Deb brought a bag of books to the last Pirate meeting and among them was Dead Until Dark, the first of the Sookie Stackhouse books which the new TV show True Blood is based on. Since I'm keen on the show, I snagged the book.
Right now I'm about half way through the book. Far enough to see how closely the TV show generally is, and where the differences are. There are a few things where I'm interested to see how it works out, logistically, in the book because it's different - namely, the show has revealed the killer and there are some basic details in that regard where, in the book, my first thought was, "really?"
We'll see how it plays out with the book in the end, but overall, I have to confess I'm liking the TV version a little better. Mainly for two reasons:
1. The book is 1st person and Sookie's kinda annoying. Most of her commentary is fine, funny even, but there are definite "I'm so adorable" moments, which are irritating.
2. The book does a little bit of over-explaining at times where the TV show streamlines and sometimes combines things by sneaking one sentence of explanation into a scene that's got some action, instead of having a whole paragraph of just exposition in the book. It's, in short, a classic example of showing instead of telling.
Because they're two different media, it's no big mystery why some characters and scenes got expanded in the show, but it's interesting to see the other changes and think about why they were made.
P.S. Also in my stack from Deb, Fool Moon by Jim Butcher, aka the series which birthed the show The Dresden Files. I think I might have to read that one next.
1 comment:
You know...I actually find Sookie a little annoying in the series too.
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