The Hangman’s Revolution (W.A.R.P Book Two) by Eoin Colfer - Book Review
The Hangman’s Revolution (W.A.R.P Book Two) by Eoin Colfer
Series: W.A.R.P. (Book 2)
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion (June 24, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1423161637
ISBN-13: 978-1423161639
Eoin Colfer’s first book in the W.A.R.P series, The Assassin’s Apprentice, was a fun, if surprisingly brutal, book that sat somewhere between being YA and Middle Grade. It introduced readers to Chevie Savano, a young FBI recruit assigned to the Witness Anonymous Relocation Program. The W.A.R.P turns out to be a time machine and Chevie found herself teamed up with a young Victorian boy, Riley, in stopping Riley’s diabolical mentor Albert Garrick. Despite Garrick’s obvious evil the end of the first book makes the point that there’s another villain at work in Victorian London, Colonel Box, a soldier who went through the time machine before anyone else and decided to start empire building.
It’s worth knowing all this as you read W.A.R.P book two, and in fact Colfer does have a short introduction that covers these points, because the world that readers start in in book two is not the world we know. It’s a grey dystopia reminiscent of the Britain from V for Vendetta. Most of the world worships the absent Colonel Box as a God/Jesus surrogate, people are executed en masse and teams of specialized soldiers called Thundercats kill, torture and intimidate their way through any resistance. The Chevie Savano in this world isn’t the tough fighter from the first book, she?s a broken being well on her way to being a Thundercat herself.
And yet something of the other Chevie remains.
Colfer sets up his dystopia well, and when the story makes its shift back in time he shows that Victorian London wasn’t necessarily that much better.
The two main characters are well realized, especially Chevie, as she goes through an existential crisis while trying to change the future and we see two possible outcomes for her personality. Riley is still a street-smart stage magician but his character has deeper motivations that come out over the course of the book. That said, both of them are somewhat overshadowed by one of the most epic supporting characters ever put to print: Otto Malarkey, gangster with fabulous hair.
Otto is the leader of a street gang, a pit fighter, a killer and much much more. For all intents and purposes Otto should be the bad guy, but he’s much more fun when he’s helping Chevie and Riley fight the far worse people who have stepped through the time machine and into the past.
Those worse people are two Thundercats from the dystopian timeline named Lunka Witmeyer and Clover Vallicose. While Witmeyer is presented somewhat sympathetically for psychopath, Clover Vallicose is a case study on why frothing religious extremism doesn’t look good on anyone. Despite their bleak backstories the two have some excellent banter as the story flies towards its conclusion, smashing their way through all obstacles to reach their goals. Their humor helps inject some black humor into the story’s darker elements.
And it does get dark. A lot of people die. Real consequences are shown for the acts violence that are committed by both the heroes and the villains. There?s a scene towards the start of the book that is truly horrific and might not be right for sensitive readers.
With that said, The Hangman’s Revolution is a worthy continuation of the series that builds on what the first book started. There’s more than enough action and humor to satisfy anyone who reads it regardless of their age. Colfer clearly sets up a third book in the closing chapter and if the first two books are anything to go by, it’s going to be fantastic.
Written by Andrew Jack
| The Reluctant Assassin |
The Hangman’s Revolution |
Latest posts by Andrew Jack (see all)
- The Rhesus Chart by Charles Stross - Book Review - 09/30/2014
- Shadows Beneath: The Writing Excuses Anthology - Book Review - 09/08/2014
- The Hangman’s Revolution (W.A.R.P Book Two) by Eoin Colfer - Book Review - 08/12/2014
- Blightborn by Chuck Wendig - Book Review - 08/08/2014
 by Eoin Colfer – Book Review){kind=link}