This first part of The Omniscients was a full blast! Five teenagers wake up with all the knowledge in the world, but don't know how that happened except they all experienced tinnitus at first. Suddenly the world and the FBI are very much interested in them and the group needs to stay safe and perhaps, even hide with the professor. We also get glimpses of the mystery behind it all and how everything must have been set already long ago. The setting is surely interesting, but perhaps moving too fast. We don't get to know the characters enough and I would've wanted to know more about their powers surely. Also, considering their powers, the FBI and all seemed to take everything quite lightly if you consider the fact that these kids are actually the enemies of the state.

The art looks great and I love the vibrant colors a lot. The plot is very interesting and I do hope that Dugomier keeps it refreshing and adds some realism to it too. Some darkness would work well with the story line too. Oh and we want to know more about the power of knowledge! This I missed the most, since it's the greatest power on Earth - especially now.

This was a quick and quirky fun read, it's length, though short, felt to be the perfect amount of time. The art on the front cover got me excited for the content inside.

I'm excitedly awaiting the next volume to see where the story goes! Lovely bright and colourful artwork

** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **
Copy received through Netgalley

~

The Omniscients, Vol. 1, by Dugomier, Renata Castellani
★★★★☆
74 Pages
Content Warning: runaways, parents with disabilities



The Omniscients is such an interesting concept, with a well-paced, clever plot and gorgeous artwork. I really didn't feel like it was only 74 pages, from reading it. It felt far more comprehensive and well explored, for such few pages.

The main characters – five teenagers, who suddenly get the incredible power of absolute knowledge – come from all walks of life. Some are from well-off families, with lawyers for parents, some with activist parents, and others have no parents or parents with disabilities. There was great representation between them, as to the teenagers and their personalities as well as backgrounds and ethnicity. Some had supportive parents and siblings, some didn't, like how Jessica's sister profited from her new-found fame and knowledge. I am slightly sad that the only disabled character – Jessica's father – is portrayed as a bit of a freeloader, who doesn't do anything and treats Jessica like a servant. It's all implied to be because of his 'condition', but as someone who is in a wheelchair, it came off quite offensive, which is where I removed marks from my rating.

However...I find it oddly convenient that ALL the kids are American, and live near each other. They're all able to quickly make their way to where one teen is gaining media attention without travelling far. Unless this is important to the plot later on, I find it strange that there was no option to have the teens far more international, and have the FBI bring them together. It wouldn't have changed the plot much, except to be a bit more logical and believable.

I found the idea of them having infinite knowledge – aka, minds basically like the internet, where they could search for what they wanted – problematic and unrealistic. Blaming it all on tinnitus was also a bit unlikely and could be offensive to those with the condition. It needed some more exploration, especially to explain why they're all local to each other. Something like maybe they'd all been to the same place, or they'd all touched the same item in a museum. Something to connect them, better explain the locality and without blaming it on a noted medical condition.

The formulation of the doomsday library is super interesting, to a complete book nerd. The concept of the teens being able to tap into the knowledge from books lost to time, history or science, is utterly brilliant, and I can't wait to see where it leads in the next volume.

Overall, it's a clever idea with good potential, and I'm intrigued to see what happens next. For now, Diego is the most interesting character, and I want to know more about the rest of them. I'd like MUCH more information and detail in the next volume.

The Omniscients graphic novel tells the story of 5 normal teenagers who wake up one day with access to all knowledge. This power not only draws them together, but makes them headline news. The government decides that their power can be helpful, but also be used against them, so the FBI tries to track down the teens.
I found the story to be interesting and intriguing. However, I felt that it was missing some plot points that needed to be added to make the story more cohesive and understandable.

I received an advance review copy for free for NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This first part of The Omniscients was a full blast! Five teenagers wake up with all the knowledge in the world, but don't know how that happened except they all experienced tinnitus at first. Suddenly the world and the FBI are very much interested in them and the group needs to stay safe and perhaps, even hide with the professor. We also get glimpses of the mystery behind it all and how everything must have been set already long ago. The setting is surely interesting, but perhaps moving too fast. We don't get to know the characters enough and I would've wanted to know more about their powers surely. Also, considering their powers, the FBI and all seemed to take everything quite lightly if you consider the fact that these kids are actually the enemies of the state.

