Arrow: Fatal Legacies

Arrowverse #3

by Marc Guggenheim, James R. Tuck

The untold story bridging between ARROW seasons 5 and 6, exclusive to this novel! In the devastating aftermath of season five, Team Arrow must resume their mission to protect Star City. Those who have survived Chase’s trap on Lian Yu discover that his plans did not end there. If his legacies aren’t stopped, countless more will die. Co-authored by Arrow series producer Marc Guggenheim and James R. Tuck

Genres: Superheroes, Fiction, Dc Comics, Science Fiction, Action, Comics, Graphic Novels

361 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 30, 2018

About the author

Marc Guggenheim grew up on Long Island, New York, and earned his law degree from Boston University. After over four years in practice, he left law to pursue a career in television.

Today, Guggenheim is an Emmy Award–winning writer who writes for multiple mediums including television, film, video games, comic books, and new media. His work includes projects for such popular franchises as Percy Jackson, Star Wars, Call of Duty, Star Trek, and Planet of the Apes.

His next book, In Any Lifetime, coming from Lake Union Publishing on August 1st.

Guggenheim currently lives in Encino, California, with his wife, two daughters, and a handful of pets.

Keep up to date on his latest projects with LegalDispatch, a weekly newsletter where he shares news and notes about writing, comics, and the entertainment industry.

Reviews

[Jim C · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that is based on the television series. This takes place after the conclusion of season five and works it way to the beginning of season six. In this one, Team Arrow is still coping with the devastating events that happened because of Adrian Chase. Even though he is dead he has one more surprise for Oliver and his teammates.

I enjoyed this book as it was like watching an extended episode of the television show. This book actually follows the formula for most of the episodes in the show. We have our characters deal with their own problems while fighting the good fight with over the top action scenes. I was actually surprised at how much this book delved into character exploration as most media tie-in books avoid this. They don't want to interfere with the character growth that happens on the actual show. This book did explore the characters as we get Diggle coping with his spasm in his arm or Oliver and Felicity dealing with the attraction to each other even though they are not together at the moment. My enjoyment was enhanced as Sara Lance is along for the ride and there were several mentions to her being with the Legends (my favorite Arrowverse show). Any mention or interaction with that show is immediately going to make me happy.

This was a decent offering that brought me back into this show which is now over. I thought the characters were true to themselves and it was nice to spend some more time with these characters. It was a nice book for fans of the show.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to this. The blurb describes this as the last hurrah of Adrian Chase, as he gets vengeance from beyond the grave between seasons 5 and 6 of Arrow. Unfortunately, this is the furthest from an Adrian Chase plot as you can get.

With a new operative bombing Star City seemingly at random, Team Arrow must deal with the fallout of Lian Yu's explosion at the end of season 5, while a new copycat vigilante appears to cause trouble. It's a bit of a mess, to be honest. The plots switch priority seemingly at random before one literally blows up in the other's face through no fault of Team Arrow at all, which just feels shoddy.

Adrian Chase's plot during season 5 was cold and calculated at every point right up to his end, while this seems extremely haphazard; in fact, if not for a few throwaway scenes, this could be totally unrelated to Chase entirely.

I didn't really gel very well with the action scenes in this book either, which is a big flaw when the majority of the book is action scenes. The descriptions feel overwrought and long-winded, instead of fast and snappy, so every battle scene takes pages and pages to convey what's going on, by which point I just wanted the fights to be over so we could get back to the good parts.

Speaking of which, I will give Tuck and Guggenheim praise for their character interactions; their scenes between characters are excellent. Felicity and Oliver are still battling their attractions for each other, while John deals with his new weaknesses, and Dinah comes to terms with becoming the new Black Canary. Mister Terrific and Wild Dog get the shaft, but it's a huge cast and only 300 pages, so I guess that's to be expected. Sara Lance is also present for some reason, and while her scenes with Quentin are great too, she feels a bit superfluous. Team Arrow is fully staffed, so it wasn't like she was necessary.

