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Dark Souls (The Breath of Andolus) #1-4
Dark Souls: The Breath of Andolus
Join Fira - a battle-hardened warrior - as she embarks upon a perilous quest to save her ailing kingdom, fighting countless hoards of demonic foes along the way! From writer George Mann, artist Alan Quah and Bandai Namco Entertainment comes this epic new tale from the perilous world of Dark Souls! Collects Dark Souls #1-4.
112 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 9, 2016
About the author
George Mann
364 books683 followersGeorge Mann is an author and editor, primarily in genre fiction. He was born in Darlington, County Durham in 1978.
A former editor of Outland, Mann is the author of The Human Abstract, and more recently The Affinity Bridge and The Osiris Ritual in his Newbury and Hobbes detective series, set in an alternate Britain, and Ghosts of Manhattan, set in the same universe some decades later.
He wrote the Time Hunter novella "The Severed Man", and co-wrote the series finale, Child of Time.
He has also written numerous short stories, plus Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes audiobooks for Big Finish Productions. He has edited a number of anthologies including The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, The Solaris Book of New Fantasy and a retrospective collection of Sexton Blake stories, Sexton Blake, Detective, with an introduction by Michael Moorcock.
A former editor of Outland, Mann is the author of The Human Abstract, and more recently The Affinity Bridge and The Osiris Ritual in his Newbury and Hobbes detective series, set in an alternate Britain, and Ghosts of Manhattan, set in the same universe some decades later.
He wrote the Time Hunter novella "The Severed Man", and co-wrote the series finale, Child of Time.
He has also written numerous short stories, plus Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes audiobooks for Big Finish Productions. He has edited a number of anthologies including The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, The Solaris Book of New Fantasy and a retrospective collection of Sexton Blake stories, Sexton Blake, Detective, with an introduction by Michael Moorcock.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
September 6, 2017
"These walls speak of the old gods. Of sunlight and cinder and lands almost forgotten. The scholars of my homeland would surely crave for its secrets. But I am no scholar, I am a warrior."
I count the Dark Souls franchise among my favourites in the world of video games. Playing those games known for their notorious difficulty, deep rooted lore and atmospheric settings has been a unique experience that stretched over many hours and frustrated controller-throwing.
When I found out there were comic books based in that world, I was curious. How would that work? The story in Dark Souls is told through object descriptions and vague hints, it's twisted and takes effort to figure out, the characters don't speak a lot and when they do, it's rarely helpful. Not good requirements for a graphic novel series, is it?
I was taken by surprise immediately: the art looked off. While truly stunning, compositionally intriguing and beautiful with all its details, it's not Souls-like at all. The panels are too colourful, too little was left to the reader's imagination. The more I read, the more things felt wrong. The narrative is straight-forward (nothing like the twisted story of the games) and the characters are way too chatty to recreate the mysterious atmosphere I was used to from anything set in that world. Occasionally I felt a glimpse of it, but it rarely lasted longer than a panel or two.
I'd probably feel different if the comics had been advertised as a mere stand-alone fantasy story. It still wouldn't have been great, but it's not horrible per se. It's about Fira, a knight who sets out to save the kingdom of Ishra from the doomsday that is about to approach. On her way she meets the Undead, dragons and people with their own agenda. We jump right into the story, however, which makes you feel like you missed out on some vital character-building and backstory-telling.
People who played Dark Souls 3 will be familiar with the character Aldrich, even though he appears here as a humanoid and not a puddly Lord of Cinder. It would have been interesting seeing him more developed, but the comic itself isn't very long, so there was hardly enough room for proper development.
I'd say, if you're a massive Dark Souls enthusiast and are still gutted about the non-existing announcement of Bloodborne 2 by the same studio, you might cheer yourself up with a graphic novel like that, but you surely won't miss out if you do not.
I count the Dark Souls franchise among my favourites in the world of video games. Playing those games known for their notorious difficulty, deep rooted lore and atmospheric settings has been a unique experience that stretched over many hours and frustrated controller-throwing.
