What do you think?
Rate this book
Transperceneige #1
The Escape
Snowpiercer Volume 1( The Escape) Paperback JacquesLob TitanComics
110 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
67 people are currently reading
6703 people want to read
About the author
Jacques Lob
44books30followersJacques Lob (1932 � 1990) was a French comic book creator, known for several comics creations, including Superdupont and Snowpiercer.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 606 reviews
February 4, 2022
A violent, class-based dystopia set after a cataclysmic climate event is certainly something that resonates with our modern day fears and Snowpiercer, the graphic novel by and illustrated by , examines these fears in a thrilling and hard-hitting way. Most will be already familiar with the story, as it has been adapted to film by , which covers the events of this first volume of the graphic series, as well as a recent mini-series. There are some great ideas contained here and the political struggles and messages are quite well done, though the book itself fumbles in its execution being a bit clunky and not giving enough room for it’s story to breathe. That said, and despite a few other issues, it is still thought provoking and worth a quick read, as it is certainly one you can rip through in a single sitting.
The premise is fairly simple yet fun: after “the great white”—a planet-killing climate event that has covered the world in ice and likely was set off intentionally due to a war—the last remnants of humanity are traversing the globe on a massive train with 1001 cars. The rich enjoy the front of the train with their wealth and comforts, while the 3rd class passengers are oppressed in the rear of the train. The book follows Proloff, who after being caught attempting to flee the horrors of the back of the train, is being escorted to the front to be questioned by the President. Accompanying him aside from the armed military is Belleau, a woman from 2nd Class who is a leader of an activist group that advocates for the 3rd class passengers.
Much of the story involves them traveling to the front, with the brief glimpses of the different cars doing some heavy-lifting world building. They witness mechanics who are religious fanatics that worship the train (Saint Loco), rumors of it slowing down, the vast hunk of meat that replaces itself they call ‘mama� which feeds everyone on board, and witness the class dynamics as they move forward. While much is left implied and you get a sense the world is much bigger than what you see, this section felt rushed and painting in broad strokes the impressions of the various communities. What we do see, however, is that in a train that is designed to be fully self-sustaining and provide any passenger needs (it was a vacation train for the super wealthy before the collapse), it is now maintained through massive inequality. Though even the front doesn’t seem terribly great beyond simply not being oppressed like those behind them. They seem to do nothing but drink, drugs, and have sex, �it’s the best thing they’ve found to fight the fear and boredom.�
What works best here is the class-based fears and the ways those who wish to help the poor are demonized as much as those they wish to help. There is also the paranoia that attempts to help the poor are merely a disguise to eradicate them as it becomes clear that those at the front violently value their material needs at the cost of their humanity. There is also an epidemic that might be spreading through the train, which is also being weaponized against the 3rd class passengers. Which definitely hits differently in 2022 than it probably did in 2000 when this first appeared in French. The plotline about turning the 2nd class against the 3rd class instead of their shared oppressors, the elites in 1st class, is pretty well done though underexplored.
So much of the bones here are great, but the execution leaves much to be desired. The frames are clunky and often tricky to follow and the segues are often too jumpy. It can be unclear what is happening and who is who at times, though I do like the rather grim artwork done in stark black and white. While the class-based revolutionary plot is cool, it also feels a bit overly simplistic. The train is almost exclusively white people and the handling of women in the novel is…not great. Women exist almost entirely for sexual purposes in the novel. It is observed that men from 1st class abduct and rape women from 2nd class all the time, though nobody seems to care or think it’s all that bad. And even Belleau is pretty flat as a character, wanting to sleep with Proloff within frames of meeting him and her activism is approached as seeming not that deep and her really only existing in the story as a prop for his development.
It’s a fairly fun story, but the action-thriller pace (without actually much action) seems to push too fast and nothing really develops, breathes or has enough attention to really hook into the reader. Major deaths are brushed aside in a single frame, for instance. I also might be coming to this having seen the film years ago and basing my impressions using that as the model, so take everything I’ve written here with a grain of salt and read other reviews too. It is short, and I would encourage you to read it if you are interested.
3.5/5
February 6, 2014
I fail to see why people rate this book so high. I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it either.
That said, this isn't a ground-breaking story and comparing it to Orwell's Animal Farm is not only wrong, it's embarrassing.
The only reason I give this two stars, is because most of what I didn't like could be due to a bad translation, but I highly doubt it. For example, I read a bad translation of Beowulf my first time through and I hated the book. Years later I icked up the Seamus Heaney's version of Beowulf and fell in love with it. That too, could be the case with Snow Piercer, but again, I highly doubt it.
SPOILERS AFTER THIS
My issues:
1. The story is very disjointed. Many little plots are scattered throughout the book, but none of them are followed through with and the main story becomes nothing more than a Michael Bay race to the front of the train. Boom! Boom! Some sex. Boom! Weird science. Sex! Boom! SexBoomSex! Old man living off crackers.
2. The men in this book are either mindless military or religious drones or bad Eastwood "Man with no Name" ripoffs.
3. Whereas the men are mindless, the women are merely in the story for sex and to die at the hands of men. Yeah, women love sex as much as men, but this book is a "Good grief" wrongful representation of that...completely. The women are either sexual hounds who not only let every man they meet hump them like horny dogs whenever the horny dogs want, but the women do so as if their whole purpose is to have a man hump the living hell out of them. Then, if the women are not the whores of the book, they're sex slaves; literally. For example, the "first class" men raid the "second class" cars to bring back girls against their wills to be used as sex slaves. Yes, I'm serious. Also serious, no one seems to care that this sex slavery is going on. No one. Not the men doing it. Not the men watching it. Not the men who you would assume think it wrong. No one. There is one female protagonist who starts out strong and seemingly intelligent, but all that goes out the window when she ends up banging the third-class criminal man the first night they're locked up in a cell together. After this, she's somehow in love with the "third class" criminal man a few hours later. After she falls in love with him, she becomes a typical maiden in distress throughout every scene she is in. I kept expecting her to faint and drop a handkerchief from her delicate hand. :|
4. This train is on the same "experimental" track, going around the world, or some continent, non-stop for YEARS, yet they always have water (not explained). Always have food (explained, but corny). Always have heat (not explained). And no one seems to notice that they've probably passed the initial train station they got on, or any other landmark for that matter, while on this non-stop trip. Don't tell me it's because everything is buried in snow, because several pages show fence posts sticking up through the snow. If you can see fence posts, you'd be able to see a landmark or two.