Not what I wanted, nor what Arrow needed. Even for fans of the show, I'd say skip this one. Check out The Haunting Of Barry Allen/Generation Of Vipers instead.

[Darlene I read WAY to many books · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think i only picked this up because of my OTP lol in this series and skipped alot of the story and only went "LMGGG YASHHH MG OTP!!"

🤣🤣🤣

BUT WE STAN olicity in this house;)

[Silverscarf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Minor spoilers ahead for Seasons 5 and 6 of Arrow and Season 3 of Legends of Tomorrow.

This book already has a bad review from someone (on amazon) who thinks Arrow has declined in quality too much to make it worth watching anymore, thus making this novel kind of pointless. But personally I love Arrow, even through it's low points. I started watching regularly during season 4, the season most fans consider to be the worst, so the bar was set low when I watched the other seasons, and even though almost every season after two (until five anyway) got a tiny bit worse I always found redeeming moments that made me keep watching it and loving it. And you must have kept watching too, if you're even remotely considering reading this novel. So here we go.

Since season five ended on a major cliffhanger, you might be wondering how much of the beginning of season six does this book spoil? Well, mostly all of it. It could basically serve as the season six premiere all by itself. It establishes most of the same events, plot points, and tells you what happened to all the characters that were on the island when it exploded. While it would spoil the S6 premiere if you somehow ended up reading this before watching S6, not in a too terrible way, it would make the show's version of telling you what happened after the S5 finale have less of an impact, but this does a decent job of telling you what happened.

This author has a great grasp of these characters, they have moments from each of their POVs, and though some sections are a tad confusing as to whose POV we're seeing from in the beginning of them, it quickly becomes clear a few sentences later. And you can tell the differences of how each character thinks, and I loved that distinction and detail. And that White Canary was included in this novel was one of my favorite things about it. I love Legends and Sara's always a fun character to have around, and since this takes place in the gap between the seasons of most of the shows, this is during when Rip has established the Time Bureau and the Legends are trying to go back to living normal lives after the Waverider has been taken away from them, so I thought it was cool that Sara was helping out Team Arrow here.

Another great thing about this book was how much action there is, it's filled with as much action as you could want from an Arrow tie-in and even a little more. There are so many action scenes that I could choose as my favorite, but the second one takes the prize, it was a great scene with just Oliver and Sara taking down some bad guys and that was well written and a great way to set up what to expect from the action in the rest of the book.

A few things that I thought were a little weak were, first, the ending of this book. I wished the end of this book took place before the events of the premiere episode of S6, I just felt like it could have come to a better conclusion if it had ended earlier in the timeline of the show, but instead it's kind of shoehorned into the opening action sequence of that episode. So while it felt in the last few chapters like the end was dragging a little, then the resolution for the whole plot of this book feels rushed by being confined to that scene from the show. It just felt a little off and I didn't find it very satisfying. Also something to mention is that this doesn't really add very much to the show itself, it doesn't provide any notable improvement to what the show did for dealing with the aftermath of what happened on the island and so really I think that only hardcore fans will get the most enjoyment out of this book.

Overall I liked this book, didn't quite love it like I wanted to, but it had great action and felt just like the show and it was mostly a pretty good tie-in. I recommend this for fans who love the show and watch it regularly, other more casual fans probably won't like it as much.

[Barry Urbanek · Rating 2 out of 5]

For some reason this was a very hard book for me to get through. Normally the Arrow and Flash books are great reads, books I cant put down. This book was a struggle for me to read but I stuck with it and the last 100 pages are so picked up.

I will continue to look for Titan Books, this just wasn't a favorite.

Sorry.

[Gabriel Mero · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finally got around to reading this. I enjoyed it alot; it played out like an episode--or several--of the show. I'm excited to finally finish the series now, too.