The art looks great and I love the vibrant colors a lot. The plot is very interesting and I do hope that Dugomier keeps it refreshing and adds some realism to it too. Some darkness would work well with the story line too. Oh and we want to know more about the power of knowledge! This I missed the most, since it's the greatest power on Earth - especially now.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this ebook.

The Omniscients was such a fun read! I really liked their superpower which was quite different than what you usually see. I wish it had been a little longer though because it was a little rushed at times and they adapted easily to their newfound powers.

1) I wish I was in this group and that I had their powers. It seems so cool.

2) I love how diverse this group is, how they overcome their families and the FBI to find each other and their new "found family".

3) I liked that the art work is bright, colourful and added to the story instead of detracting like some styles can. I felt they worked together really well.

4) I don't think it was long enough, parts of it felt rushed and I would have liked it to be closer to the 112 pages of most graphic novels, but it was fine... if slightly under developed because there was so much to cover in 74 pages. I'll just cross my fingers and hope for a longer volume 2 that can delve deeper.

5) I'm waiting for the next volume to see what happens!

I''m not especially in love with this book. The concept itself has problems. For kids who have sudden access to "all knowledge" they have very little trouble adapting to the change and spend almost no time questioning the source of their power. It's mostly these kids just hanging out. There's little to keep the plot moving.

As a grandma who rarely reads graphic novels, I highly recommend this new series (I hope there is more to come!). Graphic novels do not usually interest me. But omniscience does… in fiction. It is a kind of ‘Uplift’ and it is fascinating. This book was different (as in unique) and well-done. Maybe a new take on the superhero?

For more on Uplift, see this Wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uplift_(science_fiction)

First off, this book has an exciting concept. Who wouldn’t want to become omniscient? And teenagers already think they are all-knowing! The Omniscients is a face-paced tale with some great characters. And the artwork is lovely and flowed as well.

Also, as a tinnitus sufferer I was happy to learn that my condition might have an upside! Each of the teens experienced an episode of loud ringing in their ears before the onset of total knowledge.

Thrum – what really worked:
The FBI frenzy to capture this group of young people is totally believable. They could be put to nefarious uses, for sure. I look forward to these characters being fleshed out, and I have so many questions. That is a good thing for the first graphic novel in a series.

The helpful adults were a great fit as well. Dr. Schweitzer and the “library” guys add in amazing potential.

Twang – what could be improved in later books:
I would like to see even more depth in the characters. Is this wrong to ask for nuance in a graphic novel? Maybe the medium does not allow for it. But if you never ask, you will never get a ‘yes’!

One character, Diego, comes from an undocumented family and he stood up for his family as worthy people. However, this plotline would be very satisfactory to develop and add nuance to. Also, the evil FBI guys could use some nuance.

I definitely recommend. 4STARS. I want to know more.

Plato’s POV
***SPOILER ALERT***
A first stab at the philosophy behind ‘Uplift’ in The Omnicients.
Some questions could be: Who?What?Where?When?Why?How?Meaning?

Who? 5 teenagers are uplifted – all in one city. Are there more around the world? Just in the USA? How did it happen? This is unanswered as of yet, though some major hints are dropped. It seems almost magical, and there is a mystery unfolding about how this happened – and one of the teens is hallucinating a valley full of bolders and a single huge monolith. What could this mean? We will see in future installments.
What? The omniscience the teenagers experience seems almost like instant access to the internet of facts and data. Anything known anywhere is available with no lag time to these 5 youths. It seems that they cannot actually read people’s minds or anything like that. So it’s almost like “the Matrix” of ideas became available to their minds. But some of them have slightly different abilities and we do not know why yet.
Why? Why were they made this way? When we know more, we will be able to answer more of our philosophy questions! What gives me hope is that this ability has been given to some pretty neat kids. Now that is comforting.

The Omniscients deftly handles a large cast of characters while maintaining their individuality (which is quite impressive). However, the plot and world building is a bit underdeveloped. So much time is allocated to focusing on the introduction and set-up that The Omniscients fails to deliver a compelling narrative.

I was unable to get this to download to read. I sent an email but didn’t get a response. I really wanted to read it, sorry.

