The Unwritten Discussion Thread (contains spoilers)

[edhopper]

I love Silverhoof the Unicorn!

[Full-Page Bleed]

I'm still worried that The Unwritten has jumped the shark since the ending of the War of the Word and the .5 issues.

The current storyline seems very low-frequency compared with what's gone before, and the endless use of cliched 'Australian' speech seems most unlike Mike Carey.

I know the book's got a fantastic universe of potential to explore beyond Tommy Taylor vs The Cabal, but it still seems a bit "after the Lord Mayor's show" (ie flat and anticlimactic)

[eDKeener]

I just started picking up the trades, and finished the 4th one last night. I'm really enjoying the series in trade format so I'm debating going to singles when I get caught up or can find the singles back to the point I'm at now. Not sure how well it will read in single format, but I might give it a shot that way. If I don't like it I'll go back to the trades.

[PatchMadripoor]

I am in my car right now, having just left my LCBS and picked up #40.

HOLY mackarel, so good.

[PatchMadripoor]

I think #40 redeemed the story, as we get a sense of a much larger scope BEYOND the Tommy vs. the Cabal. The focus is no longer on thwarting the Cabal, and the in-universe has grown.... and we get a sense of what happens when people who do not normally process stories like the majority of us get involved.

[BeastieRunner]

I hope they keep the unicorn and the detective together as a team. They have great chemistry.

I love that line the unicorn unleashes just before kicking the cult leader's head in. Also, I was pretty surprised with the openness Tommy had to unleashing his power in public. That was pretty crazy.

[BeastieRunner]

Everybody get sucked in lately?

[gloryhound]

Everybody get sucked in lately?

I read Issue #42 yesterday and this is getting very interesting.

It's nice to see there is still a lot more story to tell past the Cabal.

I hope the new characters stick around for the long haul too.

[BeastieRunner]

Well, I have my first major gripe:

They killed Silverhoof rather anti-climatically.

[edhopper]

Well, I have my first major gripe:

They killed Silverhoof rather anti-climatically.

I know, the bastards! Perhaps they were not aware how popular that character had become. Or maybe Tom will encounter him in the land of the dead.
This was certainly one of the darker issues of late, between the death of Silverhoof, the homicidal animals and the beloved classic characters in horrible desperate straights.

[BeastieRunner]

I loved the whoring out of Jane Austen's characters; I always imagined them as loose.

[owctletay]

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[mystmaven]

I just started picking up the trades, and finished the 4th one last night. I'm really enjoying the series in trade format so I'm debating going to singles when I get caught up or can find the singles back to the point I'm at now. Not sure how well it will read in single format, but I might give it a shot that way. If I don't like it I'll go back to the trades.

I'm doing something similar I'm up to the #2 trade but have been buying the comics. I have many comics to read is all and can get to it eventually. I'd get the individual comics though, no digital. I don't think the devices are good enough yet for digital comic books.

[krisis]

Just finished the War of Words trade that came out a few weeks ago. I know you're all an arc ahead of me in single issues, so I'm looking for some encouragement - because after this being my favorite series of the past few years I feel like it just jumped the shark, or whale, or leviathan, or whatever.

Throughout the book I felt like the main series got better and better despite the distraction of the .5s (more on that below), but the the Leviathan climax in the vault was slapdash compared to all that lead up to it. It was just Pullman shouting a lot without there being much to decipher about the story. Sound and fury and all that. I don't feel that it rewarded what came before at all, aside from revealing the vampire in the tank.

Meanwhile, the .5 issues decently filled in history, but they should have maintained the 3:1 story ratio of the first one or the beautiful mythology of the Giglamesh story, because the stultifying later issues about Rausch and Tallis could have easily been brief flashbacks like we got from Pullman in the finale. And then that final terrible .5 where we follow around some random loser from the grid to confirm what any close reader already understood about The Grid? That should have merely been a few panels of epilogue to the destruction in the finale to show another disciple of stories.

So, questions:

(1) Do you feel like the book is declining in quality? If not, maybe I just need to go back and read all of the series in a single go to see if I appreciate this arc more.

(2) Regardless of if you liked it or not, does it get any better in the post-War issues, or should I consider this as a finale and give up?

(3) Any general words of encouragement on sticking with this series?

[edhopper]

Just finished the War of Words trade that came out a few weeks ago. I know you're all an arc ahead of me in single issues, so I'm looking for some encouragement - because after this being my favorite series of the past few years I feel like it just jumped the shark, or whale, or leviathan, or whatever.

Throughout the book I felt like the main series got better and better despite the distraction of the .5s (more on that below), but the the Leviathan climax in the vault was slapdash compared to all that lead up to it. It was just Pullman shouting a lot without there being much to decipher about the story. Sound and fury and all that. I don't feel that it rewarded what came before at all, aside from revealing the vampire in the tank.

Meanwhile, the .5 issues decently filled in history, but they should have maintained the 3:1 story ratio of the first one or the beautiful mythology of the Giglamesh story, because the stultifying later issues about Rausch and Tallis could have easily been brief flashbacks like we got from Pullman in the finale. And then that final terrible .5 where we follow around some random loser from the grid to confirm what any close reader already understood about The Grid? That should have merely been a few panels of epilogue to the destruction in the finale to show another disciple of stories.

So, questions:

(1) Do you feel like the book is declining in quality? If not, maybe I just need to go back and read all of the series in a single go to see if I appreciate this arc more.

(2) Regardless of if you liked it or not, does it get any better in the post-War issues, or should I consider this as a finale and give up?

(3) Any general words of encouragement on sticking with this series?

I think the latter issues that take place in Australia have been very good. New characters and new adventures. This last one was great. Also we hear some Fable characters will show up around issue #50.

BTW I liked the end of the War.