I finally finished Transformers: Exodus by Alex Irvine and thought I'd give my thoughts on it as I don't beleive I've seen it reviewed anywhere on this forum as yet.
This book comes billed as a tie in to the War For Cybertron video games, hit store shelves at the same time as said game and yet seems to actually have very little to do with that game so far as I can tell. But then I haven't finished WFC so perhaps thats where I'm at a loss.
This is not the first time we've seen the history of Cybertron through the Autobots and Decepticons told, though I admit I did find this version as interesting as some of the others(most notably the original cartoon history).
I really liked how Orion Pax was presented. A librarian, working for the historian Alpha Trion, but oblivious to his boss's true position and responsibility was a nice look.
Irvine captured everything about Pax, the soon to be Optimus Prime, that he needed to character wise. He captured his compassion, his intelligence and his stoic deameanor perfectly.
I never for one second had any difficulty believing that I was reading Optimus Prime.
Megatron on the other hand, this is where most my issues with the book reside.
"Freedom is every Cybertronians right!" - Megatron.
Thats right Megatron coined Optimus's phrase, more or less, and the book insinuates basically that Prime took the idea from Megatron. This I had difficulty with.
Irvine trys to paint Megatron as a hero in the early going, as a benevolent force standing up against the caste system(slavery) thats been forced upon the robotic populace of the planet Cybertron.
And the thing is, Irvine makes you beleive it. He makes you beleive tyhat Megatron wanted what was best for everyone. Megatron himself was a slave who revolted to free his people from the tyrants.
Basically the Decepticons were kinda nice fellows for about the first half of this book and that really didn't work for me, especially when they then flip it over for the second half and turn Megatron in the power hungry, murdering leader we all know very well.
It's like a switch gets thrown and suddenly Megatron the wise, Megatron the fair, suddenly becomes Megatron the evil. It just didn't make sense to me.
If Irvine could have shown in an effective manner that Megatron intended such deception all the way along, that he was never about anything but ruling Cybertron despite his words, it could have worked much better.
Starscream on the other hand is very well written in the book, a perfect mixture seeker, scientist and traitor. He easily stood out to me above the rest of the supporting cast.
The book suffers from a lot of name drops, some work alright. Jazz is given almost a large enough role as Pax's best friend, but most don't. Shockwave & Soundwave both have slightly expanded roles as well which seem to work.
Bumblebee fritters back and forth from being able to talk, to not being able to talk, to being able to talk again..........Sideswipe, Ironhide, Ratchet, Prowl, Barricade, Lugnut, Ratbat, Ultra Magnus, Springer, Cliffjumper, Armorhide, The Constructicons, Combaticons, Prtoectobots, Aerialbots, so on - they all get their cameos and little more.
The use of both Omega Supreme & Trypticon works quite well, as did Sentinel Prime's role in the book. I also enjoyed the way the book touched on a number of the individual military campaigns from the war, the strategies that got used and the like.
All in all I enjoyed the book well enough. I'd say read it as an individual standalone novel over worrying about how it ties to the War for Cybertron games.
Exodus is also a lot more epic in scale than any Transformers novel I've previously read, which was to its credit as well.
