User blog:Xandermcc/Arrow Season 5.5 - Fatal Legacies review

So sorry i had done this one late. I was busy reviewing other stuff off the site that was very long so i didn't have time to get to the books as much this time around. Luckily i am still early for the Flash one. However lets get to the latest Arrow novel, Fatal Legacies.

So continuity nuts like me probably want to know where this falls into everything. Well i will enlighten you based on what i have read.

Arrow - Between Lian Yu & Fallout.

Legends of Tomorrow - Between Aruba & Aruba-Con.

The Flash - At least after Invasion!

Supergirl - At least after Invasion!

Story
The story to this book fleshes out the point in which Oliver had been traumatized by Adrian Chase's plan. In which he managed to lure them all to Lian Yu and then blow them all to bits. In fact this is exactly what the prologue is. An entire recap of Season 5's ending moments. However it really begins a few months afterwards. Oliver continues business as normal. Taking down some druglords called the Skulls. He then reunites with Sara Lance AKA the White Canary who comes back to Star City to help Oliver take care of business. Oliver and Sara then greet Quentin, but then get a strange letter from none other than Adrian Chase. Taunting Oliver on those he predicted he would have lost. (Which his top contenders were Thea, Felicity, and Samantha) He also warns that even after his scheme on the island that resulted in his death, he is not done with Oliver. (I find this weird though since he was supposed to break Ollie with the Lian Yu thing) So Adrian hired this guy named Alex Faust who you may recognize as the bomber from Season 6's premier. Though we will get to this later. Anyway, the Team chase this guy down including Sara being on the team as a little mini crossover. However he planned for all of their skills in play. Getting mercs who are trained in the military, and getting old bomb parts for his bombs so Felicity and Curtis would have trouble getting through them. It is later explained Chase had provided some of this info, but the application of them was all Faust's. So props to him for being a solid combination of Cayden James and Adrian which works since he is the villain in between both of them. So they play a cat and mouse game with him for a solid while with Sara learning about Dinah's skill as the Black Canary and giving permission for her to use Laurel's alter ego in battle. Then with Quentin revealing it, Sara learns of the existence of Black Siren. With that being the only mention of Laurel-2 in the book so lets move on. The team then get things more complicated when another vigilante named Arthur Hallsey who has taken the name of the Arrow has started taking on a drug lord named Cross using guns instead of a bow. The plot sort of diverges in the two directions of connecting with Cross and this vigilante and being its own book or connecting with Season 6 and Alex Faust's part in the sixth season. However the novel manages to do both surprisingly well. Now time to go over the flaws and positives in this one.

Positives
There are a lot of positives. I'll start with the main ones however. The character work is spot on. You feel like you really are seeing an episode of Arrow (Although an extended one) when you are reading this book. While the other novels did well at this, i feel this one did the best at it. Allowing us to really see the combat strategies of every single character very well, their natural reactions to a situation etc. It all worked well. Which is ironic because this was the one that wasn't made by one of the Arrowverse writers and instead made by James R. Tuck, a man known for working on Robin Hood books.

Another major element i would like to note is the continuity. It is really spot on. The dates and times, costume progression between the seasons. Character build up between the seasons. All done extremely well. I think one of the best parts of it would have to be the progression of Diggle's nerve damages. Which start as numbness in his hand and then move toward the tremors we see in Season 6. It is all done like a well oiled machine and the major Arrowverse multiverse references certainly help with this. References to Supergirl, Doctor Light, the Flash, the Legends, the Dominators, and the many past vigilantes and villains from Arrow all get references of their own.

Lastly we also get more comic book elements that were very much missing from the last two novels. With references to the city of Bludhaven from Nightwing's world, a reference to the GCPD and James Gordon from Batman, and various collections of references to the vigilantes that roam Coast City, Gotham, and Bludhaven.

Negatives
I'll be a little nitpicky for some of these since there really wasn't that much to harp on this time around except for one major complaint.

Sara Lance. She was just not characterized well. Aside from her interactions with Quentin, they made her a completely different character than both the Arrow and Legends versions of Sara. Making me wonder if Tuck even watched Legends before making this. Then i see the references to the Spear of Destiny making it clear that someone did so i don't know what is up. Basically she flirts with practically everyone to a level that will make everyone reading uncomfortable. When she normally does it, she doesn't do it that often and it is a minor playful thing with the guest stars and main cast on whatever show she is on. However now she does it all the time to evil henchmen and henchwoman, fellow heroes such as Dinah, Felicity, (Felicity was okay though since she did it in Season 2 of Arrow) Curtis, and even Wild Dog. It really got to be such a problem to the point where i thought every guy/girl that was in a page with her was going to be the victim of too much flirting. It was just an extreme level even for Sara Lance.

Also they switched her weapon to Ninchaku which is not her main weapon of choice.

The more nitpicky stuff is minor, but it did bother me. William making some major progress with Oliver in this, but then that is ignored in the show's sixth season premier.

Felicity wanting to be a mom to William two weeks after Samantha's death. Also before William has shown any progress in even wanting to be Oliver's son.

Anyway, time to conclude this review.

Conclusion
This novel is a very good read if you love Arrow and especially if you love it on the peak of its quality during Season 5. It has amazingly described action, brilliant character work, and while having a few blunders, it can still be forgiven. I highly recommend this in your collection. Now that closes off my review of Arrow - Fatal Legacies. Now that i am waiting for the Flash's new novel, i am going to be reviewing Gotham's new novel over on our sister wiki if anybody wants to see that. See ya next novel review.