Fairest 3: The Return of the Maharaja

I liked the new characters, but it is focused a lot on Prince Charming instead of the new female Nalayani - this is supposed to be a Fairest story?There are so many Fables books, some better than others. This is definitely better than the last of the Jack series...

I enjoyed this collection of stories. The growth and development of the character of Prince Charming of the course of the story comes full circle (from his first introduction way back in Fables issue #1). He went from a slightly annoying, one note character to a character of great depth (that you really root for). Jimenez and Sadowski's art was also pretty great (as per usual).

Fairest has been a pleasant surprise, featuring fantastic stories that often surpass even their source material (the Fables series). The first volume was wry, clever, and heartfelt; the second a dark, complex exploration of a foreign Fables culture. Both featured wonderful art. And all was well.Until now--this current volume is less about the heroine Nalayani as it is about the return of Prince Charming, who is now the apparent Maharaja, or king, of a distant Fable land. Nalayani seeks Charming's aid in defending her village from what is essentially a roving pack of wolves, but things quickly go wrong from there. It's a simple, rote, and rather predictable tale, with Charming's typical smugness robbing him of any true likability. Worse, everything Nalayani set out to accomplish at the beginning of the tale is rendered naught by the end, and Charming's sudden evolution in the ways of love feel forced and undeserved. And those are just the larger criticisms; plenty of other developments also litter the plot in pointless fashion, from the introduction of characters that are later killed off meaninglessly to supposed heroes who treat their enemies with matching cruelty. It's an odd mishmash of plot choices.Nevertheless, a few elements save this volume from complete disaster; Nalayani is a decent addition to the Fables universe, the art work is fine (if not as lush as the previous volume's), and the story's fast pace will still keep readers turning pages until the end.But this is indeed an "okay" read at best. Readers expecting the same level of quality, imagination, and intrigue of the earlier volumes will inevitably be disappointed.

I'm a big fan of Fables and I've been reading the 'Fairest' series as well. 'Return of the Maharaja' was quite good; I read it all in one sitting and, these days, I rarely read anything for very long, let alone watch a movie non-stop. It's not a very long graphic novel but the writing and arwork were choice. It's fun to see Charming in a better 'light'.

Because that is how he is written. I love and own all the Fables, Jack of Fables and now Fairest. I don't really write reviews, but I wanted to warn people off of this. Don't waste your time. This isn't about women. This is about how Charming treats women. You won't miss any useful information and it is so poorly written, I can't believe it is part of the Fable's universe. It doesn't fill in any gaps about what happened to Charming. And the new female lead will probably have the same, if not better, introduction and back story if she becomes a part of the regular cast in future books. The rest of the characters are throwaways, which is probably why they didn't bother to spend much time fleshing them out.Isn't Charming the mayor who was adamant that there would not be slavery because that was deplorable? Yet here he not only has a harem, he tells one of the guys that if he sees someone he likes, to let him know. What mine is yours. I'm supposed to root for a guy who offers his women as rewards? At best this is the typical male power fantasy. Guy waltzes into to town, with no male competition for the ladies, overthrows the current ruler, not because he is bad but because he isn't strong enough to hold onto power. That's it. That's the mystery. And I am not really summarizing. That is how much time they spend talking about it in the book. A couple of pages. Boom storytelling.This is just bad writing all around with the characters barely more than 2 dimensional. Yes the female lead is "strong." If by strong, you mean that she can fight. Her motivation is bare bones to say the least. Her only purpose is to serve as the motivator for Charming's role in this book. There are two guys who have tension between them and we only know this because Charming tells us there is a history tension between them but he doesn't know what it is. Boom storytelling.They don't even tell you how Charming survives or how he acclimates to the country because apparently he is such a strong fable that his skeleton regrows muscle and skin and he is back to normal in one week at which time, he is apparently fluent in the language and customs. Boom storytelling. And that is how they write everything. They tell you that everything happened instead of showing how everything happened.I'm going to tag everything past this as spoilers.A. A woman is cursed because she is having sex with Charming and dies of it because she isn't in love with him.B. I am really tired of men chasing after women who aren't interested in them. She doesn't want to entertain him the first night on the road, so he has sex with one of his harem members instead. The next day he's all, do you like me now? How about now? Then at the end of the book, you just suffered through an enormous tragedy, so this time I will wait a day before asking what about now? In real life we call this stalking and it isn't romantic. I thought Edward Cullen finally flushed out the last of that trope, but nope, here it is again.C. We know one character is gay because he isn't interested in women. They allude to this again and again. Boom Storytelling. Why bother to write a character when you can trot out an overly used plot device.D. After this story of "empowered, strong" woman, the only choice for leadership is either another man from the outside this world or the only man left in the country. Not the strong female lead? Or any one of Charming's female warriors?E. The book literally ends with an ex-wives, amiright, *wink.

A really great series. If you enjoy Fables, you will enjoy the fairest series as well. I liked that these are soft back and thin. They fit on my self very well without taking too much room.

Love it

In this volume, Prince Charming clearly overshadowed Nalayani, who was supposed to be the main star. Since everyone is dying to know what happened to Prince Charming, not to mention the many skills he'd picked up along the way to becoming the Maharaja, Nalayani's role was demoted to becoming one of the supporting characters, only remembered by readers when we realize that this story is supposed to be about all about her.Although they were able to explain her back story, they did not give her enough screen time to become a memorable character you can empathize with.Still a great read especially if you're a Fables fan. But if I were to reread any of the three Fairest volumes, this would not be on the top of my list.

As other reviewers have pointed out the first print is missing 16 pages. (16 pages are dublicated in part three.)So the middle of the story is completely lost...I have to agree with some reviewers that this is not the strongest storytelling in the Fables Universe, but to expect the story to be realistic is to much to ask for. We are in a world of magic. So what if something takes weeks to walk, but only days to ride.

Bought it after reading all available parts of Fables, hoping that spin off story will be as good as main one. Although the beginning is really promising the end of the book seems to be rushed and nothing is really well explained (e..g. how Prince Charming survived)..

Good story, great art exactly what I wanted, unfortunately several pages were missing and some repeated. And by the time I got round to reading this the return window had closed. Defective product check your purchase as soon as you recieve it.

Très bon album regroupant les aventures du Prince Charmant après sa disparition dans la série Fables.Recommandé pour tout fan de ce personnage.

I'm a big fan of the Fables universe so I read them all. I highly suggest this book and all the other in the Fairest and Fables series.