Castle Waiting

Linda Medley

After I finished reading Castle Waiting, I went online and frantically looked for any evidence that there would eventually be a volume 2. If you take this as a stand-alone book, the ending is the very definition of "unsatisfactory"-- a vast number of questions are left unanswered, complex plots just beginning to tie themselves together, a host of characters whose richness and depth has yet to be explored. As the beginning of a sweeping epic, on the other hand, this is just the ticket, and Castle Waiting promises to be the graphic novel answer to the huge, literate fantasy series that have been taking readers by storm recently.

Castle Waiting is the tale of, not surprisingly, a castle, and the host of odd characters who inhabit it. I can't think of a way to even begin explaining the plot of this, as just about anything I could say would constitute some spoiler or another about one or more of the characters, and the characters are what drive this narrative. Perhaps it's more appropriate to say that, while there is a plot to this (in fact, a pretty good number of plots, subplots, etc.), all of them live in the service of letting us get to know Medley's unforgettable collection of characters. The first half of the book gives us an overview of the entire cast; the second focuses on the story of Sister Peace, one of the castle's inhabitants, and how she came to reside there. Medley's motley crew are the finest bunch of malcontents, mysteries, and muddlers I've come across since discovering the wonderful world of Bone, and now that I've read the first book, I'm champing at the bit for the rest of the tale. (The fact that it took medley ten years to draw this one has done nothing to curtail the current erosion of my tooth enamel.) A wonderful book that stands to be enjoyed both by existing fans of the graphic novel and fans of epic fantasy who've never picked up a comic book in their lives. Trust me-- you'll love this.