Sixkill
- Title: Sixkill
- Author: Robert B. Parker
I’ve been reading Robert B. Parker’s Spenser novels since I was in junior high. And I’m more than a little sad this is the last one I’ll ever read. Although Ace Atkins has been hired by Parker’s estate to continue the saga of these characters I’ve come to know and love over the years, this was the last original Spenser novel completed before the writer’s death in 2010.
I was first introduced to the character of Spenser through the three seasons of Spenser: For Hire on ABC during the mid-to-late 80’s. The show starred Robert Urich as the former boxer turned Boston private detective with a smart aleck wit and a code of ethics all his own.
A couple of years later my father introduced me to the novels the show was based on, and I was immediately hooked. Today my collection of Parker’s books takes more than one full shelf of a bookcase.
…
It’s been twenty-five years since Robert Ludlum published The Bourne Identity and fifteen years since the third and final book of the series, The Bourne Ultimatum, was published. With the popularity of the new Matt Damon movies, Ludlum’s estate gave the project of resurrecting the series to Eric Van Lustbader. In hindsight, it would have helped if someone had made sure Lustbader had actually read Ludlum’s books. Lustbader’s The Bourne Legacyis a sequel of the worst order; a horribly written dime store novel, filled with characters that are only shadows of their once vibrant selves, full of countless continuity errors as the author gleefully violates the rules of the series, rewriting it to make it his own. Anyone who thinks they can do a better job with an author’s characters than the author himself should read this to see what happens when such material is put in the wrong hands.
I’ve been reading the Harry Potter series for just over nine years now. I’ve spent countless hours reading and rereading the books, discussing them with my friends, and even protesting a radio station for ruining the last book’s ending on-air before I finished it. With all of my history with the books, is it even close to possible for series author J.K. Rowling to end this story that I’ve grown up with to my satisfaction?