Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, these four nations lived in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. A hundred years have passed, and Katara and her brother, Sokka, are out fishing in the seas of the South Pole. What they catch, however, is the last thing anyone expected—a boy frozen in an iceberg. Aang is only twelve years old, and carefree as can be, but there is a secret he is hiding. Could he be the Avatar the world has desperately needed, the one who can bring balance to a world at war?
*yawn* How much lazier can you get? The dialogue in this book is almost word-for-word from the show, and the art is simply screenshots. Any changes made to said dialogue wasn’t an improvement, and were made in an effort to hide the exclusion of some of what was said in the show.
I’ll admit I wasn’t reading the dialogue too closely, as I’ve seen the episode this book came from over and over again, and I more of was hearing the characters saying their lines than anything. In that sense, it threw me off whenever I did notice there was a change of wording from the show.
I also noticed a typo and some errors… The very first page of the book gives false information about Prince Zuko. He isn’t trying to capture the Avatar dead or alive. If the Avatar dies, s/he is simply reborn. Therefore, if Zuko kills the Avatar, he’ll just have to start his search all over again, and he very much doesn’t want that.
Second page, Sokka is Takara’s brother? No, he would be Katara’s brother.
Also, page 46. A flashback scene for Aang started at the end of the previous page. In all of the screenshots, it is very clear there is just Aang and Appa in a stormy seas. The exact words on that page are, “Aang, Appa, Katara and Sokka are swept under a wave.” While the flashback isn’t clearly explained in this book, it happened a hundred years ago… I don’t think Katara and Sokka are there. Plus, neither of them mention being caught in a storm at all, when Aang wakes up at the village.
The other two major errors I saw were in the back of the book, as well as a small complaint. After the first episode, there is a section on each of the four nations. My small complaint is that each nation is “strongly associated” with a season, without any explanation being given as to what that means. The Lost Scrolls book states the same thing, but then it EXPLAINS why that is the case (more benders are born during the associated season).
The Air Nomads have this said about them, “They have not been seen for hundreds of years”. Hundreds? I’ve been lied to all my life. I thought only one hundred years had passed, not several.
Lastly, about the Earth Kingdom, “Little is known about the people of this nation”. Look, just because they’re not mentioned in this book doesn’t mean we don’t know anything about them. In fact, I bet more is known about them than about the Air Nomads and probably the Water Tribes as well. Just sayin’.
Overall, whoever wrote this book probably never saw the show, but more of was handed the script and given some screenshots. How else can you butcher such an amazing show so badly? Wait, Shyamalan did it even worse… Maybe it’s a good thing the author to this book was given the exact script of the show.
This book offers nothing new to the Avatar world. I understand getting this series of books as an Avatar collector, as that’s what I’m thinking about doing, but it’s not worth paying a bunch of money for and not worth more than a quick skim if you do take the time to read it. I could have written a better book at the age of twelve. No, probably younger than that.