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crookedtreehouse's review against another edition
2.0
I don't envy any writer trying to pull a story out of the absolute muck that Shadowman's narrative has become.
I'm certainly sad that Kindt's consistently interesting Valiant Universe titles run has this misstep along its path. There's potential intrigue in tossing Ninjak, a suave British ninja assassin who works with the Valiant Universe's Avengers, [b:Unity, Volume 1: To Kill a King|20313289|Unity, Volume 1 To Kill a King|Matt Kindt|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1392028211l/20313289._SY75_.jpg|28147960], into a magical storyline featuring the much misused Shadowman (I'm not linking, you shouldn't be encouraged to read a Shadowman book) and the poorly named Punk Mambo. Unfortunately, more of this story is focused on the Shadowman mythos than Ninjak's interaction with it. So the story plods confusingly through a hellish landscape that no writer has yet made frightening, intimidating, visually striking, or thematically interesting. Every tiny inconvenience is immediately overcome in the main storyline as they try and ... free Shadowman ?.. rescue the previous team sent into Deadside ?.. learn more about the dimension ?... Nothing in this book is clear. Nothing made me want to learn more about any of the characters, or the world they inhabit.
This is a thoroughly skippable portion of the Valiant Universe.
I'm certainly sad that Kindt's consistently interesting Valiant Universe titles run has this misstep along its path. There's potential intrigue in tossing Ninjak, a suave British ninja assassin who works with the Valiant Universe's Avengers, [b:Unity, Volume 1: To Kill a King|20313289|Unity, Volume 1 To Kill a King|Matt Kindt|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1392028211l/20313289._SY75_.jpg|28147960], into a magical storyline featuring the much misused Shadowman (I'm not linking, you shouldn't be encouraged to read a Shadowman book) and the poorly named Punk Mambo. Unfortunately, more of this story is focused on the Shadowman mythos than Ninjak's interaction with it. So the story plods confusingly through a hellish landscape that no writer has yet made frightening, intimidating, visually striking, or thematically interesting. Every tiny inconvenience is immediately overcome in the main storyline as they try and ... free Shadowman ?.. rescue the previous team sent into Deadside ?.. learn more about the dimension ?... Nothing in this book is clear. Nothing made me want to learn more about any of the characters, or the world they inhabit.
This is a thoroughly skippable portion of the Valiant Universe.
grilledcheesesamurai's review against another edition
4.0
This volume is absolutely bonkers. I mean one second we're all super ninja spy and shit - and then all of a sudden we're in an alternate dimension called Deadside chasing after a big nasty monster dude that ripped of MI-6...and there's all this magic supernatural stuff happening everywhere.
I mean...Ninjak literally rides an island (only its, not an island it turns out it's an elder god and after Ninjak ripped the giant freaking sword that's as tall as a building out of theislands God's back it somehow came under his control).
So, he rides the freakingisland God into a city called Shamballa and fucks shit up and win's the day. Or sorta. Gotta read the book to actually find out.
See? Bonkers. And that's not even half the crazy shit that goes down. Just one slice outta the pie.
But bonkers is great and even though there wasn't a lot of Ninja'y spy shit happening it was still a helluva fun ride!
I mean...Ninjak literally rides an island (only its, not an island it turns out it's an elder god and after Ninjak ripped the giant freaking sword that's as tall as a building out of the
So, he rides the freaking
See? Bonkers. And that's not even half the crazy shit that goes down. Just one slice outta the pie.
But bonkers is great and even though there wasn't a lot of Ninja'y spy shit happening it was still a helluva fun ride!
mistled's review against another edition
3.0
So this time around we're in some sort of demon world? Or something? I don't know, but this book is heavy on the magic and crazy. Less spycraft, more straight-forward adventure. But with magic. And demons. It's still a good time, though I do like the spy stuff more.
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