Fables, Vol. 1: Legends in Exile
Ratings227
Average rating3.9
Loved this!
We have a fairytale inspired urban fantasy with a very nice art style and intriguing story.
It's essentially a murder mystery, but featuring a rather fun reimagining of some of our favorite fairytale characters and in a very unusual (for them) setting.
I had such a fun time and I am definitely continuing with the series!
An interesting take on George Orwell's Animal Farm with the Fables main cast as the characters who are in oppression and Fabletown as it's oppressor and with the good artstyle this volume is definitely worth to read even though you never read the original book.
I love fairy tales and the TV series Once Upon a Time taught me that I love fairy tales reimagined, so I was really looking forward to Fables. In fact, I was looking forward to it so much, I was so sure that I was going to love it, that I've been “saving” it for when I needed a sure thing to captivate my interest.
Sadly, I couldn't have been more wrong. I don't mind the mature themes—after all, so many of the original tales were rather grim—but ... it was just so boring. You know how a game developer will sometimes take a tried-and-true thing, slap a licensed “skin” on it, and sell it as something new? That's how this felt: like Fabletown was just the set decoration for a run-of-the-mill mystery.
There was nothing about this volume that made it stand out. Standard, all-caps, randomly bolded text. Uninteresting artwork. Just ... blah.Really disappointing start. Except for the individual issue covers. The cover art is different and rather lovely.
It is so awkward when you reread something you read almost a decade ago and loved. And then you come back and reread it, and you still really, really like the basic premise, but you're horrified by all the really unnecessary slurs used to describe Rose Red by various characters, including the heroes, one of whom you really like over all, but it colors your view of the entire work, and then you get sad.
Dagnabbit, Bigby.
Still, I'm excited to pick up this series again, because I didn't get to finish it the first time around.
I don't want to say too much about the plot of this one, lest I spoil the experience. It's both culturally referential and brutal.
I enjoyed this a lot. This volume is set mainly on the Farm; three episodes into the Telltale adaptation it's only gotten a couple of mentions, so it was nice to get such a big piece on it this early. It's not what I expected at all.
Really good follow up to the first volume. I like how there is always a mystery to solve and we get to know the characters of this fantasy world though the mystery.
Fables tells the story of what happens to the famous fairy tale characters we've read about in books and watched in movies after the happily ever after. They aren't too happy let me tell you and they are especially unhappy after being exiled from their world of kingdoms and magic to live with the mundys (mundane) in the real world i.e our world. Not only do they have to get actual jobs and try to make a living but they have to hide who they really are or risk the consequences of exposing themselves.
In this first volume of Fables Snow White's younger party girl sister Rose Red has gone missing and the evidence in her apartment says that not only is she missing but she's dead and its now up to the Big Bad Wolf who has been appointed Sheriff to solve the crime and catch the murderer.
Read very much like a crime mystery novel but filled with a host of unique and interesting characters Legends in Exile was a good start to what looks like is going to be a fun series.Its always great to see a classic retold in a whole new way and Fables did that very well with characters shown in a realistic light and smart storytelling.
Very good! The end was the weakest point. It tied everything up a bit too neatly for me. I really enjoyed it though! Looking forward to reading vol. 2!