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Doom
Solo un battito di ciglia separa il deserto del Nevada dal deserto di Marte. Il portale: Olduvai, folgorante transito inter-dimensionale, retaggio di una enigmatica tecnologia aliena. Ma quando uno scienziato troppo temerario compie l'esperimento sbagliato, è l'inferno a scatenarsi nella remota stazione marziana. Toccherà a Sarge, Grimm, Kid e agli altri membri di una micidiale squadra di élite dei Marines spaziali scendere nell'abisso, affrontando in prima persona la battaglia dell'apocalisse.
DA UN VIDEOGAME LEGGENDARIO, UN HORROR-THRILLER ADRENALINICO
* supplemento a Urania # 1519
DA UN VIDEOGAME LEGGENDARIO, UN HORROR-THRILLER ADRENALINICO
* supplemento a Urania # 1519
232 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
14 people are currently reading
134 people want to read
About the author
John Shirley
312 books455 followersJohn Shirley won the Bram Stoker Award for his story collection Black Butterflies, and is the author of numerous novels, including the best-seller DEMONS, the cyberpunk classics CITY COME A-WALKIN', ECLIPSE, and BLACK GLASS, and his newest novels STORMLAND and A SORCERER OF ATLANTIS.
He is also a screenwriter, having written for television and movies; he was co-screenwriter of THE CROW. He has been several Year's Best anthologies including Prime Books' THE YEAR'S BEST DARK FANTASY AND HORROR anthology, and his nwest story collection is IN EXTREMIS: THE MOST EXTREME SHORT STORIES OF JOHN SHIRLEY. His novel BIOSHOCK: RAPTURE telling the story of the creation and undoing of Rapture, from the hit videogame BIOSHOCK is out from TOR books; his Halo novel, HALO: BROKEN CIRCLE is coming out from Pocket Books.
His most recent novels are STORMLAND and (forthcoming) AXLE BUST CREEK. His new story collection is THE FEVERISH STARS. STORMLAND and other John Shirley novels are available as audiobooks.
He is also a lyricist, having written lyrics for 18 songs recorded by the Blue Oyster Cult (especially on their albums Heaven Forbidden and Curse of the Hidden Mirror), and his own recordings.
John Shirley has written only one nonfiction book, GURDJIEFF: AN INTRODUCTION TO HIS LIFE AND IDEAS, published by Penguin/Jeremy Tarcher.
John Shirley story collections include BLACK BUTTERFLIES, IN EXTREMIS, REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY WEIRD STORIES, and LIVING SHADOWS.
source: Amazon
He is also a screenwriter, having written for television and movies; he was co-screenwriter of THE CROW. He has been several Year's Best anthologies including Prime Books' THE YEAR'S BEST DARK FANTASY AND HORROR anthology, and his nwest story collection is IN EXTREMIS: THE MOST EXTREME SHORT STORIES OF JOHN SHIRLEY. His novel BIOSHOCK: RAPTURE telling the story of the creation and undoing of Rapture, from the hit videogame BIOSHOCK is out from TOR books; his Halo novel, HALO: BROKEN CIRCLE is coming out from Pocket Books.
His most recent novels are STORMLAND and (forthcoming) AXLE BUST CREEK. His new story collection is THE FEVERISH STARS. STORMLAND and other John Shirley novels are available as audiobooks.
He is also a lyricist, having written lyrics for 18 songs recorded by the Blue Oyster Cult (especially on their albums Heaven Forbidden and Curse of the Hidden Mirror), and his own recordings.
John Shirley has written only one nonfiction book, GURDJIEFF: AN INTRODUCTION TO HIS LIFE AND IDEAS, published by Penguin/Jeremy Tarcher.
John Shirley story collections include BLACK BUTTERFLIES, IN EXTREMIS, REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY WEIRD STORIES, and LIVING SHADOWS.
source: Amazon
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
August 14, 2011
Doom / 9781416524106
If there's anything I enjoy as a guilty pleasure more than B-list video-game-inspired movies, it's *novelizations* of B-list video-game-inspired movies. "Doom" by John Shirley does the best it can with the screenplay for the fairly lukewarm movie, but the flaws haven't been shined away entirely.
So what is done well here? The character of John "Reaper" Grimm carries the plot here as bravely as he did in the movie: his personal demons stemming from his childhood and the death of his parents is delved into more deeply and to good effect. The interplay between John and his sister Samantha is also extremely well done, and Shirley does a very good job of showcasing realistic sibling rivalry alongside the ties of family loyalty. The wet, sticky, icky horror of the movie carries over nicely, although the horror climaxes in the first chapter and then steadily decreases (in my opinion) as the guys with guns show up. Still, as a horror/scifi novel, it's a good showing and I can't complain too much.
Whether or not you enjoy the novel will depend a lot on your tolerance for camp. The novel dumps a barrel full of marines onto the scene and then decides to characterize them later on when it can work it in, and whenever the horror action grinds to a literal halt to fill in a marine's backstory with pages of childhood flashbacks, it's a pretty good bet that his number is about to be up. Classic TV Tropes RetIrony material here, and I partly enjoyed it, but there's a flashback VERY late in the novel that goes on for pages and it strained the limits of my patience -- you can't decide to characterize someone 85% into the novel just because you've decided their card is up and expect the reader to go along with the ride.
"Doom" definitely isn't going to stand the test of time with statements that were already out-of-date when the screenplay came out and which are repeated here, such as Samantha Grimm's ignorance of the Human Genome project and I'm pretty sure that "identical" isn't an option for mixed-sex twins -- something she fails to mention as what would have been a good come-back. Even so, I found myself occasionally charmed by the characters and dialogue, especially the John/Sam and Duke/Sam scenes.
It's worth noting that I purchased this book as an eBook and at time of writing (08/13/2011), the book contains more than a couple OCR errors and formatting issues -- there are cases where quotes were rendered in the text as '???', which is very annoying. There were also several sentences where a word was missing or an extra word was added -- I have no idea if these errors are in the paper version as well as the eBook copy.
If you like pulp horror and/or B-list video-game-inspired movie novelizations, you could do worse things with your money than buy "Doom", but I do recommend finding it for a bargain price.
~ Ana Mardoll
If there's anything I enjoy as a guilty pleasure more than B-list video-game-inspired movies, it's *novelizations* of B-list video-game-inspired movies. "Doom" by John Shirley does the best it can with the screenplay for the fairly lukewarm movie, but the flaws haven't been shined away entirely.
So what is done well here? The character of John "Reaper" Grimm carries the plot here as bravely as he did in the movie: his personal demons stemming from his childhood and the death of his parents is delved into more deeply and to good effect. The interplay between John and his sister Samantha is also extremely well done, and Shirley does a very good job of showcasing realistic sibling rivalry alongside the ties of family loyalty. The wet, sticky, icky horror of the movie carries over nicely, although the horror climaxes in the first chapter and then steadily decreases (in my opinion) as the guys with guns show up. Still, as a horror/scifi novel, it's a good showing and I can't complain too much.
Whether or not you enjoy the novel will depend a lot on your tolerance for camp. The novel dumps a barrel full of marines onto the scene and then decides to characterize them later on when it can work it in, and whenever the horror action grinds to a literal halt to fill in a marine's backstory with pages of childhood flashbacks, it's a pretty good bet that his number is about to be up. Classic TV Tropes RetIrony material here, and I partly enjoyed it, but there's a flashback VERY late in the novel that goes on for pages and it strained the limits of my patience -- you can't decide to characterize someone 85% into the novel just because you've decided their card is up and expect the reader to go along with the ride.
"Doom" definitely isn't going to stand the test of time with statements that were already out-of-date when the screenplay came out and which are repeated here, such as Samantha Grimm's ignorance of the Human Genome project and I'm pretty sure that "identical" isn't an option for mixed-sex twins -- something she fails to mention as what would have been a good come-back. Even so, I found myself occasionally charmed by the characters and dialogue, especially the John/Sam and Duke/Sam scenes.
It's worth noting that I purchased this book as an eBook and at time of writing (08/13/2011), the book contains more than a couple OCR errors and formatting issues -- there are cases where quotes were rendered in the text as '???', which is very annoying. There were also several sentences where a word was missing or an extra word was added -- I have no idea if these errors are in the paper version as well as the eBook copy.
