Customer Reviews

Spider-Man: Emerald Mystery

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The only emerald mystery was how the publisher received my green money. I have been reading Marvel since the 60's and this book was an extreme disappointment. It has no action and no compelling villain. I purchased it online. If I had a chance to browse it in a store I would have never purchased it. A sub par product.

Dean Wesley Smith is one of my favorite authors of "Star Trek" novels so I was anxiously awaiting his much delayed third Spider-Man book. His other two Spidey novels, while not among the best, were enjoyable nontheless. Unfortunately it's a letdown. The most interesting thing about the book is that it is written in the first person, using Spider-Man's perspective. This is most unusual for a novel of this type. It works but I don't think Smith takes full advantage. Someone as brillant and witty as Spider-Man/Peter Parker should be a more engaging as a narrator.

The book is short and not so sweet. About two thirds of the book is taken up by endless robberies by innocent people turned into zombies by a villian calling himself the Jewel. All the zombies are easily apprehended and offer little or no resistance. Some challenge for Spidey, huh. An entire crowd of them threathening the Daily Bugle is defeated by, get this, shaking them awake. The villian, Jewel, has a practically nonexistent role here. Everyone knows it is very hard to have a top notch super hero adventure without a compelling villian. I suppose the mystery is how he came by his powers but this is apparent to the reader almost immediately even though it takes our heroes about 190 some pages to figure it out.

Some oversights stand out and in such a short book they grate even more. Alot of the story takes place at the Daily Bugle but J. Jonah Jameson never appears and no explanation is given for his absence. Near the end Spidey injures his shoulder and is bleeding but he never again mentions any pain or discomfort from it.

The best thing in the book is Spidey's relationship with a female private detective, Barb. The two play off each other well and Barb's ability to get the last word with the wise cracking web spinner is a nice touch. Unfortuantely it's not enough to lift an otherwise dismal and disappointing novel.

I was surprised to see the reviews of this book were so bad! I spotted this book at Borders the day after buying the movie on DVD. One of the reasons I bought it was because it was the only Spider-Man book available.

But once I got home, I didn't regret the purchase for a minute. The author did an excellent job characterizing Spidey, the mystery was very well done and the siege towards the end was wonderful. This book actually got me interested in Spider-books again.

My only complaint was the illustrations being so... well, they were bad.

But the book was highly enjoyable. I suggest people read excerpts or browse in bookstores, rather than use reviews from this site when considering the purchase.

Geonn

Emerald Mystery is one of the best Spider-Man books that I have read! It had a great story and the book never bored me, not even for a paragraph! If you sre a Spider-Man fan and have not read this novel, then SHAME ON YOU! Even if your not a huge fan of the Web Slinger give this book a try, you should be very entertained with it!

Spider-Man Emerald Mystery is one of the best books I've read in a long time. It has the Spider-Man humor we all know and love. It also has mystery and suspense which is a winning combination. If you loved Smith's Carnage in New York, then Spider-Man Emerald Mystery is a must have. One thing that was unique to this book is that it is told from Spider-Man's perspective and it is not in the third person. This seems to add to the excitement of the book. The book was so exciting that I could not put it down. I read the book in one day.

I hate that it was told from 1st person POV, and that really
took away from the book. Also, there were almost no familiar characters. I only suggest this book if you are a die-hard Barb Lightner fan.

I like this author a lot; this book really stands out from the other Spiderman novels in being less action and more perspective based. The book's style, like the drama taking place within it, is sort of surreal -- the biting cold weather that makes you feel it should just hurry up and snow or do something. The slow movement of the story and the bizarre zombie action scenes add to the drama an edgy yet dreamlike quality, like the feeling of getting only a couple hours of sleep a night when duty calls.

I like the first person perspective of this book, and I really liked the characterization of Barb Lightner; being a lone female too I appreciate many of her qualities.

The misspellings and errors in the book are seriously lame though; kids are probably reading these books, and (hopefully not) learning to spell "depression" with one 's' and "every" as "very". (....)

Hay there. Have you read any other marvel novel? If so you would have noticed that they have all got one thing in common. All these novels are written from the third person's point of view, ( he, she or they). WEll that is no longer true because this book gives you exactly that. This book is writtin from the first person, ( I,)'s point of view. What that means is it is Spider-man who is teling you the stroy. You get to see things from his prospic. I have been waiting a long time for someone to do exactly that and it is finally here. I am not going to tell you the detal of what this book is about. I will however, advise you that before you read this book you must read the x-men novel the jewl of cyttorak. This book is a sequel to that novel.

TITLE- SPIDER-MAN: EMERALD MYSTERY
AUTHOR- DEAN WESLEY SMITH

SUMMARY- A PERSON DIED IN THE ALLEY AND THERE WAS A RADIATION SPOT NEXT TO HIM. THEN THERE WERE WEIRD ROBBERIES AFTER THE KILLING HAPPENING. SPIDERMAN AND BARB LIGHTNER JOIN UP TO STOP THE WEIRD ROBBERIES. THEY FOUND OUT WHO THE CRIMINAL WAS THAT WAS CAUSING ALL THE WEIRDNESS IN THE CITY FOR THE LAST 2 WEEKS. THEY FOUND OUT THAT A EMERALD IS THE CAUSE OF HIS POWERS. THE PERSON WHO DIED WAS ON A CASE SO HE SAW THE EMERALD COME FROM THE SKY AND SO DID THE CRIMINAL, SO THE CRIMINAL SHOT HIM IN THE ALLEY AND GOT THE POWERS.

IMPORTANT SCENE- WHEN BARB WENT TO SHOOT THE EMERALD SPIDERMAN SAID, "NO! I SHOUTED AND TRIED TO KNOCK THE GUN ASIDE BY JUMPING IN FRONT OF HER." THIS IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE IF SPIDERMAN DIDN'T JUMP IN FRONT OF HER SHE COULD HAVE DIED.

OPINIONS- THE BOOK WAS GREAT. IT HAD A GOOD CLIMAX AND A GOOD RESOLUTION. IT HAD A GOOD ENDING LIKE ALL BOOKS WOULD END IN AN ACTION BOOK.

RECOMMENDATIONS- I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO MY PEERS BECAUSE EVERYBODY LIKES SPIDERMAN.
I WOULDN'T RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ADULTS AND OTHER SCHOOLS BECAUSE THEY MIGHT THINK IT'S NOT WORTH READING AND IT'S NOT A GOOD BOOK TO READ IN SCHOOLS.

PONDER THIS- SPIDERMAN ALWAYS WINS, THE CRIMINALS ALWAYS HAVE HOSTAGES AND THEY ALWAYS LOSE

I didn't much care for the book, but cover artist Vince Evans is amazing!!
I love all of his Marvel covers.