Brother aginest Brother disipontment

[Bigfootman]

I manged to find casefile 11, and altough it was good, it wasn't the amazing "best book ever" I expected. The issue of Joe losing his memory was settled too quickly and the fight scenes warn't the best i've read.

[Olivia]

I think a lot of people might agree that the book was kind of resolved too fast. (I thought it ended quickly too).

I don't know what to tell you about the fight scenes.

Keep in mind, though, when people (for lack of a better term) "hype" up something, and then others read or watch the book or movie, often it turns out not as good as expected because the standards set were too high.

I'm not saying this is what happened in your case, but it can sometimes be a bit of an influencing factor.

[Olivia]

As soon as I clicked "Post", I thought of something else

Another thing I was going to say is if you read or see a series in it's entirety, it's easier to judge what the better individual piece is too.

[SDLagent]

I mentioned before that the ending was a bit of a let down.

Yeah, it's in my top ten, but, I agree, the book needed more pages, and Joe's recovery was not dealt with well at all!

I think most fans, dislike the ending, in fact there is a fanfic on HDA, that is an extended ending for this story.

[Bigfootman]

The reason I didn't like the fight scenes was that they warn't as good as quite a few of the other books.

[kosmicdust]

I'd like to add my voice to those lamenting the fact that an otherwise excellent book (perhaps one of the best Hardy Boys stories of all time) was marred by the extremely lack-lustre reunion between Frank and Joe.

Perhaps the basic idea could have been developed into a trilogy - or at least a two-parter?

Ian.

[SDLagent]

Perhaps the basic idea could have been developed into a trilogy - or at least a two-parter?

I agree.

[hardygirl847]

This book is my number one fave despite its shortcomings because it is the first Hardy Boy book I remember reading. It got me hooked. The thought of Joe kicking his brother's butt and Frank not knowing why until later...was awesome. It was OK for Joe to fight Frank because he had amnesia. And in the end, he realizes that Frank is his brother but they are too busy trying to survive to hug it out.

This book will always have a special place in my heart. I have read it probably 3 or 4 times and can read it over and over.

There were many more books following this one that ended worse or had more loose ends than this one.

I would still recommend this book to anyone who was interested in getting into HB books.

In the end, I just hope Joe felt bad for hurting my Frank. He beat the crap out of him!

[4567TME]

Perhaps the basic idea could have been developed into a trilogy - or at least a two-parter?

Ian.

That would have made the book better by what I've heard.

[Bigfootman]

The other thing is that in the Nancy Drew Files there were two early books (Two Points To Murder and False Moves) that were a great example of what Brother against Brother should have been, and in fact were writen before Brother Against Brother. Two Points To Murder basicly had Nancy investigating a prankster who was causing trouble for a Basketball team. Nancy's main suspect is one of Ned's friends, and Ned becomes a huge jerk. At the end of the book he dumps Nancy, causing an extrimely sad scene.  I quickly found myself a copy of False Moves (even though I KNEW Nancy and Ned were going to get back together, as I read some of the later books in the series) and False Moves had Nancy and Ned getting back togather, only for them to get very close to breaking up AGAIN several times in the later books. Brother Against Brother would have been better if it had been split into two books too, and it would have had more room to have a better ending.

[hardygirl847]

I would have loved a two-part story arc for Brother Against Brother simply because it's one of my faves and more is better in this case!! Or at the very least the author could have added a good extra chapter or two. However, it seems that in the world of publishing...they are limited to about 150 pages. Simply not fair...especially when certain story lines (such as this one) would have benefited from more.

Oh well. I still love it.

[SDLagent]

It's not the writer's fault. Often the writer's original story was heavily edited if it got "too long".

[hardygirl847]

It's not the writer's fault. Often the writer's original story was heavily edited if it got "too long".

Agreed. The writers, for the most part, do a wonderful job of cramming it all in there regardless of the page restraints.  Too bad we will never see what ended up on the cutting room floor (so-to-speak).

[kosmicdust]

Here's an interesting little snippet of information for fans of Brother Against Brother -- here is the rarest English-language edition of this book known to exist:



Published by Armada in the UK in 1991, it was quickly withdrawn when Archway UK won the rights to the series from volume #11 onwards. While Armada continued to reprint the first ten Casefiles up to 1995, they never again re-issued this particular paperback.

For more information, click here:

http://hardyboys.co.uk/gallery/c011.php

[MacGyver]

Interesting to know... "Brother Against Brother" is not really so rare in the US printing, but it is highly sought after, I would say. Of course, all of the Hardy Boys Casefiles are fairly rare nowadays- but they can still be found in the used bookstores and thrift shops and online.