Peter and Max: A Fables Novel (2009)

He told people what to do and no one ever told him what to do - except for sometimes his wife did, but Max already understood how marriages involved a private exception to many rules.

Now for something slightly different. Bill Willingham, writer and creator of the fabulous Fables comic series from Vertigo, has written a prose novel set in the same world. The story stands outside of the continuity of the comic but the modern era parts are set before the assault on the Homelands and the toppling of the Adversary. Willingham states in a note before the start of the novel that:

No one needs to be familiar with the comics to fully enjoy and understand this book.

Which is true so I wonder why he then felt the need to spend seven pages in the first chapter giving a potted history of the Fables mythology. It's a minor quibble - as a fan of the comic I just wanted to get into the new story - but I don't know if new readers will equally find that it slows the start of the book down or whether it is a useful primer to the background of the existing rich world.

The story concerns the intertwined fate of two brothers, Peter and Max Piper, and the paths they are forced down after the invasion of the Emperor's forces into the tranquil world of Hesse turns their lives upside down. Max, harbouring some resentment towards his father and brother after the family heirloom is passed to Peter, finds himself on an increasingly dark path. Lost in the Black Forest he comes across a young Frau Totenkinder who, in a bid to use Max as a means of revenge on some knights in Hamelin, hands him the instrument that allows him to become one of the most powerful and dangerous Fables in existence. And now he has returned to seek retribution against his brother and reclaim what he sees as his birthright.

This excellent book could easily have been a secondary storyline in the main comic series or a mini-series but it works well as a novel - a small number of regular characters from the series are used to frame the story and get the action going with only Frau Totenkinder having an active role in the main storyline. As the regular characters are used sparingly, the book is a fine way to introduce non-comic reading friends and family to the world of Fables - and hopefully inspire them to read more. The book contains a number of black and white illustrations from regular inker on the series, Steve Leialoha. In additon he also draws an epilogue to the epilogue that consists of an eight page comic detailing Peter and Bo Peep's role in the attack on the Adversary's forces in the battle for the Homelands.

First published on RevolutionSF on Wednesday May 04, 2011