Scan barcode
tsharris's review
5.0
I really enjoyed how Morrison wrapped up the series. It wasn't entirely clean, but there was a sort of intellectual synthesis reached by the end. I know I'll revisit it again in the future, and I really want to read (and re-read) some of the source material Morrison drew upon in writing this series.
matt4hire's review
5.0
I really, really do love this volume. I know many people don't. But man, what an excellent story. Like I've said in earlier reviews, The Invisibles works best when parts of the story are just out of reach...and I love how this brings so many things together. One of the parts I love best, that I finally just now discovered (this is my 5th or 6th reread), is how Edie, when talking about the end of her life, is talking about how what really matters are goodness and kindness, in other words, positive emotions. And then, at the end, we find out that the language that Barbelith speaks in is pure emotion, and it only has positive emotions for all of us. And that's just a touch.
janedoelish's review
3.0
Ugh.
I considered evaluating this collection by giving it stars, but found that I could not do that. Every grade from one star to five would be an accurate description of my reading experience. It defies categorization. I cannot say if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Perhaps the text simply defies such categorization.
The book is a giant mess, but there is method to its madness. Traditional plotting and pacing are thrown right out of the window, and yet there is a kind of structure to it. The underlying philosophy wriggles like a slippery fish, yet dares the reader to grasp it more firmly. It is tedious - and strangely exciting.
I considered evaluating this collection by giving it stars, but found that I could not do that. Every grade from one star to five would be an accurate description of my reading experience. It defies categorization. I cannot say if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Perhaps the text simply defies such categorization.
The book is a giant mess, but there is method to its madness. Traditional plotting and pacing are thrown right out of the window, and yet there is a kind of structure to it. The underlying philosophy wriggles like a slippery fish, yet dares the reader to grasp it more firmly. It is tedious - and strangely exciting.
space_gaudet's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
void_punk's review
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
thecommonswings's review
5.0
What can I say... a little hurried in places and some loose ends are particularly tantalising but it’s admirably melancholy as well as a strong conclusion to the series
the_graylien's review
5.0
The final volume of "The Invisibles" (both in series and in trade paperback) is truly a thing to behold.
This book is the final volume of the series and contains the final volume of humankind delivered in a medium which may or may not be fiction.
Stylistically, it is a sort of return to the first volume of the series. As a work of fiction/art/magic, it is one of a kind.
Upon finishing this entire series for what I remember to be the second time, it has changed my life. I recommend you read it and change yours.
This book is the final volume of the series and contains the final volume of humankind delivered in a medium which may or may not be fiction.
Stylistically, it is a sort of return to the first volume of the series. As a work of fiction/art/magic, it is one of a kind.
Upon finishing this entire series for what I remember to be the second time, it has changed my life. I recommend you read it and change yours.
jgkeely's review
1.0
It's been a long journey. I wanted to finish, hoping Morrison would be able to pull it out in the end. After all, he's written some very good books, and it was in part because of them that I gave him the benefit of the doubt.
The Invisibles almost turned me off of Morrison entirely when I first started them, and if not for his other books, I wouldn't have attempted it again. It wasn't that this series was insulting, its faults are the product of poor construction, which in turn was the result of Morrison's inability to edit himself.
It didn't help that the final series is numbered in reverse, causing me to read the last three comics as the first three. At first, I'd thought that Morrison's experimental plotting had reached some sort of frenzied climax, where empty symbols had completely taken over any sense of meaning. It was almost exciting.
My error was a bit confusing, but revealed part of why Morrison comes off so flat to me. Morrison's story works like a drug trip (indeed, he utilizes several real-life trips as direct inspiration for his comics), the semi-random firings of neurons brought on by sleep and (hallucinogenic) drugs creates an overlay of sensory and symbolic experience which we then try to comprehend.
Morrison produces a similar effect in this story, except he culls his symbols and sensory experiences not from the recognizable or the metaphorical, but from the theoretical, the metaphysical, even the paranoid. His reality has no focus, and exists in an interchangeable, dreamlike state; and like a dream, all that interconnects it is moment-to-moment continuation.
Yet he is not content for his narrative to take the scattered, multifaceted form of a dream, instead he tries to coalesce it into some holistic truth. But how can a holistic truth be built on an unrelated scree? Discordians adapt it into satire by accepting the absurdism of any notion of truth, but Morrison is too much the believer to take that route.