5. I don't care if there are swear words in a book, but when they are overly-used, or used continually, it really ruins the story. One swear word in this book is used simply as a title for the "third class". I thought it was a joke, but I was wrong.
6. The characters are superficial and care nothing about each other, or themselves. Therefore, I cared not for them.
7. Multiple plot-holes that would take much too long to mention.
OK, I need to stop. I'm starting to irritate myself.
Anyway, if you're wanting to read a book that reads like a high-schooler wrote it for a writing class, this is your book. There's a movie staring Captain America that came out in South Korea last year (2013) and is supposed to be out in the US this year (2014) that I'll most likely go see at a dollar theatre simply to see how different the writers and director make it from this book. I'm crossing my fingers until then that the movie is much better.
If you're looking for a sci-fi or dystopian book (novel or comic) avoid this one and pick up "V for Vendetta", "Wasteland", Orwell, Dick, Heinlein, Lowry, or other and you can't go wrong.
That said, this isn't a ground-breaking story and comparing it to Orwell's Animal Farm is not only wrong, it's embarrassing.
The only reason I give this two stars, is because most of what I didn't like could be due to a bad translation, but I highly doubt it. For example, I read a bad translation of Beowulf my first time through and I hated the book. Years later I icked up the Seamus Heaney's version of Beowulf and fell in love with it. That too, could be the case with Snow Piercer, but again, I highly doubt it.
SPOILERS AFTER THIS
My issues:
1. The story is very disjointed. Many little plots are scattered throughout the book, but none of them are followed through with and the main story becomes nothing more than a Michael Bay race to the front of the train. Boom! Boom! Some sex. Boom! Weird science. Sex! Boom! SexBoomSex! Old man living off crackers.
2. The men in this book are either mindless military or religious drones or bad Eastwood "Man with no Name" ripoffs.
3. Whereas the men are mindless, the women are merely in the story for sex and to die at the hands of men. Yeah, women love sex as much as men, but this book is a "Good grief" wrongful representation of that...completely. The women are either sexual hounds who not only let every man they meet hump them like horny dogs whenever the horny dogs want, but the women do so as if their whole purpose is to have a man hump the living hell out of them. Then, if the women are not the whores of the book, they're sex slaves; literally. For example, the "first class" men raid the "second class" cars to bring back girls against their wills to be used as sex slaves. Yes, I'm serious. Also serious, no one seems to care that this sex slavery is going on. No one. Not the men doing it. Not the men watching it. Not the men who you would assume think it wrong. No one. There is one female protagonist who starts out strong and seemingly intelligent, but all that goes out the window when she ends up banging the third-class criminal man the first night they're locked up in a cell together. After this, she's somehow in love with the "third class" criminal man a few hours later. After she falls in love with him, she becomes a typical maiden in distress throughout every scene she is in. I kept expecting her to faint and drop a handkerchief from her delicate hand. :|
4. This train is on the same "experimental" track, going around the world, or some continent, non-stop for YEARS, yet they always have water (not explained). Always have food (explained, but corny). Always have heat (not explained). And no one seems to notice that they've probably passed the initial train station they got on, or any other landmark for that matter, while on this non-stop trip. Don't tell me it's because everything is buried in snow, because several pages show fence posts sticking up through the snow. If you can see fence posts, you'd be able to see a landmark or two.
5. I don't care if there are swear words in a book, but when they are overly-used, or used continually, it really ruins the story. One swear word in this book is used simply as a title for the "third class". I thought it was a joke, but I was wrong.
6. The characters are superficial and care nothing about each other, or themselves. Therefore, I cared not for them.
7. Multiple plot-holes that would take much too long to mention.
OK, I need to stop. I'm starting to irritate myself.
Anyway, if you're wanting to read a book that reads like a high-schooler wrote it for a writing class, this is your book. There's a movie staring Captain America that came out in South Korea last year (2013) and is supposed to be out in the US this year (2014) that I'll most likely go see at a dollar theatre simply to see how different the writers and director make it from this book. I'm crossing my fingers until then that the movie is much better.
If you're looking for a sci-fi or dystopian book (novel or comic) avoid this one and pick up "V for Vendetta", "Wasteland", Orwell, Dick, Heinlein, Lowry, or other and you can't go wrong.
December 28, 2020
Sure, it's a bit of a stretch: a super-train circling the globe powered by something close to perpetual motion, running on tracks that don't appear to need maintenance. I like the boldness of the story and the all-too-human story of rich versus poor. Throw in militarized guards, unbridled decadence and human rights activists in the confined space of a train and you have Snow Piercer.
February 3, 2017
Rating: 3.5* of five
The film is beautiful to look at, and the message apt and timely. It's 2:06:11, which is at least 20 minutes too long.
The metaphor of the train is resonant; the acting supports the message of the metaphor well, with Chris Evans as revolutionary Curtis doing a bang-up job of being a gigantic force compressed into a tight, unyielding metal tube. The seriously skeevy Mr. Big of the train Wilford, played by Ed Harris, was so oozingly vile that I wanted many horrible things to happen to him onscreen. Regrettably they did not.
It's a good film. The graphic novel was well-served, though I found the print version less appealing than the movie. It was chaotic and underdeveloped its characters. The film had the advantage of drawing from the whole series of them, of course, and that could well be the source of its superior character-building.
All in all a good experience and an instructive one in Trump's America. The ordinary rental price is $3.99, and well worth it. I spent a piffling 99¢ as a promotional price and couldn't be more satisfied with the value-for-money ratio. I'd be much more vocal in my praises were it not for the ending (as is so often the case): suddenly the focus of the story is switched away from the main line, grinding to a stop rather than arriving at a destination.
The film is beautiful to look at, and the message apt and timely. It's 2:06:11, which is at least 20 minutes too long.
The metaphor of the train is resonant; the acting supports the message of the metaphor well, with Chris Evans as revolutionary Curtis doing a bang-up job of being a gigantic force compressed into a tight, unyielding metal tube. The seriously skeevy Mr. Big of the train Wilford, played by Ed Harris, was so oozingly vile that I wanted many horrible things to happen to him onscreen. Regrettably they did not.
It's a good film. The graphic novel was well-served, though I found the print version less appealing than the movie. It was chaotic and underdeveloped its characters. The film had the advantage of drawing from the whole series of them, of course, and that could well be the source of its superior character-building.
All in all a good experience and an instructive one in Trump's America. The ordinary rental price is $3.99, and well worth it. I spent a piffling 99¢ as a promotional price and couldn't be more satisfied with the value-for-money ratio. I'd be much more vocal in my praises were it not for the ending (as is so often the case): suddenly the focus of the story is switched away from the main line, grinding to a stop rather than arriving at a destination.
May 23, 2025
Just finished this fantastic graphic novel. A train that is 1001 cars long must travel through a frozen wasteland without stopping or everyone on board will freeze to death. From the back of the train to the engine all levels of social stratification exist. When the powers that be uncover a planned revolt they decide to "de-hinge" the back trains even if it means the death of everyone in those compartments.
May 26, 2020
Very, and I mean ve-ery, European graphic novel - and that's a good thing. It has that specific quality of being 'real' and slightly dreamlike at the same time.
It shows its age in how female characters are handled, basically they're there to be used (or abused), and the main female character's story goes out with a whimper.
Overall the story feels rushed, especially knowing there are volumes following this one.
That said, lots of lovely European dystopian angst, endearingly hamfisted political commentary, and a decidedly downbeat ending, just how we like 'em!
3.5 stars
(Received a review copy from Titan Comics through Edelweiss)
It shows its age in how female characters are handled, basically they're there to be used (or abused), and the main female character's story goes out with a whimper.
Overall the story feels rushed, especially knowing there are volumes following this one.
That said, lots of lovely European dystopian angst, endearingly hamfisted political commentary, and a decidedly downbeat ending, just how we like 'em!
3.5 stars
(Received a review copy from Titan Comics through Edelweiss)
February 15, 2014
Stay way unless you're a teenage boy.
This is the hyped comic that is supposedly a treasure of French Bandes Déssinés that spawned a recent film adaptation by Joon-ho Bong (The Host, Mother). What a bummer. There are so many problems with this book and they can't all be due to due to poor translation:
- Rushed storytelling: the pacing is way too fast for any depth.
- Very misogynistic: Even the supporting female character is an irrational stereotype that can't wait to get it on in the first second of every scene she's left alone with the main character in.
- Most of the major characters are paper-thin
- Dialog is horrible.
And WTF is up with the last 2 pages?? They must've screwed up in the printing. There's a huuuge jump in time between them, completely skipping over a major development. Lob just threw away the main character, and not in an love-to-hate-it George R. R. Martin kind of way but in a “Okay I’m bored and have to keep moving on� sort of way.
Although with all of that, and just like highly-serialized YA manga that suffers from some of the same issues (e.g. Death Note), once I saw the teaser for the cover of book 2 I went from thinking this was a complete waste of time to wanting to know what happens next - "they got me!" I thought. Then I realized there's no idea whose interest could be sustained by this immature writer.
This is the hyped comic that is supposedly a treasure of French Bandes Déssinés that spawned a recent film adaptation by Joon-ho Bong (The Host, Mother). What a bummer. There are so many problems with this book and they can't all be due to due to poor translation:
- Rushed storytelling: the pacing is way too fast for any depth.
- Very misogynistic: Even the supporting female character is an irrational stereotype that can't wait to get it on in the first second of every scene she's left alone with the main character in.
- Most of the major characters are paper-thin
- Dialog is horrible.
And WTF is up with the last 2 pages?? They must've screwed up in the printing. There's a huuuge jump in time between them, completely skipping over a major development. Lob just threw away the main character, and not in an love-to-hate-it George R. R. Martin kind of way but in a “Okay I’m bored and have to keep moving on� sort of way.
Although with all of that, and just like highly-serialized YA manga that suffers from some of the same issues (e.g. Death Note), once I saw the teaser for the cover of book 2 I went from thinking this was a complete waste of time to wanting to know what happens next - "they got me!" I thought. Then I realized there's no idea whose interest could be sustained by this immature writer.
June 12, 2020
Showpiercer has a very interesting premise, but its dull pacing, superficial characters and misogynistic settings takes away any kind of enjoyment this book has to offer.
January 11, 2018
Yeah, no. I was soooo very excited to read this after watching the killer trailer for the movie coming out this summer. But, ugh, such a disappointment. Flat characters, so very very much misogyny, and despite the interesting idea/setting, it's...boring. I don't know how you make a story like this boring, but he managed to. Too rushed, too thin. I feel malnourished after reading it.
February 24, 2016
3 1/2 Stars
I love this concept, which was captured wonderfully in the movie of the same name starring Chris Evans.
Basically the world has gone to crap. It is an ice age were just a few seconds outdoors leads to death. The only salvation is an enormous self-sufficient train to nowhere that never stops.
Seriously, if you haven't seen this movie you are missing out.
Anyways, as is common with dystopian literature, the main theme is the poor being trampled by the heartless, selfish upper class. One man from the back of the train escapes the horrors of the tail-end ghetto and sees how the other half lives.
The style of this book was awkward and often very choppy. The lack of transitions were confusing, and there was no mention of time passing even if two cells were days apart. The artwork is decent but sometimes it is difficult to tell people apart. Still it is a great concept and the book does not shy away from bleak and disturbing. I did not particularly care for the love interest. She was treated as an after thought most of the time. The ending felt abrupt but perhaps that is because there is another volume.
I love this concept, which was captured wonderfully in the movie of the same name starring Chris Evans.
Basically the world has gone to crap. It is an ice age were just a few seconds outdoors leads to death. The only salvation is an enormous self-sufficient train to nowhere that never stops.
Seriously, if you haven't seen this movie you are missing out.
Anyways, as is common with dystopian literature, the main theme is the poor being trampled by the heartless, selfish upper class. One man from the back of the train escapes the horrors of the tail-end ghetto and sees how the other half lives.
