Nomads

Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: Contrary to what another post has stated (and I also added this to my review of the film on dvd) this is not actually an original novel, but rather a "novelization" of an original screenplay. A novelization is an adaptation of another pre-existing work in the form of a novel. Many times a novelization will apper in print before the film is completed because the parties involved will provide the novelist with a screenplay sometimes even before filming begins. As a result, many novelizations feature scenes which were later cut, either during early preproduction, as the film was shot, or in post production on the editing floor. The second physical page of the paperback (not actually numbered page 2, but the second page (third facing page) of the book states very clearly below the title Nomads: "Novelization by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro From a screenplay by John McTiernan."


As for the book itself, it is written with amazing clarity for such a surreal and complicated subject. Yarbro brings to life the inner world of Jean-Charlse in a way the film did not or could not. And overall Yarbro provides a much meatier and more easily understood narrative than McTiernan's screenplay. But then, this is the nature of the novel. The novel can enter, disect, revel and relish details and thoughts and emotions the way a 90 minute film can not.
If you are a horror fan you won't be disappointed, and if you are a fan of the film you simply must read this novelization, it is superb.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent novel but not based on the movie!
Review: This is a fascinating novel really engrossing and riveting. I love the darkness and terror without the whole blood and guts approach of so many horror writers. The characters a really well written and you truly feel for them as they go through hell and back.
With an interesting premise of using the people that have no face to mainstream crowds in this world and turning them into something completley sinister.
Was made into a film in 1986 that is also interesting but isn't nearly as good as the book mostly becuase they just didn't explain enough of what was going on and left viewers who hadn't read the book very confused.
Contrary to a prior review this is NOT based on the movie but was written several years before(This was published in 1984, which means it was written at least a year earlier than that as opposed to the films release in 1986)I have a first printing and it makes no mention of a screenplay as I recall or that a movie is forthcoming as most screenplay novels do.

Rating:
Summary: Nice contemporary horror
Review: This is the book based on the John McTiernan's film (not the opposite), and I found it much more interesting that other Yarbro's books (as the overpaged Hyacinths). If you like contemporary fantasy/horror as Lucius Shephard's "Green Eyes" or DeLint's "Little Country", you may like this.