If you like pulp horror and/or B-list video-game-inspired movie novelizations, you could do worse things with your money than buy "Doom", but I do recommend finding it for a bargain price.
~ Ana Mardoll
June 17, 2019
Вот это настоящий шедевр. Стиль, персонажи, завязка, интрига! Книга во всём лучше "Атлант расправил плечи", но всё равно говно, конечно.
September 23, 2013
I am both a fan of the games and the movie, so I wanted to read the book. Was good and followed the movie quite well, but like most movie novelizations gave much more depth to the story. Had the pov of several different characters, giving them more of a history. I really enjoyed learning about the backgrounds of some of them, as well as their thoughts and feelings, as the movie can only show so much.
April 28, 2020
Sorprendente. Direi proprio che la parola giusta sia "sorprendente".
Quando un romanzo è tratto da un videogioco, le aspettative non dovrebbero essere più che tante. Se poi il gioco in questione è uno sparatutto, la cui trama - e cito il papà di DOOM - è paragonabile a "quella di un porno, c'è perché ci deve essere", uno si aspetterebbe una ciofeca pazzesca. Se ci aggiungiamo pure che in realtà il romanzo è basato sul film tratto dal videogioco, con protagonista The Rock! Cosa dovremmo pensarne?
E invece no! Per realizzare il romanzo basato su DOOM - nello specifico, sul film tratto dal terzo capitolo del videogame - è stato chiamato nientemeno che John Shirley, di cui in passato ho già letto il particolarissimo "Il rock della città vivente", non esattamente il primo scribacchino di passaggio.
C'è da dire che DOOM 3, contrariamente ai suoi predecessori, ha effettivamente una trama passiva - la cosiddetta lore -, il che ha aiutato il film a non essere semplicemente una sequenza di ammazzamenti. Ma Shirley scrive proprio bene ed è stato in grado di rendere alla grande l'atmosfera e l'ignoranza del soggetto, anche meglio di quanto abbia potuto fare il film, perché i suoi personaggi... be', sanno recitare!
Tra l'altro in Italia questo libro è uscito edito da Mondadori per Urania, quindi nemmeno una cosetta casuale, ma la più importante collana a tema fantascientifico della nazione. Quindi consigliato? Sì. Non è un capolavoro e non potrà mai esserlo per forza di cose, ma è leggibile? Lo è. Divertente? Abbastanza divertente. Ben scritto? Assolutamente.
Quindi consigliato!
Quando un romanzo è tratto da un videogioco, le aspettative non dovrebbero essere più che tante. Se poi il gioco in questione è uno sparatutto, la cui trama - e cito il papà di DOOM - è paragonabile a "quella di un porno, c'è perché ci deve essere", uno si aspetterebbe una ciofeca pazzesca. Se ci aggiungiamo pure che in realtà il romanzo è basato sul film tratto dal videogioco, con protagonista The Rock! Cosa dovremmo pensarne?
E invece no! Per realizzare il romanzo basato su DOOM - nello specifico, sul film tratto dal terzo capitolo del videogame - è stato chiamato nientemeno che John Shirley, di cui in passato ho già letto il particolarissimo "Il rock della città vivente", non esattamente il primo scribacchino di passaggio.
C'è da dire che DOOM 3, contrariamente ai suoi predecessori, ha effettivamente una trama passiva - la cosiddetta lore -, il che ha aiutato il film a non essere semplicemente una sequenza di ammazzamenti. Ma Shirley scrive proprio bene ed è stato in grado di rendere alla grande l'atmosfera e l'ignoranza del soggetto, anche meglio di quanto abbia potuto fare il film, perché i suoi personaggi... be', sanno recitare!
Tra l'altro in Italia questo libro è uscito edito da Mondadori per Urania, quindi nemmeno una cosetta casuale, ma la più importante collana a tema fantascientifico della nazione. Quindi consigliato? Sì. Non è un capolavoro e non potrà mai esserlo per forza di cose, ma è leggibile? Lo è. Divertente? Abbastanza divertente. Ben scritto? Assolutamente.
Quindi consigliato!
