Member Reviews
On an otherwise normal day, five teens are suddenly hit with tinnitus followed by omniscience. Well, up to a point. They hold all of the knowledge that people can read but don't know information that doesn't appear on the web (or, ostensibly, in books.) All are teens in the United States and four of them are quickly taken in by the Department of Health but there are other entities, including a very shady-seeming FBI, who would also like to have them under their thumbs.
A very nice beginning to what seems like it will be a fun series. The characters, even in such a short book, are starting to be sketched out and readers will probably empathize with at least one of them. There is a nice diversity including (gasp) one teen who isn't quite a US citizen (though his omniscience does cause the States to claim him quickly.)
Four stars
This book came out August 26th
ARC kindly provided by Europe Comics and NetGalley
Opinions are my own
I thought the story was just okay. It was hard to be emotionally invested in any of the characters and so much of what happens doesn't hold to suspend my belief.
What would you do if you were a 15-year-old who suddenly got access to knowledge without having to study? Well for one person, it led to a contemplation of suicide until it turned out that there were others that shared her condition. The FBI wanted to take them over, but The Health Department got there first. Then there are the Doomsday Library folks trying to do something that may be sinister, may be benign, but definitely mysterious. And then a fifth young adult tries to make her way to the compound, the fun begins! It will be interesting to see where this series goes.
A fun, quick read with an interesting take on the superhero genre. Not a whole lot of depth, as most of the story just felt like a set-up for future volumes. This being said, I am definitely intrigued. The premise and characters so far hold promise of great series.
This was a really great take on the teenagers get superpowers genre. I loved all the characters and the story was pretty good too! Overall I think this would be a great book if you like superhero comics.
The Omniscients is a very cute and creative take on the superhero genre. The art is very enjoyable and I like that the characters are all diverse and creative. The bond they have is the sweetest. The idea of the story is good as well. I like that the kids all have brain power, rather than physical powers, even if the origin of them isn’t explained. I think this is a fun start to what will probably be a great series. I look forward to reading more in the future!
3.5 stars rounded up.
I don't read a ton of graphic novels, but I'm always on the lookout for ones that are unique and will take me down an unexpected path. The Omniscients does just that, it follows a group of teenagers who suddenly gain all the knowledge in the world. I really liked how they all reacted to their new found powers quite differently. I was also amazed how quickly the world learned about them and what an asset/threat they might be. The art was gorgeous and there were even a few laughs. Would definitely pick up the next chapter of this story if given the opportunity.
Five kids wake up one morning with ringing in the ears and the entirety of the world's knowledge in their heads. Know they're wanted by two groups of people. Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys and how did they get this power?
I loved this book it was a great start and has potential to be an engaging series. The kids are a diverse group and each of the kids has their own unique charm and personality.
*This review is based on a copy I received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion.
The art was beautiful. There wasn't so much detail that you get lost in them but so enough to really drive it home.
I enjoyed the story. 5 kids get seemingly infinite knowledge, and have the FBI on their backs worried they are going to be a liability to the nation's secrets.
But there are also other characters that are hoping they can be the link to uncover other information lost to history.
I would be super interested in checking out more of this story
An exciting fast paced, action packed graphic novel of five teenagers who wake up one day with all the knowledge in the world. I loved their close friend group and how well they got along together. I read this in one sitting and really enjoyed. Cant wait to read the second volume and find out more about their mysterious powers
The plot of this graphic novel is really engaging: 5 teenagers wake up one morning with the knowledge of the whole world in their head. Four of them are taken quickly by the FBI, but they realise that not everybody is on their side when they have difficulties uniting with the fifth member.
I found the story difficult to read. The scenes kept cutting between different locations and characters without warning, which interrupted the flow of the plot. I enjoyed the characters, but the story was too short to really learn anything about them or form an emotional connection with them. The best part of this story is the plot and the mystery about how they got the powers, but it isn't the main focus of the story and so I wasn't as engaged with the plot as I could have been.
Overall, this graphic novel sets up an interesting mystery, but the way the plot jumps around and the lack of focus on the mystery and characters make it an averagely interesting read.
I liked this one; five random teenagers in New York all wake up one morning apparently knowing everything there is to know. They soon learn that not everyone can be trusted and they might have to run for their lives. I liked the teens, like that there was a good diversity among them, I just wish we'd spent more time with them. This comic is quite short so we didn't really get to know most of them as well as I wish we did. Maybe in the future volumes, we'll learn more about them. This first volume is a good start to a hopefully intriguing series!