When I found out there were comic books based in that world, I was curious. How would that work? The story in Dark Souls is told through object descriptions and vague hints, it's twisted and takes effort to figure out, the characters don't speak a lot and when they do, it's rarely helpful. Not good requirements for a graphic novel series, is it?
I was taken by surprise immediately: the art looked off. While truly stunning, compositionally intriguing and beautiful with all its details, it's not Souls-like at all. The panels are too colourful, too little was left to the reader's imagination. The more I read, the more things felt wrong. The narrative is straight-forward (nothing like the twisted story of the games) and the characters are way too chatty to recreate the mysterious atmosphere I was used to from anything set in that world. Occasionally I felt a glimpse of it, but it rarely lasted longer than a panel or two.
I'd probably feel different if the comics had been advertised as a mere stand-alone fantasy story. It still wouldn't have been great, but it's not horrible per se. It's about Fira, a knight who sets out to save the kingdom of Ishra from the doomsday that is about to approach. On her way she meets the Undead, dragons and people with their own agenda. We jump right into the story, however, which makes you feel like you missed out on some vital character-building and backstory-telling.
People who played Dark Souls 3 will be familiar with the character Aldrich, even though he appears here as a humanoid and not a puddly Lord of Cinder. It would have been interesting seeing him more developed, but the comic itself isn't very long, so there was hardly enough room for proper development.
I'd say, if you're a massive Dark Souls enthusiast and are still gutted about the non-existing announcement of Bloodborne 2 by the same studio, you might cheer yourself up with a graphic novel like that, but you surely won't miss out if you do not.
December 4, 2018
Storyline: ☆☆☆
Artworks: ☆☆☆☆☆
Not bad at all for being a comic book based on a videogame-franchise, and artworks were just over the top.
Never played Dark Souls, but the grimdark setting is my cup of tea and now I'm totally nailed and starving for more.
December 29, 2018
ضعیف تر از اون چیزی بود که انتظار داشتم. با این حال تصویرگری خوب و تلاش نویسنده هم برای شخصیت پردازی خوب بود
January 3, 2022
(3 of 5 for this bland game-based fantasy)
I got into it because the game visuals and world appeals to me, but it's not the right kind of game for me to actually play. So at least I wanted to try comics. And it was quite disappointing. The art is fine (except human faces), the story is OK-ish, but the storytelling is terrible. Presenting the lore got me lost all the time (and not really interested), presenting the story, all dialogues included, was very bland and it raised my aversion to read longer texts anytime they appeared. The final "nail to the coffin" is the speech - trying hard to sound "medieval/Shakespearean" by inserting the archaisms (only in cases of pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions...) into speech. It's more annoying than "medieval" and combined with overall text blandness it's torture for anybody with at least little literary taste.
I got into it because the game visuals and world appeals to me, but it's not the right kind of game for me to actually play. So at least I wanted to try comics. And it was quite disappointing. The art is fine (except human faces), the story is OK-ish, but the storytelling is terrible. Presenting the lore got me lost all the time (and not really interested), presenting the story, all dialogues included, was very bland and it raised my aversion to read longer texts anytime they appeared. The final "nail to the coffin" is the speech - trying hard to sound "medieval/Shakespearean" by inserting the archaisms (only in cases of pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions...) into speech. It's more annoying than "medieval" and combined with overall text blandness it's torture for anybody with at least little literary taste.
April 1, 2018
Gorgeous artwork and evokes the right feel of Dark Souls bosses, but a storyline that makes little sense - even inside the greater context of the insane Soulsbourne lore - left me feeling a little Hollow (heh). 3 stars.
August 24, 2022
Läuterung des Feuers
Fazit: Würdiger Beginn der Souls-Bände mit Feeling wie in den Spielen. Gesamt: 4/5
Inhalt: Nachdem die Fäulnis über das Land fiel, beschloss der legendäre Baron Karamas den Atem des sterbenden Drachen Andolus zur Wiederbelebung der Toten zu verwenden. Doch mit dem Ableben des Drachen drohte auch die ewige Flamme zu versiegen. Nun hat sich Fira aus Harrowmark, eine geschickte Kämpferin, mit dem Seher Aldrich zusammengetan, um mit Hilfe eines Rituals den Drachen Andolus wiederzuerwecken und einmal mehr seinen Atem zur Erneuerung des Landes zu verwenden...
