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Transformers Classified #1
Transformers Classified: Switching Gears
An original Transformers novel series! In the Nevada desert a 12-year-old boy gets swept up in a thrilling adventure when he stumbles across two giant robots battling in the dust. The boy and a new Autobot friend set off to secure a secret bunker before the Decepticons can find it. But the robot they left behind is a Decepticon in disguise, and he tells Bumblebee and the other Autobots that the boy and his friend are up to no good. Will the truth be revealed in time?
- GenresScience Fiction
224 pages, Paperback
First published October 31, 2011
5 people are currently reading
44 people want to read
About the author
Ryder Windham
277 books173 followersRyder Windham is an American sci-fi author who has written over sixty Star Wars books, including novels, comics, reference books, and so on. He has also written junior novelizations for Indiana Jones movies. Since 1993, he has been working on Star Wars projects either by himself or with other authors. His reference book Star Wars: The Ultimate Visual Guide had been on the New York Times Best Seller list for three weeks in 2005. Although he has written lots of books, accepted interviews, and appeared at several fan-conventions, little is known about his personal life.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 24, 2016
Things this book is:
Aimed at young readers, so the sentence structure is kept short and a little simple.
Movie!Verse - set after the movie trilogy, so Mission City, Egypt, and Chicago have all happened. NEST is a thing. Ironhide is black, not red, and Optimus has a flaming paint job. Just FYI.
Things this book is not:
Dumb.
Seriously, it's not. I enjoyed this more than any of the movie novelizations. Within the first two chapters there is more Cybertronians-talking-to-other-Cybertronians-and-not-to-humans and Cybertronians-with-individual-personalities then all three of the Bay movies gave us combined. It struck me as the best parts of G1 - the Cybertronian centric bias instead of human focus - used to construct a kid friendly version of the movies.
Sam Witwicky and company are nowhere to be found in this book. The new protagonist, Kevin Bowman, is just a kid - he struck me mostly like Raf from Transformers Prime, only sans the genius computing skills. Pre-teen kid who's already had his life impacted by Mission City, and then has the misfortune - or fortune - of being nearby when Gears makes landfall. Barring some briefly mentioned top brass military generals, a couple of working-with-'Cons villains, and some of Kevin's peers who all may brief appearances, he's really the only named human with any role in the book.
Bottom line, this book delighted me for it's treatment of Cybertronians as people, not stereotypes or giant war machines. Is Ironhide trigger-happy? Yes, but he also comes across as just having fun with it. Bumblebee and Ratchet teasing each other, mostly through means that are going right over the heads of the surrounding NEST personnel. Cybertronians grieving their dead. Cybertronians dancing circles around human technology without even thinking about it, and when they can't there's a reason for it. Given that I'm in this fandom for the giant alien robots and not their human sidekicks, I give this book full kudos for giving me more of what I want.
Aimed at young readers, so the sentence structure is kept short and a little simple.
Movie!Verse - set after the movie trilogy, so Mission City, Egypt, and Chicago have all happened. NEST is a thing. Ironhide is black, not red, and Optimus has a flaming paint job. Just FYI.
Things this book is not:
Dumb.
Seriously, it's not. I enjoyed this more than any of the movie novelizations. Within the first two chapters there is more Cybertronians-talking-to-other-Cybertronians-and-not-to-humans and Cybertronians-with-individual-personalities then all three of the Bay movies gave us combined. It struck me as the best parts of G1 - the Cybertronian centric bias instead of human focus - used to construct a kid friendly version of the movies.
Sam Witwicky and company are nowhere to be found in this book. The new protagonist, Kevin Bowman, is just a kid - he struck me mostly like Raf from Transformers Prime, only sans the genius computing skills. Pre-teen kid who's already had his life impacted by Mission City, and then has the misfortune - or fortune - of being nearby when Gears makes landfall. Barring some briefly mentioned top brass military generals, a couple of working-with-'Cons villains, and some of Kevin's peers who all may brief appearances, he's really the only named human with any role in the book.
Bottom line, this book delighted me for it's treatment of Cybertronians as people, not stereotypes or giant war machines. Is Ironhide trigger-happy? Yes, but he also comes across as just having fun with it. Bumblebee and Ratchet teasing each other, mostly through means that are going right over the heads of the surrounding NEST personnel. Cybertronians grieving their dead. Cybertronians dancing circles around human technology without even thinking about it, and when they can't there's a reason for it. Given that I'm in this fandom for the giant alien robots and not their human sidekicks, I give this book full kudos for giving me more of what I want.
Displaying 1 of 1 review