Writer - Dan Abnett & Nick Vincent
Published By - Abaddon/Rebellion
First things first, I got this book from NetGalley, so thank you netgalley and Abaddon/Rebellion for this opportunity.
It is really a nice feeling when you get much more than you expected from a novel. 'Fiefdom' has been such an enjoyable experience for me. I started to read this expecting mindless fun, but ended up having enjoyed witty humor with some delightful action sequences as well as a nice story with likable characters. The setting of post-apocalyptic Berlin with genetically engineered dog-soldiers fighting alien insects turned out to be much more fun in a very different way than I first thought it would be.
'Fiefdom' tells the story in a previously established setting which came to be in the comic series 'Kingdom', but now the writers take the story about 100 or more years into the future. We get introduced with a community of the Aux (genetically engineered dog-soldiers) named 'Zoo Pack'. These guys have forgotten about the Them (alien invaders in the form of giant insects) as they live underground during a new ice age and only remembers stories about their masters and fighting Them in the form of myths. Now there is dispute among the different clans in maintaining their territories. The story stars with a omega dam Evelyn War trying to make people believe that the world is changing and them are coming back. This leads to various struggles of the pack with the melting ice, with people not wanting to embrace the change, with their struggle to unite the different clans for the war, with finally start of their war against Them.
The most fun aspect of the reading was the simplistic english which the Aux used as their way of communication and the various interesting names (like Evelyn War, Ezra Pound, Becky Sharp, Dorothy Barker to name a few) that the writers used. These facts adds a much more interesting and fun approach to the setting and makes the various short comings and triumphs of the Aux seem realistic in a subtle way. The battle scenes were done very nicely, and were heck of fun to read. The characters were once again approached in a simplistic way yet the authors managed to give some of them unique personalities and made me care about whether they will survive or not.
I had not read any of the 'Kingdom' comics previously and yet enjoyed this as a standalone experience which is another plus point to be certain, the authors introduced the world and its inhabitants in a unique way through the eyes of the Aux and also gave various hints of the past. The overall progression and the sense of mystery that was developed in the first half of the book regarding the nature of the 'Them' was another bit that I really liked.
It was a fun experience and I am really hoping for a sequel so I get to know more about these characters and this world.
This gets 4 out of 5 stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment