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A review by murderbot42
Peter & Max by Steve Leiloha, Bill Willingham
3.0
Sadly a very meh story. The idea could have been great, the execution was very less than. If this wasn't a part of the Fables universe, I would very definitely give it a 2, but I want to give it the benefit of the doubt because I know what Bill Willingham can do when he is in his element (which this is not).
Also, this book had so many technical problems! Formatting errors and grammar errors and just so much! I looked at the publishing company and it was literally DC comics. DC does comics. Not books. Why did they think they could do books and not hire anybody who had done an actual book before? Because that's clearly what happened. Every other page there was a formatting or grammatical error and it was so frustrating! There were also some significant editing errors, which you would think even comic book editors would know how to do, but apparently that doesn't translate well to books. For example, there's a point in the story where music is banned from this town. With no explanation whatsoever. Just: mean baddies. That's why. Coincidentally, this is also what leads Peter toto join the thieves guild, because he has to thieve for food instead of playing for it , which is a significant plot point that needs to happen to move the story forward. Then later, when Max comes to town, and it's important for plot points that he be able to play music, all of a sudden it's not outlawed anymore. Why? Cause: mean baddies are soft now? Really? This is the best editing that this team could do?
Not to nitpick, but a couple more complaints were, Max was just too cartoon-y evil for me to take seriously. The bit with the husband and wife in the cottage? What was the point of that? And then right after that complete and utter evilness, he runs into "the witch" and is completely subservient to her, just does everything she says. Why? Why does he switch that quickly? It makes no sense. And the format, the scenes from "today" and the scenes in flashback, the way they are formatted makes each one give spoilers for the next. We found out in the today that Max would get a flute from the witch, so when 100 pages later Max is looking around at all the other stuff he could potentially take, and Willingham is describing them all, the whole time you're thinking "Why?" because we already know! what is going to happen! Why do we care about that entire scene? We know what's going to happen!
This whole book is just a sad experience, and I am regretting reading it a bit.
Also, this book had so many technical problems! Formatting errors and grammar errors and just so much! I looked at the publishing company and it was literally DC comics. DC does comics. Not books. Why did they think they could do books and not hire anybody who had done an actual book before? Because that's clearly what happened. Every other page there was a formatting or grammatical error and it was so frustrating! There were also some significant editing errors, which you would think even comic book editors would know how to do, but apparently that doesn't translate well to books. For example, there's a point in the story where music is banned from this town. With no explanation whatsoever. Just: mean baddies. That's why. Coincidentally, this is also what leads Peter to
Not to nitpick, but a couple more complaints were, Max was just too cartoon-y evil for me to take seriously. The bit with the husband and wife in the cottage? What was the point of that? And then right after that complete and utter evilness, he runs into "the witch" and is completely subservient to her, just does everything she says. Why? Why does he switch that quickly? It makes no sense. And the format, the scenes from "today" and the scenes in flashback, the way they are formatted makes each one give spoilers for the next. We found out in the today that Max would get a flute from the witch, so when 100 pages later Max is looking around at all the other stuff he could potentially take, and Willingham is describing them all, the whole time you're thinking "Why?" because we already know! what is going to happen! Why do we care about that entire scene? We know what's going to happen!
This whole book is just a sad experience, and I am regretting reading it a bit.