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The Shadow

By James Patterson and Brian Sitts

I’ve a big fan of the Shadow for a long time. As a kid a lot of the pulp stories were reprinted in paperback form and I would buy all I could find. When I noticed that James Patterson was reviving the Shadow, I became very interested.  I read some books by Patterson that I liked, so I said to myself he can’t destroy it, so I’ll give it a chance.

Regardless what it says on the cover - this is SF and not bad SF. This story looks at the Shadow as a real person who lived in the 30’s and then just disappeared. The fiction stories that we know, were written about this “real” person and the longer it got form when he disappeared the more fantastic the “fiction” version became.  But what happened? He is and Margo are shot and dying - he gets here and himself to one of his many hideouts where he has the equipment that can freeze them until they can get medical help.

The majority of the story takes place 150 years latter in the 2187.  The Earth is not in that great shape.  He’s found by some people and he starts to get use to the 22nd century and runs into an old foe.  The story is fun, a mix of pulp fiction, Superhero, mystery, thriller, and SF.  If you are a fan of the Shadow get it, if you are not a fan of Shadow, but like SF give it a try. They say it is the first book of a new series, so I hope to see some more.

James Patterson

Another series that I like by Patterson is a young adult series called “Maximum Ride” - It SF/Superhero type books.  Think X-Men without Prof. X, but evil Scientist that were responsible for them happening and it what happens after they escape the scientist. Being a comic book fan I enjoyed the series very much, there is also a movie about it, which is just OK they try to jam stuff from several of the books, which would make it very confusing for someone who hadn’t read the books.

The Shadow got its start in pulp magazines selling for ten cents. Coming out at one time twice a month. Many of these pulp stories got reprinted in the 60’s and 70’s into paperback books.