Review Detail

Awesome debut for this author/illustrator.
I love fantasy world stories that are not portal fantasy but with their own worldbuilding and lore such as this.

Two orphan siblings need to earn money to survive and stop searching for garbage to sell. Instead, they begin to use magic to activate ravens. These ravens activate quests that will lead to rewards. They try to have a go at the main city although they don't agree with the regent's way of governing the people, but they still don't have enough money to survive. Because they don't want to join the apprenticeship program that serves the queen and king, they try again to use magic, and one of the siblings gets mortally injured.

This first volume focuses on the healing of the sibling, with a lot of fast-paced quests but there are larger and darker forces acting in the background that will define the main core of this series. This volume sets up the world and main conflict, although it resolves one problem initiated in this volume, the main story continues in the next volume.

The magic system is pretty cool, it uses hand gestures, ingredients, and voice, but in a cool way. There is a glossary at the end with all the spells, and detailed information on the right pronunciation, ingredients required, and purpose of each spell.

The story is full of quests, adventure, great pacing, and not too heavy on text in some pages and panels making it easy and fast to read. It's about surviving, learning to trust, friendship, revenge, family, betrayal, and sacrifice.

I like that the author illustrated "diversity" and also different body shapes. The usage of warm and cold colors at the right moment helps to set the mood.

We sure appreciate the last pages including a few making of and the evolution of this comic related to cover, character, and page design.

A lesson that I've learned from this story: We can do anything as long as we don't do it alone.