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(More customer reviews)The Television tie-in holds an unusual place on fiction bookshelves. It could easily be dismissed as commercial fodder designed to cash in on the success of a popular show (which it probably is) but it obviously fills a literary need. Fans, already familiar with a show's concept and characters, often wish to experience more adventures when the show isn't on. In the 1960s there were novels based on "The Invaders," "Get Smart," and "Gunsmoke." In the 70s, "Starsky and Hutch," "Kojak," and "The Six Million Dollar Man" ventured onto the printed page. In recent years, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "The X-Files" have spawned a series of paperbacks. Sometimes these novelisations create different stories from those on television and sometimes, as is the case with this book, the story is a based on an actual episode.
"Millennium" was produced by the creator of "The X-Files" and ran for several seasons on TV before being cancelled a few years ago. The central character, Frank Black was a sort of a psychic profiler. A man who could get inside the mind of the killer he was pursuing. He's was a consultant to The Millennium Group, a secretive organization that investigated bizarre crimes. As the TV series progressed, it unfolded that the Millennium Group were trying to stop (or perhaps start) an apocalypse scheduled for the start of the new millennium. Some brilliant and oddball episodes followed and the supernatural element of the show increased. As with The X-Files, conspiracy theories abounded and Frank Black wasn't sure who to trust. But in the early days of the series, before his world became complicated, Black worked happily with the group and would investigate a different grisly murder each week.
"Gehenna" sees him trying to solve the mystery of a man's ear found in a flower bed.
What does one expect from the adaptation of a television episode? A fan of the show with expert knowledge of each episode would perhaps expect a faithful retelling of that story. On that criteria, "Gehenna" delivers. Readers who saw most episodes (such as myself) would probably expect something similar but be less concerned if it differed from the actual episode. They will find it an entertaining read. Readers who are unfamiliar with the show would probably expect the author to cater for their ignorance and fill in all the gaps for them. They will probably be baffled.
The problem with this book is that it really does expect you to have some familiarity with the series. The TV episodes contained running themes, loose ends and strange tangents which developed as the series progressed. Unfortunately, these are also in the book. Who is committing the murders and why? Is the killer a demon or a man? What is the cult all about? Who is stalking Frank Black? None of these questions are satisfactorily resolved and the story just finishes like one of the TV episodes. Millenium fans may be satisfied with this but others beware.
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The second novelization of the phenomenally popular Fox television series, Millennium.Besides topping the Nielsen's each Friday night, Chris Carter's Millennium is quickly growing a loyal following and a remarkable presence on the Web. HarperPrism will be publishing the only official tie-in novelizations-the perfect companions for some of the most popular episodes.
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