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Recommend me a Bionicle book series


Tea-rex

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So, basically, I want to get into the Bionicle books - problem is, which series?

 

All you have to do is this:

Tell me about the Storyline - how well it flows and how good a-read(?) it is.

Tell me about the action - how well it's choreographed and how fitting it is.

Tell me about the other stuff - what makes it so special compared to the others.

 

Thank in advance!

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Time trap is AMAZING!

 

The plot is that both the dark hunters, the toa, and Makuta all want the Mask of Time, and they're all clawing at each other to get it. You get the first real look at Makuta in person, and how he deals with people (other than just lurking in the shadows) you get Voporak, the Shadowed One, and Sentrahk, as well as our first real look at the Dark Hunters outside of Nidhiki and Krekka. There's lots of action, loose ends are tied up (such as what happens to Keetongu, and why Makuta gave the Turaga one year of freedom before attacking).

 

Other than that, I'd suggest any of the Legends series. You can't beat the Piraka they're the best to read about. :)

 

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Formerly Iron_Man5

 

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I wanna say BIONICLE Adventures (Toa Metru stuff), but I only ever owned one book, and I think that was the third book in the series, The Darkness Below. Either way, it was a great piece of writing. I'll just tell you about that book, considering it could easily be read as a standalone story.

 

Basically, the Toa Metru are walking through Onu-Metru and are found by a Matoran named Nuparu, an Archives worker. He tells them of a protodermis leak that could potentially cause a lot of destruction within the Archives. So the Toa decide to tackle it and decline Nuparu's offer to guide them to the leak, telling him to warn the other workers. They proceed to set off into the deepest part of the Archives with danger lurking in every shadow. Eventually, the Toa get separated and stuff starts to hit the fan. And the fan gets hit hard.

 

The Darkness Below is what any BIONICLE book should be: a suspenseful page-turner. It's dark, dangerous, and very mysterious, and that's why I remember it better than any BIONICLE chapter book I've ever owned. If #3 in the series is so good, I can only hope the other books are also good, if not better. I'd recommend the Adventures series.

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mindeth the cobwebs

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Basically any of the books that cover events that weren't featured in the main storyline -- those tend to be the ones with the most personalization and development of the characters. The Adventures series happens to have a lot of these: The Darkness Below, Voyage of Fear, Maze of Shadows, Web of the Visorak (to an extent: most of it is the Toa Metru making their way back from the coast of Metru Nui to the Coliseum -- which everything else just skips over -- but once you get to the end you're in the familiar territory of Hordika mutation), and Time Trap, as others have already mentioned.

 

Legends has only one book like that, Legacy of Evil. However, as a series it's also pretty quality. You see more of the Matoran Resistance and the Toa Nuva on Voya Nui in the first few books than the other sources gave us. Unfortunately, once you get to the '07 installments, you have to read through Defilak's abysmal chutespeak :P

Edited by Jacks

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You should read all of them. There are two different ways that I recommend reading them in: by publishing order(Chronicles, Adventures, Legends, and then Raid on Atero), or in rough chronological order (Adventures, Chronicles, Legends, and then ROA). I would lean more to the second option myself, since Adventures probably had the most stuff that wasn't covered elsewhere, but all of those books have a framing device of the Turaga telling the stories right after the Chronicles series, so you may want to read those first.

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Gamertag: SPARTAN J46
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My personal advice would be Adventures, key points being:

  • Time Trap, seriously, it is generally considered to be one of the best books in the series for a reason
  • A good amount of character development, amoung other things being Vakama going from an unconfident yet skilled smith to the confident trickster-mentor that we see on Mata-Nui
  • Largely likable characters
  • The last appearance of Matoran-Nui
  • A bunch of other stuff that other people have already said

Chronicles was good but it was more supplementary to the comics and flash games/animations IMHO

Legends, yeah I only read the first couple of books, and while they were good I never finished them so I can't recommend them in good conscience

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-END OF LINE-

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Well, since I am rereading all of these books currently, this is a good time for me to give insight:

 

-Chronicles is short and sweet. Lots of info packed into the amount of pages provided. It's brief, but fun.

-Adventures is very focused on the main 6 characters and full of great content and some extraordinary adventures. Better writing (Greg does a better job than Cathy, though the latter is still good) as well as cool revelations make Adventures really fun.

-Legends. I haven't got there yet but I remember loving the books a lot. It constantly changes the focus and that is kind of irritating, but the vast majority of them progress the plot at such a fine pace that it makes it hard to put down. The stakes are extremely high and that makes stopping reading all the more difficult.

 

Anything after is still good, but not particularly memorable IMO. I would recommend Chronicles just because it is so short but really fun. Doesn't require lots of thinking but you are bound to have a blast reading them.  

 

-NotS

Edited by Nidhiki of the Shadows
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Okay, new things:

Tell me about the size of the books and how big the words are in comparison.

The books are about the same size and font as a Goosebumps book. They average around 120 pages, and the font is fairly big. I am no speed-reader, and I can get through one of them in an hour or two.

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PSN ID: darthlego
Gamertag: SPARTAN J46
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Good choice. Adventures was Farshtey's premiere series, and it exemplifies his strengths as a writer while not being dominated by his flaws. The characterization of the Toa Metru is much deeper, more detailed, and interesting than that of the Toa Inika or Toa Nuva, and their personalities clash with and complement each other in varied and diverse ways. Additionally, Metru Nui is a rich and intriguing setting; while isolated from the rest of the universe at this time, it has a lengthy history, and there are many allusions to other locations within the Matoran universe. On top of all that, the villains are cool, and we all know that a good villain can make or break a story.

 

So, yes, Adventures is a very good choice. If you find your appetite continues even after you've read it, I would recommend buying Legends 1-5, purely for the sake of reading up on the Piraka. Their sarcastic banter, villainous antics, and unique perspectives make every scene involving them a joy to read, and the Voya Nui story arc is heavy with tension and dramatic weight.

"You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant."
-- Harlan Ellison

 

 

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I, too, think that the Adventure series in Bionicle was a good one. It stayed focused on the six Toa Metru, allowing them to get character development that a majority of other characters didn't get after this series ended. A lot of other members have said great things about this series, so I won't echo them here and waste your time. :P

 

I will say, though, that you should check out the Legends series after you finish Adventures. I will admit that a lot of characters are in this series, and a lot of them don't get a lot of development as characters. But that doesn't mean that there aren't any good books in this series. Legacy of Evil does a good job fleshing out the Piraka, Dark Destiny has a surprising amount of characters (Toa Nuva, Piraka, Axonn, Brutaka, Voya Nui Matoran, Karzahni, Toa Inika when they were still Matoran, Takanuva, etc.) but actually does a decent job of giving most of them a chance to shine in the book. Swamp of Secrets also gives us the backstory of the Toa Nuva being trained on Daxia and their first adventures on Karda Nui.

 

If anything, you should read this series for Inferno, Downfall, and The Finale Battle. All three of these books were the final ones to come out in their respective years, and they were all great IMO. Especially Downfall, which I ranked up there with Time Trap as one of the best Bionicle books ever written. I would even consider it to be the best book in the Legends series. Though to understand what is going on in the story you have to read the two books before it, City of the Lost and Prisoners of the Pit. Both of them are good books on their own though, so I think they are worth reading too.

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