ABYSS

Rating:
Summary: Read this and you won't have to bother with the movie.
Review: And that's a pretty strange recommendation to make for a movie novelization, it's supposed to be the other way around. Following writer/director James Cameron's recommendation to write a real novel based on his story rather than just write it in narrative form (which so many writer-for-hire types do) Orson Scott Card crafted a well thought out expansion of the film's story. In addition to having the pre-special edition cut sequences (which go a long way in explaining the abyss's residents motivations and such) Card also contributes some welcome background material for the main characters. In an interesting note about the novel's origins (it was written during filming) Card shares that Cameron actually had the principle actors read their individual character's background material from Card's early drafts to better understand the inner workings he wanted communicated in their performances. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Bear Hugs
Review: I haven't written a book review since college many years ago.
The reason I decided to write this one is because it truly touches your heart & soul. Like pg. 21 Living Each Day As If It's Your Last. In my field of work I often hear people say if only...
(and now it's too late)this has made me stop & think of things I wish I had done. However this book really speaks to you & helps you put what is important to you in perspection.
There are so many other affirmations & poems that I believe everyone could relate to. This book is easy to read and will leave you in deep thought on some pages & smiles on the next!
The title fits perfectly!

Rating:
Summary: Bear Hugs
Review: I haven't written a book review since college many years ago.
The reason I decided to write this one is because it truly touches your heart & soul. Like pg. 21 Living Each Day As If It's Your Last. In my field of work I often hear people say if only...
(and now it's too late)this has made me stop & think of things I wish I had done. However this book really speaks to you & helps you put what is important to you in perspection.
There are so many other affirmations & poems that I believe everyone could relate to. This book is easy to read and will leave you in deep thought on some pages & smiles on the next!
The title fits perfectly!

Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: I loved the first three chapters about Lindsay,
Bud and Coffey. Mr Card did a great job on show showing
how events that happened to them as children
shaped them into the adults they became.

Rating:
Summary: This book is on my all time top 10 list...
Review: I saw the movie first and really, really liked it.

I then read the book because I've liked some of the author's other works. It complements the movie. Having watched the movie first didn't detract from the book at all.

I gave the book to my Dad. I think he would give it a similar review. It made him cry. (OK, it made me cry too.)

My Dad didn't see the movie until after reading the book. He really liked the movie too. How often can you say that about a book and its movie? I say you haven't fully experienced this story until you've both read the book and seen the movie.

It's a great story. James Cameron told the story using film and special effects. Orson Scott Card told the story using prose.

What a shame this book is out of print. It's worth the effort to track down a copy.

Rating:
Summary: What a wonderful book
Review: My father and I both read this before the movie came out. I believe the book was released a few months before the movie. Anyway, when the movie came out, we were both very disappointed by the ending. Now that the director's cut has been released with the full ending in it, our faith in James Cameron has been renewed. From the start though, we have always loved the novelization by Mr. Card.

Rating:
Summary: More Orson Scott Card sci fi!
Review: Orson Scott Card is one of my favorite authors, and in some recent Amazon-surfing, I was delighted to discover this Card novel that I'd never heard of. I got a used copy, and I really enjoyed it. The book is based on the 1989 movie "Abyss" by James Cameron, who did "Aliens," "Titanic," and the "Terminator" movies. It's about a deep-sea mission, some cool aliens, and a bunch of interesting people, their relationships, and their deepest personal struggles. I'll probably rent the movie eventually, though I'm guessing I won't like it nearly as much as the book, since a movie can't explore the characters in the same depth.

(A similar undersea sci fi adventure is Michael Crichton's "Sphere," which I didn't like, but the average customer review is 4.5 stars, so if you're into thrillers, you might like it. And I highly recommend most anything by Orson Scott Card, especially "Ender's Game," one of the best science fiction novels ever, and, if you're into religion, "Stone Tables," which is a novelization of the life of Moses.)

Rating:
Summary: Ron's Review of "The Abyss" novel.
Review: The cover of this book caught my eye the day I moved from Hawaii to San Francisco, so I bought it and was totally absorbed in the story for the entire 6 hour flight! This was before the movie had been released, but the novel's cover indicated that it would soon be in the theatres and I thought: "If the movie stays true to the book, then WOW! How Flawless that would be!"...of course, that wasn't the case...(but the book is a MUST READ!!!)
At anyrate, the books themes and morals dealing with humanity's arrogance, ignorance, nuclear-war capabilities and our potential to "love", truly struck home for me...I was moved to tears. This was the first time all those issues were brought together in such a manner that this novel literally helped me to adopt a new attitude about myself, this planet, other lifeforms and the due respect we need to have for all of it! This novel should be used in schools to help teach kids the important values it contains! Way to go Orson!

