Seven to Eternity Volume 1: The God of Whispers

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A standard Remender reading experience. Phenomenal art with terrific colors and detailed creature designs; wonderfully inventive world-building with a great magic system (particularly love the huge metal-jawed lizardman who can teleport people by swallowing them); and standard issue shoddy, disappointing Remender writing. I could go through the book and point out the flawed world-building, annoyingly unexplained plot elements and myriad other problems but suffice it to say, though I can’t fault Remender’s ambitious vision, there’s too much here to take in at once and he’s not a good enough writer to lay it all out well. I’m not saying I need everything spelled out for me or that we should know everything in the first volume, but there are key elements to the plot that we should at least have an idea about to start with and the detail just isn’t there. And this is a problem with magic stories in general: without limitations and anything can happen, it’s really hard to care about any of it.

Seven To Eternity (Volume) - Comic Vine Seven To Eternity (Volume) - Comic Vine

And the darkest thing? It’s that the book’s version of Sauron/Thanos/Apocalypse is *right*. He has the people’s number and he calls them on it. He tells the protagonist that people are confused by complicated ideas, so they don’t trust them. People prefer things to be simple. How often do we see that playing out in our world? Only every day. we’re left to ponder whether Remender is crafting a direct stand-in for Donald Trump or merely a manifestation of the cauldron of anger and fear that led to his troubling ascent. Either way, the series can’t be read without the pall of the previous year and the four… years to come hanging over the high-fantasy narrative... The Best Stand-up Comedy Specials on Netflix By Garrett Martin and Paste Staff November 1, 2023 | 11:30amAnd so we come to admire the admire the villain, yet despise the ostensible hero. That alone is quite a feat of writing. This'll serve as a review for the series as a whole. The starting premise is that we have a fantasy world where many members of it each have indivdualized powers. In particular, one person has ascended in recent years into a sort of fantasy Dark Lord: the God of Whispers, whose thing is that he can see through the eyes of anyone who makes a deal with him, and if he dies, all those who have made pacts with him die as well. Our main character Adam Osidis is from a family who was exiled because his father spoke out against the God of Whispers as he ascended, and is shunned by both the God's people, and those who later rebelled against the God, as the father then kept them out of the fight. Adam goes to the God of Whispers, obstentiably to save his family from the GoW's wrath, but in the middle of the discussion, a band of rebels capture the God and begin a long journey to take him to the magical McGuffin place where the god's connection to those bound to him can be severed, and he can be killed without killing them. Wowzers! For some reason or other, I shit the bed on collecting these single issues as they came out. When I finally decided that I wanted them, they were like a bazillion dollars for first prints. Well, another title with extreme highs, yet also full of missteps, preventing it from being a solid piece through and through.

Seven to Eternity, Vol. 4: The Springs of Zhal - Goodreads Seven to Eternity, Vol. 4: The Springs of Zhal - Goodreads

I'll stop dancing about it: this is a bleak ending to the series. It choreographed this direction pretty clearly long in advance, but it's still kind of breathtaking on how dire the story is at its end. It's a little too epic in execution to be considered grimdark proper, but Adam Osidis is absolutely a grimdark protagonist. The story, in that sense, is about masculinity and the banality--or maybe pettiness--of evil. The actions of others and Adam's father's pride clearly traumatized Adam, and this story is the slow unfolding of his desire to protect ultimately himself at the cost of all else. And "all else" is more literally everything than I'd usually mean it. Remender has created a very thorough fantasy world to essentially make a point about toxic masculinity; Adam shares a lot with Walter White. I enjoyed it, though I think it maybe didn't quite need to draw out the point so much. I love the idea here: what does it mean to hold true to your beliefs in a society/world where no one else does? It's something I can relate to, having strong principles and often times being ridiculed or chastised for adhering to them in the modern world. Remender often takes an idea like this and examines it from a few angles, writing through his analysis as he (what seems like) figures it out for himself in his personal life. The 10 Best Movies on Apple TV+, Ranked (November 2023) By Jacob Oller and Paste Staff November 1, 2023 | 8:32am The Mud King’s driver is complicated and perverse. He wishes to to prove to a dead man that no one is beyond corruption. The dead man is a zealot, Zeb Osidis, someone who scorned the Mud King as flawed and beneath him. Zeb is able to determine who has succumbed to the whispered promise of Garils Sulm, and regards those who have as beneath contempt. To prove that point, the Mud King does worse than corrupt Zeb’s son. Instead, he remakes him as his successor, the one who would unleash ultimate destruction upon the world. I firmly believe that the right is far worse in this regard than the left, but let’s be honest, this is something everyone on all sides is guilty of. And that’s what gives this story it’s sting: it’s dark and cynical, yes, but it’s also all too often correct.The problem for the reader is that it is easy to fall in love with the worlds of Seven to Eternity. Care and innovative thought has gone into its creation and execution. We resent the curtain being drawn across the set. Otherwise, Mr Remender has a technique of slowly building up a story and then allowing the moving pieces to suddenly crash into each other, bringing about a conclusion. Seven to Eternity’s conclusion has nowhere left to go save for an exclamation mark of doom, fire, blood, and familial vengeance. There, like a classic Shakespearean tragedy, the play is done.

Seven to Eternity : Rick Remender (author), : 9781534319318 Seven to Eternity : Rick Remender (author), : 9781534319318

I would be remiss to not mention the art by Jerome Opena. I didn't think he could get any better than he already was, but man, he gets better every time. This volume has some great visuals in it, and its all handled masterfully by Opena and the rest of the art crew. I gave a book an extra star just because of the art. The story is full of weak characterisations. Remender’s main characters – Adam Osidis and the Mud King – are both one-dimensional. One’s good, the other’s bad, that’s it. The other five “characters” that appear out of nowhere are even less memorable and underdeveloped – I couldn’t tell you their names, let alone their motivations for fighting the Mud King besides him being the villain and that’s what good guys are meant to do! The Mud King is, above all, driven. To achieve his objective, the Mud King creates a scenario where his beloved daughter Penelope, trying to rescue him, could be slain? (We as readers do not much sympathise with Penelope – she is a ruthless monster wearing the mask of a creepy doll – but the Mud King grieves for her passing.) Later, he allows himself to be blinded – not an enormous impediment to someone who can see through the eyes of any person who has accepted his bargain, but still, a physical diminishment. Why? The Seven come to realise that the Mud King has his own agenda, and even while he is caged, they are his pawns.

Artists

A word on the art in Seven to Eternity. It is not as radical and diverse as the art in Decorum. Instead, it is conventionally pleasing along the lines of a craftsman like Jim Lee or Travis Charest, and a pleasure to look at. Jerome Opena hardly lets the side down. But it is the colours of Matt Hollingsworth which steal the show. Lurid, vibrant, and striking, Seven to Eternity offers a masterclass in colouring. I have reread all the way from issue one to prepare myself for the last volume. Seven to Eternity is a wild ride that explores themes of choice (and the illusion of having one), true desires, and the great lengths and risks one is willing to take for such desires to come into fruition. That, and the ridiculously good artwork by Jerome Opena makes Seven to Eternity a memorable read and an almost instant classic. Remender is my favorite comic book writer of all time. I’m used to his writing style. However, StE doesn’t fit quite into my expectations for him. The “Superhero” Trademark: how the name of a genre came to be owned by DC and Marvel, and how they enforce it The story draws heavy on one’s choice and beliefs while having a villain that you as the reader can somehow get behind and see how right he is while also caring for protagonist Adam Osidis who’s name has been written wrong in this world but for his own personal reasons looks to gain from it without making any sort of deal with the devil.

Seven to Eternity is the Stunningly Gorgeous Fantasy About Seven to Eternity is the Stunningly Gorgeous Fantasy About

Tl;dr: if you can bear feeling dragged by detours once in a while, this story delivers and the art in Seven to Eternity is the at the pinnacle! Seven to Eternity was a nice surprise. Beautifully illustrated, it tells a dark tale of a strange world. Under all the fantasy trappings are some core themes that help ground the book. The question of principles, and when to bend, is constantly on Adam’s mind, as his father’s unwillingness to compromise is largely responsible for his family’s current state. At what point do you stop fighting fights based solely on principle? It’s a struggle many people can relate to, especially when Adam is tempted by an easy solution. The God of Whispers’ abilities to subtly control people, to pull their strings and spread lies, leads to some interesting questions about power and the concept of truth. I can’t help but see some parallels to the currently political landscape.The narrative is peppered with cliffhangers and plot twists that keep you riveted, making you question your own moral compass — who’s good and who’s bad? Remender is a master of letting everyone reach their own answer to that question. This observation has much merit. Both The Dark Tower and Seven to Eternity are fantastical, desperate quests with strongly Western frontier themes of vengeance, struggle, and redemption. The shadow of famine through failed crop raising on a desolate prairie haunts the characters at the beginning of the story. The Mud King is psychically linked to millions of people under his control but that’s not enough – he really wants Zeb Osidis to become his slave as well because... uh… When Zeb is killed for defying his wishes, his son Adam must seek mercy in the King’s citadel of Zhal or his entire family will be massacred. However his pa’s not the only dissident in the land and a rebellion is stirring against his Royal Muddiness!