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Homestuck (Rerelease) #4
Homestuck: Book 4: Act 5 Act 1
A full-color, hardcover collector’s edition of the landmark webcomic.
Years in the past, but not many, a webcomic launched that would captivate legions of devoted fans around the world and take them on a mind-bending, genre-defying epic journey that would forever change the way they look at stairs. And buckets. And possibly horses. Now this sprawling saga has been immortalized on dead trees with notes from author Andrew Hussie explaining what the hell he was thinking as he brought this monster to life. A must-have for Homestuck fans who want to re-experience the saga or for new readers looking for a gateway to enter this rich universe.
Twelve trolls start playing a game. Their extensive and convoluted journey will involve extreme role playing, dreadful cinema, emotional theatrics and romantic intrigue, dou8lecrossings and backsta88ery, payback scenarios, mIrAcLeS, a levitating ghostly amphibian, and the troll disease called friendship.
Years in the past, but not many, a webcomic launched that would captivate legions of devoted fans around the world and take them on a mind-bending, genre-defying epic journey that would forever change the way they look at stairs. And buckets. And possibly horses. Now this sprawling saga has been immortalized on dead trees with notes from author Andrew Hussie explaining what the hell he was thinking as he brought this monster to life. A must-have for Homestuck fans who want to re-experience the saga or for new readers looking for a gateway to enter this rich universe.
Twelve trolls start playing a game. Their extensive and convoluted journey will involve extreme role playing, dreadful cinema, emotional theatrics and romantic intrigue, dou8lecrossings and backsta88ery, payback scenarios, mIrAcLeS, a levitating ghostly amphibian, and the troll disease called friendship.
480 pages, Hardcover
First published February 12, 2019
About the author
Andrew Hussie
94 books437 followersAndrew Hussie is the creator of MS Paint Adventures, a collection of webcomics that includes Homestuck, as well as of several other webcomics, books, and videos.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 16, 2019
Act 5: In which I am officially hooked, and have begun over-analyzing Homestuck.
June 20, 2020
Wow! I'm not going to try to summarize the plot. Those who have read any Homestuck will understand just how difficult that proposition is. Suffice to say, it's a big, meaty work that defies easy categorization. Part webcomic, part game, part art project, part animation, part graduate thesis … Homestuck is all of these things and more.
Yes, putting it all into a book means one doesn't get the animations and music and interactive games that crop up in the story, but we do get copious notes on almost every page from the author himself, pointing out all sorts of little details that I, at least, would probably never have noticed. There's so much insane detail and depth to this thing! I will admit to not completely understanding what's going on at times--I honestly doubt that Andrew Hussie does either. To my mind, Homestuck is just one of things you give yourself over to completely. Dive in and enjoy the ride!
The only things that I can think of that are in any way like it are all from the Art world, the works of Joseph Cornell, Kurt Schwitters, Henry Darger, or Marcel Duchamp’s “The Large Glass.” We’re talking people who pretty much created their own art categories, even to the extent of affecting the rules by which their works should be judged. It could be argued as to whether or not Andrew Hussie truly belongs in such rarefied company, but I think the comparison is a valid one.
Homestuck is a unique work of art that must be experienced to be appreciated. Highly recommended!
Yes, putting it all into a book means one doesn't get the animations and music and interactive games that crop up in the story, but we do get copious notes on almost every page from the author himself, pointing out all sorts of little details that I, at least, would probably never have noticed. There's so much insane detail and depth to this thing! I will admit to not completely understanding what's going on at times--I honestly doubt that Andrew Hussie does either. To my mind, Homestuck is just one of things you give yourself over to completely. Dive in and enjoy the ride!
The only things that I can think of that are in any way like it are all from the Art world, the works of Joseph Cornell, Kurt Schwitters, Henry Darger, or Marcel Duchamp’s “The Large Glass.” We’re talking people who pretty much created their own art categories, even to the extent of affecting the rules by which their works should be judged. It could be argued as to whether or not Andrew Hussie truly belongs in such rarefied company, but I think the comparison is a valid one.
Homestuck is a unique work of art that must be experienced to be appreciated. Highly recommended!
February 22, 2019
my wife is Here now.
also we're getting close to the part where i can add the death isnt portrayed as evil tag of this series so hell yeah
but seriously aradia's meta and also just her presence is so wonderful
In retrospect though, it's not too hard to guess who ends up living. wow they're the 4 most developed and interesting characters (besides the obvious who consciously wrestles the camera away from herself constantly so she doesn't have to be part of this crap but w/e) ? who woulda guessed?
also we're getting close to the part where i can add the death isnt portrayed as evil tag of this series so hell yeah
but seriously aradia's meta and also just her presence is so wonderful
In retrospect though, it's not too hard to guess who ends up living. wow they're the 4 most developed and interesting characters (besides the obvious who consciously wrestles the camera away from herself constantly so she doesn't have to be part of this crap but w/e) ? who woulda guessed?
August 2, 2020
Y una pensando que el libro anterior había sido intenso.
Este es el tomo de los trolls. Dejamos un campo de batalla y vamos hacia el pasado, un pasado tan lejano que no podríamos medirlo en años humanos... a menos que tengas un programa de chat que te permita escribir en el pasado y en el futurp, interactuando en tiempo real con gentes que están en el pasado o en el futuro. Ah, la tecnología troll.
Quien haya estado un tiempito en internet sabrá reconocer a los doce trolls: el furioso que tipea todo en mayúsculas porque si no grita piensa que nadie lo escucha (y ni así), la chica tumblr (cuando tumblr era un sitio decente, mayoritariamente femenino, y no... lo que es hace un par de años, post purga) que shippea personajes y mata bestias del triple de su tamaño con las manos, una dama muy a la moda que manipula lápices labiales y, definitivamente, NO motosierras, el nazi reprimido e hipócrita, y la lista sigue.
¿Qué pasó con los trolls, por qué actúan como lo hacen, y de dónde vinieron? Dos de estos interrogantes tendrán respuesta ahora, el otro en un par de libros más, quizás. Su cultura puede parecer familiar, pero el ser de otro planeta es evidente, hasta en las formas de relacionarse entre sí. y los títulos de las películas (muy cortitos y resumidos, claro). Todo en un medio impreso que demuestra que, de nuevo, algunas historias son ideales para ciertos medios, en cierto tiempo y con determinados recursos (el sitio antes usaba flash, luego cambió a otro formato, por ejemplo)
Te deja con un final, una frase final antes que caigan los telones, que hace que la espera hasta el tomo siguiente sea uno eterno.
Este es el tomo de los trolls. Dejamos un campo de batalla y vamos hacia el pasado, un pasado tan lejano que no podríamos medirlo en años humanos... a menos que tengas un programa de chat que te permita escribir en el pasado y en el futurp, interactuando en tiempo real con gentes que están en el pasado o en el futuro. Ah, la tecnología troll.
Quien haya estado un tiempito en internet sabrá reconocer a los doce trolls: el furioso que tipea todo en mayúsculas porque si no grita piensa que nadie lo escucha (y ni así), la chica tumblr (cuando tumblr era un sitio decente, mayoritariamente femenino, y no... lo que es hace un par de años, post purga) que shippea personajes y mata bestias del triple de su tamaño con las manos, una dama muy a la moda que manipula lápices labiales y, definitivamente, NO motosierras, el nazi reprimido e hipócrita, y la lista sigue.
¿Qué pasó con los trolls, por qué actúan como lo hacen, y de dónde vinieron? Dos de estos interrogantes tendrán respuesta ahora, el otro en un par de libros más, quizás. Su cultura puede parecer familiar, pero el ser de otro planeta es evidente, hasta en las formas de relacionarse entre sí. y los títulos de las películas (muy cortitos y resumidos, claro). Todo en un medio impreso que demuestra que, de nuevo, algunas historias son ideales para ciertos medios, en cierto tiempo y con determinados recursos (el sitio antes usaba flash, luego cambió a otro formato, por ejemplo)
Te deja con un final, una frase final antes que caigan los telones, que hace que la espera hasta el tomo siguiente sea uno eterno.
January 12, 2023
Longer, more convoluted, and more textually dense than any act that came before it, Act 5 Act 1 is considered by some to be the best place to start reading Homestuck. These people are not your friends, and they are very, very deeply wrong. I cannot stress this enough. Appreciating and understanding the comic absolutely requires the previous acts. But what do I know? I think the best place to start reading Homestuck is Problem Sleuth.
June 17, 2026
Given how I felt about Hivebent the first time around, it was perhaps unsurprising that I stopped reading this book halfway through and only picked it back up years later. It did surprise me how much I enjoyed it again!
Hussie's notes are really an unbeatable part of this experience and I'm still so happy I got these books while they were available, even if I'm slow to read them, just because his notes are pure gold.
Hussie's notes are really an unbeatable part of this experience and I'm still so happy I got these books while they were available, even if I'm slow to read them, just because his notes are pure gold.
June 4, 2021
This act is truly the best part of the story, all I can say without getting a headache.
Read
December 4, 2024the author notes are getting longer
June 8, 2025
Equius and Nepeta you will always be famous to me
January 5, 2021
It's good.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews