Tuesday, February 5, 2013

The Unwritten Vol. 7: The Wound by Mike Carey - Book Review

The Unwritten appeared to begin as a Harry Potter meets the Real World type story.  Think Christopher Robin, the boy whom the Winnie the Pooh books were based on.  Wilson Taylor wrote a successful series of books about a boy based on his son, Tommy Taylor.  Throughout the course of the series, it becomes clear that the real Tom Taylor has some sort of magic and a cabal of evil men is out to get him.  Additionally, it seems that stories have power and the beast Leviathan must be confronted and defeated.  Volume 7, The Wound, deals with the Church of Tommy, which believes Tom Taylor is the "savior" (Tom himself believes it is garbage).  As Tom travels around the globe for speaking engagements, he is confronted with a deranged minister who is attempting to force Tom to "fulfill his destiny" and to add new converts, while killing some members through in a strange manner.  We are also shown Pauly Bruckner, the hitman turned rabbit, and the effects of "The Wave" in the world of fiction.

I love how this story continues to discuss the value of stories in our lives.  It is a very "meta" piece of writing, and causes the reader to think about how we interact with what we read, and the power that stories contain.  I thoroughly enjoy the story of Tommy Taylor on both levels and look forward to seeing how Mike Carey wraps the whole thing up sometime in the future.

I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys the power of story, and particularly to fans of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series (The Unwritten is the closest thing to that series that I've read).

I received a review copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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