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| Pitch Black: A Novel Based on the Screenplay by Jim & Ken Wheat & David Twohy | 
 enlarge | Author: Frank Lauria
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $5.99
Buy Used: $0.02
You Save: $5.97 (100%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 310396
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.3 x 0.3
ISBN: 0312970889
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780312970888
ASIN: 0312970889
Publication Date: February 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A fantastic futuristic thriller of a deadly new frontier.
A rogue comet spears an earth-bound commercial spacecraft, forcing it to plummet to the surface of an unknown planet. With the captain dead, a brave pilot performs a perilous crash landing. Other than three suns-which create perpetual light-and a slight oxygen deficiency, a search party discovers that the planet isn't much different from Earth...until they stumble across a ghostly settlement littered with the human remains of geologists who mysteriously perished exactly sixty years ago. And the most horrific discovery of all: below the surface of the soil, where darkness reigns, live hungry predators with a deadly appetite.
Once every sixty years a solar eclipse darkens the skies and allows the blood-hungry creatures to escape from their underground tomb. With only hours before total blackout, everyone must unite in a race to raise the geologists' abandoned ship before becoming a long-awaited meal...
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 You won't understand Riddick any better, but it may encourage you to see the movie... May 20, 2007
I've seen the movie, The Chronicles of Riddick. The battle and race on Crematoria was as entertaining as sci-fi gets. So when I learned that there was more to the Riddick "saga", a book and a movie (Pitch Black), I decided to read the book first, and catch the movie later. I suspect the book gives no additional insight into the movie because it is based on the Pitch Black screenplay, and not on an original novel (although I've heard there is a connection to a Isaac Asimov short story, Nightfall).
As I read the book, I envisioned Vin Diesel's face and voice throughout. Obviously, I'm contaminated! I also envisioned an exciting movie. Because of the book/screenplay, I look forward to seeing the movie and comparing it to the Chronicles of Riddick.
Here's what I didn't like about the story.
* On a huge, uncharted planet, a crashed spaceship just happens to end up a short walk from an old human mining station. Planets are big entities, you know. Of all the potential sites on Earth, what is the chance that an out of control space vehicle would just happen to land near, say, the Taj Mahal? Not so good. At least in Alien the ship was directed to a particular spot because of the distress beacon!
* What's this with the "dinosaur" boneyard? The bones hadn't fossilized, so they were alive not too many years ago (certainly less than 500 years). So where is all the vegetation that would support such beasts? Are we to believe that the underground predators ate them all?
* Finally, these underground predators... so how does the characteristic of photons causing them to disintegrate evolve? If they evolved underground, then how did wings evolve? And again, how likely was it that this space vehicle just happened to land near the underground colony of these predators?
Finally, I had to point out this paragraph:
"A fetid stench enveloped them like some thick, noxious fog. The stink of diseased, rotting corpses pulled the air from Fry's lungs. Acid bile burned her throat as she abandoned all hope and attacked the blood-greased wall of gutted predators" (p. 166).
As the ads for Southwest Airlines say --- Wanna get away?
 this book is worth reading October 17, 2004
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Pitch Black, Though based on a movie, is the tale of a group of intergalactic Earth bound pilgrims who crash land on an uncharted desert planet. The predicament is only made worse by the fact that an anual event of terror is about to take place. Despite the cliche plot and lackluster dialogue, I found the main charectors, Riddick, an escaped convict, and Captain Fry, the callow ship's pilot, along with the plot to be a roller coaster of turmoil both physically and emotionaly. If I had to rate this book on the scale I'd give it a 4 and a reconmendation as a "lieasure read"
 Unspectacular but Average September 10, 2004
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Lauria's rendition of David Twohy's _Pitch Black_ follows the line of the screenplay extremely closely. Owing to the cinematic style in which it is written, the book is short, weighing in at only about 160 pages, and is possessed of an extremely choppy style.
While a faithful adaptation of the screenplay, the book rarely extends itself beyond what ocurred on-screen. When Lauria does attempt to provide additional exposition, however, he tends to do so at the expense of many things which constitute the core of the story's atmosphere. Riddick, for instance, is portrayed as an ex-commando of sorts framed for murder and subsequently hurled into the hadean world of the prison system; Jack, the young girl masquerading as a boy, is stripped of this central part of her character and unrepentantly renamed Audrey. While as a stand-alone story Lauria's _Pitch Black_ would not have suffered from the alterations to the screenplay's plot, it does not hold up to the later developments revealed by _Dark Fury_ and _The Chronicles of Riddick_. To be fair, though, this is likely the result of ignorance, not carelessness, on Lauria's part, as at the time of the project's inception there seem to have been no plans for a sequel.
From a technical perspective, Lauria's book falls prey to terrible editing. It is likely the single highest concentration of typographical and grammatical errors I have seen in a 160 page book in many years. Additionally, on occasion the names of Imam's young pilgrims shift about. A boy who is among the first to die in the carnage about which the plot swirls briefly reappears in name for a full paragraph toward the end of the story, but just as quickly the character reverts to the name assigned him prior to the blunder. This is not so much the writer's fault as the responsibility of the publishing editor, but the constant interruption provided by distracting and betimes confusing errors nevertheless detracts from the reading experience.
I did not keep this book; it was relegated to the used book store, but in general it attained to the level I have come to expect of media tie-ins.
If you liked the movie you'll like the book. June 30, 2004
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The book is VERY similar to the movie, and I should hope so since it was written after the movie. The one majorly annoying difference to me was that the character we know and love as Jack is named 'Audrey' in the book and is, of course, already known to be a girl which takes away from her character a bit. Otherwise the book was a super quick read because you could picture every scene from the movie perfectly. It helped to flesh out the characters a little more and give some more background which is the reason I bought this book in the first place.
 A Riddick Fan September 7, 2003
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book kicked ... It was great and I loved it! Riddick is one sexy serial killer. It was just as good as the movie and the movie is the best in the world. That's just about it. It was great and I reccomend it 2 everyone and their mothers.
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