Customer Reviews

Merian C. Cooper's King Kong: A Novel

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This is a fabulous novelization of the 1933 classic movie that most people know retells the story Beauty and the Beast except in this case as one of prime characters filmmaker Carl Denhan says at the end "Beauty killed the beast". The exhilarating story line adheres to the plot of the film yet embellishes it with a deeper look at the events that occur in the movie starting with Carl's last second finding of "Beauty" in 1932 Manhattan, the voyage to Skull Island, meeting and capturing Kong, and the climax on the Empire State Building. A short forward on the filmmaker Merrian C. Cooper adds depth to a delightful rendition that fans of the mighty Kong will want to read as this reviewer did with euphoric enjoyment.

Harriet Klausner

King Kong (6.75 hrs, six CDs, audio theater, Full Cast Audio) is done in a radio style, multi-cast production. It harkens back to the golden age of radio in its style and scope, which is one of its great points to enjoy this piece.

Director Bruce Coville brings a sorta classic noir of excitement and thrills that you would feel with the original film or an old Lux Radio Theater presenation.

You can feel the heat of the jungle coming through the
microphone. You hear Kong's breath and you buy it all with the
theater of the mind. The unique audio experience gives you more
than a feel for the film than any CGA effects on the movie
screen.

Multi cast audio is a special taste like old radio is, so it may not be suitable for all needs-However IT WORKS FOR ME!


A personal note to full cast audio staff, when are you doing a multi casted version of the horror classics of Shelly's Frankenstein or Stoker's Dracula? . . . If it is as good as Kong,you will have another winner on your hands.

Bennet Pomerantz, AUDIOWORLD

I bought this item "blind," meaning I couldn't inspect it to see if it was what I was expecting.

First, a little background:
DeVito and Strickland put out a large hardcover illustrated book called KONG, KING OF SKULL ISLAND. It was a prequel and sequel to the original KING KONG novel. Naturally, I wanted to have the original novel so the two could be a "set," so my expectations of this book were as follows:

A hardcover book that was the same size as KONG, KING OF SKULL ISLAND, and lushly illustrated with new art by DeVito. I also expected it to have the original 1932 text by Delos W. Lovelace.

Those were my expectations, now here's what it actually is:

The book is only available in paperback and is about 3/4 of the size of KING OF SKULL ISLAND. The illustrations are sparse, most of which are partial-page black and white pencil sketches. That's not the worst part. The illustrations in this book are LEFTOVERS not used in KONG, KING OF SKULL ISLAND. The nicely done cover of Kong on the Empire State Building is not used in the interior at all, and key scenes begging for a picture in an "illustrated edition" don't have one.

Oh, and the original Lovelace text? Not here. Oh, some of it is here, but Strickland had to rewrite the story so this could be a joint follow-up to KKOSI, but it looks and feels like a rush job.

So don't buy this book thinking it is either the original 1932 novelization, or a worthy companion to KONG, KING OF SKULL ISLAND, because it is neither.

This book is an artful rewrite of the original story and much easier to read. Let's face it, unless you are a hard core pulp fan, the dated style of the '32 version can make it very difficult to read and enjoy fully. This book solves that problem very nicely and then some. There are exciting differences between the King Kong novel and the 1933 movie, particularly a battle between Kong and three triceratops that leads up to the log scene. On top of those there are many new details in this book that I really enjoyed.

of this novel which has achieved with the written word what shodesak and cooper sought to achieve with kong on film: the most original, natural and organic continuation to "the lost world" that does not actually use the same characters and locations. while the pace of the adventure is indeed brisk, the emphasis on accurate science and the desire to explore skull island deeper and deeper, result in the conan-doyle-esque atmosphere. i wish however that we would see more books about kong from mr.devito, such as a sequel to kong: king of skull island

I purchased this book, randomly. I did not know if it was actually based on the classic 1933 film, or what. As it turns out, this is a rewrite of Merian C. Cooper's original novel, which was written the year before the movie came out. Yeah, I never knew that either. Anyway, it's equally as interesting as the actual film so, if you liked the movie, you need to read this book. I highly recommend it to all adventure novel lovers!