Spider-Man: The Lizard Sanction

Spider-Man: The CCRC Trilogy #2

by Diane Duane

Illustrated with line drawings at the start of each chapter, a new Spider-Man adventure finds the arachnoid crime-fighter in the Florida Everglades, where he matches wits with Dr. Curt Connors, otherwise known as The Lizard.

Genres: Marvel, Fiction, Science Fiction, Superheroes, Comics, Spider Man, Fantasy

336 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Diane Duane has been a writer of science fiction, fantasy, TV and film for more than forty years.

Besides the 1980's creation of the Young Wizards fantasy series for which she's best known, the "Middle Kingdoms" epic fantasy series, and numerous stand-alone fantasy or science fiction novels, her career has included extensive work in the Star Trek TM universe, and many scripts for live-action and animated TV series on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as work in comics and computer games. She has spent a fair amount of time on the New York Times Bestseller List, and has picked up various awards and award nominations here and there.

She lives in County Wicklow, in Ireland, with her husband of more than thirty years, the screenwriter and novelist Peter Morwood.

Her favorite color is blue, her favorite food is a weird kind of Swiss scrambled-potato dish called maluns, she was born in a Year of the Dragon, and her sign is "Runway 24 Left, Hold For Clearance."

(From her official website)

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of Duane's better Marvel prose novels, featuring Peter facing off against his old mentor Curt Connors in Florida. (Venom also appears.) There are some quite nice scenes featuring Mary Jane in-between battles; the characters are quite realistically portrayed. This one is the second of three books that Duane wrote about Spider-Man, and may well be the best of the three, despite the unusual non-New York setting. Web-slinging in the Everglades under the shadow of the space shuttle... what could go wrong? Keep smilin' true believers.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I absolutely love Spiderman, so I had to pick this up when I found it in a used bookstore. I did not know that there were actual written novels. Overall, it was a good, fun, and simple read that I enjoyed. The author did a good job of staying true to the original characters, came up with a good mystery, and tied it all together at the end.

[Brett · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book lost me during the quieter moments as Peter talks to MJ.

[Camilo Carrasco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es la primera vez que veo a Spiderman en un libro. Nunca me había imaginado una historia de él escrita para una novela.

Me gustó muchísimo. La historia es entretenida de inicio a fin, todos los personajes son carismáticos, las interacciones entre todos y los diálogos que tienen se siente reales, como conversaciones que uno tendría en la vida real, sobre todo entre Peter y Mary Jane.

Es interesante tener a Spiderman en Miami, alejado de los rascacielos y metido en el calor, la humedad y en los pantanos de Florida. Es decir, además de tener una historia de Spiderman en un medio en el que no se lo retrata constantemente, también lo tenemos en una ciudad en la que no se siente cómodo el personaje. Y por eso llama aún más la atención.

El libro es rápido, aunque Spiderman está constantemente regresando a algunos escenarios, siempre está en movimiento y siempre está pasando algo. La trama es compleja, con un misterio que cada vez se hace más complicado e involucra a más personas. Me gusta porque no es una típica historia de Marvel con un antagonista claro que quiere destruirlo todo, sino es una historia que involucra corrupción, ciencia y un personaje trágico que solo quiere recuperarse (el Lagarto).

A pesar de ser el segundo libro, no es necesario leer el primero para atar algunos cabos en este porque el mismo libro se encarga de darte breves flashbacks de la anterior historia (se supone que es una trilogía y este es el segundo libro). Aunque, claramente la historia está hecha para ser continuada en otro libro, porque dejan muchos cabos sueltos y el misterio de la trama no queda del todo resuelto.

El problema del libro es que se siente que quería ser más “adulto”. Hay momentos en los que uno presiente que la autora quería detallar más, meter más violencia, hacer a los personajes más reales aún, más drama y llevar a Spiderman a un nivel menos caricaturesco. Pero, al fin y al cabo, es una historia de Marvel, entonces seguramente la editorial metió mano para que siga siendo “apto para todo público”.

También hay una personaje que me gustó mucho llamada Vreni. Al inicio parecía que iba a tener mucha relevancia en la historia, pero eventualmente la autora la va dejando de lado para tener más tiempo para Spiderman. No necesariamente es malo, pero sí estuvo desperdiciada.

