bethtabler's review against another edition

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3.0

I have read a lot of Ellis over the years. Next to Gaiman he is my favorite graphic novelist and Frankly transmetropolitan is absolute genius. That being said this was just eh for me. His writing is always good, and graphically this is well done. So it isn’t those things, but the story arc felt so flat. It felt flat and combat magician is kind of a thing in urban fantasy right now and sorry to say they did it better. Gravel reminds me of Dresden and John Constantine but without Dresden’s heart or Constantine’s swagger. I wanted to like gravel but he lacked the hook that made me empathize or understand him at all. He was a G.I Joe with magic. It’s still a decent read. I don’t think Ellis can put out anything terrible. He is like pizza, even when it’s sorta bad it’s still damn good. I just don’t think it’s one of his best. I’ll continue with the serious the ideas and plot are very interesting. We shall see where it goes.
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