The Unwritten: Volume 03 (2011)

Dead Man's Knock (2011)

Author: Mike Carey | Illustrator: Peter Gross | Page Count: 160

"When you wake up, you talk to me, or you hit the road. Either way, this all has to stop."

With storytelling's power to influence (and divide) the literate population well-established in Volumes 01 and 02, the time is now right to further explore the secretive cabal that wish to use that power for their own ends.

At the same time Tommy Taylor™ fans across the globe are eagerly anticipating the launch of the fourteenth novel in the fantasy book series. A rumour begins to circulate that the book's author, Wilson Taylor, will be in attendance, even though he hasn't been seen in years.

For Tom and his travelling companions, who are desperately trying to keep a low profile lest they draw the attentions of the authorities and/or the cabal, there are hard decisions to be made about their future.

Volume 03 has its share of big events but overall it's more of a human drama. The personal trials that Tom Taylor has endured thus far have brought him to a kind of crossroads and the double-edged shadow cast far and wide by his fictional counterpart makes his deciding which path to take even harder than it might otherwise be.

Lizzie, too, has her own troubles, explored in a manner that for some readers will be a little gimmicky, but is also, I feel, immensely appropriate: it's an entire chapter (issue #17 - The Many Lives of Lizzie Hexam) presented as an interactive 'Pick-a-Story' book.

It's a term that I wasn't familiar with, but I know the format well, having been a huge fan in my teenage years of the Fighting Fantasy role-playing 'Choose Your Own Adventure' game-books of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. It's not exactly the same as those, there's no dice-rolling or Skill/Stamina/Luck role-playing element, but the choice of which path to take is present, with some choices leading to a bad ending, while others lead to a good (or less bad?) ending.

The reason I feel that it's appropriate to the story being told is simple - in order to make sense of her present situation and (hopefully) put the pieces of her life back together, Lizzie relies on her memories. But to make headway she must first decide which events in her contradictory past she'll use. The uncertainty about which confused memory to trust creates a dangerous fork in the road at almost every turn, just like a 'Pick-a-Story/Choose Your Own Adventure' book.

The book collects together The Unwritten, issues 13-18.

Individual covers. Click for FULL size: