Although I must have seen the movie a hundred times, this is the first time I came across the book and I snapped it up on first sight. I wasn't disappointed. Like many books adapted to movies, Forbidden Planet adds details that make the story far more engaging. For one thing, the story is told from the POV of main characters, as George R. R. Martin does in the Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) series. I especially liked the portrayal of the doctor and the captain. In the book, the doctor is fortyish and the captain and the rest of the crew are kids to him. On the other hand, they are all old hands at space travel and he's on his first voyage. The book adds several dimensions to the story. It's a quick read, but more than worth the time. ( )

Okay, this is pretty much what I expected for the novelization of a classic 1950s science fiction movie. Silly, clunkily written 2-D space opera. The main plot was fine; pretty similar to the film. It was a quick easy read that moved and, for the most part, made sense. I was rolling my eyes a lot at the "romance," though. Brig-bait and unicorns; that's all you need to know, really. So stupid. Very much of its time and genre. Heaven forbid women actually be real in movies and books aimed at teenage boys. The fragile youth, they can't handle that.

But Robby the Robot is still cool, and the monster and its origin are interesting. The book is more violent than the movie; the reader actually gets to see what the monster does, instead of having the action cut away to appalled facial expressions.

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The novelization of the movie is written in various first person accounts (Morbius, Commander Adams, etc.) It fills in some gaps, but overall is simply inferior to the movie. The biggest difference, for me, is that the movie has a strong sense of original sin - as found in the id (something we tend to lack today), while the book shifts the focus to the Krell and Morbius trying to usurp the power of God (villains frequently are prideful enough to do this, so it is a common theme). So there are some strong religious undertones in both, but a very flavor. ( )