En fin, me quedo con ganas de más, y ya quiero tener los otros dos libros en mis manos (a pesar de que me haya spoileado el primero).

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume has Spiderman facing both Venom and Lizard down in the Florida Everglades. And those two aren't even the real villains, as all three find themselves in a plot involving terrorism, smuggling, counterfeiting and more bad stuff. Overall another decent Spiderman novel. I especially liked the setting, as it was a little different than Spiderman's normal urban environments.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t expect prize-winning literature, but this was not the level of work I expect from Marvel. Even 90’s marvel. I read the book way back when, but found it on my library app. Now I know why I didn’t recall the plot. If it was any thinner, it would be completely nonexistent. Now, this was the audiobook version, and maybe it was abridged (there were no notations about that on the book info page). If it was, they did not do the book any favors.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one above the others felt to really bring home the family dynamic of the Parkers and how they are always supportive even if they are unhappy about something.

[vk chompooming · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, what a rough book! I read this fairly quickly and found it incredibly boring. I love comic books and thought this might b a fun and in-depth read. I was wrong. The story dragged and the rich and vibrant comic book characters were dull and drab in novel form. This novel might forever put me off comic book novelizations.

[Jake Hawkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

After a strong start with The Venom Factor, I was really excited for this one. I'm bummed it disappointed so much. None of the plot lines or mysteries connected and none of their conclusions were satisfying. The Lizard was who the book was named for and it was very much presented that the story would surround him. He was sprinkled through out but was really only prominent near the very end, but not in a way that mattered for anything else in the story. Nothing that was going on with him was resolved or explained either.

Like the last book, Duane nailed Venom. He was definitely the highlight of the novel. I wish the other characters stayed at that level. Peter felt really stupid for most of it.

I'm not as excited for the third book as I was for this one, but given I did buy the trilogy, I'll get around to it eventually.

[Roderick Vonhogen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diane Duane wrote 3 Spider-man novels in the nineties, and 'The Lizard Sanction' was turned into an audiobook with a cast, sound effects and music. Even though this production is from 1996, it 'feels' much older and evokes the atmosphere of the old radio dramas that I loved to listen to as a kid.

This is probably why I enjoyed this one so much. Yes, the dialogue is a bit cheesy at times, the voice acting is not always top notch and the sound effects come from old audio libraries, but it somehow works together to tell an entertaining story featuring Spider-man, the Lizard, Venom and M.J.

Thanks to this audiobook, I've discovered that the entire trilogy was on sale for the Kindle on Amazon, 650+ pages for just $1.99. Guess what I'm reading next 😄.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

With Spider-Man, I think you have to kind of expect a few things. Unfortunately for this book, I'm not a big Spider-Man fan to begin with. This book could have been a lot better. The characters were pretty weak, the dialogue was terrible and rather cheezy. The plot was really quite weak. Overall, I would skip this one.

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2

[Rob Schultz]

It's stuck with me for 20 years that Peter Parker likes tomatoes on his salad.

[V. Arrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, the thing I liked most about this was how charmingly dated it is. But that's a byproduct of time, not something done intentionally by its writer.

[J.B. Mathias · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was not as good as the previous book, to start with there was more science and sci fi talk than there was anything else. Spiderman was fighting crime for a few pages but the book goes on and on about space shuttles... it's clear Diane Duane was more at home writing Star Trek. Also the story is full of so many coincidence it starts to become less believable than a man with spider powers. Everyone just happens to need to be in Florida at the same time and all the plotlines just happen to intersect.

The prose focuses so much on minutia that you lose interest and forget what's happening. Like the story will cut away from a fight scene to a scene of Mary Jane having a dream and describing what she sees on tv in her hotel room...so many times I tune out and miss important details because I was bored.