Description: It’s a fascinating journey of young quintuplets that discovered their strange ability - knowing EVERY SINGLE THING in this world! The comic starts with James’s life, where he’s got a strange ringing noise inside his ears after he just woke up. When his little brother demands to know what’s the meaning of ‘tinnitus’, he explained to him like he’s out from the encyclopedia – and his parents awed for that! The same thing happens to Jessica, and she’d explained the rejected Republicans’ bill to her father, even though she didn’t even open and read the daily newspaper yet. Moving on to Albert, where he told his ‘next-door’ schoolmate the same thing and he’s blabbering until he went out of his class – his teacher still there! Amber, she tries to jump off from a building when her Facebook post gained much public attention and shares, and of course, her ability just like them, even the scientists finds out this phenomenon was mind-boggling. And finally – Diego – rushes to the crowd and tries to convince her that he’s got the same ability too, following by Albert. The FBI barged in later to take them away, including their parents (except Diego’s), and on the other hand, James phoned the FBI to take him along with the rest of them. Hours passing by, the four of them were safely inside the FBI’s HQ and the famous doctor Schweitzer arrives there for inspecting them, and they’re given a luxurious villa to stay in – with tight security. The next day, the doctor came to check them out and told them that the FBI wanted to keep them just like lab rats. The FBI in charge – Todd and Luiz – rented a lodge where they’ll be looking out for them, in case they’re trying to sneak out from the villa. Back to his workplace, the doctor told them that they need isolation, but only temporary. On the same day, it turns out to be Amber’s birthday and when she’s trying to beat the birthday piñata that her mother gave to her (via the doctor), the ringing noise once again came inside her ears. On the opposite, Jessica was already fed up with her life, as all she ever wanted was to spend a little time with her mother, but to no avail. She ran away from home with her belongings to meet and stay with the gang. At the same time, James had terrible yet repeated nightmares, which his brain fed with the newest updates whenever he sleeps. Finally, Jessica reached their villa, but she wouldn’t give herself up to the FBI and so she risked herself by going into the sewer’s route. Unfortunately, the FBI knows her route and they nearly caught her just in time – the gang receives this information immediately and they tried to sneak out for rescuing her. But then, one of the FBI – Todd – suspects them via the CCTV footage and if he succeeded with his work, he’ll throw them to the ‘little Guantanamo’. While they’re on the run, they sent a ‘secret code’ to Jessica where to meet them via the Daily News, but since they knew that the FBI will be looking for them, they decided to hide in the bushes and surprising her on her way to the given location. All well ends well, as they’re being saved by the doctor with his two passengers – Runar and Morten – and they send them back safely to their parents. This comic ends with Diego that talking in a strange language in his sleep.

Conclusion: If I got the ability just like them, the pros will be fascinating and the cons will be troubling!

Thank you NetGalley and the Publisher for this ARC.
Cute book with a cute cast of characters. Wasn't my favorite graphic novel but it was fun to read. I did enjoy the art style and the storyline. I think I got confused on some parts so that is why I rated it low. Also there was some low points that did't keep me focused. I would like to read the next one to see how it compares.

The Omniscients begins with five teenagers suddenly waking up one morning with ringing in their ears. When this mysterious noise passes the five of them suddenly find themselves with access to all available public knowledge, making them close to omniscient. Four of these teens quickly come together, drawn to each other by a deep need to be together, but a fifth is fighting this urge, until she too has to give into this desire and sets out to join the others. However, the FBI are desperate to get their hands on one of these teens, and set their sights on stopping her reaching the others.

This book definitely feels like the first part in a bigger series, not just because there are so many mysteries left hanging come the end that things haven't even begun to feel explained, but because not much really happens here.

The story begins with our five teens, Albert, Diego, Amber, James, and Jessica, all waking up one morning and discovering that they have access to a huge swath of knowledge. This access seems to be like being able to see into the internet inside their heads, and at one point one of the teens even 'accesses' a person's Wikipedia page in order to read up on them. This is never really explained in this first volume, and it's simply implied that the teens are somehow able to read the internet. They say more than once that they don't have access to hidden knowledge, and that they can only see public information, but then they'll be able to see into people's hidden records, and gather information that wouldn't be publicly available.