The style of this book was awkward and often very choppy. The lack of transitions were confusing, and there was no mention of time passing even if two cells were days apart. The artwork is decent but sometimes it is difficult to tell people apart. Still it is a great concept and the book does not shy away from bleak and disturbing. I did not particularly care for the love interest. She was treated as an after thought most of the time. The ending felt abrupt but perhaps that is because there is another volume.
March 19, 2014
I assume that the flaws in this are because it's volume one, and that the subsequent volumes will pick up some of these threads and actually develop a gripping story. Because this isn't. It's a series of vignettes.
Tincangoat's review raises a lot of the problems I experienced with the book, and I'd add
The most intriguing idea for me was on two panels in pages 42/43, and this was never mentioned again. I hope we going to come back to it in future volumes.
This was OK, not great, though. 2.5, rounding up because first volumes get a break.
Tincangoat's review raises a lot of the problems I experienced with the book, and I'd add
The most intriguing idea for me was on two panels in pages 42/43, and this was never mentioned again. I hope we going to come back to it in future volumes.
This was OK, not great, though. 2.5, rounding up because first volumes get a break.
July 18, 2017
This is a unique situation for myself. I have found that elusive case of a film actually superseding a book, or in this instance, a graphic novel. I discovered Snowpiercer on Netflix a few years ago and fell hard. The haunting cinematography and fast paced dystopian plot impressed. It also happens to boast a favorable cast. So I picked up the graphic novel with a pretty high standard in place.
The plot offers a potential that was better executed on-screen and failed to fully come to life within the pages of this first volume. The blurb is pretty definitive and there is no need to explore the concept in-depth. Perhaps the biggest barrier standing between myself and possible love for this post apocalyptic story would be dialog. It leaned heavily towards dry and flat. There seemed to be a lack of real depth within the story, yet so much was happening.
The artwork was the one element that actually carried me through to the end. Had it not been for the bold, grey-scale illustrations offering a simplistic yet fitting representation of this bleak and dismal situation, I may have shelved this one. I struggle to imagine this story unfolding in full colour. Even the film was visually drab in the best of ways.
The characters play their part but offer little in terms of interest. Again, I have to blame dialog. I found myself disappointed with the portrayal of women within this container like society, viewed more as sexual objects and contributing little of value. To be fair, that could be the result of the current societal structure in such confined spaces, but I could not get into or support the idea.
While this was certainly not a terrible read, it failed to be an impactful one. I do feel that the GN places more emphasis on the political aspect of the story and manages to convey this successfully which was appreciated. But there were a lot of lack luster moments that struggled to capture just how dire the situation has become. I have read that there are some translation issues that might be at fault, but I honestly cannot offer any insight into the truth of those comments.
The end result for myself was “okay�. I don’t believe I will pick up the second volume right now. This is a series that boasts a fascinating story-line but is moving at a very leisurely rate. If you don’t mind the pacing, perhaps test the waters. For now however, I recommend the film which happens to be a favorite of mine.
You can also find my reviews on
The plot offers a potential that was better executed on-screen and failed to fully come to life within the pages of this first volume. The blurb is pretty definitive and there is no need to explore the concept in-depth. Perhaps the biggest barrier standing between myself and possible love for this post apocalyptic story would be dialog. It leaned heavily towards dry and flat. There seemed to be a lack of real depth within the story, yet so much was happening.
The artwork was the one element that actually carried me through to the end. Had it not been for the bold, grey-scale illustrations offering a simplistic yet fitting representation of this bleak and dismal situation, I may have shelved this one. I struggle to imagine this story unfolding in full colour. Even the film was visually drab in the best of ways.
The characters play their part but offer little in terms of interest. Again, I have to blame dialog. I found myself disappointed with the portrayal of women within this container like society, viewed more as sexual objects and contributing little of value. To be fair, that could be the result of the current societal structure in such confined spaces, but I could not get into or support the idea.
While this was certainly not a terrible read, it failed to be an impactful one. I do feel that the GN places more emphasis on the political aspect of the story and manages to convey this successfully which was appreciated. But there were a lot of lack luster moments that struggled to capture just how dire the situation has become. I have read that there are some translation issues that might be at fault, but I honestly cannot offer any insight into the truth of those comments.
The end result for myself was “okay�. I don’t believe I will pick up the second volume right now. This is a series that boasts a fascinating story-line but is moving at a very leisurely rate. If you don’t mind the pacing, perhaps test the waters. For now however, I recommend the film which happens to be a favorite of mine.
You can also find my reviews on
September 2, 2020
Já tinha visto o filme e por isso tinha uma noção do que se tratava.
Talvez por isso não fiquei surpreendida e não me acrescentou nada relevante.
Considero sim que é uma obra que levanta algumas questões humanitárias, sempre que a questão da sobrevivência dos mais poderosos se levanta.
Talvez por isso não fiquei surpreendida e não me acrescentou nada relevante.
Considero sim que é uma obra que levanta algumas questões humanitárias, sempre que a questão da sobrevivência dos mais poderosos se levanta.
February 17, 2022
EDIT: nah, fuck it. I went and read more reviews and got even angrier so I take back that pity 2 stars. 1 star, screw this book
Yeah I'm gonna be honest, this sucked. Badly. Only giving it two starts because a) drawing a graphic novel is a ton of work and I respect that and b) I still love the concept of an apocalypse train and my enjoyment of the show makes me enjoy this to some degree as well. But let's get into it.
First of all, every single female character who showed up on the page was drawn with her tits out. This happened to every. Single. One. There was only one woman who even got a name in the entire book, but that's it's own can of worms. There was no narrative purpose for any of it, it felt so dehumanizing and gross. I didn't go into this with high expectations considering it was sci-fi written by a man in the 1980s, but man. If the bar was on the floor, Jacques Lob came prepared to dig.
The plot was also paper-thin. They somehow had 5 plotlines going on at once and none of them were fleshed out or made sense. I understand you have a bit less room to work with a graphic novel but it felt like there were zero stakes for ANYTHING that went on here. Even cutting off the entire tail??? There was no emotional response or reaction to that. It just happened and we moved on. Despite already having a pre-formed attachment to the story, I simply could not bring myself to care about anything happening here given how little emotional weight was thrown behind anything. Character relationships were cheap and underformed and even the characters themselves barely had personalities. I couldn't even tell you one true character trait of the main character (whose name I can't even remember because I think they said it like. Maybe 3 times). And his relationship with his love interest was stupid, there was no reason for it, and then after 2(?) days of instalove, she dies because of something stupid that he did, her death only serving to further his plotline. I hate it here.
