Todays TV tie-in novels - good ones/bad ones?

Today at the mall, I entered the bookstore and there was a Max Allen
Collins called Bones based on the TV series. What a bizarre thing that
is since Bones is "exceedngly loosely" based on Kathy Reichs vastly
superior novel series there is a novel now out on the TV series.

Personally a person who buys a novel based on Bones and forgoes a Kathy
Reich novel should be slapped silly.

bllbickel...

1) There is very little resemblance between Bones and a Kathy Reich
novel; and

2) Personally, I tried two of Kathy Reich's novels -- her first and her
most recent -- and found them both seriously boring. Subjective, of
course. On the other hand, Bones manages to entertain me almost every
week.

Marlene Blanshay...

Same here.. the stories are good and could make for good tv. Who isn't
big on forensics these days? Howver, I don't think she's a very good
writer. And the show is kind of disappointing. Maybe there's TOO MUCH
forensic stuff on the air.

So given the choice between a Kathy Reich novel and a novel that
captures the spirit of the television show, I'll choose the latter
without hesitation.

Bill Bickel
http://mysterybooks.allinfoabout.com

There are loads of CSI novels and I noticed a few on Monk. I did read a
Collins CSI novel last summer and found it very blah.

For mystery series which are the better novels based on these shows. I
am debating trying a Monk novel.

I often find though that TV tie-in novels are an after thought - X-Files
springs to mind - in most cases. Buffy novels worked since Whedon or
whoever worked at making it comparable to the TV series and bring in
established YA writers. Mel Odom also wrote a few good ones.

This isn't counting the Star Trek novels which has become a genre
itself. Not sure if that was intentional on Paramounts part or not but
it is a genre. Same goes for Star Wars - a genre in and of itself

Patrick Joseph McNamara...

Allan Dean Foster did a good job with his ST Log books.

So todays TV tie-in novels good ones/bad ones?

Patrick Joseph McNamara...

The trend of TV/novel tie-in is old. I have one or two Man from U.N.C.L.E.
books around. There are a number of radio shows based upon books, but I
don't know of any books based upon radio shows. Most radio shows would have
started with a book.

LindaY...

TV/novel tie-ins go back to movie/novel tie-ins. Whitman books, who did
inexpensive hardbacks for kids from the 30s through the 70s, had Roy
Rogers and Trigger books, several RED RYDER novels (looks like all were
publshed in the 40s), and some girls' mysteries with movie star women
like Betty Grable, Shirley Temple, and Jane Withers solving the case.

deering24...

True. One of the first old books I got as a teen was something like
GINGER ROGERS AND THE RADIO SPY...

Their TV/novel books date back at least to the mid 1950s (I still have
the LASSIE books with Jeff). I'm not certain, but I believe there were
a few radio tie-in novels (I'm pretty sure there were LITTLE ORPHAN
ANNIE books, at least one in "Big Little Book" format, based on the
radio series rather than the comic), and there was at least one comic
book/novel tie-in, George Lowther's SUPERMAN, from the early forties, I
believe. (We moved and my books are still packed.)

deering24...

THE INVADERS had a couple of tie-ins (one of which was right creepy.)

C.
**

Several of Norman Corwin's radio plays were turned into short stories
and published as well.

Tee Jay...

If it were not for Man From U.N.C.L.E novels I would never have found
out that T.H.U.R.S.H. stood for Technological Hierarchy for Removal of
Undesirables and Subjugation of Humanity!

deering24...

Heh. I still have the tie-in for the old TV series SEARCH (or PROBE,

LindaY...

David Matthews...

I have a Blondie and Dagwood book..

Larry Edmunds Bookstore in Hollywood used to have a number of those movie

Dave in Toronto

I have that book!

Sometimes tie-in novels even correct bloopers in the movie. Robert
Weverka, who did SEARCH, also did the novelization of the film MAGIC OF

ANIM8Rfsk...

Aren't there at least 2 PROBE books? I seem to recall there's one of the
pilot movie, and another one that's either based on an episode or an
original adventure, and I swear I've seen both PROBE and SEARCH covers.

LASSIE. He fixed the geography error (Lassie fell over a cliff in
Colorado Springs and when she got up she was in Bryce Canyon--I always
laugh when I see it).

Pogonip...

Lassie was a very unusual dog.

depending on who you ask--g!). And I'm real sorry I never held onto any
of my DARK SHADOWS novelizations...

C.
**

David Matthews...

But, remember, we were older than you in 1965-67.. ;)

Without going into specifics I doubt that very much.

Dave in Toronto

Tee (Section 2) Jay

Joyleen Seymour...

The ultimate TV tie in is the bit from Lost where they find a
manuscript, which is actually a newly released novel, and the fact that
Hurley is reading it on the show is supposed to make you go buy it.

Maureen Goldman...

Many years ago there were a couple of romance novels written to
feature the Taster's Choice couple.

Pre-Buffy tVS I believe those commercials were the primary claim for
fame held by Anthony Stewart Head, at least in North America.

Lukecroll...

The most recent one that I've read was FRANKENSTEIN, Dean Koontz and
Kevin J. Anderson's book version of a screenplay that Koontz
originally wrote and then had his name removed from. I didn't
particularly enjoy it at all, but then it's because it wasn't really
like the usual Koontz novels and their rich prose.

I can remember reading a couple of X Files tie-ins years ago and not
being overly impressed with them either. As a general rule, they are
books I avoid. If a movie or TV series is based on a book, I try to
read the book first and not the other way around.