I've had an odd fascination with novelizations for a long time. I can't explain it. I can, however, point you to some others who share my fascination. There's a great website called
Trash Fiction that covers all sorts of, well, trash fiction, novelizations included. (Click on the "movie tie-ins" link on the main page.) Also, Mutant Reviewers from Hell did a four-part article looking at novelizations. You can find those here:
Part I,
Part II,
Part III,
Part IV. A few more good articles:
Slate,
LitReactor,
SF Signal,
IFC.
Very few novelizations have much literary worth. Typically, they're terrible at worst and mediocre at best. Most of them are written in about a month, the authors aren't allowed to deviate from the screenplay (aside from adding some filler that doesn't contradict anything in the existing story), and they're written more for the paycheck than anything else. Standards are low, so authors rarely aspire to anything higher. Novelizations suck because people expect them to suck.
Of course, there are exceptions. Project Itoh's novelization of
Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriots is top notch, and deserves to be placed on a pedestal as an example of how to write a good novelization. Trash Fiction also recommends Paul Monette's novelization of
Nosferatu the Vampyre, though I haven't read it and can't comment on it.
Thanks for the links will check them out. I agree with your opinions on novelizations being mediocre but sometimes its good to read something light and entertaining.
As a teenager I read Alien many times and loved it. That is one novelization that has depth and imagination and written by Alan Dean Foster who's a good story teller.
17 Jun 2013, 2:42 pm
