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liketheday's review
3.0
This is a really thick collection, with something like ten individual issues, or half-issues, or I don't know what's going on with the number here, inside it. And so the stories end up going all over the place, half with Tom & Co. and the other half delving hardcore into the history of this whole storytelling thing, with Pullman and the marionette lady and a giant fish thing and a bunch of tertiary storytellers and the cabal and the people who run the grid and why couldn't we have gone back to that evil Mr. Bun while we were at it?
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lisawreading's review
5.0
At this point, I don't think I could explain this series even if I tried -- but somehow, despite it's hard-to-wrap-my-head-around logic and complications, I'm still enthralled. Onward!
3dmelg's review
2.0
This volume was just ok. Maybe the 1-month wait for the library copy affected my enthusiasm, but then I just never made it a priority and left it lying around for another month. When I did start reading, I felt disconnected and disinterested. The flashbacks were informative but not fun, and I had a hard time reading the 'old-timey handwriting' at times, here and mostly in other volumes (Wilson Taylor journals especially). I appreciate finally getting some answers in this volume, and the ending was a surprise to me. It managed to make me interested again where I hadn't been planning to follow through anymore. Mostly because now I'm confused again, not so much because I loved it and can't wait for more. I did appreciate that there was no 'Mr. Bun-Bun' segment.
jasmiinaf's review
3.0
I think I liked the last volume more. Maybe. But I liked the ending and the new guy. And I actually think that Pullman is an interesting character, even before he revealed his past and who he really is. But as always the art is amazing.
mankan's review
2.0
Now I remember why I stopped reading this series in 2012. It is the platonic ideal of the two star, ”it’s okay”, rating.
magnetgrrl's review
4.0
Jeebus there's so much to unpack in this one. I'm glad I made it this far. This volume is thicker than the others, and with good reason.
There's origin stories for Rausch, and Pullman among others. Both are really cramped and fuzzy and hard to read - they probably both should have been longer, but were also both a bit boring and depressing so I'm almost glad they were cut short and crammed in. It's partially because of the script font used for Taylors journals - which seems out of place in some parts because we aren't reading the journal, are we? - and the other fonts used for a sort of journalistic voice-over effect from the first person POV on these little flashbacks. It's a LOT to read, and when getting used to a new time period, new faces, and a new art style at the same time - it's like picking up a totally different comic book. Could go either way. Me, I didn't like any of these titles within titles. When you do that, you have to make each of them just as interesting as the comic they are embedded into, otherwise readers just want to skip over them.
Then there's that these other historical origins are so far out of timeline with the main story they don't even seem real. Wilson Taylor keeps getting more and more origin stories it seems! How old is he really? But, actually that's a genre ploy too. There's a common trope in comics of jumping back to another place in time to tell a seemingly separate story that turns out to be about a familiar character's past. It's used 3-5 times in this volume ALONE. Overkill, and a bit obnoxious really - but it happens a lot in comics because it's easy to package a single issue that way as sort of filler. (Like, if it doesn't sell well, it's OK for readers to just skip this one - or it might be collectible someday. Also, as filler it keeps the series going on longer!)
In this volume there are also some crazy plot twists at the VERY end a la "Hey, it was just a dream!" or "This person you've never seen or met before did it!" at the end that look to keep the story going for some more volumes, when it could have all ended here. Not sure how I feel about that yet, actually.
This volume overall is really pretty good though, despite those problems. A bunch is explained, a bunch more questions arise.
The BEST part, probably, in all of this run of story arc, is an idea - fitting really. There's a moment when, to try to defuse Tommy's power from "the grid" the cabal has a group of people start writing and reading, simultaneously, a bunch of crappy stories written about Tommy that are all like, lame AU fanfics. There's a line where one of the cabal's reader monkeys says "Tommy's a bloody accountant in this one!" which made me laugh out loud. I thinks I've *read* that fanfic or one like it and thought the same thing.
