This was a beautifully illustrated book that didn’t get as much support from the story as it should have. The vibrant colors and a sense of history and culture that we come across in the first half or so is reminiscent of the movie, Avatar. However, all that suddenly goes away and we’re told it wasn’t even real. Okay, I got that part too. Whatever came after that was a big blur for me! I did understand that one of the parents had magic and the other was trained in combat. They were running from some kind of guild and keeping their kids safe, hence the lie. But ask me to tell you more about the book and I wouldn’t be able to. The information we get is so scant that I wasn’t able to connect to the main characters. And then we’re hit with a cliffhanger at the end, which didn’t make me want to rush out and grab the sequel. It just made me go meh! Make of that what you will.

Dryad was kind of not great. While I understand that this is the first in a series and mostly just an introduction there was very little actual story for most of the comic. The beginning was meandering and took forever to get to the point, barely even grazing the main plot of the series until right at the end. Too much time was spent in the village which in the scope of the comic (this volume at least) felt pointless. The characters were fine if not a bit bland. It felt as if the story took a long time to get to the point, using a lot of time and words to say very little. And while this might be a personal preference the humour was awkward and not that funny.

The art was decent enough but there was a stiffness to many of the facial expressions and pleasant but derivative aesthetic. While I'm glad there was a more conventional and sensible panel structure and use of motion lines (thank goodness!) there was a painful lack of flow between panels and the artist was inept as properly conveying motion and flow in the fight scenes. I kept getting the feeling that panels were missing and a lack of proper visual connections and foreshadowing made it seem like things came out of no where. Every punch seemed to lack any force or weight and every fast moving vehicle seemed to lack momentum. The overall aesthetic and world felt awfully derivative, first the generic d&d-ish pseudo medieval rural European village (which was technically fine since it was meant to be fake) but then the sci-fi high tech city was basically the same setting as blade runner (they wanted to be blade runner so badly) with all the neon signs, Japanese iconography/language (despite not being set in our world), floating holograms of giant naked people in the city. It lacked imagination and frankly blindly copying the aesthetic of blade runner was irksome and pointless. It felt like the artist lacking confidence or imagination fell back into emulating what he thought was a sci-fi city without thinking about why the city would look like that.

The story was lost beneath all the mess, they seemed to have a lot of ideas but not the focus and competence to communicate them clearly. While I like the mash up of fantasy creatures in a cyberpunk setting where magic and the clash between corporation/ militaristic guilds against anti-tech magic cults the story, art and world was all a confusing mess.

Don't recommend it personally.

Thank you to NetGalley and Oni Press for an eARC of this book.

The first place I need to start is with this cover. I will be honest that the cover drew me in from the start. The art style is fantastic. I love the vibrant colors and the very distinct style the art has. I also love how distinct each character is within the story.

This story definitely took a turn I wasn’t expecting. We start off following Yale and Morgan as they travel to an isolated settlement with their infant children. We then see the family thirteen years later, which is when all the action kicks off. This volume is definitely a set up for the story. The twins, Griffin and Rana are both thrust into unknown territory and discover that they don’t know their parents as well as they think they do. I felt that readers are in the same position as Griffin and Rana. We are following the family, but we are only information from Yale and Morgan as the twins learn it.

I absolutely want to follow along with this story as more volumes are released.

Rating: 3.5/5

I really enjoyed this! I think if you like Rat Queens (which the writer is from) or Saga, then you will really, really enjoy your experience reading this book. The art was amazing and right up my alley. The story had a mix of heartwarming elements (two parents leaving their life behind to save their children) mixed in with badass combat. It is extremely fast paced and engaging. I was a tad lost in the beginning, just because the motivations for the two adult characters was not explained, but as the story progressed, I found myself connecting to it more and more. I loved the direction it went into as well, and I cannot wait to see where else Wiebe takes us. Because of spoilers, I won't get into where the story goes, just that I loved both settings where the plot takes place (I hope you get what I mean). Super interested to follow this series.

Dryad was an interesting read in parts, but left me with mixed feelings. We start of in a high fantasy world, which quickly turns to cyberpunk/futuristic, peppered with magical aspects. I thought some of the lines in here held some wonderful messages.

'𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐃𝐚𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐝. 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐎𝐊'

There was some great on-page inclusivity in here which was great to see, including bisexuality and POC rep. The characters felt diverse and well-rounded, and Morgan was absolutely badass! The art style was so colourful and I loved all of the images! It had a perfect blend of fantasy and sci-fi, and I felt it really delivered the overall theme of the novel.

