Bash! (vol. 1)
Written by Rudy Gobert and Hellef Bay
Illustrated by Vince Serrano
Published by Titan Books
Synopsis (from the publisher):
Young Rudy comes from the poor neighborhood of Nevilia, but dreams of a being a BASH star, and his talent might just make it happen: but can he make it while threats come from every corner of the galaxy?
Throughout the universe, there’s one sport that everyone’s a fan of: BASH! A brutal, high-octane version of basketball: its players are rockstars, legends, gods, and for young Rudy, a poor kid from Nevilia, his only dream is to be one of them.
Rudy’s got talent, but talent is nothing without practice and so he sets out to become the best BASH player in the galaxy, always training, always reaching for jut one more dunk.
And while Rudy is starting to get noticed by the teams and the talent scouts, other, more sinister forces have started to creep out from the shadows, jealous of this rising young star.
Review:
I'll start out with a few disclaimers: my family are lifelong Utah Jazz fans and we were quite disappointed when Rudy Gobert was traded away in the off-season, and Gobert is my daughter's favorite player. So, I'm probably inclined to like this book--but at the same time, as a former librarian and an avid bibliophile, I've read a LOT of books and will be (kindly) honest if I don't like a book. So, that said, when I saw that Gobert had a graphic novel coming out, I immediately went to NetGalley to see if I could get an eARC to read it early; the publisher graciously granted my request. I did have issues with the formatting--the book displayed sideways and split pages into two--no matter what device I tried to read it on. So, it wasn't the smoothest reading experience, and I definitely want to get my hands on a physical copy to read, but I still got a good enough feel for the book to give an honest review.
The book spent a lot of time on backstory (which makes sense, as it's the first volume in a series), so there's not a ton of action but enough to keep it interesting. There are appealing storylines--the main character wanting to excel at Bash, a hyped-up basketball-like sport; his father having left the family years before and the impact on him and his mother; as well as the political storm that he has no idea is coming, as earth's colonial rule Sybelius is sending a delegation to find that missing father, who is more than he seemed. All of those will draw readers in and want them to know more. There are really cool details--like the rules of bash, which include environmental changes during the game--and the illustrations are terrific.
There were some clichés--a parent who doesn't love the game that the main character loves, an opponent with a pretty girlfriend that he doesn't treat well--as well as some ideas that weren't developed as well as I would have liked (I didn't find the mother's reasons for blaming the bash to be strong enough, and the reason why so many people love this game even though it can lead to death didn't come through). Characters are mostly flat, and sometimes the writing felt stilted, with an over-reliance on dialogue to explain things that happened in the past, which didn't quite feel like realistic conversations, as well as moments that the language seemed to reflect the fact that English isn't Gobert's native tongue. None of those are huge problems, and readers who are looking solely for entertainment rather than planning to write a review might well skip right over them.
Overall, I think it's an interesting book that will appeal to a lot of teenagers as well as fans of basketball and of Gobert himself. I definitely want to continue the series to see what happens next!
4 stars!
I read an eARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
