Prince of Persia

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Prince of Persia Pub. Date: 4/27/2010 Publisher: First Second

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Prince of Persia (First Edition) Pub. Date: 9/2/2008 Publisher: First Second

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Overview

Just in time for the summer blockbuster movie, “the Prince’s most epic journey yet.”—XBOX Magazine

Journey deeper into the legend—an epic adventure steeped in ancient Persian lore—the tale of a prince from a distant land outside of time.

The huge Disney movie adaptation of The Prince of Persia— helmed by Jerry Bruckheimer and starring Jake Gyllenhaal—is sure to make many new fans for the swashbuckling Prince. For all of them, First Second offers a new edition of our graphic novel tale of the Prince of Persia, which Booklist describes (in a starred review) as “a book that’s even better with repeat readings.” Here is the story behind the games, the legend, and the man—a tale of magic and destiny.

Prince of Persia

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Video gamers should enjoy this byproduct of a popular franchise. As game creator Mechner explains in an afterword, the original Prince of Persia was widely played in the early 1990s and famed as one of the few video games that had a story line with literary merit. It's been upgraded several times with somewhat different versions of the hero, which Mechner justifies as reflecting the fluid, dreamlike nature of Eastern storytelling. Sina's script for this book lays out two stories simultaneously, echoing and overlapping each other. In the 9th- and again in the 13th-century Persian city of Marv, a rightful prince is denied the throne, a vizier lusts for power, a courageous damsel fights for her lover, etc. The characters can't be sure whether their knowledge of events comes from memory or prophecy, creating a multi-leveled narrative that reflects the game, although readers will need to keep track of which hero is performing on a given page. There's plenty of action, and the artwork by Pham and Puvilland is suitably vigorous and exotic; however, without the thrill of participating in the action on-screen, reader involvement is limited. (Sept.)

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From The Critics

Loosely tied to the popular video game of the same name, this graphic novel imagines the prince's origins. The tale moves between two time periods and sets of characters. In the ninth century, Layth's father is killed by Saman, who then raises the child along with his own children, Guiv and Guilan. When Guiv and Layth have a falling out, Guiv goes into hiding.There he is hailed as the Veiled Prophet of Marv, and reveals the prophecy of a man who will be born and kill the rulers and the ruled. In the fourteenth century, a boy named Ferdos fulfills the foretelling. Each prince, in his own time, must seize power and avenge the wrongs he witnesses. The parallel time lines and characters often make the story difficult to follow, as it is hard to decipher what time period the reader is in and how characters fit together. Pham and Puvilland occasionally vary their illustrations to indicate a switch in time, usually by altering their color palate, but a more distinct tone for each prince and his story would help readers move more smoothly between narratives. The lush, full-color images are powerful and carry much of the story's action. The two princes' legends mesh well at the end. Their struggles are shown side by side on the page, pulling together their common goals, linked history, and ultimate victories. Fans of the video game, the built-in audience, should be satisfied with this challenging and complex exploration of the prince's back story. Reviewer: Amanda MacGregor

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781596432079
Publisher: First Second
Publication date: 9/2/2008
Edition description: First Edition
Pages: 208
Sales rank: 1,144,609
Series: Prince of Persia Series
Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 8.40 (h) x 0.70 (d)

Meet the Author

Jordan Mechner’s videogames, including Prince of Persia, Karateka, and The Last Express, have received worldwide acclaim. Over 14 million Prince of Persia games have been sold around the world. He is also the author of Solomon’s Thieves, and he wrote the script for the Disney movie adaptation of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Mechner sold his first game, Karateka, while he was still an undergraduate at Yale, and then moved directly on to creating Prince of Persia. These were among the first games to combine arcade action with realistic animation and cinematic storytelling, and both titles became #1 bestsellers and are now considered all-time classics. In 2003, Mechner wrote and directed the documentary Chavez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story, which was shortlisted for an Academy Award. He lives in Southern California.

A.B.Sina has written for film, magazines, and journals in North America and around the world. Born in Iran, he now works between Montreal and wherever else he can manage.

LeUyen Pham and Alex Puvilland are happily married in art. LeUyen has produced several acclaimed picture books for children, including her self-authored Big Sister, Little Sister. Alex has worked as a visual development artist for Dreamworks Feature Animation and on numerous films. They live in San Francisco with their son Leo.

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Mother-Daughter-Book-Club

Posted June 22, 2010

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For years I've heard of Prince of Persia as a video game, but as I don't play games I didn't know much about it. When I was given the chance to review the new graphic novel inspired by the video, I knew I wanted to take a look. Graphic novels in general are something relatively new for me. I think of them as like picture books for older readers. So many times when my daughters were young we would read a picture book over and over again, and each time we would see something we missed in the illustrations when we read it before. Or, we would look for some of our favorite scenes.