[Jane Higginson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this, the writers have a good understanding of the characters from the show and reading this was just like watching the show, the fight sequences were well written, the banter between all the characters was fun and the plot again it was just like watching the show itself - and I especially enjoyed this because sara lance was a part of it :)

[Ivy · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 🌟

Glad to see Sara / White Canary again. Also glad to see what happened to everyone after the island. The new Arrow recruits seem okay. Happy they were able to stop Faust. Also happy to see Raisa again. It seems like we never see her anymore. I always liked her. Hope William will be okay. Sad that his mom died.

[Ronnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book mostly so I could get some new Sara content, but honestly, I didn't love it.

Tuck seems to have a real problem with hanging pronouns - almost every chapter started with some pronouned person doing a thing, and you had to guess at who it was for almost an entire page before he decided to use a name. It got really old really quick.

As a massage therapist who's very familiar with anatomical terms, I wasn't too distracted by the repeated use of the anatomical terms for body parts, but it was noticeable, and I found myself wondering if it would be distracting to someone who wasn't so familiar with all of them. I remember one time when I was in high school, I wrote a fanfic while I was trying to study for an anatomy test, and I just inserted the anatomical terms for any body part referenced in the fanfic to help study - I definitely had flashbacks to that terrible, terrible fanfic.

Characterization wise, I was a little disappointed. Rarely did I feel like Tuck managed to capture the "voice" of any character, and there were times that I was distracted by how much someone didn't sound like themselves. I wouldn't go so far as to say that anyone was out of character, but no one sounded like themselves. On a similar note of bad characterization, Faust - the main villain of the story - didn't seem to have consistent characterization at all, seeming to swing wildly between eloquent and devious to cringeworthy, bad "crazy talk," that made me roll my eyes.

The story was filled with awkward metaphors and similes, and I don't care what you hear, abundant use of onomatopoeias do not make for good writing or enjoyable reading. Sometimes, I wondered if Tuck knew what the words he was writing actually meant. At one point, he talked about how, from a bullet hole in the back, someone sprayed gore all over, like "chum," and I wondered just why so many chunky bits were coming out of a bullet hole.

And none of the supposedly emotional bits really carried any weight. I was disappointed every time Sara talked about Laurel, especially Sara and Quentin's talk about Laurel's death, Earth-2 Laurel, and what happened on Lian Yu. It just... there was no poignancy to it at all.

I was, at first, disappointed to have Sara have been there throughout the entire story, only to miss out on what should have been the climax of the story, and equally baffled that they decided to put what should have been the climax of the story in the epilogue of all places. But that was only until I realized that the epilogue was really just the opening scene of season six, and so I won't count that against the story, though it does make certain, less-than-awesome plot points make a lot more sense. What does count against the plot was having two nearly completely unrelated plots running throughout. I guess with his appearance at the Blues Festival, Hallsey did show that he had some interest in Faust, but it wasn't really a theme throughout the story at all, and the idea that somehow this random dude managed to dig up more information on Faust than fucking Felicity and the technology she has at her fingertips is laughable. But seriously, he was so focused on Cross that it seems unbelievable that he was also keeping meticulous tabs on Faust. Faust and his plans are so poorly developed and thought out that it seems like he was just an afterthought as a "Oh whoops, we need to tie this story into the season six opening," whereas the main story they wanted to tell was about Hallsey and Cross - though there doesn't seem to be enough there to fill a whole novel either.


This book gets an extra star because I love Sara, and because it was entertaining enough and easy to read. I never really had to force myself to read it, which is a definite plus. But yes, most of that extra star comes just from the fact that Sara exists, and everything she touches turns to gold.

[Wayland Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based on the CW tv show (which in turn is loosely based on characters from DC Comics), Fatal Legacies bridges the gap between season 5's major cliffhanger and the start of season 6. If for some reason you haven't seen those, you might want to catch up before reading this, as there are major spoilers.

