Book Review – RWBY: After The Fall
RWBY: After The Fall is a YA novel set in the World of Remnant. It’s written by E.C. Myers, from a story created by Kerry Shawcross and Miles Luna.
Official Synopsis
After Beacon Academy fell, Coco, Fox, Velvet, and Yatsuhashi made a vow: No one else is getting left behind. It’s been more than a year since Team CFVY saw their school destroyed by the creatures of Grimm, their friends felled in battle or scattered across the world of Remnant. Since then, they’ve been settling into life at Shade Academy in Vacuo, fighting hard to finish their training so they can find their friends and save their world. When a distress message comes into Shade, asking for huntsmen and huntresses to defend refugees from a never-ending stream of Grimm, Team CFVY answers the call without hesitation. But in the heat of the desert, they’re forced to relive their former battles, both from the fall of Beacon and from everything that came before.
Review
This is the first official tie in novel to Rooster Teeth’s RWBY. It’s also first to focus on a team we haven’t really seen much of in the show. Team CFVY (Coffee) is comprised of Coco Adel, Fox Alistair, Velvet Scarlatina and Yatsuhashi Daichi. These four Huntsmen and Huntresses in training left Beacon after the fall and headed to Shade Academy in dusty Vacuo to finish their schooling.
Most of the action of the book takes place after the team are sent out into the desert to answer a distress call. It’s written in a flowing, easy style, with kinetic fight scenes. Myers does a great job of capturing the feel of the show in text form.
From the show we know an awful lot about Teams RWBY and JNPR – their abilities, fighting styles and Semblances – but not much about other teams we saw in earlier volumes. RWBY: After The Fall fixes that. We get a lot more detail on all four team members, including details on their Semblances. I challenge anyone who reads this book not to be a Team CFVY stan by the end of the book. I could try to pick a favourite team member, but I’d be lying if I said they aren’t ALL my favourite. It’s not all easy going, each of the members has had hardships in the past. These are woven throughout the story, giving each of them a chance to shine, while helping flesh out their characters and relationships.
For those of you worried that you might find it hard to connect to the team, put those fears aside. Not only is it super easy to get in to the story, and to bond with them, familiar faces aren’t far away. Thanks to a neat plot device, the current action of the story frequently flashes back to Team CFVY at Beacon and lessons they learned there which help them in the present.
New territory
Another great thing about RWBY: After The Fall is that it expands the World of Remnant. Up until now, in the show, we’ve seen Atlas, Vale and Menagerie, but the book takes us into the new land of Vacuo. This also happens to be where Fox is from, and we get a lot of information on this part of the world through him and his backstory. Not only do we get new Grimm, but we also learn about new species native to Vacuo. It all serves to enhance the rich world that’s being developed. I do hope we get to see more of Vacuo on the show. Knowing that there’s a plan for the show to run about 10-12 volumes (as mentioned in the interview you can watch HERE) it’s possible we could see Team CFVY and other former Beacon Academy students coming back into the story.
Another new territory broached in this book is the handling of LGBT characters. I’m not going to spoil who, in case you want to find out for yourself, but one of the characters in the book is confirmed as LGBT fairly early on. It’s been revealed elsewhere by others, and is out there on the internet if you want to know. The RWBY writers have done a good job in the past handling potentially sensitive subjects – such as the bigotry against the Faunus, something that is also addressed here – and this is no different.
Conclusion
I hope that RWBY: After The Fall is the first in a series of books tying in to the show. It’s a fantastic way to not only expand the lore of the show, but also bring in new viewers. It’s easy to read, but not overly simplistic, and has a lot of potential for follow-ons.
If you want to read the book for yourself you should be able to pick it up at any good bookstore, or you can order online through Forbidden Planet, Amazon, or the Rooster Teeth store.
