Fans of Batman are lucky to get Greg Rucka--the talented, gritty young author of Keeper and Finder, among others--sharing time with their favorite licensed character in this novelization of DC's complete No Man's Land comic series. (And fans of Rucka--assuming they get around to reading this at all--will still likely hold the opinion that Atticus Kodiak could take Batman in a standup fight any day.)

DC shook up Gotham--literally--in its 1999 Batman plot arc: a 7.6 earthquake rocked Gotham City, wreaking enough destruction to bring the broken, crime-ridden, runt kid-brother of Metropolis and New York to its knees. In the story line's most indulgent liberty, those fat cats in Washington decide to write off Gotham, à la Escape from New York, blowing up the connecting bridges, mining the surrounding waterways, and signing into law the Federal Declaration of No Man's Land, which makes it a crime to even set foot in the city. The usual suspects from Arkham Asylum, Two-Face and the Penguin, the Riddler and Dr. Freeze, Poison Ivy and Mr. Zsasz, file out to begin running the show, strong-arming and manipulating the block-by-block turf battles that envelop the now-ultraviolent city. A conflicted Batman shows up fashionably late, only to find that these lunatics are the least of his worries: Lex Luthor, Superman's archfoe, has nefarious designs on Gotham too. Could this possibly get any better? Sure, No Man's Land is derivative fiction, but the appeal of Rucka--and, of course, Batman--can make this one worth the read. --Paul Hughes


From Publishers Weekly
WHAP! POW! Pocket Books joins DC Comics to bring Gotham's Dark Knight to the trade shelves for the New Year, in a savage millennial tale of urban implosion, divided loyalties and vigilante justice. Rucka (Shooting at Midnight) valiantly transcribes an essentially visual chronicle to print, no mean feat, given Batman's 60 years of history in comics, TV and film. In the new millennium, following a cataclysmic earthquake, the federal government has cut off Gotham City from the rest of the country, leaving the No Man's Land, with its masses of casualties and survivors, in the hands of the "lunatics" released from Arkham Asylum. They are the Penguin, Poison Ivy, Two-Face and the ubiquitous Joker. Newly married Commissioner Gordon makes a suicidal stand to maintain control with a handful of determined officers, and the former Batgirl (now the cyber-savvy paraplegic known as Oracle, thanks to a bullet from the Joker) tries to keep tabs on the chaos while hoping for Batman's superhero help. Batman is on the scene with a new Robin as well as the former Boy Wonder, now grown up and known as Nightwing. The inevitable showdown between the forces of good and evil is played out against a backdrop of violent urban decay, but the subject of sex (and death), which the series has often flirted with but largely skirted, is now candidly explored. The conception of the battle between costumed, urban criminals and crusaders as a gang war (with the Bat signal replaced by graffiti tags) is logical, and other familiar bat-tropes are ably transposed into contemporary milieus. The expected wordplay and punning retain the classic comic-book characterizations, infusing the tale with lively dialogue right up to the dramatic surprise ending. Agent, David Hale. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
A massive earthquake has leveled Gotham City, leaving its populace open to the predation of such notorious villains as the Joker, the Penguin, and Lex Luthor as the city's forces for justice wait in suspense for the arrival of their greatest protector, the legendary Batman. Rucka's (Keeper) grim voice and brooding prose successfully capture the atmosphere of gothic fantasy characteristic of the world of DC Comics' most popular superhero. With particular appeal to fans of the comic series as well as readers of pulp fantasy, this volume belongs in most fantasy collections. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
A novelized version of the venerable comic strip almost makes it as a top-drawer thriller. An earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale has leveled Gotham City. So woeful is its condition that the federal government decides it's beyond repair and cordons it off from the rest of the country. Thus, officially, Gotham City ceases to exist and NML (No Man's Land) is born. Not everyone joins in the exodus, however. Scavengers and predators hang on for the sake of increased opportunity, but they're not alone. Police Commissioner James Gordon, for instance, stays because his commitment to law and order is inescapable. Then there are the nutcases familiar to generations of the Caped Crusaders fans: the Penguin, Two-Face, the Joker, Black Mask, Poison Ivy. Their motives for remaining are even more irrational than Gordons, but that's as it should be. Meanwhile, gangs roam untrammeled. Murder replaces basketball as the urban game of choice. Territories are staked out, and the NML becomes, in effect, a kaleidoscope of war zones. It's a situation that cries out for the Dark Knight, and yet after 90 days Batman is still a non-player. Turns out he's been engaging in a Hamlet-like soul-search for answers, values, meaningbehavior most unbecoming an action stalwart. Fortunately, he snaps out of it in time, and with the aid of Robin, Nightwing, and an updated version of Batgirl, confronts the forces of evil, now including villainous multibillionaire Lex Luthor (Superman's nemesis, visiting from Metropolis). Despite the formidable array of villainous talent, most readers will probably count on a happy ending, though the publisher has chosen to withhold the last two chapters from advance copies. Rucka (Shooting at Midnight, 1999, etc.), canny suspense writer that he is, wrings so much from his high-colored cast you almost forget that theyre, well, comic strip characters. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
Publishers Weekly ...a savage millennial tale of urban implosion, divided loyalties and vigilante justice.

Eonmagazine.com ...[a] storytelling masterpiece...

Colorado Springs Gazette ...a crisp, compelling, streetwise saga...


Review
Nextplanetover.com Rucka gets it right.


Review
Nextplanetover.com Rucka gets it right.


Book Description
GOTHAM CITY: a dark, twisted re?ection of urban America. Overcrowded, overbuilt, and overshadowed by a continuous air of menace, this gothic nightmare is a breeding ground for the depraved, the indifferent, and the criminally insane. It's also the object of one man's obsession. Witness to the brutal murder of his parents, Bruce Wayne has dedicated his life to protecting this city, taking a form to inspire hope in the innocent...and fear in the guilty. He is the masked vigilante known as the Batman. Now the battlefield has changed. Leveled by a massive earthquake that left thousands dead and millions more wounded, Gotham City has been transformed into a lawless wilderness -- a No Man's Land -- where the survivors are turning against one another, and where the city's protectors are torn by a crisis that may consume them all.


Card catalog description
"Featuring No law and a new order and Fear of faith."


About the Author
The author of four novels about professional bodyguard Atticus Kodiak -- Keeper (nominated for a Shamus Award by the Private Eye Writers of America), Finder, Smoker, and Shooting at Midnight, Greg Rucka has been writing since he was eight years old, and hopefully is improving with age. A longtime comics fan, his first graphic novel series was the suspense thriller Whiteout, published by Oni Press and nominated for three Eisner Awards in 1999. Since that time he has been a contributing writer for DC Comics and an active participant in the Batman series of titles. Born and raised in California, he earned his undergraduate degree at Vassar College and his MFA at the University of Southern California. He currently resides in Portland, Oregon. Mr. Rucka is 29 years old, has two tattoos, and rides a motorcycle.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter One It had taken them a week of work to get this far, digging out the site only at night, trying to stay safe from watching eyes. The two moved rubble and dug in silence, working mostly by feel. Each of them had more cuts and scrapes on their hands than they could count, and their fingers were numb from the effort and the cold of the air and the bite of the frozen snow. The elder of the two, Paolo, was only twenty-one. His brother, Nicky, was nineteen. They had arrived in Gotham during the summer, immigrating illegally with their parents, and for a while it had looked good for all of them. Then the earthquake came, and the tenement they were living in, the room they shared with two other families, was buried under twenty tons of concrete and iron from the building next door. The bodies were never recovered. When No Man's Land came, they stayed more out of fear than anything else. There had been soldiers on the bridges, on the roads, in the tunnels. Soldiers with guns, and both Paolo and Nicky had bad memories of soldiers with guns from their childhood in Colombia. As far as they were concerned, the soldiers meant one of two things: either they'd be shot, or they'd be deported. And being deported, that amounted to being shot. So they stayed. It had to be past midnight when Nicky heard his brother speak for the first time in hours, the hoarse whisper of excitement. "I found it," Paolo hissed in Spanish. "I found a way in, look." Nicky moved, checking where his brother pointed. It was a clear night, with half a moon, and in the light and past the shadows he could see where Paolo was indicating, a small opening, just big enough to wriggle through. And inside, the prize, a whole Jiffy Junior convenience store, a mother lode of treasure. Canned goods, batteries, flashlights, aspirin, soda, chips, bread, cigarettes, beer... "You remember what we do," Paolo whispered. "You go in, you grab what you can, we cover it up again, then take it to Penguin. He'll take care of us. But we don't tell him where we found it, we keep this our secret." "I remember," Nicky snapped. "Of course I remember." "Keep your voice down." Nicky frowned, then took the flashlight his brother handed him. It was their prized possession, and they had only turned it on once since they'd found it, just to make certain the batteries worked. Now Nicky held it tightly in one hand as he got on his knees, and crawled through the tiny opening. The stink inside was awful, and almost immediately he wanted to throw up. He told himself it was spoiled milk and meat, and not a body. He told himself it didn't matter if it was a body, because the dead had it easy right now. He convinced himself to keep going, and managed to work his way out of the hole, dropping down inside the wreckage of the store. His feet splashed in something when he landed, he didn't know what. It was entirely black inside but for the broken circle of moonlight leaking in from above. Nicky turned on the flashlight, then turned it off again. Jiffy Junior stores were open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. They never closed. That was their motto, he knew that. There had been customers inside when the earthquake hit. From above, he heard his brother's voice. "Nicky? Are you all right?" Nicky tried to answer, caught another whiff of the air, and now there was no way to pretend it was anything but death. He felt his stomach buckle, swallowed hard, and managed the words. "There are bodies," he told his brother. "Ignore them," Paolo hissed. "Hurry, Nicky. We don't want to be caught." "I know that. Shut up, I'm looking." Paolo shut up. Nicky switched on the flashlight again, panning the beam carefully past the corpses, toward the fallen racks. He went for the batteries first, then for the cigarette lighters