After the deadly ambush at Lian Yu, Team Arrow regroups as best they can in Star City. Several of the ongoing subplots for the coming season are teased. Oliver has to deal with suddenly having his 11 year old son William around. Diggle is hiding his injury and its aftermath from the team. Rene is dealing with the responsibilities of a new job. Dinah and Curtis have the least stress to deal with, and Felicity is still trying to figure out her relationship to Oliver.

Inexplicably, Sara Lance, the White Canary, comes to hang out for this series of adventures, taking some time off from the Legends. There's a new drug gang called the Skulls (COH players might smile at the reference and descriptions), but that's not the major issue, or even top two. Alex Faust has been hired to carry on Adrian Chase's vendetta against Oliver Queen and anyone close to him, and the madman is an explosive expert with deep pockets and no morals. Also, Oliver has a copycat, running around in a green hood and making up for Green Arrow and company "not going far enough."

Emotional turmoil, lots of action, and a better look inside the heads of team Arrow. It's a nice addition to the series canon, which I presume counts as part of it since some of the show writers were involved.

I've read several novels based on the CW shows now, and these are all decent reads. Recommended to fans of the CW/DC shows, DC Comics, and superheroes in general.

[Joel Flank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fatal Legacies is described on the cover as season 5.5 of Arrow, which is a good description. It takes place between season 5's finale and before season 6's premier. Overall, while the book does a credible job finding the tone of the show and describing action and characters as if it were actual episodes of the show, because it's limited to connecting the dots to take the reader through some events which help to establish some backstory on the status of the characters in the show at the beginning of season 6, there's little in the book which is innovative. It feels like an extended flashback sequence for season 6 rather than a new and original story about the characters from Arrow.

This doesn't make it bad per se, it's fun reading a hidden adventure of the characters from the show, especially now that the show is over, and therefore has nostalgia going for it, I would have preferred having a entirely new adventure to immerse myself in. Because of this, there's also not a lot that catches the reader off guard if they've already seen season 6 - Diggle has increasing issues with his arm, Oliver has a hard time adjusting to being a father of a young boy/teen, and the team as a whole is having a hard time adjusting from the trauma at the end of season 5....all of which continues in the season 6 of the show as major character development, so not a lot of surprise or even fun little quirky things to discover about the characters.

[Jack Stubblefield · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been gathering my thoughts and ideas on this book since I finished it. One of the first negative reviews I wrote was a book from the author of Arrow #3, James R Tuck. I read the 3 books in the Deacon Chalk series and found each one tougher to read than the last. When I read that Mr Tuck was doing the third book in the Arrow series I was not thrilled. After my experience with the Deacon Chalk series I was expecting the same experience with this novel. I almost didn't purchase, but I did. I almost didn't read, but I did. I AM GLAD THAT I DID. Tuck has matured as a writer and storyteller in my opinion. I saw none of the issues I had within the Deacon Chalk series. I saw all of the things I liked about the Deacon Chalk series and more. He knows the Arrowverse well and it showed. I hope he writes more Arrow books. I also hope that he goes back to the Deacon Chalk series to write more books (#4, hopefully). I also have read that he has written some books on Robin Hood. I may have to check those out, now. I definitely recommend Fatal Legacies if you follow the Arrowverse and want more action set in that world. Good stuff, Maynard.

[devra · Rating 4 out of 5]

surprisingly readable with a deft hand at the prose - a huge step up from the writing in other novelizations from this series, with a couple of really lovely emotional moments for every character to fill in the blanks between seasons 5 and 6.

AND a triumphant return for the salmon ladder -- i, much like felicity, have little taste for salmon but LOVE their ladders - can't ask for much more from this kind of thing, though maybe i should have saved it for the march/april hiatus to tide me over.

[Katie Brock · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like the Arrow TV show so I was looking for are to this book and it wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be- but I enjoyed it!

