I picked up this audiobook on a whim and I loved it! I flew though this book in like three days and I really loved this version of Bruce. Even though this story was a super short I thought it was so well done. I really loved the "trio" of characters and and also the case the bruce had to solve. I love how he we got nods to real "batman" history and loved all the unexpected twists and turns and it had me so engaged. I loved this listening experience so much and would love to see a follow up book to this. This was my first superhero read and I will def be reading more. ( )

I picked up this audiobook on a whim and I loved it! I flew though this book in like three days and I really loved this version of Bruce. Even though this story was a super short I thought it was so well done. I really loved the "trio" of characters and and also the case the bruce had to solve. I love how he we got nods to real "batman" history and loved all the unexpected twists and turns and it had me so engaged. I loved this listening experience so much and would love to see a follow up book to this. This was my first superhero read and I will def be reading more. ( )

his is a fully-text Batman story. Set in his pre-Batman years, Bruce Wayne is a rich spoiled kid coming of age. He is about to graduate from high school when he gets involved in a police matter, putting himself in the middle of the action as Nightwalkers are preying on the rich of Gotham City. Bruce Wayne is to be one of their targets. he interferes with a police chase, or solved the problem depending on your perspective.

He ends up in court for his interference and is sentenced to public service, cleaning at Gothom’s insane assylum. This was the first of many irrational decisions made by key people that were necessary to further the story. And this is what ruined the story for me.

There were a number of bad decisions made, from a judge assigning a teenager to public service in a dangerous environment, police confiding in the teenager to get information, the asylum staff not keeping an eye on the teen and allowing him access to areas he should not be in. It all felt rather convenient.

Then the pacing was too fast, in the style of a comic rather than prose. Much of the dialog was more suited to a visual medium and descriptions seemed weak.

Overall, the story didn’t quite work for me, but it wasn’t all bad. It was interesting to see someone’s perspective on his early life between the death of his parents and his emergence as the Batman. ( )

2.5 Stars ( )

There has been a pleasant series created by DC taking the very famous characters and placing them before they become heroes and are still teenagers. The first was on Wonder Woman right after the release of the movie and now Marie Lu has come out with a Batman one.

In this book, Bruce Wayne has just turned 18 and has now inherited his family’s fortune as well as Wayne Enterprises. He has largely been protected from the media because he was underage, but now that he is 18, his movements in Gotham have become front page news. This is a bit of fun, except on the night of his birthday when Wayne crashes his brand new and highly expensive car and is forced to clean floors in Arkham Asylum.

As he begins mopping, he is harassed by the prisoners there except by a quiet girl who is also 18. She seems too young to be there and has not spoken a word to anyone until Bruce passes her cell. She and Bruce begin a conversation and a relationship, but can Bruce trust a criminal in Arkham?

At the same time, there is a group running around Gotham robbing and killing the rich. Bruce is rumored to be the next on their hitlist. Is the girl connected to all this? (Hint: yes)

One of the biggest difficulties with the book is it is not a “Batman” book, it is a Bruce Wayne book. The Bat does not make an appearance in this book, so the title is pretty misleading.

Marie Lu knows how to tell a story as we saw in her great book WarCross earlier this year. The difficulty is she was given such a legend of DC comics with a deep lore and story that this particular book seems out of place in the Batman/Bruce Wayne universe. If the TV show Gotham did not exist, this might be an exciting entry to have a young Bruce Wayne, but in the Gotham series, the Joker and Penguin are already running around, so a girl in a cell is a pretty tough sell.

It isn’t a bad book though and if the rumors are true, I think I would have liked that book more. The rumor was Lu didn’t want to write a Batman book, but rather a Nightwing/Robin book, which would put this book into a better place. Robin doesn’t have as much of a lore as Wayne does and he is a bit more impulsive, so the book would have fit his character. It just didn’t work for Batman.

I gave this one 3 stars, but not for the writing. It was for the subject. ( )