Michelle's corner

Book 3 of the Push Chronicles. You know that on the journey form A to B, that B is, "The good guys win." However, a few things throughout the chronicles have seen me ask myself, "Just who, exactly, ARE the good guys? How do you define good?" and what does, "Win," mean when applied to a series like this? Did everyone manage to get together and live happily ever after in the new universe? Did everything undo, and if so how did the previously pushed manage with, "normal," life again? Did a new universe trigger with a fresh whiteout going forward possibly starting a re-run of the whole chronicles?  Or ... something completely different? What about all the innocent lives lost? After all, "lives were at stake," throughout!

It is only now that my colleagues have stopped looking at me funny whenever I've taken the chance to state, "Lives are at stake!" at work. Well, that's what superhero and fantasy stuff is all about, right?

On top of delivering the conclusion, there were loads of other loose ends to tie up, not least Reaper, McKenzie, the military and the citizenship on top of Indie's love interest. So ... Mr Garner ... no pressure then! :-)

With book three done, I have to say that I've enjoyed the tale.

The same things gave me problems, however. Namely keeping track of the large number of people involved in the Push battles and also more non-communicated stuff with characters communicating somehow outside the realm of the reader.

"Mind, get ready and keep tabs on Gerald's mind." Before she could object, I raised a hand. "I know you can't get in there right now, either him or reaper, but I think you will be able to soon. You know what to do from there." ... I thought, "Uhhhh.... what does she know what do to?"

Let's cut to the chase here. To bring superhero work to the printed page is a difficult task. Characters with super powers, unfamiliar cybernetic enhancements, psychic skills, etc. are difficult enough to describe to the reader as it is. When you bring loads of them together in to a fast paced battle, it would take an extremely gifted writer to carry that off to a five star read, so Garner has actually done well, in my personal opinion, to stay this high. Sure, book 1 was a borderline 3/4 for me, but it was a worthy start to the chronicles.

I do think that The Push Chronicles would do better in another medium, but I'm probably going to surprise some people by saying that comic strip/graphic would not do this justice, as the written word has achieved a depth that static illustration doesn't really have available.

Let me expand on where I am here. I think I own most of the first Spiderman DVD series, but not the second. I also haven't bothered with the new Superman films and the only time I'll pick up the Avengers is when friends throw their DVD's away to upgrade to BluRay. They just don't have the depth; they feel cheesy and shallow. What Garner has created is a world and characters which are plausibly real. I can see the Chronicles as a series of films or, at the outside,animation or an FPS computer game where, in major boss battles, the player also has to control the team as well as themselves. The visuals of being able to see the host person inside the pushed character really adds some depth and, lets face it, our games industry has stagnated also in recent years.

It is unfortunate, given the state of our entertainment houses these days, that the chances of this happening are slim. However, as more of us turn off the spoon fed, regurgitated garbage, there is hope that eventually those industries stop gazing at their own navels and look at works like Garner's Chronicles and take note. Fingers crossed, eh?