This 11th collection brings to a close the primary story arc of the Fables series (i.e., the refugee Fables' war with the Homeland), but not the series itself. After 10 collections, it was a bit...not anticlimactic or disappointing, really, but a bit surprising to have the war suddenly end. Of course, previous books (Vol. 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers; Vol. 8: Wolves) detailed heavy, pivotal battles, so this was just the final wave, I guess. I enjoyed the story and the art, as always. Being invested in the characters and concept, I'm sure I'll continue with the series. (Volume 12: The Dark Ages becomes available in August '09.) ( )

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It is rather fun: starts with a vignette of the relationship between Little Boy Blue and Rose Red, then Cinderella's daring rescue of Pinocchio, then most of it is the war between the good guys led by Prince Charming (using machine guns and bombs) and the bad guys led by their mastermind Geppetto (who restrict themselves to magic, and therefore lose). I did feel a lack of moral ambiguity on either side - the good guys are all good, the bad guys all committed to their cause; I suppose it is a fairy tale, but Willingham's interpretation of the characters is so sophisticated in other ways that I was disappointed in this respect. (I know that Rose Red at least has a more ambiguous past, in one of the previous volumes, but there's no mention of that here.) ( )

After being built up for so long, even though it takes a full volume, the coming war finally came and was... a little anti-climactic. But, I think the only way they could have made it not so would be to stretch it over several omnibus volumes, which means a million individual issues (Fables, is, after all, still published as your standard comic book.)

I'm glad though, now that the war is over, that this isn't the last of the series, I want to see what else happens to these people.

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This was the first book I read in 2009, and I don't think I could have made a better choice. In War and Pieces, the war against the Adversary reaches it conclusion, and I found it very satisfying. The story starts out with Cinderella's clandestine mission to get the upper hand on the Empire; watching Cindy in super-spy mode made me wish she had her own spin-off. It would be just like Alias! And seeing Beauty's confused/enraged reaction to Cindy getting her own mission ("SHE-ONLY-SELLS-SHOES!") is priceless.

The war itself is told through Blue's perspective, and I really felt sympathy for him in this book. He's melancholy because he's been rejected by Rose Red (he has the worst luck with women!) and because being in the war reminds him of the past. He's a key figure, though, because he's able to use the Witching Cloak to keep the front lines supplied and to keep all the bases up-to-date. There's also a scene towards the end that had echoes of Blue-as-Neville in the final Harry Potter book, which made me love him even more.

There's so much to enjoy in this book. The conclusion of the "War with the Empire" story arc, of course, but also the return of some characters and plot points we hadn't seen in a while (Briar Rose turns out to be pretty important, and the zephyrs and magic beanstalk also have parts to play in the war). Prince Charming actually turns out okay in the end, which was pretty amazing. Flycatcher is mentioned but never seen, but after giving him his own story arc I guess that's forgivable.

I highly recommend this book to everyone - Fables is one of my favorite comic books, and this is a an impressive end to a long-running storyline. I'm glad the creators opted not to finish the Fables series with the end of the war, because I love the world they've created and I'm looking forward to more. ( )

Summary: It's all been leading up to this: full-blown war with the Adversary. No more scheming, no more preparation, no more waiting with bated breath: War. In the single-issue "Kingdom Come", we get a glance at Boy Blue's last-minute preparations, both tactical and personal. In the two-part "Skulduggery", we follow Cinderella to Tierra del Fuego to retrieve a package of vital importance to the Fabletown Fables' war effort. Finally, in the five-part "War and Pieces", we get down to business, following Blue as he uses the Witching Cloak to act as messenger and courier among the various fronts of the war to reclaim the Homelands.

Review: Any good story has to have development of both its plot and its characters. This balance may even be extra-important for a serialized story like Fables, although any individual piece can swing to being more heavily character-based or more heavily plot-based. I generally prefer the former, and War and Pieces is pretty strongly the latter. Individual characters do get some nice moments, for sure, but it's a war story first and foremost, and there's lots of action that's not character-based. I also wasn't entirely satisfied by the way the war played out - not enough tension and suspense to keep me truly interested. Still, now that the plot that's been running since essentially the beginning of the series is resolved, I'm extremely interested to see where Willingham & Co. go from here. 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Not one of the better installments of Fables, in my opinion, but does wrap a lot of things up in a very interesting way. ( )