The reason I am giving this three stars, is that I felt this lacked in worldbuilding. The story didn't leave me feeling intrigued and I found myself getting more and more confused and disinterested towards the end. It seemed like aspects of the world were thrown around with no real explanation. Though this could become clear in later volumes and I'm willing to continue the series.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the book in exchange for an honest review,

TW/CW:
- Non-explicit sex scenes
- Gore, violence

In general, I am not a big fan of graphic novels or comics. However, being a librarian, I understand their importance in literacy. Many children and teens do not like to read traditional books and comics and graphic novels provide an alternative. Dryad Vol. 1 is not that alternative, at least not for the younger set. It combines folklore such as elves and druids with futuristic elements such as laser weaponry and high tech graphics. The story itself can be confusing as it bounces back and forth from the past to the present and also two different groups in the story. I found it hard to follow and had to look back a couple of times. It also seemed cheesy combining old world with the future. It was just not to my taste. That doesn’t mean that a patron at our library won’t like it and may even be helpful in encouraging adults to read.

Thanks to Netgalley for a digital copy in exchange for an honest review :)

The comic follows the Glass family in a fantasy combined with science-fiction world. It starts with Morgan and Yale trying to get their family to safety. From the start it gave me so much SAGA vibes and I really wanted to continue reading and finding out more about this family. It has a great intriguing start. But after that things start to happen... I didn't really enjoy everything after that: there is a 13 year gap (which is not that bad) and then so many things are happening so fast that I lost count of characters, the places, the groups, who the bad one(s) are, who we can trust, what special power (wizards are called conductors here, but they still use wands) and abilities (there seemed to be some cyborgs in there, but I am not 100% sure). Everything seemed so much... and so confusing.

On the other hand, trough all this fiasco of events, I managed to appreciate the main characters, including the twins Rana and Griffon and I really want to find out more about them. Also, the family bond is awesomely presented. In addition, the art is splendid - the armour, technology, environment and characters everything is so fitting to the whole story. The colours work perfectly with the vibe of the story and I would love to just spend hours dissecting the art work.

I think this could become an awesome series and I hope the next volumes will be slower - explaining more about the world.

I didn't finish reading, because the twins don't look fifteen at all. I tried to ignore it, but it kept distracting me and I couldn't connect to the novel. Instead of enjoying reading, I kept thinking that they look too old. At least eighteen years old.

I received an e-arc of this graphic novel through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

3/5 stars

I think a lot of this graphic novel flew over my head. I felt like I was confused about what was going on half the time and really didn't know where to expect this graphic novel to take me. Other than the feeling of being confused at times, the story was rather interesting and did a pretty good job of setting up the plot even if I was confused about what was actually going on. The art style was really nice and I loved the color scheme used throughout it. I really don't know if I will continue on with this series even though I am interested to see where it would go. I just can't shake the fact that I was confused a good portion of the time and I still don't know what is really even going on.

I must admit I love fantasy graphic novels and this one had certain RPG-esque elements that caught my eye. That's why I picked up this title but ended up somewhat disappointed towards the end.
Don't get me wrong, it was quite good actually but that plot twist was not my cup of tea cause it deranges the actual genre I was looking for. I can't say much without spoilers.

The drawing was pretty good and detailed and the initial story drawn me into the comic, but there's a lot of information jammed up between few pages and left me with a lot of questions and I'd need the second volume to get some answers.
I think this first volume is more of an introduction to the Glass family and their whereabouts, cementing the main plot towards the second installment, but because we're unfamiliar with the book's universe we might get a bit lost at first.
Overall is a really good start for this series but beware of the plot twist.

This is a graphic novel that is truly about finding and discovering the past. I loved every second of this. Made me feel like I was watching a Hollywood movie! This is an example of the future with sci-fi and fantasy emerging together. I did like this wasn't your usual typical humans stuck in a cybernetic society (What with Cyberpunk 2077 coming along on the 10th of December...hopefully it doesn't get delayed again). It has elves, orcs, and magical creatures, yet it also has that grand epic feel of fantasy civilizations. That said, some of my criticism being was that sometimes the dialogue boxes were stretched a little bit, making it a little bit harder for me to read as normal.

There's an interesting premise when the Glass Family is sort off, 'summoned' by Valenica, who once used to work with them. A backstory is developed leading us onto a new mystery that is to be solved around here. The Glass Family moved to the woods to protect their children from a world that you will begin to see has become corrupted beyond belief. It would be, when Cybernetics take over and then humanity's fate will change. It has a very apocalypse style feel to it. There is a whole ensemble of interesting characters. That said, I did feel some characters were a bit over-used, and others needed a bit more scenes by themselves. This could have easily been around a hundred pages more because it made me want to read more about them.

