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A review by lincolncreadsbooks
Peter & Max by Bill Willingham
5.0
Two things you should know going into this review. The first is that this novel is based on a comic series called Fables, which tells stories about characters from fairy tales living in the real world. The second is that, while you don't need to read Fables in order to enjoy this novel, if you line up ten comic fans, only one of which reads Fables, Fables is still going to be the best continuing series any of them have ever read. Hands down.
Alright, now that that's out of the way; Peter and Max tells the story of Peter Piper (of pickled pepper-picking fame) and his brother Max (the Pied Piper of Hamelin). Max is a bad guy, you see, and Peter finally has the chance to rid the world of him. The fairly straightforward story of Peter's travel to Germany to find and defeat Max would be a rather uninteresting short story by itself (though the conflict is resolved ingeniously), but is interspersed throughout a narrative that tells the story of Max and Peter as children, their flight into the Black Forest during the Emperor's occupation of the Homelands, their time in Hamelin and growth to adulthood, their first epic battle, and Max's first encounter with Fabletown in the new world. Basically, by the time the Piper brothers fight to the finish, you've gotten their whole history (I won't spoil it for you, but there's a couple of magic flutes and a crippled lover involved), and you're as ready to see justice done as Peter (and Max, in his own twisted way) is.
Mr. Willingham's expert storytelling should come as no surprise to fans of the comic; no one else could tell a Fables story like Bill, and the book is filled with rich detail and excitement that moves the 368-page novel along at a pretty good clip. Illustrations by Steve Leialoha (the inker on the comic series) are scattered throughout and the book includes a short comic at the end, starring Peter Piper and his wife, Bo Peep. I could have done without the comic; the idea covered in the eight-or-so pages could have been developed into a great issue of Fables, but instead was rather half-assed and seemed to be done as an afterthought. The novel, though, was excellent, and I really hope Bill sees fit to produce a few more of these. 9/10.
Alright, now that that's out of the way; Peter and Max tells the story of Peter Piper (of pickled pepper-picking fame) and his brother Max (the Pied Piper of Hamelin). Max is a bad guy, you see, and Peter finally has the chance to rid the world of him. The fairly straightforward story of Peter's travel to Germany to find and defeat Max would be a rather uninteresting short story by itself (though the conflict is resolved ingeniously), but is interspersed throughout a narrative that tells the story of Max and Peter as children, their flight into the Black Forest during the Emperor's occupation of the Homelands, their time in Hamelin and growth to adulthood, their first epic battle, and Max's first encounter with Fabletown in the new world. Basically, by the time the Piper brothers fight to the finish, you've gotten their whole history (I won't spoil it for you, but there's a couple of magic flutes and a crippled lover involved), and you're as ready to see justice done as Peter (and Max, in his own twisted way) is.
Mr. Willingham's expert storytelling should come as no surprise to fans of the comic; no one else could tell a Fables story like Bill, and the book is filled with rich detail and excitement that moves the 368-page novel along at a pretty good clip. Illustrations by Steve Leialoha (the inker on the comic series) are scattered throughout and the book includes a short comic at the end, starring Peter Piper and his wife, Bo Peep. I could have done without the comic; the idea covered in the eight-or-so pages could have been developed into a great issue of Fables, but instead was rather half-assed and seemed to be done as an afterthought. The novel, though, was excellent, and I really hope Bill sees fit to produce a few more of these. 9/10.