Jacques Lob set out to use Snowpiercer as a critique of a capitalistic society, yet managed to say absolutely nothing of value in 109 whole pages. Not one single point was made. Painfully simplistic and poorly executed.
The book was also just super jumpy. It felt like scenes cut out before they should be finished and things were left very uexplained/unsaid. It was so bad that I actually got concerned that I might have a misprint of this book that was missing pages, but I wasn't! I don't know if this was a result of poor translation from French or what, but it was very frustrating.
The one thing I did enjoy was seeing how elements of the train were described compared to the show (ex. their systems of meat development are different and frankly FAR more unsettling). It was neat.
All in all, I'm angry because I really wanted to like this book. I got all 3 from the library because I wanted to get more Snowpiercer because of how much I like the show. And this was just terrible. I can't decide if it's even worth reading the other 2 books or not, or if this is just going to tarnish my view of the story. Ugh. After writing this review I'm wondering if even 2 stars is a generous rating.
Yeah I'm gonna be honest, this sucked. Badly. Only giving it two starts because a) drawing a graphic novel is a ton of work and I respect that and b) I still love the concept of an apocalypse train and my enjoyment of the show makes me enjoy this to some degree as well. But let's get into it.
First of all, every single female character who showed up on the page was drawn with her tits out. This happened to every. Single. One. There was only one woman who even got a name in the entire book, but that's it's own can of worms. There was no narrative purpose for any of it, it felt so dehumanizing and gross. I didn't go into this with high expectations considering it was sci-fi written by a man in the 1980s, but man. If the bar was on the floor, Jacques Lob came prepared to dig.
The plot was also paper-thin. They somehow had 5 plotlines going on at once and none of them were fleshed out or made sense. I understand you have a bit less room to work with a graphic novel but it felt like there were zero stakes for ANYTHING that went on here. Even cutting off the entire tail??? There was no emotional response or reaction to that. It just happened and we moved on. Despite already having a pre-formed attachment to the story, I simply could not bring myself to care about anything happening here given how little emotional weight was thrown behind anything. Character relationships were cheap and underformed and even the characters themselves barely had personalities. I couldn't even tell you one true character trait of the main character (whose name I can't even remember because I think they said it like. Maybe 3 times). And his relationship with his love interest was stupid, there was no reason for it, and then after 2(?) days of instalove, she dies because of something stupid that he did, her death only serving to further his plotline. I hate it here.
Jacques Lob set out to use Snowpiercer as a critique of a capitalistic society, yet managed to say absolutely nothing of value in 109 whole pages. Not one single point was made. Painfully simplistic and poorly executed.
The book was also just super jumpy. It felt like scenes cut out before they should be finished and things were left very uexplained/unsaid. It was so bad that I actually got concerned that I might have a misprint of this book that was missing pages, but I wasn't! I don't know if this was a result of poor translation from French or what, but it was very frustrating.
The one thing I did enjoy was seeing how elements of the train were described compared to the show (ex. their systems of meat development are different and frankly FAR more unsettling). It was neat.
All in all, I'm angry because I really wanted to like this book. I got all 3 from the library because I wanted to get more Snowpiercer because of how much I like the show. And this was just terrible. I can't decide if it's even worth reading the other 2 books or not, or if this is just going to tarnish my view of the story. Ugh. After writing this review I'm wondering if even 2 stars is a generous rating.
January 18, 2023
Great idea. But not impressed with the execution.
May 4, 2020
Please don't read this. It's horrible. It is so bad. The panels are arranged weirdly, halting your reading, the dialogue is bad, the story is generic, oh there's a completely explanation less romance and the ending is classic "i am very smart". It's very bad, the art is good but the speech bubbles are placed so stupidly and the panels and just, it's also boring as shit. Just stay away from this pile of garbage. This will just make you appreciate all the rest of the comics you read and also Bong Jong Hoo like wow this was so shit and wow.
July 1, 2020
Read this after giving up on the Netflix series.
While Netflix has made an US focused industrial giant running a perpetual train carrying the last human survivors, the book shows a more brutal military dictatorship where the everything is much less fancy.
Unfortunately the book was a bit shallow, women were sex objects and the ending all a bit ho hum.
While Netflix has made an US focused industrial giant running a perpetual train carrying the last human survivors, the book shows a more brutal military dictatorship where the everything is much less fancy.
Unfortunately the book was a bit shallow, women were sex objects and the ending all a bit ho hum.
April 12, 2020
Not for me. The concept is interesting, which is why I gave it 2 stars. But the treatment of women and lack of diversity, along with missed opportunities in the plot just didn’t work. Not worth reading. 2 stars
March 13, 2021
Hm. The film and TV series are both far more coherent.
In The Escape , a Tailie somehow sneaks into third class where he's captured and brought to the front of the train for interrogation, picking up an activist girlfriend along the way. The oily train president transparently pumps him for intel, claiming that he's going to integrate the poor into the nicer communities then cut their cars loose. Tailie and Activist realize that the cars will be unhitched with the undesirables aboard. They get their hands on guns and go rogue.
For 1982 this is ambitious and thought-provoking, but it's riddled with problems. The illustration is on the weak side and the panel layouts are atrociously counterintuitive. The last-bastion high concept is intriguing, but it doesn't come close to getting "on a train" to make sense. Why are there still ticket-takers several years into Snowpiercer's nonstop journey? Whose tickets are they taking? Where would a deadly, highly contagious superplague come from after all that time? And 'street crime is a problem after dark'? Seriously? The author failed to think a lot of things through.
The hero's actions regularly violate both internal and external logic. We learn from an offhand comment that the central conflict (saving the Tail) turns out to already have been lost at some point. The plot feels like it was Frankensteined together from several unrelated books.
There's a (rather on-the-nose) exchange in which the president refers to strife from years past as "the riots", while the starving people in the Tail call it "the protests". In some ways the struggle between the haves and the have-nots never changes.
