The Unwritten: Orpheus in the Underworld [vol. 8] by Mike Carey, art by Peter Gross, 176 pagesTom/Tommy Taylor is the confusing (and confused) protagonist in The Unwritten. Is he real or fictitious? There are arguments that go both ways, and it probably doesn't help that the barrier between reality and fantasy is increasingly porous. This eighth volume finds Taylor on a quest to retrieve one of his friends from the underworld, as the rest of his compatriots wrestle with some mysterious murders on the Earth's surface.
This series took a while to coalesce, but it's pretty understandable these days, especially compared to some of the first volumes, which... holy cow were they confusing. Good, but confusing. Anyway, Carey continues to raise some intriguing questions about the power of story, and the role it should play in our lives, whether as fiction, as journalism, or as the age-old fables that we grew up with. (Speaking of fables, this volume is the lead-in to the Unwritten-Fables crossover that I've been so looking forward to reading, and is currently on my nightstand. Look for that review in the coming days.)
Library Journal described The Unwritten as "Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books with teeth," and I don't know that I've ever heard a better description. So if you like Fforde's brand of genre-jumping fiction, but would rather deal with brutal violence than puns, give this series a try.
No comments:
Post a Comment