The art in the review copy is unfinished and makes it very hard to complete a review of a graphic novel interpretation.

However, graphic novel may not be the best representation of this story. While the completed art is promising, the story is difficult to follow. The print will be small and details may get lost in the process of reading.

Unfortunately, even though I loved this title in original print, I cannot recommend this version.

First off: I received an ARC of this graphic novel through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own for better or worse, etc. On to my thoughts:

This book is GORGEOUS. I can't wait for it to come out in January 2020, because I am absolutely going to buy it. I hoard graphic novels and comics, as well as science fiction and fantasy literature, so this will fit right in with what I've got going. Plus, I have an abiding love for the work of Octavia Butler. Soooo... yeah, it's going to be mine.

The art, which was done by John Jennings is beautifully done. Although in this ARC it is incomplete, it still rocked my world. The completed pictures are lovely, but even the sketches show the promise of beautiful panels to come. And I have to say, the decision to show the journal entries as handwriting on bits of notebook paper was an artistically wonderful decision.

As for story, well, it's Parable of the Sower. This adaptation doesn't veer away from the source material.

4.5 out of 5 arbitrary items of rating.

If you've read the book, this provides an interesting addition to the story. If you haven't, you should, but if you'd rather skip it and go straight for the graphic novel, that's fine too. You'll miss out on a bit of brilliant storytelling direct from Butler, but this is still thoroughly satisfying, and will give you most of the story.

What do you think of graphic novel adaptations of existing literature? For me it really depends, but I liked this one a lot. Good art really helps for me, and Jennings certainly delivered there.

This graphic novel is a fantastic adaptation of Butler’s original work. The message and themes still come through strongly. I highly recommend this book for students who perhaps find the original work inaccessible for a variety of reasons. It still allows Butler’s amazing storytelling to shine through.

Even though this ARC is far from finished - the preface is missing and some art is just sketches - this graphic novel has the potential to be a huge up and coming seller next year. I just very recently finished reading the novel version of Parable of the Sower and loved the world building. This graphic novel version does it just as well as Butler's prose. The themes in the novel and this adaptation speak so poignantly to our experiences in 2019 and I hope this graphic novel will have more people exposed to Butler's genius.

The artwork is beautifully done. It creates this element of constant change as the strokes and specific drawing styles alter depending on the moment. Some characters are in full detail, others are hazy, creating a dream-like intensity. I appreciated the handwritten style, though it was difficult to follow the action at times given the small print.

I’m afraid this isn’t one for me, for a few reasons. I feel it overloads what should be a simple story with a clear moral message. As a result it missing the point of the purpose of a parable.
For me, personally, not only should the reader me able to understand Jesus’ message from any retelling, they should be able to understand what a parable is. Something I don’t think is possible with this title.

It was very hard reading this advanced copy. I don't know if it was because of the art style or because this is unfinished copy, but there were panels with nothing but smudges instead of characters. it was almost impossible to distinguish who is having a conversation with whom, who is who, etc.

Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Damian Duffy, 262 pages.
ABRAMS (Abrams ComicArts), 2020. $23.
Language: R (87 swears, 2 “f”); Mature Content: R; Violence: R
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - NO
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
In 2025, America is not the amazing place it used to be -- communities close themselves off for safety, only leaving when they have to. But not all those spreading harm and fear are deterred by a locked gate. As the world around Lauren and her family becomes more violent and unpredictable, she tries to prepare them for the hardships coming -- unfortunately, some are not willing to listen until it is too late.
While the premise initially caught my attention, I quickly lost interest because of the rough illustrations. The talent of illustrators in making beautiful panels to tell a story is often my favorite part of graphic novels, so I was disappointed to discover I wasn’t enjoying that aspect of Parable of the Sower. These rough illustrations were not only unaesthetically pleasing, they also hindered the story by making it difficult to understand who was doing and saying what, which quickly lead me into confusion. I suggest reading Octavia E. Butler’s original work instead. The mature content rating is for nudity, sex, and mentions of rape and prostitution; the violence rating is for death, suicide, child abuse, drug use, arson, murder, and implied cannibalism.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

I adored the concept of this graphic novel but I felt like the execution needed work. The artwork is fine but the overall narrative arc needs some fine tuning.

An excellent way to introduce a classic science fiction story to new readers.
The illustrator is able to show the dystopian horrors of this world superbly with drawings that take the intense imagery that Octavia E. Butler crafted and amplify it tenfold. The artwork helps the fragmented nature of the story- that can cause an issue for readers of the original, to flow seamlessly from scene to scene, making the passage of time easy to follow.
The story itself is adapted faithfully from the original novel. I am eager to see if a second instalment will be made for the book's sequel.

I received this book as an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Due to this, the art in my EPUB was unfinished and therefore I do not feel comfortable giving the book 5 stars as I cannot vouch for the quality of the artwork to be consistent throughout the novel. However, I will revisit this when the book is released on the 14th of January 2020.

Anyone who hasn't read Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler's weirdly prescient start to the Earthseed duology, is now officially out of excuses. Butler's stunning prose is matched with dreamy, engaging art in this graphic novel adaption. Lauren Olamina, a young black girl in the suburbs of LA, survives last stage capitalism,. the destruction of her home, and the dangers of the road while creating her own religion and forging new bonds. A beautiful tribute to the cruelty and resilience of humanity.

Parable of the Sower: a graphic novel adaptation is a graphic retelling of the classic Octavia Butler novel by writer Damien Duffy and illustrator John Jennings. An enjoyable adaptation of the original, the book was written over 25 years ago and portrays a crumbling dystopia that I found a little chilling in this new and updated (but also a little too familiar) context.

The artwork and coloring are bold and, while not the type I might normally gravitate to on my own, felt fitting for the content. However--as other readers have commented--there were some cases where it was difficult to discern what was happening in the panels. I'm not sure if the art here was in rough form or if it was intentional. (I'd look forward to seeing the finished version to find out!)

Lauren as a character is compelling and unputdownable, her journal entries were a unique and satisfying narrative choice, and the story itself was gripping--it's easy to see why its considered an instant genre classic. Readers who love dystopic near-future thrillers will want to check this one out for sure.

**I received an eARC of this title via NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are mine!**

This wasnt for me. I really disliked the style of the artwork and this made it very difficult to follow the story. I am interested in this author but I think I had better read the prose version instead. This one was simply not for me.

Parable of the Sower was a fantastic graphic novel! It follows Lauren, the protagonist, as she goes on a journey to find a better place to live after her family dies. Octavia Butler does a wonderful job at building a world filled with economic, social, and environmental upheaval. The story was incredibly interesting and engaging, and I cannot wait to see the final published copy because the black and white sketches were super hard to follow. Actually, I hate to say this, but I think this was the worst art I’ve seen in a graphic novel – but please do not take my word for granted; I am still a newbie to the graphic novel realm. Thank you NetGalley and Abrams ComicArts for this eARC. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This graphic novel was my introduction to Octavia Butler. Yes, I have heard her name many times but have never read her work. I knew her work was dark and heavy so I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to get familiar with Parable of the Sower. The graphic novel has imagery which makes it easier to follow along with the story. I can't really rate the images because the ARC I received is mainly rough sketches. But if the finished product is like the vivid cover that attracted me to this story I'm sure it will be amazing. This graphic novel presents this powerful story in an easy to read format for people like me who can get distracted during a long tale.

Interesting enough this story takes place in the very near future. And well, I certainly hope the near future is not as violent and bleak. Since I never read the original I'm not sure if the journal entries were in it, but I love the style of the journal entry narration here.

I recieved an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free graphic novel.*

Octavia E. Butler is a force to be reckoned with if you are into sci-fi. "Parable of the Sower", originally a novel published in 1993, takes place in a post-climate-change U.S. where poverty and violence reign. This dystopia was adapted into a graphic novel, which makes absolute sense.

The story is well done. Our protagonist Lauren Oya Olamina is a black girl who can sense other people's emotions. She leaves the village she grew up in after losing her entire family, travelling north, looking for water, shelter and a new life. She believes that the only thing that can save humankind might be space travel and she founds a new religion, called Earthseed. It is a very touching tale of a resilient young woman giving hope to others in an utterly hopeless world.

