Reviews

Fables n. 9: Figli dell'Impero by Bill Willingham

wealhtheow's review against another edition

2.0

The Adversary calls together the leaders of the Empire to decide what to do to Fabletown. The Snow Queen proposes killing all the mundies to leave the escaped Fables defenseless, but Pinnochio points out that the mundies have technology that might overpower the Empire's magic. To buy time, the Adversary sends WitchFinder Hansel to Fabletown to negotiate a treaty.

There are far too many mini-stories in this book. Reading a long section about Santa Claus, or what a lethario Jack is, is cute, but detracts from the building danger. To make matters worse, the art direction has begun to fall apart. The story of "Father and Son" is poor, but the art is even worse. I don't expect art to be consistently as excellent as "Porky Pine Pie", but it would be nice if the characters looked like themselves.

nonesensed's review against another edition

5.0

Beautiful art, interesting takes on classic fairy tale characters and a plot that drew me in from the start. Will need to re-read this one of these days!

thespinsterlibrarian's review against another edition

3.0

3.5. While I could read volumes about Bibgy, Snow, and their kids, this volume was a bit lacking on story development.

blackwolf's review against another edition

adventurous tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

inferiorwit's review against another edition

dark funny tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Violence, Blood, and Murder

emkoshka's review against another edition

4.0

Another fun romp, with a scary summit in the Homelands and quite a chilling evocation of a possible destructive future for Fabletown and the Mundy world but also their reaction. Out-and-out war seems out of the question for now. There were lots of expository gems in this volume: Ambrose's regression to a frog, the origin story of Hansel the witch-killer, a charming and colourful Christmas story and the possibility of something between Boy Blue and Rose Red, a first visit to Mr North's castle kingdom for the Wolf family and of course the humorously answered burning questions, which was a neat touch.

corpuslibris's review against another edition

3.0

I do like where the story lines are going, and I like the broad allusions to armed struggles, both in the ancient past and the unfortunate present.

However, I didn't really like the guest artists. It really did make it feel like they were different stories, didn't feel integrated.

heypretty52's review against another edition

4.0

Another entertaining volume in the Fables saga.

booksandbosox's review against another edition

4.0

I'll be interested to see where the storyline with Pinocchio goes, as well at the stuff about the Frog Prince. I liked the Santa bit - cute - and I knew it wouldn't be long before Bigby was mopey again.

reader44ever's review against another edition

5.0

First Read August 18, 2018.

It was nice to finally meet Rapunzel in this volume. She was in an intermediate short story called "Hair." :-)

I also enjoyed meeting Santa Claus in "Jiminy Christmas," one of the stories with Bigby and Snow's cubs. :-)

And then we got to visit Mr. North in "Father and Son, Chapters One and Two: A Man's Home Is His Castle and Big Scary Monsters!" We also

got to meet Bigby's six older brothers after they tried to eat Ambrose. (!!!) Bigby took them in hand and they were changed into goldfish for the cubs. (!!!)

So this story was full of excitement. :-)

These were not the only side stories told in this volume. We also had "Porky Pine Pie," "A Thorn in Their Side?", "The Road to Paradise," and 11 more in "Burning Questions." :-) Of all these, my favorites were "The Road to Paradise," which featured the Three Blind Mice, and "Who Caught the Bouquet at Snow White's Wedding?" Because the answer to this Burning Question?

Clara swooped in and snatched it!

Of course, seeing "What Is Frau Totenkinder Knitting?" was also great fun. :-D

And you know what? I'm going to increase my star rating for this volume. I might need to increase my star rating for ALL the volumes. But for this one, with so many different artists involved, I could still easily identify who was who in the stories. That's worth an extra star. And all of the volumes have had really excellent art, so I think I'll go through and add a star for the art, giving all of the volumes five stars. :-)

Oops, I just noticed that I haven't said anything about the main story in this volume. Sons of Empire was pretty great, too:

Lumi - the Snow Queen - laid out her plan to defeat the "rebel fables" and the mundy world; Pinocchio laid out why that plan would fail; and Gepetto and Lumi were last seen walking off, with an owl swooping in to eavesdrop (?) and Gepetto saying, "Solve these new problems, Lumi, so the war can still begin in three years' time."

Now I just want to know if that owl is a Fable, and if it is, is it a good - "rebel" - Fable or a bad - Empire - Fable? :-)