appreciate well-structured characters. Acheron is definitely one of them and his supporting cast is very good as well. The problem here is that as we begin to get comfortable with the characters, the sexual tension between them, and the uniqueness of their motivations, the story ends. It ends conclusively, in fact it wraps things up very well with a very impressive plot twist (more on that later) but it leaves you wondering what else could have been done here. I'm interested Sarah Ellerton, so why are you ditching these characters before you've really explored everything there is to them? Why are you selling me short? You JUST got my interest piqued and now you are leaving me hanging?
But, as you might notice, I do like these characters, I just want more of them. Although, part of my affection for them caused me to be very upset with the plot twist. Here's the spoiler free version: it was extremely sensible while still being very surprising, but it did something to a primary character that, to me, was worse than killing them off in traditional fashion. If you want to know more, or read the comic already, check out below:
Alright, now that I have that off of my chest let me add a few other minor things. The story, as nice and conceptually original and fresh as it is, drags. This is unfortunate because I was really ready for more when it ended. Once we get to some action, and there is very little action, it ends and were back to more dialogue that generally overdoes the explanation of the world and it's inhabitants. Look, if Ellerton had intended to tell a lengthier and more involved story then this kind of explanation might be more necessary. Most of it is good supporting information for the plot twist, but I don't think ALL of it is necessary. Sometimes less is more (please note, I recognize the hypocrisy of asking for less text when I write Berlin walls of the stuff for reviews).
I don't want to come off sounding like I really hated this comic because I didn't. If nothing else I recognize that it wasn't for me, but other people really might enjoy it and that doesn't make them wrong. My primary gripe is the amount of exposition in contrast to the amount of action in the story, they just do not seem to balance one another out. However, this doesn't destroy the webcomic, it just really makes me frustrated when I finished it earlier than I anticipated.
The absolute highlight is the artwork. It is distinctly eastern and has touches of Final Fantasy style anime that I really liked. If there is one thing I can truly applaud about Inverloch it is that it has some of the best artwork I have ever seen. Not just in webcomics, in any art medium. Inverloch is really beautiful, which makes that damned slew of speech bubbles even less sensible to me right now. Sarah Ellerton is giving the reader absolute image gold, why is she wasting space with the constant talking?
Looking back at this review I realize it is quite negative. I do not want that to deter anyone who likes webcomics and good storytelling from checking it out. Inverloch was definitely not for me, or at least not worth more than one read-through, but I can absolutely see how it would appeal to certain readers. I simply don't see why it wasn't made into a text-only story or its dialogue wasn't significantly reduced so the art was more prominent. Simply put, aspects of the comic that I really enjoyed were diluted by the parts I truly hated. I'm not giving Inverloch a resounding recommendation, but you should always check out different things to find out what you like.
Apologies to Meando if my opinion in any way destroyed his enjoyment of the comic, but if I'm going to be honest or nice I always prefer to go with honesty. After all, it's only my opinion.
You can read Inverloch at a couple of locations, but I would suggest http://inverloch.seraph-inn.com/index.html because it is Sarah Ellerton's personal site and by far the nicest one available.
Girl Genius and poll up tomorrow, don't know where the motivation for tonight's work came from, but I am now wiped out.
Technical point first: Inverloch is by Sarah Ellerton, who apparently also has some other works I might look at, especially since she herself said her new work is considerably better. I, for one, would be interested in seeing what she has come up with.
The first thing I think of when I think of Inverloch is that it is short. This might sound odd given the webcomic is over 600 pages long, but the story is extremely slow (one of my major gripes with it) and thus while it might take you 100 pages to get beyond the most basic introductions, you're still only so deep into a character.
But let's back up and talk concept. Inverloch centers around Acheron, a young male Da'kor (a diminutive race of furry, horned cats... I think) who is not as violent or hot-tempered as his brethren. He befriends a young elf girl, whose people are distrustful of the Da'kor, and agrees to seek out her former betrothed, even though he clearly loves her himself. Acheron's quest then centers around finding Kayn'dar and reconciling his relationship with the elf woman he also loves. It is a tried and true premise, which is not a bad thing, but it has been done better. The setting of the world is very original, traditional fantasy or not, but everything in the comic is revealed by lengthy speech-bubble exposition, which often obscures the very, very nice artwork that was one of the high points of the comic.