I really enjoy the premise of this. It's fun to see a different take on a sort of superpowers story.
The characters were all immediately likeable and I enjoyed their bond though I wish that there was a little more time spent carving out each character's personality.
The action/adventure aspects were cool but I enjoyed them just hanging around the house together as well.
I feel like there is a lot of room for where this story can go and I will definitely be checking out more issues as they release.
This is a perfect comic for tweens but I also think that older people (like me) can enjoy it as well.
It was an okay reading. Nothing spectacular and borderline on the ordinary, it sets a setup for the plot on a big scene for the next instalments but this first one feels kind of flat. It's cool that random teenagers get the power of infinite knowledge, but nothing happens in this first volume. Really.
It has a cliffhanger but would it be enough to make me keep reading? We'll see
2.5 Meh...All I can say is that this was a descent setup for what may become an interesting story. The cast of characters is varied and diverse and the premise of teens being suddenly and unexplainably imbued with all-knowing knowledge is cool. Nothing happens in this installment though. It is merely an introduction to the chart and a week one at that.
"You've got tinnitus!"
I can't say I really expected to hate <em>The Omniscients</em> by Dugomier, illustrated by Renata Castellani but I kind of just...did. By all acounts, this probably should have been a story that I loved. It had an absolutely entrancing premise, after all. The truth, though, is that this book really suffers from being a graphic novel and I'm frankly not quite sure what could save it other than to completely change its format.
<b>A Lengthy Waste</b>
Alright, so the basics of this story are that there are five kids who wake up one morning with a bit of a ringing in their ears. This quickly goes away, of course, only to be replaced by <em>knowledge</em>. And not just any kind of knowledge, but all possible public knowledge in existence. The only thing these kids <em>don't </em>know off the top of their heads are personal and private information. It's like they've suddenly found themselves with some sort of transmitter abilities and can even tune into something like Wikipedia.
And despite having the makings of a really cool story, <em>The Omniscients </em>just <em>flopped</em>. There was nothing engaging or exciting about this graphic novel. It spent far too much time poorly introducing us to the characters and then had them do sod all for the entirety of the story. I wanted to cry for the lack of anything truly intriguing happening. And look, I get it. Graphic novels need to set up their characters and they typically have no choice but to work in an episodic format.
But what the hell was that?
<b>The Five</b>
I'll give Dugomier this, he did an <em>excellent</em> job of building up a diverse cast of characters. There's Albert whose black, an undocumented immigrant called Diego, a Mexican girl Ambèr, and finally the two white kids, James and Jessica. I genuinely haven't seen as diverse a cast of characters in a while, so this was a <em>hug</em>e plus for me. Add in the fact that the artwork was fantastic, and I feel like this book really had a lot of potential.
In fact, the artwork and diversity is the only reason I rated this book as high as I did. I loved the backgrounds that the kids came from. I loved Ambèr and Albert's parents. It was especially amazing since Ambèr's parents are rights activists and Albert's are lawyers. I was insanely excited about all of this.
<b>But Nothing Happens!</b>
And I can't get over it. This volume exists solely as a set up for the rest of the series. And it just feels so painfully pointless to me. Literally, the only purpose behind any of it was to get the kids to all meet up together. And I never got enough time with <em>any</em> of them to feel like I was really getting to know them. The only kid who had any substance to him was Diego. And his substance was so damn brief that it, too, even felt pointless after a while.
It's very clear that this book was meant to be an introduction to a <em>lot</em> more. The problem, though, is that I have no desire to read any of the <em>more</em> to come. Why? I just don't care about these characters. There was no true hook. I never got to know <em>any</em> of them. I never found myself being pulled in a direction that would allow me to care about their lives or their adventures. They are all hollow shells of personalities that the reader is <em>supposed</em> to recognize, but you poke them and find absolutely nothing underneath.
With the exception of Diego. Deigo has <em>some</em> depth.
But even that wasn't enough to save it for me. And instead I'm left with a book where nothing happens aside from them all getting together in one place. And I literally could not care less.
<b>What a Waste</b>
There's also this weird side plot that's introduced at the beginning and revisited throughout the course of the novel that I never fully understood. The author never actually put anything clarifying about all the side pieces (with the exception of the FBI's involvement in chasing the kids down), thus leaving those portions feeling confusing. I didn't care about that either. I should at least have been intrigued enough to want to know more.
