Rating:  -
HERO'S QUEST is an extremely character driven story. Told from the POV of hapless artist Kyle Rayner, the novel is laced with the intricacies, quirks, and nuances of Kyle's speech habits, education level, and thought-process. For me, this made the book a real treat; a big fan of Mr. Rayner, I was delighted to find that he was not only in-character, he remained that way for the course of the entire story.
Yes, the origin story has changed; but if you'll read the entire novel, it actually explains why in a unique, unexpected way. In fact, the best way to approach this book is as an alternate universe to standard DC continuity. You could possibly even think of it as a movie adaptation; the origin story is stream-lined, and while the tale is a little convoluted, it packs quite a few punches. My only real concern was how techy it got near the end. Poor Kyle barely understood what was going on, and frankly, neither did I. Even this is explained away pretty well, but I finished the book feeling like I had missed a little too much.
Still, if you're looking for a unique superhero book with a charming, distinct lead, you should definitely consider HERO'S QUEST. If you're a stickler for continuity, and don't like the Lanterns, Kyle, or the quirky musings of a nerdy member of Generation X in the first place, you'll want to stay far, far away. Either way, be sure you take it for what it is.
Rating:  -
I usually don't leave reviews, but I feel I have to for this novel just because it's gotten panned so badly. I really have no idea what everybody else is talking about -- the novel is extremely character driven. Because it is written from the first person, we get a very detailed account of who Kyle is. The other characters are also presented in very clear detail. Batman, in particular, is very sharply defined considering how often he's around.
Yes, Kyle's origin has been rewritten - but it's made clear that this is an alternate reality. It won't change your life, but it's not so terrible it deserves to be obliterated. I myself am a huge Kyle fan and found it very entertaining. It was great to see a novelization of his character, and I enjoyed it despite his new background story. The only major con I found was the fact that there is so much science talk being thrown around. It can get a bit confusing. But I also found Kyle's quirky and geek boy first person narration made it bearable. I would definitely consider it worth the cover price.
Rating:  -
Ask anyone who knows me - I'm a GL fan. Especially of Kyle. What Dennis O'Neil did to this book almost makes me re-think that. O'Neil decided to, for no particular reason, and not done very well, was completely re-write the origin story for Kyle. The only thing that remained was the bar. Alex is gone. Major Force is gone. Hal is gone. Ganthet is there too much! It's as if O'Neil had a story in mind for the re-vamping of GL all those years ago and this was his version and he wanted everyone to read it. Guess what? Its bad. You don't feel anything for Kyle. In fact, you could care less about him or anyone around him for that matter.
I had high hopes for this book and I couldn't have been more dissapointed.
Rating: -
I had high hopes for this novel. When its publication date was delayed, I should have known there were going to be problems with this book. As others have noted, there is not much story going on and what story there is fails to be explained very well. Admittedly, the viewpoint is from a largely uneducated man who never wanted to be a superhero in the first place, but this does not help the reader to understand what is happening either. There is a lot of "and then I was suddenly there without really knowing how I got there" sort of passages. Despite the book being in first person, you never really get a good grasp of him over the 336 pages of the story. At least it it is a quick read if you absolutely must read it.
Much of the story revolves around this Green Lantern's relationship with the denizens of Oa and some misguided endeavor on their part which will end life in the universe. I had hoped this would give some insight into the creators of the Green Lantern Corps but, alas, insights were few and far between in this novel.
There is one horribly written chapter that apparently was an attempt to ape a bad Western serial author. Thankfully, this style was abandoned after this chapter.
My recommendation to Pocket Books is to get a new editor for the JLA series. So far, none of these JLA novels have been very well written nor have the stories been very good. This book, though, is a shoe-in for worst of the series.
Rating: -
Pop quiz GREEN LANTERN fans, select one of the three options below which you believe best relates to what you would do if: YOU WERE GIVEN A GREEN LANTERN RING. Would you: A: Decline the ring as being something you could not handle. B: Take on the mantle of the Green Lantern and fight for truth, justice and the Oaian way? Or, C: Take a long nap. If you're Kyle Rayner, the latest incarnation of GREEN LANTERN (and soon to be replaced by Hal Jordan in the comics), "C" is your choice. Kyle sleeps a lot in this book. Whenever O'Neil needs to pass time, he simply has Kyle "sleep on it" and wake up several hours later to help move the plot (what little of it there is) along.
I'm not sure what O'Neil had in mind when he started this book, but by the time it ends, you're lost... just what happned and why is a complete mystery. I can fault O'Neil for not really trying, I can fault O'Neil for laying in a rather novel and cool idea about the Green Lanterns and then dropping it, but I can not fault him for being stuck with Kyle. A poor choice for a Green Lantern to begin with, he was created to "speak" the average comic reader... an artist with "real problems", living in the "real world" suddenly finding himself part of a larger more complex world of superheros, villians and alien goo-gaa's. Kyle is a dud from the first word and O'Neil doesn't so much try to write around it, but instead tries to cut right through it... and it just doesn't work. And having the book in first person helps us to get into the mind of Kyle, but it does cut us off from the larger plot and grand ideas (since Kyle knows NOTHING!, we know nothing, and anything that has a hint of sparkle is quickly passed over by Kyle as out of his mental abilities), as well as the rest of the JLA. Again, like in Carol Lay's MYTHOS, BATMAN comes across best. For some reason you just can't write a bad BATMAN, and it shows here... you'll simply want to junk Kyle and hang out with The Bat.
A poor book all around and very depressing to think this is the best O'Neil could come up with. Avoid.
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