1699 ( )

Tom becomes part of Grail legend, apocalypse occurs or is averted? Not sure what happened exactly. a future reread needed.

In general, this is an enjoyable series and especially fun for literary buffs who will take pleasure in identifying all the references. It’s hugely influenced by Gaiman’s Sandman series, but not nearly as tight with its plot lines and craft. It can be a bit meandering, and took much longer than necessary to get to the conclusion which resulted in certain story lines/plot devices being overused or recycled in slightly different ways. Still, glad I read to the conclusion and I was satisfied with the end. ( )

A solid conclusion to "The Unwritten", which over the course of twelve volumes (11 collections and 1 original grahpic novel) has gradually gone from being a vaguely supernatural story about fame and identity to a contemplative epic on the relationships between stories, fiction and reality.

As the world is ending (or, one might argue, already has ended), Tom Taylor's last hope is to heal it by finding the literal Holy Grail. But to do so he has to enter the medieval romances, adhere to the knightly ideals therein, and prove worthy to gaze into the Chapel Perilous to find it. But perhaps the Grail is somehow also the doomsday horn sought by Utnapishtim, the First Killer, and perhaps finding it is not the best idea.

We're also treated to one last flashback to Tom's father's century of scheming, the issue "Inklings" being the highlight in an already strong final collection. The last few murky puzzle pieces are placed, and in the new light, his twelve volumes of machiavellian cold plotting suddenly take on a slight but definite streak of tragic self sacrifice.

The ending might feel a tad underwhelming (the story itself, fittingly, does seem concerned it might), but we got the big showdown ending, too, just a little earlier. Upon finishing, the way it did end felt inevitable and right to me. The final five volumes of "The Unwritten" never quite reached the heights of the first six volumes and the tie-in graphic novel, often feeling more about the ideas than about the characters, but this final chapter definitely pulls the average back in the right direction and made the journey feel worthwhile, whole and memorable. ( )

The last graphic novel series that I read by Mike Carey (Lucifer) got extremely existential towards the end, so I don't know why I expected The Unwritten to sort itself out. Carey got into the looping storyline far too early in this series, and I kind of got lost and couldn't be bothered to find my way back. That being said, I did enjoy the nods to different pieces of Literature (the Arthurian-cycle chapters from this volume were particularly well done), and they were really what kept me coming back to finish the series.

The conclusion, which basically results in the triumvirate of heroes and villains (Tom, Pullman, and the witchy nun) getting eaten by Moby Dick to properly reset the Universe, is a bit odd and anti-climatic. No one really gets what they want, and things basically seem to go back to normal except that Lizzie knows about the "story" that holds the world together and is making waves shirk her prescribed storyline. I get that she's trying to write her own story, but hasn't that been the central theme of the entire series? And if it was the goal for everyone to get to make their own choices why does she have to play the "hero" and wake people up from their lackluster lives like she does in the final scene? Maybe the story just got too big for Carey, so he had to tie it up in a simpler than expected manner, but it seems a bit off to me. ( )