Bewertung: Mit "Der Hauch des Andolus" startet die Reihe der Dark-Souls-Sammelbände aus dem Hause Panini und dieser Beginn ist vielversprechend. Es gelingt George Mann und dem Kreativteam die Stimmung der Videospiele optimal einzufangen. Die Welt ist rau und unnachgiebig, ja schon erbarmungslos. Wer kurz unkonzentriert ist, bezahlt einen hohen Preis. Die Umgebung vereint Schrecken und Schönheit zugleich und erzählt von Verfall und Wiedergeburt. Dieser endlose Kreislauf ist ganz entscheidend in "Der Hauch von Andolus". Fira ist eine würdige Protagonistin, die nicht nur stark und kämpferisch ist, sondern immer wieder auch schwache Momente hat. Ihre Vergangenheit ist sowohl für sie selbst als auch den Leser lange Zeit unklar. Der Autor liefert jedoch immer wieder Erinnerungsschnipsel, die dafür sorgen, dass man sich ein bestimmtes Bild von unserer Heldin macht. Mal schauen, ob dieses Bild richtig war ; ) . Aldrich unterdessen erscheint schmierig und rätselhaft - ein Gefühl, was man nicht direkt benennen kann aber etwas stimmt nicht. Das ist wirklich gut geschrieben. Auf der anderen Seite überzeugen die Dialoge leider nicht immer. Manche sind sehr kantig und etwas merkwürdig geschrieben/übersetzt. Ganz anders die wunderschönen Zeichnungen: Die halten jeder Prüfung stand und kommen sehr realistisch und düster daher. Die Konturen sind nicht klar definiert, sondern etwas schwammig. Besonders hervor stechen für mich direkt die ersten Panels, die sehr gut den Verfall anhand einer Familie symbolisieren, die zunächst in einem prachtvollen Haus sitzt, bevor das modrige Licht eine Szenerie à la Walking Dead erhellt.
Fazit: Würdiger Beginn der Souls-Bände mit Feeling wie in den Spielen. Gesamt: 4/5
January 19, 2018
After the Dark Souls game trilogy came to a close, I was excited to see the macabre world of the series extended in comic form. The artwork is certainly amazing, but sadly, that's about the only good thing I can say about this adaptation. The truth is that, when compared to the games, the story of this comic series is very lacking. Dark Souls is a game centered around its unique world and deep lore. This comic, on the other hand, takes this and turns it into a generic fantasy slog. The story is uninteresting and the characters are shallow.
May 20, 2022
That was rough.
The story is pretty bland. It tries being soulslike, but it doesn't capture the bleakness and fascination of it. Overall pretty generic. The characters dorn't feel developed at all.
The Art is nice but could be a bit more gritty to fit dark souls more.
The boob armor through.... really. Why.
The story is pretty bland. It tries being soulslike, but it doesn't capture the bleakness and fascination of it. Overall pretty generic. The characters dorn't feel developed at all.
The Art is nice but could be a bit more gritty to fit dark souls more.
The boob armor through.... really. Why.
December 18, 2021
Mooie tekeningen
March 21, 2025
I am a mega fan of the video game series from which the book is taken, but in itself the story is very short and very detached from the main one, beautiful drawings but often lacking when it comes to human faces. I would have preferred them to deepen the main plot more.
August 26, 2020
I went into this one expecting something as dark and epic as The Last Gods series... it wasn't. I never really feel the sense of pic quest I was going in for and it wasn't really dark, or not enough for me at least, both in term of story and artwork. I didn't enjoy it!
June 28, 2017
Soooo disappointing. Dark Souls is an awesome world, but this is an incredibly generic fantasy story. I wouldn't even know it was Dark Souls if it didn't say it on the cover.
July 8, 2020
Dark Souls is a franchise which has some very distinct themes outside of its gameplay elements. It uses a lot of strange dialogues, the story is muddled and ambiguous, the worlds are decaying, the characters slowly going mad. Its presentation is rather unique and so any property bearing this name will have a very hard time reproducing the atmosphere of a Souls game.
Starting with the good, the art is amazing. The designs are very well made and most of the time manage to evoke the Souls style very well. The enemies look impressive and menacing although maybe not very original. I'm not an artist so I can't talk about how natural the postures are or how realistic the anatomy or other technical details, all I can say is that my eyes were happy with the pretty pictures.
Unfortunately this is where the good things stop and everything goes into mediocrity. The dialogue feels very forced and unnatural. It feels like it was written by someone who watched a few videos of Dark Souls characters talking and just added some old english words here and there. The structure of the comics is also very linear and disappointing. The main character talks a bit, walks a bit, fights a Boss then the comic ends. It's not bad per se, but just bland.
Finally, the Dark Souls connections. How much of Dark Souls is in this? Well, not much. There are some characters seemingly from the games but without any explanation of what they're doing here. The kingdom in which the action takes place doesn't seem to be part of any place referenced in the games. Chronologically it appears to take place after Dark Souls 1 but it's impossible to say. The author has tried to insert some of the themes of Dark Souls in here, but like the dialogue it feels forced and out of place. It's like someone read a short summary about what Dark Souls is about, inserted some reference to flames and a curse and called it a day. Again, not exactly bad, but bland.
I didn't pick this up with any kind of expectation and so I was neither impressed nor disappointed. It is a difficult franchise to transpose into a comic and the result was to be expected. It tries to do some fan service but it just falls on its face. My advice, ignore the title and just read it like a random fantasy comic. And don't forget to look at the pretty pictures.
Starting with the good, the art is amazing. The designs are very well made and most of the time manage to evoke the Souls style very well. The enemies look impressive and menacing although maybe not very original. I'm not an artist so I can't talk about how natural the postures are or how realistic the anatomy or other technical details, all I can say is that my eyes were happy with the pretty pictures.
Unfortunately this is where the good things stop and everything goes into mediocrity. The dialogue feels very forced and unnatural. It feels like it was written by someone who watched a few videos of Dark Souls characters talking and just added some old english words here and there. The structure of the comics is also very linear and disappointing. The main character talks a bit, walks a bit, fights a Boss then the comic ends. It's not bad per se, but just bland.
Finally, the Dark Souls connections. How much of Dark Souls is in this? Well, not much. There are some characters seemingly from the games but without any explanation of what they're doing here. The kingdom in which the action takes place doesn't seem to be part of any place referenced in the games. Chronologically it appears to take place after Dark Souls 1 but it's impossible to say. The author has tried to insert some of the themes of Dark Souls in here, but like the dialogue it feels forced and out of place. It's like someone read a short summary about what Dark Souls is about, inserted some reference to flames and a curse and called it a day. Again, not exactly bad, but bland.
I didn't pick this up with any kind of expectation and so I was neither impressed nor disappointed. It is a difficult franchise to transpose into a comic and the result was to be expected. It tries to do some fan service but it just falls on its face. My advice, ignore the title and just read it like a random fantasy comic. And don't forget to look at the pretty pictures.
February 10, 2017
I wasn't totally sure what I should expect for a comic based on a game that is basically about fighting and dying big monsters. I've played a little of Dark Souls 2 and I have read there is a lot of good lore, but it can be confusing and not entirely cohesive. Visually though, the game is pretty badass.
The first thing I noticed was the writing used thee and thou frequently. I don't think that is really used in the game, but I might be mistaken. I asked a friend that has played all of them and he didn't remember that being in there either. Honestly, I really could have done without the fake olde engliƒhe. Beyond that though, the writing was really just kind of mediocre. It was generally a disappointment, though I can't say it was particularly bad. I think at times it tried to be better, or more poetic, than it really was. The story did get at least some things from the games as far as the death of the world in darkness and the cycle and the hollow ones, etc. It revolved around one woman knight that was trying to save the world by gathering some relics and reviving a dragon, then killing it again, though she chooses not to deliver the final blow and save the pain and suffering of future generations (because, presumably they won't exist if she doesn't save them now), and breaks the cycle.