The graphic novel has a very rough black-and-white style which is both impressive and confusing. I found it hard to differentiate between different characters or really understand what the panels were showing besides terrifying faces. I also had trouble reading the text, but that might have been an issue with both my PC and my eyes.

If you are into dystopias and would like to experience a classic as a graphic novel, pick this one up.

Four Stars because I the graphic novel style was too much for me.

I received a copy of Parable of the Sower from Abrams ComicArts through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Parable of the Sower is one of my favorite books and it translates really well to the graphic novel format. I loved Lauren's journal entries.
This is such an important story and I'm thrilled at the idea of it finding a wider audience.

Parable of the Sower: Graphic Novel
by Octavia E. Butler,
adaptation by Damian Duffy and John Jennings

This is a tricky one to review. On the one hand, there is the stellar story behind this adaption. Butler was a master of the field, weaving powerful prose with profound ideas to create something transcendent, at times.
The Parable of the Sower novel is deep, and compelling, and important.

It is a story of humanity in danger, of faith and creed and hope. It is about race and love and humanity. It is a story worth reading, for anyone.

The idea of a graphic novel adaptation is a good one. I like graphic novels. It can be tricky, though, to adapt books to visual form (just like to movies) because you can't do everything. You have to balance the words and the pictures, so some words get left out. Obviously, it can work, as the comics creators behind this one created a wonderful award-winning adaptation of Kindred.

But judging that success is wholly dependent upon the art, and the art in this eARC is not finished. I assume so, anyway, because these are sketches, The faces aren't drawn at all in some panels, with the guidelines there to show where eyes, mouth etc. go. Some characters are fully drawn in, but many are barely ghosts. There is no coloring at all.

So I can't judge the art. I'm sure it will be fine when it's done, but it's not done, so I can only judge the verbal adaptation: the cuts and changes made to fit a novel to a graphic format.

And that is all pretty smooth. It works to focus on the dialog, mostly. It can be hard in some scenes, without the accompanying art, to know who is talking to whom. The action can be hard to follow as well.

But the characters come through. The narrative beats hit, and the story works, which is to be expected, since this is Octavia Butler's story.

I just wish I could see how it works as a graphic novel.

Thank you to Octavia E. Butler (author), Damian Duffy (illustrator), ABRAMS, AbramsComicsArt, and NetGalley for allowing me the extreme pleasure of access to an advanced reader copy of “Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation: A Graphic Novel Adaptation” for an honest review.

This graphic novel adaptation of Parable of the Sower was quite a surprise when I opened it. I've never recieved an ARC that was in such a rough draft format as this one arrived, so I'm going to do my best to cover this as openly and honestly as I can (while adding some notes of supposition given that there are five months to publication and it will be shored up by then, likely).

I deeply love that Lauren's narrative of this story remains her journal entries and that the journal entries are on every page, and every piece of narration is backgrounded my the image of it being written on lined paper (though I'm deeply questioning the few sheets that were three-hole punched?), as it kept you in the frame of mine it was written down and being told in that writing no matter what you saw in the comic boxes and dialogue bubbles format.

The art on the front cover, which stormed into my heart and demanded I request this adaption, is the only piece of art in the whole graphic novel that is complete. Everything between that gorgeous front cover and the end is serious of very rough sketches, all of which are in black and white. Several faces all still bear the lines of their symmetry, and most things don't have much background. This made it very hard to distinguish characters from each other and if I hadn't read Parable of the Sower in print two weeks earlier, I don't think I would have been able to even guess who they were.

I was very moved by getting to see the big groups together. It's easy to blend the idea of that many into a lump in your head, but seeing just how many people the group collected, and how many were settling at the end brought that even more home to me than reading the novel did.

Star rating for current art, but very likely to become a 4/5 once completed. No complaints aside from not knowing how to judge the art scale yet.

I am struck by the beauty of this work, as well as the power of the narrative. Octavia E. Butler's work is represented well in this graphic novel adaptation. Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel would make a welcome addition to classroom and personal libraries. This is the second adapation of Butler's novels I have had the opportunity to read, and a welcome reason to return to her original work.

The images are wonderful, and the work is thoughtful. More than that, this is a powerful testament to the moral nature and social themes of Butler's writing. Highly recommended.