On a Sunbeam

On a Sunbeam is set between two timelines with Mia. First, as a freshman in an all girl's boarding school as she meets her first love, Grace. Second, when she's with her first adult job on a construction crew in space. The stories go back and forth and sometimes mix up a bit in the first half, and

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then it focuses on the present time with the crew in the later.

I loved Grace and Mia's relationship and was so sad when they ended up getting seperated. I also loved all the badass women and nonbinary persons that were in this book. Nobody took shit from anybody else and the people on the construction group stood up for each other. It was great to see and read.

My only problem was that the characters seemed to look so similar. Maybe it was just the way they were shrunk and put into the book, but I would get Mia and Char mixed up a lot and for the life of me I couldn't remember which one was Jules. I'd also sometimes get Ell and Alma mixed up to.

I loved the artwork in it, but I think the darkness of the panels is what sometimes would confuse me about the characters.

Overall, I would recommend this book for those who like science fiction graphics. There's space, there's strong, powerful women, and persons, there's love, there's adventure and suspense.

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To be fair what probably comes between me and this is the text, I found it difficult occasionally to read and it came between me and the story, but it is a graphic novel and if it gets between me and the story then it's a problem.

It's a story about a girl who is trying to find a place in the world

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and dwelling on her past and what had happened to her when she was in boarding school and the friendship she had created. It's a world with no apparent men, many different expressions of being and space adventure. It's a world unlike our own but it appears to be a far future humanity. I just couldn't overcome my problems with the script to truly enjoy it and lose myself in it. Other people's mileage may vary.

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I found this incredibly hard to follow. Perhaps it was my fault, but I blame the character art. I read it in 3 or 4 sessions. Each one harder to follow and more frustrating than the last. The overall story is clear, but the characters are important and near-indistinguishable from one another.

This is a really good book. It may have been a great book if the first half hadn't been so slow and meandering. We flip back an forth between the protagonist, Mia, new member of a building restoration construction crew, and her time at boarding school five years earlier. We slowly get to know the

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characters in both settings, but it is also obvious that the author is withholding crucial information and the wait for the reveal starts feeling a little tedious.

The book improves dramatically once all the connections between the two storylines are made and the construction crew sets off on a personal mission on Mia's behalf.

At some point during the story I started to realize that, with no explanation offered, there are no male characters. I also realized I didn't particularly miss them.

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A breathtaking glimpse at a woman in space. Beautiful themes of loss and survival and standing up for what you believe in. Additionally, utterly gorgeous art.

Weird and wonderful and I didn’t want to put it down.

I don't normally like Space Adventures, but this was interesting even if I had trouble telling some of the characters apart.

What a sweet story! I love the cast of characters and the beautifully-drawn world.

teen/adult graphic fiction (sci-fi/fantasy in futuristic universe with LGBTQA interest = all female characters and one incidentally non-binary person; a longer graphic novel previously published as webcomic).

gorgeous illustrations of a beautifully imagined universe from Tillie Walden, as always.

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The characters can be a little bit hard to tell apart, but all in all a nice, sweeping storyline.

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One of the best things I have ever consumed. Beautiful, heart breaking, life changing. Read it.

I wish this was printed bigger. The art is lovely and I'd like to see it better.

Those ships! Those space vistas, unlike space vistas I've seen before. Such delight.

A young woman, Mia leaves her all-female school (and her first love, also female) to join an all-female* starship crew whose job is to repair mysterious buildings floating in space. The crew of the Aktis become her new family.

Graphic style is crisp and coloured, but it wasn't always clear what was

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going on. I found the handwritten lettering a bit hard to read sometimes.

It's a bit strange that there are no men anywhere, not even in the background no fathers (Mia has two mothers), no brothers, and no explanation. But they aren't in any way needed either.

* with one person of unknown gende

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Loved the color work, everything else was at best okay.

Wow. I had to stop several times because I got emotionally overwhelmed.

Looks like sci-fi, more of a surreal fantasy in space. Everyone Is Gay. Found family. Adventure.

Honestly, the story was good, but I'm really giving it 5 stars because the art is so beautiful I can't stand it. Overdrive is fab, but I need a physical copy of this book that I can stare at for hours at

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a time.

Edit: TBH the one thing I find kind of uncomfortable is the lack of diversity of body types. I don't recall any fat characters, but I'm past due for a reread. Gender-wise, there's something a little off about the fact that all but one character are cis-appearing women and the nonbinary person is generally mistaken for a woman. Yes that's unusual and it's nice that it isn't remarked upon at all and it's a counterpoint to the 1950s sci-fi where you might come away believing that the entire world is populated by white cis men if you didn't know better... but also we live in a world where transmisogyny exists. On a Sunbeam just Doesn't Go There, and it sucks to wonder if it's because it just didn't happen to Go There, or if There was purposely given a wide berth.

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Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a copy of this book as a gift for Christmas.

Thoughts: This was very well done and encompasses a huge amount of story. It is creative, engaging, and was very hard to put down.

The story is mainly about Mia, a girl who drops out of a girls’

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boarding school to help refurbish buildings on various planets/space stations. Mia is obviously depressed but as she works with this new crew, she forms solid friendships and starts to reflect back to a pivotal year at school where she fell in love with a mysterious new student. She was unable to say goodbye to this student when they suddenly disappeared and she has always wanted the opportunity to at least say good-bye.

This was an amazing book. The worlds are intriguing and the spaceships fanciful and beautiful. However, what really makes this story are the amazing characters; they have so much history and depth. Watching Mia work with this crew and come into her own was amazing. Learning about the members of the crew and their pasts was also very fun. This was a hard book to put down and has more of a space opera sort of feel to it than hard core science fiction.

The drawings are done in muted tones but easy to follow. Some of the spacescapes and ancient buildings are spectacular to look at. Personally I like my illustration a bit more finished feeling, but the style used here worked really well for the story and won me over completely. This is a book that I am keeping so that I can re-read it at a later date. I just enjoyed it so much. There is adventure and character growth; danger and magical-like beings.

My Summary (5/5): Overall I completely loved this graphic novel. There are so many elements to it that make it exceptional. I loved the adventures, the amazing worlds, and the complex characters. I loved watching Mia find something she loved doing and a crew she fit in with and I loved how that gave her the courage to try and fix something that had hurt her in the past. This is the first graphic novel by Walden I have read but I plan on picking more books by her soon. Recommended!!!

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The art is stunning.
But the story is so confusing - nothing is explained. Not the setting, battles, why there are no men at all - the whole thing with the staircase people - I was left very confused.