I think, at the end of the day, the biggest problem with this story is that it doesn't spend enough time developing its characters and instead focuses on reaching an end goal. I probably would have fallen in <em>love</em> with this book had Dugomier kept some of the kids separated and spent more time building their personalities. If this was the <em>start</em> of them all knowing they needed to find each other and they were <em>thwarted</em>, that would have been <em>fascinating</em>.
<em>Imagine</em> how brilliant it could have been if we got to know these characters and then saw them <em>struggle</em>. And if a graphic novel is supposed to work in a similar manner to which an episode of a television show does, this one fails horribly. I need a hook, something to capture my attention and make me <em>want</em> to know more. Don't just throw something bare bones at me and expect me to love it or even care about the second installment.
<em>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</em>
This review will be live on the Reader Fox blog on September 25, 2020.
This wasn't too bad as a teen-friendly superpower drama. Five teens all experience tinnitus for the first time one morning, then come out of it with access to the entire world's knowledge – everything out in the public domain, or on official record anywhere, is open to them. The first book shows the five gathering together at different pace, while also proving the FBI are not to be trusted when it comes to working with their best intentions – oh, and some peculiar scholars old and new may well be connected to their ongoing story. Translated toot suite from the French we can't tell how many books will follow this, but it's a bright start – the script isn't exactly brilliant at times, and the artwork certainly has nothing to stand out with, but the concept behind it all may have a lot of the promise alluded to here. I'll be optimistic and give it four stars, then, in the hope the whole thing doesn't turn out pants.
The Omniscients graphic novel was an interesting read. The main plot centers on a group of teens who suddenly have the ability to be omniscient (have all the knowledge in the world).
While that sounds like it could be a handy superpower, knowing all the answers to everything, it doesn't really play out like that. The kids are gathered up to live together and the government, among others, are very interested in how to best utilize these kids' powers. Other side effects of knowing everything also show the unexpected downside to this ability.
The novel ends on a cliffhanger, setting up the story perfectly for a sequel. I think fans of superpowers and graphic novels would enjoy The Omniscients.
The cover reminded me of Runaways, so it's not surprising that I was interested. I also liked the synopsis, so I requested the book on NetGalley. Fortunately, my request was accepted.
One of the main considerations for me in comics is the art style. I gave it 4/5 stars for that. It looked nice, but nothing outstanding.
I liked the story a little bit better, but it was still 4/5 stars. I felt the Runaways-vibe all the way through. The story was running on too many threads, sometimes I lost a little bit. There were a lot of characters, too, so I couldn’t really remember them. Still, I enjoyed the story. A lot of things are still obscured, but it piqued my interest.
Overall, I liked the comic. It had mistakes, it isn’t perfect, but there are lots of potential in it, I’d like to continue the story.
Hungarian version:
A borító a Runawayst jutatta eszembe, így rögtön elkezdtem érdeklődni utána. Fülszöveg is tetszett, így jelentkeztem NetGalley-n a könyvre. Szerencsére, elfogadták a jelentkezésem.
Képregénynél az egyik fő szempont számomra a rajzstílus. Erre 4/5 csillagot adnék. Szép volt, semmi kiemelkedő.
A történet kicsit jobban tetszett, de még mindig 4/5 csillag. Itt is végig megvolt a Runaways-hatást. Kicsit úgy éreztem túl sok szálon fut a történet, néha kicsit elvesztem. Szereplőkből is sok volt számomra, így nem nagyon tudtam megjegyezni őket. Ennek ellenére élveztem a történetet. Sok mindent még homály fed, de felkeltette az érdeklődésem.
Összességében tetszett a könyv. Voltak hibái, nem tökéletes a könyv, de van benne sok potenciál, szeretném folytatni.
Bright coloring and good blocking overlook the typical trope of diversity marking this new hero comic entitled Omniscients about a group of teens suddenly acquiring the skill. So far, the series presents the teens(new heroes), the government, and scientific groups in hot-pursuit and the chase. It doesn’t tackle how did they acquire this skill or the breadth of the skill. It does propose a fun ride in starting off, and I can’t wait to see where Dugomier takes us next.
This would be great for anyone looking for a new, innovative comic.
**This was a review copy given by Goodreads in exchange for an honest review**