I have the blessing/curse of loving to read but being very picky about what I read. I really have trouble finding stuff I like. And once or twice a year, it seems, I get in a mood where I can't find anything to read and fall back on an old reliable - Robert B. Parker's Spenser series. Like with most series, though, I can't do more than one at a time or they get boring (usually.)
Late last year I had another of these spells. I was at the library and decided to try out the latest Spenser, Hundred-Dollar Baby. I looked at the jacket flap, however, and saw that it featured a recurring character from two earlier novels, April Kyle. So I decided to go back and re-read the first two novels with her instead.
First there was Ceremony which coincidentally happened to be the first Spenser I ever read, way back when I was 14. I remembered when I read it then I really wasn't sure what to make of it, since I was more used to the TV series. But I liked it enough to read more, and the rest is history. Anyway, this time around I appreciated the book much more. Instead of just another adventure tale, now I could see why people allegorize Spenser to a modern-day knight; venturing into the "savage jungle" of Boston's notorious "Combat Zone" district to find a little girl lost, even though he's not getting paid to do it. It was a good, entertaining, solid read.
Then I went to the next entry, Taming a Sea-Horse. It was okay, but now I could see why so many people say Parker has been overdoing it. Where Ceremony was rich in gritty detail, Taming seemed downright diluted. It just wasn't the same. Baby was better, but still not as satisfying as Ceremony.
So jump ahead a few months, I'm browsing the library in one of my "can't make up my mind about anything" moods and look over in the adult mystery section. I saw there was a new Spenser, Now and Then, and thought I'd try it. And I loved it. It really pulled me in right from the start. When I was finished I decided to go back and read another Spenser I didn't remember much about; but while looking for one I saw there was another new one, Rough Weather, so I started that one instead. There was some of that "too familiar, this is getting boring" feeling, but not enough to make me quit reading. (Plus the plot's structure really kept me interested.)
So when I got done with that, I decided to do something I had been thinking of doing for a while - going back to the beginning and re-reading all the books in order. I've read every entry in the series, but usually by jumping around; I'd go to the library and look at the jacket flaps and say, "I feel like reading this one next." Generally if I read consecutive ones it was by coincidence. But not this time.
I checked out this big volume, The Early Spenser, which contains the first three novels - The Godwulf Manuscript, God Save the Child and Mortal Stakes. I finished Godwulf in days, and now I'm on Child, and I have to admit I'm just not bored at all. Maybe it's because these early works are so much more detailed and deep than many of the later ones, which seem like long collections of dialogue with a few fight scenes thrown in.
Yet I'm not nearly as critical as some readers of the series, who bemoan Parker's tendency to play around with his creation's sense of honor in some entries. Perhaps it's because the entire series has been done by the same author. For example, I'm highly critical of John Gardner's James Bond novels because of the liberties Gardner takes, most of which seem to take after the Bond films then the original Ian Fleming novels. But maybe I'd be more forgiving if Fleming had lived to continue penning Bond himself, i.e., if Parker wants to make Spenser more of an ethically dubious character, that's his right because Spenser is his creation, see?
There's just something about Spenser. I've tried reading other detective series and haven't really found any that do it for me; the closest, ironically, is Parker's Jesse Stone series.
Late last year I had another of these spells. I was at the library and decided to try out the latest Spenser, Hundred-Dollar Baby. I looked at the jacket flap, however, and saw that it featured a recurring character from two earlier novels, April Kyle. So I decided to go back and re-read the first two novels with her instead.
First there was Ceremony which coincidentally happened to be the first Spenser I ever read, way back when I was 14. I remembered when I read it then I really wasn't sure what to make of it, since I was more used to the TV series. But I liked it enough to read more, and the rest is history. Anyway, this time around I appreciated the book much more. Instead of just another adventure tale, now I could see why people allegorize Spenser to a modern-day knight; venturing into the "savage jungle" of Boston's notorious "Combat Zone" district to find a little girl lost, even though he's not getting paid to do it. It was a good, entertaining, solid read.
Then I went to the next entry, Taming a Sea-Horse. It was okay, but now I could see why so many people say Parker has been overdoing it. Where Ceremony was rich in gritty detail, Taming seemed downright diluted. It just wasn't the same. Baby was better, but still not as satisfying as Ceremony.
So jump ahead a few months, I'm browsing the library in one of my "can't make up my mind about anything" moods and look over in the adult mystery section. I saw there was a new Spenser, Now and Then, and thought I'd try it. And I loved it. It really pulled me in right from the start. When I was finished I decided to go back and read another Spenser I didn't remember much about; but while looking for one I saw there was another new one, Rough Weather, so I started that one instead. There was some of that "too familiar, this is getting boring" feeling, but not enough to make me quit reading. (Plus the plot's structure really kept me interested.)
So when I got done with that, I decided to do something I had been thinking of doing for a while - going back to the beginning and re-reading all the books in order. I've read every entry in the series, but usually by jumping around; I'd go to the library and look at the jacket flaps and say, "I feel like reading this one next." Generally if I read consecutive ones it was by coincidence. But not this time.
I checked out this big volume, The Early Spenser, which contains the first three novels - The Godwulf Manuscript, God Save the Child and Mortal Stakes. I finished Godwulf in days, and now I'm on Child, and I have to admit I'm just not bored at all. Maybe it's because these early works are so much more detailed and deep than many of the later ones, which seem like long collections of dialogue with a few fight scenes thrown in.
Yet I'm not nearly as critical as some readers of the series, who bemoan Parker's tendency to play around with his creation's sense of honor in some entries. Perhaps it's because the entire series has been done by the same author. For example, I'm highly critical of John Gardner's James Bond novels because of the liberties Gardner takes, most of which seem to take after the Bond films then the original Ian Fleming novels. But maybe I'd be more forgiving if Fleming had lived to continue penning Bond himself, i.e., if Parker wants to make Spenser more of an ethically dubious character, that's his right because Spenser is his creation, see?
There's just something about Spenser. I've tried reading other detective series and haven't really found any that do it for me; the closest, ironically, is Parker's Jesse Stone series.