Wild Skies #1

​Wild Skies #1

​MHudson Illustrations 2021

By Melissa Hudson

She is a headstrong young huntress on a giant winged cat.

He is a Viking warrior eager to prove himself in battle.

When a storm blows his raiding vessel into strange new waters, the two of them will embark on an unlikely adventure and an even more unlikely friendship.

Dragons, wolf-riders, and snow monsters await as this epic fantasy unfolds!

I saw this on Comixology and reached out to Melissa about reviewing her series. What I saw was gorgeously illustrated pages with creatures that intrigued me and that alone made me want to know and see more. I’m glad I did too because this really is a beautiful book. The opening had me instantly and all I had to do was see the majesty in the winged cat to know there was no turning back. The opening does what it’s supposed to do, it captures the readers mind, imagination and engages them in some really smart ways. I hadn’t read the descriptor until I was writing this so when I saw Kufra with the egg I hadn’t a clue why she wanted it but to see her in action and acquiring it well that was special.

I really like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exquisitely. From Kufra and Linasha’s introduction to seeing the wolf clan and meeting the Vikings everything has this natural order to it so that it makes sense as it engages the readers mind wondering just what is going to happen next. The character development is fantastic! How we see the dialogue along with how the characters act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter really does flesh them out beautifully. I cannot wait for the Wolf Clan and their leader Ohnita to be heard now. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing this world, the story and introducing the characters we’re swept up just like the Vikings in their storm.

I like how we see this being structured and how we see the layers within the story begin to emerge. I like these layers aren’t subtle but right there in your face so we know things will happen we just don’t know what. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves everything forward is really rather quite exceptional.

The interiors are absolutely stunning! The cat, the trees, the water and all the backgrounds that we see have this absolutely mindbogglingly amazing quality to them that I wasn’t aware you could do on the computer. Then to see the characters by contrast is a whole new ballpark of cool. The way we see the composition within the panels and how the backgrounds are incorporated to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is phenomenal. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. With the creativity and imagination that we see you could almost read this without words and just by the visuals alone they are that strong. The colours are beautiful. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is exceptionally well rendered. How light sources are utilised and how the ocean spray is depicted I mean this seriously some mind numbing work.

You are definitely going to want to read this it has everything you could possibly want and then some. It is intelligently written with charm and verve, it possesses interesting characters and incredible interior artwork. Get lost in a new world and see for yourself what is possible when you unleash your creativity and imagination.

You can find it here, https://mhudson-illustration.com/#section0 and I know I am going to need this in a physical format because I only imagine how much more vibrant that would be.