I am overjoyed to have the opportunity to read this graphic novel before its publication. Octavia Butler is one of my favorite authors and the graphic novel lived up to my expectations. I appreciated that the book was still in its early stages, but from what I saw and read, I think it will be a welcome addition to Ms. Butler's legacy.

For those unfamiliar with Parable of the Sower, it is the beginning of Ms. Butler's epic series of what happens to a people when the world has ended. This is not a story of zombies, radioactive creatures or aliens. This is a story about people and what they become when things have changed for the worst. It is not a happy story, nor does it sugarcoat the horrors the end of the world brings with it. But even so, there is still hope.

The graphic novel illustrates that story in great detail. It misses nothing and leaves everything laid bare. Lauren Olamina is relatively safe in her gated community although the world has gone to hell. But when things go from bad to worse, Lauren must leave her community. The story follows her as she survives in a world plunged into chaos and brings forth a new faith.

I am definitely looking forward to seeing the finished graphic novel and will be writing a review of it once it has been published.

Let me start off by saying that I am so excited that Parable of the Sower is getting the graphic novel adaptation treatment. Since reading Kindred years ago, I've become a big fan of Octavia Butler's work. And since I loved the graphic novel adaptation of Kindred, I had high hopes for this one. And while I love the direction in which this adaptation is going, I wish it was a bit more complete so that I could differentiate characters and the pacing of the story better. I can't wait until book is complete, as I will be grabbing up a copy!

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to see a sneak peek of the graphic novel adaptation in exchange for an honest review.

I was unable to finish reading this advance copy due to its unfinished nature. I understand advance copies are not totally finished, but the half-completed nature of the artwork was just too difficult for me and I wasn't able to follow the story well, so I don't feel like I can give it a fair rating. Since I can't submit a review without a rating, I'm giving it a three star (average) rating. I'm interested in revisiting this when it's released.

Every prophet's story begins somewhere and this is the story Lauren Olamina. The story begins behind the Wall. A barrier that protects Lauren and her neighbors. The story follows the family's quest to survive. Drug addicts, scavengers, dogs and fire threaten their way of life. In the midst of growing up, Lauren begins writing her thoughts down. Earthseed the Book of the Living is born. Her thoughts about God, growth and community spur her and strengthen her as she has to grow up fairly quickly.

Throughout her journey she guides, leads, saves and befriend many. Can she be the leader or preacher who leads a community? Will she stumble and fall or will she follow in her father's footsteps and create a community safe for all. The art was rudimentary which gave the book more meaning and feel. T.he art is in black and white mostly You will experience a wealth of emotions, you'll even wonder about your safety as the book is set in the 2020s. I look forward to reading the second book to see where the journey leads Lauren and her community.

This was my first delve into Butler’s work and I will absolutely be checking out what else she has to offer.

This take on a dystopian, futuristic world was compelling, moving, and thought-provoking above all else. The story was tragic and beautiful, but the writing is what made this story truly sing. Butler’s style is luxuriously descriptive, intense, and nuanced. I was truly impressed and drawn in.

Will definitely be looking for more. Check this one out for yourselves!

As (many) others have said, it's unfair to grade this ARC as-is because the art is incomplete. If nothing else, it's black and white here, and will be full color in the final version. And that makes a difference. I haven't read the non-graphic-novel version of Parable of the Sower, so I don't have a good sense of how well it translated. Without full illustrations, the pacing felt off for me, I had trouble keeping characters straight and the Earthseed verses seemed scattershot, almost like copyright markers across a photo that get in the way of an otherwise lovely picture. I'll still plan to read the original, but I don't feel comfortable judging this one in stars. There just wasn't enough of a full picture of what it will be

I am a huge fan of Octavia Butler books and always wanted to see her words in art. Although this is a draft the artist did a very good job with capturing Octavia’s story. It’s unfair to rate on a draft, but I really excited to see this come to life. This was a 4/5 stars for me. I’m excited to get a finally copy to add to my Butler collection.

Thanks to NetGalley & Abrams Comic Arts for gifting a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book in exchange for a honest review from NetGalley.

