A Garden of Spheres, Volume 1

A Garden of Spheres

by Linnea Sterte

A collection of semi-episodic sorta-experimental comics previously posted on Patreon in '22. In which a new world is created and an immortal & emotionally stunted entity wanders it in a state of bafflement. part 1 of ??

Genres: Comics, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Science Fiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published March 20, 2023

About the author

Linnea Sterte is a Swedish illustrator and comic book author. She gained international notoriety with her graphic novels Stages of Rot (2017) and A Frog in the Fall (2022). The latter book won the 'Prix Révélation' at the Angoulême Festival in 2023.

Reviews

[Stephen Hampshire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exquisite artwork, reminiscent of Mœbius at his more ethereal, and an intriguing story in development. Lovely stuff.

[Henry Christian-Slane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is now my favourite comic/ graphic novel that I own. Can’t recommend enough.

[anna b · Rating 5 out of 5]

every Linnea Sterte comic is the best comic I've ever read

[Nolan Buro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning. Read this immediately.

[Bennett Slibeck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeply transportative and softly magical. A beautiful world rendered with evocative line work and clarity of style. Would recommend.

[Peter Hollo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning artwork from a master. Stages of Rot and A Frog in the Fall are both beautiful (I mean, Peow really put a package together!), and World Heist is an amazing piece of art, but rather hard to follow -- so I was really pleased that this book, which I've been reading in bits on Sterte's Patreon, works remarkably well as a narrative, if you let it.
It's very slow-moving, with various short story detours along the way, which mostly wind their way back to the central narrative soon enough.

But really, the artwork is sumptuous! The switches from black & white to exquisite colour are a wonder to experience, and the detail in these convincing, strange organisms is sensational.
It's got the feel of a far future that matches Clarke's maxim that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic... I'm not sure there's any way to class this as hard science fiction, but it has the "feel" of SF.

Cannot recommend highly enough - it's somewhere in the vicinity of Anders Nilsen's Tongues I, which is the greatest graphic novel (first half of) in the last couple of decades, so being nearby is high praise.

[Maurel G · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought my copie on the author's itch.io, if anyone wants to read it.

If you read Stages of Rot and loved it and/or if you are a fan of Linnae Sterte or even Sci-fi, please pick this one up as well.

We might need to read it a couple of times to understand all that happens trough the story or even just read it slowly but every drawing is so beautiful to look at, the ones in colours and the ones in b&w, that every seconds is worth their while.

I hope she never gets tired of making comics because I for one, will never get tired of her comics.

[Gracie · Rating 5 out of 5]

everyone needs to lock in NOW

[Lasse Koopmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

(stand in until the collected edition is added)
best bit of fantasy i have read in years!

[Zaidee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous, immersive, and mysterious. It felt right to take my time with this one and let all the details sink in. Already looking forward to the next installment.