Reviews

Batman: No Man's Land by Greg Rucka

annashiv's review

4.0

Overall, really great. For me, just a little slow at times. Some people's parts were less interesting to read about than others. And that ending just didn't quite work for me. It felt a little forced, but I know it's based on the comic, and maybe it worked a little better in that format. Still, I thought it was great. It was good to see all the characters and their interactions and relationships.

royster31's review

4.0

Really enjoyed Batman: No Man's Land. I think if you are a die-hard Batman fan or not this is still an enjoyable read.

4.5 ⭐️

nightwolfnym's review

3.0

After an earthquake destroys Gotham, the government has declared it separate from the United States and it has become known as No Man's Land. Only a few remain behind to help restore the city to what it once was, but first they have to fight against Gotham's most notorious villains, who now have free rein over the city...and Batman is nowhere to be seen. This was given to me to read, otherwise I probably would have never read it since I'm not very fond of books adapted from other sources nor have I ever been interested in reading any books based on superheros, but I found myself pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Batman: No Man's Land. The story was dark and gritty and not everybody gets a happy ending. I found myself enjoying all the characters, my two favorites had to be Cassandra and Huntress. I've always been drawn to characters who have shades of grey about them. Also, this was my first experience to the Joker/Harley Quinn relationship and holy smokes, talk about all sorts of messed up with those two!

teachinsci's review against another edition

4.0

Dark, and serious as any Batman story. Also, though, surprisingly realistic. Batman and his proteges get injured. People who are in horrible situations do things they wouldn't otherwise. Several of Batman's major villains make appearances but, even as they are to character, they are realistic instead of cartoonish.
If you enjoy superhero stories in general and Batman in particular, I would recommend this novel.

deranged_pegasus's review against another edition

5.0

This book is a wonderfully written narrative. The decision of the author to write the majority of the book as journal entries was pure genius. Any who love Batman will love this book.

hallj05's review

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

tomwright's review

3.0

I haven't read the comic yet, but I think it will work better as a comic than a book. So many characters, without a satisfying conclusion to their arcs.

apageinthestacks's review against another edition

5.0

4.5/5. This was surprisingly really, really good. I’m not really a fan of novel adaptations in general (films, games, comics, etc), as I always find it incredibly hard to, for lack of a better word, “believe” in the world through prose. Reading about a guy dressed up as a Bat jumping over rooftops just reads as really dumb, at least to me. But watching that in a couple panels when done well in a comic, or in a scene in a film? Awesomeness. And I really don’t know why.

This, though, didn’t have too many of those moments. A couple times I sorta skimmed some description, but for the most part I was actually fully invested in the stories and characters. Two Face and Joker and Batman and all the other characters didn’t sound dumb, like they usually do for me in prose.

That alone earns it high marks. It also helps that I’ve never actually read the No Man’s Land story before, and it was a great story. Looking forward to reading the comic version sometime.

blacksentai's review

4.0

This book does a decent job of trying to be non-comic fan friendly, but the story it pulls from is completely unfriendly to new comers. That said, I really really enjoy this book. It was a blast to revisit and remains my favorite of Batman's Storylines. The pacing of the plot is excellent. I don't like some of the characterization of a few characters (namely Oracle and her absurd hatred of Huntress), but overall it gets a lot of things right. I don't think Rucka could've done a better job of getting the whole of no man's land condensed into one decent sized novel. In some ways it's better than the source material because it strips away a good deal of the extraneous stuff.

gothicgunslinger's review

4.0

Good, although a bit slow at times... but the last 20 pages or so made up for that in the form of pure awesome. I wish it had stuck more with Joker and Harley throughout, so it could have built up a tension with him as the main villain and not just someone coming out of left field at the end... but I'm pretty biased when it comes to Joker. Still, very good.