37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Di Filippo lowers Moore's quality level by several notches, August 5, 2006
This review is from: Top Ten: Beyond the Farthest Precinct (Top 10) (Paperback)
I was very much looking forward to reading this. I wanted to see how Di Filippo (as far as I know a newbie to the comics genre, and the author of a few quite impressive books) does with the legacy of master Alan Moore.
A lot worse than I thought he would.
SPOILERS: There are several points I just don't get. I. E. How can he revive a character - Girl One - for no obvious reason and then do NOTHING with her. He gave her about two lines of dialogue throughout the book and showed nothing of the impact her reappearance would have on the former colleagues and friends.
Why does he simply ignore important developments laid out by Moore's run, like Smax and Rexa not being able to admit that they are brother and sister, because of the legal problems involved? (There was so much potential in this particular detail.)
Why does he come up with - sigh! - destinies that have to be fulfilled? Is this some "Lord of the rings" for the poor?
Why does he stop all character development or - to the contrary - abandons that which has already been done? The characters are so devoid of any depth it almost made my cry.
Why does he have to take a minor character from an earlier - and very tragic - episode that paraphrases the AIDS-threat in a superhuman society, and make him a super-villain? This turn of events is so absurd that it even belittles the original story.
Enough. I could go on an on. If you really liked Moore's run, avoid this at all costs. If you didn't particularly care about it before, you can try this book. Di Filippo doesn't seem to care too much, too. I wish he would have stayed with writing novels. I really enjoyed his "Steampunk trilogy". Never could get my hands on a copy of "Linear City", though.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Utterly Dreadful, November 1, 2006
This review is from: Top Ten: Beyond the Farthest Precinct (Top 10) (Paperback)
I don't expect the person who follows in Alan Moore's shoes to be as good as the master, but to be this bad is truly astonishing.
Too many new (and old) characters with little to do; the personalities of old characters completely changed (King Peacock and Peregrine are the worst offenders); way too much going on--just when you're following one thread, another starts; some truly stupid cosmic blabbery; little or no continuity from the earlier stories to this one (Smax/Rexa and Kemlo/Annette's relationships, which had secret elements to them earlier, are now common knowledge for no apparent reason); standard superhero art with none of the whimsy that Gene Ha provided; an ending that makes ZERO sense.... boy, I could go on for days.
Did Alan Moore really approve this stuff? I knew he was burned out on the US comics industry, but he really must loathe it to let something this bad be associated with his name. I hate having wasted money on this book.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Unsatisfying, July 4, 2007
This review is from: Top Ten: Beyond the Farthest Precinct (Top 10) (Paperback)
This is definitely a cut below Alan Moore's Top Ten. The fact that some of the relationships are now public didn't bother me as much as it did some of the other reviewers (this takes place five years after the original Top Ten, which is a long time to keep a relationship secret). But the subplots generally aren't very well thought out, a lot of the characters are just sort of taking up space, and most egregiously, the main plot isn't tied up very well. It's not a horrible book, but it really suffers in comparison to Top Ten and Smax.
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