Transformers Exodus

Transformers Exodus is the official history of the war for Cybertron, written by Alex Irvine.

Before Autobots and decepticons, before Optimus Prime and Megatron, Cybertron was a planet with a strict caste system, each bot assigned a role according to their own caste. Orion Pax is a data clerk, sorting, recording and storing data. Over time he becomes aware of a gladiator (fighting is illegal but accepted) known by the name of the legendary hero Megatronus.

Undefeated and eager for any fight, Megatronus quickly gains popularity and begins a subvertive movement to support freedom for bots. Orion befriends the fierce gladiator but it isn't long before Cybertron is in a state of upheaval and he must choose between friendship and loyalty.

Transformers is one of those endearing stories that for me bring back fond memories of my childhood, I particularly liked the rock robots for some reason although now the thought that transforming to a rock seems a rather limited ability (unless it was a rolling stone).

The thought of a large scale history behind the Autobot's and Decepticon's is actually quite an appealing one, even from someone who maybe considered a very casual fan (watched the first new film and liked it, thought the second film was quite dire). The plot is both engaging and the pace quickens as the story develops, the first half has a large amount of world building and descriptive character development.

There is a slight disjointed feel between the first half and the second half of the book but to me this was probably unavoidable if the author was to move the story along, although I can't help wonder if it would have been better fleshed out as a trilogy perhaps. I must admit that I enjoyed this novel more than I thought I would, it's an epic tale told well, I don't know enough about the transformers history to know if any canon was changed but Transformers Exodus should appeal to the casual fan as much or even more so than the hard core base.