I read it, but I don't know if I liked it.  Heck, I'm not sure that over the course of the book if I ever really figured out what was going on.  Nevertheless, I would still recommend it for those guys who can handle rough language and weird situations.

John Dies In the End is the story of David Wong, a young man who happens to gotten involved with mysterious dark forces seeking to take over our world.  First, it seems like a simple case of a few hauntings and vision he sees after ingesting some weird soy sauce-type stuff.  But then it gets weird.  Lovecraftian weird.  His dog explodes, but comes trotting up merrily afterwards.  A trip to a self-improvement guru in Vegas ends up with him and his buddies dressed as the band "Elton John" and a vortex sucking in a bunch of people who turn out to never have existed.

Possible dimensional travel, demons and a monster called "Korrok" all mix together and leave a confusing trail of oddities.  I can't say it all makes sense, but it's an entertaining enough read, with the author bring a fair amount of irreverence, much like his work on Cracked.com, which I've referenced a couple of times before, and of which David Wong is the senior editor.

A sequel is due out in October called This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously Dude, Don't Touch It.

It will eventually be released as a film that will likely become a cult hit.

I've never been super keen on short stories.  I don't have any particular reason for this to be so, but the medium never clicked with me.  And yet I like science fiction, and classic science fiction was often born of short stories, often published in digest magazines that collected and serialized works.  Lots of famous sci-fi authors had their debut this way, Philip K. Dick being one of the more notable. 

Dick is probably most well known for Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which became 1982's Blade Runner, but there have also been a few films over the years that have been drawn from his short stories, including Minority Report, Paycheck, Screamers, The Adjustment Bureau and Total Recall (1990 version with Ahnold and the upcoming Colin Farrell verison). These stories have been collected many times in various permutations under various titles, with reprints often following the release of yet another movie version.

His work is quite varied.  His early career starts of as pretty straight forward action/sci-fi with twisting plots that often revolve around messing with technology, sort of mad-scientist kind of stuff (just look at the movies I listed aobve), but gradually gets more cerebral and philosophical later in his career.  The short stories are a great entry into his body of work for that reason, and that it's easy to skip the boring ones to move on the more exciting plots.  Not all of it is gold, but with dozens of stories, there's usually something for everyone (or at least every type of sci-fi fan).  As usual, I wouldn't

There are many collections, but I recommend: 

We Can Remember It for You Wholesale
Second Variety
The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford
Minority Report

These are a good start, and doesn't even cover his long form fiction which I'm not so quick to recommend.  Maybe I'll get into that some other day.

You may have noticed that I've reviews a number of video game tie-in novels, and that I have liked some far more than others.  It got me thinking: are tie-in novels even worth it, whether they are based on games, movies, TV series, or whatever? 

I've found that there are a few different kinds and they vary greatly in quality.  I thought I'd go through them, in order of average quality, starting with the worst kind.

Novelizations

These are the books that a pretty much straight recreations of original property.  The Assassin's Creed novels are an illustrative (I'd say good, but it isn't) example, as are most Hollywood blockbuster tie-ins.  They are usually not particularly good.  Authors are forced to keep to the plot, which can prove difficult since movies are obviously a visual medium, with complete different rules of pacing.  Sometimes there can be a certain pleasure in these if you take them a face value: low budget, quick turnaround, pulp throwaways.  Think of them as the Harlequins of tie-in novels.

Expanded Universe 

I borrow this term from the Star Wars novels, games, comics, and TV series, but it applies perfectly.  These are usually better than the novelizations I mention above.  The authors usually have some degree of freedom to create their own stories and often, their own characters.  They aren't tied directly to onscreen action, so can explore more in depth thoughts and motivations that would otherwise seem to intrude on familiar stories. These include prequels, sequels and other companion pieces. Sometimes the connection to the source material is obvious, but often the connection is slight, where almost nothing of the original works is mentioned. Some series include both Expand Universe material and Novelizations.  The difference in quality is usually pretty big.

Star Wars is the biggest example, but Star Trek, Halo, Mass Effect, and pretty much anything else with a big following.


Books that become films/games

These are books that get made into other media. Obvious examples are the big film releases like Hunger Games, Twilight, Lord of the Rings, Fight Club, Slumdog Millionaire, Moneyball, The Lorax, etc.  Need I go on?  Yes, since some books are made into video games, not movies.  Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six, Alice in Wonderland, the Biblical Apocrypha, and even the life of Frederic Chopin (really!).

Heck, even the first two Die Hard movies was based on books.


As with any books, quality is often a matter of opinion, but these ones are usually not terrible.



Are they worth it?

I know it's a sweeping generalization, but boys like movies and video games, and boys who don't like to read very much often don't simply because they don't feel like investing in something unfamiliar.  Tie-ins give that opportunity to look deeper into something they may already know and love.  I don't want to suggest that they will move on to something better, since that's kind of insulting, but it might encourage them to broaden their horizons.

Don't discount these tie-ins as cheapo junk (even if they sometimes are).  If they get someone who wouldn't otherwise reading, it's worth it.

Seventeen-year-old Jack London dreams of striking gold, just like all the other men and women traveling to Yukon. He willingly embarks on a treacherous journey across the wild north through blizzards and mountains and raging rivers, all the while keeping his optimism and enthusiasm for what he considers an adventure, but little did he know that the wilderness has something else in store for him, and he is going to find out who really is Jack London, if he survives the ordeals.

I sneaked a peek at the plot prior to reading (really, why do I do that all the time to give myself expectations?), and I knew the authors have weaved in a couple legends, and this survival story will turn supernatural. The first hundred pages or so are well written, and it will thrill many readers that enjoy this type of story, but it's not really my cup of tea, so I was anxiously waiting for something "different" to happen. Once the story takes that strange turn though, I find myself wishing that Jack is back fighting nature. The wolf as Jack's spiritual guide doesn't quite work for me.  I don't mind the inclusion of the Wendigo, a flesh-eating monster, but it almost comes in too late in the book. Also, I prefer one scary villain, but the attention is divided when Jack encounters of the temptress Lesya and has to find a way to escape, and the subplot takes away the horror of the Wendigo.

Even though the book is marketed to teens and upper-elementary kids, it reads more like an adult book. It's difficult to like a book when the main character is not someone you particularly care to root for. Also not quite sure if Jack London fans will want to read this because of the strange mixture of fantasy and historical. 

Allegedly a movie deal has already been made, and the sequel Sea Wolves will come out in Feb 2012.
Author websites: Christopher Golden • Tim Lebbon