Book Review: The Harrowing of Doom by David Annandale

Format: ebook
Release Date: December 1st, 2020
Age: Adult
Genre: Sci-Fi
Goodreads

Rating: 2/5 Stars

Thank you to Aconyte for providing me with The Harrowing of Doom via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Views remain my own.

I’ve read a small number of Marvel novels now, and find them a little hit or miss for me. This one was more miss than hit, but I expect bigger fans of Doom will enjoy this more and appreciate what’s been done with the character.

The Harrowing of Doom follows Victor von Doom’s attempts to rescue his mother’s soul form hell. And while he is distracted, a prince tries to ‘reclaim’ Latveria for himself. The novel is told in different POVs, bringing you closer to particular parts of the story through the eyes of different characters. For me, there was a bit too much head-hopping, typically something I don’t enjoy in novels (though I tend to like it much better when it’s full length chapters from different POVs). It felt like there were soon a lot of different characters to keep track of, and the scene switches often felt very sudden.

It also felt like there was a bit of a disconnect – I wasn’t ever quite sure how we were supposed to feel about Doom himself? Of course, when facing the Fantastic Four he’s a Bad Guy, but at various points throughout this book we’re told he’s such a good leader, he’s done so many things for Latveria, and are given an idea of what these things are – they are good things, don’t get me wrong, but it still comes across as the thing that makes him so good is comparison to the last guy, who was really bad? It’s a low bar, but Doom is still a single person running a country, and one who is hugely mythologised and literally worshipped by the people, in acts he seems to encourage, and who dedicates a huge chunk of his time to trying to rescue his mother from hell rather than ruling the country or dealing with what was basically a terror attack?

But no, it’s fine, because everyone has UBI (which is something I agree with! I just don’t agree with a tyrant running a country?). So yeah, bit of mixed feelings towards the characters as a whole, and overall just didn’t really gel with this story – it was a touch too all over the place for me! But it wasn’t massively bad, and like I said at the beginning, this is probably one to pick up if you’re already a fan of Doom himself.

About Marvel Entertainment

Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.

For more information visit marvel.com. © 2023 MARVEL

Reading Challenge
2023 Tarot Reading Challenge
Prompt: The Magician Reversed – a book told from a villain’s POV
Progress: 7/164 Completed

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