Escape from Lucien

ARC provided by NetGalley

The war against the great Elf King continues and Emily and Navin are looking for all of the help they can get. Navin and his classmates journey to Lucien, a city ravaged by war and by mysterious creatures. There they search for a beacon that is crucial to their fight against the Elf King. Emily has a more dangerous task. To follow Max into the Void and learn his secrets in order to take down the Elf King once and for all. It a journey they may not survive, but they must try anyway. And before all is said and done, the group will lose some, and some will come back, to fight once more.

I’ve loved the entire series but the story in this one left me on the edge of my seat wanting the next volume to come out show more already! Kazu continues to answer some of the questions he's been building the entire series, such as what Max’s role is in all of this and where the Elves will stand when all is said and done. It is a masterful story building and Kazu has only gotten better and better as the series has progressed. And I can’t wait to see where he goes from here.

The artwork in this volume is absolutely phenomenal. Kazu and his team have outdone themselves with this series and in this volume they surpass themselves. The colors are astounding. They make the book come alive. What really sells the story though, are the illustrations as they capture and convey the moods of the characters and their surroundings. The drawings have a light airy quality to them, with a simple, but moody, color palette to show off the extensive use of shadows to convey emotions of the character in graphic detail. The reader is never left wanting or wondering what the characters are thinking, the colors clearly display what they feel, the fear and courage of Emily as she seeks to save the world around her.

This has been one of my favorite series since the first book came out and I eagerly look forward to each new volume. It’s an epic journey on par with Jeff Smith’s Bone, with captivating characters and fantastic artwork. I can’t wait to see where Kazu takes us next in this journey and I eagerly await the next volume in this fantastic series. 5 out of 5 stars. show less

There was a two year gap between Amulet 5: Prince of Elves and Amulet 6: Escape from Lucien by Kazu Kibuishi because he was busy redesigning the Harry Potter covers. Well, the wait was worth it.

Brother and sister are separated. Navin and his cohorts are on a mission to Lucien for a beacon to aid in the war against the Elf King. Meanwhile, Emily follows Max into the Void to face the source of the stones' power.

I admit that with a two year gap between volumes, it took me a while to get back into the swing of things. Kibuishi does like to throw the action right at the beginning and once the initial chaos was over, I was able to reconnect with characters and remember who they were and what they were all trying to do.

Or rather, I remember show more them in the early days — my first reading of the series. I remember the siblings and their robots. I remember when the mother was ill and the elf prince was on a rampage lke Prince Zuko in the early seasons of Avatar, the Last Airbender.

But as all good series should, the characters have evolved from their original character sheets. They have worked through their initial problems to see the larger picture. Now it's time for Max to face his past and accept his crimes, and for the Elf Prince to address the evils done by his father. show less

Summary: As the war with the elves continues on, Navin and his classmates head for the city of Lucien, whose people are plagued by a terrible enemy, but which contains an item that will be essential to winning the war. Emily, meanwhile, enters the void with Max to confront the Voice that has been controlling him, but Max gets more than he bargained for, and Emily learns things that she cannot unlearn.

Review: Eh. Kibuishi's art is totally gorgeous, as always, but the story doesn't feel very cohesive, which is at least partly - but I don't think entirely - due to the fact that I read the first five volumes all in a rush, then let two years elapse without re-reading before picking up this one. Even discounting for my terrible memory, show more though, as the war picks up steam, the storyline is following different groups fighting on different fronts, so it inevitably feels a little fragmented compared to those volumes that follow more of a single cohesive story (or a main plot and a subplot, at most). Likewise, it felt like not enough time was spent with each character for this story to have the emotional impact that I think it probably should have. 3 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: These books are fast reads and absolutely beautiful, but the plot is not everything I could have hoped for. Maybe best for younger or reluctant readers (which is the target audience, after all.) show less

I got a copy of this book to review through NetGalley. I feel like I have waiting for the 6th book in the Amulet series to release for eons (okay only two years...but it feels like forever). It was definitely worth the wait.

The story really starts to come to a head as our characters work with the Rebels to face off against the elf king and Max. However, even Max has come to realize that the Voice from the Amulets has it's own agenda. Max is determined to get all the Amulet bearers together and confront the Voice.

This was a wonderful continuation of the Amulet series. I reviewed this in eGalley format and only the first quarter or so of the color was done on the illustration, however the coloring that was done was awesome. The show more illustration of this book was just as beautiful as the previous books.

There are plenty of battles, giant suits of mechanical armor, steampunk inventions, and magical amulets. Characters that have been absent are back in the story. It was great to see all of our characters back together again.

Emily and Navin have both grown into powers to be reckoned with. Trellis is also in the story some but I wish we had seen more of him. I will be honest, it took me a bit to place everyone because at this point there are a ton of characters and the story is pretty huge.

Overall I really really love this series and this book continues it in a way that should please the fans of this series. Highly recommended to those who love fantasy. This is spectacular fantasy story with steampunk and sci-fi elements and absolutely stunning illustration. show less

{My thoughts} – Navin and his friends from school are sent on a mission to Lucien. It is their job to activate a communicator beacon. When they get there they learn that the town is completely destroyed. They run into some issues and soon find themselves in need of some help. Riva someone that spots them decides to save them. She shows them how to get underground to the city below. Down there they learn that she’s actually the mayor of the city.

Navin also is met by many of his old friends from the resistance and together they work their way through the current issue. They are forced with needing to evacuate the entire town to get them away from the shadow creatures that are swarming above ground and will lead to their untimely show more deaths.

In the meantime, Emily and her stonekeeper friends are on a mission to destroy Max. We learn that Max is actually dead and that the voice behind the stone is what has been keeping him alive. Since Max wasn’t able to complete the mission that the voice sent him on – it leads to Max dying and turning into a stone statue.

This was a great addition to the storyline. I enjoyed learning more about Max and his backstory. I am looking forward to reading more of this series in the near future. show less

This comic book is the sixth in a series and the first that I have read. Despite not knowing the previous stories, it was engaging and interesting.

The art is black-and-white and, because this is an unedited copy, most of the line drawings and backgrounds have not been filled yet.

It’s action-packed from beginning to end with parallel stories highlighting what is happening to the various characters. There are many characters but, with the unedited version, it is sometimes difficult to recognise which one is which. Navin, Ally, Emily, Vigo, Max all figure prominently.

Entertaining comic story – now I suppose that I’ll have to read the preceding five chapters!.

I found this book a bit lacking. I think part of it just might have been that it was a graphic novel and one doesn't get as much from a graphic novel than from a full novel. There were some thing I was wondering about that I think would have been cleared up had this been a novel.

Other than that it was very good. It's still getting darker than the original three. I liked how this focused on Max a bit more than in the other stories, but it flipped between characters a bit to much and it was hard to follow sometimes.

The walking houses are back! The science fiction element in this story is gold.