'The Archipelago on Fire' by Giorgos Vlachos with art by Thanasis Karabalios is a graphic novel adaptation of a Jules Verne story.

The setting is the freeing of Greece from the Ottoman empire. Pirates attack ships for cargo. Among those is Greek pirate Nikolas Starkos. Starkos is vying for a woman that has been promised to French lieutenant Henry d'Albaret, but she has gone missing.

The adaptation is fine, I just think the story has a bit too much melodrama in it for modern sensibilities. The art works, but, like the story, feels a bit heavy-handed.

During the war for Greek independence, a young Frenchman fell in love with a banker's daughter. Unbeknownst to the daughter or anyone else, the banker got rich by funding pirates such as Starkos on their raids to get slaves to sell to the Ottoman Empire. Now Starkos wants the daughter as his wife. Who will succeed in winning the fair maiden's hand, the dashing Frenchman or the dastardly pirate? This adaptation of a Jules Verne tale is nicely drawn and colored to give the reader an atmospheric tale of adventure. Will need to see about finding the next parts of the tale.

Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to read this tale.

Greece has freed itself from four centuries of slavery. As a newborn country, Greece is fighting piracy and slavery markets of the Aegean is a priority. Great Britain, France and Russia are set to put an end to the naval domination of the Ottoman fleet off the Greek coasts. Against a historical backdrop, in British-held Corfu, a naval adventure unfolds in the archipelago that is literally ignited by the firing of cannons and pirate onslaughts. At the same time, a French Lieutenant is in pursuit of the pirate Nikolas Starkos, who is seeking to find his beloved Angelina,

I knew nothing about Greece and now have learn a part of her history. It is amazing to me that slavery was in Greece. It was exciting for me to learn about the Pirates of the Aegean Sea in the 17th century, including the Greek War of Independence. I want to know more about this historical time. This graphic novel 'is based on
Verne’s novel. It has been expertly written and the panels add to the story.

We often hear many stories of the various pirates that operated in and around the Caribbean Sea, but honestly not much else. For those guys, we have amusement park rides, films, and merchandising that rivals any big corporation. We all know piracy was a worldwide industry that still persists today, so a lot of that information on pirates in other locales is lost to most people. I, personally, was excited to read something about Pirates of the Aegean Sea in seventeenth century Greece, as that entire episode of time, including the Greek War of Independence, is in a knowledge blindspot for me in just about every way. You see, here in The United States, a lot of world events that had nothing to do with us are never mentioned in formal education unless a footnote in something or some sort of specialized classroom setting. That's why I love stuff like The Archipelago on Fire - Part 1 by Giorgos Vlachos & Thanasis Karabalios, as I learned an awful lot by reading it. Granted, this is based on a Jules Verne novel rather than any specific world events, but I'm sure it's well-researched and sourced as well as any of Verne's historic fiction.

As a literary adaptation, this book did a good job of summarizing the plot of the classic novel for me, especially considering the creative team are Greek which hands it a bit more authenticity than the original French composition. The script is a bit wordy at times, with long info-dumps of near encyclopedic information that slow the narrative down, and the art is not very consistent. The art is not bad, but a lot of times the character models change from panel to panel thus giving it an almost unfinished look. I would like to read the other half, considering most of the plot happens there, because right when the story started to pick up, the book was over. While not a perfect experience, I enjoyed reading this book and want to reads the rest whenever it is also released.

A good adventure and romance story, but a bit too fast-paced and not always very streamlined. I loved the artwork - it's a bit of a throwback to classic adventure comics.

Though I found the long intro all about Jules Verne tedious and unnecessary - I just skimmed over it.

Thank you to Europe Comics and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Archipelago on Fire by Giorgos Vlachos and Thanasis Karabalios is an adventure graphic novel based on a novel by sci-fi pioneer Jules Verne. The story is set during the time of pirates and slave markets in a newly-free Greece. The story revolves around Henry, a French lieutenant, who is pursuing Nikolas, a pirate, and Angelina, his missing love. According to the description, "a naval adventure unfolds in the archipelago that is literally ignited by the salvos of cannons and pirate onslaughts."

Overall, The Archipelago on Fire is a literary adaptation that might appeal to fans of graphic novel adaptation of literary classics. I was really looking forward to reading this graphic novel, because I'm a fan of Jules Verne. I had to take off a few stars, because the artwork is just so unappealing. The colors are very dark, and it made reading this book a tedious task. I was also surprised that this book is less than 60 pages. If you're intrigued by the description, or if you're a fan of graphic novels in general, you check out this book, which is available now.

I have never read a graphic novel before this one. I chose this because I am Greek-American and am interested in learning more about the War of Greek Independence. In spite of this, I absolutely hated this genre (Graphic Novel) and will not read another one.

The illustrations were well done, but too harsh and creepy in my opinion. The dialogue was childish and conveyed absolutely nothing to my understanding of the story. What were the characters thinking? What was their backstory? What was the theme? What was the purpose of this novel?

I did some Googling and learned that it is a retelling of Jules Verne’s “Adventure Novel” of the same title. I also learned that graphic novels are preferred by men more than women, and read that “Graphic novels are preferable for readers of limited attention spans.” I prefer a long book to be fully immersed in the plot, characters, mood, and setting. This was just bare bones, with many missing.

This genre must appeal to a small niche audience, but I found it a waste of time.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

#TheArchipelagoonFire #NetGalley

This adaptation of a Jules Verne short story is slow and talky, with uninspired art. I won't bother with part two.

Received via NetGalley.

As a Greek person, I know I'm very biased, but I really enjoyed this graphic novel. It felt like a real throwback to the comic book versions of classic literature I would read as a child. The art was very evocative and I loved all of the beautiful costumes and settings. Seeing the traditional costumes and this entire story set in a key part of my country's history was really awesome. As for the story itself, it did feel kind of stilted, as most "adventure" literature from the 1800s did. The dialogue is very infodump-y and I think the authors could have done a better job of modernizing and streamlining the story. Overall, however, I would definitely read this one again. Especially because of the Andronika character, who was such a badass. If anything, I hope this graphic novel encourages writers and publishers to tell the many stories of the Greek Revolution.

A short story (part 1) based just after the independence of Greece from 400 years of occupation by Turkey (the Ottoman Empire).

As a Greek person myself, this time period is interesting to me, however the story itself was very short and honestly not much happened within it. The art was good but I think the story dragged on a bit - considering it was only 58 pages, it felt really relatively long going backwards and forwards on the same conflict.

Not my favourite and I likely won't continue it, though the art was interesting (seeing traditional Greek dress was really cool too!)

<i>Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this volume - I leave this review voluntarily.</i>

Well, it's easy to see why a Greek publisher would want to turn this minor Jules Verne story into a graphic novel, but it's easy to see why nobody else has bothered. Set alongside the Battle of Navarino, it has a pirateer and slaver working for the Ottomans, his mother who was staunchly pro an independent Greece, the British forces, and the handsome French lieutenant chappy whose fiancée was also wanted by said pirate. It is pure dodgy hokum, and in this quick translation jumps from present to past tense and back in ways seldom seen outside my own reviews. People talk in the plummiest exposition; sometimes the naval situation seems of the greatest importance and overleaf barely registers; and the whole thing makes light entertainment of the slave industry whose results we're supposed to gain pleasure from and yet whose profits are supposedly of rich embarrassment to the characters concerned. Trying to have its baklava and eat it, this is instantly forgettable.

Not particularly interesting. The illustrations were not inspiring, and it was a slog to get through this one.