August 25, 2017
A group of scientists in a research facility on Mars are being hunted by an evil horror from the planet itself. They are able to send a distress signal to Earth and a team of highly trained combat soldiers are sent to Mars to find the missing scientists and end the threat. However, none of them are prepared for what they will find...This novel is based on the film Doom.
John has been estranged from his sister Sam since their parents were killed in the research facility on Mars. Sam followed in their research while John joined the military. Now John has to deal with his sister and his own demons as the team hunt the monsters. He is about to find out what some of the scientists were doing and why they are all missing. Meanwhile, each team member will be in danger and their own personality will determine their fate. There is also the added fun of the deteriorating relationships between Sarge and his soldiers as they deal with the pressure of the situation.
Where the book differs from the film is that there is more background on the team, focusing on the disaster of the last mission they were on and how The Kid came to be the newest member of the team. I did find this quite interesting and it helped to get to know the team members. My favourites in both book and film were Duke and Goat.
I would advise watching the film before reading the book if you can as there are a lot of chase scenes in the dark, with the pairs of soldiers changing quite often, and going back and forwards to the same labs. I could see it being a bit confusing for some readers if you haven't seen the film or played the game. I had seen the film countless times before I read the book as it was not an easy book to get hold of! It was a decent read though and a good horror-scifi read.
John has been estranged from his sister Sam since their parents were killed in the research facility on Mars. Sam followed in their research while John joined the military. Now John has to deal with his sister and his own demons as the team hunt the monsters. He is about to find out what some of the scientists were doing and why they are all missing. Meanwhile, each team member will be in danger and their own personality will determine their fate. There is also the added fun of the deteriorating relationships between Sarge and his soldiers as they deal with the pressure of the situation.
Where the book differs from the film is that there is more background on the team, focusing on the disaster of the last mission they were on and how The Kid came to be the newest member of the team. I did find this quite interesting and it helped to get to know the team members. My favourites in both book and film were Duke and Goat.
I would advise watching the film before reading the book if you can as there are a lot of chase scenes in the dark, with the pairs of soldiers changing quite often, and going back and forwards to the same labs. I could see it being a bit confusing for some readers if you haven't seen the film or played the game. I had seen the film countless times before I read the book as it was not an easy book to get hold of! It was a decent read though and a good horror-scifi read.
August 13, 2014
I can honestly say that I felt like I had the movie reel running through my head as I was reading this. So much more detail about the plot line and the characters that was missing from the film. I feel completely satisfied with my reading experience with this book. 4 out of 5 stars!
January 10, 2015
Okay for a movie adaptation. Maybe better than the movie, but I'm a huge Doom fan, so I may be biased.
August 10, 2015
Despite the fact the movie met with a mixed reception, I think the book is a reasonably good read as a stand alone work of fiction. It may not win many awards, but at the end of the day it's fun.
May 19, 2016
Doom
An exciting story well told that grips the reader. It expands somewhat on the film and adds some needed backstory to the main characters. I recommend this novel.
An exciting story well told that grips the reader. It expands somewhat on the film and adds some needed backstory to the main characters. I recommend this novel.
February 19, 2021
Goes beyond the movie.
February 2, 2025
Surprisingly good book. I was full on prepared to get into some mindless entertaining reading, but I really loved it that the book offered more background to what was going on in the Doom movie.
Language:
I read the German translation, and it was really smooth to read. Definitely want to reread it in English though. I was surprised on how well the "military-language" was conveyed. All characters speak how you would imagine them to speak.
Characters:
Awesome characters. Well written-out, I really loved the background stories you could get to some of the characters. They were believable, some were straight up unlikeable (I'm looking at you, Portman), but well fleshed out, three dimensional characters. Also I love how the two siblings' connection to each other is described.
Pacing:
The pacing was straight up perfect. No boring moments in the book. Even when the characters just talk to each other, it was nice to read. Action happened quick, it was described incredibly well, and it is not easy done.
Conclusion:
I wish there was a second part because when I finished reading, I really did not want to leave yet lol. Hope the reread in English will satisfy my wish for a second novel.
Language:
I read the German translation, and it was really smooth to read. Definitely want to reread it in English though. I was surprised on how well the "military-language" was conveyed. All characters speak how you would imagine them to speak.
