Gotham: City of Monsters

Gotham

by Jason Starr

The official link between Gotham seasons two and three, revealing Jim Gordon's return to Gotham City to set himself up as a freelance bounty hunter.SET IN THE DRAMATIC AFTERMATH OF GOTHAM SEASON TWO AND LEADING INTO THE THRILLING EVENTS OF SEASON THREE, THE NEW ORIGINAL CITY OF MONSTERS…reveals how ex-convict James Gordon, once a GCPD detective, returns to the city he once protected. Having escaped Arkham Asylum, Hugo Strange's monsters stalk the streets, spreading chaos, fear, and death. Herself a victim of the madman's experiment, Fish Mooney seeks to retake her place at the top of the underworld. Street thief Selina Kyle covets a place at her side.Overwhelmed by this crisis, the city offers to pay a bounty for the creatures—dead or alive. Though no longer a cop, Gordon nevertheless proves to be the most skilled at bringing these superhumans to justice, some in body bags. Yet even he may not be able to stop the most bloodthirsty of the monsters.

Genres: Batman, Dc Comics, Fiction, Mystery, Media Tie In, Thriller, Fantasy

226 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 29, 2018

About the author

Jason Starr is the international bestselling author of many crime novels and thrillers, including Cold Caller, The Follower, The Pack and The Next Time I Die. He also writes comics for Marvel (Wolverine, The Punisher) and DC (Batman, The Avenger) and original graphic novels such as Red Border and Casual Fling. In addition, he writes film and TV tie-in novels including an official Ant-Man novel and the Gotham novels based on the hit TV show. His books have been published in sixteen languages and several of his novels are in development for film and TV. He has won the Anthony Award for mystery fiction twice, as well as a Barry Award. Starr lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Jim C · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is based on the television show. This takes place between season two and season three. In this one, Jim Gordon is now a bounty hunter who is hunting the escaped monsters.

This is the first book that I have read based on this show and this book did not do much for me. It is a quick read as it doesn't even reach three hundred pages. I had no problem with the portrayal of the characters as we look in on all of them. We see Bruce and Alfred out of Gotham, Selina on her own, and the friendship between Jim and Harvey. Actually, the portrayal of the friendship was the highlight of this book. The problem with this book is that it is basically filler. I expect filler with a media tie-in novel as authors cannot do much with the characters. But nothing happened in this book. To make matters worse there was filler within the story. A couple of times we repeated a scene that we already went thru but just a different point of view. I can live with this storytelling if it added something to the overall story. In this book it did not.

I have read many media tie-in novels from various universes and this one was weak. It felt like a cash grab and added nothing. The only thing that kept me from giving it a one star rating was the character portrayal. The author did nail that aspect. His story contribution was not ideal.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must say that this book was an improvement from it's predecessor, Gotham: Dawn of Darkness. The story seemed to move quickly as there was always the threat of the monsters. I really enjoyed seeing Jim Gordon kicking ass as a bounty hunter. It was wonderful to see Selina Kyle's inner emotions. It is a rarity to see her vulnerable so seeing her inner feelings was a treat.
But of all the things in the book, my favorite part are the interludes. The interludes was a side story line of Bruce and Alfred. The reader gets to see the thrill of adventure and profound sense of justice awakening within Bruce. It was exciting to watch knowing that he becomes Batman.
Even though the book improved on it's predecessor, the same issues that I outlined within my review of Gotham: Dawn of Darkness remained. I had thought that it was because of the proofreader or editor but after this book, I believe that the fault lies with Mr. Starr. There weren't as many typos as last time. But the biggest issue still remained. The issue being the minor inconsistencies that are throughout the book and momentarily confuse the reader. The saving grace is that these inconsistencies do not impact the plot. One example of this is when Gordon is hunting a monster named Nip. On p 67, Gordon asks Nip how he knew his name. Nip replies that everyone knows the name of Jim Gordon. The problem is Nip never called Gordon by name until he was responding to Jim's question of how he knew it. Another example was during the first interlude. On p 134, a blond man is staring at Bruce who is described as "about Alfred's age." Later Bruce is questioned about the appearance of this same man to which Bruce says "He was in his twenties, maybe" (p 141). The readers are aware that Alfred is not that young. He even says as much to Bruce when making sure that he is ok "It's good to be young" (p 142). I do not believe this is part of Mr. Starr's writing style but rather an issue that he needs to work on as a writer. Such inconsistencies are distracting to the audience even if they have little to no impact on the plot itself. It confuses the reader and makes them question if their initial visualization was correct. In short, it drives readers like me crazy.
In conclusion, I would recommend this to Batman fans. They will find it a fun story as well as the treat of watching Bruce turning into Batman. However, if you are a reader who prefers a clearer vision of the author's perspective I would suggest passing. Those inconsistencies will send you to Arkham. The good news is, I have just checked into my room there and will be spending my recovery time watching The Dark Knight trilogy.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