I really loved this graphic novel adaptation of this classic book. The art is interesting and beautiful and this adaptation is just amazing overall. Well worth the read for lovers of the original and new readers who enjoy graphic novels.

To be clear: Parable of the Sower is a graphic novel adaptation of a novel by Octavia E. Butler (of the same name, in case that wasn’t clear). The novel originally published back in the ‘90s, and it seemed right to try and do something more with it now.
Damian Duffy handled the writing for the adaptation, and John Jenning lent his artwork. Together they brought Butler’s tale to all-new heights.
Set in the year 2024, this novel if full of heavy dystopian plot. Butler didn’t write a happy futuristic world, but instead something dark and disturbing. Here is a world without regulations; a world created by the consequences of our actions. In a world where we destroyed the environment.
This is the world that Lauren Olamina was born into. Her life had been protected; she lived in a world more similar to a bubble than she would have ever liked to admit. That it, up until everything changed for her. And then it was her turn to change the lives of others.

I can’t emphasize enough that this is an adaptation. Now, I personally love adaptations. And I think many others do as well (how many times have we hoped to see a book make it into the theaters?). So I was incredibly excited when I saw that this one was getting turned into a graphic novel.
Butler’s tale translated perfectly onto the pages here. I know that Duffy had to edit some things to make it all fit with Jenning’s artwork, but I think the end result was something that still felt true to the original works. Actually, I think they built upon it, but that’s just a personal opinion.
This graphic novel is perfect for any dystopian fan, or any fan of Octavia Butler, for that matter. And if you’re a fan of both, then you’re in luck. Because this adaptation has everything I could have hoped for, and then some.

One of my favorite Octavia Butler books, Parable of the Sower is a harsh tale about post-apocalyptic life. I feel like it could be adapted into graphic novel form really well, but I'm unsure this is how I would do it. The art feels unfinished, which I think is meant to be because of the journal style of the prose novel (or the book itself isn't finished yet -- but if that's the case i'm unsure why it's on netgalley at this point). It just wasn't a style I was a fan of. I wanted there to be color most of all, which could be amazing for this story.

People who enjoy this type of art style should give it a go, though! fantastic story per usual from Butler.

What an excellent graphic adaptation of timeless book.

After reading the graphic novel adaptation of Kindred, I was elated to read Parable of the Sower.

This story was easy to read and engaging, regardless of the in-progress panels. I recommend this adaptation to anyone who enjoys graphic novels. I am eagerly looking forward to seeing additional adaptations of Ms. Butler's other works.

I've read the book before and had formed my own mental image of characters and settings. I appreciated getting a different view of these for the same powerful story that I remember.

I will start this by saying that I have never read anything by Octavia E Butler and only became aware of her in the last couple of years. So when I say this graphic novel version of her story Parable of the Sower I thought this would be a nice way to be introduced to her. Now obviously this isn't the original but instead a graphic depiction of her original story. Just like a movie adaptation can help you fall in love with a book so can a graphic novel.

This a story set less than ten years from now where our environment has been destroyed to the point where the poor scavenge to survive and fires are dangerous because everything is so dry. Parts of society have fallen apart, the cops and fireman have to be paid to come out and then don't really do anything. The rich have gated themselves off from everyone else in order to give them a sense of safety. And "debt slavery" has been come common place and acceptable. The main character, Lauren, has what is called hyper-empathy where she can feel other peoples pain and pleasure. Through her life experiences in her short 16-18 years she has developed a new "religion" called Earthseed, where god is change and we need to live for each other.

This graphic novel made me much more interested in reading Butler's work. The drawing style is very interesting. Most graphic novels you see are versions of Manga so the art is very precise but this art, at times, gets down to almost base draft drawing with no defining figures. This worked really well with the story and at times was very appropriate due to the violent nature of parts of the story.

Definitely pick this one up if you are at all curious about Butler or even if you love her work. It just might enhance your love of her stories.

I enjoyed what I was able to get through but with unfinished artwork I had to give it up. It became too hard to follow the story without having read the book it was based on before.

I was given an early e-book copy of this graphic novel for review. Having read Octavia Butler’s original novel last year and enjoying it, I was excited to be able to review this graphic novel adaptation. However, I feel I can not give an accurate rating of this due to the fact that the graphics were very unfinished. This graphic adaptation is not being released until January 2020 and would have been easier to rate if they had waited until graphics were finished.
Ok, now on with the review. This adaptation does an excellent job with following along with the novel in its text conversations. The year is 2024 and the world is a much changed place. You are following Lauren Olamina who after a time is forced to flee her home due to extreme circumstances that occur. It is a place where no one is to be trusted but Lauren turns to her own developed faith called Earthseed and develops passages for this religion of hers. The road is a hard place but there are others who are seeking something more or fleeing themselves that she comes across along the way. I highly recommend reading the original novel before reading this to have a better appreciation of the message. This graphic novel helped refresh my memory on a few points that I had forgotten so it would be a great also for those of you that have read the book but wanted to re-visit this dystopian world.

My problem with this graphic novel was mostly due to the great expectations. I had read the adaptation of Kindred almost six months ago and I liked it a lot, so I was ready to repeat the experience, but this time the story was claustrophobic and sad (your usually post scarcity stuff) , and I also get the style of the author (sketchy tables, unfinished drawing, etc.) but all together they were too much for me and I didn't really appreciate that.

Il mio problema con questa graphic novel é da imputarsi soprattutto al fatto che avevo delle grosse aspettative in quanto avevo letto l'adattamento di Kindred circa sei mesi fa, mi era piaciuto tanto e mi aspettavo qualcosa di simile, ma stavolta la storia era claustrofobica e cupa (la classica storia post scarcity) e lo stile dell'autore (tavole solo abbozzate per esempio), per quanto avessero un senso nel descrivere questo tipo di storia, hanno formato un insieme di cose troppo pesanti perché il risultato poi mi piacesse.

THANKS NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!

I...am confused and frustrated. Or maybe this is just a good lesson for me: beware requesting ARCs of graphic novels?

I am a huge fan of the novel Parable of the Sower - it truly changed my life when I read it years ago. So no question, a 5-star story for me.

But the artwork here is so unfinished, I just have to wonder why the publisher even bothered to release an ARC of it? Because as it stands right now, it is so painful, confusing, and so obviously in flux that I would never ever recommend it. I hate to judge an unfinished work, but at the same time, this is what you provided for me to review?! I’m so torn.

I truly hope the artwork is made more vibrant and if nothing else, more clear in the final rendering. This gave me a frustration headache trying to read it, which makes me sad. It’s a terrifying and wonderful story, and I hope the final artwork will do it justice.

5 stars for the story/2 stars for the artwork

This review is based solely on the arc provided at no via Netgalley.

I love Octavia Butler and am well versed in her works. This graphic novel is a labor of that should be enjoyed by all who love the Parable of the Sower duology.

I was looking forward to reading this advanced copy, but the unfinished artwork made it a very difficult read. Some portions were so bad I couldn't even recognize the faces of the characters. I'm looking forward to reading the finished copy when it is released.

This is a difficult review to write because it is virtually impossible and certainly unfair to review a graphic novel where the artwork is as incomplete as it is here. The illustrations are key to the success of any graphic novel , and they are what really make a difference when you adapt such a beloved classic as the wonderful Parable of the Sower. From what I could see in several of the more finished panels, the illustrations have promise and certainly seem in keeping with the story, but there are not enough of them which have been completed to say that for sure. The storytelling is very true to the original book, and I really loved the decision to have Lauren's diary entries be written on lined paper, like they were written in a school exercise book. It works to both clearly delineate those sections from the rest of the story, and as the perfect way to illustrate her inner thoughts. It is a good thing that I was familiar with the story as otherwise I think it would have been a struggle to follow what was happening , quite often there is not enough distinction between the characters to determine who is involved in the conversation. I am sure that this is something that will be more resolved in the finished product, but right now it does make things difficult. As far as I can tell, the book will not gloss over the more difficult and disturbing scenes from the book, though I wish that I could see how the finished product will illustrate them.
I like the concept of a graphic version of the story, and this shows definite promise.
I read and reviewed an unfinished ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.