Saturday, September 20, 2014

Richard Castle is Missing

by
Scott D. Parker

I’ve made  no bones about my love for the TV show “Castle.” I’ve pretty much loved it since the promo--Thank you, Nathan Fillion!--and the pilot just solidified this show as one of my modern favorites. But one thing put it over the top, the meta top.

As a refresher, the character of Richard Castle is a novelist who teams up with a New York police detective, Kate Beckett, to serve as “inspiration” for his new character, Nikki Heat. When the second season aired, a funny thing happened: an actual, real book was on actual, real store shelves. And it mirrored the events of season two and was referenced in multiple episodes.

This trend has continued every season. New season equals new “Richard Castle” novel. Each novel has a picture of Nathan Fillion on the back and the book bio is the character you see on television. I know. Very meta.

So, this past week, the newest Richard Castle book, Raging Heat, the sixth in the series, was published. Now, you know that the season finale last May had Castle himself mysteriously disappear on his wedding day. To keep up the ultra-metaness, the acknowledgements are written not by Richard Castle, but a “Junion Editor.” The Editor is doing that because...wait for it...Richard Castle has gone missing.

Am I the only one who thinks this kind of thing is way cool. BTW, I’m enjoying the book. I ended up buying the hardback rather than the ebook this time.

One irritation, however, is the audio. For one thing, it’s not available until November, I think. What’s with that? All editions should be available at the same time. The other thing that’s even more irritating is that the original narrator for the first four books, Johnny Heller, didn’t do book five. Nor is he doing the current book. I really liked the way Heller did the narration. He embodied the characters and gave them a unique voice. As I tweeted this week, I’ll be reading the new book but only hearing Heller’s voice.

Anybody else like this meta-Castle thing? The new season premieres on 29 September. The DVD set for season 6 is out. Time for all things "Castle."

2 comments:

Dana King said...

I haven't read any of the books, but I agree: it's a cool idea. (I did read a page of one at a bookstore once and saw what they were doing with the style. Very clever.) This is maybe the most original marketing idea I've ever seen, for both the TV show and the books, and I thought that before I read here the books reflect the series events. It's inspired.

We added the DVDs for Season 6 to the queue a few days ago.

Given Bouchercon is in LA this year, don;t you think Fillion should make an appearance as Castle?

Scott D. Parker said...

That would be very cool and something I'd love to see. Alas, I won't be there this year. Heck, I've never been. Perhaps next year.