4.5 Stars
A thoroughly enjoyable read featuring adult characters living their lives while still dealing with superhuman monsters and backstabbing characters as well as more mundane realities such as coaching high school basketball and teaching team working skills (a hinge the plot swings upon, in fact) and worrying over getting an important role in The Scottish Play.

I like that Butcher gives us a real relationship between Peter and M.J. and that M.J. is every bit as important to Spider-Man's success as Spidy himself. When she rushes in with her lime green Pinto to save the day, I had to laugh and cheer. You go girl!

This book is full of Butcher's characteristic style and humor - just the right tone for Spider-Man's quips and one liners.

And, can I say Yahoo! for cameo appearances by Wong and Doctor Strange?! ( )

Butcher is excellent at writing snarky lines, which is of course necessary for Spiderman. However, the story isn't quite as good as Butcher's other books. The narrator of the audiobook is ok, but not outstanding. The plot is also not bad, but neither is it fantastic. This is a better than mediocre audiobook, but nothing really special. ( )

I was pleasantly surprised. ( )

Audiobook. I'd read anything Jim Butcher wrote even Spiderman. I'm not a Spiddy fan BTW. Now for the real shocker, I liked it, really liked it. The story had all the right levels of action, emotional moments and fun. The narrator did an excellent job, the author, well he can do no wrong. ( )

I picked this up not because it was Spider-Man but because it was written by Jim Butcher, one of my favourite authors.

First the disclaimer - I’ve never read any Spider-Man books, graphic novels or comics, so my only knowledge of him is a couple of the early films. What I failed to appreciate is the presence of so many other “supers” in his stories. This I found distracting. I could happily suspend disbelief in the main character as everything was related from his point of view. The other “supers” though, not so much. I was thinking of giving up on the book, but I am glad I persisted.

The writing is classic Butcher - bags of tension leavened with humour and snark; amazing escapes; a bit of philosophising; a strong moral code in the lead character, and a couple of subplots running alongside the main one.

The narrator was good, giving distinctive voices to all the characters.

I did enjoy it, in the end, though I could have done with a crib-sheet with some background to all the “supers” mentioned so that I could appreciated their significance. But that’s just me. I will probably listen to it again, though not as often as I listen to the Dresden Files. ( )