9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Felt like I was watching a good episode, September 17, 2010
This review is from: Supernatural : War of the Sons (Mass Market Paperback)
As a long time fan of the show, I was never too sure about the tie-in books, etc. I decided to pick this one up to get me through till the season starts but instead I tore through it in two days. To me, it was like watching a very good episode of the show. The dialogue, descriptions, and characterization were spot on in my opinion, I could hear and see it happening in my head just as it would on TV. The time-travel storyline is a tough sell, and I had my doubts, but I think this book pulled it off more smoothly than the show did last season. Hopefully the two writers pen another one, I'll be first in line.
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Terrifyingly out of character, September 14, 2010
This review is from: Supernatural : War of the Sons (Mass Market Paperback)
Though the authors claim to be both fans and assistants to the show, the writing and characterization of the Winchester brothers makes that hard to believe. A Dean Winchester who in no way takes care of his brother but instead leaves Sam to 'pretty much fend for himself' a Sam Winchester who would in any way view Dean as little more then a random, useless jerk who is a irritant at best and a stupid, unintelligent moron ('Dean's not the smartest of the Winchesters') doesn't exist in the actual canon of the show, even under Sera Gamble's increasingly idiotic take.
The fact that the authors show obvious contempt for both the show's canon and the shows heroes' intelligence, bond and love for each other make this a useless and frankly insulting entry to the Supernatural canon that would best be forgotten
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not the best tie-in...and that's saying something, December 26, 2010
This review is from: Supernatural : War of the Sons (Mass Market Paperback)
This story is supposed to be set after the S5 episode "My Bloody Valentine"--and presumably before the next episode after that--but it didn't feel like it for a second.
I don't know if the authors had the chance to know what they were dealing with, but like most of the tie-ins the authors seem strangely to ignore the canon events the boys have supposedly just experienced and thus sabotage their characterization. If this story truly followed the canon it is supposed to, Dean and Sam have just been ambushed by Famine, whose influence caused Sam to relapse on demon blood again in a pretty horrifying way for the first time since starting the Apocalypse. His attempts to overcome his demon blood addiction were sabotaged and he's just been through a hellish withdrawal...possibly the first full withdrawal he's seen through. As for Dean, it's become increasingly clear through the first part of the season that Dean is finally reaching the limits of his endurance and is white-knuckling it. He can't trust Sam any longer; their relationship was shaken to its foundations by the events of the end of S4 and by the changes that have taken place in Sam since S3 and Sam's failure to recognize and take responsibility for and address the personal offenses he's committed against Dean. Dean is weighed down with an immense sense of responsibility as Michael's potential vessel and a hunter who knows exactly how bad things can get and is terrified for himself, Sam, and the world at large. Their attempts to date to find a solution to the Lucifer problem have failed catastrophically, most recently resulting in the deaths of Jo and Ellen Harvelle. Sam may have every intention of resisting Lucifer, and Dean still loves Sam deeply, but Dean knows his brother and after what he's seen (in The End and in Sam's behavior), he (as comes out in "Point of No Return") has lost any confidence that Sam can or will resist Lucifer. Bobby is crippled and sunk deep in self-pity. Castiel is hardly dependable, and Dean can never be sure what his agenda is. Ultimately, Dean is on his own to save Sam and the world and stop Satan, and saying yes to Michael may be the only way to save billions of people even if both he and Sam will be sacrificed. And in all justice to the character, Dean would still be dealing with nightmares and flashbacks and other aftermath of Hell. By the end of MBV, Dean is clearly losing it, deeply depressed and despairing, his coping mechanisms overloaded, emotionally shut down, no longer functioning, hardly eating or sleeping and drinking far more than he should.
But there is little hint of any of that in this book, though it would be compelling material and is vital to make the characters remotely consistent with canon at that point in the show. Sam was given short shrift in canon, and though this book tries to make him sympathetic and canon should have done far more with Sam's character through S5, the Sam of this book bears little to no resemblance to the S5 Sam we saw in canon so it's hard to give him any credibility. And then there's Dean, who is portrayed almost as a caricature of himself in S1, chasing skirt and being an overbearing jerk with no hint of the growth he showed in canon since then and the wisdom he seemed to gain through his deal and time in Hell. Getting with anybody was the last thing on Dean's mind after MBV, and he was so subdued that the wisecracking and such in the book just seemed cartoonish in comparison with what the characterization should have been. Then too, I take umbrage at the book's portrayal of Dean as overbearing towards Sam and someone who would deliberately allow himself to get drunk on a hunt. And the issues between the boys are pretty much ignored and play no role in the story, which is a glaring omission especially in several moments of the story where these issues should have set both of the boys off.
Then there are the other inconsistencies. The authors conveniently forget that Sam and Dean know by this point that even if they died or tried to kill themselves, they'd simply be resurrected to play their part. (It was foolish to write this into canon, as that obliterates the credibility of any threat to the boys' lives, but that's still canon.) Salt has never stopped or done significant damage to demons in the show. Demons trapped in a Devils' Trap cannot just fly off free...they either remain trapped and powerless until the trap is broken or they are exorcised or destroyed by Sam's power. And those are just a few examples.
The plot of this story seemed pretty incoherent and I have to admit that after three different time travel episodes this just fell flat. And it didn't help that the authors had no room to maneuver as the status quo had to be maintained in the end. So this book was pretty disappointing.
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