The Unlikely Heroics Of Sam Holloway by Rhys Thomas

2.5 Stars

On starting this book I was with it all the way.  Sam likes all the right things (even if he is DC over Marvel), has great taste in films and manages to have a social life.  He clearly has problems both personally and socially but the character starts out as fairly well balanced, apart from his over-eagerness to dress up as The Phantasm and dispense justice in his small town.  Unfortunately, I found that Sam soon descended in to a caricature of himself.  Once we had found out what the tragedy in his past was this became all he was about with interludes of mooning over a girl and messing up at work.  I sort of get that this could be interpreted as a study in Depression but it just felt wrong somehow (and I cannot put my finger on why).

After initially enjoying the exploits of The Phantasm I soon became irritated with them popping up and disturbing the story.  This is exactly what they did for me - disrupted the flow and interrupted the tale we were being told.  Again, I understand the device being executed here but, for me, it just didn't work.  I did read them all but after 5 or 6 I began to consider skipping them altogether but managed to refrain.

The end of the tale was kind of sweet without being cloying but I still couldn't generate any feelings for Sam.  I was more relieved that it was all over than relieved at how things had worked out for him.  Not one for me!