on the counter. He stuffed his pockets full of all the small things he could find, tiny tins of Imodium and aspirin, bandages, matches, whatever would fit, before switching to the backpack. He was smart about it, he thought, taking another backpack, rolling it up tightly and putting it in the first. Everyone needed a backpack in the No Man's Land. Everyone had to carry all their possessions with them. Then he went to the racks, quickly examining the cans, taking only those that were still sealed. Ravioli, soup, beans, tuna, all into the backpack. Two cans of Soder Cola, and another two cans of Brew Beer. He put more and more into the backpack until he was afraid the seams would split, and only then did he stop, zipping the pack as closed as he could make it, then moving back to the hole. "I'm coming up," he whispered, pushing the backpack into the opening with a shove. Then he turned back, letting the flashlight track one last time through the store. He switched it off, but the image stayed, the crushed bodies still lit in his mind. He whispered a quick prayer, then climbed back into the hole. It wasn't Paolo waiting for him when he came out. It was someone else, a big man, bald, and behind him were three others, one of them already going through the backpack, the other two holding Paolo by the arms. In the moonlight, Nicky could see where his brother was bleeding at the mouth, and it made his stomach shrink. Then the big man was pulling him to his feet, and showing him the pointed end of a machete. "This is Demonz territory," the man said. "You've just been caught stealing. I should cut off your hands, that's what I should do." Nicky fumbled for the words in English and managed, "It's not stealing." The big man laughed and shoved him back with his free hand. "Empty your pockets, let's see what you brought us." Nicky glanced at his brother, saw Paolo's jaw clenched tight, more rage than fear in his eyes. It crept into Nicky, as well. "No. It's ours." The man looked at Nicky, surprised at the defiance, then sighed, cutting at the air with the blade. "You just broke Demonz law, kid." Nicky realized that he was going to die, and started another prayer, hoping to finish it before the machete came back down. He watched the blade go up, the moonlight catching its edge, watched it start to fall. Then the blade was gone and the man was holding his hand where it was now bleeding, and there had been a noise, something hard hitting something meat. Nicky heard another sound, turned his head toward it, and saw the shape, and his heart stopped for a second, because he knew what it was. He had never seen it before, no one he knew had, and some people had even told him it was a lie, made up by the police, to scare the criminals. But Nicky had always known it was true, and he knew what it was. So did the big man. The shape moved, passing Nicky faster than a shadow hit by light, and there was another sound, and the big man made a noise of pain, and fell backward. The shape spoke. "Leave them alone." And Nicky thought there was something wrong, then, because he'd never imagined the voice would sound like that. The big man tried to get up, and the shape moved again, and Nicky heard the snap of another kick. The man made more noise, and then the shape had grabbed him by the shirt, was turning, and the big man was stumbling away while the others stood stunned. Even Paolo, Nicky thought, looked stunned. But Paolo had never believed. The shape kept moving, another rustle of shadow, and the gang member who had taken the backpack dropped it, spilling the contents all on the ground. The other Street Demonz, who had been holding Paolo, moved forward, trying to attack. But you cannot attack a shadow, Nicky thought, and as if to prove him right, their blows landed in empty air. There was another rustle, and the shape was behind them, had one of the men by the arm, had hit him twice in the face, then was pitching him sharply away. Another of the gang members was passing Nicky, as if trying to flee, and the shape turned, and Nicky got a good look then, just for an instant, as the shape reached out as if its arm were impossibly long. The man pitched forward into the street with a cry, then stumbled back up and ran. The shape pivoted, but the last of the Demonz had already fled. "Batman," Paolo said. Nicky tried to find his voice, to say, no, no, not Batman, at least, not like we were told, but the shape was already crouching at the backpack, replacing the spilled cans, then offering the bag to Nicky. When the arms moved, the cape billowed back, and Nicky saw the shape in the shadow, the yellow outline of the bat on the black chest. A woman's chest. Nicky took the bag, staring. "Are you all right?" He tried to speak, failed utterly, and simply nodded. "TriCorner is held by the GCPD. You'll be safer there," the woman said, and then she raised an arm and there was a sound, and it was as if the Batwoman were flying away. Gone. Just like that. After a time, Nicky looked back to his brother, saw Paolo was still staring up at the sky, where the woman had disappeared. Then Paolo lowered his eyes, and Nicky saw the understanding there, the awe. Without another word, the boys began heading south, toward TriCorner. It began to snow. Copyright © DC Comics. All rights reserved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Leveled by a massive earthquake that has left thousands dead and millions more wounded, Gotham City has been completely cut off from outside aid, transformed into a lawless battleground - a No Man's Land - where the survivors are turning against one another, and where the city's protectors are torn by a crisis that may consume them all." "Gotham now teeters at the edge of the abyss ... and Batman is missing.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

