Book Review: Transformers Exodus

Transfomers Exodus by Alex Irvine is an ambitious attempt to document the rise of the main Transformers characters, Megatron and Optimus Prime, in the distant past of the planet Cybertron and the eventual war that leads their forces to abandon the planet.

Megatron begins his rise to despot in the gladiatorial pits of Cybertron, while the `bot to become Optimus Prime starts out as a data clerk eavesdropping on those gladiatorial fights. The two meet, thinking to make allies of each other. The council has other plans and makes Optimus the new Prime, leading Megatron to hate him for usurping the power he wanted for himself.

A Transformers fan might find the book interesting, but someone with no exposure to the many different variations of Transformers continuity would be completely lost. There is little to no description of the characters themselves, except for a few mentions of color. The titular aspect of the characters, their ability to transform into different things - vehicles, weapons - is described blandly and perfunctorily, without the awe it should inspire.

I believe this book was released to be the official canonical history of Transformers to coincide with the new War For Cybertron game, that is also supposedly given canon status by Hasbro. It can be confusing to Transformers fans though, because it seems to have elements several continuities in it. It's not a bad book... it's just nothing special in the Transformers catalogue, apart from being one of the few novels about these characters. I've read better Transformers fanfic, and I haven't read much TF fanfic at all.

I'd have to give this a 2 out of 5.  Good effort, but not quite there. Let's see some more Transformers novels!


Disclaimer of Disclaiming: Sometimes publishers or authors give me their book or product free so I can review it. When they do, I'll mention it in the review. Sometimes I get books I want to read for my own enjoyment from PaperBackSwap. The product links in the reviews take you to Amazon.com, where if you buy the linked item I get a very small percentage of the purchase price (because I like cash). I got this particular book from my local library.