What sets Morrison apart from both Moore and Gaiman is that he's come to believe in his own bullshit. This story is too close to home for him, and beyond basing it on his own philosophies, he suggests that the whole work is a magic spell that is controlling his life. The end result being that Morrison stops working to make the thing coherent because he believes it will be, no matter what he does.
Unshakable belief in your own work is the death of imagination. Without a constant doubt as to the quality or coherence of the message, the inflow of unchecked ideas quickly fills the work to the brim, crowding out characters or plot.
Morrison wraps it all up with something that looks but does not feel like a climax. Though he sets up evil empires, double agents, monomythic battles against evil, magic items, and monsters galore, he spends his exposition trying to explain this or that 5th-dimensional crystal instead of writing the story.
That being said, it did inspire me to think more about physical exploration and catharsis. The art gets better as the series closes up, though the latter books are a bit annoying in that they switch abruptly from one artist to the next.
I finished the thing. It taught me a lot of things not to do as a writer and helped me to recognize why some of Morrison's stories work so very well and why others are so wacky and confused. I'll have to make sure that if I ever write my dream project--near and dear to my heart--that I have a very smart and very honest editor to stop me from buying my own line of bullshit and trying to sell it to my hapless fans, who would prefer I just wrote well instead of playing the magical messiah.
My Suggested Reading In Comics
The Invisibles almost turned me off of Morrison entirely when I first started them, and if not for his other books, I wouldn't have attempted it again. It wasn't that this series was insulting, its faults are the product of poor construction, which in turn was the result of Morrison's inability to edit himself.
It didn't help that the final series is numbered in reverse, causing me to read the last three comics as the first three. At first, I'd thought that Morrison's experimental plotting had reached some sort of frenzied climax, where empty symbols had completely taken over any sense of meaning. It was almost exciting.
My error was a bit confusing, but revealed part of why Morrison comes off so flat to me. Morrison's story works like a drug trip (indeed, he utilizes several real-life trips as direct inspiration for his comics), the semi-random firings of neurons brought on by sleep and (hallucinogenic) drugs creates an overlay of sensory and symbolic experience which we then try to comprehend.
Morrison produces a similar effect in this story, except he culls his symbols and sensory experiences not from the recognizable or the metaphorical, but from the theoretical, the metaphysical, even the paranoid. His reality has no focus, and exists in an interchangeable, dreamlike state; and like a dream, all that interconnects it is moment-to-moment continuation.
Yet he is not content for his narrative to take the scattered, multifaceted form of a dream, instead he tries to coalesce it into some holistic truth. But how can a holistic truth be built on an unrelated scree? Discordians adapt it into satire by accepting the absurdism of any notion of truth, but Morrison is too much the believer to take that route.
What sets Morrison apart from both Moore and Gaiman is that he's come to believe in his own bullshit. This story is too close to home for him, and beyond basing it on his own philosophies, he suggests that the whole work is a magic spell that is controlling his life. The end result being that Morrison stops working to make the thing coherent because he believes it will be, no matter what he does.
Unshakable belief in your own work is the death of imagination. Without a constant doubt as to the quality or coherence of the message, the inflow of unchecked ideas quickly fills the work to the brim, crowding out characters or plot.
Morrison wraps it all up with something that looks but does not feel like a climax. Though he sets up evil empires, double agents, monomythic battles against evil, magic items, and monsters galore, he spends his exposition trying to explain this or that 5th-dimensional crystal instead of writing the story.
That being said, it did inspire me to think more about physical exploration and catharsis. The art gets better as the series closes up, though the latter books are a bit annoying in that they switch abruptly from one artist to the next.
I finished the thing. It taught me a lot of things not to do as a writer and helped me to recognize why some of Morrison's stories work so very well and why others are so wacky and confused. I'll have to make sure that if I ever write my dream project--near and dear to my heart--that I have a very smart and very honest editor to stop me from buying my own line of bullshit and trying to sell it to my hapless fans, who would prefer I just wrote well instead of playing the magical messiah.
My Suggested Reading In Comics
booknooknoggin's review
3.0
Different than I anticipated. Actually disappointed in this ending. Oh well. Great series overall with an okay ending.
More...