{English} Avatar - The Last Airbender: The Rift, Part One (The Rift #1)

For fans of: the Nickelodeon series
Published: 2014 (Dark Horse)
Pages: 76

Blurb: Sacred Land Defiled! Avatar Aang asks his friends to help him honor Yangchen's Festival—one of the highest Air Nomad holidays, which hasn't been celebrated in over one hundred years. But cryptic visits from the spirit of Avatar Yangchen herself lead Aang to discover a jointly owned Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom refinery—operating on land sacred to the Airbenders! Is this simply a case of corporate greed or is something more mysterious happening?

My opinion: The drawing style is the same one as in "The Search" and I can live with that, but Iroh doesn't look like himself. Almost didn't recognise him.
Sokka is headless again, Aang is as naive as ever and Katara's only function is to comfort other people. Seriously, did Book Three even happen? At least Toph is back.
The story lines from "The Promise" and "The Search" come together here, but "The Search" doesn't feel as genuine as the others. I like how Yu Dao is developing, especially with a heterogenic government like this.

I don't like how Aang clings to all those traditions. I get that he wants to preserve his culture, especially given that he's the last airbender, but in doing that he comes across close-minded. Luckily there's Toph who shows that things shouldn't just be done because that's the way it is. It's just that the way she shows is it is quite aggressive.
The modern technology of the factory doesn't really go well with the rest of the worldbuilding. Maybe that's on purpose, we'll see.
And then it ended in such a cliffhanger... again! I actually gasped. 
  
My rating: 3/5 Buttons

{Swedish} Sommarboken - Tove Jansson

För fans av: Min mormor hälsar och säger förlåt - Fredrik Backmann
Publicerades: 1972
Sidor: 192

Innehåll: Sommarboken handlar om tre människor som bor på en vacker ö i skärgården: Sophia, hennes pappa och farmor. Det är mest av allt en berättelse om vänskapen mellan en mycket gammal kvinna och en mycket ung flicka. Deras vänskap över generationsgränserna är lika stark och intensiv som en sommar i skärgården kan vara efterlängtad. Sommarboken en glad och varm bok fylld av livskänsla.


Min mening: Boken var precis som titeln säger: en somrig bok. Lugnt och tyst, sen upphetsande och spännande. Jag gillade den där blandningen. Ibland blev det tyvärr lite långtråkig, eftersom kapitälerna började intressant, sen kom en beskrivning av naturen och plötsligt händer det någonting.  Tyvärr följer de flesta berättelser den här schemat.

Förhållanden mellan Sophia och hennes farmor är ganska speciellt. Varken min farmor eller min mormor var/är så här och jag älskar dem, men jag tycker att Sophias farmor är en riktig bra person. Hon tycker inte om andra människor och hon föredra att läsa eller sover. En sånt mormor/farmor vill jag bli en gång.

Sophia kan vara lite ansträngande, tror jag. Visst, hon är ett barn och kräver uppmärksamhet, men det skulle vara för mycket för mig. Hon är en stor motsats till hennes farmor, men det finns så mycket som de kan uppleva tillsammans.

Pappan var lite konstigt. På boken och i förordet står det att boken handlar om en liten familj som består av Sophie, hennes pappa och hennes farmor. Men jag är inte säkert om pappan är verkligen en stor del av familjen. Han jobbar nästan hela tiden (vad får vi inte veta) och gillar blommor. Det är allt. Han verkar inte vara där på riktig och tyvärr problematiseras det inte riktig. Farmorn tar bara över mammans ”uppgift” och så är det bara en vanligt rollfördelning. Lite synd om det.

Ändå var det spännande att följa Sophies och farmorns äventyr. Till och med kändes det som om det hade blivit sommar, fast det var bara April. Jag saknade sommaren efter bokens slut. Det var som om jag hade varit på en finsk ö och måste lämna den nu för alltid.

 

Min värdering: 3/5 knappar

{English} Avatar - The Last Airbender: The Search, Part Three (The Search #3)

For fans of: the Nickelodeon series
Published: 2013 (Dark Horse)
Pages: 76

 

Blurb: The Fate of the Fire Lord! Avatar Aang travels to the spirit world to parlay with an ancient power, bringing Fire Lord Zuko ever closer to discovering the truth about his mother's fate—and his own past. Yet Zuko's sister Azula is becoming increasingly dangerous, threatening to ruin everything that Zuko, Aang, Katara, and Sokka have struggled to achieve on their search!

My opinion: The end was only a mild surprise, nothing very exciting. It had it's twists and turns, but other than that it didn't have much new.
I wondered if it was really necessary that the whole Team Avatar went on the journey with Zuko. Sure, Aang was important, because he communicated with the spirit world and all that. But Katara? She was just there as his girlfriend. Fullstop.
Sokka wasn't much more than a comic relief. Would it have been that bad to split up the team for just one adventure? I mean, Toph wasn't there either!
Then the whole thing with Azula... She wasn't a very convincing crazy person. Drawing her eyes like that didn't help much. There could have been a lot more character developement, given all her talking about being a monster and so on. That storyline wasn't solved up in the end, unfortunately. And I still don't get why it was so important that Zuko took her with him.
Ursa was quite a boring charakter. She's all about being a loving mother and wife. That's it. No surprises.
Either the drawing style got better or I got accustomed to it. Zuko changed his hairstyle every other page though.
All in all it was a mediocre story that I expected more of, but it was comfy read.
  
My rating: 3/5 Buttons

{English} Avatar - The Last Airbender: The Search, Part Two (The Search #2)

For fans of: the Nickelodeon series
Published: 2013 (Dark Horse)
Pages: 76

 

Blurb: As Fire Lord Zuko continues his quest to uncover his mother's fate, a shocking revelation causes him to question everything he knows. It's an opportunity that his sister, the deadly and insane Azula, will not fail to take advantage of as she joins Zuko and his friends, Aang, Katara, and Sokka on their journey into a mysterious forest from which some people never reemerge...  

My opinion: This one was already better than the first installment of "The Search". The pacing wasn't as rushed and the characters were closer to their normal selves.
Azula was still a little one-sided, she's just the crazy one here. Maybe there's a reason for that, I can't tell, but I hope so.

It becomes clear that Ursa is the centre of the story and I can't wait to see what they find out about her in the end. Because right now I don't really have a clue. Something that bothers me is Ursa's background story. It's filled with clichés and tbh I expected a little more from the makers of such an incredible series. Hopefully I'll be surprised. The end (a cliffhanger again) was intriguing, to be fair.

I'm not sure about that pair of siblings that showed up in the forest. Do they have some sort of function or are they just here to underline the importance of siblings/sibling-relationships?

Aang still comes across like he's still a naive little child. I'm not sure how old he is now (not counting the 100 years he spent in the iceberg), but I don't think he's acting like his age. Or his title. In "The Promise" he was a lot wiser and more mature. Where did that all go.
And Toph? Where is she?

To sum things up, here's what I (at least!) expect from the finale of this series: 1. Finding Ursa. 2. Toph to show up. 3. Aang and Katara to stop calling eachother "sweetie".
  
My rating: 4/5 Buttons

{English} Avatar - The Last Airbender: The Search, Part One (The Search #1)

For fans of: the Nickelodeon series
Published: 2013 (Dark Horse)
Pages: 76

 

 

Blurb: For years, fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra have burned with one question—what happened to Fire Lord Zuko's mother? Finding a clue at last, Zuko enlists the aid of Team Avatar—and the most unlikely ally of all—to help uncover the biggest secret of his life.

My opinion: FINALLY we get to know more about Zuko's mother! Ever since the TV series had ended, I have been dying to learn more about her!

This one's drawing style is quite different from "The Promise". While the latter resembled the series a lot, here it's pretty obvious that other artists have worked on it. Not only cartoonists, but writers. The plot is sometimes a little too jumpy, too fast, and not just because there are two story lines. I actually liked those flashbacks from Ursa's POV more than the actual story.

The characters often didn't feel quite like themselves. Sokka, for example, hasn't been that headless since the beginning of Book One (I'm watching that one right now, which is why I can tell the difference very well). Where has all his character developement, his maturity gone? Don't get me wrong, Sokka is one of my favourites and I love his sillyness, but this isn't the end-of-book-three-Sokka. The jokes weren't funny either.

Katara and Aang aren't very present in this story, which is okay, because the focus is on Zuko and Azula, of course. It's just that their only function seems to be being the annoying couple. I mean, really. I never really shipped them and I still don't buy it. Despite their constant confessions of love and calling eachother "sweetie".
Somehow Katara doesn't seem to be as independent anymore. She has always been there to protect the people she loves, and I like her for that, but here it's the only thing she does. That was better executed in "The Promise".

Where's Toph? I don't really care about her academy here, sorry. She'd better show up in one of the next parts or have a better excuse than just training her students.
What's wrong with Zuko? How could he be that careless? Yes, finding his mother is his priority, but this doesn't seem like him at all. It's like "The Promise" never happend.
And that whole thing with Azula. No, just no.

"The Promise" felt like coming home and meeting old friends, "The Search" (at least so far) was more like a fanfiction. A pretty good one at least, that has to be said.
The different sibling dynamics are interesting and sometimes a little heartwarming. I've got a feeling that we'll see more of that in the other parts of this story.

The cliffhanger was too mean! I saw it coming, though... Excuse me while I read the next part now.
 
 My rating: 4/5 Buttons

{English} Avatar - The Last Airbender: The Promise, Part Three (The Promise #3)

For fans of: the Nickelodeon series
Published: 2012 (The Dark Horse)
Pages: 76

Blurb: The final chapter! The Harmony Restoration Movement has failed, and the world is plunged back into war! In the midst of the battle, can Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Zuko mend the rift between them, or will Aang be forced to take actions that can't be undone?

My opinion: That whole thing with the war went a little fast. In this series they tried to brake down the very difficult topic of colonization, but they made it a little too easy. People overreacted all the time, especially Zuko and the Earth king. Rulers usually have advisers, but here no one seemed to consider peaceful options. There wasn't much space for all that here, unfortunately.

Toph's students were awesome and I'm glad they saved the day. Of course, there's also our core group that we all love. It was just like watching the TV series again! E
ven the fangirling fangirls showed that they're more than what they seem to be. I'm really glad that happend and that they were more than just the comic relief.

The dynamics between Sokka and Toph are amazing, as they always were. Sokka is still the one who has the good plans, but he definitely became older and wiser. Just a tiny little bit.

Zuko should have gone straight to Iroh for advice. Didn't that ever come to his mind? Iroh has definitely proven to always have good advice, but Zuko seems to have completly forgotten about that. And what was that with Mai? Will we ever get to know more???

Very important questions and am glad that some things were left unfinished. Because now there's plenty of space for more (;

  
My rating: 4/5 Buttons

{English} Avatar - The Last Airbender: The Promise, Part Two (The Promise #2)

For fans of: the Nickelodeon series
Published: 2012 (Dark Horse)
Pages: 76

Blurb: Aang and Katara work tirelessly to prevent a dispute between Fire Lord Zuko and Earth King Kuei that could plunge the world back into war! Meanwhile, Sokka helps Toph prepare her hapless first class of metalbending students to defend their school against a rival class of firebenders!

My opinion: There's still this annoying sweetie-thing between Aang and Katara and I still don't buy it. I never really shipped them, but I'm okay with their relationship, it just needs some depth. If they just wouldn't call eachother sweetie. Isn't there something more original? I mean, it's okay if one calls the other sweetie, but both? Couples usually have different names for eachother.
Katara is really overreacting sometimes (in that club with those fangirling fangirls, for example), but so is Aang. I thought by now his character would have developed a little more.

It was great to learn more about Toph's metalbending school. I never thought she would be someone to become a teacher, but her crazy tactics really work. She still has to learn more herself, though. Her students have some symbolic character. They show that even though you're different from everyone else in your society, you can be good at something special.

But why, why does Zuko always come back to his father? Our young fire lord knew where those Actions brought his old man and how it ended. So why does he follow his steps? Zukos struggles are visible and I get why he feels that way, but he doesn't seem to think twice sometimes.

The mix of childish humor and politics is great as always. These graphic novels are all great for kids and at the same times they'll learn something about political dynamics and being the leader of a country or just a group.
  
My rating: 4/5 Buttons