The story itself seemed to jump all over the place, some of it was based on the aftermath of the island, a man named Faust is bombing things in the name of Adrian Chase (not that Chase is mentioned much. The other half was based on a copycat taking down criminals.

It was set over three months but it flowed well, there was no jumping between scenes or time periods.

The characters were written so well, like they had come from the script- I think Guggenheim made sure they still had their integrity. It was great to have Sara Lance back as White Canary too- as a guide to help Dinah become the Black Canary.

Overall, it was a great story. Oliver’s dilemma on what to do with William added a bit of humanity to the book so it wasn’t all fighting and killing.

If you like the show I would recommend picking up the book as it works as a great filler between two seasons.

3/5 stars

[Arianna Hawthorne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this! It did a really great job of filling in the missing six months between the end of season 5 and the beginning of season 6. I especially liked the way the end of the book transitioned directly into the opening scene of the first episode of season 6. And there were some really great Olicity scenes in there as an added bonus!

[Elise · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded to three. A lot of thoughts about this book but it doesn't really matter what I say about it given the only people who are likely to read this are mega-Arrow fans and any review is probably not going to influence their decision to read or not read this book.

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had difficulty getting into the book. It could be because I have fallen behind in the series and did not know the back story of what had happened in Season 5. Will most likely try to read it again when I get caught up with the tv show.

[Devon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This felt like an episode of Arrow, but it need more than just a verbatim rehash of what happened on the sho at the start of it. Liked the expansion on Oliver and William's relationship. Loved the Olicity moments, but it fell short for me.

[Major · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun novel that connects well with the series. Team Arrow is still recovering from the end of season 5, when a new threat emerges to put the city in danger.

[Elisabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the previous Arrowverse novels, but it provides a decent bridge between seasons 5 and 6. I enjoyed it.

[Liam Stradling · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a longtime fan of Arrow I did enjoy this book, and whilst it does a good job of expanding upon the show it manages to also highlight some of the problems that have plagued the show over recent years (especially Season 6's). I really like how the team dynamic was portrayed here, with the team members being selected for specific tasks suited to them instead of them all just running in for a clustered fight scene like in the tv series, but I do feel like this novel jumps around too much with the P.O.V's, often to jarring effect. My biggest problem with the book however, is that it ends up feeling like filler more than anything else. Whilst I understand that it is a bridge novel to fill the gap between seasons 5 and 6, the novel ends up feeling slightly lacklustre, as it doesn't really manage to convey its own fleshed out story, instead setting up a load of things that will get payed off in the actual series. On the bright side, more Sara is always a bonus!

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

2018 Spring:

This book made me so, so, so happy. I don't usually read novelizations of tv shows, because they aren't always handled well or plotted coherently, but this novel did the one thing I wanted most and never received from Arrow or Legends of Tomorrow -- it told the story of Sara Lance being in Star City between the end of Season Two and the beginning of Season Three.

It was perfect for me. It had more of her relationship with her Dad. It had interactions with Diggle, Oliver, Felicity. It had her meeting the new Canary who has taken up her jacket and her/her sister's mantle. I did not love it entirely (as Sara is the Oliver/Felicity whisperer several times, while no other character is), but it totally hit like 99% perfect for Sara read.

[Brandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the perfect bridge between Seasons 5 and 6, and it was really fun to see some extra moments between the characters that the show doesn’t always have time for. It was especially nice to see Sara back in Star City for a bit.

The tone fit the show perfectly, complete with visceral descriptions of every fight. Every injury is described in detail. So that was a little tough for me to get through. But just like with the show, I’m in it for the characters, and those interactions didn’t disappoint.

[CAROLINA AGUDELO · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good action book

Action, I would like that had a little more interaction between Oliver and William. I enjoyed the dynamics between the canaries, and between Sara and Diggle

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it! The characters were so well-written! And of course we love it when Sara comes back to Star City :)

[Cristian Alejandro]

This is amazing