31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Highly enjoyable for true fans of the animated series., December 12, 1997
When an animated series is published on paper, the typical result is a comic book of some kind. The other, less likely possibility is that it will become an all-text book. But what Mark Mars and Eric Singer have done is remarkably unique from both of these options. Instead, the entire "Herodotus File" really is a file, a series of attached and bound documents arranged in chronological order that tell a story in the best way of the "Aeon Flux" animated series created by Peter Chung. Conversations are replaced with transcripts. Monologues become journal entries. All the information the reader would need to have a story is provided, thoughtfully and creatively, and the charachters involved lose nothing, despite being reduced to nothing but letters, still photographs, and memos. It is a unique technique, and I wish that more writers tried it. "Aeon Flux" involves a distopian nation known as "Bregna," populated with mentally stifled citizens, and a bordering territory, "Monica," which has no legal representation in the Breen government. Aeon Flux, a strange, intriguing, and quite deadly woman from Monica is often brought into contact with the equally strange and intriguing Trevor Goodchild, the chairman of Bregna. Aeon could be stereotyped as a secret agent for Monica, or a mercenary, (she has acted as both) but all anyone can truly say about her is that she despises control and will always follow her own initiative. Trevor could be equally misunderstood as a power-hungry despot, eager to crush free will and liberty. Instead, he is a radical reformer, one who is dedicated to the peaceful homogenization of the Breen. He craves control, not power, and the control of a single Breen's life is as interesting to him as the command of the masses. "The Herodotus File" attempts to tell the story of how Aeon and Trevor first met, and preserves the moral ambiguity that made the animated series a powerful psychological drama. The plot, also like the animated series, starts out in simplicity, but becomes inordinatly complex in execution. Trevor Goodchild, who has recently risen to power in Bregna, mentions in his log that he has found a piece of propoganda he finds dangerous, a claim that Bregna and Monica were once one nation. A pamphlet of the so-called "Berognican Reunification Movement" comes next in the "Herodotus File," with a sticky note attached by Trevor, saying "Who are these people? I ask not out of curiousity, I want them CRUSHED!" A charachter who was never in the series is introduced, a disturbing man named "Euphemia," who writes all his reports on a jagged, misaligned manual typewriter, signs them with a lipstick-kiss, and remains completely off-camera, leaving his image to be determined by the reader's imagination, where it will certainly be more fearsome. He undertakes the task of organizing the destruction of the BRM at the behest of Trevor, and suggests several Monican agents to do the dirty work. Trevor, against his better judgement, selects one enigmatic character known as Aeon Flux, who remains a mystery despite his best attempts to obtain conclusive data about her. She herself keeps a file on Trevor. When Euphemia retrieves it and passes it along to Trevor, he finds the information on himself to be equally worthless, nothing but PR. This is a quality attempt to display the duality of the nature of Aeon and Trevor early on, and it works. They only encounter each other physically at the end of the "Herodotus File," in the only part that remotely resembles a comic book. To dispell this notion, talk-balloons are replaced with typed-down transcript notes, making it become a subtitled series of images captured from video surveilance. The end of "Herodotus" ends rather differently than traditional "Aeon Flux" episodes would, with an air of a beginning, not the tragic end that is typical. On the other hand, there is an ironic twist that compensates nicely, and sums up the events in the "Herodotus File." Overall, it preserves the intellectual nature of the animated series. The extreme violence that is implied but rarely takes place is equally preserved, as well as the strong sexual undertones, particularly in the case of Euphemia's memos (he describes Trevor's suspicions as "warm" and "meaty," and somehow manages to describe shocking scenes without cuss-words or bodily references). I heartily reccomend it to anyone who enjoys the "Aeon Flux" animation. They will not be dissapointed.
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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good tie-in to the series, highly enjoyable, December 27, 1998
I have read the other customer reviews and none of them really say what I think about this book. It is a vision to the Flux world via book instead of Tv. It provides a great deal of useless facts which you would like to know about Aeon. I found it very fun to read actually. It is so unlike a comic book, except for the last few pages, and is just fun to flip through. For instance did you know Aeon has bullet fragments in her left leg and a nipple ring? Hopefully you'll enjoy it has much has I did
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Truly appealing to all Flux fans, and maybe others as well., December 25, 1998
By A Customer
This book is the perfect thing for all fans of the animated series. Not only does it have a truly entertaining plot, but is also more like a file than a book. I loved it, and the illlustrations are wonderful. The only negative side was when I finished the book and I wanted much much more! If you're a fan, you have to have it! The book gives you some backround info on other episodes that helps a lot to know. Very nice book! Hinks mynx, the old witch winks...
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