Mike Carey & Peter Gross – The Unwritten, Vol. 5: On To Genesis

62. On To Genesis by Mike Carey, Peter Gross, and Vince Locke (2012)
The Unwritten, Volume 5

Read my review of volume:
1. Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity
2. Inside Man
3. Dead Man’s Knock
4. Leviathan

Length: 144 pages
Genre: Fantasy Graphic Novel

Started / Finished: 02 June 2012

Where did it come from? The library.
Why do I have it? I’ve been enjoying this series; I just wish they’d come out quicker!

In this comic book,
Tom finds out comic books may
hold clues to his past.

Summary: Tom Taylor, the child of famous author Wilson Taylor and supposed inspiration for his series of books about Tommy Taylor, the boy wizard, has found the source of his father’s power: the power to use stories to manipulate the world and oppose the powers of the evil Cabal. Now he’s back in New York with his friends Lizzie Hexam and Richie Savoy, and they’re reclaim Wilson’s journals from an auction house that is selling the late author’s effects. But what they find in those journals sends them on a trip into the past, to the Golden Age of comics, where Wilson was somehow mixed up in a pulp superhero series… and may have originally found the idea for Tommy.

Review: This installment of The Unwritten was just as good as ever – and just as sprawling, ambitious, and confusing-in-a-good-way as ever, too. I love that a series that is about the power of stories, and therefore should encompass all literature, does in fact unselfconsciously go from Moby Dick in one volume to pulp 1930s comics in the next. I (still) don’t have a clear picture of where the series is going, but I’m enjoying the ride. This installment didn’t have the kind of “Oh, wow!” moments that previous volumes have, but the story hung together well, and made sense in and of itself, even if I can’t yet quite yet figure out how the whole thing pieces together. There’s the clear sense that everything that is happening is happening for a purpose, though, so I suppose I will have to be patient. (And continue to re-read; this series just has so much going on and so much depth that I can’t hope to hold all of the details in my mind in the time between trade paperbacks.) 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Don’t start here, but the series as a whole is highly, highly recommended for fans of Sandman or Fables.

This Review on LibraryThing | This Book on LibraryThing | This Book on Amazon

Other Reviews: Stella Matutina
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First Line: “Madam.” “Yes?” “You’ll have to observe the sign.”

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