I received a free copy of this book through Netgalley and I voluntarily reviewed it.

I was going through my Netgalley shelf to see which older books I hadn't reviewed yet and when I saw this one I decided to read it. Okheania caught my eye with the cover and the two boys surfing on a sea of grass. I don't read a lot of graphic novels/ comics, so that might impact my opinion of this one. I got through this one quite quickly and while the concept is fun and the art pretty it didn't hook me in as much as had hoped.

I liked the art style of this book, it looks pretty and I thought it fit the story. I especially liked the art of the nature scenes as well as the ships the people use to move throughout the world. The whole book is in full color and it just looked good.

I also really liked the unique world building concept, although I wish there were details about how it all worked. Basically the whole world is a sea, but instead of a sea of water it's a sea of green vegetation. It just looked really cool and was such an interesting concept. Most of the world building is done through the art and some dialogue, but I still was left with a lot of questions about how things worked, like how they get food for example. Maybe those get answered in future books as it is clear there that is more to the world than they know.

While I liked the art style and unique world building, this book didn't fully work for me. The plot didn't feel as compelling and felt a bit confusing at times. I only was curious about what happened to Jon and the glimpse we get of where he is. I didn't like how both main character don't have a lot of agency in this book. Jon is basically absent for a big chunk and the other main character Jasper is held captive for big chunk of the plot as someone thinks he's a spy. I didn't like the antagonistic women who was convinced Jasper was a spy, she just felt annoying and her reasoning didn't make sense. Like why would she think Jasper is a spy as they literally saved Jasper form the sea of vegetation so why would he be a spy? It just felt odd and was annoying how this influenced the plot. I also thought most characters felt kinda stereotypical like they had one or two defining characteristic and a certain role in the story and that's it.

To summarize: This comic has some beautiful art work and some unique world building. I struggled a bit with the plot not being as compelling to me. I also didn't get why the antagonistic women thought Jasper was a spy as it didn't make sense to me. Some parts of the plot felt a bit confusing or didn't quite make sense to me. I also was left with a bunch of questions regarding the plot and world.

Ok, I've just finished it and it was really good. It reminds me of the books I read when I was younger, with plants and enchanted worlds and friendships. the artstyle is beautiful and the colors are really great. I totally recommend it.
There are plants everywhere and machines and strange things happens.

Disclaimer: I received this book to review through NetGalley.

I'm not sure what I expected of this, and it was fun but didn't blow me away. The art is gorgeous, though, and the world is super interesting.

The one main thing that bothered me is that I just didn't really care about any of the characters? And there was one that very specifically bothered me from one of the characters.

Overall, though, a lot of fun and interesting. I'm probably going to end up continuing the series, just have to get around to it. And I'd definitely recommend for others to check it out.

'The Tsunami: Okheania #1)' by Eric Corbeyran with art by Alice Picard is a graphic novel about an unusual planet and a couple adventurous boys.

The planet Oceania is covered with vegetation that rolls in waves like an ocean. Jon and Jasper spend their days surfing it until one day they are caught by a Tsunami. Jasper wakes up on board and airship, but Jon is nowhere to be found. Jasper snoops around and overhears things that cause him to be hunted. Meanwhile, Jon has found himself in a previously thought to be impossible place.

I like the worldbuilding here. It's an interesting premise that just starts to get interesting, then ends. I liked the art, especially the beginning scenes of Jon and Jasper surfing.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

This is a great action packed color-filled graphic novel. It's filled with imagination, brilliant artwork and a fun adventure. Geared toward younger readers, it still is suited for older adults as well. It is the first book of a series and comes highly recommended.

Jon and Jasper are out surfing on Okheania when a tsunami catches them. Jasper wakes up as a prisoner on a ship suspected of being a spy by a lady who is very single-minded about her mission, and he thinks Jon is lost to the depths of Okheania. But the captain of the ship tells him that few realize there is life and a whole world under the surface of Okheania. Readers get a glimpse of this, and meanwhile Jasper tries to escape the psycho lady.

This has a very interesting world being built where the tops of trees are so thick they form an ocean of sorts and few realize there’s a world among the trees below. The artwork is beautiful too. But the plot development and character development could use quite a bit more work. It seems completely out of the blue that this lady to think Jasper’s a spy and I needed a lot more convincing to accept that. Since that’s one of the main plot points, it made the rest of the book hard to swallow. I think this book would have been a lot better with a prologue explaining the lady’s issues and her mission to set the stage for why she thinks Jasper is a spy. Pick this up if you like interesting world building and beautiful artwork, but don’t think too hard about it or like me you’ll have a hard time enjoying it.

