Fables, Vol. 9: Sons of Empire

The first half of this collection contains some of the very best FABLES stories of all. As the Adversary and his minions meet to plot the demise of Fabletown (and Earth by association) we start getting clues about the future direction of the story. The art and drama of the Snow Queen's plan for invasion, and especially Pinocchio's predictions of our world's counter-invasion, make these segments some of my favorite of the series. Even Red Riding Hood's make-over and the ensuing trouble for Flycatcher make great reading. And getting to meet some new potentially-important characters like the Gnome King and Rapunzel make the first part of this volume stand out as being even better than usual.The second half of the story, however, takes a turn towards dullness. The story itself, describing Snow White and Bigby's first Christmas as a family, exploring the relationship between Rose Red and Boy Blue, and then the trip to the Homelands to visit Grandfather North, is satisfactory (but not great). The art however, takes a serious hit as new artists are given whole swaths of story to draw, with less-than-pleasing results. Particularly the Michael Allred (and wife) team's efforts were irritating to me. Sketchy and weirdly-detailed, these portions make the characters look goofy, ugly, or just too different to be comfortable for me. Maybe its just a patter of personal opinion, but I found the artwork to seriously detract from my enjoyment of most of the last half of this volume. On the other hand, the end of this volume contains some gems, with the very short stories answering the questions or readers about miscellaneous happenings in Fabletown.Definitely a good addition to the story, as the series continues to rock, but I hope the second half doesn't indicate a trend with the art.

At the heart of this collection: evil machinations, plans and schemes in the Adversary's Empire; a long-lasting conflict between a father and a son coming to a resolution of sorts. Add to this a very grim twist on the aftermath of the Hansel and Gretel story that makes Frau Totenkinder look almost benign; a hint that the humblest and maybe most tragic of all the residents of Fabletown may turn out to be their savior; little snippets of background material and vignettes on Fables plus one potentially significant non-Fable.One of the things I like most about the characters is that even the most evil ones do have a story behind the, which reveals the choices and paths that made them become whom we meet here. And the good ones are never quite as clean as we might like to think of them either. Everything has more than one side and Fables makes a point of virtually never letting us forget that.As always, or maybe even more so, simply brilliant.

War is coming to Fabletown, and The empire's got victory all planned out! At first I thought this would all be filler but I was amazed to find a great level of detail in the way this future war was examined. The plan is simple, spread disease and let our allies kill as many as possible. But a victory seems unlikely when Pinocchio explains why wiping out the mundys won't be so easy. Even though these plans were mainly hypothetical, it really was exciting storytelling. A can't miss if you like good war stories.

What can I say? Fables continues to be the best comic book series out there--period. Sons of Empire maintains the excellent status quo by setting up a major storyline to come, giving us an interesting Christmas tale, and further exploring the relationship between fathers and sons. Most entertaining, though, is a series of "short stories" throughout the volume that fill in some gaps on lesser characters and events.Really, if you're not reading Fables, you're missing out on the best series going.~Scott William Foley, author of  Souls Triumphant

Within minutes of opening the book, the pages fell out. All in one bundle, fortunately, so easy fix. A bit disappointing. But still, it was not 'Very Good' condition.

Bill Willingham's done it again. As with all the other Fables books, Fables 9 is active, deep, intricate and a pleasure to read. It is an ambitious project, however, and unfortunately, the art is at times uneven, so that the characters do not always look alike in different parts of the book, due to the change in artists. However, the writing is consistently good and well plotted..

Love this series.

I love this book its just what Id expect from Fables comic, recommend it to anyone young at heart with and edge for mystery.

Beautiful book and lovely illustratons

Easy to read and follow plot

Love the art style and story line.

Great

Present - my husband loves the series