Spider-Man: The Darkest Hours

Novel By: Jim Butcher

Written By: Tim Sanders

Let me start off by saying hello to everyone. First-time blogger second-time audiobook listener. Ok, I lied. Growing up we used to listen to Harry Potter on tape in the car, but we won't count that.

I "experienced" the novel Spider-Man: the Darkest Hours by Jim Butcher recently. I have to say that if anyone was going to write a snarky, witty superhero that takes pride in doing the right thing, Jim Butcher is most definitely your man. The biggest problem with the novel is that I couldn't help but picture Spider-Man as the same character as Harry Dresden. Seeing as I enjoy both, that is not necessarily a bad thing.

The book was written well, if not on the predictable side, and it takes you through a typical Spider-Man adventure. Peter Parker struggling to do the right thing while also moonlighting as a superhero. It then takes us to Spider-man swinging to the rescue only to bite off slightly more than he can chew. This comes in the way of 3 bad guys called "the ancients."

The ancients are bad guys that feed off of individuals close to animal totems. For those scratching your head right about now, that's anyone close to an animal, in this book, that is Spider-Man, Rhino, Black cat since all of them model themselves after animals in a way.

I am a comic book nerd, and this book was geared toward that side of the house. There are past events referenced that Butcher often uses enough in the book to make me wonder if I was reading a sequel. A quick google search told me this is the only book in the series. Additionally, the name Morlune was dropped on several occasions, and I knew him from the comic books, but for the most part, Butcher does an excellent job of catching you up on the important stuff.

For those unaware, Spider-man took on a dude called Morlun got his butt kicked six ways to Sunday. Spiderman does his Spider-man thing and takes the victory in the end; unfortunately for him, Morlun had brothers and a sister, which is where the 3 ancients from this novel come in. Nothing like siblings out for revenge.

This isn't a very long book by any means, it took about 5 hours to be read, and the story is pretty cut and dry. The ancients use Rhino to try to get Spider-man out of hiding. Spiderman, Maryjane, and the Black Cat fight them in different places and get their butts kicked. This all goes on until Spider-Man realizes that the 3 are weakest when they feed on people's spirit energy. So he sets a trap. A wounded Rhino agrees to help Spider-man since he saved him from the ancients.

In true Spider-man fashion, the trap is set, it goes off, but of course, it doesn't go according to plan. One of the ancients gets destroyed while feeding on Rhino. Then between Spider-man, Rhino, and Black Cat, the other one eventually gets his. Mary Jane enters and saves the day by taking all her frustrations out on the sister, her frustration being that of Spider-Man and Black Cats thing from the past. The book ends with Peter getting a little help from Dr. Strange to wrap up a problem he had with one of his students from the beginning of the book.

As I said above, the book is pretty much what I expected when I picked this book up from the library. I enjoyed my 5 hours of experiencing it on my drives to pick up/drop off children or whenever I was doing mindless things around the house. Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of the medium of audiobooks, but they will do in a pinch! I prefer to hold the book in my hand. However, I do have the opportunity to multitask with audiobooks. In the end, I feel like I may have missed things when listening because my brain stopped paying attention to the narrator.