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| Fullmetal Alchemist: The Land of Sand; "Manga" with no pictures. ;) | |
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| Topic Started: Nov 22 2005, 01:31 AM (194 Views) | |
| Niko | Nov 22 2005, 01:31 AM Post #1 |
Traveller
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Been meaning to post my comments on this, but just got busy for a while there. For those not familiar, "The Land of Sand" is the first Fullmetal Alchemist NOVEL to be published here in the U.S. I've been eager to check it out, and read it a couple weeks ago. My overall reaction is pretty "meh". Summary: The main guts of the book tells the same basic plotline as the "red water" episodes of the FMA TV series. Ed and Al arrive in the village of Xenotime, following rumors of a philospher's stone being created there. They are surprised to find that the town, once famous for its wealth, is now barren and run-down. The gold mines have been tapped out, and the rich (& evil) owner of the mine, Mugear, has been sucking the citizens dry to fund research into a philosopher's stone, which would allow him to create as much gold as anyone could hope for. When Ed and Al arrive, they learn that Mugear has a surprising pair of alchemists working for him: A teenage alchemical wunderkind and his younger brother...the famous Elric brothers! Ed and Al are a little surprised at this, of course, and set out to deal with the imposters while finding out what they've learned about the philosopher's stone. There's also a shorter, fluffy story at the end that deals with Mustang getting roped into a late-night investigation into a ghost story that has been floating around the base. (From last weekend's FMA preview, I take it that this story is the same as next week's episode.) Thoughts: Honestly, I have to say I was a bit disappointed. I knew going in that the storyline was similar to the Xenotime episodes of the series, and I was hoping that the book would expand on that arc...maybe delve into the characters a bit more or something. Instead, the book actually REDUCES the plot arc. The whole element of the story that involves the mine having a ready supply of red water that is causing townspeople to get sick is dropped, reducing the complexity of the situation a great deal. Likewise, the writing level is quite simplistic, giving a fairly straightforward blow-by-blow of what people do and say, without evoking much of the character-driven drama that was so great in the anime. In retrospect, I should've expected this, since the book is targetted to younger readers, but I still wish there had been a bit more to it. The Mustang story, too, was entertaining as far as it went (I absolutely love the supporting folks like Havoc, Breda, etc. under Mustang's command), but nothing really exceptional. Conclusion: Probably a very cool book for intermediate readers, but I wouldn't recommend it much for adults unless you haven't already seen the episodes of the series that the book corresponds to. Niko |
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2:20 PM Jul 30
