I hope that he will continue writing stories and in the future will be able to put together a project that he can push further. I am pretty certain that this is the first book he's written himself, so there is a lot of space to grow. The previous experts he had illustrated in the past had more to them than the art in the final book. Some of the scenes were quite simple and lacked the details I am used to seeing in his art. I also need to point out the art, which was beautiful, but was also not at the level I was expecting from Picolo.

The whole thing was an idea of a story, but it wasn't a story. I never felt immersed in the book, I never even felt that I really fully knew what was going on. It also does not help the lack of a timeline and worldbuilding. And that might be the biggest issue - this story is told completely through conversations, which are not very well-written and do not create any sort of interesting plot, nor does it help differentiate the characters through speaking style. They apparently get together by agreeing to have a fake relationship, which is confirmed in a conversation that makes very little sense and had me re-reading to make sure I understood what was happening. Icarus is a writer-type who has a lot of inner demons Sun is an artistic type with a fiery personality. We learn very little about the characters throughout the book except for a few key characteristics. That or this project did not have the time or funds to be made into what it could have been (although the project was pushed back a year and raised $500k+ so who knows), which would be a much longer story that explores its characters and their relationships more in-depth. Picolo is clearly a talented illustrator, but when it comes to storytelling, I think he's got a ways to go. The entire book in itself barely scratched the surface of what this had the potential to be. When we got sneak peeks of this story on social media over the years, the story itself came across as being much deeper and interesting than it actually was. However, I think the hype for this book and the expectations for it far exceeded what this story ended up being which is why I, unfortunately, had to give it a 3. The release of the book got pushed back a few times because Picolo wanted to get it right before publishing I know some people were upset about this but I was happy to wait as long as needed for the book to be completed as he intended. I backed this project on Indiegogo back in March of 2019 and recently received my copy of the finished book. * The finished book has only just been published so I'm not sure where these earlier reviews are coming from but know that mine comes from having read the published hardback. All of my messages were ignored and the printed book came out with the mistake I had pointed out to him. His English is not perfect, which is completely understandable, so I asked whether he would be getting a proofreader to help him with the final version. I don't know if the book will be available for sale outside of the Indiegogo campaign, but if so: don't waste your money.Īlso: as a campaign backer, I tried to warn Picolo about bad grammar on one of his sneak peek pages. If like me, you wanted this book because you loved the story told on social media years ago: buy Icarus and the Sun art prints from Picolo instead. They told a story many of us fell in love with, but unfortunately the book doesn't do them justice. The old pages actually work much better on their own - there's a depth in them that just isn't present in the book.

In reality it barely scratches the surface.Įven the art is off at points - the bits and pieces released on social media over the years are by far the best drawings in the book, everything else is just ok. The book even feels pretentious somehow - like he thinks he's telling such a deep/heavy story by talking about mental health. In sum: Picolo is just not a good writer. The dialogue is weak and the book is way too short. I can see where he was going and the idea is somewhat interesting, but it's poorly executed. The story, as others have pointed out, is just 'meh'. I really wanted to love it, but the book felt rushed.

The story of icarus