Dark angel novels: Aare they worth the buy?

[flux_29]

Are the novels, "skin game" and "after the dark" worth buying? What are the plots about? Spoliers welcome.

 

[OmahaStar]

I know at least three of them (Before the Dawn, After the Dark, and Skin Game) were written by Max Allan Collins. He's a tie-in writer who ... at least in science fiction and fantasy ... can't write anything beyond what's in the script. I'd avoid his work like the plague.

There was another Dark Angel book, but I think it was like an episode guide or something like that.

 

[Hardin]

if you're a big fan of the show, go ahead, I'm sure you'll enjoy them.

the best (or, rather, the most interesting from a fan's perspective) of the two is After the Dark, mostly because it brings closure to the season 2 storyline (the wacky snake cult). Both are set after the events of Freak Nation (the season 2 finale turned into series finale), but ATD takes them a bit more far ahead and also brings resolution to the virus thing between Max and Logan.

Skin Game doesn't shake things much except for one character, while major stuff happens in ATD. It's basically a thriller, there's a serial killer to hunt for while the transgenics are still all inside Terminal City, surrounded by the Army and lots of people who wants them exterminated. I got the impression its bulk was written while the show still had a chance to have a third season.

ATD picks up a few months later, when that situation's been resolved and the transgenic have been more or less accepted as part of Seattle's population.

Both have a lot of action and are quite light on character study. In ATD Max kicks major ass. Have you read Before the Dawn (the prequel)? It's the same writer for all three, so if you liked his take on the characters the first time you shouldn't be disappointed. They're strictly fans only, though. You know what I mean.

There's a fourth book called the Eyes Only Dossier: it's a made-up (well, obviously) archive of four open cases Eyes Only was working on, it has fake emails, secret memos, interrogation transcripts, stuff like that. Difficult to describe but it's much more fun than the novels, honestly.

 

[John Clark]

I enjoyed them. I think the first may have been my favourite though

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I only read the last one. I'd say it was ok, if disappointing.

 

[Trippy]

^ya, it was ok...but in the series, by the end, Logan could walk unassisted, and used the exoskeleton for enhancement. In After the Dark, Logan was still reliant on the exoskeleton for walking. A little quirk ...like the author didn't actually watch the series!

 

[flux_29]

Just thought i'd let you all know on amazon there's a couple of used copies (on both books) for only a few pounds.

 

[ATimson]

^ya, it was ok...but in the series, by the end, Logan could walk unassisted, and used the exoskeleton for enhancement. In After the Dark, Logan was still reliant on the exoskeleton for walking. A little quirk ...like the author didn't actually watch the series!

My understanding was that, following the death of the series, the novels were rewritten to fit after the series and allow for some cleanup, as opposed to occurring during the series as they'd been originally intended.

I could be misremembering, however.

 

[Trippy]

Yes, but in the very finale, upon which After the Dark was a continuation of, Logan was jumping on cars and shooting the snipers before he got into Jam Pony!

Not just using the exoskeleton for mobility purposes

 

[flux_29]

Just reading "skin game" and Mole (the brown lizard guy from freak nation) is said to be a DAC, whats it an abreviation of?