Scan barcode
A review by wyrmbergmalcolm
Marvel Wastelanders: Star-Lord by Sarah Cawkwell
4.0
The story follows the last two surviving Guardians of the Galaxy; Star-Lord and Rocket as they embark on another adventure. This time they are older, even more cantankerous and no-less incompetent. The constant bickering between the two should have begun to grate, but the underlying, unstated love that the two have for each other takes the callousness away. Plus, it's funny. For Peter Quill, wisdom has not followed age as he continually and optimisitcally bumbles his way across the pages Forrest Gumping himself out of one situation and into another. Rocket has a secret, one that has such an obvious conclusion I saw it coming straight away, but there you go. They are joined by an alien recorder droid meaning the story is often told out of order and the recorder is used to bring certain characters up to speed with events so far. This might be confusing for some, but it has been done in such a way that it should be easy enough to follow.
In the Wasteland stalks Kraven the Hunter and my first main issue with the story. Anything not including Kraven the Hunter is generally light-hearted, even when it's dismal, but Kraven's scenes are extremely violent and visceral. Tonally, I don't feel this worked all that well, as we go from Quill's hilariously useless rescue attempt to a savage murder by Kraven.
The story also follows the usual outsider trope of being the catalyst to a revolution which, though it was a significant part of the story, felt more like the backdrop (it was, but so much so, it was barely worth having in the first place).
The end of the book sees the start of some new thing in motion and... there's no follow-up book. This story is based off of a podcast series that follows a series of elderly heroes and villains in this Wasteland but at the time of reading, and writing this review, this is the first and only novel of the series. A quick Google shows no intimation of book 2 potential existence or release date. Yes, there's the graphic novels and the podcast, but book 2 would be nice.
In the Wasteland stalks Kraven the Hunter and my first main issue with the story. Anything not including Kraven the Hunter is generally light-hearted, even when it's dismal, but Kraven's scenes are extremely violent and visceral. Tonally, I don't feel this worked all that well, as we go from Quill's hilariously useless rescue attempt to a savage murder by Kraven.
The story also follows the usual outsider trope of being the catalyst to a revolution which, though it was a significant part of the story, felt more like the backdrop (it was, but so much so, it was barely worth having in the first place).
The end of the book sees the start of some new thing in motion and... there's no follow-up book. This story is based off of a podcast series that follows a series of elderly heroes and villains in this Wasteland but at the time of reading, and writing this review, this is the first and only novel of the series. A quick Google shows no intimation of book 2 potential existence or release date. Yes, there's the graphic novels and the podcast, but book 2 would be nice.