Slaine - The Horned God: Book 3 (GULP)

[Colin_YNWA]

Now as I'm reading through selected stories from my collection I've choosen to post only about the stuff I've found surprisingly good. I'm not a big fan of posting stuff that just says "Well that was rubbish" that's not constructive BUT I think here I'm going to make an exception. If only because I'm intrigued to see if I'm alone on this and whether even having the thoughts I've been having will get me run out of town! So anyway introductory blahhering aside I'll get to the point.

I thought Slaine - The Horned God Book 3 was a bit rubbish.

There said it.

Good.

Ok I should qualify that a bit. Rubbish is probably putting it a bit strongly it just wasn't anywhere near as good as the other two books, that I should say I thought were excellent. The art in Book 3 is still superb as well. The story, well not so much. My problem with it was after the excellent build up and steady development of characters and ideas it decended into battle after battle after battle. It felt disjointed and the framing sequence that I'd enjoyed during the first two thirds actually became a hinderance and was used for some clunky story telling. For example when Ukko was at death's door his inability to complete the tale was given as the reason we don't actually know Medb's fate. All well and good if you want to keep the character alive for potential future stories BUT given that Ukko is soon revitalised doesn't make any sense. Now often I'll let stuff like this go BUT when there are much simpler options available i.e. in the confusion of battle no one knew her fate etc why not go for that. Anyway there were a couple of bis like that which bugged me.

Unlike the first two parts which I felt were clearly written as a graphic novel it seemed that Book Three was was more self conscious of its serialised nature. This led to some really poor cliff hangers 'oh no Ukko's not going to complete the tale' etc etc. Another example was the way the framing story was used to emphaize theme's in the story. The discussion about Slaine redefining the hero from a maternal perspective was crude. I'm left assuming whether the discussions about the amount of violence that readers found fun in the stories and the druidy fella finally telling Nest to lay off Ukko's work was a commentary of the editorial process during the writing of the story?

I hadn't read Horned God in years and was a little concerned that when I re-read it it wouldn't last up to my memories of it. The first two books certainly put that to result and then the last one alas really let me down with a thump.

Anyway do I get run out of town for this or does anybody else share my thoughts?

[ThryllSeekyr]

Now I know I shouldn't respond to this.

A practice called NECROPOSTING.

Frowned upon on alot of messageboards.

But I will anyway. As it's traditional for me to now and then type SLAINE into the search engine on this site to find anyrecent topics onthe subject being searched.

The search engine is still alittle haywire.

Anyway, I just wanted reply concering this quote....

I thought Slaine - The Horned God Book 3 was a bit rubbish.

&

Unlike the first two parts which I felt were clearly written as a graphic novel it seemed that Book Three was was more self conscious of its serialised nature.

It might explain why books One and Two of the original Titan printing of this three volume series wnet  mysteriously went missing from colection years and years ago.

I had only meant to salvage the thrid one. Perhaps the thief thought it was that bad, yet they were obviously imrpessed with the first two. I suspec the thief knew what they were looking for.

Your reveiw of the story perhaps reflectsthat of a majority of readers and might have influenced the second printing as TWO volumes. Not that this that this seems like sound reasoning right now./

It's latest pritning in ONE whole volume.

Very neat.

I like it. the whole story and now own all three printings. I managed to replace those possibly stolen, possibly missplaced, possibly I would imagine that they might have been  mixxed up with a pile of old newpapers destined for the rubbish tip.

I'll never know, but I can guess..

[Tweak72]

I have to say that IMHO The Horned God should be read as one volume as it is the jewel in the crown of the Sláine Saga. From beginning of Sláine in Prog 330 to the end of The Horned God was an awesome story and more then an equil to Conan the Cimmerian (even though lets face it it was more than a bit of a rip off with a big old pinch of the Book of invasions stories mixed in).

I always thought that Angie Kincaid should have drawn more of it and do think it had a bit of a wobble plot wise around Time Killer/The Tomb of Terror but always thought that was more because of the role playing tie in then any thing else.

It is sad to see it became a pail, watery and weak imitation of it self after the dizzy hights The Horned God. But up to and including THG It is one of the greatest 2000ad stories ever told.