The artwork was also okay. It was rather colorful for Dark Souls, which is kind of dark and blue tinted (for the most part anyway). Apart from that the colors were pretty nicely done, but the illustrations themselves were a bit amateurish. Proportions were off, poses were stiff, faces weren't always consistent, etc. Sometimes panels changed too much too frequently, presumably to add visual interest, but you still need a base. So, much like the writing, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either.
I don't regret reading it, but I wouldn't read it again. I might read other volumes, though if it's the same writer/artist I wouldn't be in a hurry.
The first thing I noticed was the writing used thee and thou frequently. I don't think that is really used in the game, but I might be mistaken. I asked a friend that has played all of them and he didn't remember that being in there either. Honestly, I really could have done without the fake olde engliƒhe. Beyond that though, the writing was really just kind of mediocre. It was generally a disappointment, though I can't say it was particularly bad. I think at times it tried to be better, or more poetic, than it really was. The story did get at least some things from the games as far as the death of the world in darkness and the cycle and the hollow ones, etc. It revolved around one woman knight that was trying to save the world by gathering some relics and reviving a dragon, then killing it again, though she chooses not to deliver the final blow and save the pain and suffering of future generations (because, presumably they won't exist if she doesn't save them now), and breaks the cycle.
The artwork was also okay. It was rather colorful for Dark Souls, which is kind of dark and blue tinted (for the most part anyway). Apart from that the colors were pretty nicely done, but the illustrations themselves were a bit amateurish. Proportions were off, poses were stiff, faces weren't always consistent, etc. Sometimes panels changed too much too frequently, presumably to add visual interest, but you still need a base. So, much like the writing, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either.
I don't regret reading it, but I wouldn't read it again. I might read other volumes, though if it's the same writer/artist I wouldn't be in a hurry.
February 13, 2025
J'aurais plutôt mis 2,5/5 pour ce comics qui n'a rien d'inoubliable.
J'ai voulu le lire suite au fait que j'ai enfin joué à Dark Souls 1 récemment et que je connais un peu mieux l'ambiance et l'univers associé.
[Spoilers]
J'ai apprécié la référence au Chevalier Solaire au début ainsi que la transformation de Fira en carcasse qui m'ont vraiment rappelé mon expérience de jeu. Les premiers combats étaient plutôt cool mais le dernier est vraiment rushé alors qu'il concerne le titre même du comics.
Côté graphique, j'ai pas spécialement accroché aux dessins même si les gros plans ainsi que le dragon étaient plutôt sympa. Pour moi c'est le travail des coloristes qui fait vraiment toute l'ambiance et le charme de l'œuvre, en particulier dans les scènes où il y a du feu, qui sont vraiment très belles.
J'ai voulu le lire suite au fait que j'ai enfin joué à Dark Souls 1 récemment et que je connais un peu mieux l'ambiance et l'univers associé.
[Spoilers]
J'ai apprécié la référence au Chevalier Solaire au début ainsi que la transformation de Fira en carcasse qui m'ont vraiment rappelé mon expérience de jeu. Les premiers combats étaient plutôt cool mais le dernier est vraiment rushé alors qu'il concerne le titre même du comics.
Côté graphique, j'ai pas spécialement accroché aux dessins même si les gros plans ainsi que le dragon étaient plutôt sympa. Pour moi c'est le travail des coloristes qui fait vraiment toute l'ambiance et le charme de l'œuvre, en particulier dans les scènes où il y a du feu, qui sont vraiment très belles.
March 21, 2017
This is a great artbook with a decent retelling of the traditional Souls world's story in comic book format.
If you've played Dark Souls you know that the underlying plot is something you have to work very hard to discover and decipher. That's not something that's possible in a book/comic unless you write a "choose your own adventure" style thing with footnotes and made it non-linear and also gave different regions different parts of the whole book and they had to work together online to figure the whole thing out.
