Customer Reviews

Escape from New York

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.....

This 27-year-old novelization is long, long out of print, but if you're a fan of the movie and of old Snake Plissken himself then it's an obvious choice. Mike McQuay expands on John Carpenter's script without going overboard and churns out an impressive sci-fi novel in the process.

With more backstory to Hauk, The Crazies and why America is fast going down the toilet this novel will be essential reading for Snake fans. I am surprised that there was no novelization to the misunderstood sequel or why there was no more further Snake Plissken fiction in general. He's a great character, with loads of potential, and I'll take some far-fetched Snake adventure over former-SAS super-army-soldier Andy McKnackers any day of the week.