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spacemanchris 's review for:
Fence: Striking Distance
by Sarah Rees Brennan
While I await the next volume of the comic "Fence" it's nice to spend some more time with some of the characters in this spin-off novel.
Set as a prestigious fancy private boys school the series follows a group on the fencing team with their various plots of romance, intrigue and team building.
Each chapter is narrated by one of the following:
- Harvard - the team's captain who is more concerned with the team's wellbeing than his own.
- Aiden - his best friend and room-mate who spends most of his time romancing as many nameless boys as he can.
- Nicholas - the poor scholarship kid with a secret past who is desperate to become the rival of:
- Seiji - the emotionally distant former partner of Jesse Coste, the number one fencer in the State or area or whatever.
Nicholas is arguably the main character of the comic so it's nice to see a bit more of the inner monologues from the other three characters. That being said, I feel like the Aiden chapters made me dislike the character even more which is probably the opposite of what is intended. I was totally with Nicholas when he said he finds it hard to understand Aiden and just automatically tunes him out.
A bigger issue is that Harvard has a massive blind spot for all the shitty things Aiden does. It's one thing for him to be oblivious to everything else that's going on but for him to explain away Aiden's shitty behaviour to those around him is not an endearing feature for either character.
But it's worth getting through those chapters for the relationship between Nicholas and Seiji, as their frienemy dynamic is my favourite part of the comic and is carried on nicely here. Nicholas' desire to be friends, best friends and eventually rivals is pretty obviously a subconscious cover for his crush on Seiji, but going by how amusingly obtuse he can be, it might be awhile before he figures it out.
Either way Nicholas's devotion to Seiji is cute as hell, and Seiji's protectiveness of Nicholas is equally adorable. But I really dislike Aiden and Harvard's Aiden-sized blindspot is equally irritating.
It all makes me wonder how canonical this is when it comes to the comics. I guess we'll have to wait until volume five.
Edit: having now re-read the first four graphic novels I am more inclined to agree with some of the harsher criticism of this book. All four narrators with the exception of Aiden come across as developmentally challenged, on the spectrum or just plain stupid. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, I think it's good to feature characters from a whole range of backgrounds and attitudes, but it does seem to come out of nowhere when looking back at the original stories.
Aiden is done pretty badly in general. He's portrayed as entirely uncaring and selfish, which is a part of his character in the comics but it's taken to the absolute extreme here where he's entirely unlikable, which is not an impression I got in the comic. I outright hated him most of this book, but in re-reading the comics he's kind of a loveable jerk.
Harvard is a strong, caring leader, and he does have a bit of a blind spot for Aiden in the comics but here he's potrayed as stupid, particularly when it comes to romance and especially when it comes to how badly Aiden treats those around him. Also he and Aiden appear to be in a semi-abusive relationship, so there's that.
Also Nicholas and Seiji do occasionally come across more like ten year olds rather than the fifteen year olds they are, as other reviewers have pointed out. Seiji flat out appears on the spectrum, which as I said is fine but it's definitely not how he's portrayed in the comic. And honestly I had less of a problem with this because they still have a very cute relationship.
Part of the problem seems to be that in the comic the characters aren't given that much time to develop, so while all of the above may be entirely within character, it's all stuff that we haven't experienced up until now.
Set as a prestigious fancy private boys school the series follows a group on the fencing team with their various plots of romance, intrigue and team building.
Each chapter is narrated by one of the following:
- Harvard - the team's captain who is more concerned with the team's wellbeing than his own.
- Aiden - his best friend and room-mate who spends most of his time romancing as many nameless boys as he can.
- Nicholas - the poor scholarship kid with a secret past who is desperate to become the rival of:
- Seiji - the emotionally distant former partner of Jesse Coste, the number one fencer in the State or area or whatever.
Nicholas is arguably the main character of the comic so it's nice to see a bit more of the inner monologues from the other three characters. That being said, I feel like the Aiden chapters made me dislike the character even more which is probably the opposite of what is intended. I was totally with Nicholas when he said he finds it hard to understand Aiden and just automatically tunes him out.
A bigger issue is that Harvard has a massive blind spot for all the shitty things Aiden does. It's one thing for him to be oblivious to everything else that's going on but for him to explain away Aiden's shitty behaviour to those around him is not an endearing feature for either character.
But it's worth getting through those chapters for the relationship between Nicholas and Seiji, as their frienemy dynamic is my favourite part of the comic and is carried on nicely here. Nicholas' desire to be friends, best friends and eventually rivals is pretty obviously a subconscious cover for his crush on Seiji, but going by how amusingly obtuse he can be, it might be awhile before he figures it out.
Either way Nicholas's devotion to Seiji is cute as hell, and Seiji's protectiveness of Nicholas is equally adorable. But I really dislike Aiden and Harvard's Aiden-sized blindspot is equally irritating.
It all makes me wonder how canonical this is when it comes to the comics. I guess we'll have to wait until volume five.
Edit: having now re-read the first four graphic novels I am more inclined to agree with some of the harsher criticism of this book. All four narrators with the exception of Aiden come across as developmentally challenged, on the spectrum or just plain stupid. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, I think it's good to feature characters from a whole range of backgrounds and attitudes, but it does seem to come out of nowhere when looking back at the original stories.
Aiden is done pretty badly in general. He's portrayed as entirely uncaring and selfish, which is a part of his character in the comics but it's taken to the absolute extreme here where he's entirely unlikable, which is not an impression I got in the comic. I outright hated him most of this book, but in re-reading the comics he's kind of a loveable jerk.
Harvard is a strong, caring leader, and he does have a bit of a blind spot for Aiden in the comics but here he's potrayed as stupid, particularly when it comes to romance and especially when it comes to how badly Aiden treats those around him. Also he and Aiden appear to be in a semi-abusive relationship, so there's that.
Also Nicholas and Seiji do occasionally come across more like ten year olds rather than the fifteen year olds they are, as other reviewers have pointed out. Seiji flat out appears on the spectrum, which as I said is fine but it's definitely not how he's portrayed in the comic. And honestly I had less of a problem with this because they still have a very cute relationship.
Part of the problem seems to be that in the comic the characters aren't given that much time to develop, so while all of the above may be entirely within character, it's all stuff that we haven't experienced up until now.