Product Description

BASED ON THE FILM FROM THE ACCLAIMED DIRECTOR OF AUTO FOCUS AND AFFLICTION, AND FROM THE WRITER OF THE ALIENIST

In the aftermath of World War II, Lankester Merrin finds himself in the remote Turkana region of Kenya. Haunted by memories of the war, he has taken a sabbatical from the priesthood and journeyed far from his native Holland. He has come to lead the archaeological excavation of a mysterious, Byzantine church, buried in pristine condition as if on the day it was completed. Directly underneath the church, Merrin discovers a much more ancient crypt -- and finds himself face-to-face with unspeakable Evil.

Madness descends on the local villagers and the contingent of British soldiers sent to guard the excavation. Merrin watches helplessly as the atrocities of war are repeated against another innocent village -- atrocities he'd hoped to never see again. The blood of innocents flows freely on the East African plain, but the horror has only just begun....

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1219879 in Books
• Published on: 2003-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 256 pages

About the Author
Steven Piziks is a new voice in the Star Trek universe. His previous science fiction novels include Corporate Mentality and In the Company of Mind for Baen.

Customer Reviews

They should concentrate on being scary, instead of gross
I bought this book because I wanted to find out what the movie would be like. Of course, this is a novelization of the movie. I am pleasantly surprised and disappointed.

First off, the novel being a novelization is not as deep as real novel. We don't learn that much about the characters. It's basically a screenplay of the movie. Hence, it is sometimes really hard to care about the characters, especially the ones that get killed and there is a lot of killing. There are also a lot of people that get touched by possession, but not truly possessed. They go crazy, hallucinate, kill and die but since, we don't really care about them, who cares.

Second, this book is overkill on the gross stuff. Flys, maggots, hyenas, crows are everywhere. Flys come out of a man's boils. A woman has stillborn child with maggots in the afterbirth. A guy hallucinates that his butterfly collection has come to life. A butterfly crawls out of his mouth. He kills himself. There are at least 3 vomiting scenes. And why? What are the filmakers thinking? Is the demon Candyman on crack? This stuff is not really scary it is just gross for grossness sake. I really hope they cut a lot of crap out of the movie.

However, this story is interesting and very atmospheric. All the stuff about the church and why it was made is capitavating. The demon is captivating too and so is father Merrin. Their battle at the end of the book is a really good one. Unfortunately, getting to that battle is an uneven journey. They really needed to concentrate on characters such as Sara and Bessian. I would have like to seen Bessian first go into the church and release the demon, or chant the spell on the spiral alter. We don't see any of that. Instead we get a couple of over-the-top evil characters, one with boils all over his face and one a quick to kill general. Both die, but why? You would think the devil would want to keep them around. There is another priest in the book besides Merrin. His role is a rip off father Karras from the origianl and we really don't learn that much about him. Of course, he battles the demon too. But looses big time with an ancient sword in his chest.

Overall, the movie is probably going to be pretty good, especially the battle at the end. The mysteries are good and I'm sure the special effects will be good. But be prepared to be more grossed out then scared. This will be a standard horror movie for a lot of people.

Mostly good
An enjoyable read, but differs on key points with the film.
Yes, I know, different genres, so different methods and ways to an end.
Anyways, there is enough crossover with the film to wonder why the writer was not kept up with the script changes. Personally I liked the way some scenes at least gave a background to actions, even if a "madeup" reason is given. However, the visual stun that the opening section of the film gives is just superb, and the writer could at least have delivered something just as powerful. And yes, the film has gross scenes, so the book delivers on some of those, but still , as a novelisation it could at least have followed a first person narrative method to convey the film in a much better way. Still, worth the read.