18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pitch Black is a fantastic read, March 11, 2000
I was highly anticipating the release of Pitch Black the movie. I decided to read the book based on the movie first to see if it would meet any of my expectations. All I have to say is that the book is great! Heck, the action/suspense sequences will probably play out better visually so the movie might be even better.
Frank Lauria wrote this adaptation and he did a fine job. The plot is about an interstellar space craft that crash lands onto a desert planet that's surrounded by three suns. Because of this the planet never turns dark except every 22 years during a solar eclipse. The only problem with this is the fact that underneath the ground lay thousands of alien creatures and they're hungry. There are 11 survivors of the ship crash, led by the pilot Caroline Fry. The group's only hope of survival is to move the fuel cells from their damaged spacecraft to another ship in an outpost. The only way they can do that is if they can rely on Richard Riddick, a serial killer who has been captured by a mercenary named Lawrence Johns.
I was surprised by how much character development there was in the book. Fry makes a very complex character as she is conflicted by her emotions. Riddick is perhaps the most interesting. There are two pages in the book that give a summary of his past. It's all very interesting. Apparently, Riddick worked for a company and helped clean out planets of aliens called Smokers. He eventually saw how evil this company actually was and gathered evidence against them. However, the company took away the evidence and put him in a prison. He escaped and stole a space freighter, now becoming an outlaw. It seems all of his kills are actually assassins and mercenaries who want him for the reward they can get. So, it seems Riddick isn't at all an evil person as the tagline might suggest.
The action/suspense scenes are very well written and it makes the book into a true page turner. The ending even slightly surprised and saddened me with a great character's unexpected death. By the way, I don't think Riddick killed this character as some readers of the book seem to think or wonder.
Because of how much I immensely enjoyed reading the book, I look forward to watching the movie. It looks like science fiction is making a come back this year after the atrocious Supernova. Now, what movie (possibly Frequency) will it be to take the bad taste from Mission to Mars out of our mouths?
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Read!, June 5, 2000
Hello Readers. When I saw the movie Pitch Black I was like "WHAO! ". It's a intresting story with plenty of suspence and scary thrills. However the book is a little different. It gives a bit more details on the characters. I love that! Here you will find more background info on Fry, Paris and the unnerving anti hereo of the story, Richard B. Riddick, the felon with the ability to see in the dark due to his surgically altered eyes. It is becuase of this ability that the small group of suvivors from the crashed ship, the Hunter-Gratzner, follow him in hope of escape from the nightmarish monsters that inhabbit the planet they crashed on. A GREAT READ! I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL IT COMES OUT ON DVD!
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
ANOTHER WINNER FROM THE AUTHOR OF DARK CITY AND END OF DAYS, February 16, 2000
if Pitch Black the movie is half as good as the novel it will be a sensational box office smash. Frank Lauria ( Mask of Zorro, End of Days, Dark City) has written an extraordinary scifi thriller that grabs the reader from the first page and doesn't let go until the final sentence. A real scorcher of a story!
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