Chapter Seventeen

I was going to wait another week or two before I made another entry here, but I think I've got enough to talk about and besides I found this really cool picture to add to the site. Interestingly, all the books fall into the same category.

Series

Cadillac Beach - Tim Dorsey ( $7.50/$.50, 376 pages, copyright 2004, paperback)
Apparently, Dorsey has written several books revolving around the exploits of Serge Storm and his good buddy, Lenny - a maniac and a doper. This one revolves around Miami history and brings in Murph the Surf, the Beatles, Cubans, the FBI and CIA, and a whole bunch of other stuff while Serge tries to solve his grandfather's murder. This may sound confusing, but it is laugh-out-loud funny. I enjoyed it.

The Dangerous Days of Daniel X - James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge ($7.99/$.50, 247 pages, copyright 2009, paperback)
I'm a big fan of Patterson's Alex Cross series so every once in a while I pick up another book of his. This is a sci-fi series about a teenage alien bounty hunter that is strictly aimed at the tweens crowd. To be honest, I'm not too sure they'd like it. I didn't.

The Watchman - Robert Crais ($7.99/$.50, 384 pages, copyright 2007, paperback)
Usually, Crais' books center on Elvis Cole, with Joe Pike - his silent partner - coming in towards the end as sort of a "deus-ex-machina". This book revolves around Pike, with Cole in a supporting role. Simply put, Pike agrees to protect a young lady until she can testify at a trial, but it's more then that. And you learn a lot more about what makes Pike tick. I enjoyed it.

Stone Cold - Robert B. Parker  ($7.99/$.50, 300 pages, copyright 2003, paperback)
Parker is the creator of the Spenser books, which I really enjoy. This is one of his Jesse Stone books. Jesse is the polar opposite of Spenser - he's a loner, he drinks too much, and he has an unhealthy obsession for his ex-wife. That said, he's good at what he does - police work - and he has a real sense of right and wrong. He also has a great supporting cast, and here they try to solve a serial killer case. Unfortunately, I don't think his books end well. The payoff seems to take place off-screen, and Jesse gets to react but it doesn't feel satisfying. It was OK.

Comic Books

I've ranted in the past about my experiences with the comic book industry, so this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

First Wave - Brian Azzarello, writer; Rags Morales, artist ($3.99 per issue, 6 issues)
I mentioned this particular mini-series before. In fact, I first mentioned it in my May 12, 2010 Special Insert #2 after I'd read the first 2 issues of the 6 issue run. It is now March 3, 2011, and issue number 6 just came out yesterday. That means that it took 9 months to produce 4 issues. Very disappointing. I probably won't be buying into any mini-series runs any time soon. That aside, Azzarello has told a very interesting, post-WW2 story. Batman is a young, gung-ho, gun-toting hero; Doc Savage is his usual pulp-fictiony adventurer; but The Spirit disappoints. I think he's only interesting when someone uses the Eisner approach to drawing. I did enjoy it.

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne - Grant Morrison, writer: various artists ($3.99 per issue, 6 issues)
I'm not going to go into why there was a need for Bruce Wayne to return - frankly, it's too complicated. Suffice it to say that Grant Morrison wrote this, so we have issues ranging from the prehistoric, through the Wild West and the Future, and ending back here. I mention this because it appears to have come out on a monthly basis. Maybe this has to do with multiple artists. The down-side to that is the visual changes can be jarring. But the main reason I bring this one up is that I saw it at Barnes & Noble's as a Trade Edition for $30. I'm sure they include extras like scripts and storyboards, but I don't look at those. $30, to me, is a lot of money for 6 issues at one time. (I actually paid $12 for all 6 issues at a comic store in Oakhurst.) I'm guessing that I won't be buying too many Trades anymore. Other then that, I enjoyed it.

Keep reading.