Foster On Star Trek Into Darkness Novelization (spoilers?)

[TrekToday]

When it comes to writing a novelization of a movie, for author Alan Dean Foster, it’s about “filling in the blanks.” Foster is no stranger to Star Trek novels, having written the Animated Series Star Trek Log novelizations as well as the story for what became the first Star Trek movie, but after thirty years, [...]

More...

 

[Amaris]

Re: Foster On Star Trek Into Darkness Novelization

Yes, and I own it!
I love ADF, and so far, the book has been terrific.

 

[KittyDuran]

Re: Foster On Star Trek Into Darkness Novelization

Yes, and I own it!
I love ADF, and so far, the book has been terrific.

Seconded! I'm about half way thru it - it so far has filled in some blanks.

 

[indranee]

Re: Foster On Star Trek Into Darkness Novelization

it came out today, right?

 

[KittyDuran]

Re: Foster On Star Trek Into Darkness Novelization

it came out today, right?

I bought the ebook from B&N a few days ago. Just finished it about an hour ago.

 

[trevanian]

Re: Foster On Star Trek Into Darkness Novelization

I've read elsewhere that the novelization casts some doubts on the certainty that Harrison really IS Khan Singh, especially at the end.

Did you pick up on that?

 

[sj4iy]

Re: Foster On Star Trek Into Darkness Novelization

So, read it in a few hours yesterday, and I guess it's an okay novelization. I would have preferred better writing. The strain of coming up with descriptive language for Nibiru was evident. Ex: "The serpentine smoke cloud that emerged from the enormous, towering cone stretched far out to sea, retaining its ominous coherence even as it cast must of the ocean's surface in shadow." I understand what it's trying to say, it's just a clumsy and overcrowded description of the volcano spewing smoke.

It does get better as the book goes on as the writer gets comfortable with his work. I would have liked to have some more in-between scenes that we don't get to see in the movie. For example, a year passes. No mention of it at all in a book that has no time limits on it like a movie does. We do get some bonus exposition and the ability to see what the character is thinking, which helps flesh out some ideas. I was pretty happy that the explanation of Kirk's revival pretty much matches what I had already figured out, though. Not hocus pocus.

I guess, overall, I would give this book a 5/10 (I'm pretty picky). It had some extra explanation that I liked, but not enough to really justify getting the book. The writing style was labored and clunky in some areas of the book.

 

[propita]

Re: Foster On Star Trek Into Darkness Novelization

I've read elsewhere that the novelization casts some doubts on the certainty that Harrison really IS Khan Singh, especially at the end.

Did you pick up on that?

Spoil me?

 

[publiusr]

That would be interesting. I want to see Khan as played by Javier Bardem

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

Re: Foster On Star Trek Into Darkness Novelization

So, read it in a few hours yesterday, and I guess it's an okay novelization. I would have preferred better writing. The strain of coming up with descriptive language for Nibiru was evident. Ex: "The serpentine smoke cloud that emerged from the enormous, towering cone stretched far out to sea, retaining its ominous coherence even as it cast must of the ocean's surface in shadow." I understand what it's trying to say, it's just a clumsy and overcrowded description of the volcano spewing smoke.

I don't agree with that assessment in the least. I'll be purchasing a copy of the STID novelisation in the near future, so I obviously can't comment on the work as a whole. However, the specific sentence you've quoted is rather good IMHO. ADF has been one of my favourite authors for decades, and I find his writing style to be accomplished, adept, free flowing and entertaining.

 

[shapeshifter]

Picked up a copy today for a Fathers Day gift. He has no choice but to wait for the video release so it's going to really make his day special.

ETA: following link to STID related incident at bookstore checkout.

http://www.trekbbs.com/showpost.php?p=8187460&postcount=1604

 

[Therin of Andor]

Australia received a local printing of the English edition! Slightly larger format trade PB:

http://www.trekbbs.com/showpost.php?p=8140297&postcount=115

 

[Christopher]

Re: Foster On Star Trek Into Darkness Novelization

I would have liked to have some more in-between scenes that we don't get to see in the movie. For example, a year passes. No mention of it at all in a book that has no time limits on it like a movie does.

Unfortunately, movie studios today don't want novelizations to add new scenes for some reason. They just want scene-for-scene replications of the films. Those who are familiar with Foster's past novelizations, notably the Star Trek Logs, know that he has no problems with adding new content to flesh out a story (heck, his last Log had only three chapters of episode adaptation and thirteen chapters of original content), but these days it just isn't allowed.

 

[publiusr]

That's sad.

 

[Belz...]

And silly... why would you want the same thing as the movie, instead of a different take on the same story ? I seem to remember Return to the Jedi's novelisation being quite different from the movie.

 

[Therin of Andor]

And silly... why would you want the same thing as the movie, instead of a different take on the same story ?

I've always loved bonus scenes in novelizations, both the authors' original contributions and the restoration of scenes cut from the films. ST:TMP, ST II and ST III, in particular, were big favourites.

But I have met many fans who've been very angry about novelizations that contain material "that wasn't in the movie!" This has applied to those who've read the novelization prior to seeing the film (and went into the cinema expecting to see the author's original characters and sequences), and those who've read the novelization after seeing the film and complain it deviated too much.

That angry feedback probably overshadows the opinions of those of us who hunger for bonus scenes.

 

[Belz...]

But I have met many fans who've been very angry about novelizations that contain material "that wasn't in the movie!"

That's so silly to me. Why would I, for instance, buy a book that's exactly like the movie ? I might as well buy the movie, which is what I'm going to do anyway.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Australia waited six agonizing months for "ST III: The Search for Spock" and, in the meantime, the air-freighted (and then the cheaper, slow-boat, sea-freighted) copies of the novelization were on shop shelves before the film's local premiere.

One friend had devoured my copy of the novelization in the interim and finally complained, "The movie left out all the best bits!"