The Unwritten, Vol. 8: Orpheus in the Underworld

The Unwritten

by Mike Carey (Writer), Peter Gross (Artist), Dean Ormston (Artist)

In this eighth volume of the critically-acclaimed new series from the Eisner-nominated creative team, Mike Carey and Peter Gross, Tommy ventures into the land of the dead to find and rescue Lizzie. But the journey through Hades pits Tommy against all kinds of enemies of undead. But none of these encounters prepare him for his meeting with the king -- or for the responsibilities he has to take on for some very familiar damned souls.

Collecting: The Unwritten 42-49

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Books About Books

176 pages, Paperback

First published February 4, 2014

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Mike Carey was born in Liverpool in 1959. He worked as a teacher for fifteen years, before starting to write comics. When he started to receive regular commissions from DC Comics, he gave up the day job.

Since then, he has worked for both DC and Marvel Comics, writing storylines for some of the world's most iconic characters, including X-MEN, FANTASTIC FOUR, LUCIFER and HELLBLAZER. His original screenplay FROST FLOWERS is currently being filmed. Mike has also adapted Neil Gaiman's acclaimed NEVERWHERE into comics.

Somehow, Mike finds time amongst all of this to live with his wife and children in North London. You can read his blog at www.mikecarey.net.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know a story is good when it features P & P's Elizabeth Bennet hooking for food.



That's just a small (but memorable) portion of this volume.
As the title suggests, Tom heads to the Underworld, and along the way meets several characters that you didn't think you'd be seeing again!



But while Tom is there searching for Lizzie, Rick is partnering up with the dyslexic Australian detective to figure out why certain people's stories are (maybe) coming to life. He also pairs up with a familiar ghost who turns out to be a bit more solid than he originally thought.
Bow chica wow wow...



The Underworld stuff was my favorite simply because of all the twists and turns the story took, but the biggest twist happened at the end and left me (and I'm assuming everyone else) speechless! I've not been able to get many volumes of this title, but it looks like there's a crossover in the works...

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Next stop on this meta-fiction dark fantasy journey... the land of the dead! Tommy and co. are really up against it yet again, travelling through Hades. And who is Hades ruler? The series has definitely dropped off in these later volumes, I'm afraid to say. 6 out of 12, Three Stars.

2017 and 2013 read

[Calista · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew this was the 8th volume in the series and it was about Orpheus. I wanted to check it out. This was way more than I thought I was getting. I want to go back to the first one and start from the beginning. This was really good.

What I can gather, this man is able to go into a world where he makes stories real. This land is not a easy land. The opening of the story is a Jane Austin heroine selling her body for food. The stories are real here and they have teeth and knives and all kinds of torture devices. It was not strictly an Orpheus telling, but it followed the outline. Hades had been replaced by a rabbit.

It is like a nightmare that is constantly meshing all these stories together. I actually enjoyed this. There is a lot here.

[Sean Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

More so than perhaps any other volume in the series, Vol. 8 served as a microcosm for the story as a whole: tantalizingly full of amazing possibilities and potential, filled with great ideas and great art, but prone to taking detours that derail progress and make you scratch your head a bit.

Of course, then there's the last page...the biggest "What the WHAT?!" moment thus far in the series...how can I NOT be intrigued when we conclude with Tom Taylor dropping in on some of the more magical denizens of what is perhaps my favorite comics series of all time?

I officially have no idea where this is headed, but I'm looking forward to finding out. Onto volume 9...

[ScottIsANerd (GrilledCheeseSamurai) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ummm...YES?

Hells yes!

Lemme see here...

Unicorns.
Flying horses.
Harpies.
time traveling wolves.
Zombie vs. Vampire.
A wide screen HD Genie lamp.

And a whole shit ton more that I can't really talk about unless I throw in some spoiler tags. I'm way to lazy for that so I usually just avoid (most) spoilers in my reviews.



