Customer Reviews

Unnatural Selection (Hellboy (Pocket Star Books))

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I love the Hellboy novels. And so far have read almost all of them. This one though is giving me a migraine. Just as you get interested in something bam the author is onto another topic. Talk about confusing. I pray I will get through this book by the end of the year. Whereas all the others took me a day to read. Is it this authors style to jump from one theme to another or is he just a crummy writer? And please don't let him write another Hellboy book.

Overall, this was a enjoyable hellboy story. It was hard to get into at first due to the jumping back and forth between 1997 and 1970's. But the fight scenes between hellboy and the mythological creatures are very engaging. Its nice to see hellboy does gets his ass kicked multiple times despite his demon origin.

That said, this book is filled with too many weak villians and characters that just lacks any real personality to move the story along. In many ways, hellboy and BPRD seems to be just the bystanders that happened to get caught in the entire fiasco.

I actually find the idea of a demon fighting evil a really good thing. And this book brings together an entire crypto-zoologist's dream of special creatures: phoenix, the black dog of legend, the giant rukh (I've always seen it spelled "roc", but I knew about the legend), Minotaur, manticore, kraken--and so on. The idea that Memory is a dimension is also an interesting concept. And of course, the "is he a villain or not" demonic who claims to only want out of this world. My only ding is an overuse of profanity. As I have often stated, in character dialogue, one may and sometimes must, expect it or the character doesn't ring true. But when the author uses it to describe a scene in the story, I begin to feel he or she is taking an easy way out rather than finding a proper adjective to fit the action. Quoth the Raven...

I've read the first four trades of Hellboy to know his history before seeing the first movie. I've also seen both cartoons, the second, Blood & Iron, being the best. Unnatural Selection is great. A. its got a werewolf as a major character for the BPRD, along with our favorite trio. The book is so filled with different mythical beasts I had to do a little research just to have a picture of them in action, in my head. Hellboy kicks a lot of butt in this novel. There is also some really "touching" moments when a couple of the good guys die....horribly I might add. If you are a fan of either the comics or the movie this will definitely please. You don't have all the comedic "craps" from the movie but you have all the attitude of HB from both the comic and movie.

It is a little slow at the beginning and the whole Memory is kinda comfusing at first. After 3 chapters you are hooked and the suprise creature at the end is a nice treat as unexpected character that makes you wish he was around longer!

I will say this. If you wanna get pumped for the movie...buy this book. It is action packed with Hellboy punching, getting thrown, etc with creatures of the imagination.

Not as dark as the last book, this is more of an action story. In a big way! Liz has to fight a Phoenix, Hellboy gets dumped by a dragon, and Abe turns crocodile hunter, where crocodiles have heads like four wheel drives.

It gets worse, too, as the beasties start appearing in groups.

An old scientist magician the BPRD was keeping track of has been using an ancient mystical tome to bring back the 'Memory' of ancient beasts.

Partly this is for revenge, as a government agency had his wife assassinated, and partly for environmentalist reasons, as Dragons don't pollute like planes.

A kraken takes out a cruise ship, mermaids a beach, a flight of dragons an airport. The BPRD have to find his base, and stop him - with the help of a werewolf that is one of his escaped creations.

The target of their attack is a global summit of world leaders in London.

The politicians of course don't believe or trust Hellboy, so he is inclined to go help ordinary people first, but the BPRD bosses talk him round into trying to save the day.

It's been more than an average few weeks for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defence team. Everyone is out on a monster case - Hellboy gets badly embarrassed by a dragon, a giant alligator is gobbling tourists in Venice, and Liz Sherman meets her match when she investigates a sighting of the phoenix in Greece, a giant Rukh is spotted dining on an entire herd of cattle. And that's just for starters. There are an epidemic number of sightings of not just every day monsters, but of beasts of the most legendary sort. Someone is mixing magic and biology in the worst way.

Kate Corrigan, a BPRD consultant, believes that an ancient book, The Book of Ways has been rediscovered and has fallen into the hands of Benedict Blake, a biologist tried to warn many of impending doom due to pollution and disregard for the natural world. Driven made when an attempt on his life killed his wife he has disappeared with the threat to make the world pay for its sins. Only Abby Paris, a BPRD werewolf really knows the answer and she has disappeared as well, and Abe suspects she is on a quest of her own to stop Blake. Soon London is under siege, and everyone is in a race to keep people alive and track down Blake.

The first thing one notices when opening this book is the small print size -- Hellboy books tend to be a bit short of detailed plots and development. But it is clear right from the beginning that Tim Lebbon is exceptional, and the result is a full length novel with a great deal of complexity. The second thing ou will notice is the this is more than a 'Hellboy' novel. The whole BPRD cast takes part, often independently, this also provides more depth to the story than we are used to. I've pointed out before that there is a good deal more to occult suspense than perpetual motion, and Lebbon proves my point ably.