Exorcist: The Beginning [Mass Market Paperback]

Steven Piziks (Author), Alexi Hawley (Contributor), William Wisher (Draft Writer), Caleb Carr (Draft Writer)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2003

In the aftermath of World War II, Father Lancaster Merrin finds himself in the remote Turkana region of Kenya. Haunted by memories of the war, he has taken a sabbatical from the priesthood and journeyed far from his native Holland. He has come to lead the archaeological excavation of a mysterious Bzyantine church, buried in pristine condition as if on the day it was built. Directly beneath the church Merrin finds a much more ancient crypt - and finds himself face-to-face with unspeakable Evil. Madness descends on the nearby villagers and on the British soldiers sent to guard the site. Merrin watches helplessly as the atrocities of war are re-enacted against the innocent villagers - atrocities he had hoped he would never witness again. But the horror has only just begun...

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Steven Piziks is a new voice in the Star Trek universe. His previous science fiction novels include Corporate Mentality and In the Company of Mind for Baen.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Star (December 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743482700
• ISBN-13: 978-0743482707
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,024,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars They should concentrate on being scary, instead of gross, August 8, 2004

By 

Jondalar (Columbus) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Exorcist: The Beginning (Mass Market Paperback)

I bought this book because I wanted to find out what the movie would be like. Of course, this is a novelization of the movie. I am pleasantly surprised and disappointed.

First off, the novel being a novelization is not as deep as real novel. We don't learn that much about the characters. It's basically a screenplay of the movie. Hence, it is sometimes really hard to care about the characters, especially the ones that get killed and there is a lot of killing. There are also a lot of people that get touched by possession, but not truly possessed. They go crazy, hallucinate, kill and die but since, we don't really care about them, who cares.

Second, this book is overkill on the gross stuff. Flys, maggots, hyenas, crows are everywhere. Flys come out of a man's boils. A woman has stillborn child with maggots in the afterbirth. A guy hallucinates that his butterfly collection has come to life. A butterfly crawls out of his mouth. He kills himself. There are at least 3 vomiting scenes. And why? What are the filmakers thinking? Is the demon Candyman on crack? This stuff is not really scary it is just gross for grossness sake. I really hope they cut a lot of crap out of the movie.

However, this story is interesting and very atmospheric. All the stuff about the church and why it was made is capitavating. The demon is captivating too and so is father Merrin. Their battle at the end of the book is a really good one. Unfortunately, getting to that battle is an uneven journey. They really needed to concentrate on characters such as Sara and Bessian. I would have like to seen Bessian first go into the church and release the demon, or chant the spell on the spiral alter. We don't see any of that. Instead we get a couple of over-the-top evil characters, one with boils all over his face and one a quick to kill general. Both die, but why? You would think the devil would want to keep them around. There is another priest in the book besides Merrin. His role is a rip off father Karras from the origianl and we really don't learn that much about him. Of course, he battles the demon too. But looses big time with an ancient sword in his chest.

Overall, the movie is probably going to be pretty good, especially the battle at the end. The mysteries are good and I'm sure the special effects will be good. But be prepared to be more grossed out then scared. This will be a standard horror movie for a lot of people.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mostly good, November 16, 2004

By 

Santeria "Son of Tazz" (Tallahassee) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Exorcist: The Beginning (Mass Market Paperback)

An enjoyable read, but differs on key points with the film.
Yes, I know, different genres, so different methods and ways to an end.
Anyways, there is enough crossover with the film to wonder why the writer was not kept up with the script changes. Personally I liked the way some scenes at least gave a background to actions, even if a "madeup" reason is given. However, the visual stun that the opening section of the film gives is just superb, and the writer could at least have delivered something just as powerful. And yes, the film has gross scenes, so the book delivers on some of those, but still , as a novelisation it could at least have followed a first person narrative method to convey the film in a much better way. Still, worth the read.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Exorcist: The Beginning, October 9, 2010

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raymond g. berube - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Exorcist (Kindle Edition)

Boring and badly written. Cliche after cliche trying to sound intelligent. Caleb Carr probably regrets being associated with this BOMB.