Laddertop (Books 1-2)

Once upon a time there was a little girl who was small and short. So she got to go to the magical Laddertop, a place which an alien race known as the Givers gave to the humans to power their structures. This girl, Robbi, starts having mysterious dreams which tell her to pull the lever everyone tells her not to touch. Then there are some conspiricists who think the Givers are actually bad. They recruit Robbi’s best friend to join them in their quest to expose the Givers as evil.

In terms of illustration, the drawings in this graphic novel left room for improvement; all the characters had the exact same face, making it quite difficult to distinguish who was who. The book was also only black-and-white, which was slightly disappointing. The plot was okay and moved fairly quickly, although it lacked action. However, the swift pace combined with the plethora of characters left little room for character development, who came across as bland and stereotyped. I had expected a lot more from Orson Scott Card, given the high caliber of his other books; this format does not seem to be his forte.