Author Topic: Just finished the book.... (Spoilers)  (Read 21097 times)

Offline bentleyml

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Just finished the book.... (Spoilers)
« on: June 14, 2006, 03:34:05 AM »
I had pre-ordered the book as soon as I could.  I was surprised Monday when a package from Amazon showed up and opened it to find The Darkest Hours.  I started reading right away.  I mean how could I not?  My favorite author writing for my favorite Super Hero? :D

So I read it over the past two days.  I enjoyed the book quite a bit.

I think my absolute favorite part was the conversation between Spider-Man and the Rhino in Aunt May's apartment. 

The Ancients were an interesting villain. 

The appearance of Strange and Wong was cool.

A wonderful mix of action and characters.  I hope to see more Spider-Man from Jim. :D

Offline Darla

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Re: Just finished the book.... (Spoilers)
« Reply #1 on: June 16, 2006, 06:30:18 PM »
I think my absolute favorite part was the conversation between Spider-Man and the Rhino in Aunt May's apartment.


LOL, yeah.  I was with MJ, except I could giggle aloud. 
Darla 
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Offline cindycic2

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Re: Just finished the book.... (Spoilers)
« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2006, 12:00:38 PM »
I finally got The Darkest Hours yesterday and am really enjoying it so far! I have to be honest and admit that it's the first Spiderman novel I've ever read; I've enjoyed the movies and have read some comics in the past, but it took Jim writing one to get me to venture into a Spiderman book. :)

ETA: I guess that I can now post in the ‘Just Finished the book’ thread for real  ;) --  I finished it this afternoon, and once I got into the ‘swing’ of reading a Spider-Man novel, it was very enjoyable. Lots of snark and fun lines; though this was my first Spider-Man novel, as I mentioned above, it seemed to me that I could recognize a lot of Jim-type humor in it. I will say that I even got a little teary-eyed during the phone conversation between Aunt May and Peter. *sniff* I loved the “magically malicious” response, lol, and as a Spike fan, the
Quote
"It is a trap." She considered and stuck out her thumb too. "Dummy."
gave me a big smile. :D I too liked the scene with Rhino, Peter and Mary Jane in Aunt May's apartment. Another conversation that I particularly noticed was with Dr. Strange (pages 130 and 131).

I'm sure that with me not being a Spider-Man aficionado as many on the list here are I missed a lot of "in" references from previous novels and other story/plot-lines, but it didn't affect my enjoyment of the book. I can’t honestly say that I will read another Spider-Man novel (unless Jim writes another that is), but this one was well-worth reading IMO.
« Last Edit: June 28, 2006, 02:00:11 AM by cindycic2 »

Offline Darla

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Re: Just finished the book.... (Spoilers)
« Reply #3 on: June 29, 2006, 05:06:12 PM »


I'm sure that with me not being a Spider-Man aficionado as many on the list here are I missed a lot of "in" references from previous novels and other story/plot-lines, but it didn't affect my enjoyment of the book. I can’t honestly say that I will read another Spider-Man novel (unless Jim writes another that is), but this one was well-worth reading IMO.


Heh.  Same here.  Then I spent a lot of time on Wikipedia checking to see which characters/events Jim had invented, and which were canon. 
Darla 
Currently reading Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

I think animal testing is a terrible idea; they get all nervous and give the wrong answers. — A Bit of Fry and Laurie

Offline Valiar Marcus

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Re: Just finished the book.... (Spoilers)
« Reply #4 on: July 03, 2006, 04:08:44 AM »
Just finished it myself and I gotta say it was up to Jim's high standards.  Very nicely done. :)
Chad Mitchell

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ToddM326

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Re: Just finished the book.... (Spoilers)
« Reply #5 on: July 10, 2006, 06:10:04 PM »
I finished this last night. 

It was definately a fun, easy, fast read.

I enjoyed seeing the similarities between Peter Parker written by Mr. Butcher and Harry Dresden.

Offline Amber

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Re: Just finished the book.... (Spoilers)
« Reply #6 on: July 11, 2006, 10:47:37 PM »

I enjoyed seeing the similarities between Peter Parker written by Mr. Butcher and Harry Dresden.

*G* my BF read the book and got about...  3 pages in, and yelled across the room... "Why is Harry in the Spidey suit?"

He said he read the whole book with this image in his head of 6'6" Harry in Tobey MacGuire's Spidey suit, with his arms and legs sticking out of it.
"I am among those who think that science has great beauty. A scientist in his laboratory is not only a technician: he is also a child placed before natural phenomena which impress him like a fairy tale."
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Offline King Shisa

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Re: Just finished the book.... (Spoilers)
« Reply #7 on: December 31, 2009, 10:28:22 PM »
Adding my name to the "just finished" list.

I was entertained by the book... with reservations. Like many, I had a hard time separating Peter Parker from Harry Dresden, though never once did it feel like JB was trying to shoehorn a foreign character into his own mold. If anything, it reinforced in my mind how very similar Dresden is to Spidey (the warning shout of "Warning!" made me chuckle). Though JB's style complimented the Spider-Man character, the echoes of Harry Dresden were always there. That comparison took me out of the book many, many times. Separation was difficult.

I also found there to be a lot of lecturing going on. Every time Peter turned around, he was getting monologed by one of the women in his life. What a good man he is, how considerate, how much responsibility he takes for the innocents around him. Let it go, ladies. He's been doing this for a long time. He knows his role.

Long as I'm nitpicking, the arc with the kid on the team felt like an add-on, a space-filler which barely served any purpose beyond bookending the main plot.

Apart from those very, very minor quibbles, it was a good read. I liked the fact that JB kept the danger on a personal level, instead of throwing Spidey into a world-saving scenario. I always hated story arcs where human heroes (Spidey, Bats, DD, etc) are given responsibility for every person on the planet. Seems to miss the point of the heroes, as far as I'm concerned. By keeping the story focused on Spidey and those he loves, the core humanity of the man was preserved. Big bonus.

Bottom line: as long as he writes 'em, I'll reads 'em.
I'm not a hero. I'm not a savior. Forget what you know.

I'm just a man whose circumstances went beyond his control.

Offline LordDresden

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Re: Just finished the book.... (Spoilers)
« Reply #8 on: January 16, 2010, 07:26:31 PM »


I also found there to be a lot of lecturing going on. Every time Peter turned around, he was getting monologed by one of the women in his life. What a good man he is, how considerate, how much responsibility he takes for the innocents around him. Let it go, ladies. He's been doing this for a long time. He knows his role.

That's true to Peter's character, though.  It's his nature to be riven by self-doubt, he has been for years, on some level he's never forgiven himself for the death of Ben Parker, and on another there's a part of him that's never quite gotten over the fact that he was the proverbial nerdy bookworm as a kid.  He'll probably go to his grave, assuming he dies of old age, with some of that going on.

One of the discussions I liked was when Felicia was pointing out to Peter the difference between the two kinds of people who can be a threat, the kind he generally deals with as Spidey (other supers) and the colder, more professional sort of trouble that are in their way much more dangerous.  The professionals.  To borrow from Dresden, the equivalents of Kincaid, who you don't even know are after you until you're already dead.