Notes on content: No language issues or sexual content. Some perilous situations but some bumps and bruises are all that result.

I received an ARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A very mediocre children's fantasy, with two boys caught up in a tsunami when they surf the weird floral surface of their planet. One ends up on a flying ship being bossed around by a woman on a mission, which we have to be told about at length, the other gets swamped by the waves and dragged to the world under, which means certain death – surely?! It looks fine, but it's written really clunkily – we're told not shown many things, the narrator crops up about halfway to tell us what we can see for ourselves, and it all could do with a lesson in not talking down to us. Then its originality might shine. As I saw it, it didn't sell the rest of the five-book series to me at all.

This looks to be a promising series for younger teens or middle-grade readers. The artwork is absolutely stunning, and just truly, truly beautiful. The only thing that brings it down are the completely obnoxious antagonist (nameless pirate/bounty hunter chick who is just annoying every moment she is in view) and the fact that John the missing friend, is also kind of annoying. Hopefully he gets a little more fleshed out and nameless girl stops being an a-hole long enough for the story to unfold.

"Okheania" is a fun graphic novel. The artwork is beautiful and the story is quick and interesting. I'll be looking forward to more from this group.

Disclaimer: I’ve received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review! Thank you!

I was hesitant about picking Okheania up at first. I have to admit that to get my attention, a book needs to have a cover that will catch my eye and Okheania’s art style simply wasn’t my thing. However, after reading the synopsis and reminding myself that I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover I decided to pick it up.

The story begins with two friends, Jon and Jasper surfing on the waves of the sea of vegetation covering the planet. The weather quickly turns bad and both boys are swallowed by a tsunami and separated from each other. Jesper ends up on a ship called Poseidon, scouting the sea in search of a kidnapped Emperor’s daughter. Jon ends up in a village under the surface of the sea, a thing that both boys had considered impossible before.

I absolutely adore the idea of the sea of vegetation covering the planet and ships sailing on it. The thrill of discovering unknown places and meeting new crews on strange ships is so appealing to me and the idea that there’s life below the surface most people don’t know about makes the premise even more fascinating. Sadly, all the other elements kind of fall flat next to that.

The characters have a little personality to speak of. Jesper is the protagonist, he’s determined to find his friend but mostly he’s there just for exposition purposes. We don’t really get much of Jon but maybe that’s for the best since their personalities seemed very similar at the very beginning. However, I can’t call him likable when in one moment he’s all up for returning home back to his ship and in the next one he’s swinging on vines with the cute girl who saved him. The longest he stays there, the further his ship will be so shouldn’t he be in a hurry to leave?

Other characters are really minor besides the captain of Poseidon, who was my favourite character and the woman from his ship who’s in charge of finding the Emperor’s daughter. She’s paranoid, overdramatic and there is literally no logical explanation for some of her actions.

A lot of drama in the graphic novel seems artificial. It’s driven by misunderstandings that could be avoided if characters asked basic questions any normal person would ask, for example, “Hey, we’re missing two boys, have you seen them by any chance?”. Some of it also comes from characters stubbornly believing things for which they have no evidence whatsoever like the woman on Poseidon instantly assuming Jasper is a spy and not even trying to test this theory by questioning people from his crew.

The art style was not exactly up my alley but I can see how someone with a taste for a more realistic style can appreciate it. It was colorful and detailed with beautiful backgrounds. The ships had unique and original designs that made me want to actually board one of them and explore the sea of green on my own. I also loved the idea for the village under the surface, it was really creative.

Despite all the criticism I have, I did not hate Okheania. I felt like the bit I’ve read was pretty short and that the story didn’t have time to unfold properly. It is possible that the characters are developed in the next volumes. This book, however, didn’t provide that. I feel like a lot of my problems originated in the fact that I wasn’t the target audience and that I enjoy a little more complex stories. I feel like for kids this would be a great adventure. I’d also recommend it to fans of stories with Nausicaa or Children of the Whales series vibe.

I’m obviously not the target market for these books, that would be children to middle-grade. This was a fun short read and I wish I liked it better, I believe it could have been better with a little tweaking.

Two kids are seen surfing out on greenery which is basically the ocean as they know it (neat premise). They get swept up in a Tsunami and get separated. One is picked up by a ship and the other “sinks” into the trees and is rescued by people living under the greenery. Somehow no one below knows there is a way above the tree-tops and no one above (or rather it’s hinted at that select few) know about the ability to live below the greenery.

