Fantastic Four: What Lies Between

Marvel Pocket Books Novels

by Peter David

Reed Richards is brought in on a consult to oversee a privately funded dimension-spanning device...a device that will give wealthy patrons the opportunity to experience interdimensional travel. Never mind that the consortium wants to launch a sweeping endeavor that would be branded as "Fantastic Forays," with the world's greatest super hero team receiving a cut of the profits; their brilliant lead scientist, Rachel Hunt, has now discovered a way to safely traverse "interspace" -- the main conduits situated between dimensions -- that allows one access to a multitude of realities. And it is this very discovery of these gateways that puts the Fantastic Four on the front lines of a new kind of war, as dark forces gather and conspire to bring about the utter annihilation of all humanity....

Genres: Marvel, Superheroes, Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Comics

368 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

aka David Peters

Peter Allen David, often abbreviated PAD, was an American writer of comic books, novels, television, films, and video games. His notable comic book work includes an award-winning 12-year run on The Incredible Hulk, as well as runs on Aquaman, Young Justice, SpyBoy, Supergirl, Fallen Angel, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Captain Marvel, and X-Factor.
His Star Trek work included comic books and novels such as the New Frontier book series. His other novels included film adaptations, media tie-ins, and original works, such as the Apropos of Nothing and Knight Life series. His television work includes series such as Babylon 5, Young Justice, Ben 10: Alien Force and Nickelodeon's Space Cases, which he co-created with Bill Mumy.
David often jokingly described his occupation as "Writer of Stuff", and he was noted for his prolific writing, characterized by its mingling of real-world issues with humor and references to popular culture, as well as elements of metafiction and self-reference.
David earned multiple awards for his work, including a 1992 Eisner Award, a 1993 Wizard Fan Award, a 1996 Haxtur Award, a 2007 Julie Award and a 2011 GLAAD Media Award.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe more of a 2.5.

Sometimes these books hit with you, and sometimes...no.




What was the point of the stuff with Sue and the President? and I was quite disappointed that the character of Rachel was summarily killed off when she was one the standouts in the first few chapters. Meh.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter David has written many, many fine comics over a long career, so it's not surprising that he got the voices of the characters and the settings and trappings so spot-on in this FF novel. There are a lot of Easter-eggs and references throughout that it's fun to pick-out, but they never become so obtrusive as to interrupt the story flow. Some of the references and characters aren't limited to the FF, but apply elsewhere in the Marvel universe as well, which lends a kind of verisimilitude to envisioning the whole plot. There are some problems in the text that a good copy-editor should have corrected, but, again, it's a fun read, despite what I thought was a weaker resolution than the earlier sections of the novel. As a long time Yankee fan, my favorite bit was on page seventeen when Ben Grimm, who happens to be walking past Yankee Stadium when a batter for the Red Sox hits a home run out of the park that comes to rest right beside him, picks it up and throws it back into the stadium where it lands right back next to home plate as the hitter is crossing it. Now -that's- science fiction!

[SFReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

http://www.sfreader.com/read_review.a...

[Anthony Rodriguez · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love it.

OK so here's a Marvel book that if you enjoy the more subtle approach to mystical gateways to Multiverses instead of the flat-out main storylines these days in the MCU - you get it here.
The story has many great scenes with Richard's being the smarty pants that he is and I just couldn't help but store Hiro Kanagawa's voice in my mind cause I really enjoyed his take on the role in the animated series in the early 2000's.
There's also some awesome nods to the 2004 film that the author puts in there that make it fun. One scene Reed entices Johnny to join him in hearing out a potential project that would involve interspace travel, and in doing so he tells him he can get him a cell number from the famous actress from the show Dark Angel (Jessica Alba who played Susan Storm on the movie)
There's another scene where Ben tells a new potential love interest that he's no Michael Chiklis (who played Ben Grimm in the 2004 movie) when explaining how he used to look.
...but speaking of potential love interest, that's my biggest problem with this book. A great portion of this book is spent on a subplot that is very weak. The character Mandy who starts off sweet and strong, just completely unnecessarily goes cold and she just brings you to a headache with her various dramas. Nuff said. And also a biggie in my opinion, Reed goes from he really has thought of it all to how the hell can he not figure this out ? Very odd choice in subplots and where one female character gets far too much plot time while another being subjected to a scenario of simply "I told you so" and now look at you. I felt myself really sad for her. She was Doctor Rachel Hunt a young scientist on the verge of being the pioneer of interspace travel. Now she was a character I wanted to follow along not whiney Mandy who treats Ben like he's got a secret agenda of hmm perhaps saving the world on the side of dating her and she just can't handle that. Duuuhhh soo bad.

[Jdetrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like Peter David as an author and the Fantastic Four as characters, but I really can't say I was fond of this book. David seems to understand the most basic of facets to the character of each member of the team, but that's all he seems to understand of them....they basically all have one personality trait and the characters should be more layered. The other large problem with the book is that the entire team is only together in one place once, for the final climax, and one of the greatest strengths of the FF is the interplay between their members, which we don't really get to see. Beyond that, his choice of villains is just plain odd. Sadly, I can't recommend this.

[Derrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know much about the FF, but this was a free bonus borrow, so tried it out. It was ok, but there was much about the smart people in the story that I felt was off. It was a really long story that didn't even end happily for all the characters. I really have enjoyed Peter David's other works, but this one wasn't 'funny' like most of the things I've read of his. Oh well.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook; I feel I’ve heard it before by a strong sense of deja-vu, down to the details, but I’m not sure HOW as I’m pretty new to Fantastic Four stuff. Story-wise it was decently ok; Ben is always a fun character I think. The flashes to the villain perspective kind of brought the plot down a bit though for me.

[Paxton Holley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part of the Marvel Classics novel series. As is the Ultimates novel I read earlier. Peter David writes a great story and I love the FF. Lots of great inside jokes, but a few were too "on the nose". Several sly mentions of the FF movies.

[Travis Cummins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a huge F4 fan but like them and Peter David enough to give it a shot and I'm so glad I did! Great great book about these comic characters! Great character moments with some solid action

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
good narration. story was getting weird. the ending was decent enough.

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the story. I like the way David gets in the characters heads. It was interesting. It was fun.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book more than i thought it would. They felt like a family with all the crazy stuff going on

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this novel to break up the monotony of the reading for my two online courses. Have to say, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Not that I expected it to be 'bad' or a stinker, but I was not sure how well this one would read. The last two FF novels I read were 'the redemption of the silver surfer' and the one where the Submariner has to enlist the help of the FF to defeat a Doombot that has conquered Atlantis. Those two were kinda campy whereas this one read more like a novel ought to read, in my opinion. But it has been a while since I read those other two novels, so maybe my opinion will have changed if I go back and re-read them.

This one had two villains teamed up to face off against the FF. I thought it was an interesting pairing - I am not that familiar with the two villains, so I did not know what to expect. I did expect Doctor Strange to make a house call at some point, but he never did. As the two villains represent opposite ends of the spectrum [science vs. sorcery], it did not take a genius to know there would be friction between the two of them as well.

The plot involves a female genius scientist who wants to create a tour company that will pierce the dimensional barriers separating our reality from the Multiverse. Reed obviously has his concerns about what she intends; neither does he like seeing science used to make a profit [even though he himself is not above doing this to pay the bills] in what he considers an unsafe endeavor. The woman mimics the FF and attempts her experiment without the appropriate safeguards and it is up to Mister Fantastic and the Human Torch to save her while 'closing' the dimensional doorway. What the two intrepid heroes do not realize is that the damage has already been done. And it will take the entire team working together to set things right.

Two side-stories that did not help the overall story involved Sue being asked to head up a Presidential Commissions for the advancement of women [my paraphrase] and Ben falling for a woman described as being even uglier than he is. Sue's sub-plot could have been left out without affecting the story at all. Granted, if her sub-plot had been left out she would not have had much more then a token appearance in the novel. So I guess this was a way to get her more 'involved' in the story's overall plot? Ben's sub-plot was more interesting because he was forced to look at his motives as to why he was behaving a certain way. His potential paramour was an interesting foil for him and a means for him to be introspective and mature as a character. At the same time, this relationship was not going to be a 'long-term' thing for Ben [reminded me of the 'short relationship' he had in the comics a few years ago where she also decided to bow out because of the nature of the lifestyle that Ben lived]; on the one hand, I felt this was too bad. But at the same time I realize how hard it can be to maintain 'continuity' amongst novels [let alone comic books].

I only caught one reference to the Fantastic Four movies and thought it was pretty funny, myself.

I also loved the cover. When I first looked at it, I thought it was merely the Human Torch with a blue background. Then I actually LOOKED at it and realized it was actually a blue-colored cityscape behind him. Pretty cool!

One personal downside to the book was the lack of reference to any other superhero teams. I guess after reading the X-Men novel 'watchers on the walls' I thought there might be more carryover with the other Marvel superheroes. But other than Doctor Strange and a passing referenced to Thor I do no remember any other heroes being mentioned. But I have always thought it odd when super hero books do not even mention the other super hero teams/individuals even in passing, considering the plethora of individuals comprising the Marvel Universe [especially NYC and NY state]. But this gripe is more of a personal preference and does not reflect on this story itself.

Overall, I thought it was a pretty decent book. It kept my interest and had a good flow to it. Not very many 'super battles' in it to serve as a distraction, but I did not mind that. Peter David has done a great job of characterization and dialogue in his other novels and I felt this one was no exception. The plot was also very interesting; sometimes I can figure out how something is going to end but that was not the case in this book [other than the generalization of the FF obviously beating the bad guy[s] and saving the world]. I think the supervillain team-up helped keep me guessing as to how the novel was going to end.

[PMoslice · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun action packed tale of the Fantastic Four. Powerful foes, lost loves, missed opportunities all come together to make a wonderfully crafted tale. A fun thrill ride and great entry into the Marvel universe.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peter David, as a good comic book writer should be able to do, draws powerful images with his prose. His words allow the reader to picture the powerful heroes that we once read comic books about. Further, at least in this case, David does a wonderful job getting us into the minds of these heroes, a difficult task, one few comic-based novels actually manage to do.

However, at times he makes grammarical errors or uses odd speech patterns that just make little or no sense.

For example:

PAGE 59-- Sue speaks to her son, Franklin about Ben Grimm

"You're Uncle Ben," Sue repliec, "is a wise man."

Okay-- so he just needs a better editor?

Still, Mr. David feels the need to speechify a bit in a few places. It is almost as if the Fantastic Four have a few "talking points" and Mr. David feels the need to get them out in the open.. They aren't bad points at all.

On page 161 Johnny Storm minimizez his position as a hero in order to honor policemen and firefighters are real heroes. on page 63 & 64 Ben Grimm has a similar conversation with his date, Mandy- a character introduced just for the plot of the book, by the way.

It is a fine and noble sentiment-- I think young people especially ought to be brought up with the notion that police and firefighters are our real heroes-- however, the similarity in the two conversations seemed to be a publicist's talking point created for the superhero team-- and sadly, because of that-- the author's message is slightened softly because the words seem phony and contrived rather than being the actual feelings of our heroes.

Still, the author manages to tell a comic-book story with complex ideas that reveal real human emotions and problems. A really decent comic-book novel that fails to rise to greatness, but is decent.

[Ryk Stanton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somehow I reread this but I have no memory of reading it the first time. Odd. I enjoyed the scene where Reef and Johnny misunderstand *everything* but otherwise this just wasn’t that good. Same basic feedback as below.


June 2021 - This was a book.

I’m really not sure what more to say. It wasn’t particularly impressive (and I somehow expected more of a PAD novel) but it wasn’t bad. You know how sometimes they have these great story arcs in comic books but between those they have run-of-the-mill stuff? Yeah, this was that.

Trying to give this a more thorough critique, here’s what I come up with: Nothing changes. Nothing is revealed or uncovered. The overall FF narrative isn’t affected in any way by this novel. And I have a feeling that’s not so much PAD as it is Marvel.

I’m glad I read it, but it’s not a keeper. Read it and pass it on.

[C. A.]

This would make a heck of a comic book.

That's not a slam at all; David knows just how to write the FF to make you care about them as a group, as a family, and as individuals, and it comes through perfectly here. It reads like a comic because the wrap up of the individual storylines is a bit pat, and here and there some themes are repeated too much -- people trying to avoid breaking their fingers on Ben's rocky hide, for example, which seems to happen every few pages. But if you're a Peter David fan you know what to expect: great dialogue, a believable story, laugh-out-loud bits in between the action, and tongue-in-cheek pop culture references.

[Felix · Rating 2 out of 5]

It begins really well, but towards the end, loses a lot of its creative steam. The dialogue starts to feel repeated, plot holes grow bigger, never to be truly filled, and the characters lose most of their charm, (which btw the author did a really good job of in the first few chapters) However, it was still refreshing to read the FF in a novel format, they have a lot more maturity.

[Jerome' · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty good