Five Things I Think I Think (January, 2026)
It’s been quite a while since I’ve shared some Things I Think. Since I just jumped back down the Castle rabbit hole, and finished off the associated Nikki Heat books, I had the basis for this column. And away we go!
Nathan Fillion was a big name on the nerd convention circuit (you know I was a nerd way back when it got you laughed at in school) due to the cult favorite, Firefly. He’d had some attention in more mainstream things such as Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place, but in 2009 a buddy cop show launched him to stardom. He was Richard Castle, a James Patterson-like writer who works with NYC detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic). It’s an odd couple pairing, with the immature Castle constantly annoying the professional driven Beckett.
I like a drama buddy cop show with humor, and Castle is one of the best. There are some over-arching story-lines, and even a big cast change. Humor, original crimes, good cast: this show worked. I’m on season two of my first-ever re-watch, and this is still a favorite show. It holds up, and Fillion really shines. It’s got more humor than his current hit show, The Rookie, which I also watch.
The show ran eight seasons, with viewership trending downward, as is often the case in long-running ones. But it got to where Fillion and Stanic were not even speaking off camera. It was abruptly announced that the show would continue without Katic – only Fillion. Not long after that, it was canceled outright. Several Castle co-stars have appeared on The Rookie. Katic has not been one of them. But you can’t go wrong watching Castle.
2 – HOW ABOUT NIKKI HEAT?
So, on the show, Richard Castle is a thriller writer. He achieved fame with novels about Derrick Storm, a spy-type stud. He kills off Storm in season one, and begins writing about a hot, tough, NYC detective named Nikki Heat. And she’s openly based on Beckett.
Tom Straw, writing as Richard Castle, turned out three Derrick Storm novels, and ten Nikki Heat books. There were also short stories, and graphic novels in the mix.
The Heat novels are essentially like bonus episodes of the show. It’s easy to envision Stana Katic as Heat, and Nathan Fillion as Jameson Rook. The book characters aren’t exact duplicates of the TV show, but pretty similar. The books hit a ‘jump the shark’ period in books eight and nine, but recovered. There were crossovers with Storm, and it was a bit much. But I think any Castle fan will enjoy Nikki Heat.
3 – GRIM DAWN IS PRETTY COOL
I played a TON of Diablo 1, and 2, back in the day. I replaced Diablo with Titan Quest, a really cool ARPG I got many hours on. I finally got around to D3, last year. I liked it well enough. I set aside the Reaper of Souls expansion, however. I then bought Titan Quest II in early access. TQII set aside it’s proprietary engine to use the Unreal Engine. It looks pretty, but it doesn’t have the charm of TQ1.
Which makes it somewhat ironic that I abandoned Titan Quest II, for Grim Dark. The 2016 ARPG was built using the Titan Quest 1 engine, by some former developers of TQ1. And I am enjoying this game far more than I was TQ2.
It’s a mix of pre-Victorian, horror, alien, cowboy, fantasy settings. Which all combine pretty neat. I have a large axe for melee, and a two handed musket for ranged. You can make some decisions with limited impacts on the storyline. Which is pretty railroad. But I like rr. There are side quests, as well as bounties from different factions, so you an mix things up.
You multi-class at level 10, so you can tailor your character to play a couple different ways if you want. Point-and-click games don’t capture me the way they did in D1 and D2 days. But I’m pretty into Grim Dawn. I was looking for something after LA Noire, and this is working for me. Leaving Reaper of Souls, and Titan Quest 2, on the shelf.
4 – AUDIOBOOKS COUNT AS READING
This is a distinction mostly made by obnoxious twits, who want to argue semantics. I am not going to use the term ‘consume books’ so that doofuses who wanna expound on the difference between seeing/reading, and listening.
Yes, reading is a specific experience. But for purposes of enjoying a book, ‘reading’ is a generic term, unless you want to specify a difference. People who get into ‘the listening experience is different’ are exhausting. Like so many on social media.
In January, I finished 9 audiobooks, 4 physical books, and 2 e-books. I would not have been able to get to those nine books, ‘reading.’ 7 of the 9 were first reads. I’d have completely missed out on those.
I just block people who start on about this. It’s not even worth arguing.
5 – DOUGLAS ADAMS WAS A TREASURE
I re-read the first two books of The Hitchchiker’s Guide, listened to audiobooks of them, listeneed to the entire radio series, and continue to listen to the BBC radio plays of the two Dirk Gently novels. And Douglas Adams never grows old for me. The latter Hitchchiker’s books are uneven, for well-documented reasons.
But Adams’ works age well. He had an insatiable curiosity about many things, along with keen insights. I will never outgrow Adams, or Terry Pratchett. I’m going to do a regular column on Aams quotes. Mostly his real life – not his book characters. Douglas Adams wass a rare treasure for our lifetimes. The Black Gate Landing Page, for Adams.
Prior Ten Things I Think I Think
Four Things I Think I Think (May 2025)
Six Things I Think I Think (March 2025)
Ten Things I Think I Think (January 2025)
Ten Things I Think I Think (December 2024)
Nine Things I Think I Think (October 2024)
Five More Things I Think: Marvel Edition (September 2024)
Ten Things I Think I Think: Marvel Edition ( September 2024)
Five Things I Think I Think (January 2024)
Seven Things I Think I Think (December 2023)
Talking Tolkien: TenThings I Think I Think (August 2023)
A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Ten Things I Think I think (August 2023)
5 More Things I Think (March 2023)
10 Things I Think I Think (March 2023)
Bob Byrne’s ‘A (Black) Gat in the Hand’ made its Black Gate debut in 2018 and has returned every summer since.
His ‘The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes’ column ran every Monday morning at Black Gate from March, 2014 through March, 2017. And he irregularly posts on Rex Stout’s gargantuan detective in ‘Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone.’ He is a member of the Praed Street Irregulars, and founded www.SolarPons.com (the only website dedicated to the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’).
He organized Black Gate’s award-nominated ‘Discovering Robert E. Howard’ series, as well as the award-winning ‘Hither Came Conan’ series. Which is now part of THE Definitive guide to Conan. He also organized 2023’s ‘Talking Tolkien.’
He has contributed stories to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories — Parts III, IV, V, VI, XXI, and XXXIII.
He has written introductions for Steeger Books, and appeared in several magazines, including Black Mask, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, The Strand Magazine, and Sherlock Magazine.
You can definitely ‘experience the Bobness’ at Jason Waltz’s ’24? in 42′ podcast.
Re.: Thought 2– It’s always interesting to see where fans think “Nikki Heat” went off the rails. I’ve seen as early as book 4, though 7, 8, and 9 are the more usual culprits. Everyone seems to agree on the recovery, though. There’s been speculation that it had something to do with script writers pushing for the books to take on a more 24/NCIS flavor like the show trended toward for a bit. Any thoughts?
Re.: Thought 4– Yes.
The books are definitely ‘potboilers’ and felt rushed and similar. But I read each one pretty much like a bonus episode of the show. And that worked.
Her distrust of Rook got annoying. As was yelling ‘Stop, police’ from a distance that guaranteed the suspect could flee. Though they cut back on that. And TV shows still do it as well…
I don’t know about the 24/NCIS angle: other than they did seem to go bigger and bigger. More like Ludlum thrillers than police procedurals. And bringing Derrick Storm in certainly contributed to that.
Having Rook kidnapped in back-to-back books? It was definitely running out of steam.
I didn’t mention that having a guy read the audiobooks was just lame. Someone like Nicole Zanzarella, or Cobie Smulders, would have made them much better. Heck, the show ran for most of the ten years the novels cover. Stana Katic would have been cool.
Listen to one Eve Ronin audiobook, and you’ll see how much better the Castle ones could have been.
I regularly read aloud to my wife. I say that I’m reading such and such book; but I would be surpised if she said she was reading the same book. I would expect her to say “Bill is reading X to me” or “X is being read to me” or perhaps “I’m having X read to me.” It seems to me that audiobooks are an experience of “X being read to me.” I don’t suppose that “being read to” is an inferior experience, but I do think it’s a different one.
Hmm. That’s a good point, and I see where you are coming from, especially given the relationship aspect of the experience. When your wife is particularly invested in a given book you are reading to her, would it surprise you to hear her say, “Bill and I are reading X together” to your friends?
You almost convince me, but then I think of the vision-impaired folk who would not get to read anything not transposed into Braille, if audiobooks were discounted. I’ve known of blind people who just as rabidly debate the implications of various books as any sight-optimized person, just quoting by chapter and time code instead of page number. They can’t be said to have not read those books, even if it was in audiobook.
So, I think it is possible to read both textual book and audiobook, it’s just reliant on level of investment. When we skim textual books, we aren’t really reading them. When we let the sound of the audiobooks flow over our ears, we aren’t really reading them. But when we engage the book with our brains, no matter the book format, then we are reading it.
Loved the Castle series. Never read the associated books.
As I mentioned, they were kind of a mixed bag. And I tried to stay on the more positive side. But approaching them as more or less bonus episodes, made them fun reads.
I started season three of the re-watch. That core cast of the three cops and Rook, was so good together.
We enjoyed Castle and watched them all, but I hate the trope of the ever-looming behind-the-scenes unnamed big bad. Feh. I loved Castle’s home life and the fun had with mother and daughter. My favorite was Castle and daughter fencing and exchanging witty barbs while his mother played melodramatic music on the piano. Classic.
Then there’s the poker scene with Patterson, Michael Connelly, and Stephen Cannell. Brilliant. A highlight of my TV-watching career.
Oh, then there’s the Halloween episodes, with a special shout out to Castle playing a space cowboy.
“What exactly are you supposed to be?”
“Space cowboy.”
“A, there are no cows in space, and B, didn’t you wear that like five years ago?”
“So?”
“So don’t you think you should move on?”
“I like it.”
I just commented on the space cowboy episode as a fun nod to Firefly.
He and Alexis were always doing fun stuff. Laser tag in that giant penthouse, with running commentary, was another such scene.
I watch The Rookie, but I still like Castle better.
Regarding the picture: There were Castle trading cards? I can’t imagine a market for them. And only 5 cards per pack? And no gum? The trading cards reminded me of all the TV tie-ins back in the day. Happy Days, Charlie’s Angels, Starsky & Hutch all had trading cards and spin off novels. I will admit that the first time I saw a Richard Castle book I thought it was a parody.
I never saw the trading cards. I liked that pic, though.
That gum. Oh lord, the gum!
I bought baseball cards in the seventies. That stick of pink gum was like chewing… I don’t know what. And it smelled. That is one thing I am not nostalgic for. 🙂