SLIGHT SPOILERS
I had high hopes for this one - from the back I thought I was going to be getting something filling in some of the gaps between series 2 and 3, telling us how Gordon became a bounty hunter etc. and instead all we got was a fairly lackluster account of one bank robbery involving a couple of "monsters" and a somewhat meaningless incident with Bruce being kidnapped and then being rescued almost immediately, which has no bearing on any other events in the book, or in the TV show. The more popular characters from the show (Oswald, Jerome, Ed Nygma) are completely absent barring a couple of mentions here and there. Fish does make a couple of short appearances (again from the blurb on the back I expected her to be featured quite prominently but this wasn't the case) and there is a fair amount of Selina and Jim, but nothing that really adds anything to either of their characters.

Gotham fans won't be missing out on anything by skipping this.

[Bradley Nash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whether you like it or not will depend on if you liked the show

[Chris The Lizard from Planet X · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gotham: City Of Monsters by Jason Starr is media tie-in novel based on the DC Comic’s TV show “Gotham”.

Acting as a prequel to the third season of Gotham. Having left Gotham City at the end of season 2, to search for Leslie Thomkins. Jim Gordon returns alone to establish himself as a freelance bounty hunter. He hunts down the psychotic meta humans created by Doctor Hugo Strange. That escaped from Arkham Asylum and have aligned with former crime boss Fish Moony now a metahuman herself, and now are terrorizing the city of Gotham. His return will have a direct impact on Selina Kyle (Cat Woman) who also has decided to work for Fish, and becomes embroiled in events that may get her killed. Meanwhile Harvey Bullock is the acting police captain, and though he grows into the role, he hates it. When Gordon refuses to return to the force, this causes Bullock to question his loyalties. As Jim Gordon goes rouge, and teams up with wanted fugitive Selina Kyle to bring down a group of meta humans threatening Gotham.

For fans of Gotham TV show, this is the good prequel that sets up ex convict and former Cop James Gordon as the rouge bounty hunter we see in the beginning of Gotham Season 3. This is the look at Jame Gordon’s character arc when he’s at his lowest and darkest in the show. And to discover that he has a part of his past that he’s not proud of much like most of Gotham? That truly put him on an equal playing field with the city, as dark and dangerous secrets are a part of what makes Gotham.

Also, there were new details and stories about each of the various characters such as Selina Kyle and Fish Mooney that were focused on here that I didn’t learn about from the show, which was really cool. It gave me a stronger appreciation for all of it, characters, setting, and the show in its entirety.

The tone of the novel changed with each character’s POV and that was a major reason why I loved it. Each character on the page was true to the one on the TV screen. I swear I could hear their voices, like they were sitting on my shoulder, as I read. Very strong and enticing. Having a powerful voice is very important to me when I read. If you can carry me with that then I’m sucked in.

To see what life was like in Gotham City in the wake of Hugo Strange’s meta human experiments escaping into Gotham, and causing chaos was intriguing. Seeing Jim Gordon take up the career as a rogue bounty hunter was an interesting exploration of his character arc as we usually we see him as a moralist cop, but here we see him as this brutal dark person still suffering from the mistakes and loss he suffered in season 2. To see the various characters in the day to day life and how they, for lack of a better term, survived in the twisted, Gothic city of Gotham was probably the most interesting part of the book.

Overall, Gotham: City Of Monsters is action and tense from start to finish. I enjoyed it very much. If you love Batman and/or Gotham Show then give this a read.

[Mr. E. Nygma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was going to give 2 stars but couldn't for the simple fact that I did enjoy this book the most part, aside from a few decisions made with the continuity of Gotham. It was such a quick and easy read, not a page turner in the traditional sense, but Starr really captures all the characters voices from the show so well that I was genuinely entertained. And what this book has good going for it stops there for me.