That is unreasonable but the book is ok at doing the simplified retelling that it set out to do. The art did a great job of capturing some of the terrifying elements of the Souls world and also it's beauty.
Recommended if you like Dark Souls and good art.
If you've played Dark Souls you know that the underlying plot is something you have to work very hard to discover and decipher. That's not something that's possible in a book/comic unless you write a "choose your own adventure" style thing with footnotes and made it non-linear and also gave different regions different parts of the whole book and they had to work together online to figure the whole thing out.
That is unreasonable but the book is ok at doing the simplified retelling that it set out to do. The art did a great job of capturing some of the terrifying elements of the Souls world and also it's beauty.
Recommended if you like Dark Souls and good art.
January 9, 2021
As a big fan of the Soulsborne videogame franchise I hoped this volume would be a fix while waiting for the next title. While the artwork is good, it does not feel like DarkSouls at all. Also the story is straight forward with almost no references to any existing characters in the videogames. Only Aldrich who is a human but nothing about his becoming. This is not an origin story or a complementary reading to the videogames, as I had hoped. It feels just slightly related.
February 22, 2021
Not really sure why this is called Dark Souls as while it does use some ideas from the original games it mostly ignores the lore of the games. As a stand alone story it does feel rushed and not very fleshed out which makes it feel a bit generic. So if you are a Dark Souls fan skip this except if you want to collect it.
March 10, 2022
(This reviews covers all the Souls comics I've read so far)
These comics are great... on their own.
The story is very different from what I expected and doesn't really fit in with the Souls franchise, neither do some of the new character designs. However, I still recommend it to fans of the Souls series.
These comics are great... on their own.
The story is very different from what I expected and doesn't really fit in with the Souls franchise, neither do some of the new character designs. However, I still recommend it to fans of the Souls series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 19, 2024
A generic fantasy comic. The story has barely anything to do with the games and feels more like Diablo than anything else. The ending was confusing, the combat was hard to follow along, and the art was inconsistent. It was a little fun, but I had to force myself to finish it, despite it being so short.
December 29, 2025
For context I've never played the game but have heard of it. I was not lost although the last chapter made me thing about my sanity since I Was a bit confused on what was right or wrong.
Art is very good
Plot is average because 70% of all are just battles, one sided as she cannot fail. I know it would be difficult to extent those battles but they feel flat in my opinion.
65/100
Art is very good
Plot is average because 70% of all are just battles, one sided as she cannot fail. I know it would be difficult to extent those battles but they feel flat in my opinion.
65/100
December 9, 2017
The artwork is amazing, though the story is a bit vague and incoherent. Perhaps it's meant to tie in with the lore of the video game, which I have only a passing familiarity with. Not unenjoyable for an hour or two's read though.
February 12, 2023
I think this is an adaptation of a video game. Having never played, I felt lost a lot of the time. I was never sure exactly what had happened or what needed to be done to fix it. Still, there was a lot of action and the artwork was pretty good.
December 13, 2023
Lacked the ambience and tone of dark souls. It’s a stand alone story in an entirely new setting. Just takes place in the Dark Souls world. Aldrich from Dark Souls 3 is maybe in this story? Couldn’t tell. Gonna return it, def not worth the read.
December 22, 2025
This was...fine? The art is fabulous, and the story was alright. But there's just...something missing to make this feel souls-y. I don't know what it is, but without it this is just a fantasy story with some nods to the source material.
May 2, 2026
like 2.5 rounded up. the art was good. the story was very generic, could have just been in its own fantasy thing. aldrich, a ds3 boss, my beautiful horrible monstrous worm, is just some guy in this??????
September 25, 2017
This book was an enjoyable read and I loved the artwork! I wanted a bit more from the Dark Souls world and the story itself, as it felt like it had more to tell - but overall a good read.
February 1, 2018
very good
July 28, 2018
Incredible artwork but the plot was dull and the characters duller.
February 24, 2019
not bad
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews