The Supernatural Novels

[starrylizard]

Are they any good?

I never really thought to pick one up before, but since I'm doing a rewatch, I was thinking I could read them as I rewatch. I read all the XFiles novels back in the day and the Primeval novels were action-packed. But I never read fan fiction for those shows.

So now that my Kindle is finally working again, is it worth buying any of them, or would I be better off just downloading more fanfic off A03? Are some much better than others? Do they really fit into canon? If they're even half decent I'll likely give them a go.

Thoughts welcome from anyone who has read them and has any opinion on them. No spoilers though, please. :D

Comments

[wings128.livejournal.com]

I bought books 1, 2, and 8, solely off milly_gal's recommendation of "Coyote's Kiss" (8) but I can't tell you what they're like because I'm yet to find time to read them, LOL.

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Haha! I just purchased "The Unholy Cause", so I'll see how it goes!

[raloria.livejournal.com]

They're very good, in fact, the more recent ones have been extremely good.

But my advice is to avoid the ones by Keith DeCandido. He's an arrogant ass who claims to be a true fan of the show, yet consistently gets the characterizations of the boys totally wrong. He even gets simple things like their eye color wrong and used cringe-worthy nicknames for Dean. Ugh. I could go on and on, but that's just my 2 cents.

All the other novels by other authors are quite good. :)

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Awesome! Thanks! :D

[smalltrolven.livejournal.com]

I have not read them all, and don't plan to. I found a couple were okay, but they were not canon compliant with the show which took me right out of the story trying to work out how the details fit together within the ongoing story of the show. Several of the plots were great though, things they couldn't do on a tv show. The characterizations of the brothers vary wildly from book to book and are not at all consistent. I honestly have enjoyed some of the better casefic fan written stories. ymmv

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I hear you. I've bought one to try (and avoided Keith DeCandido) as mentioned above. The other shows I bought novels for, I wasn't really into the fic, so I had no comparison for them. Should be interesting. Thanks for your input! :D

[dragonfly-sg1.livejournal.com]

I very much enjoyed "The Unholy Cause." The rest that I had read up until then had hit or miss with characterization or plot for me.

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Cool! As fate would have it, that's the one I just bought! \o/

[irismay42.livejournal.com]

I've not had chance to read the last few, but The Unholy Cause by Joe Schrieber is the best I've read so far - you can tell he's an actual fan! By far the worst is One Year Gone by Rebecca Dessertine (Kripke's former assistant who ought to have known better). I can honestly say I've never seen so many typos, grammatical errors and mistakes of both characterisation and canon in one novel. (They even spelled her name wrong on the cover of the edition I have!) Plus it was dull as ditchwater, and she had no idea how to write the boys. I didn't even manage to finish her previous effort (War of the Sons) which was almost as bad. (I think I had to finish One Year Gone just to see if it could get any worse. It did.)
Keith DeCandido's efforts were a bit patchy. Coyote's Kiss is pretty good. I think it was the one after that I had to give up on because it was too gory for me!!

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I was curious about "One Year Gone" because it's filling in back story we don't see, but the description didn't sound very inspiring. I'll stick to fan fiction for back story there methinks.

I bought Unholy Cause already, because I'm into S5 in my rewatch, so yay for fate guiding me to the good stuff.

Thanks! :D

[heliokleia.livejournal.com]

My favourite SN novel that far is:

- "Supernatural Bobby Singer's Guide to Hunting", by David Reed, paperback, 2012.
It's well written and explains how Bobby got into the "family business", how he met BDW for the first time - and it riddles what had happened in OMAHA in the past - and why Rufus couldn't forgive Bobby for such a long time.
- David Reed's explantation even became canon, if I remember right. But mostly, I appreciate that SN novel because of the perfect commonality to Show's canon and characterisations.
Bonus: Dean is writing the last chapter... ;)
*fangurlsqueee*

* * *

And my next favourite SN novel is:

- Supernatural, the Television Series: "The Roads Not Taken". Paperback, by Tim Waggoner, DEC 2013.
Well, this book is more than just a novel; it invites you, to make decisions alongside The Boys. It's up to you to decide if Sam and Dean should take that door on the left - or not; or, they shouldn't check out that certain old house while on a case and jump back into BABY instead for leaving the area, for example...

Tim Waggoner made a good job with writing that special novel; his descritions of Teh Hotties are excellent and canon. He even gives you small hints, based on Sam and Dean's hunting skills for helping you to make your decisions.
= A clever way to get the reader(s) focused.

Let me admit, in my case it worked very well. I was hooked from the first page on [but shame on me, I made wrong decisions twice and The Boys weren't too happy about that!] and couldn't stop reading until I knew how the case was solved - or not...
*looks sheepishly*
- Oh, and not to forget to mention the atmospheric illustrations by Zachary Baldus.
*purr**purr*

...Meanwhile, I'm waiting for my copy of "Carved in Flesh", another SN novel written by Tim Waggoner in 2013, which takes place between s07e12 - e13.

* * *

Good, I hope this is helping you a little bit, my dear and wish you a glorious weekend.
*huggles*

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Oooh I saw Bobby's guidebook. May have to pick it up. Is it picture heavy (i.e. should I buy the book) or just text (okay as a text only eBook (I have quite the old-style Kindle)?

I had no idea there were choose-your-own-adventure stories. Ha! Awesome! I'll keep an eye out for them. :D

Thanks, it does help. You have a fab weekend too, lovely! xx

[heliokleia.livejournal.com]

For Bobby's hunting-guide, it's better when you're buying the book, because there are alot of great b/w illustrations [art by Anthony Diecidue] included, mixed with some scary b/w pictures, also created by the artist.

But it's definitely worth it. This also applies to Tim Waggoner's "choose-your-own-adventure" book, "The Roads Not Taken" too, IMO.

JOLLY GOOD, sweetheart; if you made your decision(s) *g* it would be great to get a little review from you... ;)
*huggles*

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Awesome! Thanks!
I'll have a look on Amazon for a real world copy then. :D

I'll let people know how I go, whether I like 'em. Currently reading Unholy Cause.

[lark_ascends]

I have a feeling I have one of the novels (one of the early ones). I'll check when I'm up in Sydney, and if I do, you can borrow or have. Very much not into SPN anymore.

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Aww, thanks hon! It saddens me that you are so out of the show now as to not even enjoy the early stuff, but I totally get it. I am re-watching the series and finding S5 a little hard and I know I got more thrown out of the show after that, but kept watching as a non-actively fannish fan.

If you find out which one/s you have lemme know. I can give you some cash for 'em if you like. So far I'm reading Unholy Cause and it reads like a good case!fic. *huggles*

[lark_ascends]

The book I have is Nevermore (I haven't updated it in a while, but I do have a books spreadsheet :-)), the first novel. Nah, don't worry about the money, it's not a problem.

*hugs back*