Joe Gordon has just posted a review of the graphic novel version of Risto Isomäki’s award-winning environmental SF novel, The Sands of Sarasvati. Of course I should have done the same some time ago, but I got sidetracked and forgot. Now Joe has done the job for me.
Actually I pretty much agree with what Joe says. It is very obvious in places that the narrative has been drastically pruned in order to fit it into the required number of pages. However, the quality of the story shines through. Personally I’d much rather read the novel, but it does require a very good English translation before anyone in the US or UK will pick it up, and such things are expensive. So if you want to see how good Finnish SF can be, you’ll have to just read the graphic novel. Now if only that had a US or UK distributor…
Unfortunately the graphic novel version loses a lot of the visuality of the text.
I think the translation of Sarasvati is on the way, as well as the translation of Lithium 6.
i
That’s a peculiar choice of words — in my opinion, visuality is a thing the gorgeous graphic novel excels at, much more than the book. (And getting rid of most of the clunky dialogue and shortening the awkward love story are also pluses of the GN in my book.)
I’ve started reading it and the wait (and cost!) were worth it. Even if the romance aspects turn me off.
Although there has been at least one point already where I’ve been puzzled by the translation.
V: What is the translation you’re wondering about? Maybe I can help try and clarify it from the original.