Grade: Good/To Own
Story: Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, had a wife and couldn't keep her. Also he picked a peck of pickled peppers. And met a wolf. His brother, Max, is the Pied Piper of Hamelin. They have an epic rivalry spanning centuries.
I was a little worried at first that such an awesome comic book writer wouldn't be able to bring his talents over to novel writing. And it was a bit peculiar at first. Physical attributes such as clothes were described in rather unnecessary detail. But as soon as he got onto the storytelling, he was as amazing as ever. I especially enjoyed Max's decent into evil. True, there didn't seem to be a lot of basis for quite so drastic a descent. But it's a fable. They're like that. And Willingham does it brilliantly.
He's also good at plotting. I was quite pleased with how it all worked in the end. It was one of those twists that you don't see coming, but you really should, because it's been shown since the beginning. Excellent, excellent.
I'm not sure whether the non-flashback scenes with well known comic book characters would make a lot of sense to non-Fables fans. Willingham tried, obviously, but I'm not sure if he quite made it. But for previous fans--Bigby! Snow! Frau Totenkinder in her younger woman form! Other Fables that I, personally, am not quite excited enough about to name personally, but still deserve an exclamation mark!
Now here's why I have that "To Own" up at the top. Firstly the fact that I love Fables and its characters, but Secondly this cover:
Click to make it bigger and prettier.
It is TOTALLY GORGEOUS in my humble opinion.
No comments:
Post a Comment