terrie

I picked up one of the CSI books from the library. It was sitting in a display of new stuff, and I've always liked the show. Of course, I have enough experience with media tie-in books to know they're like the Tennyson poem. When they're good, they're very, very good, but when they're bad, they're horrid. This was very much of the later category. I got to page two of the first chapter and had to give up at the description of Grissom:

"Seasoned veteran Grissom descended on this troubled neighborhood like an angel of death, albeit a casually attired one, such a study in black was he: sunglasses, Polo shirt, slacks, shoes."

The description of Nick was so bad, I couldn't even finish it.

"The heroic-jawed CSI..." Seriously. You don't even need the rest of the sentence.

Every character is described in a similarly overblown manner, often inter-mixed with a short mention of the past. That people like this get paid to mangle the English language in such a manner is... distressing doesn't even being to cut it. The writer... He's fallen victim to the "sacred work" mentality, believing in "deathless prose." But what excuse does his editor have? Head injury? Blindness? Temporary insanity?

On the plus side, I get to use the "frantic hamster" mood icon, which is always good.