The final volume of one of the best stories ever.

books:

	• Lucifer, Book 11: Evensong Mike Carey Vertigo, 2007 - 216 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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That's all, folks...

The Lucifer series is over. And if you know Mike Carey, when he finishes something, he likes to make sure nobody can ever pick it up again. In a word, this really is it.
I'd like to start off by saying a few words about the entire series. Lucifer is easily one of the best comic series Vertigo has ever produced, in part because Mike Carey is one of the best writers I have ever had the pleasure to know. I place him on a level with Gaiman in terms of inventing characters and settings that have never been used before, and utterly without peer for keeping his plot threads tightly wound. More than once I have stood in awe of the way he manages to pull things back together for a startling climax.
Evensong has many things in common with the last book of the Sandman series, The Wake, in that it occurs after all the action has taken place, and exists mainly to wrap things up. Therefor, it should not be surprising that the big "go out with a bang" comes and the end of the last book, and Evensong is, if not exactly a whimper, then perhaps only the fading echo of the bang that was.
In true Carey fashion, all major characters drift off where it would be difficult, if not impossible, to pick them up again. I have no wish to spoil the endings, but Jill Presto lives happily ever after, Elayne decides to start taking her God roll seriously, and even Gaudium enjoys some level of respite.
Then there's Lucifer, easily the most entrancing character to ever walk through literature. In the final comic, Lucifer comes full circle with his past, and has the final confrontation with his father that we have been expecting since the first book. As you might imagine, Lucifer cannot help but be himself, and nothing is resolved. The last comic even manages to force you to sympathize with God's position, and the ending is more than a little sad as Lucifer fades away into the sunset (or lack of sunset, as the case may be).
Now, I hate to nitpick, but when someone with Carey's reputation for thoroughness misses anything, it's easy to be critical. My number one complaint over the entire series is that, back many novels ago, when Lucifer is searching for the ship made of dead men's nails, he promises Loki to hold him up over the side of the ship come the day of Ragnorok. This is a small thing, but because of Lucifer's penchant for never being forsworn, I at once assumed that he was going to fullfull this oath before the end of the series. Come the last issue, Loki has never again made an appearance, and Lucifer has placed himself in a position to make it obvious he no longer cares. I find it hard to believe I am the only one to notice that Lucifer has been foresworn, and as with anything, one mistake ruins the formula.
The other notion I have issue with is the entire storyline of the Japanese death goddess. Evensong deals extensively with her, being the only true enemy of Lucifer's left alive, and she acheives what could be best termed a stalemate with him. Somehow, her final meeting with him is referenced as though it foreshadows her doing something very important, and very detrimental to Elaynes cosmos, but the book doesn't go into any detail, and it doesn't finish her story very satisfactoraly.
These two small things are the reason I have to give this book four instead of five stars. Given the scope of the series, and the way Carey has impressed us before, I think fans were expected something truly spectacular. What we see is an impressive feat any other author would be proud to call his own, yet still not par with Carey's other works. In spite of this, I will be reading the series again and again.
Because as I said, this is it, and it's more than a little sad now that it's over. For the last time, "that's all folks..."

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The final volume of one of the best stories ever.

The Lucifer series is for serious readers. Please note that I said serious READERS, not comic fans. Even if you've never read a Superman or Spider-Man comic, consider this series. It's intelligent, entertaining, thought-provoking, philosophical, emotionally charged, powerfully written and drawn, and overall one of the finest miniseries ever set to paper. When I rank my list of All-Time Best Miniseries or Series, it's a short list: Watchmen, Kingdom Come, Lucifer, and Seven Soldiers of Victory (the Grant Morrison version). Yes, Lucifer is that good. It might even be better than Watchmen. This particular volume, number eleven in the series of collected issues, is the final volume. As such there's a sad quality to it, but it ends on a perfect note. All our favorite characters return, things are wrapped up, and a very fitting finale awaits this book's reader. When I finished it the first time, my immediate thought was regret, since I knew this story had come to an end. But the more I thought about it, the ending is why we read the story to begin with, and the ending to this series has all anyone could want.

At eleven volumes, Lucifer isn't for the faint at heart. It's a long series that requires you to think, remember, and be willing to challenge your beliefs. However, at no point should this book be considered "satanic" or some form of black/evil magic. It's a story, pure and simple. It presents a different view of the cosmos and makes any reader reconsider her or his beliefs, but at the end it rewards persistence and actually can renew a reader's faith, as it did with mine. Come to this series with an open mind and remember that it is not for children, and I think you'll be quite pleased with what you find. I recommend reading it in order if at all possible, but you can pick it up anywhere in the order and still have an excellent read.

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On Lucifer 11

Excellent wrap-up of a fine series of graphic novels on the theme of God and Lucifer. The treatment is deep enough to interest philosphers and theologians.

Excellent ending, irritating coda

This wraps up most of the loose ends in the "Lucifer" series in a satisfactory way. The open-ended nature of Lucifer's fate is appropriate and suitable, and the mood and method of his final parting from his father Yahweh is ...hmm, properly consistent with his character; so is his farewell gift to Mazikeen. Elaine's choice of immanence rather than transcendance as her path of Godhead is well-justified and portrayed.

Unfortunately, the pretty but meretricious separate episode "Nirvana", which is a sort of filler to the whole thing, spoils the mood. This piece of orientalist trash should have been mercifully forgotten, rather than resurrected here. Surely it would not have hurt Carey to have actually talked to a few Buddhists to find out what Nirvana is actually conceived to be, rather than inflicting his own ignorance on his readers.

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From the pages of Neil Gaiman's THE SANDMAN comes the story of Lucifer Morningstar, the former Lord of Hell who is unexpectedly called back into action after he receives a mission from Heaven.

In this final volume, the war is over and a new order is rising from the ashes. His own fate now decided, Lucifer begins to settle his affairs -- only to discover that he still has one deadly enemy unaccounted for.

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