As with picture books, illustrations carry the story in graphic novels too. There's often not much back story that can't be found out through dialogue and pictures. Which means graphic novels, while they can be read quickly, are more enjoyable when they are read slowly.

This is definitely the case with Prince of Persia. The action takes place in the kingdom of Marv during two centuries, the 9th and the 13th. The two story lines are similar in some ways: a restless population, both good and corrupt rulers, the people looking for a savior. If you race through it all, it can be confusing, even though the different time periods are depicted in different tones. As I read I found myself going back a few times to clarify what was happening in one place or another. That's when I realized I needed to slow down.

While Prince of Persia readers may definitely call to mind scenes from The Arabian Nights and Disney's Aladdin, this isn't a book for very young children-violence includes quite a few severed heads and tongues. But the story, once you grasp it, has a few twists that make it enjoyable. It could be fun for mother-daughter book clubs to read this graphic novel, go together as a group to see the movie, The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, then gather to talk about both. The movie is rated PG-13 for violence, so consider that when deciding to take on both adaptations.
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Anonymous

Posted May 19, 2010

This is not the Prince I know!

My opinion about this book is that the plot is a complete mess. I really could not relate the main character with any version of him on any medium.
It seems like a completely new approach to the character(even though it is the original graphic novel).
I did like the art on the book.

I can honestly say that I have never so confused (and uninterested). Dot get me wrong, this is not a "strange" or "weird" or "intellectual" plot. It doesn't go anywhere, and secondary characters have highly unimportant interventions, i.e. some character eats a lot of figs because he is constipated! This does nothing to the main plot. It could be argued that adds "humanity" to a otherwise two-dimensional character, but believe me, it doesn't.

Grab it if you have to have everything Prince of Persia, but I'm sure you'll be unsure where to place your book amongst your collection. My suggetion: place it in the "misfired-spin-offs" section.
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theokester

Posted June 15, 2009

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A fun, light little adventure

I picked Prince of Persia up as a fan of the games and of the general adventure genre of the Arabian Nights style.

The story was intriguing and thoughtful. It's presented as two stories set ~400 years apart with the first story creating and influencing the legend/action of the second story. The stories are presented side-by-side allowing the plot points to expose themselves gradually which leads to a feeling of mystery and intrigue. The female characters felt stronger to me than the male characters both in terms of their strength of mind and their initiative and drive to get things done.

The art was clean and simple while still detailed enough to really draw me in. The tone created by the art changed based on plot points but was generally fairly light (after having recently read Watchmen, the art here felt almost airy). Some of the depictions of violence were fairly graphic...it wasn't spewing blood, but the violent imagery was pushing PG-13 at times.

The art and the plot were fast paced and kept me scanning from panel to panel and page to page quickly. I think I flew through the book in about 40 minutes. Which was my main complaint. I wanted more. The depth there was good and the story flowed well. I just felt like it was over too quickly. There was a little deus ex machina that sped things up a little bit, but the story itself flowed well. I think mostly I would have loved to have seen the book double in size, stretch a few segments out, and add more scenes before ending.

The book also came with a very cool afterward by the developer/designer responsible for the first Prince of Persia game and involved in creation of the subsequent titles. Having worked in video games, I was really interested by his description of the creation of the initial games and of how the process changed for the later titles. I also really liked his insight into the adventure stories and histories that helped inspire the games and the book. I'd been looking to read Arabian Nights and he recommends the translation I'll likely use.

****
3.5 stars (out of 5)
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Availin

Posted May 9, 2009

Prince of Persia graphic novel - solid for those who follow the game

In my opinion, the Prince of Persia graphic novel was an easy read that provided some interesting background information on the Prince of Persia world. The are was of a high quality, and the writing was good. My only complaint would be that it jumped around between a number of characters with a relative frequency to the point that, at times, I had to really focus to figure out exactly who had done what. I would strongly recommend this to people who are fans of fantasy graphic novels, and especially to those who have played, or want to play, the Prince of Persia games.
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Prince of Persia

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Overview

All Available Formats + Editions

Customers Who Bought This Also Bought

More About This Book

Overview

Prince of Persia

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

From The Critics

Product Details

Meet the Author

Rating Distribution

Courtesy of Mother Daughter Book Club.com

This is not the Prince I know!

A fun, light little adventure

Prince of Persia graphic novel - solid for those who follow the game