Our kid that survives on top of the green, Jasper, gets picked up by another ship that isn’t his home ship and he is believed to be a spy so he’s locked up. At this time the ship he is imprisoned on and his home ship have come across one another and it’s apparently customary to come together and have a feast. This is where it stretches past my believability because how do they farm, where do they get all their food from? It can’t be that plentiful. I’d imagine it’s more keeping to rations, but I digress.

So, they are missing their two boys and they don’t think to ask the captain of this other ship if they’ve seen them. This is unrealistic to me, and annoying. Jasper escapes from his prison back to his home ship and is able to explain to his guardians what happened while this crazy person is hunting him down and shooting.

The characters were just too one-dimensional and flat for me to care about them at all.
I’ll leave off to not spoil too much but there is hinted that these crazy people have a secret mission but that’s all. I think it would have been more interesting if we’d gotten some kind, any more, information on what was going on.

Personally, I’m not invested enough to continue but for children’s graphic novel I could see it being fine.

Great artwork and a highly imaginative adventure story about a world where the sea is vegetation and people live in vessels that sail on the vegetation. There is nothing below the sea or so people think because what they dont know is that there is another kingdom below.

Two young men who surf the vegetation become separated and one disappears. The other is rescued by a ship and that's where the adventures truly begin. This is a good story for younger readers but far too short.

Copy provided bia Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Very great art work throughout, I'm always a fan of graphic novels personally and this one is another one of those. Both the story and the art work are well done in my opinion

I'm beginning to grow quite fond of Éric Corbeyran, so much so that my only options at this point are to wish that more of his work will be translated into English or to go and learn some French so I can read the rest of his stuff. My most recent read of his, a graphic novel called <i>Okheania: The Tsunami</i>--most unfortunately only referred to as The Tsunami on the Goodreads page for the English edition--is at a level of brilliance that I was immediately desperate for more of the story upon finishing it. And not only that, but I could definitely, and really want to, see this as an animated show in the future. I wonder if there's anyone out there to make that dream of mine come true sooner rather than later. Illustrated by the wonderful Alice Picard, <i>Okheania </i>is a story that I am immensely grateful to have read and I would implore you to pick up as soon as you get the chance. Believe me when I say that you would be sorely missing out on something epic if you decide not to.

<i>Okheania</i> is set in one of the most fascinating world's that I've ever come across, an ocean of vegetation that leaves its population forced to survive by living on giant ships that travel across its vast surface. Absolutely no one would want to sink into the deep, dark abyss below from where no one has ever survived once they've been sucked below. Two young boys, Jon and Jasper have always felt somewhat trapped by this existence and circumvent it by spending their days out on the leafy waves of the ocean, having the time of their lives surfing across it until one day of recklessness sends Jon sinking below and into oblivion.

So much about this story blew my mind in the most wonderful of ways. It was just so beautifully imagined and I cannot help feeling immensely jealous of the brilliance that comes from the general idea of the world in which the characters live. And not only that, but the artwork captures it so magnificently that readers cannot help feeling thoroughly immersed within it as they follow the story along. I loved the renditions of the ocean and the ships that sail across it. There's almost a steampunk feel to some of the world when you look at the airships and the large mechanical contraptions that sail across the vegetation sea.

And then there's the story, which leads you from a fun day of reckless surfing with two young boys and quickly to tragedy not only with Jon's disappearance beneath the waves but with a kidnapping and the rather overzealous and slightly paranoid woman tasked with rescuing the captured young princess. Stakes are high and as events play out, Jasper grows more and more desperate to find a way to save his friend Jon despite both boys' family's insistence that he's been lost forever to oblivion and the woman searching for the princess and her kidnappers puts her focus on the wrong person.

I loved so much about this story and in fact, my only complaint about the whole thing is that it felt far too episodic, leaving me with not enough story and a ridiculously long wait to find out what happens next. And I think that will always be something I find somewhat frustrating about graphic novels since many of them seem to follow this very format whereby they set up a brilliant story and then end far too soon before even a single thing is resolved. I'd definitely suggest giving this book a try when you get the chance.

<i>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

I appreciate having had an opportunity to read and review this book. The appeal of this particular book was not evident to me, and if I cannot file a generally positive review I prefer simply to advise the publisher to that effect and file no review at all.

Okheania is vivid and creative. I would recommend this graphic novel for all ages — a great example of fantasy and steampunk. Very action-oriented reading that is sure to grab attention right away.