Books of Magic: Death After Death

Rating:
Summary: The promising start dwindles away
Review: I don't know what happened to John Ney Rieber... after his promising start on The Books of Magic, his stories slowly started to lose that magic. These stories fall at the end of Rieber's run at the title, and they're mighty thin gruel compared to what came before.

It may be the fact that any elements of light or real humor have been vacuumed from the book. Molly, a fantastic creation, isn't very much in evidence here and Tim Hunter's incessant whining simply becomes too much. Artist Gross took over the book after this series and made some improvements, but it was too late and the book ended. Rieber did a Books of Faerie with Molly that showed the man had lost his way: It shared much with this volume in the incomprehensible storytelling and not-very-interesting characterizations.

So, for completists only, and only for those completists willing to have their fond memories of the series in its heyday sullied by this volume.

Rating:
Summary: NO sense of Completion
Review: I loved the the Ideas in this series, and feel that the Execution of said ideas was Never fully birthed, especially in this Volume. The Story of Tim Hunter is full of great characters but in this volume their voices never gain the gravity of a full personality.Tim's suedo father never seems to grow outside the bland dad who almost eats nuns and occasionaly turns into chocalate,contrivences that point out his blandness by seeking to over-compinsate.The story threads of the previous books still dangle in our faces, while we are helplessly waiting for for some sense of milestone, lost on tims journey, doubting its undertaking if it leads us nowhere.I believe this comic is a victim of the monthly publishing wars and never grew out of the ruff sketches of Neil Gaiman.And yet, i still read, captivated by the profound ideas in this book. I just hope that the movie of this series inspires some Alan moorian hooka-Induced plot scripting to reinvigarate a series all of us readers desire.If you like the series, you know your going to buy this book.

Rating:
Summary: Good trees, but not much of a forest
Review: I was disappointed in this book because I expected Reiber's end, as the writer, to come in a way that concluded all the work up to this point. But nothing ever seems to really end, or ever really be concluded, in this series. Big plotlines come and go and are MOSTLY finished, but seem to end abruptly, and not for good reasons. I'd say "Death After Death" needed one more draft to reach its potential.

However, there are a LOT of very good things in these issues. Tim Hunter finally comes to a decision about his powers. Many hanging plot elements are settled, if not always satisfactorily. There are many great individual scenes, and it makes for fascinating reading. If you're a fan of this series, then I have to recommend this book, but...

The main problem is this: you can't keep explaining old plot twists just by introducing new plot twists. Think of a story as a road. At some point, it's supposed to take the reader to a real destination. I suspect Reiber may actually disagree with that philosophy of writing--to him, it's all about the journey, and who cares what it all adds up to? Well, his work on the Books of Magic makes a pretty good argument...there's a LOT to like here...but in the end, I'm a bit disappointed in a story that's all trees and no forest.