This lack of clarification of the teens powers is possibly one of the mysteries of the book, as it seems like each teen is able to do slightly different things, however, it also leads to the main conflict in this book. The FBI are convinced that if they are able to get their hands on these teens they'll be able to use them to gather information on the 'bad guys' and use them as espionage tools. This doesn't seem too unreasonable, as they're led to believe that the kids know 'everything', yet these undefined rules on their powers are definitely a problem here. Can the kids access information on databases on foreign powers computers? Maybe? It's not clear. Can they know what terrorists are up to? Probably not, unless they're keeping a blog on the dark web, but who knows?

I can't help but feel that an earlier clear description of these powers would not only help the reader, but would have helped the characters too. It would mean that the FBI might not try hunting down one of their number just to try and get an advantage that they might not even get if they do manage to capture on of the teens.

This conflict also seems to lead to nothing really happening. Early on in the book four of the teens come together and are placed inside a house in New York, somewhere where the four of them can be protected and studied, allowing the Health Authority to try to figure out what caused them to gain these amazing abilities. However, Jessica chose not to join them straight away, and its when she does try to get to them that the conflict with the FBI happens.

By the end of the book, however, this has been resolved. Jessica is now with the rest of the group, and those members of the FBI who were hunting her down have been removed. The five of them are now living happily together in their new home in New York, and the Health Department are still supporting them and trying to figure out what happened. If you'd have had Jessica just join them when the others came together a whole huge chunk could have been removed from this book and you wouldn't feel like you'd really missed out on anything.

This lack of anything really happening is a big drag on the quality of what should have been an exciting first volume of a new teen adventure series. There are definitely elements of great things here in this first volume, and the small snippets we see of the person behind everything, who seems to be connected to their strange powers, is intriguing and raises a lot of interesting questions; but it gets lost in the masses of stuff that feels very throw away.

With this being the first, and so far only, volume with which to judge the series I feel like it's hard to know if the rest is going to be great or not. This one volume is okay, but that's about it. I want to read the second volume not because this one got me hooked, but to see if the series will actually be worth sticking with. I hope it is, as there was a lot of stuff here to like, but if the story doesn't pick up in the next book I'm not sure if this will be a series that I'll be wanting to stick with.

I received this comic in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely adored this comic. The art, the story, the characters -- all are the perfect mix for a comic with incredible potential. It follows the story of five kids who suddenly wake up with knowledge of everything. Astrophysics? Breaking news? They know it all -- but they don't know why.

Of course the government are very interested in this, but whether they can be trusted is a completely different question. There's also a few other characters invested in these kids, and I'm very interested to see how they impact the story.

A particular favourite of mine was a scene where the breaking of a pinata and the carving of stone occured in parallel -- and wow was I impressed. That especially was an incredible scene, and the implications got me very curious about the origin of their new abilities.

I definitely recommend this series for people interested in a good mystery following a cast with a lot of potential for growth and adventure.

Thank you netgalley for the arc!

I love the art and the story. It's about five kids who wake up one day and suddenly they have all the
knowledge of the world. They have to trick their way away from the FBI and they make friends.

It has a good rep like inmigrations and xenophobia.

The five kids where all so different but the complement each other. It was a fun read and i can't wait to read the next volume

This comic works quite well for the beginning of the story: an effective introduction to the characters, a mystery to be solved, a first challenge that shows our protagonists abilities, their enemies and allies.

It has also a good approach to important themes, like immigration and xenophobia.

The traces are beautiful, and I liked the color scheme, especially how the orange details appear amidst the greens an blues, and pop in moments of tension, especially during Jessica's interactions with her family.

I had a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to the next volume.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for giving access to the ARC in exchange for this honest review.

I was so disappointed that this didn't pan out. The author created an interesting cast of diverse characters that did...absolutely nothing. There was no real story her, just a mix of characters thrown together with nothing to do.

This story was very unique and intriguing. Five kids wake up one day and suddenly they have all these knowledge of the world and it was really such a promising premise. They tricked their way away from the FBI and everyone has their own distinct and different gifts apart from it all. I had a really fun time reading this book and I was a bit sad that it ended so abruptly. I wonder what will happen next in this story and the extent of their gifts as well as the history behind it. This book was fun, interesting and such an enjoyable read. I really look forward to finding out what may happen next to them.