Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
Remember these?
And what other spooky paperback anthologies do you recall?
Fun Your Favourite Books & Authors!
- Thread starter Doctor Omega
- Start date
Remember these?
And what other spooky paperback anthologies do you recall?
Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
"Authorised" follow ups that the resoundingly dead authors of the original had no actual say in....
How do you rate these efforts?
And this increasing practice?
Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
I must admit, I enjoyed this one.....
It followed on from the Universal Frankenstein series, with the Karloff Frankenstein Monster meeting Jack the Ripper!
I notice that they have avoiced showing Karloff's likeness on the cover in order to avoid paying royalties to the Karloff extate.
This next one was quite good too, which followed on immediately after Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, perhaps surprisingly....
I think that they can be amusing and quite well done, but it has reached the stage now that if you want to collect every single book you need a huge fortune - and a lot of space.
I tried collecting the Virgin Doctor Who adventures years ago, but the more popular they became, the more titles that they were bringing out - and more regularly - and they were soon coming out too fast for me to read and so I gave up in the end, and saw no point having them on my shelf if I was never going to have the time to read them. And that was before the BBC book range etc took over.
And it doesn't help if you then get told that that adventure you quite liked never happened, which poor Star Wars has undergone big time recently.
So no, I am wary of them now, whatever tv or programme they hatch from - and prefer to treasure the memories of those titles that I read before it all got, in my opinion, too greedy and silly.
It followed on from the Universal Frankenstein series, with the Karloff Frankenstein Monster meeting Jack the Ripper!
I notice that they have avoiced showing Karloff's likeness on the cover in order to avoid paying royalties to the Karloff extate.
This next one was quite good too, which followed on immediately after Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, perhaps surprisingly....
I think that they can be amusing and quite well done, but it has reached the stage now that if you want to collect every single book you need a huge fortune - and a lot of space.
I tried collecting the Virgin Doctor Who adventures years ago, but the more popular they became, the more titles that they were bringing out - and more regularly - and they were soon coming out too fast for me to read and so I gave up in the end, and saw no point having them on my shelf if I was never going to have the time to read them. And that was before the BBC book range etc took over.
And it doesn't help if you then get told that that adventure you quite liked never happened, which poor Star Wars has undergone big time recently.
So no, I am wary of them now, whatever tv or programme they hatch from - and prefer to treasure the memories of those titles that I read before it all got, in my opinion, too greedy and silly.
chainsaw_metal1
Member: Rank 8
I enjoy spin-off material, but like I mentioned in the Star Trek comics thread, when they go too far from the established canon or don't even try to adhere to the source material.
Agreed.
Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
Not a Pan Book, but I used to love this one.....
Some classic Horror Stories, with introductions from Mister Lee...
Some classic Horror Stories, with introductions from Mister Lee...
chainsaw_metal1
Member: Rank 8
I'm on the fence on this one. There have been some franchises that went on and had some really great books and stories written by other authors. And then you have books like The Seven Per-Cent Solution which is crap.
chainsaw_metal1
Member: Rank 8
How have I never come across these? I am on the hunt!
Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
The Dacre Stoker Dracula sequel above was so universally lambasted that I am tempted to read it out of curiosity.
I mean, can it really be that bad?!?
I mean, can it really be that bad?!?
Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
This was it's shelf-fellow in my youth.....
Same set up as the Christopher Lee book. Peter introducing some classic tales... It also has a nicely concise biographical chapter all about Peter's life at the beginning.
The hardback had a different cover.....
Same set up as the Christopher Lee book. Peter introducing some classic tales... It also has a nicely concise biographical chapter all about Peter's life at the beginning.
The hardback had a different cover.....
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chainsaw_metal1
Member: Rank 8
I've had the same curiosity. But I love the original novel so much, I'm not sure that would be wise.
Oh, if only I had a tally of all of the times I said that exact same thing before finding out that, yes, it can really be that bad.I mean, can it really be that bad?!?
Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
Just to add to the confusion, there is a follow up novel from years ago called also called Dracula the Undead.
I remember reading this one and enjoying it.
Memory may be faulty, but Dracula goes into a kind of butterfly chrysalis in a cellar or something.
Maybe I dreamt that bit!
It's definitely regarded more highly than the Dacre Stoker novel though!
I remember reading this one and enjoying it.
Memory may be faulty, but Dracula goes into a kind of butterfly chrysalis in a cellar or something.
Maybe I dreamt that bit!
It's definitely regarded more highly than the Dacre Stoker novel though!
Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
I like Alan Dead Foster's writing style, so many of my memories are of reading his various adaptions, which he always seemed to make work as novels in their own right....
And many, many others, notably in the Star Wars and Alien franchises.
Just finally found out what the man himself looks like!
And many, many others, notably in the Star Wars and Alien franchises.
Just finally found out what the man himself looks like!
Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
Many people think that ADF ghost-wrote the novelisation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
But this is apparently not true, it really was written by Gene Rodenberry.
The seeming obsession with sex throughout it should have given that away, I guess.
A good read, nonetheless - and I guess it is the purest depiction of how Rodenberry saw Star Trek.
I used to like the Vonda N. McIntyre adaptions of Star Trek II, III and IV, but they seem a little wonky to me now. A little amateurish.
J.M Dillard, who took over, seemed to be a more professional writer.
I will have to re-read her original Star Trek novel, The Entropy Effect though. I remember it being engrossing, even if it did have a Mary Sue character, Mandala Flynn as a prominent character in it - and Sulu with a huge moustache and long hair down past his shoulders!
Again, I used to like it as a novel, but am not expecting a great read anymore after all these years.
But this is apparently not true, it really was written by Gene Rodenberry.
The seeming obsession with sex throughout it should have given that away, I guess.
A good read, nonetheless - and I guess it is the purest depiction of how Rodenberry saw Star Trek.
I used to like the Vonda N. McIntyre adaptions of Star Trek II, III and IV, but they seem a little wonky to me now. A little amateurish.
J.M Dillard, who took over, seemed to be a more professional writer.
I will have to re-read her original Star Trek novel, The Entropy Effect though. I remember it being engrossing, even if it did have a Mary Sue character, Mandala Flynn as a prominent character in it - and Sulu with a huge moustache and long hair down past his shoulders!
Again, I used to like it as a novel, but am not expecting a great read anymore after all these years.
Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
This one's an oddity.....
Not a novelisation, but a book length, in in-depth analysis of the novelisation of the first feature film.
Tongue in cheek madness, in print! Well, on kindle anyway.
448 pages of it!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/B-F-Novelization-Feature-Film-ebook/dp/B008X945R4/ref=sr_1_48?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1494066595&sr=1-48&keywords=back+to+the+future
Not a novelisation, but a book length, in in-depth analysis of the novelisation of the first feature film.
Tongue in cheek madness, in print! Well, on kindle anyway.
448 pages of it!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/B-F-Novelization-Feature-Film-ebook/dp/B008X945R4/ref=sr_1_48?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1494066595&sr=1-48&keywords=back+to+the+future
RepairedSpace06
Member: Rank 1
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Scarlet Letter
To Build A Fire (Jack London)
The Pit and the Pendulum
The Scarlet Letter
To Build A Fire (Jack London)
The Pit and the Pendulum
Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
It started as a gift from my older brother one day of this....
And very rapidly turned into a collecting mania for this.....
And never really stopped.....
And very rapidly turned into a collecting mania for this.....
And never really stopped.....
Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
This book managed to get me through a long and interminable train journey once.
It was really, in retrospect, a pretty bad book, with the usual problem of the writer making herself the thinly disguised main character, who is more important than Kirk, Spock etc.
The most baffling thing about it though is, if memory serves, that she gets involved with a Klingon who talks like a regular dude in a disco. "Hey, how are you?" and all that.
But I shall always remember it fondly for alleviating a dreary and overly long journey all those years ago.
Still rubbish though.
Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
I really enjoyed SPOCK MUST DIE by James Blish, which was probably the first TREK novel I read....
and I also enjoyed YESTERDAY'S SON, a sequel to the episode ALL OUR YESTERDAYS, but I totally lost interest while trying to read the follow up to it. In fact I can't remember a thing about TIME FOR YESTERDAY.
Years later Harlan Ellison's scathing put-down of the novels helped put me off them further, along with all the kerfuffle about Richard Arnold, Roddenberry's right hand man, interfering with the books in a counterproductive way.
And I have never gone back to them since. Apart from the novelisations of most of the movies.
James Blish totally got the show, which is why his books of the shows episodes were so successful, paving the way for the wider novel universe and eventually the return of the show via animation and then movies. The fact that he was a brilliant sci-fi writer in general didn't hurt either.
That's interesting. I picked up Time For Yesterday second hand without realising it was a sequel and loved it. When I finally located and read Yesterday's Son I found it a let down. I've still got Time for Yesterday on my bookshelf while I got rid of Yesterday's Son long ago. Completely the opposite reaction to you.