V for Vendetta by Alan Moore, David Lloyd Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of V for Vendetta
Book Review: A stern warning of things to come...
Summary: 2 Stars
For those who have read Orwell's 1984, V for Vendetta has nothing new to offer. In this comic book, Moore is re-treading that road, like so many other writers of science-fiction. The dystopian England of the book is a carbon-copy of Nazi Germany, rather than a fictional creation designed to satirise the modern world. It has no relevence to the Britian we live in.
In addition Moore decided to set his comic book in what was then the near future- 1998. This has to be one of the worst mistakes in sci-fi, as it quickly dates the book or film. Orwell got away with it, but by the time the actual 1984 came to pass, the book was already a modern classic.
The other essential element of comic book writing- the artwork- is fairly good. It looks good and the grim backdrop to the story is drawn in a darkly atomspheric style.
Book Review: England Prevails!
Summary: 5 Stars
The film version of 'V For Vendetta' in all honesty, wasn't half bad. That said, it still isn't a patch on the graphic novel. Alan Moore's skewered take on a future totalitarian England is by some distance the most relevant and terrifying comic/graphic novel i've ever read. A creepy meditation on the loss of identity, freedom and personal liberties, this should be mentioned in the same breath as Moore's equally brilliant 'Watchmen'.
'V', an enigmatic terrorist with a smiley facemask and unnervingly pleasant demeanor, saves a young girl from certain death and plots to blow up London with his young protege. In a series of increasingly disturbing flashbacks, we slowly come to understand his motivation, and find ourselves in a confusing situation. Nothing is black and white, the good guys are really bad, the bad guys are really good, and you find yourself rooting for a character you should really despise.
How messed up is that? It's hard to believe that this was written 20 years ago. Corporation's controlling everything. Terrorist's plotting against the faceless powers-that-be. Just look out your door and you'll find the world of 'V For Vendetta'. That horrible feeling of being watched, and a world slowly collapsing into oppression, the novel seems to be getting to close for comfort.
And with David Lloyd's dingy, saturated art work, the atmosphere of 'V For Vendetta' is second to none. The worst bit about the novel is knowing that it will have to end. But that only means you'll have to read it again, which is no bad thing.
So if you still don't know who the man in cell number 5 is, it's about time you found out.
Book Review: ESSENTIAL READING just as good as all these 5 star reviews make out
Summary: 5 Stars
Just thought I'd add my own opinion to the pile of customer reviews praising this graphic novel through the roof. I've come to comics fairly late and I find comic book mile stones to be funny things. I find that some of them leave me scratching my head and wondering what all the fuss was about in the first place. Others age like wine and reward careful re-reading. V for Vendetta is definitley the latter. The story does miss a beat, the art work is top notch and even the recent medicore movie adaptation doesn't detract from it's power to shock, move and inspire the reader.
This is a book that doesn't require any previous appreciation of comics to get totally lost in. Best of all it's as quintessentially English as tea, Dad's Army and the Queen's speech. Absoluely essential reading!
Book Review: Wicked
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this graphic novel, I read it a long time before I saw the film, and I still think the novel is better! If you have never read a comic/ graphic novel before, I highly recommend this one.Book Review: The V-effekt of V for Vendetta
Summary: 5 Stars
Alan Moore and David Lloyd's aesthetic seems almost Brechtian. With a sci-fi motif it distances the reader from the universal political issues being addressed; amusingly, V for Vendetta could be said to use Brecht's V-effekt. There is a strong dialectic that runs throughout, a sense of determinism layered symbolism. All V's Larkhill targets personify aspects of the state. Science is embodied by Delia Surridge, military and media by Lewis Prothero and religion by Anthony Lilliman. Each takes an attitude of opposition; so Lilliman is the unrepentant leader of an institution of salvation, whilst Surridge seeks repentance from the opposed standpoint of a scientist. Prothero, by representing the military become media, is in himself a synthesis between the power of rhetoric and that of violence, which ultimately spawns a new antithesis resulting in V - anarchy personified.
The secret police are represented by Peter Creedy and the figurehead by Adam Susan; Creedy seeks power as an end in itself, whilst Susan is a deranged idealist who believes in his superiority to the extent that he becomes solipsistic, disconnected from humanity and infatuated with the super computer `fate'. With all of this madness Moore knows how to offer grounding and realism; investigator Eric Finch and orphan Evey Hammond take on the roles of the everyman and everywoman respectively. They offer the audience characters to follow, to empathize with. They are a thread of sanity weaved through this excellent narrative.
Moore's story is also full of intertextual allusion; from Shakespeare to Goethe and from Crowley to Fawkes, this is intelligent writing. The dialogue (replete with convincing phonetic spellings, character ticks and vernacular language) flows beautifully and the absence of thought bubbles or sound bubbles lends this book both a maturity and minimalism. Lloyd is given room by this minimalism to show of his artistic capabilities, which are not at all lacking; this is a gritty, dystopic kind of realism that takes you to the action. Each panel demands your attention.
Overall V for Vendetta is faultless; I love the film as well, but the original is on a different level. This is a comic book that shows you how far the medium can be pushed when it is backed by enough raw creative talent.