The plot is basically non existent. If there was one I couldn't tell you what it was. The whole book just felt unimportant, like just a series of events lumped together without significance to the characters or development of the characters. Selina is really the only one that's in a different place than she was in the beginning and its not that big of change. And the whole sub plot with Bruce felt the same. Probably even more so. Unnecessary. Honestly shouldn't of been in the book at all.

I have not seen all the show as ive just recently started it. Ive seen season 1 & 2 and then wanted to read this before 3. So maybe things will prove to actually have mattered from the book moving forward but I don't feel like that will happen.

The narration was a little much sometimes too. There was alot of exposition. Alot of telling and not showing too.

I don't know if they will expand more on this in the future but the story decisions regarding Lee I didnt like at all. I really liked Lee's character especially with Gordon and so if they wanted her to take her exit I think it could've been done better than just a passing piece of exposition saying that she was with someone else so he gave up and went back home.

So yeah its not a great piece of literary work but, if you are a fan of the show I think you will more than likely get enjoyment out of the book.

[JJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a little hard to know what to make of Gotham: City of Monsters.

This is Jason Starr's second novel that ties in with the TV series of the same name, and both have been at times riveting, at times boring, and always inconsequential.

Starr begins at a disadvantage, because this book is intended to bridge seasons 2 and 3 of the show but came out after season 4 already begun. So the plot couldn't be too unpredictable -- there were only so many gaps to fill -- and I wasn't exactly hungry to know what happened.

Despite the plot basically being a total wash, almost absurdly small-scale and not particularly compelling, I still found myself eagerly turning the pages. For starters, this is a pretty short book. It doesn't wear out its welcome and is the better for it. And most importantly, Starr absolutely nails the voices of the main characters from the show. Just as in his previous effort, Gotham: Dawn of Darkness, I honestly can't say I've read many media tie-ins where the familiar characters just felt so on-point every single time.

As a result, if you like the show, it really doesn't matter that the plot is basically nothing. I found it worth picking up for the characters alone.

[C Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I watched the first two seasons of Gotham but stalled after that. This book was solid and gave me a reentry point to the series, as I’ll try season three now that I’ve finished “City of Monsters.” Overall, I thought Starr effectively captured each of the main characters. Admittedly, the secondary characters, such as Clarissa, were not rendered nearly so well. While not exactly a great work of “Literature,” I enjoyed this entry in the Gotham series and will definitely check out Starr’s other Gotham-based novel!

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. Granted, the first novel is much stronger (also has Oswald in it, and he doesn’t appear in this one except for the prologue.) but it was a very fun and intense read. The story was solid, and Jason Starr knows how to keep the characters true to the show. It felt like it could actually be an episode, which I loved, especially since I’m still in denial of the show ending. (Someone save Gotham!!)

[Jessica Powell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to enjoy this but it just wasn't as strong as the first installment. I felt the balance between showing and telling was a little too skewed to the latter, and my good will gave up completely about the time Harvey forgot the name of the partner he had to watch burned to death before his eyes...

Fuller review at - https://tinyurl.com/y9q4or6j

[Carenza · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this novelisation of one of my favourite TV shows. In places I wasn’t sure about the writing and the characterisation. Truthfully, my favourite parts of this novel were about Bruce and Alfred

[John Hascock · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's weird that people only rated the book 3.6. It's
A four for me. Fast, intriguing story.☺

[Vin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was probably the most fun out of everything I've read so far this year.

[Richard L. Haas III · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s okay; a pretty alright-at-best book. Which I guess is good when compared to my review of his first Gotham novel, but I guess I was too hopeful and expecting too much from it, but when something seems to have a direct (maybe unintended) reference to Shrek and meme culture— how could it not be good?: “[Bruce] was like an onion. He had lots of layers and Selina enjoyed peeling them off one by one, trying to reveal the real Bruce Wayne buried deep inside.”

On a more serious note regarding expectations, sure I went in with low expectations (I expected the writing to be poor and for the most part let it slide aside from using the phrase “collateral damage” too much) but I still had expectations. The novel follows the second season of Gotham, which ends with a bunch of monsters escaping from Hugo Strange, and picks up directly after. And then... “Five Months Later.” Really? You have the chance to show interesting character development but you skip to what happens just before the third season begins? It would have been nice to see how these characters became what they are now (like how Gordon became a bounty hunter).