WHAP! POW! Pocket Books joins DC Comics to bring Gotham's Dark Knight to the trade shelves for the New Year, in a savage millennial tale of urban implosion, divided loyalties and vigilante justice. Rucka (Shooting at Midnight) valiantly transcribes an essentially visual chronicle to print, no mean feat, given Batman's 60 years of history in comics, TV and film. In the new millennium, following a cataclysmic earthquake, the federal government has cut off Gotham City from the rest of the country, leaving the No Man's Land, with its masses of casualties and survivors, in the hands of the "lunatics" released from Arkham Asylum. They are the Penguin, Poison Ivy, Two-Face and the ubiquitous Joker. Newly married Commissioner Gordon makes a suicidal stand to maintain control with a handful of determined officers, and the former Batgirl (now the cyber-savvy paraplegic known as Oracle, thanks to a bullet from the Joker) tries to keep tabs on the chaos while hoping for Batman's superhero help. Batman is on the scene with a new Robin as well as the former Boy Wonder, now grown up and known as Nightwing. The inevitable showdown between the forces of good and evil is played out against a backdrop of violent urban decay, but the subject of sex (and death), which the series has often flirted with but largely skirted, is now candidly explored. The conception of the battle between costumed, urban criminals and crusaders as a gang war (with the Bat signal replaced by graffiti tags) is logical, and other familiar bat-tropes are ably transposed into contemporary milieus. The expected wordplay and punning retain the classic comic-book characterizations, infusing the tale with lively dialogue right up to the dramatic surprise ending. Agent, David Hale. (Jan.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal