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The Abyss Orson Scott Card, based on screenplay

Rejected submission by Runaway1956 at 2018-10-08 19:05:33 from the Reviews dept.
Science

Afterword James Cameron
A novel based on a screenplay? The term seems precious in our jaded business.
There are screenplays based on novels, certainly. Our vampiric industry drains much of its unholy creative sustenance from pure literature.
And there are novelizations of screenplays. The studios encourage these literary endeavors.
The pages provide filler behind the covers, and the imperative is to display those flashy covers at supermarkets and newsstands throughout the land.
In the critical days before a film's release, the ubiquitous paperbacks create interest, promote title recognition, increase market penetration, and in general add to the potential box office gross on opening weekend.
The fact that someone might actually read these novelizations seem to be of little concern.
Well, people do read them.
I read them.
More to the point, I have read certain novelizations of my own films and found them to be cursory, mediocre, often inaccurate, and sometimes downright reprehensible.
I determined that there would be no novelization of this film.
There would be a novel.

Wow. I didn't know all of that. Cameron wrote the story, for the big screen, THEN he had Card to write the novel. Pretty awesome!

So, what do we have here? As usual, the plot of the story is much clearer in the novel. Movies, television, they just can't take the TIME to explain everything. In the novel, we are permitted to eavesdrop on the Builder's thoughts and conversations from time to time. In the movie, we caught a glimpse of a Builder, or one of their devices, from time to time. But, the Builders explained nothing to us, the audience.

In the book, we get to know the Builders, over time. Their fear of us, their loathing of us, "Those who kill each other intentionally". 3/4 of the way through the book, you know the Builders better than you could possibly know them at the end of the movie. And, it's well worth the read of ~330 pages. The people are perhaps a little better developed, but any extra development is unnecessary for understanding the story. It's the Builders that make it all worthwhile!!

No - I'll not give you any spoilers here. If you want to know, and understand, the Builders, you'll just have to get the book, and read it! I give it three thumbs up - just give me a minute to find that gag thumb I that one of the boys brought home from somewhere . . .

Afterword Orson Scott Card
My agent, Barbara Bova, called me and said, "Pocket Books has approached me about you doing a novelization."
"Barbara," I said, "you know I don't do novelizations."

Dive into the Abyss, to see what is at the bottom of the sea!


Original Submission