Previously, we toyed with, disassembled, and drug the idea of ‘Books Into Movies‘ all over DC like a bit of toilet paper stuck to the bottom of our Israeli Army-issued boot.
Today, we go the other way. I have only read a handful of books based on movies and TV. I am going to admit in public, for the record, that I have a thing for the movies Pitch Black and The Riddick Chronicles. I love the anti-hero idea, the simplicity of the first movie, and the apocalyptic background to the second. And yes, I read the book based on the movie The Riddick Chronicles, written by a favorite author, Alan Dean Foster. There were a a few tiny details in the book that enhanced my enjoyment of the movie, but it wasn’t any eye-opener.
So let’s talk about those scifi tv series that also have a flood of books – Star Trek (all series), Star Wars, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, and even Firefly. Do you guys read them? Do they increase your enjoyment of the series?
Here’s another knot for you. Books made into movies made into books. Yeah, like The Lord of the Rings made into a movie, and then a book is issued based on the screenplay of the movie. Have you read those? I think out of all the book/movie/tv franchises, this seems to be pushing it. Just a little ridiculous.
In addition, and then I will shut up, I want to delve into fanfiction. I am a little sketchy on the rules for this. I can remember that once the Harry Potter movies got big, some dude in China started writing, and publishing, some HP fanfiction. The media seemed to greatly frown upon this, as it was for profit. I can agree with that. National Geographic had a very nice article years ago about fans getting together to drool over manga, made by the fans based on their favorite manga. One last example: Steven Brust, the awesome author of Jhereg series, has a free fanfiction booked based on Firefly.
So where do you sit on all this film-based books? Do you read them? Do you give them a pass? why?
funny post! books based on the film are a non-issue for me. I got enough to read.
I tried reading some fan fic, once, for some reason. I probably won’t be wasting my time with that again. It wasn’t the concept, it was the writing skillz. These were not exactly Brust-quality writers, though.
There’s a couple of Fable video game books published, out there in the wilds. Tempting… but I’ll probably pass. Just seeing them made me chuckle, and that was enough for me. What a sorry fate for a book, eh?
fanfiction – I’ll admit, I’ve read some. There were a couple of good Potter fics out there in the early days (written before Goblet of Fire), that got totally off-canon with their resolution, but were fun and generally well written (I think at least one author I read has found success as a published YA author – Cassandra Claire, maybe?).
Again, it’s mostly crap (even if that crap can have the character names filed off and sold as porn to housewives on rare occasions) – Sturgeon’s law applies across the board.
I did enjoy Brust’s Firefly fanfiction, though. nailed the characters on that one.
I have heard from many people that Brust’s Firefly fanfic is the gold standard of fanfic – what reader’s want to read and what writers hope to achieve in quality and emulation.
licensed books are an interesting sub-genre themselves. Some are barely concealed cash grabs, others are really very good. I’ve read both (they’re a nice gateway, and sometimes fun, because today’s star authors often spent some time playing with other people’s characters – I own a Star Trek TNG tie in written by Laurell K Hamilton!). Generally, if Peter David wrote it (one guy who has been able to hop back and forth between the licensed property ghetto and “real” books…and tv, and comics, etc…), it’s probably going to be entertaining.
Most of ‘em are hit-and-miss. If you like the characters, you’ll probably at least have fun, and I think that’s the idea.
I’ve heard that the Mass Effect tie-in novels are interesting, in the sense that they tell a parallel story or prequel to the game storyline (it would be hard to use Shepherd as the POV, as everyone’s is different), but add depth to the gameplay experience. I may try them.
I remember back in the 90s when I saw a “novelization of the film ‘Little Women’ based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott” on the shelf. I laughed and laughed.
Novelizations of the film versions of books seems like cheating – kind of like abridged books.
I once came close to dismemberment on a panel re the merits of fanfic for suggesting that fanfic is a lesser art than SF/F in which authors build their own story worlds. Spare yourselves; do not repeat my mistake in a room full of fanficcers.
But out here, where bodily harm is less a risk, I will agree that–the occasional quality romp in someone else’s sandbox by a pro or a rising amateur notwithstanding–fanfic just isn’t the same. I want to see new worlds, new characters. I readily stipulate that that’s my kink, and tons of people adore tie-in novels (which I hold to be an art not that much different from fanfic, aside from the licensing issues). And Shakespeare reworked old stories, yadda yadda. But while Hamlet bears a passing resemblance to certain older stories, and nothing that occurs in any of his historical plays comes as a real surprise to the audience (spoiler: they’re all dead now) Shakespeare took those old stories as a springboard and created wholly new art. By the time he was done it wasn’t someone else’s sandbox anymore; he had done no more than carry a few props and costumes with him.
And the minute a Harry Potter fanfic exceeds Hamlet, I’ll shut up.
There is a word for these things in the legal-speak of entertainment: derivative works. They are understood to not be original art. Enjoy them? Fine. But don’t try to tell me they’re just as good.
/rant
You know when I *do* like stuff that began as a different work altogether? True transmedia: A movie that takes the ideas in a book and runs; a game that comes out of a story world; an RPG that delves deeper into the world than even a whole series of novels could hope to.
That’s cool.
I think some fanficers get caught int the loyalty to the books/characters/movies/etc. that they enjoyed so much and can’t bear to see anything associated with it criticized. Such blinders don’t allow a person to judge the individual works on their merit and quality.