Rose

I have to give this one a split rating - four stars if you're already a fan of Bone, and Gram'ma Ben, and the Great Red Dragon, and want to see the tragedy of how that epic tale began, after getting some of it as backstory in Bone. If you haven't read Bone, I'd say this is more of a two-star read.

And that, in a large way, is the problem with prequels, isn't it? They always feel limited in the audience they serve (even moreso than sequels do), and the story feels like it matters less. You know that everyone is going to make it out relatively unscathed, and you also know that this story isn't the real story, but rather an expanded-upon footnote from the story the author really wanted to tell.

Still, though, this had dragons and rat creatures, so I enjoyed reading it.

Just bad… don’t ruin the Bone series by reading this. The art is not that good (there‘s one panel in particular that I’m shocked wasn’t corrected). The typeface used is annoyingly hard to read, and the story is just… not good. Imagine being a fan who read the original Bone series, and with what you’ve gleaned there about Rose’s backstory you decide to make a prequel, except that you have no experience with storytelling. That’s what this feels like, and it dulls the brilliance of the original series and Rose in particular. Don’t waste your time with this one.