The title of the book suggests the Lizard would be a main character or even the main villain but he's not... he's essentially a passenger in the story almost totally irrelevant. Venom is more of a prominent character and even his story seems kind of hamfisted into the plot. A plot that's already just jam packed with so many threads that I can't even really figure out what the main point of the book was supposed to be. The attack on the shuttle, the nuclear waste, the hydrogel, the counterfeiting ink, the lizards story, Mjs career, Peters photography job, vrenis investigation, that mercenary who was in the story so little i forget his name even though I just finished the story...there's too much and almost none of it is interesting...and the few threads that are interesting are the ones focussed on the least. I kept reading hoping at least for a satisfying final battle or some mystery to be solved but there's no mystery and the final encounter was very disappointing.

The one positive thing I can say about it was that it was true to the characters and their established story. I thought the characters were written well and there's enough Spiderman in it that the story is readable.

[Hayden Jacobs · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Spider-Man: The Lizard Sanction, the Lizard is trying to find a cure to his abnormality; which is the result of a failed experiment. In the midst of searching for a cure, he breaches NASA and it comes to the attention of Spiderman. In the rising action, Peter travels to Florida for a photography job regarding the space shuttle launch for the Daily Bugle. In addition to Spiderman finding out that the Lizard is in Florida, Venom is also there; and after the Lizard. Peter visits Curtis Connors, or the Lizards family as Spiderman, and says he wants to help them. The group of terrorists that the Lizard is with attacks the KSC, and the launch is canceled. In the falling action, Peter hears about a Lizard Sighting on the radio, and goes to fight him. At the end of their fight, the Lizard gets away, and the story ends on a cliffhanger.

I think this book relates to another Spiderman book, Spiderman: The Venom Factor. I think this because in both books, there is confusion around Venom/main antagonists motives. In The Venom Factor, Venom confuses Spiderman because he begins killing innocent people, such as civilians. In this book, Venom confuses Spiderman because he is after the Lizard. Another way I think this relates is that in both books, there was a strenuous search for the Lizard or Venom.

One thing I liked about this book was that the author, Diane Duane uses scientific terms, and explains the details of the shuttle in depth. For example she uses terms like microgravity, STS-73; the shuttle's name, etc. Something I didn’t like about this book was the pacing of it. It is far too long for the story it tells. Another thing I didn’t like about this book was the cliffhanger at the end. Although I like this book's scientific vocabulary, I don’t feel that the vocabulary in this book contributed to the story.

[Daniel Zielke · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sequel to The Venom Factor, The Lizard Sanction offers more of the same, even following the same overall structure. Spider-Man, Mary Jane Parker-Watson, and Venom all make return appearances, as well as several supporting characters from The Venom Factor. The new additions to the cast, specifically Curt Conners and his family, fit in well and add even more richness to Spider-Man’s world. That is, in fact, the main draw of The Lizard Sanction: the expansion and deepening of Spider-Man’s world.
The book does move its setting from the familiar of New York City to the strange world of Florida, specifically the Kennedy Space Center and the Everglades. One might be concerned that this new setting would hamper from telling a classic Spider-Man story, but the effect is almost the opposite. Moving Spider-Man out of New York allowed for Peter’s skills as a hero and a reporter shine through. We see him establish contacts, investigate leads, and use his knowledge and experience to foil villainous plots. In the end, The Lizard Sanction feels like an issue of the comics translated to prose, with the increased capacity for description and addition viewpoints that entails. While it is not an in-depth examination of Spider-Man, it contributes to the bedrock of superheroics that make the core of Spider-Man’s character. The Lizard Sanction is also different from The Venom Factor in that it takes elements of the first novel and begins setting up the final book of the trilogy. While The Venom Factor feels like a perfect stand alone story, there are obvious loose threads in The Lizard Sanction that asked to be followed into the sequel. That said, they are not overly distracting, and The Lizard Sanction is a perfectly satisfying read on its own.

[Adam Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Lizard Sanction is an odd production. It's the middle book of a trilogy by Diane Duane which Simon and Schuster decided to turn into an abridged Dramatic audiobook, and might as well be a radio drama.

Having not read the underlying book, I can't comment authoritatively on the plot, but the book's plot doesn't sound bad. You've got Spider-man, Venom, and the Lizard in one story along with a gang of dangerous terrorists and a bold space exploration plan, there's bits of drama around Kirk Connors, and a hint at something around Peter and Mary Jane. The sound design is also decent with some pretty solid effects.

