The Black Hole [Novelization]
by Alan Dean Foster
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For five years the crew of the Palomino had ranged through deep space searching for evidence of alien life-with no result. Then, their mission almost at an end, they discovered a giant collapsar-the largest black hole ever encountered-and drifting perilously near it was the long-lost legendary starship Cygnus.Tags
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Member Reviews
I didn't realize this was a film novelization when I picked it up, but it did read cinematically. More dialogue and description than characterization, it was quite suspenseful, particularly towards the end. The final scenes were probably better on film, as it was difficult to track what was going on in all the action. The plotting and conceptualization was intriguing and it was a pretty quick read. Overall, satisfying, but not mind blowing. The ending was a bit disappointing, although points for being unexpected.
I loved this movie as a kid, so I read the book back then looking for more dicussion of the metaphysical scenes at the end of the film. I was 9 years old the Christmas the film came out and perhaps a couple of years older when I read the novel, so I am unable to comment with any accuracy about the writing style (I imagine it is a fun read; Alan Dean Foster generally does not disappoint with his movie novelizations.), but I know that when I finished the novel I was disappointed in the ending. I am not sure what I wanted -- perhaps scenes like the ones I would encounter at age 14 when I first read Dante -- but whatever I was expecting, the book carried me only as far along the path as the movie had done.
A bad movie spawned this book, which wasn't much better. The movie featured bad science and poor acting, the book improves on the science a little, and is a little better written than the screenplay. Not worth much except for nostalgia, maybe.
I'm going to have to go back and rewatch the movie but I think the book and film have slightly different interpretations on the ending. Other than that the book is a fairly straight-up version being nearly identical to the film (minus of course the great theatrical score). It was an enjoyable and quick read.
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Author Information
Bestselling science fiction writer Alan Dean Foster was born in New York City in 1946, but raised mainly in California. He received a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA in 1968, and a M.F.A. in 1969. Foster enjoys traveling because it gives him opportunities to meet new people and explore new places and cultures. This interest is carried over to show more his writing, but with a twist: the new places encountered in his books are likely to be on another planet, and the people may belong to an alien race. Foster began his career as an author when a letter he sent to Arkham Collection was purchased by the editor and published in the magazine in 1968. His first novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang, introduced the Humanx Commonwealth, a galactic alliance between humans and an insectlike race called Thranx. Several other novels, including the Icerigger trilogy, are also set in the world of the Commonwealth. The Tar-Aiym Krang also marked the first appearance of Flinx, a young man with paranormal abilities, who reappears in other books, including Orphan Star, For Love of Mother-Not, and Flinx in Flux. Foster has also written The Damned series and the Spellsinger series, which includes The Hour of the Gate, The Moment of the Magician, The Paths of the Perambulator, and Son of Spellsinger, among others. Other books include novelizations of science fiction movies and television shows such as Star Trek, The Black Hole, Starman, Star Wars, and the Alien movies. Splinter of the Mind's Eye, a bestselling novel based on the Star Wars movies, received the Galaxy Award in 1979. The book Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990. His novel Our Lady of the Machine won him the UPC Award (Spain) in 1993. He also won the Ignotus Award (Spain) in 1994 and the Stannik Award (Russia) in 2000. He is the recipient of the Faust, the IAMTW Lifetime achievement award. Alan Dean Foster's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, was a 2015 New York Times bestseller. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Belongs to Publisher Series
Science Fiction Book Club (3705)
Work Relationships
Is an adaptation of
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Black Hole [Novelization]
- Original title
- The Black Hole
- Original publication date
- 1979-11
- People/Characters
- Dan Holland; Kate McCrae; Charlie Pizer; Harry Booth; Vincent (V.I.N.Cent); Dr. Hans Reinhardt (show all 7); Dr. Alex Durant
- Related movies
- The Black Hole (1979 | IMDb)
- Epigraph
- "There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." --Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
"Stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, / Disasters in the sun." --Horatio, Soldier of Denmark - Dedication
- For Unca Walt, who made it all possible, For Joshua Meador, Bill Tytla and Carl Barks, For Unca Scrooge, who made it square, For the Junior Woodchucks of the World and their guidebook and reservoir of inexhaustible knowledge,... (show all) And for their most illustrious threesome: Huey, Dewey, and Louie, who could read microscopic print with the naked eye and who would have enjoyed this book...
- First words
- The Universe bubbled and seethed to overflowing with paradoxes, Harry Booth knew.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Their thoughts spanned infinity, as did their finely which to contemplate the universe they had become...
- Original language
- English
- Disambiguation notice
- There are at least five different book adaptations of the film:
- Alan Dean Foster's novelization
- "The Illustrated Adaptation of the Exciting Film", written by Mary Carey and illustrated by Dan Spiegle, conta... (show all)ining the first two issues of the comic book from Whitman Comics (issues 3 and 4 continued the story in the parallel universe on the other side of the Black Hole)
- "The Black Hole Storybook", adapted by Shep Steneman and with photos from the film
- The storybook record with a read-along book
- A comic book adaptation written by Carl Fallberg and drawn by Jack Kirby
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 872
- Popularity
- 30,879
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (2.91)
- Languages
- 5 — English, French, German, Hungarian, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 12
- ASINs
- 15