This really aggravated me and made it difficult to get through the beginning of the comic. It is so slow, so agonizingly detailed in its background, it can really detract from the character of Acheron. As my readers may have discovered by now, I really appreciate well-structured characters. Acheron is definitely one of them and his supporting cast is very good as well. The problem here is that as we begin to get comfortable with the characters, the sexual tension between them, and the uniqueness of their motivations, the story ends. It ends conclusively, in fact it wraps things up very well with a very impressive plot twist (more on that later) but it leaves you wondering what else could have been done here. I'm interested Sarah Ellerton, so why are you ditching these characters before you've really explored everything there is to them? Why are you selling me short? You JUST got my interest piqued and now you are leaving me hanging?
But, as you might notice, I do like these characters, I just want more of them. Although, part of my affection for them caused me to be very upset with the plot twist. Here's the spoiler free version: it was extremely sensible while still being very surprising, but it did something to a primary character that, to me, was worse than killing them off in traditional fashion. If you want to know more, or read the comic already, check out below:
Having Acheron actually be Kayn'dar, just Kayn'dar in another body really did nicely tie in his unusual non-Da'kor behavior and explained his affection for Shiara. It also caught me off-guard and normally I would say that makes it a good twist. However, it really upset me for a few reasons. For one, it implies that Acheron and the Da'kor could never really exist as he is represented at the beginning of the story. Da'kor are just violent and reactionary creatures and that's why he can't be Acheron, he has to be Kayn'dar. This pushes the pretentious (and overused) representation of the holier-than-thou Elves in fantasy stories to a whole new level of annoying. That, and Acheron was a much more loveable character than Acheron-Kayn'dar. He was cute (yeah, I said it) and his friendly, trusting personality fit the way he was drawn by Ellerton, so why make it all some gigantic illusion? By doing so I really thought she undercut her work.
Alright, now that I have that off of my chest let me add a few other minor things. The story, as nice and conceptually original and fresh as it is, drags. This is unfortunate because I was really ready for more when it ended. Once we get to some action, and there is very little action, it ends and were back to more dialogue that generally overdoes the explanation of the world and it's inhabitants. Look, if Ellerton had intended to tell a lengthier and more involved story then this kind of explanation might be more necessary. Most of it is good supporting information for the plot twist, but I don't think ALL of it is necessary. Sometimes less is more (please note, I recognize the hypocrisy of asking for less text when I write Berlin walls of the stuff for reviews).
I don't want to come off sounding like I really hated this comic because I didn't. If nothing else I recognize that it wasn't for me, but other people really might enjoy it and that doesn't make them wrong. My primary gripe is the amount of exposition in contrast to the amount of action in the story, they just do not seem to balance one another out. However, this doesn't destroy the webcomic, it just really makes me frustrated when I finished it earlier than I anticipated.
The absolute highlight is the artwork. It is distinctly eastern and has touches of Final Fantasy style anime that I really liked. If there is one thing I can truly applaud about Inverloch it is that it has some of the best artwork I have ever seen. Not just in webcomics, in any art medium. Inverloch is really beautiful, which makes that damned slew of speech bubbles even less sensible to me right now. Sarah Ellerton is giving the reader absolute image gold, why is she wasting space with the constant talking?
Looking back at this review I realize it is quite negative. I do not want that to deter anyone who likes webcomics and good storytelling from checking it out. Inverloch was definitely not for me, or at least not worth more than one read-through, but I can absolutely see how it would appeal to certain readers. I simply don't see why it wasn't made into a text-only story or its dialogue wasn't significantly reduced so the art was more prominent. Simply put, aspects of the comic that I really enjoyed were diluted by the parts I truly hated. I'm not giving Inverloch a resounding recommendation, but you should always check out different things to find out what you like.
Apologies to Meando if my opinion in any way destroyed his enjoyment of the comic, but if I'm going to be honest or nice I always prefer to go with honesty. After all, it's only my opinion.
You can read Inverloch at a couple of locations, but I would suggest http://inverloch.seraph-inn.com/index.html because it is Sarah Ellerton's personal site and by far the nicest one available.
Girl Genius and poll up tomorrow, don't know where the motivation for tonight's work came from, but I am now wiped out.