Rating:
Summary: A Novel that adds a whole new dimension to the Movie
Review: The dusk jacket of this novel takes great pains to explain that this is "A Novel by Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Author Orson Scott Card based on an original screenplay by James Cameron." That lengthy description is important because it is trying to make it crystal clear that this is NOT a "novelization" of a screenplay, and to give you some idea what a unique and exquisite book you are reading. Card provides an entirely new dimension to Cameron's screenplay.

I still think the Abyss is James Cameron's best movie, Oscar winning block busters aside, although that other film certainly proves water is his natural element. Displeased with the "cursory, mediocre, often inaccurate, and sometimes downright reprehensible" novelizations he had already read of his films, Cameron determined there would be a NOVEL. In a totally unique process, Card worked from videotapes of the film as the editing progressed, updating his manuscript as scenes were changed, added or cut. In addition to covering everything you see in the film version of "The Abyss," Card made two significant contributions to the story in his novel.

First, he wrote chapters focusing on the three main characters of Buddy, Linsey and Coffee. Each chapter goes back to when they were kids and relates the seminal events that made them the people they grew up to be and brought them to the setting of this story. Cameron was so impressed with these chapters that before filming began he gave them to Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (and you have to wonder what Michael Biehn would have done with the background on Coffey). Second, Card works in the entire story from the side of the alien beings, explaining what they are doing and thinking even when they are not around the humans on Deepcore. Things that you wondered about in the film (How could Coffey survive that great depth and cut the right wire?) will be made clear and the additional scenes add great depth to the film (intentional pun).

It is because of this added dimension that I think you will best enjoy this book after you have seen the film and more specifically the Special Edition or Director's Cut of the film. Of course, I can certainly appreciate that fans of Orson Scott Card might pick up "The Abyss" without any care about the movie. This is not a bad thing either because Card is a first rate imaginative writer, as he has proven from "Ender's Game" to "Enchantment." If you loved the movie, you will love the book. You do not want to miss out on this one.

Rating:
Summary: A Novel that adds a whole new dimension to the Movie
Review: The dusk jacket of this novel takes great pains to explain that this is "A Novel by Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Author Orson Scott Card based on an original screenplay by James Cameron." That lengthy description is important because it is trying to make it crystal clear that this is NOT a "novelization" of a screenplay, and to give you some idea what a unique and exquisite book you are reading. Card provides an entirely new dimension to Cameron's screenplay.

I still think the Abyss is James Cameron's best movie, Oscar winning block busters aside, although that other film certainly proves water is his natural element. Displeased with the "cursory, mediocre, often inaccurate, and sometimes downright reprehensible" novelizations he had already read of his films, Cameron determined there would be a NOVEL. In a totally unique process, Card worked from videotapes of the film as the editing progressed, updating his manuscript as scenes were changed, added or cut. In addition to covering everything you see in the film version of "The Abyss," Card made two significant contributions to the story in his novel.

First, he wrote chapters focusing on the three main characters of Buddy, Linsey and Coffee. Each chapter goes back to when they were kids and relates the seminal events that made them the people they grew up to be and brought them to the setting of this story. Cameron was so impressed with these chapters that before filming began he gave them to Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (and you have to wonder what Michael Biehn would have done with the background on Coffey). Second, Card works in the entire story from the side of the alien beings, explaining what they are doing and thinking even when they are not around the humans on Deepcore. Things that you wondered about in the film (How could Coffey survive that great depth and cut the right wire?) will be made clear and the additional scenes add great depth to the film (intentional pun).

It is because of this added dimension that I think you will best enjoy this book after you have seen the film and more specifically the Special Edition or Director's Cut of the film. Of course, I can certainly appreciate that fans of Orson Scott Card might pick up "The Abyss" without any care about the movie. This is not a bad thing either because Card is a first rate imaginative writer, as he has proven from "Ender's Game" to "Enchantment." If you loved the movie, you will love the book. You do not want to miss out on this one.