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kilcannon's review against another edition
3.0
Much better than the first one. More fun, more character, more action.
fandom4ever's review
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Borderlands Unconquered takes place after the first game but before the Pre-Sequel. The only real indication to this is the fact that Roland, Mordecai, and Brick all know each other; because nothing ever makes any mention of their opening a Vault together. I mean, yes, that was the worst opening of a Vault ever, but still, you’d think it would come up at least once.
Through this book it becomes clear that the four Vault Hunters are not friends but merely worked together out of convenience. There’s constant backstabbing, threats of murder, and only looking out for number one. Even so, I did appreciate seeing Roland and Mordecai work together. I felt I got to learn more about who Mordecai is and especially how he’s able to work with Bloodwing. I didn’t feel the same when it came to Brick. I got to see more of his berserker rage from his point of view but he was hardly present in the book, and when he was it was just him smashing things. Same goes for Daphne; for a whole mention on the back of the book, she’s not that central to the plot, and I certainly didn’t feel her dangerous assassin nature.
Overall, I think I liked the first book better story-wise. Of all the things that can be considered interesting on Pandora and its universe, a Psycho bandit army just isn’t enough for a whole book. The first half of the book was really good, I thought, really strong. Then after half way I felt it started to drag, it could have cut probably 100 pages from this to make it more concise and interesting.
I’m also pretty annoyed that the villain wasn’t really taken down by skill but by her sudden desire for revenge. She had been very tactical in her quest for domination but three quarters through the book she decides to continuously go after those who weren’t even interested in stopping her and it all went downhill from there. Especially with her treatment of Roland.
I can’t really recommend this book, even for fans. It doesn’t really add anything to the characters or the world like the first book did. And then, because Marcus is the one telling the story, the book ends with a character questioning how accurate the history even was. The only thing is the next book seems to follow Mordecai and Daphne so I’m not sure how much, if any, of that book harkens back to events in this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Sexual content and Rape
david_agranoff's review
3.0
John Shirley is the author of masterpieces in both Science fiction (City Come a Walkin) and (Wetbones) and horror. In the last couple years he has taken a stab at several more well known movie and comic franchises in tie-in novels. I am a huge fan of his original novels so I have read most of his tie-in novels which have included excellent novels in the Predator universe (Forever Midnight) and Hellblazer(War lord) to name a few.
Last year Shirley had big success with a popular prequel to the video game Bioshock so we shouldn't be surprised that gearbox came to the original cyberpunk legend to expand their Borderlands universe. With a second Borderlands video game coming soon it seemed a good time to go into the origins of two of the games more important characters Mordecai and Brick.
This is a science fiction adventure novel that I believe sets up the events of the video game on a planet called Pandora. I have to admit that a lot of this novel went over my head as I have not played the game, nor did I realize when I picked this novel that it was a second in a series. The action is well done and the characters are rich. It is not over written and nothing is excessively violent. It is a well written tie-in to a popular video franchise and should be on the shelf in the Y-A section of libraries.
Last year Shirley had big success with a popular prequel to the video game Bioshock so we shouldn't be surprised that gearbox came to the original cyberpunk legend to expand their Borderlands universe. With a second Borderlands video game coming soon it seemed a good time to go into the origins of two of the games more important characters Mordecai and Brick.
This is a science fiction adventure novel that I believe sets up the events of the video game on a planet called Pandora. I have to admit that a lot of this novel went over my head as I have not played the game, nor did I realize when I picked this novel that it was a second in a series. The action is well done and the characters are rich. It is not over written and nothing is excessively violent. It is a well written tie-in to a popular video franchise and should be on the shelf in the Y-A section of libraries.
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