Characters:
Awesome characters. Well written-out, I really loved the background stories you could get to some of the characters. They were believable, some were straight up unlikeable (I'm looking at you, Portman), but well fleshed out, three dimensional characters. Also I love how the two siblings' connection to each other is described.
Pacing:
The pacing was straight up perfect. No boring moments in the book. Even when the characters just talk to each other, it was nice to read. Action happened quick, it was described incredibly well, and it is not easy done.
Conclusion:
I wish there was a second part because when I finished reading, I really did not want to leave yet lol. Hope the reread in English will satisfy my wish for a second novel.
December 19, 2021
Better than the movie. But it is the movie. But if it is better than the movie, how is it the movie? And if I'm not the movie reading this, than who am I?...pretty much sums up any movie tie in. At least it explains why some things are the way they are (why did Sarge tell Reaper he can sit out the trip to Mars? Well it is explained in this book!).
June 16, 2020
Ottima fantascienza militare. Pure action.
May 2, 2022
The book surprised me in a pleasant way: Exciting, clearly written, lots of moving parts!
September 8, 2024
Very fun novelization for us Doom fans. Much more character backstory; a great (and superior) companion to the film.
October 20, 2021
This is a novelization of the movie based on the game so I went in with low expectations. I was pleasently surprised. Granted it's still classically bad as such novelizations are especially based on B movies but it's a fun light read. Shirley writes well and although I could've done without some of the similes I felt like I was watching the movie again.
The good: The detailed scenes made me relive the movie. We get a backstory on most of the Marines and how they joined Sarge's squad. The deaths are violent and brutal and pretty horrific. It's a quick light read. The characters themselves are varied and interesting. If you like characters being picked off one by one by mutated zombie creatures this is for you.
The bad: The writing is good but not amazing. Some of the similes are a stretch. Some moments feel dragging and long compared to the movie. It's based off a b movie so the plot isn't the best. I didn't care too much for the ending mostly because I didn't care for the surviving characters. It's a bit unbalanced, giving lengthy descriptions sometimes then brief descriptions other times.
Overall it's not a literary masterpiece but I enjoy the movie and I know it's not for everyone. I just happen to like b horror movies especially when it'sa group of survivors fighting zombies.
The good: The detailed scenes made me relive the movie. We get a backstory on most of the Marines and how they joined Sarge's squad. The deaths are violent and brutal and pretty horrific. It's a quick light read. The characters themselves are varied and interesting. If you like characters being picked off one by one by mutated zombie creatures this is for you.
The bad: The writing is good but not amazing. Some of the similes are a stretch. Some moments feel dragging and long compared to the movie. It's based off a b movie so the plot isn't the best. I didn't care too much for the ending mostly because I didn't care for the surviving characters. It's a bit unbalanced, giving lengthy descriptions sometimes then brief descriptions other times.
Overall it's not a literary masterpiece but I enjoy the movie and I know it's not for everyone. I just happen to like b horror movies especially when it'sa group of survivors fighting zombies.
February 3, 2015
This has to be the worst book I ever read. Shirley manages to copy + paste the entire screenplay of the movie without adding ANYthing to it. No background. No character shaping. No thoughts or feelings. Like, not even accidentally.
Yes, I watched the movie. I know it's basic at best. But this 'novelization' is the worst.
Yes, I watched the movie. I know it's basic at best. But this 'novelization' is the worst.
Read
December 29, 2010Hmm I bought this because I thought I recognised the author as the writer of some enjoyable light weight space opera in the seventies. But nope I must have been mistaken this is as badly written as you could imagine a computer game novelisation to be.
January 8, 2011
adrenalinico ^_^
http://libriecaffelatte.blogspot.com/...
http://libriecaffelatte.blogspot.com/...
January 21, 2016
It seemed true to the movie, which a novelization should be, but the writing wasn't fantastic. It was a decent read for when I wanted something easy to relax with.
November 27, 2015
è...
Esattamente come guardare guardare il film.
Solo con qualche dettaglio in più.
E per fortuna che mi è piaciuto.
Esattamente come guardare guardare il film.
Solo con qualche dettaglio in più.
E per fortuna che mi è piaciuto.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews