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Allison's Reviews > Hellboy: On Earth as It Is in Hell
Hellboy: On Earth as It Is in Hell
by Brian Hodge (Goodreads Author) , Mike Mignola
by Brian Hodge (Goodreads Author) , Mike Mignola
Synopsis:
Hellboy and his team are called in by the Vatican. This would be unusual in and of itself, but the team discovers the devastation they are investigating is caused not by legions from Hell but the legions of Heaven.
Author:
Brian Hodge has quite a list of books on Good Reads averaging about 3.66 stars. This is the first book of his that I’ve read, but he does quite a lot in the horror or crime genre.
Review:
I’m a fan of Hellboy. Have been ever since I read the watched Hellboy and Hellboy II. Ok, so I didn’t follow my own rules about reading the books first. But having not grown up in a comic book or graphic novel permissive house, I have an excuse.
Anyway, lately I’ve been catching up and read the local library’s massive collection ((2 books. Count ‘em. 1. 2.)) of the Hellboy graphic novel series. So it was with some joy that I saw Brandg had picked this actual novel up for me to read.
The book reads just as you’d expect a graphic novel to read. It is entertaining, fast paced, and full of just as many twists and turns of the supernatural as the comics. It’s not much more than brain floss, but can you expect much more from a book based out of a comic genre?
That being said, there’s a real historic flavor to this book that most other comics don’t have. I think that’s one aspect of Hellboy in general that drew me to the series in the first place.
All of the main characters you are familiar with [Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman, and Kate Corrigan] from the graphic series make an appearance. In keeping with the cannon, Hellboy’s father is dead in this novel.
I think it is an interesting twist to make angels the bad guy as it is very a-typical unless you stumbled benightedly into Legion last year. While I wasn’t sure it would work as I assumed God would be made the bad guy, I can honestly say that isn’t really how it goes. And there are enough plot twists to make it worth the read.
My one drawback was the heavy use of exposition with inserted pages of ‘historical documentation’ and ‘BPRD’ files. I will admit to being highly tempted to skim those sections as they were just heavy reading.
Summary:
It comes in at 368 pages and is tight enough to make you want to flip every single one. It’s a good, short read for a young adult and works as a brain-treat for an inclined adult.
Technorati Tags: Hellboy,Brian Hodge,book,review,Dark Horse Comics,Abe Sapien,Liz Sherman
Originally posted on AllisonDDuncan.com
Hellboy and his team are called in by the Vatican. This would be unusual in and of itself, but the team discovers the devastation they are investigating is caused not by legions from Hell but the legions of Heaven.
Author:
Brian Hodge has quite a list of books on Good Reads averaging about 3.66 stars. This is the first book of his that I’ve read, but he does quite a lot in the horror or crime genre.
He's a longstanding award nominee, having occupied numerous finalist slots for the Bram Stoker Award, the World Fantasy Award, and Britain's CWA Dagger Award for crime writing, among others. In 2004, he broke an equally longstanding Susan Lucci-like losing streak, taking the International Horror Guild Award for outstanding short fiction, for his story "With Acknowledgments to Sun Tzu." – BrianHodge.net
Review:
I’m a fan of Hellboy. Have been ever since I read the watched Hellboy and Hellboy II. Ok, so I didn’t follow my own rules about reading the books first. But having not grown up in a comic book or graphic novel permissive house, I have an excuse.
Anyway, lately I’ve been catching up and read the local library’s massive collection ((2 books. Count ‘em. 1. 2.)) of the Hellboy graphic novel series. So it was with some joy that I saw Brandg had picked this actual novel up for me to read.
The book reads just as you’d expect a graphic novel to read. It is entertaining, fast paced, and full of just as many twists and turns of the supernatural as the comics. It’s not much more than brain floss, but can you expect much more from a book based out of a comic genre?
That being said, there’s a real historic flavor to this book that most other comics don’t have. I think that’s one aspect of Hellboy in general that drew me to the series in the first place.
All of the main characters you are familiar with [Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman, and Kate Corrigan] from the graphic series make an appearance. In keeping with the cannon, Hellboy’s father is dead in this novel.
I think it is an interesting twist to make angels the bad guy as it is very a-typical unless you stumbled benightedly into Legion last year. While I wasn’t sure it would work as I assumed God would be made the bad guy, I can honestly say that isn’t really how it goes. And there are enough plot twists to make it worth the read.
My one drawback was the heavy use of exposition with inserted pages of ‘historical documentation’ and ‘BPRD’ files. I will admit to being highly tempted to skim those sections as they were just heavy reading.
Summary:
It comes in at 368 pages and is tight enough to make you want to flip every single one. It’s a good, short read for a young adult and works as a brain-treat for an inclined adult.
Technorati Tags: Hellboy,Brian Hodge,book,review,Dark Horse Comics,Abe Sapien,Liz Sherman
Originally posted on AllisonDDuncan.com
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