3.5 stars. Thanks to NetGalley for an e-arc of this one.

I really like Rat Queens and when I learned that Wiebe was coming out with a new series that is about two parents and their kids in a fantasy setting... oh yeah. I love fantasy and I am a mum and it's actually quite rare to get fantasy books from the perspective of the parents, other than men who somehow find it easy to run off on an adventure and abandon their kids. So a fantasy story about parents who are with their kids, perfect.

Unfortunately this one did let me down a little bit because it's not even really fantasy, it's more scifi and looks like it could cross into cyberpunk territory. I do like scifi, but I truly cannot stand cyberpunk, so when this started to feel like cyberpunk... Sigh.

That said the story itself was interesting and I am interested in continuing. I just am not sure how I am going to feel about future volumes. The art was fantastic, no complaints there.

This graphic novel was sooooo good! I don't know what I was expecting going into it, but whatever I was thinking this definitely exceeded it. If you are a DND fan or a fan of SAGA this is probably right up your alley. Yale and Morgan bring their young family to Frostbrook trying to escape their mysterious past. Magic is dead (supposedly) and the world outside of Frostbrook is teeming with technological advancements. The two parents hope that by living in this secret location that they have finally found a safe place to raise their young ones. That is until Griff and Rana open a secret door and let some dangerous people through. Their lives as they know it are about to change forever!

I liked this first installment of a new series. Dryad is action-packed, and the characters are interesting and complex. It's got a heavy Saga vibe to it, but I think that as the story develops, it'll become more independent--the seeds for originality are already there. The visual elements are great--I really enjoy the contrast between locations and factions. I'll be looking for more of this.

Escaping their past lives with their newborn twins Rana and Griffon, ex-soldier Morgan and her husband Yale find a new home in the sleepy village of Frostbrooks, hidden away from the rest of the cruel world they live in. They vow to protect their children from their past but no vow can keep away what's coming for them.

The art in this comic is GORGEOUS. Being an artist myself, that was my very first focus point in this ARC and thus I was pleasantly suprised with how much I liked the art of Dryad! Landscapes and characters alike were captured in a way that really did please the eye and fit the theme this story was going for.

The characters? Endearing. I loved each member of the Glass family (although any other character kind of fell under the radar so far.) any they were own unique and interesting in their own way, though there is a lot the author has yet to reveal in the next books.

As for the story... I liked it. It was fairly straight-forward in its core, although the author kept throwing the names of places and things and people in there, which left me as a reader more confused than exited at the end of this read. That has to be the main issue I had with this book. Instead of the little prelude that is the Glass family finding their way into Frostbrooks, I wish there had been some sort of scene that had anchored me as a reader in this world. I kept being rather confused than pleasantly suprised by where this story was going, feeling lost. Just a few hints to the huge new world that is revealed about halfway into the first book would have helped, too.

Nontheless I didn't regret reading this book and I'm somewhat intrigued to find out where this story will end up - for now, I've no idea where we are and where we're going!

4.5 stars. A fun, action-packed, sci-fi/fantasy mashup with cyberpunk elements, following a family forced to run from an idyllic village as secrets from their past catch up with them. I enjoyed the extensive world-building, and the illustrations are dynamic and eye-catching. Bonus points for the badass mom wielding a big sword (and a bigger gun) to protect her family. Fans of Saga will likely get a kick out of this as well; it’s got a lot of that same energy. Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy!

Dryad wasn't what I expected based on the cover copy and maybe that's my fault for not reading more carefully between the lines, but the amount of tech surprised me. I expected... a dryad?
But let's talk about what the book is, rather than what it isn't. There's less of a Rat Queens feel here and more Saga. It begins as two parents take their kids to a remote community to protect them from unnamed danger, very Saga-ish.
The world-building is a little confusing, pretty dense, though I think future issues/Vol 2 are going to tie some of it together. I really like the relationship between the parents.
Sadly, there's not much here to compel me to pick up the second volume except that I am in love with the art. So I probably will. Because art.

I received a temporary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Dryad is a story of the Glass family, who've lived a peaceful life in the sleepy little town of Frostbrook for the past 13 years. Morgan and Yale moved here when their twins Griffon and Rana were just babies. Yale found comfort in his new life as a history teacher, Morgan gets by as part of the town watch (though she's not nearly as settled into life away from the city as her husband), and twins have never known anything else.
But the past never stays buried for long. A sudden attack on Frostbrook sees the Glass family dragged back into a world of crime and danger, of old friends whose trustworthiness is questionable and of tepid alliances with old enemies. It's a world that Griffon and Rana, especially, know nothing about, and they suddenly discover that there's a lot more to their parents than they ever knew—which is a lot to take in for anyone, let alone a couple of teenagers trying to find their place in the world.