This volume was nuts! Basically, we got two stories in one here. The main story has Tommy looking for the doorway to hell so he can go and find Lizzie! Tommy makes his way to the king of Hell (he had to knock out and steal the ferryman's boat to get there (which is pretty damn badass if you ask me)) only to find out that...well...that would be one of those spoilers I am too lazy to tag.

The other storyline runs two issues and has a whole Zombie theme running through it. Which...well...it's a Zombie story. So fuck yeah!

Of course, both of these storylines have a whole lot more running through them then my simple little descriptions above. We are still very much playing around with the theme of literature and the power of words. We are still very much in the world of The Unwritten. This volume actually brings back a lot of the characters we have met along our long journey here. It's all very cool.

I love this comic to pieces! Just wait until the last panel! It's gonna leave you sitting there with your jaw hanging!

It's all just so fucking wicked!

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is only the second volume in The Unwritten series to get less than five stars from me, but I think that might be only a preference thing. This is still a great piece of this story. It was just missing a little oomph for me. I've got to save my five star ratings for the oomph.

Which is silly, because this was chock full of unbelievably cool things. Little stuff paid off from some of the very first issues. Everything ties together. Stuff happened that I didn't see coming at all. Didge and Armitage are back! And Tom has to find a way back into storyworld so he can go to the Underworld and rescue Lizzie. And it was fun! And good. But it just wasn't my fave.

It's actually split into two main storylines. The first is the main one, with Tom journeying down to the Underworld, meeting up with past storyworld characters like Baron Münchhausen and new ones like Elizabeth Bennet (and that's an, er, interesting meeting). He also makes some discoveries about the nature of Leviathan along the way. Meanwhile, Richie is still having his vampire identity crisis, and Didge and Armitage have to deal with a kid who can seemingly make stories come alive, even though Leviathan is gone from the world. His stories feature zombies, and things go where zombie stories usually go, but with an Unwritten twist.

I've heard the next volume (a crossover with Fables) is dodgy, but hopefully it's only a bump in the road to the final two books of the series.

[4.5 stars]

[Emkoshka · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's disappointing that the two volumes of The Unwritten set partly in my home country of Australia are the weakest of the lot. I started out delighted that the protagonists were heading for Hanging Rock, which is an hour away from me and close to the country town where my Dad grew up, but quickly grew disillusioned by Mike Carey's lack of research. Firstly, Hanging Rock is not in the middle of nowhere. It's 10 minutes from a major freeway, an hour from a city of 4 million people, and in an area of rural population growth. Secondly, it's not in New South Wales but in Victoria. Thirdly, it's not in the desert or the outback or whatever back of beyond you stupid Yanks believe Australia is. It's part of a temperate forest area which sees frost and sometimes snow in winter. These poor factual errors spoilt the start of this volume for me. Things picked up when the characters got to the Underworld, but I was still left underwhelmed and annoyed.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fair Warning: Spoilers.


The kids that were killed back in Volume 2 come back from the dead in this book.

Viewed with hindsight, this makes their death a little more understandable/palatable. I don't doubt that Carey knew they would be back, and perhaps that led to him not treating their deaths with the delicacy I'd expect from him.

That said, five entire volumes pass before they come back, and since there's never really any hint they might return, it doesn't really do much to fix the problem I had with Volume 2.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been a bit since I read the previous volume, so it took me a moment (or an issue, rather) to get my bearings. There's some good ideas and imaginative uses of existing stories here. And there's also odd digressions and a few scenes that seem to be shocking for the sake of being shocking and are otherwise pointless. Not exactly looking forward to the Fables crossover, since I stopped reading that book long, long ago.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't like zombie stories at all (lucky for me zombies appear in only a few of the issues in this volume), but I now know why there are so many of them.

P.S. Don't read this if Austen heroines are sacrosanct to you. (And, no, they don't have anything to do with the zombies.)

[47Time · Rating 2 out of 5]

All the previous build-up is wasted on me. I don't seem to have any more interest in this comic. There are too many characters acting on too many planes for the story to be enjoyable. At this point all I want is to get it over with, but each issue was putting me to sleep, so this took some time.

Tom is searching for Lizzie after finding out she is in hell. On the way he meets the story characters that are running away from the destructive wave. There is another, militarized faction led by rabbits who intend to punish the humans for causing the wave. Their attack results in Tom being plunged to his death in a lake that is the gateway to the land of the dead. He forgets his name and his past from drinking the water, but is determined to visit King Hades whom he believes has the answers. He meets some of the coolest supporting characters there - not the rabbit, though he's second cool to his guards - and his father. They escape the first hell into another hell where they meet Lizzie and Tom regains his memories. This hell is ruled by a now giant Pullman who is unable to harm them while the Leviathan still has strength. Tom saves his friends and then chooses to return to hell where he crosses into the Fables universe.

In the real world the waning power of the Leviathan is causing strange deaths and even stranger abilities in some people. One of them is a child who willingly gives up his ability to have his brutally deadly writings come true. Mrs. Rausch receives the power for a hidden plan.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of these days I need to go back and read The Unwritten from the beginning, as I seem to read it in pieces. I was offered an opportunity to view Vol. 8 through NetGalley, and I had read Vol. 4 back when it was nominated for a Hugo Award.

The overarching idea is characters that can dip in and out of literary worlds, but in this book many of them are dealing with consequences of earlier experiences - Lizzie is lost in the Underworld, one character has become a pseudo-vampire, and most of this volume takes place in the gateway between Hades and the living. The magic or power or whatever it is that usually allows them to travel seems to have weakened, and the characters are fearful of being able to come back or move forward.

Some of the other reviews have indicated that this is a bridge volume to a crossover volume with the Fable series, which could be really interesting (and makes perfect sense, except the differences in the art!). The art in this is nice but I wish every once in a while it was given more focus than the story. Some of the full-page panels give a hint of what could be if there were less words on each page. That was what I liked so much from some of the earlier volumes.

[Dev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still an interesting volume but I felt like there were way too many different characters and storylines going on for it to feel really cohesive. Generally I like how Carey starts weaving in all the characters from earlier volumes towards the end of a series, but I felt like it was maybe a little bit too much too fast in this case.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would have been more stars but for 2 unforgivable plot points concerning Elizabeth Bennet and a unicorn early on. Don't mess with my favorite things, man.
Otherwise, the supernatural mystery and the stint in Hades were quite good, and I'm really curious to see how a crossover book with Fables will go.

[Liz B · Rating 4 out of 5]

New twists & surprises show up in this one--although it still feels like an epilogue to volumes 1-6, rather than a story in its own right. I'd still like to finish reading the series...although I think my library does not have volume 10.

Do I want to finish the series enough to buy the last volume? Not sure.

[Ondra Král · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ach, tohle je tak boží série. Pět hvězd furt šetřím, ale nemám tomu vlastně co vytknout. Přípravy na finále jsou v plném proudu.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Cabal arrayed against Tom Taylor has been vanquished, but at terrible cost: Lizzie Hexam, the love of his life, was a casualty of the final battle, turned to fiction and melting away in Tom's arms. Tom was devastated by the loss, but now it appears there may be a chance to save her. Another casualty of Pullman's hand has returned from the Underworld, and she's got a message for Tom: Lizzie is in Hades, and she's waiting for him to come get her. Now, like Orpheus of old, Tom must descend into the depths of the underworld and save the one he loves. Here's hoping it works out better this time than it did for poor Orpheus....

Meanwhile, back in the "real" world, Richie Savoy and Detective Patterson investigate a string of deaths that bear eerie similarity to the tall tales written by a young middle-schooler....

This series continues to deliver, every step of the way. Carey and Gross have apparently plotted out their course very carefully, judging from how carefully important elements were all seeded from the very beginning--yes, including the strange and seemingly-irrelevant adventures of Pauly Bruckner, formerly a strongman for the Cabal and now an anthropomorphic rabbit that has been cursing his way along his own course since very early in the series. Well, his path has finally crossed with Tom's....or perhaps we should say, finally crossed Tom's again....