In The Escape , a Tailie somehow sneaks into third class where he's captured and brought to the front of the train for interrogation, picking up an activist girlfriend along the way. The oily train president transparently pumps him for intel, claiming that he's going to integrate the poor into the nicer communities then cut their cars loose. Tailie and Activist realize that the cars will be unhitched with the undesirables aboard. They get their hands on guns and go rogue.
For 1982 this is ambitious and thought-provoking, but it's riddled with problems. The illustration is on the weak side and the panel layouts are atrociously counterintuitive. The last-bastion high concept is intriguing, but it doesn't come close to getting "on a train" to make sense. Why are there still ticket-takers several years into Snowpiercer's nonstop journey? Whose tickets are they taking? Where would a deadly, highly contagious superplague come from after all that time? And 'street crime is a problem after dark'? Seriously? The author failed to think a lot of things through.
The hero's actions regularly violate both internal and external logic. We learn from an offhand comment that the central conflict (saving the Tail) turns out to already have been lost at some point. The plot feels like it was Frankensteined together from several unrelated books.
There's a (rather on-the-nose) exchange in which the president refers to strife from years past as "the riots", while the starving people in the Tail call it "the protests". In some ways the struggle between the haves and the have-nots never changes.
May 28, 2017
I hadn't realized that the movie (with the same name) was based on a graphic novel, so when I saw this on a shelf I was quite keen to do a bit of a comparison.
Overall the graphic novel is somewhat grittier than the film, focusing more on the dire situation of the train, and the 3rd class 'tail-scum' where the movie added considerable eccentricity to the world, and a number of subplots and characters. While I preferred the novel's political analysis, and more developed history of the Snow Piercer I felt the movie did have developed characters, whereas in the graphic novel I felt that most of the introduced people were more political caricatures (which is part of the point I guess).
Overall the graphic novel is somewhat grittier than the film, focusing more on the dire situation of the train, and the 3rd class 'tail-scum' where the movie added considerable eccentricity to the world, and a number of subplots and characters. While I preferred the novel's political analysis, and more developed history of the Snow Piercer I felt the movie did have developed characters, whereas in the graphic novel I felt that most of the introduced people were more political caricatures (which is part of the point I guess).
September 26, 2019
I picked up this graphic novel after hearing someone talk about it on BookTube, because it had a unique-sounding premise and a lot of the stuff I like. It’s basically a post-apocalyptic dystopian novel that’s set on board a train with 1,001 carriages. The closer you get to the engine, the better the conditions are, with class issues being explored.
It was pretty fun and I’ll read the next one soon, but it’s almost a case of the concept being so good that the execution will always struggle.
It was pretty fun and I’ll read the next one soon, but it’s almost a case of the concept being so good that the execution will always struggle.
September 8, 2024
After getting hooked on the Snowpiercer TV series, I was curious to see the original story. This graphic novel shares the basic setup with the series, and I give it credit for inspiring such a terrific TV version -- but the book itself is less compelling. The storyline isn't always clear, and the artwork makes it very hard to follow. Recognizing characters and following the action is difficult. Still, I'll continue with the next volume, just to see where it goes.
December 16, 2021
Acho que não percebi este livro e sinceramente, não fiquei com vontade sequer de o perceber... li as primeiras páginas do segundo volume e desisti, pois a vida é curta demais para gastarmos com livros que não nos enchem as medidas...
Fiquei curioso, contudo, para ver a adaptação cinematográfica / televisiva... quem sabe não venha a entender melhor do que trata esta metáfora que é um comboio qque alberga os sobreviventes da Humanidade que tem de se manter em constante movimento...?
Fiquei curioso, contudo, para ver a adaptação cinematográfica / televisiva... quem sabe não venha a entender melhor do que trata esta metáfora que é um comboio qque alberga os sobreviventes da Humanidade que tem de se manter em constante movimento...?
February 11, 2018
It's probably a good thing that I saw the movie, which I quite enjoyed, first, as this book is a whole lot of nothing. The movie takes only the basic concepts--frozen, uninhabitable world; one train, with rigid class hierachies and a mistreated underclass; authoritarian structure; journey through the train--and, fortunately, comes up with a much more compelling set of characters and plot. By no means is the movie perfect, but it's well-done, with some terrific performances (particularly Tilda Swinton and Chris Evans), and keeps the interest. It's an impressive feat of imagination, given that the source material is so disappointing.
The main character is Proloff, a guy who escapes the third-class ("tail-fuckers"), by breaking in through a bathroom (the existence of which is weird, given the awful conditions described by Proloff). When we first meet him, he is being badly beaten by the guards, who treat him as less than human. For reasons that are never really clear, he is kept alive and treated relatively well (interrogated, but also fed). He is eventually joined by Adeline, a second-class passenger who is part of a loose organization that wants to obtain better conditions for the third-class passengers.
Much of the book is spent on a journey through the train. The leaders want to interrogate Adeline and Proloff (though the justification for interviewing Proloff, in particular, doesn't make sense, when we learn the ultimate endgame), and they are escorted through by a sergeant and some guards. The drawing makes the soldiers largely indistinguishable from each other. We get glimpses of various subcultures (gangs, religious cults), but nothing is explored in any detail. There's a weird explanation for how people are supplied with meat.
This had the makings of a good story, but it's rushed and nonsensical. For a character that is viewed as something less-than-human by most of the train's passengers, Proloff is oddly assertive about certain things (like getting coffee). For no reason at all, Adeline and Proloff start making out about 2 minutes after meeting each other. When Proloff decides to take action, his actions are aimless. He has no plan for what he's doing, and doesn't really care about other people. His decisions towards the climax of the book are particularly bizarre.
Adeline is the only female character with any development. She is only one of two women who gets a name, and is only one of 3 women who are not depicted as existing solely to have sex/give pleasure to men (the remaining females are whores, sex slaves, or women who do nothing but have sex all day). And Adeline has barely any character development, either. She has a mission (to help the third-class passengers) but no explanation of why she feels this way is given (particularly when most of her fellow passengers think of the third-class passengers as sub-human).
The "ideas" explored by Snowpiercer are hackneyed and cliched. There's nothing of interest in this book. Frankly, I'm surprised that it has such a following and that someone was able to make a good movie out of it.
