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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
In the solitude and darkness, upon the darkning Thames, across the whole Island westward, a horrible Shadow of Death.
William Blake, Jerusalem
Set in a near-future Britain, Dark Satanic Mills tracks a young woman’s journey from the flooded landmarks of London to the vast, scorched and abandoned hills of the North. Framed for a murder she did not commit, fearless and resourceful loner Christy has no other choice but to run for her life.
Both a cautionary tale and a rip-roaring trip, Dark Satanic Mills is altogether an intelligent, captivating and thrilling ride – a punked up Wizard of Oz for a new generation, told in exhilarating shades of light and dark.
It’s the near future. Britain has been devastated by environmental disasters. London is flooded. The Lake District a scorched wasteland. Christy works as a motorcycle courier. While making a delivery she stops to help a man – Thomas – who is being beaten up by a gang for being an atheist. The simple act of kindness changes her life forever. Late for her delivery, she finds herself sacked and stuck with a manuscript that contains unpalatable truths about the True Church, which seeks to control the country. And the True Church will do anything to keep those truths hidden …
Marcus and Julian Sedgwick have teamed up with John Higgins and Marc Olivent to produce a dark dystopian graphic novel that draws on William Black’s Jerusalem for its inspiration and structure. The artwork is great – gritty, dark and atmospheric – but the story itself is a slim affair and I really wished had been longer so that there could be more detail on the world the characters live and how it’s been put together because there are so many great ideas at play here (my favourite being the mirrors used to deflect harmful radiation) and a wide cast of characters to get to know. Unfortunately because this is only a single book, there’s no real opportunity to get to know Christy or Tom beyond their superficial characteristics and I found it frustrating that potentially great plot lines (such as the relationship between Christy and her sister) got dropped as the characters storm on to the next event. It’s a perfectly good read but I wanted more from it and I would definitely pick up more books by these guys if they did more graphic novels together.
I’m quite ignorant of Blake’s work, which is partly why I enjoyed the endnote by the Sedgewicks, which explained why the work was so important to them. I did enjoy the way lines from the poem are incorporated into the text and frame the coming scene and I did catch a couple of references to Blake’s other work, which I enjoyed. I also enjoyed the examination of religion and how it can be used to control for personal benefit – again, had the book been longer or part of a series I’d have liked to see this gone into in more depth.
All in all, it’s a good book but I wish that there’d been more of it.
The Verdict:
Marcus and Julian Sedgwick have teamed up with John Higgins and Marc Olivent to produce a dark dystopian graphic novel that draws on William Black’s Jerusalem for its inspiration and structure. The artwork is great – gritty, dark and atmospheric – but the story itself is a slim affair and I really wished had been longer so that there could be more detail on the world the characters live and how it’s been put together because there are so many great ideas at play here (my favourite being the mirrors used to deflect harmful radiation) and a wide cast of characters to get to know. Unfortunately because this is only a single book, there’s no real opportunity to get to know Christy or Tom beyond their superficial characteristics and I found it frustrating that potentially great plot lines (such as the relationship between Christy and her sister) got dropped as the characters storm on to the next event. It’s a perfectly good read but I wanted more from it and I would definitely pick up more books by these guys if they did more graphic novels together.
DARK SATANIC MILLS was released in the United Kingdom on 7th November 2013. Thanks to Walker Books for the ARC of this book.
William Blake, Jerusalem
Set in a near-future Britain, Dark Satanic Mills tracks a young woman’s journey from the flooded landmarks of London to the vast, scorched and abandoned hills of the North. Framed for a murder she did not commit, fearless and resourceful loner Christy has no other choice but to run for her life.
Both a cautionary tale and a rip-roaring trip, Dark Satanic Mills is altogether an intelligent, captivating and thrilling ride – a punked up Wizard of Oz for a new generation, told in exhilarating shades of light and dark.
It’s the near future. Britain has been devastated by environmental disasters. London is flooded. The Lake District a scorched wasteland. Christy works as a motorcycle courier. While making a delivery she stops to help a man – Thomas – who is being beaten up by a gang for being an atheist. The simple act of kindness changes her life forever. Late for her delivery, she finds herself sacked and stuck with a manuscript that contains unpalatable truths about the True Church, which seeks to control the country. And the True Church will do anything to keep those truths hidden …
Marcus and Julian Sedgwick have teamed up with John Higgins and Marc Olivent to produce a dark dystopian graphic novel that draws on William Black’s Jerusalem for its inspiration and structure. The artwork is great – gritty, dark and atmospheric – but the story itself is a slim affair and I really wished had been longer so that there could be more detail on the world the characters live and how it’s been put together because there are so many great ideas at play here (my favourite being the mirrors used to deflect harmful radiation) and a wide cast of characters to get to know. Unfortunately because this is only a single book, there’s no real opportunity to get to know Christy or Tom beyond their superficial characteristics and I found it frustrating that potentially great plot lines (such as the relationship between Christy and her sister) got dropped as the characters storm on to the next event. It’s a perfectly good read but I wanted more from it and I would definitely pick up more books by these guys if they did more graphic novels together.
I’m quite ignorant of Blake’s work, which is partly why I enjoyed the endnote by the Sedgewicks, which explained why the work was so important to them. I did enjoy the way lines from the poem are incorporated into the text and frame the coming scene and I did catch a couple of references to Blake’s other work, which I enjoyed. I also enjoyed the examination of religion and how it can be used to control for personal benefit – again, had the book been longer or part of a series I’d have liked to see this gone into in more depth.
All in all, it’s a good book but I wish that there’d been more of it.
The Verdict:
Marcus and Julian Sedgwick have teamed up with John Higgins and Marc Olivent to produce a dark dystopian graphic novel that draws on William Black’s Jerusalem for its inspiration and structure. The artwork is great – gritty, dark and atmospheric – but the story itself is a slim affair and I really wished had been longer so that there could be more detail on the world the characters live and how it’s been put together because there are so many great ideas at play here (my favourite being the mirrors used to deflect harmful radiation) and a wide cast of characters to get to know. Unfortunately because this is only a single book, there’s no real opportunity to get to know Christy or Tom beyond their superficial characteristics and I found it frustrating that potentially great plot lines (such as the relationship between Christy and her sister) got dropped as the characters storm on to the next event. It’s a perfectly good read but I wanted more from it and I would definitely pick up more books by these guys if they did more graphic novels together.
DARK SATANIC MILLS was released in the United Kingdom on 7th November 2013. Thanks to Walker Books for the ARC of this book.
