Cayrels Ring

by Shannon W. Lentz, Alchemichael (Contributor), Dustin Weaver (Contributor)

Humanity colonized the distant galaxy, Cayrels Ring, a thousand years ago, but they've only now begun to discover its secrets. After learning that the tech he invented to help further mankind's exploration has caused an unforeseen wave of danger and death, elderly scientist Jamitch Taylee orders a planet-wide evacuation leading to the loss of his daughter. Decades later, he embarks on a desperate search for his long-lost granddaughter, Nella. This personal mission sets in motion a galaxy-spanning adventure, weaving stories of human conquest, ingenuity, loss, and love from across Cayrels Ring.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

136 pages, Hardcover

Published March 31, 2020

Reviews

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit too epic in scope for such a short comic but I appreciate the attempt! I have the first 3 issues, I'm unsure if there's more content in the collected edition.

I got interested in this because of some of the illustrators. It has some overlap with the Image Comics Prophet reboot - one of my favourite sci-fi comics. Brandon Graham, Simon Roy, Farel Dalrymple. The second issue is all drawn by Alchemichael who has a similar stripped down style as Graham.

There's a series of short somewhat overlapping stories all set place in a future human society that uses a supercomputer to discover inhabitable planets.

Many of the stories are really just too short to make an impact. The final story had me pretty interested in reading more from this universe. It's a pretty cool concept to have a bunch of short stories in the same (reasonably realistic) sci-fi universe drawn by different fantastic creators.

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Cayrels Ring' from A Wave Blue World Publishing is a series of 17 stories by Shannon W. Lentz with art and color by a variety of artists.

Humanity has colonized the Cayrels Ring galaxy many years ago, but there is still a lot to explore. The stories that weave throughout include one of a grandfather looking for his lost granddaughter. One is about explorers on one of the planets who find something that shouldn't be there. There are hapless aliens forced to work and die for their wages.

There are more questions than answers here. Most of the stories don't seem to complete, and even have open and abrupt endings. Some characters show up in other stories. It can be a bit frustrating for a reader who likes a defined story arc, but I found it interesting enough to keep reading. The art is consistently good throughout and channels the work of Moebius at times. I'm curious to know if this will make better sense going forward.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from A Wave Blue World in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible art from a bunch is heavy hitters with an elliptical science fiction story that slowly explores a galaxy.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some nice art. Some boring, scattered, bafflingly bad storytelling. It feels more like a formal game, an exquisite comics corpse, than anything.

[Kurt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A discombobulating read. I've finished it and am not sure it's a singular coherent story. The only way I could continue reading it was to think of it as a bunch of random, maybe connected stories within a universe or system (a ring perhaps). I didn't see it described as multiple stories, my fault perhaps. But I think it's great world building and once I thought of it as multiple stories, it was better/richer for exploring many different places and people.

It definitely had too much editing, a huge scope that needs more or slower introductions to be coherent, but it's not the editors fault. Maybe there will be a aprt 2. Probably not.

The art and ideas are amazing. The whole reason I read comics is to experience the edge of scifi such as this one. Ain't no Humanoids but it'll do.