Rating: 
Summary: Breathes new life into an already interesting film
Review: I would like to put in my two cents worth for this tie-in. I feel that this book is just as good....if not better, than the film. The book not only makes the characters multi-dimensional, but also keeps the action rolling page after page.
Frank Lauria's descriptive powers actually put visions in my head of what that planet looked like. Even if I wouldnt have seen the movie first, I would have gotten a nice mind's-eye view.
I could also almost feel the heat and squint at the 3 suns as the survivors trudged on. I felt enveloped in darkness after the planets aligned themselves shutting out all light on the planet.
One of the other things I enjoyed about this book was that you also got a glimpse into the horrific world of the hammer-head beasts. They're pure instinct and have a kill-or-be-killed way of life that Frank Lauria introduces to you. Makes you glad youre travelling along with the humans and not one of them!
The reason I didnt give it a full five stars was because of the shortness of the book (195 pages). However, it did keep pace with the movie and had a few more action shots than the movie did. Well done to Frank Lauria on this tie-in!
Rating: 
Summary: Blackness!
Review: I'm really not into sci. fic., but i must say this has been the best book of that genre i have read! It starts out wtih a space ship making an emergency landing on an unknown planet. There is no darkness on the planet except every 22 yr.s. There are only 11 survivors. One is an escaped convict- Riddich. Then they find night creatures that are hidden benith te ground. But Johns, the bounty hunter who captured Riddich makes him a deal.Riddich will gain his freedom if he helps the survivors off the planet. They are running out of time and an eclipse occurs. Now there is no light. Read on to find out who lives and who dies.........
Rating:
Summary: ANOTHER WINNER FROM THE AUTHOR OF DARK CITY AND END OF DAYS
Review: if Pitch Black the movie is half as good as the novel it will be a sensational box office smash. Frank Lauria ( Mask of Zorro, End of Days, Dark City) has written an extraordinary scifi thriller that grabs the reader from the first page and doesn't let go until the final sentence. A real scorcher of a story!
Rating:
Summary: Pitch Black was outstanding
Review: If you haven't seen the movie yet, then read the book! The graphic details in which are given to you, do give a sur-realistic viewpoint of both the people-as well as the planet. This book is worth the time to read...not to mention the price! Now I will take the time to see the movie-to see if it's portrayal is anything to compare!
Rating: 
Summary: Good writing, but breaks the excellent characters.
Review: If you're a fan of the film Pitch Black, I recommend you keep away from the book. One of the best parts about Pitch Black (movie) is the character development, however the book develops them in a completely different way. Frank Lauria is a talented writer, no doubt, but getting directly inside the head of the characters hurts the story. Explaining their backgrounds, hurts the story. Especially in the case of Riddick. One of the reasons I enjoyed the film so much is that watching the characters, you can interpret their actions, dialogues, and facial expressions so many different ways. You can guess at what they've been through in life to mold them into who they are. The book tells you flat out what they're thinking and where they're from, which strictly forces the story to a single path of interpretation. Perhaps some will prefer this, but I personally found it extremely irritating. Besides the characters, the book has essentially the same story as the movie. Its a short read, shouldn't take more than a couple hours. After reading it though, I'm left trying to fool myself into believing it was nothing more than unofficial fan fiction because I don't want to lose my own interpretations of the characters developed in the film. Again, if you're a fan of the film, I recommend you avoid this. Anything you're "missing" is for the better.
Rating:
Summary: Unspectacular but Average
Review: Lauria's rendition of David Twohy's _Pitch Black_ follows the line of the screenplay extremely closely. Owing to the cinematic style in which it is written, the book is short, weighing in at only about 160 pages, and is possessed of an extremely choppy style.
While a faithful adaptation of the screenplay, the book rarely extends itself beyond what ocurred on-screen. When Lauria does attempt to provide additional exposition, however, he tends to do so at the expense of many things which constitute the core of the story's atmosphere. Riddick, for instance, is portrayed as an ex-commando of sorts framed for murder and subsequently hurled into the hadean world of the prison system; Jack, the young girl masquerading as a boy, is stripped of this central part of her character and unrepentantly renamed Audrey. While as a stand-alone story Lauria's _Pitch Black_ would not have suffered from the alterations to the screenplay's plot, it does not hold up to the later developments revealed by _Dark Fury_ and _The Chronicles of Riddick_. To be fair, though, this is likely the result of ignorance, not carelessness, on Lauria's part, as at the time of the project's inception there seem to have been no plans for a sequel.
From a technical perspective, Lauria's book falls prey to terrible editing. It is likely the single highest concentration of typographical and grammatical errors I have seen in a 160 page book in many years. Additionally, on occasion the names of Imam's young pilgrims shift about. A boy who is among the first to die in the carnage about which the plot swirls briefly reappears in name for a full paragraph toward the end of the story, but just as quickly the character reverts to the name assigned him prior to the blunder. This is not so much the writer's fault as the responsibility of the publishing editor, but the constant interruption provided by distracting and betimes confusing errors nevertheless detracts from the reading experience.
I did not keep this book; it was relegated to the used book store, but in general it attained to the level I have come to expect of media tie-ins.
Rating:
Summary: If you enjoy reading screenplays...
Review: My error, I should have zoomed in on the picture of the book and seen that it was based upon the screenplay. If you want to know the premises behind the movie, by all means read it. If you thought this was the novel upon which the movie was based...forget it.
Rating: 
Summary: book review
Review: Pitch Black This book is about people crash landing on another planet, this takes place in the future. After being on the planet for a few hours they found out that its always daylight. Their mission, before crashing was to deliver a guy to a different prison. The only sign of life on this planet was some old bones that belonged to something enormous creature or mammal, and also a deserted laboratory that was once a building for explorers. But what they didn't know at first was that there was something under the ground, something that lives in dark, and feeds in darkness, something blood crazy. After finding this out they knew they needed to get off the planet, do to the fact that every 22 years there is an eclipse that covers the planet in darkness leaving the creatures to come from below the ground to feed on the surface. There only defense from the creatures were the light and the prison convict because he had his eyes glossed causing him to be able to see in darkness. Their plan was to gather supplies from the other ship and take off in the least destroyed ship.
Rating:
Summary: If you liked the movie you'll like the book.
Review: The book is VERY similar to the movie, and I should hope so since it was written after the movie. The one majorly annoying difference to me was that the character we know and love as Jack is named 'Audrey' in the book and is, of course, already known to be a girl which takes away from her character a bit. Otherwise the book was a super quick read because you could picture every scene from the movie perfectly. It helped to flesh out the characters a little more and give some more background which is the reason I bought this book in the first place.
Rating:
Summary: A Riddick Fan
Review: This book kicked ... It was great and I loved it! Riddick is one sexy serial killer. It was just as good as the movie and the movie is the best in the world. That's just about it. It was great and I reccomend it 2 everyone and their mothers.
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