Griffon and Rana are very delightful characters, and their willingness and adapability to situations in this novel is pure treat. That said, I did feel they were falling into a stereotypical character arc, and for the sequel, I would like the environment and the truth that they discover to forge their personality and discover what their parents are exactly protecting them from. This felt like a start to a new movie/tv series and each character is well written. Though I have still not understood who Coby is. He's a mystery.

Overall, loved it, and it was a delight to read such a great book! I can't wait to read book 2! Oh and Glass's wife? She's pretty and badass!

This was pretty interesting and the graphic was really well drawn. I found the story a bit confusing, though. Sometimes I didn't think two events were actually one after the other since I struggled to find the connection.

It has potential so I will wait until volume two is released and give the story another chance. The contrast between the town in the middle of nowhere and the big city was pretty interesting. I expect the story to get better and better.

I received this as an eARC to read for free in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Oni Press for giving me access.

This one kept me intrigued! And that ending? I cannot wait for Vol. 2 to come out.

The only thing I had an issue with was the beginning and the huge time jump. I would like to have learned more as to why they were going into hiding upfront verses being slightly confused throughout. If I ignore the beginning, the story flowed great!

4 1/2 stars. This started out as high fantasy but turned into…something else. This was filled with surprises: good world building, great illustrations, lots of introduction of characters but still filled with action, mysteries and lots of potential. I’m intrigued and eagerly await the next in the series to see where this goes.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a free copy of the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.75*
An action packed beginning to a very interesting series! A complex world that I was really interested in the whole time that I was reading it!

A delightfully surprising and action packed story, full of gorgeous art and sharp writing. Featuring classic fantasy elements alongside a highly technological and sci-fi inspired world.


Dryad follows Yale and Morgan as they try to leave a past fraught with death and deceit behind them and settle in the peaceful countryside village of Frostbrook.
But while they may have put their old lives and foes behind them, their foes and have not forgotten them.

I loved how well fleshed out and multi-dimensional each of these characters was, from the main couple duo of Morgan and Yale to their twin kids, Griffon and Rana.
The art style was lush and so intricately detailed I'd spent a few minutes studying each full panel page.
The story starts out slowly but this is far from a bad thing, it spends some time fleshing out the world and its characters before dropping you head-first into the action and from there the twists and turns just escalate until it leaves you on quite the cliffhanger.
Needless to say, I am very eager for the second volume.

Overall a quality story with beautiful art and lovable yet kickass characters that i highly recommend to any fantasy and/or sci-fi fan.

A big thank you to the author and publisher for providing me with an arc of this copy!
I ended up really liking this graphic novel and that CLIFFHANGER I need te second installment asap! Although I did feel a bit lost at the beginning of the story because we didn’t get much worldbuilding and there was a big time gap at one point, near the end I felt I started to get a proper grasp of how this world works.
I thought the setting was interesting, with a blend of medieval fantasy elements in a very hardcore scifi world. We have ‘wizards’ (called conductors) elves, orcs, humans and one badass cyborg momma who will *not* let you get away with messing with her kids (she is my favorite). I’m looking forward to learning some more about the world and it’s characters in the next installment!

I'm relatively new to graphic novels - especially ones within the fantasy/science fiction genres. Dryad was a spectacular starting point for me.

Dryad blends high fantasy and science fiction together flawlessly. The story is action-packed with a smooth, easy-to-follow pace that kept me wholly engaged. The "info dumps" are relatively light, strategically placed, and easy to follow, which I was extremely thankful for, given exposition is typically where I get lost within these genres.

The stakes are high if not occasionally a bit fuzzy, but there's enough tension that you understand, even as the characters keep secrets from not only each other, but from the readers, too.

The art was absolutely gorgeous - definitely a sight for sore eyes. Beautiful color palette, intense detail, and soft line art all make for a huge plus in my book.

I'm not wholly committed to the characters yet, as I feel that with so many secrets abound, we're missing a certain emotional depth, but I definitely like them enough to continue reading when the next volume comes available.

The artwork is magical and beautiful and everything I wanted! Saga is one of my favorite graphic novel series and Dryad reminds me of it in all the right ways. Strong family dynamics, badass parents who would do anything for their children, a mix of sci-fi and magic, and perfect artwork. Couldn't recommend this more, and I am DYING to know what happens next.

A solid 3 star story. The art was incredible and I loved the mix of fantasy races and sci fi elements to make the world pretty unique. But the story itself was convoluted and the characters didn’t seem to have their own voices.it felt like something that could be great with a lot more polishing.