I'm not anti-fanfic in any way, but suppose it's actually, LITERALLY, killing fiction - when it's bad or horrifically non-canonical, at least? Like, if the premise of The Unwritten (or any of the other novels which explore the idea that, to create is to perform a kind of magic, and that belief influences reality) were true.... then every toture-angst-porn Harry/Draco or Hermione/Bellatrix fic, every Mystique/Rogue fic or twincest fic, every stupid "coffeeshop", "sports star" or "musician" fic where, mysteriously, characters you know and love completely lose their backstory (and half their personality) and become regular people doing random jobs - or worse - songfics! These fics could be tearing apart the very fabric of the characters they are about and the entire universe they reside in. In like, a theoretical space-time alternate universe kind of way.
Just think on that for a minute.
Or, at least, think on it harder before going to write another "What if Willow were just some awkward redhead, in a world with no magic, living with her BFF Buffy and working at a coffee shop, when her ex from college Tara, now a superstar musician, comes in and sings some lame ass pop song to her...." piece, maybe.
Anyway, The Unwritten continues to surprise, and give lots to think about. Onto volume 7!
There's origin stories for Rausch, and Pullman among others. Both are really cramped and fuzzy and hard to read - they probably both should have been longer, but were also both a bit boring and depressing so I'm almost glad they were cut short and crammed in. It's partially because of the script font used for Taylors journals - which seems out of place in some parts because we aren't reading the journal, are we? - and the other fonts used for a sort of journalistic voice-over effect from the first person POV on these little flashbacks. It's a LOT to read, and when getting used to a new time period, new faces, and a new art style at the same time - it's like picking up a totally different comic book. Could go either way. Me, I didn't like any of these titles within titles. When you do that, you have to make each of them just as interesting as the comic they are embedded into, otherwise readers just want to skip over them.
Then there's that these other historical origins are so far out of timeline with the main story they don't even seem real. Wilson Taylor keeps getting more and more origin stories it seems! How old is he really? But, actually that's a genre ploy too. There's a common trope in comics of jumping back to another place in time to tell a seemingly separate story that turns out to be about a familiar character's past. It's used 3-5 times in this volume ALONE. Overkill, and a bit obnoxious really - but it happens a lot in comics because it's easy to package a single issue that way as sort of filler. (Like, if it doesn't sell well, it's OK for readers to just skip this one - or it might be collectible someday. Also, as filler it keeps the series going on longer!)
In this volume there are also some crazy plot twists at the VERY end a la "Hey, it was just a dream!" or "This person you've never seen or met before did it!" at the end that look to keep the story going for some more volumes, when it could have all ended here. Not sure how I feel about that yet, actually.
This volume overall is really pretty good though, despite those problems. A bunch is explained, a bunch more questions arise.
The BEST part, probably, in all of this run of story arc, is an idea - fitting really. There's a moment when, to try to defuse Tommy's power from "the grid" the cabal has a group of people start writing and reading, simultaneously, a bunch of crappy stories written about Tommy that are all like, lame AU fanfics. There's a line where one of the cabal's reader monkeys says "Tommy's a bloody accountant in this one!" which made me laugh out loud. I thinks I've *read* that fanfic or one like it and thought the same thing.
I'm not anti-fanfic in any way, but suppose it's actually, LITERALLY, killing fiction - when it's bad or horrifically non-canonical, at least? Like, if the premise of The Unwritten (or any of the other novels which explore the idea that, to create is to perform a kind of magic, and that belief influences reality) were true.... then every toture-angst-porn Harry/Draco or Hermione/Bellatrix fic, every Mystique/Rogue fic or twincest fic, every stupid "coffeeshop", "sports star" or "musician" fic where, mysteriously, characters you know and love completely lose their backstory (and half their personality) and become regular people doing random jobs - or worse - songfics! These fics could be tearing apart the very fabric of the characters they are about and the entire universe they reside in. In like, a theoretical space-time alternate universe kind of way.
Just think on that for a minute.
Or, at least, think on it harder before going to write another "What if Willow were just some awkward redhead, in a world with no magic, living with her BFF Buffy and working at a coffee shop, when her ex from college Tara, now a superstar musician, comes in and sings some lame ass pop song to her...." piece, maybe.
Anyway, The Unwritten continues to surprise, and give lots to think about. Onto volume 7!
chirson's review
3.0
It feels as though they're running out of steam (and recent plot developments don't strike me as all that interesting).
let_the_wookie_read's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0