Tales of the Dim Knight by Adam & Andrea Graham

Dave, an evening janitor in a Pacific Northwest FBI office, loves Superhero comic books. Through Zolgron, an extraterrestrial being penalized for trying to rule his home world, he acquires super powers and decides to become a Superhero himself. After cleaning the FBI office, he cleans up on crime. He bumbles through various crime scenes, calling himself Powerhouse.

His wife, Naomi, notices Dave is losing weight and is gaining muscle. She misses him and thinks he is having an affair. She has thoughts of divorcing him.

Dave saves an inner city pastor from assassination and vows to protect him. Sidetracked by drug dealers, Dave is away when the pastor is murdered. He is devastated.

Dave has irritated the mob and his life is in jeopardy. He quits his Powerhouse persona. He begins to win back his wife and sons. He finds out the family is in deep debt. He still retains his super powers so he tries cage wrestling, only to irritate more gangsters.
He decides to stay home and rebuild his family life. But then the pastor's little friend is murdered. Powerhouse had said he would protect him too. He knows he must make things right. Someone darker is needed and he becomes The Emerald Avenger. As the Emerald Avenger he becomes judge, jury, and executioner, only Zolgren (who gave him his powers) stops him from killing.
Islamic terrorists threaten Megalopolis. Powerhouse goes to help and meets other Superheroes.
Powerhouse gets abducted to an intergalactic zoo but manages to escape.
His wife leaves him, hiring a big time divorce lawyer. Home alone, Dave doesn't want to fight a bad guy because he is playing with Legos.
On and on it goes. This book is an odd mixture of silly humor and serious situations. One of the more serious aspects of the novel is Naomi recounting the curse her father placed on her. (94)
The writing style of the authors is certainly strange. It is almost as if this is to be a comic book but without the comics. The sentence structure and vocabulary might appeal to young teens, but some of the subject matter is aimed at adults. The action seemed, well, ho-hum. But then, I gave up comics 55 years ago.

I have to say that his is the strangest book I've read in a long time. It is not one I particularly enjoyed. In my mind, it was too long. A comic book style novel should be short and snappy. This one seemed to go on forever.


Other reviewers seem to like it so to see their reviews, go to http://dimknight.com/

Read the first chapter here: http://dimknight.com/samplechapter.html

Buy the book from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0986451754

Would this be a good book for my kids?

Adam and Andrea live with their cat, Joybell, in Boise, Idaho. They are members of several writers groups. Both have had published articles and short fiction. This is their first book.

I received an egalley of this book from the authors for the purpose of this review.

Splashdown Books, November 2010, 325 pages.