This sets up Dryad for plenty of action and excitement—beyond the first chapter, hardly a page goes by without some sort of attempted murder or mass destruction. But more than that, it sets up a story about a family trying to stick together with a whole world out to get them, and with plenty of their own internal drama to work through. Again, it's serious and tense, but underscored by emotion and empathy. It's easy to understand why Morgan and Yale would have lied to their kids about so much for so long, and it's easy to understand why Griffon and Rana would be upset about that, even knowing that it came from a place of love and a desire to protect them.

The script and art come together at every turn to drive home the love that holds the Glasses together, whether they're enjoying a brief reprieve, working together to attend to their latest assailants, or dealing with their own conflicts. That last point is especially important—it's one thing to show a family's love through the lengths they go to to protect one another, or through how they come together in their hard-fought moments of peace. It's something else entirely to depict the twins lashing out at their parents over a lifetime of lies, and the parents' flailing attempts to justify themselves, without losing sight of the love that invokes such strong reactions in the first place. That's something Dryad does incredibly well.

Dryad Vol 1 is the start of an enchanting new adventure from Kurtis J. Wiebe and Justin Barcelo. Sharp writing and gorgeous art come together to tell a story that cleverly bends genre expectations, that delivers plenty of action and excitement, but, most of all, that looks at how love can hold a family together when the whole world is against them.

I’ll preface this with saying I don’t read many comics but I have a huge appreciation for the them. .

This comic sucked me in from the beginning, it starts off with Morgan and Yale escaping their homeland with their young twins. The family seems to lead a very average life and we’re not given any explanation as to why the family had to leave their home until the second half of the comic. Even then, we’re still left with many unanswered questions and a cliffhanger at the end.

I found the story to be intriguing and enjoyed the dynamic Morgan and Yale. I also loved seeing how the twins interact and how they have a very sweet sibling bond. There were a few points of dialogue that I found to be a bit awkward or unnatural. However, overall I’m interested to see what happens in the next volumes and am eager to have truths revealed.

The cover and the art are gorgeous throughout the book.

Where do I even start with this book.. These are not your usual medieval-fantasy elves living in a small town.. despite the fact that this is the exact setting we start with. We see Morgan and Yale trek through the wilderness with two tiny children - where they very candidly stop to change diapers. They arrive to their destination, a quaint village hidden by the woods and some ruins, where they raise their kids for the next ten or so years. We see them again when the twins, Griffon and Rana are teenagers loitering around town with their friends, pondering the possibility of magic existing in the world. A sudden attack on the town reveals the past Morgan and Yale has been hiding from their kids all their life: there is a much bigger world out there filled with technology they never even heard of. In hopes of escaping the family returns to the parent’s old turf and they try to salvage their life best they can while they try to hide from their past. The setting was interesting, the typical elven medieval fantasy world mixed with sci-fi tech. I liked that the book had characters of different races just as part of natural diversity that occured in this world, without any kind of comment for cookie points. In it’s tone the story felt more on the sci-fi side for me, so I would probably recommend this to fans of sci-fi rather than fans of medieval fantasy.

Content warnings
some adult, sexy scenes were in the book and some violent fights

Being someone who was a big fan of Rat Queens, I was ecstatic to see Kurtis Wiebe publishing another fantasy based graphic novel with a brand new artist but I'll be honest, I was a bit disappointed with this one.

This story is centered on two parents who are from the city. At the beginning they are running away from their past (which the reader is unsure of at this point) and encounter a somewhat secret village they believe to be safe to raise their two young children. This gave me major Saga vibes which I'm not complaining about whatsoever but there was something about it that I couldn't get into. I couldn't really get invested in the storyline or characters. I felt that character development and worldbuilding ended up falling by the wayside. As a result, the setting and side characters are kinda generic. I did enjoy the first half far more than the second half. I wasn't a fan of the huge transition of cozy woodland village to super high tech city.

This book gave me some brief entertainment, in the style of a mindless action movie, but that's about all that I got from it.

Though I haven't read all of Rat Queens, I did enjoy what I have read of it - so I was eager to see this new series by the same writer. It would have been nice to get a little world set up, or backstory, but the world and story kind of unfolds as you read - so you're learning about it along with some of the characters.

The art is great and suits the world and characters really well, I especially liked the color palettes used, especially in the different settings. I will definitely be checking out further volumes to see what happens to the Glass family in the future.

I received this arc on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is chock full of surprises. It was really a rollercoaster from beginning to end. The art is beautifully done and the characters relationships are full of depth and meaning.

The beginning was confusing for me though. We started off with the kids as babies but in the next couple of pages they are teenagers? I get holding out information for the audience to figure out, but it was a bit of a weird transition.

