Escape from New York [Paperback]

Mike McQuay (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Bantam Books (Mm) (November 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553253751
• ISBN-13: 978-0553253757
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #884,685 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A novelization that becomes a novel,, February 28, 2002

By 

Chadwick H. Saxelid "Bookworm" (Concord, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Escape from New York (Paperback)

I agree with the other reviewer, McQuay took Carpenter and Castle's witty script and fashioned a first rate piece of noir sodden science fantasy. Snake Plissken is captured shortly after a botched bank robbery and, when the President of the United States becomes a prisoner in the Mahattan Island Prison, offered a pardon to go on a rescue mission. Working from an expanded script, McQuay fleshes out Carpenter and Castle's concepts, making the characters and their situations more complex and realistic. Fans of the movie need to have this book as it is every bit as good as, if not better than, the movie itself.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unusual movie tie-in, November 11, 2001

By 

Echo "Echo" (Western Hemisphere) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Escape from New York (Paperback)

This is a very unusual book in that it takes a 4-star movie script and fleshes it out into a first-rate science-fiction novel. We understand more about how Snake was arrested (...probably derived from the infamous Fresno bank robbery scene that John Carpenter left on the cutting room floor).

Even better, we understand far more about the world Snake lives in. Insanity is rampant (...or it may just be Snake's paranoia, we're never quite sure) and New York is just one vestige of a pervasive police state. We learn more about Hauk, and how he became warden of the New York Penitentiary. This is probably perfunctory on McQuay's part, but the story of a man looking for his insane son plays very well. Hauk's backstory also unobrusively comes up several times in the book, and has a bittersweet ending. We learn more about "The Crazies", who in the film were simply one-dimensional set dressing.

McQuay actually did a very credible job, and this book was in print for many years after "Escape from New York" was released in 1981. It's such a shame that it is now unavailable.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a one eye first view., February 9, 1999

By 

John Miranda([e-mail]) (usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Escape from New York (Paperback)

Being a John Carpenter fan it was a treat to be able to read the book after witnessing his vision of '97 years after he had written it. I have this book and love to read it now and then, along with watching the movie..both versions are still one of visual enticement and thrills. Excuse me while I flip a page.....