The Books of Magic #2: Bindings

Rating:
Summary: Nothing special
Review: Life is rough if you're a teenage wizard. No, not Harry Potter -- Timothy Hunter, a bespectacled young wiz who predates the present wizardmania. The second of Carla Jablonski's novelizations (of Neil Gaiman's graphic novels) is a pleasant enough adaptation, but really adds nothing.

The land of Faerie is dying. The falconer Tamlin (who can turn into a bird), onetime lover of Queen Titania, seeks to bring it back to life, but the haughty queen won't listen to him. Faerie has been disconnected from the mortal world, and now it's withering away. Who can help it? Timothy Hunter might.

Timothy, still adjusting to the knowledge of his magical ability, is suddenly faced with a new question -- who is his father? The man he's always lived with and called "Dad," or Tamlin? His questions are violently answered when he encounters a horrific beast that is destroying Faerie. To save Faerie, will Tim die?

"Bindings" takes the story Gaiman created in the first "Book of Magic" and uses it as a springboard. There are new characters, a new tone, a faster pace, and the start of an overhanging story arc about Faerie, Titania and Tim's mysterious past. Things suddenly get a whole lot more complex.

Unfortunately, Jablonski's novelization really doesn't do anything for the story -- it's a good story but it could have been much, much better. It evokes little, describes little, and the main additions are minor scenes that weren't in the graphic novel. There's a little more insight into the thoughts of Tamlin and Tim, but the lack of description becomes a little frustrating.

While "Books of Magic 2: Bindings" makes a nice companion piece to the graphic novels, it's not immensely gripping on its own. A good fantasy story, given a middling treatment.

Rating:
Summary: Bindings Simplified
Review: This is the second of the Books of Magic novels based upon the DC comics of the same name. This volume retells the story cycle called Bindings.

The land of Faerie is in trouble and the falconer Tamlin turns to Timothy for help. Faerie is dying. It has been disconnected from our world for too long. Tamlin brings Timothy back to Faerie to show him the desolation but Timothy does not understand.

But after another meeting with Tamlin, and a homeless man named Kenny, Timothy is faced with a new mystery. Who is his father, really? Is it the man he always thought was his father or is it the falconer? Looking for answers, Timothy finds himself back in Faerie in an even more desolate spot.

Timothy quickly finds himself the plaything of a strange man/creature who wants to play with him and then eat him. While trying to stay alive, Tamlin finally manages to convince Queen Titania that Faerie is in trouble and she should remove the walls she has put between Faerie and the human world. She does, but it will not work. Something is blocking it.

Meanwhile Timothy manages to get the best of his captor and finds himself visiting with Death. No, he is not dead, but he is close. Tamlin meanwhile finds Tim's body and takes it to Titania to be cured.

How all these elements tie together (who is Tim's father, how can Tamlin save Tim, will Tim leave Death's realm, will Faerie be saved, etc.) will be left for the reader.

Once again, this novelization lacks much of what made the comic story work. Carla has left out many elements, ones that show Timothy's cleverness, ones that build the sinister nature of Timothy's captor, even the desolation facing Faerie. While in the original Timothy definitely does not have the key to the worlds with him, in this version he uses it to help overcome his captor.

Too much was changed in this story and in the previous one. I do not have high hopes for other volumes in the series.