Definitely not one of the better books so far, primarily due to the lack of character development and progress in the story. Gepetto, with Pinocchio at his side, is plotting his revenge on Fabletown, with his minions -- okay, get on with it already. Bigby, Snow and their kids are reunited for a Christmas, including Santa Claus, and in another story, Snow forces Bigby to try to build a relationship with his father (North), while his kids have an experience they will never forget, and there are a few shorter vignettes about Rapunzel, the Three Blind Mice, and Hansel & Gretel. ( )

Avevo lasciato la saga delle Fables di Bill Willingham a gennaio. Ho avuto una certa difficoltà a trovare il numero sette. Tra gennaio ed oggi è passata una vita, nulla è più, né sarà più, come prima. Mentre con il numero sei avevo ritrovato un ordine nella lettura, sono tornato a sentirmi disorientato. Tante storie, diverse, con un filo conduttore che a volte è labile e rende difficile mantenere la bussola. Il senso è che, appena terminata la lettura, ho riscontrato non poche difficoltà a scrivere del numero terminato, ricostruendo le storie. La cifra stilistica rimane altissima, ma inizio a pensare che questa lunghissima serie va letta tutta di un fiato, senza soste, in modo da avere alta l’attenzione. Spero di riuscirci tra qualche anno. ( )

Another wonderful volume in the Fables series.

New characters are introduced, and the plot advances in a number of surprising ways. Fables manages to introduce crucial plot points in something as mundane as a Christmas story, and to interrupt the action at just the right point with a short aside that will come into play later in the series... Excellent.

The artwork is brilliant, with the exception of a single story that I felt was a bit too cartoony for my taste. Never did it feel like the stories dragged, however, and that's the best thing to be said for any graphic novel. ( )

This volume contains a four-part story (Sons of Empire), a one-shot (Jiminy Christmas), a two-parter (Farther and Son) and two more one-shots (Burning Questions and The Birthday Secret). It is rounded out by some art and designs by Mark Buckingham and biographies of the main contributors.

Sons of Empire has the adversary calling a council of war to decide what to do about Fabletown and the Mundy world in which it is based. The imperial elite gather and put forward proposals for all out wall and the possible repercussions of such an act. Meanwhile an envoy is sent to Fabletown and they're not going to be happy over who is selected. Jiminy Christmas is a Yuletide tale involving Snow, Bigby and their wolf cubs and leads directly into Father and Son when the Wolf clan pay a visit to Bigby's father. Burning Questions answers some reader queries in illustrated form and finally The Birthday Secret sees the introduction of Ghost to his brothers and sisters.

There are quite a few different artists used within this book and the quality varies tremendously and shows huge disparity in the way characters are drawn making them all but unrecognisable in some instances. Thankfully, the part which deals with the main story arc is still being produced by the main contributors and continues to be top notch. I'm still very much enjoying the core storyline although some of the side stories didn't do too much for me this time around. ( )