The main character is Proloff, a guy who escapes the third-class ("tail-fuckers"), by breaking in through a bathroom (the existence of which is weird, given the awful conditions described by Proloff). When we first meet him, he is being badly beaten by the guards, who treat him as less than human. For reasons that are never really clear, he is kept alive and treated relatively well (interrogated, but also fed). He is eventually joined by Adeline, a second-class passenger who is part of a loose organization that wants to obtain better conditions for the third-class passengers.
Much of the book is spent on a journey through the train. The leaders want to interrogate Adeline and Proloff (though the justification for interviewing Proloff, in particular, doesn't make sense, when we learn the ultimate endgame), and they are escorted through by a sergeant and some guards. The drawing makes the soldiers largely indistinguishable from each other. We get glimpses of various subcultures (gangs, religious cults), but nothing is explored in any detail. There's a weird explanation for how people are supplied with meat.
This had the makings of a good story, but it's rushed and nonsensical. For a character that is viewed as something less-than-human by most of the train's passengers, Proloff is oddly assertive about certain things (like getting coffee). For no reason at all, Adeline and Proloff start making out about 2 minutes after meeting each other. When Proloff decides to take action, his actions are aimless. He has no plan for what he's doing, and doesn't really care about other people. His decisions towards the climax of the book are particularly bizarre.
Adeline is the only female character with any development. She is only one of two women who gets a name, and is only one of 3 women who are not depicted as existing solely to have sex/give pleasure to men (the remaining females are whores, sex slaves, or women who do nothing but have sex all day). And Adeline has barely any character development, either. She has a mission (to help the third-class passengers) but no explanation of why she feels this way is given (particularly when most of her fellow passengers think of the third-class passengers as sub-human).
The "ideas" explored by Snowpiercer are hackneyed and cliched. There's nothing of interest in this book. Frankly, I'm surprised that it has such a following and that someone was able to make a good movie out of it.
April 3, 2014
"Across the white immensity of an eternal winter, from one end of the frozen planet to the other, there travels a train that never stops. This is the Snowpiercer, one thousand and one carriages long."
There's the setting, delivered in the first two panels of the first page. With similarly taut efficiency, the first volume of Snowpiercer sets up its story in the first two pages--one of the "tail-fuckers," the underclass who ride in the back cars of the train, manages to escape to one of the middle compartments by surviving a climb outside the train. But upon arriving, he's captured by the police who are ordered to escort him and a female mid-berth activist, fighting for equal rights for those trapped in the back, to the very front of the train where the rich and controlling classes want to interrogate him.
It's gloriously unsubtle social commentary, and there's more than a touch of Kafka to the way Proloff (the man who escaped) and Belleau (the activist who wants to help him) make their way through a seemingly endless procession of bar cars, sleeper cars, garden, and meat production cars, sections of the train that are unsafe ghettos, or ultra-hedonistic first class cars. Even after mankind has destroyed the planet and civilization has been pounded into one thin line, the class divisions remain, and everyone clings fearfully to whichever place in the line they've ended up. By the time the couple have made their way to the front car, we've learned nearly every seemingly untenable truth that keeps the Snowpiercer running.
Not for everyone--Snowpiercer Vol. 1 is an especially dour piece of Euro SciFi that wears its anger about capitalism and class structure on its sleeve. If that's the sort of thing you dig, you should dig this. I loved it, even while running hot and cold on the art: some of it felt closer to the some of the greats of E.C. Comics--Wally Wood, Jack Davis, or Mort Drucker (although I suspect that's more to do with their similarity to European cartoonists like Jean-Claude Forest)--while at other points the reliance on blacks and grey tones drop out, and the linework gets too flat for my taste. Overall, though, the almost generic functionality of the work heightens the underlying feeling of life's brutal necessity on board the Snow Piercer.
And sadly, the work might be even more relevant now than when it came out, or even ten years ago when filmmakers Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook discovered it and decided to adapt it as a film (which came out in 2012). A pre-Internet book perfectly suited to a post-Occupy world, Snowpiercer sees a shape in the flat, grey horizon line of our future: it may not be the train they describe, but it is traveling our way, nonetheless.
There's the setting, delivered in the first two panels of the first page. With similarly taut efficiency, the first volume of Snowpiercer sets up its story in the first two pages--one of the "tail-fuckers," the underclass who ride in the back cars of the train, manages to escape to one of the middle compartments by surviving a climb outside the train. But upon arriving, he's captured by the police who are ordered to escort him and a female mid-berth activist, fighting for equal rights for those trapped in the back, to the very front of the train where the rich and controlling classes want to interrogate him.
It's gloriously unsubtle social commentary, and there's more than a touch of Kafka to the way Proloff (the man who escaped) and Belleau (the activist who wants to help him) make their way through a seemingly endless procession of bar cars, sleeper cars, garden, and meat production cars, sections of the train that are unsafe ghettos, or ultra-hedonistic first class cars. Even after mankind has destroyed the planet and civilization has been pounded into one thin line, the class divisions remain, and everyone clings fearfully to whichever place in the line they've ended up. By the time the couple have made their way to the front car, we've learned nearly every seemingly untenable truth that keeps the Snowpiercer running.
Not for everyone--Snowpiercer Vol. 1 is an especially dour piece of Euro SciFi that wears its anger about capitalism and class structure on its sleeve. If that's the sort of thing you dig, you should dig this. I loved it, even while running hot and cold on the art: some of it felt closer to the some of the greats of E.C. Comics--Wally Wood, Jack Davis, or Mort Drucker (although I suspect that's more to do with their similarity to European cartoonists like Jean-Claude Forest)--while at other points the reliance on blacks and grey tones drop out, and the linework gets too flat for my taste. Overall, though, the almost generic functionality of the work heightens the underlying feeling of life's brutal necessity on board the Snow Piercer.
And sadly, the work might be even more relevant now than when it came out, or even ten years ago when filmmakers Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook discovered it and decided to adapt it as a film (which came out in 2012). A pre-Internet book perfectly suited to a post-Occupy world, Snowpiercer sees a shape in the flat, grey horizon line of our future: it may not be the train they describe, but it is traveling our way, nonetheless.
