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Post by mattfinucane on Dec 6, 2012 16:31:06 GMT
Apologies if this has been done before - or is in the wrong place - but wondered what people made of the resurrected Hammer's line of books?
So far I've read the adaptations X The Unknown and Vampire Circus (with original novel The Greatcoat on the "to read" pile).
Bit disappointed so far, and couldn't help wondering who exactly they were aimed at; they struck me as neither faithful enough to the source material nor different enough to be interesting...
Full-on Hammer purists might not be that enthused by the stories being modernised (and substantially shifted in tone and emphasis, never mind the pointless new subplots); while the casual reader might find them a bit tame - they're neither pulpy enough nor "literary" enough to have much impact in their own right.
Mark Morris is usually a good bet but he turns Vampire Circus into a 1980's BBC sci-fi type thing (yeah, I know he wrote a few Dr Who novels - it reminds me of The Daemons, funnily enough) and Sean Hutson... Well, not a fan anyway, but he's clearly on a very tight leash here.
That's my two cents. Any thoughts?
And are any of the others in the line worth a look? Really wanted to like them, but - meh.
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Post by andydecker on Dec 7, 2012 13:38:38 GMT
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Post by mattofthespurs on Dec 7, 2012 15:26:17 GMT
I am currently reading both X and Vampire Circus but have a hard with it. Bit too much information  |
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Post by Dr Strange on Dec 7, 2012 17:35:54 GMT
Read the Hammer re-issue of Peter Curtis' The Witches and enjoyed it a lot - but that's the original source for the film and not a 'novelization'.
Read Guy Adams' novelization of Captain Kronos and thought it was pretty poor.
Francis (aka FG) Cottom's novelization of The Resident has sat unread for ages - I quite liked the film, but have been disappointed by his recent books so it's not a priority right now.
Haven't read any others (though they are occasionally starting to appear in charity shops up here). After much pre-release hype, I noticed Jeanette Winterstone's The Daylight Gate (something to do with the Pendle Witches) getting some very poor reviews.
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Post by andydecker on Dec 7, 2012 17:41:51 GMT
I am currently reading both X and Vampire Circus but have a hard with it. Bit too much information One really should control what one writes Hm, now that I think about it, the opposite is true  |
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Post by David A. Riley on Dec 7, 2012 17:44:17 GMT
It may sound a bit of a heresy here, because I know many Vault regulars love them, but I haven't been able to read a novelisation since my early teens, when they were a substitute for being able to go to the cinema to watch the actual films, like Doctor Terror 's House of Horrors. As soon as I was old enough to go and see the films themselves, novelisations have lost all interest for me.
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Post by mattfinucane on Dec 7, 2012 20:09:04 GMT
Jeanette Winterstone's The Daylight Gate (something to do with the Pendle Witches) getting some very poor reviews. That's mental. Jeanette Winterson. Reviews be damned, that's got to be worth a look! I didn't know about this one till I saw the blurb at the back of The Greatcoat: another "proper" author having a good old genre wallow... They might not quite have hit creative paydirt yet, but fair play to them for trying something different. A shame the results are a bit dull - like the new films, in fact - but no doubt they'll pick up a bit if they carry on. All very odd, isn't it? (Can't work out if Guy N Smith novelizing Kronos is a great idea or dreadful - actually, I'll take your word for it...) |
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Post by andydecker on Dec 7, 2012 20:19:55 GMT
I know what you mean, and I think you are mostly right. Mostly novelisations are a bland retelling of the movie, and why bother.
But now and then a novelisation really shines. Enhance the story. True, this is seldom.
The problem with the new Hammer books is that they want to be a re-imagination of the movies. I can see the reason. Why should a modern reader bother to read a novelisation of these in their core so simple tales with their gaping plotholes and often ridiculous conclusions? So the writers try do do a good reworking.
Unfortunatly this fails quite often.
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Post by dem on Dec 8, 2012 10:53:35 GMT
Francis Cottam - The Resident (Hammer, 2011) Blurb: Every year, three million single women in America move into an apartment for the first time. Few of them change the locks.
Juliet Devereau can't believe her luck: after weeks of looking for a place to live, she's found a beautiful spacious apartment overlooking Brooklyn Bridge. It almost seems too good to be true.
It is... Over the weeks, a chilling sense of being watched stalks Juliet. Strange sounds wake her in the night, the mirror in the bathroom trembles, and doors she thought shut are open. Then the silhouette of a man standing in her living room makes her realise that she's not alone in there. But what's haunting her is far more terrifying than a malevolent spirit; it's alive, strong and obsessed. Suddenly Juliet is caught up in a deadly game of cat and mouse, and there's no guarantee that she'll come out alive...am a massive fan of novelizations good, bad, and indifferent but for some reason, have yet to get worked up about the new Hammer series beyond initial "that's a good idea!" burst of enthusiasm. When i heard that in some instances, the original period settings were being updated, i kind of lost interest. Just found a copy of The Resident in local charity shop so should get around to that early in new year. We've an earlier thread for this: Hammer 2.0
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Post by mattfinucane on Dec 8, 2012 12:34:07 GMT
Yeah, past "that's a good idea", it's just a bit lacking in execution. And... The problem with the new Hammer books is that they want to be a re-imagination of the movies. I can see the reason. Why should a modern reader bother to read a novelisation of these in their core so simple tales with their gaping plotholes and often ridiculous conclusions? So the writers try do do a good reworking. Unfortunatly this fails quite often. ...Exactly. The modern setting kills the atmosphere stone dead and doesn't add enough in its own right. Still, the old Jimmy Sangster novelisations weren't up to much either... That kind of filmic atmosphere so rarely translates into text. (Just finished The Greatcoat: it was so dull I can't find anything to say about it. God, there's just no pleasing some people is there? Ah well - they'll get there in the end if they keep banging out enough product. Might give The Resident a try, though.) |
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Post by noose on Dec 8, 2012 12:53:19 GMT
oh well, the Hammer books have come to an end anyway...
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Post by Johnlprobert on Dec 8, 2012 13:34:31 GMT
oh well, the Hammer books have come to an end anyway... Indeed, which is a great shame - my updating of DR JEKYLL & SISTER HYDE would have been something worth reading  |
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Post by noose on Dec 8, 2012 16:14:25 GMT
I was a quarter of the way through writing PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES... |
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Post by andydecker on Dec 9, 2012 14:00:21 GMT
Wow that was fast.  I bought most of them, and some of the other movies could have been fun. I mean "Lust for a Vampire" as a period piece why not. But that they had to give up that fast doesn't bode well for other announced projects. I seriously hope that the Titan editions of Hard Case Crime and Kim Newman's Anno Dracula project are selling well enough and be safe. |
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Post by mattfinucane on Dec 9, 2012 20:40:18 GMT
Well, so much for "bang[ing] out enough product"... Note to self: don't moan about anything in future - you clearly carry a jinx (see Wordsworth thread).* *I'm not saying a blinkin' word about Anno Dracula, because I'd like to see Jonny Alucard published too.  |
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