Fables: Great Fables Crossover (2010)

Jack was banished from Fabletown a long time ago, but in this installment, he trades places with Snow and Bigby and goes to the farm and they get to battle an enemy that should truly be his. This is my least favorite installment in the series so far - mainly because the crossover doesn't quite work. Jack is the one with the funny/flippant storyline and Snow and Bigby should be big and bold heroes (although one of Bigby's transformations is quite hilarious - and he gets out of it with his dignity intact). Hopefully, Snow and Bigby get to return to their proper storyline in future installments and leave Jack with the jokes. ( )

Things have been going downhill since the war. This volume was more interesting than the last, but I'm still not thrilled. I can only hope Willingham gets back into the swing of things without the war by the next volume, as I'm starting to lose interest with the way things are going... ( )

vol. 13

This is the thirteenth book in the Fables series. It was an interesting and amusing read, but still one of the weakest books in the series so far.

This book features Jack (I guess he is supposed to be crossing over to Fables from his own series). Jack shows up at the farm and is mistaken by Stinky to be a reborn Boy Blue. Meanwhile Jack introduces the Fables to the Literals...a group of genre based characters and their creator Kevin Thorne (The Storymaker). Fables and crew have to stop Kevin Thorne from rewriting the universe.

I’ll be completely blunt here and say I just don’t like Jack as a character, he bugs me and so a story featuring him wasn’t my favorite. While the Literals are an amusing set of characters and an interesting idea, they didn’t really match well with the rest of the Fables characters. After being so excited by the appearance of a new baddie for the Fables to face off against in the last book, I was left confused when Mr. Dark wasn’t in this story all that much.

I was kind of left feeling like this installment was an effort to get Fables’ fans to go and read the Jack series, and that just didn’t work for me.

That’s not to say it was all bad. The Page sisters are funny and kick-butt and Kevin Thorn is an oddly disturbing villain. The story is creative and amusing but doesn’t build on the rest of the Fables story all that much.

The illustration is in keeping with previous installments and was generally well done and in keeping with the story.

The book was amusing and interesting but not as gripping as previous installments. Mostly I was just happy to see the end of the Literals and Jack. I am eager to get back to the main story and find out what happens with Mr. Dark.

Overall an okay installment in the series but one of the weakest. This book revolves more around Jack and the Literals; they are all mildly interesting but I missed the main story of Fables new dark adversary. I don’t really enjoy Jack as a character, so was disappointed that so much of the story revolved around him. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series, Witches, and am hoping that the next book will go back to the storyline that was started in The Dark Ages. ( )

Great metafictive elements. This series is significantly better after "The Dark Ages. ( )