May 19, 2016
Snow Piercer is a great premise with a mediocre story. Mediocre might be the wrong word.
The action and pacing in Snow Piercer is odd and disjointed. Jumping ahead several hours or days between individual issues is one thing, but this book did a weird thing where it would jump ahead just a couple minutes like we were a camera only capturing the moments that were "interesting". This didn't mess with the story, but I had to go back and read panels a few times to understand that we jumped forward in time a little bit.
The story is a pretty okay one, if not a little pointless. I think the pointlessness kind of works to it's advantage though. These people are on a train that is 1,001 cars long and aren't really living for anything. There lives, outside of trying to survive (or just bang all the time depending what area of the train they live in), are totally pointless. Nothing these people do or will do will ever change anything about their lives on this train. The story of Snow Piercer is not really anything more than "Hey wouldn't it suck if we had to live in a train forever? Especially because some people are total garbage, right?"
I don't know. There were a couple parts in this story where I was invested in the main characters, but in the end it's just about how people suck and nothing anybody does matters. That's what I got anyway.
The action and pacing in Snow Piercer is odd and disjointed. Jumping ahead several hours or days between individual issues is one thing, but this book did a weird thing where it would jump ahead just a couple minutes like we were a camera only capturing the moments that were "interesting". This didn't mess with the story, but I had to go back and read panels a few times to understand that we jumped forward in time a little bit.
The story is a pretty okay one, if not a little pointless. I think the pointlessness kind of works to it's advantage though. These people are on a train that is 1,001 cars long and aren't really living for anything. There lives, outside of trying to survive (or just bang all the time depending what area of the train they live in), are totally pointless. Nothing these people do or will do will ever change anything about their lives on this train. The story of Snow Piercer is not really anything more than "Hey wouldn't it suck if we had to live in a train forever? Especially because some people are total garbage, right?"
I don't know. There were a couple parts in this story where I was invested in the main characters, but in the end it's just about how people suck and nothing anybody does matters. That's what I got anyway.
March 11, 2016
Quite different than the movie (not different, more different) - the bones of the world-building and dystopian society were there but the characters and relationships were vastly changed in the movie.
I'll definitely check out the follow-up, this is a recommended read (approx. 3.5stars) that shows potential to be better. Best part is definitely the world, though the repeated "I am Snowpiercer, 1001 carriages long, carrying what remains of humanity" refrain got old... it must be on every 4-5 pages. I'm not sure if that is a 'lost in translation' artifact or low expectations of the reader.
The movie is an uprising tale with constant fighting that accentuate the quiet moments of despair, guilt or hope. The book is sort of a love-story. I wish I had read the book first as the gulf threw me. The story seems mostly complete (though not much happens honestly) so I'm not really sure where the next volume will take the tale.
I'll definitely check out the follow-up, this is a recommended read (approx. 3.5stars) that shows potential to be better. Best part is definitely the world, though the repeated "I am Snowpiercer, 1001 carriages long, carrying what remains of humanity" refrain got old... it must be on every 4-5 pages. I'm not sure if that is a 'lost in translation' artifact or low expectations of the reader.
The movie is an uprising tale with constant fighting that accentuate the quiet moments of despair, guilt or hope. The book is sort of a love-story. I wish I had read the book first as the gulf threw me. The story seems mostly complete (though not much happens honestly) so I'm not really sure where the next volume will take the tale.
September 25, 2014
I found this more interesting as a concept than as a story. It was definitely a cool idea - a train with a thousand cars, moving eternally through a frozen wasteland, looking for safety that doesn't exist. The three classes - the first class living in luxury, the second class, and the third class living in squalor. How things are disrupted by a third class passenger making it to the second class trains. And through it all, there's a sense that none of it actually matters. That everyone is simply killing time, living in denial of the fact that the train is eventually going to stop, and they're all going to die.
So those ideas are all really neat. The story is really just a framing device to explore all that stuff, which means the story isn't particularly strong. The art is pretty good - there are a lot of secondary and background characters who look pretty similar, which can make things a bit weird at times. And there's a fairly limited range of expressions used. Still, it's a fairly decent art style.
This isn't a great story. But it's probably worth checking out if dystopias and philosophical fiction interests you.
So those ideas are all really neat. The story is really just a framing device to explore all that stuff, which means the story isn't particularly strong. The art is pretty good - there are a lot of secondary and background characters who look pretty similar, which can make things a bit weird at times. And there's a fairly limited range of expressions used. Still, it's a fairly decent art style.
This isn't a great story. But it's probably worth checking out if dystopias and philosophical fiction interests you.
January 11, 2019
This is an excellent example of a post-apocalyptic scenario written back in 1982, when post-apocalyptic dramas weren't in fashion yet. Lob does a supreme job presenting the current situation on the train albeit raw, Rochette's illustration is decent but somewhat forgettable (although i see some tardi in there). The only asterisk for me is that I wanted more backstory about the "Wild Rush" revolution that happened at the beginning of the train's endless trip.
Do yourselves a favor and read this, at least the first volume. I can see the similarities between that and the Animal Farm, I wouldn't go that far as to compare them. It's only logical, every work that occupies itself with the struggle between the classes will have similar (or even identical) themes and commentary with other ones of the same genre. What we can do as readers, is to enjoy each one for it's merrits and not be too quick to judge.
Do yourselves a favor and read this, at least the first volume. I can see the similarities between that and the Animal Farm, I wouldn't go that far as to compare them. It's only logical, every work that occupies itself with the struggle between the classes will have similar (or even identical) themes and commentary with other ones of the same genre. What we can do as readers, is to enjoy each one for it's merrits and not be too quick to judge.
October 25, 2019
A fresh look and idea into a apocalyptic future, were survivors live on a train, which must never stop or the passengers living on the train will freeze to death. Living in such confined conditions, makes me compare this to the 2004 Battlestar Galactica series, instead of living within confined spaceships traveling trough space, people live on a confined train traveling through a very cold, snow covered world. The story line works very well, and I really enjoyed it, I have never seen the film (as of 2019), but I would really like to, after reading this story. Excellent book cover, very interesting look into a possible future of the planet. The author as a good imagination to produce such a story. Well worth reading for any fans of a apocalyptic theme.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 606 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.