The ending ended on a cliffhanger which again surprised me. I know it is a series, but still it just left so many questions open. I would have liked it to have some more blanks filled in, but other than that, it is an interesting twist.

Overall, I still recommend this book. It is a good book that still has some room for improvement, but I think the next book will iron out some the kinks I had with it. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

I loved the art style, and the story was really interesting. My only real issue with it was that there was a lot of information I felt like I was missing - like the twins in the story. Overall I really did enjoy it though, and look forward to reading more.

I had some mixed feelings about this. On the one hand I have to say that the artstyle for Dryad is absolutely fantastic, and was one of the first things that drew me to the book after seeing the cover. I also loved the blending of fantasy and sci-fi elements creating a rich and varied world and storyline, that takes the idea of a human and elf falling in love and turning into some new and exciting. However, it was the storytelling itself were I found myself losing track of what was happening, because a lot happened throughout this volume and very quickly, with a lot of information but not much explanation and more than once I found myself having to halt to try and untangle what was happening. However, this is the first volume, so it was laying a lot of groundwork for the next volume, so it is possible that those questions will be answered then, and I look forward to trying the second volume to see if it does provide those answers. However, Dryad very much has potential, with a fantastic art style, an interesting and varied cast of characters and a world that once it has explained further will probably become one that I love spending time in.

High quality drawing and crazy good bold colour, the plot was a bit of a Taken by the forest and Mad Max.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a voluntary and honest review.

When you first start reading, Dryad appears to be purely fantasy....but it's clear you're missing something as you're thrown right into the two main characters, Morgen and Yale as they flee from something or someone with two children.

You quickly learn that Dryad is, in fact, part fantasy and part sci-fi, very reminiscent of Saga. The story is fast-paced and gripping from the start, as you first see Morgen take on the role of a sleepy forest town's guardswoman and Yale be a (very attractive) teacher to the town's kids.

This idyllic life doesn't last very long, because 12 years into their retreat, the town is overtaken by what appears to be an enemy force. Morgen and Yale are forced into old roles to protect their children, which it is clear that they'll do no matter what the cost.

This was such a good, quick read. I adored the banter, both between Morgen and Yale, and the siblings Rana and Griffon. The story was quick to unfold and draw you in and kept you hooked until that ENDING. I need Volume Two immediately.

While I enjoyed this read immensely, I did have to drop it to four stars because even at the end of the first volume, I was thoroughly confused about some aspects of this world. It was almost as if some exposition was skipped (maybe on purpose?) because the kids were kept in the dark and the reader was supposed to learn as they did, but it left me mostly confused for 140-something pages.

The art style, while beautiful, I felt could have clarified certain scenes a little better. There was quite a bit of action and fighting that I had to go back and examine closely in the hopes that I would better understand what had just happened.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this, however, and will be looking forward to the next volume. Trigger warnings for explicit content and violence throughout the story.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The art in this book is good and is definitely one of the highlights of the book.

It has definite Saga-vibes. I found the story confusing though. There's a lot of things thrown out to raise the mystery of the characters former lives. But it felt choppy - the jump from the woods to the city and everyone acclimating and moving on so quickly.

The pacing of the story moves quickly but I couldn't help but feel I was missing things that would have helped me understand the story.

Overall it wasn't my cup of tea but would love to see more of the art.

This is fast paced and overflows with action and colour. It has a 'Saga' feel to it and it will be interesting to see where the series goes. It starts off really quietly with the Glass family living in the quiet village of Frostbrook but this all changes when enemies from the past discover them.

And suddenly we and they are thrust into a high tech world of magic, weapons, twists and turns and a struggle to stay alive.

I thought this was a great start to the series with good world building and enjoyable artwork.

Copy provided by Oni Press via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

I was very kindly given an Earc by the publishers via netgalley in exchange for an honest review: Wow!!

Fantasy! Science fiction! Elves! Ancient magic! Wizards!

This graphic novel was absolutely spectacular! It has a feeling of saga with the interspecies couple (an elf and a human) who ran away from their home to live a normal life. When you think it’s one thing it becomes another. I love the relationship between the twins and between the parents. Each character was well fleshed out even in a short amount of time. Especially loving the family dynamic and the still obvious love between two parents fighting for their kids!

I cannot WAIT to read more!

I was really looking forward to delving into this as it is completely out of my comfort zone. I loved the characters, I thought they were very unique, and also the drawing style and colour choices were so vibrant that I felt this was a highlight for me, I found it very visually pleasing. As we ended on a cliffhanger I would be very interested to see where we go from here in Vol..2. Many thanks for giving me the opportunity to read and review this!