What kills the story are two things. First, this was recorded for CD and in order to get onto one CD, they have compress everything down to 80 minutes and this was a 300 page book. The production is full of exposition and it felt like it needed room to breathe. Even if that problem had been address, the production had another problem. There was so many listless performances. Spider-man didn't sound like Spider-man, the boy who played Kurt Connors' son was completely wooden, and the growling of the Lizard was laughable.

While it had been a long time since the Golden Age of Radio, Simon and Schuster could (and should) have done better with just a little more effort. At Random House, they did audio dramatizations of Louie L'Amour stories and those are brilliant. While Sci-fi can have some different challenges than Westerns, there's no way there should be this much disparity between products between two very large publishers.

This is a curiosity and the main thing it does do is make me curious about the rest of the series and reading the book. The dramatized version, despite some good moments, was very inepty handled.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve listened to the audio dramatization of this book at least a dozen times over the years. It’s thoroughly enjoyable with decent voice acting and great sound effects. The plot is a perfectly credible Spiderman adventure. Duane has a good grasp of the characters and writes a good fight scene. I have always found it unfortunate that Marvel didn’t produce more of these dramatizations of their novels (there were quite a few of these published back in the 1990s) as it’s a great way to get your super-hero-fix. It’s especially sad that they didn’t do the whole Duane trilogy so we can hear the whole story.

[Abhishek Dafria · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is not a good idea to jump into the second book of a trilogy, but hey it is Spider-Man, so we already know a lot about him. I came across the dramatised audio version of this comic book and could not resist hearing it. This is a different form of art, where you need to visualise what you are hearing assisted by the different sound effects. Imagine a movie with no video! It is 80-minutes long, a fun ride along with Spider-Man as he tangles with Lizard and Venom while trying to save some things going ka-boom. It will not create any emotional attachment with the characters, so do not hope for much. But if you are on your way to work, then this may still cheer you up!

[Sheldon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't believe this audiobook was made in 1996, it sounded like an old timey radio show, complete with dated music and sound effects (those gun shots are straight off a vintage "stock Western SFX" library tape). Audio production standards really have come along a lot since this!

I am not sure why this exists, the animated Spider-Man show debuted two years prior to this (and has better voice acting, music & sound effects) and there was hundreds of actual good Spidey comics available. I am not sold on Spider-Man prose as a concept and this didn't help. If anything it's a very funny listen.

[Crazed8J8 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dynamic audio (akin to some previously reviewed Batman books).
The story was decent, with appearances of Venom and The Lizard. Overall, it was a bit rushed, the action mediocre, and the voice acting was overly cheesy, thus detracting from any depth of the story.
It is okay to pass the time, but not a great tale or production. Take it or leave it...

[Mark Hartman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second book in the Spider-Man trilogy. Pretty good story of Spider-Man facing off against the Lizard aka Dr Connors. While I like the Venom Factor better this is still a pretty good. Set in Florida it’s a nice change of location from New York and the NASA Shuttle is in danger, but does the danger come from The Lizard who wants to find a cure.

[Questor German · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very descriptive with the science, engineering, conceptual science, geography, history, etc. Reads like a detective novel.

Like the first book, this had a really good build up, but falls flat at the end of the last act, where everything is very quickly wrapped up.

[Roger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the story overall. Except for the “romantic” parts with his wife. (Get a room!). Spider-Man is usually funnier, so maybe being married has taken a toll on his sense of humor. But the science aspects of the story (e.g., hydrogel, building a reactor in space, etc.) were great.

[MasterSal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah yes, I remember reading these. We didn’t get the comics easily in my city so I remember devouring these books instead.

[Ekenedilichukwu Ikegwuani · Rating 3 out of 5]

the plot doesn't really start coming together until close to the end

[NickMohr · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent follow up to the first in this trilogy (The Venom Factor), but probably the weakest of the three.

[Cynik · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was quite short, didn't resolve much. It is more like a comic book in that it is not self contained - there is more before and after this story.

[Matisse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favorite Spidey novel, but only because the story spends so much time in the swamp.

I mean, it kinda *has* to considering the anti-villain. But still.