Here’s the reason for that. Similar to the first novel, there’s a lot more telling and not showing; however, since this takes place after several seasons, we get tons of explanatory exposition— especially in the front of the novel— as if we know nothing about the events that already transpired. I guess this is a good thing for the five people in the world who are reading this book without having seen a single episode.

But ultimately the thing about the novel is, it’s riddled with missed opportunities— namely with character development. Yes, like the jump with Gordon mentioned above, and with Harvey (who’s a lot more bearable in this one than the first book), I get that he wants to be apart of the case and not stay in his office off in the sidelines, but to grab a rookie and then name him his partner and then tell him it’s risky being his partner because all his partners wind up dead... that’s awkward and frankly a little weird. Harvey is the Captain and technically the rookie isn’t his partner. But there are more problematic issues at large, and I guess this is a slight spoiler depending on how much you read into this (so just skip to the next paragraph if you want to avoid that possibility). You know that characters created for the book ain’t making it to the next season (especially if you’ve seen the next season), so as a writer, you are thrown to a corner because no matter what characters you come up with and write about, they won’t even be a thought in the next season. In the last novel this was tied to the overall plot, while here it appears that Starr has learned a bit by making it feel like everything that happened had lasting repercussions— except maybe that shoehorned interlude with Alfred and Bruce.

Very negative, I know, but in comparison to Gotham: Dawn of Darkness, this isn’t a complete dumpster fire. There are a couple pros— like most of the characters seem to have the spirit of their television show counterparts, or that the inciting mystery was a lot more interesting this time around. But the cons outweigh the pros, and there are a lot more cons other than say the lack of different characters (like really, no one from the rogues gallery?). Just look at the rest of the review. Not a must read, but it holds its own as a novel one could hypothetical use to read to pass time. Other than that, just watch the show.

[John Michael Strubhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who doesn't love the television series Gotham? You love it or you would not be reading this. So, you saw the end of season 2 and you know that Jim Gordon goes off to be a bounty hunter and leaves Harvey Bullock to run the GCPD. Gotham is plagued by the monsters that Hugo Strange created. Fish Mooney helped them escape, and she's got plans of her own and Selina Kyle has an open invitation to join her. Barbara Kean and Tabitha Galavan should get a room! Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth have retreated to Switzerland and Alfred has a stalker. Jim Gordon is collecting bounties on monsters since Leslie Tompkins went off with another guy. Poor Jim. He's hurting. But, a bank job has been pulled off by monsters and things are crazy and what will Jim Gordon do? Well, read the book and find out. It's pretty good. I think you'll enjoy it.

[Matt town · Rating 4 out of 5]

MUCH better than the last one. Which surprised me honestly, given that this is the same author. You don't need to have read the first one to understand this one (Just watch the show), so in my opinion, SKIP IT. This is a very small-scale Gotham story taking place between seasons 2 and 3. That means Fish Mooney is back and Jim Gordan is a bounty hunter. Selina and Harvey Bullock are also featured, and the main antagonists take the form of the monsters released from Hugo Strange's lab by Fish Mooney. Like I said, not a whole lot going on and definitely not a must-read to understand anything in Gotham, but for die-hard Gotham fans, they will probably enjoy this as a supplement.

[Jprmac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a gripping as the previous, but still entertaining. You have to have recently watched season 2 in order to follow this novel, or at least be engaged; conversely, this doesn't really add much to the tv show, again, not like the previous novel.

[Deyth Banger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just give a shot... don't be an asshole!

[Thomas Myers · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was fun; created a perfect side-story. A fast read, maybe too fast.

[Tyler Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome.
Makes me want to rewatch the TV shows

[eli · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've seen the show twice already and I kinda wanna watch it for a third time😩

[Long Pham · Rating 3 out of 5]

A 3.5 if I am being generous. The Gotham novels get things about the television series wrong? For example, Bruce's age. How is he supposed to be 14 in the first novel when it's a prequel to Gotham? I also think that Selina and Barbara didn't really interact until later half of season 3? And book 2 is supposed to be set from the end of season two into the beginning of season three. They also add characters that I feel are unnecessary. The plot isn't that great and there are characters that I really don't care about in both novels. The novels don't necessarily follow the show, but I think it would have more interesting if they had. Overall, the Gotham novels are decent books to pass the time.

[Salimbol · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Wilde Sky · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ex-detective fights a series of monsters.

I found this book had too many standard characters / scenes – towards the end it got better, but overall it left me a bit cold.

Overall rating 2.5