Peter & Max: A Fables Novel

by Bill Willingham

Book Overview

Set in the imaginative realm of the award-winning comic book series FABLES, PETER & MAX is a stand-alone prose novel - the first ever published starring FABLES characters! Long ago, in the deepest... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1401215734
• ISBN13: 9781401215736
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Vertigo
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.0" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Who Knew How Dark a Fairytale Could Be?

Peter Piper is the good son who loves his parents and his older brother Max, who is not such a good son. Peter's family is a musical group, who play for their supper. Papa Piper, Peter and Max play the flute, Papa's is magical and has been handed down to him by generations of Pipers. Max expects the flute to come to him, but daddy gives it to Peter instead, because he's a better flute player. Max is insanely jealous, so jealous he goes insane. That may sound redundant, but I can't stress enough how nutso Max goes. He kills his parents, paralyzes Bo Peep, Peter's gal and vows to kill Peter as well. But he has to put his revenge on hold, because Goblins have invaded the worlds and the Fables have come to Earth to live secretly among human. Peter and his crippled bride Bo Peep have come to Earth as well and through magic Max can't find them. Till now. Now he is coming and everybody has reason to be afraid. I have not read the graphic novels so I came to this story fresh and I was impressed. I read it in one sitting and enjoyed every page. Making fairytale characters you've come to know and love come alive in this way was to me astonishing. And making some of them wicked bad, well who knew a fairytale could be so dark and so deliciously good.

A Dark Invention of Nightmares: Fans of Fables need to read this!

You don't need to be a fan of Bill Willingham's Fables comics to like this book--you don't even have to know what they are to understand Peter & Max. This is a re-telling of the Pied Piper of Hamelin story from a different perspective, one of those "what really happened" kind of tales. For every other character or event that might confuse the reader, Willingham explains the course of the comics in a few words and lines that, if anything, spoil crucial points of suspense that have navigated and pushed Fables over the years. But don't let that discourage you at all if you're a new fan. What I like the most about the comics and this book, is Willingham's grasp of consequence and reality. To validate these fairy tales with contemporary ideas, Willingham is always examining the life of our favorite heroes and heroines in the unwritten pages after their most famous moments. Away from the storybook and our imaginations is a far removed perspective that pulls gently in our direction--here is more, it says to us; the story continues; life goes on. For the folks in fairy tales--Fables, they call themselves--reality is about as pragmatic and mundane for them as it is for us. Forced to flee their fairy tale homes and find refuge in an enchanted portion of New York City's Upper West Side, the Fables remind us that we know of only a tiny period in their lives; in our world they must learn to coexist in very human ways, without magic or magical objects that would draw attention to themselves. Yanked out of context of course it's easy to imagine all sorts of wonderful, magical settings that make romantic adventures out of very real, scary episodes. Despite still writing in "happily ever after" endings, Willingham's come a long way to revolutionize what's been handed down to us for so long and in the same form. Peter & Max is about the Piper family (a band of traveling minstrels), two brothers (Peter and Max), and the innocent Peep family who gets caught in the middle of fraternal jealousy and revenge. Like all such things, a combination of skewed perspective and hurt feelings tips the scales of envy towards violence. What begins as an ominous and mysterious set of flashbacks and present-day events, the story gradually finds promise in its most haunting thread: who is the true Pied Piper? Peter or Max? Peter is a sweet boy, always managing to do what's right and do it well; Max is his older, but less talented, brother who snaps at the slightest attempt to undermine his authority and right as the eldest Piper child. It's almost impossible to imagine the sweet-tempered Peter luring unsuspecting children out of their beds and away from their homes, but too predictable to assume the blame lays somewhere outside, somewhere obvious. Like always, Willingham goes a bit further, beginning and ending the fairy tale after the part we're familiar with. The Pied Piper doesn't just disappear mysteriously, taking all of Hamelin's children with him. When the past and pres

An Amazing tale of Aventure and Love

I purchased this book on a Saturday and finished it on a Sunday. This has nothing to do with it being a quick read, it's just one of those book's you can't put down. From the first page on I was hooked with the characters that until now had never appeared in the Fables comic book. This tale stand on its own a story with a beginning, middle, and end. Having read the comics before had in not required in anyway. But if you are one of the people who have read the comics, this novel adds a rich new layer to the fables mythos. I highly recommend this book to Fables fans, Fantasy fans, and people who just love great books. Please read this book so Willingham will write another one.

If you love the comics version

Bill Willingham crafted a very well written stand alone tale of the famous Fables world. The writing is wonderful with witty humour and some edginess to it. You can literally fall into this world and imagine everything set out in print in your head. I truly enjoyed this book. For those curious..this is NOT a graphic novel. There is about 10+ pages of illustrations and a full book of text. You will have to call upon the power of you imagination from reading words to get the richness this book offers. I highly recommend this book.

Delightful and a little creepy

I'm very fond of re-tellings of fairy tales, taking those old archetypes and turning them on their collective ears and reinterpreting them. This is based off a series of comic books, but is perfectly readable as a stand-alone story. Our world is a refuge for people, monsters and animals from many other worlds. Oddly, in our world they find smaller versions of their own worlds. Hesse is a planet that is mirrored in smaller, paler version by Germany. On Hesse, the Pipers and the Peeps are good friends despite the difference in their stations. The Pipers have 2 sons, Peter and the older son Max. The Peeps have a surplus of daughters including one just Peter's age who is nicknamed Bo. Max is terribly jealous of Peter, and feels like he is entitled to all the things that Peter seems to get so easily. After their home is invaded, everyone flees agreeing to meet up in Hamelin which should be well fortified against the invaders. During the next few years, Peter and Max grow up and learn a lot of things before they meet again. It's a boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl and they don't live particularly happily ever after for a long while after that. Oh, and good vs. evil as well with the evil being so well written it was very creepy. It's written in Once Upon a Time and Now switching viewpoints between the brothers and unfolding to the final confrontation between them. There were parts that just chilled me. The Pied Piper story always scared me anyway. There were also parts that just made me smile. I couldn't put it down until I read it cover to cover.