It's all here: Vampires, Zombies, talking animals, famous literary characters down on their luck....even a special appearance from a familiar group of Fables....

[Just a Girl Fighting Censorship · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not a fluke! While I enjoyed the last book The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Ship That Sank Twice, I was still hesitant about this one. After drudging through several boring, wordy volumes packed full with exposition I had lowered my expectations of this series. This book made me glad I stuck with it.

The story was fluid and surprisingly easy to follow even though it felt like a long time since the reader was in the thick of the plot due to the last book which followed the fictional Tommy Taylor and the real Tom's birth.

The underworld was memorable and the return of a few faces we haven't seen in a while was a pleasant surprise.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This continues to be one of my absolute favorites. Some of the most thought-provoking and interesting writing in any comics series since the heyday of Sandman. This time around, Tommy is on a journey to the underworld to rescue Lizzie, if he can. Things aren't quite the way he expects them to be and the King of Hades has been replaced by a certain foul-mouthed rabbit. Meanwhile back in our world, there's a series of unexplained deaths being caused by people with the apparent ability to make their imaginations manifest in reality. I get the sense that things are wrapping up and we're heading into the home stretch, which is a shame since I would gladly read this series for the foreseeable future. **ARC from NetGalley

[Chris - Quarter Press Editor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been digging on this series for awhile now, and while I was thrown for a bit of a loop with the last volume, this one opened up the story and pulled it in some solid directions.

I truly love the ideas about story and their place in society, what it can do, and what becomes real. These ideas are only deepened in this volume.

Even better, it's really starting to pull all of the characters together in interesting and unexpected ways. Really, I'm quite enjoying this series.

Lastly, the new coloring style introduced in the last volume continues here, and it really makes the artwork much, much better.

[Jeff Raymond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, I love Pauly the Rabbit.

This series was stumbling for me for a while. I feel like things have really streamlined themselves for the most part in the main storyline. I liked a lot of the underworld stuff here, this was definitely more straightforward and less esoteric, which is a plus.

Downside? The vampire storyline is kind of meh for me, and throwing it in the middle of this arc really disrupted what was already a solid flow.

Still excited for the next arc - a Fables crossover, apparently!

[Eilonwy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a bit of a "meh" moment around Volumes 5 and 6, but number 7 and this one have completely redeemed themselves for me.

I still have to get to No. 9, which only came out a week or so ago, to see how the story line wraps up (I think that's the last of this series), but right now I recommend this to anyone who has read a lot of books and believes in the power of story. This is definitely a book-lover's comic. But be forewarned of plenty of blood and gore in every episode.

[Juliet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think graphic novels are not the right format for me. I want more connective tissue to link all the action & betrayal & double-crossing so I can remember who's who and figure out why these things are happening. Love the illustrations, though. And I am fully aware that I am in the presence of some enormously creative people.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The brilliance of this series is back. There are some rather murky books with long, convoluted tales about rabbits and whales, but this one brings those stories together and advances the Tom Taylor story, which is why we're all reading this stuff in the first place. The art is always brilliant, but this time the story also matches the art.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unbelievable storytelling, both writing and artwork. Carey and Gross are so assured and deft in their conceits and visual narrative and this volume in particular felt very strong. But it's really the story (or meta-story or meta-meta-story) that is the most impressive feat. #TommyTaylorLives

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The previous installment didn't do much for me, but I guess it put everything in place for this one. Points off for the Bennet sisters killing and eating a unicorn but otherwise I was pleased with the reframing of the story that took place here.

[Fr. Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably my favorite volume so far, particularly for the last three chapters. Frankly, I was finding Pauly to be a bit annoying, and groaned when I saw he'd be in those chapters, but it turned out fantastic.

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow (except for the last page. Really, Vertigo, you went there, and now there is no going back.)

[[Name Redacted] · Rating 3 out of 5]

WHAT THE-?!? How on EARTH did it end on THAT note?!?

[Sonic · Rating 5 out of 5]

This meta-fictional epic continues to be brilliant!