March2012 BookClubDiscussion- Hardy Boys Undercover Brothers #1 Extreme Danger

[MacGyver]

Oh yeah- and welcome to the forums, P. Walker. Glad to have ya here.

[tomswift2002]

Are the UB books really worth reading? Im a fan of The HB Classics/Casefiles and havent botehred to buy any of the UB books.

Personally I would say that with the UB's the Graphic Novels are the better structured and plotted stories.  Plus you should check out th UB Super Mystery #1 "Wanted" (without Nancy Drew).

[P. Walker]

Personally I would say that with the UB's the Graphic Novels are the better structured and plotted stories.  Plus you should check out th UB Super Mystery #1 "Wanted" (without Nancy Drew).

thanks for the replies guys. Guess I will have to keep an eye out for them and scoop them up. At the present Im busy with buying and reading the Casefiles books. Ive read about 30-50 of them and would like to complete my collection. Ive been going to the local thrift stores (Salvation Army/Goodwill) and have snagged a few that were suprisingly in very good shape. My llocal used book store didnt have many CAsefiles, but had practically all the Original hardbacked HBs and ND so getting those wont be a problem.

[Olivia]

Hi P. Walker!

Basically what Tomswift2002 said.

Our opinion on what are the better titles of the UBs are in this topic.

http://www.hardyboyscasefiles.com/forums/index.php?topic=2300.msg62094#msg62094

I seem to find more/better condition Casefiles at thrift stores as well.

[Bigfootman]

Are the UB books really worth reading? Im a fan of The HB Classics/Casefiles and havent botehred to buy any of the UB books.

Most of the UBs are awfull. Frank and Joe end up needing a gadget to defeat a 12 year old in Thrill Ride. There's tons of books about reality shows, and way too many trilogies. There's very little action, and tons of boring talking scenes. Ioa, Chet, and Callie only appear in a few books. There's no continuity at all, and several ghostwriters don't seem to know what reaserch is. The only three UBs I can recomend are "Wanted", "Death and Diamonds" and "Murder at the Mall".  The graphic novels are good. The Nancy Drew Girl Detective series is superior to the UBs, altough the first few books weren't very good.

I seem to be finding a lot of Casefiles recently. I found "Wrong Side of the Law" and "Sky High" at a Value Village, and "Too Many Traitors" and "Casefiles Collectors Edition #3" at a Libarary used book sale. Strangly, I used to find a whole ton of Nancy Drew Files books at used book stores, but now I can't find any.

[tomswift2002]

With the book that have been printed by Simon & Schuster (mostly the Mystery Stories, Casefiles and their spin-offs, and possible the Undercover Brothers in another year or two) you have to remember that each book was only in print for a couple of years before being discontinued.

[MacGyver]

Well, I'm getting towards the end of this book and I will say it's growing on me some...but there are still a number of things I don't like about it. And I'm definitely seeing the whole phenomenon of the writers getting the narrators mixed up between Frank and Joe in the chapters. Exactly why, though an interesting idea, having two 1st. person narrators was probably not a good idea- unless each narrator had a large portion of the story to tell. (i.e. if Frank told half the story and then Joe took up the other half, with no switching in and out each chapter.)

[Olivia]

And I'm definitely seeing the whole phenomenon of the writers getting the narrators mixed up between Frank and Joe in the chapters.

If Frank and Joe were a bit more defined as characters, maybe it would be a little less of a problem. Though in many cases, they might have similar ways in dealing with how they "detective" anyway.

Well, actually they are very different as characters. So I don't know where I'm going with that.