A Review of 'The Encyclopedia of Early Earth' by Isabel Greenberg

"It is an epic work of fiction, detailing the many tales and adventures of one lonely storyteller on a quest for Enlightenment and True Love.  This book contains many stories, big and small, about and pertaining to the following things: gods, monsters, mad kings, wise old crones, shamans, medicine men, brothers and sisters, strife, mystery, bad science, worse geography, and, did we already mention true love?

Critics are saying it is probably the best thing since sliced bread.  Maybe even since bread knives."

I was watching a YouTube channel called BooksandQuills and Sanne, the lady who makes the videos, reviewed this wonderful graphic novel.  I think I went and requested every graphic novel that she recommended.  She was right about this one-- such an amazing read.

I love the simple color scheme and the incredibly detailed illustrations.  Given that this graphic novel is part origin story and part epic journey, I think these elements bring out the simplicity of the time (compared to now, any way) and the complications that is communicating across different cultures and surviving in places you were not previously aware existed.
The story itself was one I attached myself to really quickly.  The story got intense when people would try to challenge him and possibly kill him because the Storyteller was from such a different place and they weren't convinced that he was telling the truth.  Although I don't think that it was the goal of the book, it promotes patience and understanding of people that seem very different than you.  We come from different places, but we're not so different, really.

Click to see image in a larger size.  This is one of my favorite pages.

This book is nice to read in one sitting, but since it contains so many stories, it's also a good book to read a little bit of, take breaks, and come back later.  Each story is given a different title and each story is pretty short, so even if you only have a few minutes and want to read this book, you won't have to worry about stopping in the middle of a thought.

This is a wonderful graphic novel and I'm really pleased to have read a graphic novel that doesn't have anything to do with superheroes.  Those are also great graphic novels, but it's very limiting of graphic novels.

This book is good for people who like short but related stories, want something new in a graphic novel, or are a fan of origin stories and tall tales.

I give 'The Encyclopedia of Early Earth':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude