50 in '11: #1
Jan. 14th, 2011 10:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sakon76Title: Transformers: Exodus
Author: Alex Irvine
Length: 276 pages
Sadly, there remains no such thing as a good Transformers novel. This one attempts too much and it all just ends up slipping through the author's grasp. There are amusing references to various series--Ultra Magnus' war hammer from TF:A, Six Lasers Over Cybertron from Beast Wars--but where the big fall-down comes is in trying to be all continuities at once. The novel tries to be G1 and Bayverse and War for Cybertron compliant, all at once! It's a disaster.
Adding to that is sometimes disorganized writing, and my personal biggest beef with all Transformers novels: masculine writing. Yes, it's important to know that this happened and then that happened, and then that other thing... but really, I don't give a shit about the fall of [insert Cybertronian city-state here]. I care about the characters, and how it affects and shapes them. So randomly saying that Praxus was destroyed and that's why Prowl and Ironhide joined the Autobots doesn't do it for me. Show me the effects on them, why it changed their minds and hardened their resolve, and I will care.
Until then, I will go read a different book.
Verdict: Pass.
Author: Alex Irvine
Length: 276 pages
Sadly, there remains no such thing as a good Transformers novel. This one attempts too much and it all just ends up slipping through the author's grasp. There are amusing references to various series--Ultra Magnus' war hammer from TF:A, Six Lasers Over Cybertron from Beast Wars--but where the big fall-down comes is in trying to be all continuities at once. The novel tries to be G1 and Bayverse and War for Cybertron compliant, all at once! It's a disaster.
Adding to that is sometimes disorganized writing, and my personal biggest beef with all Transformers novels: masculine writing. Yes, it's important to know that this happened and then that happened, and then that other thing... but really, I don't give a shit about the fall of [insert Cybertronian city-state here]. I care about the characters, and how it affects and shapes them. So randomly saying that Praxus was destroyed and that's why Prowl and Ironhide joined the Autobots doesn't do it for me. Show me the effects on them, why it changed their minds and hardened their resolve, and I will care.
Until then, I will go read a different book.
Verdict: Pass.
