Cowboys and Aliens by Joan D. Vinge
(published by Tor, 2011, PB, £7.99, out now)
Unlike many books that are deemed good enough to be made into motion pictures, this is a novel that is taken from the movie; a tie-in novel. This, in my opinion, leaves no room for the imagination to run whilst reading. And is quite clearly an extra money-making move for the publishers. I’ve not seen the movie but have heard and read a few reviews; some good, although most average or bad. This didn’t put me off reading this novel, though. I did wonder if perhaps the book might draw more upon the source material (a graphic novel of the same name, by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg). But from the cover it is made very clear that the novelisation is based upon the screenplay by Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman (responsible for the Transformers movies and the recent Star Trek reboot/sequel).
It was very easy to picture the characters, given that I could put faces to them, and credit to the film-makers, the roles are well cast; I could see Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford very clearly. The plot is straightforward: a man wakes in the desert, it is the Wild West of the late 1800’s. He has no memory of how he got there, there is a wound in his side – and there is a strange metal casing around his wrist, apparently indestructible. He wanders into a town called Absolution (make of that pretext what you will…); of the many characters he comes across, one is an ex-alcoholic turned preacher-sheriff and doctor! It is made very clear by the locals that this stranger is not welcome. But, of course, that all changes as soon as the aliens turn up. I’m not ruining anything for you by telling you there are aliens in this book… The stranger brings together a posse (composed of many who previously hated him) and duly they all save the day. And America. And the world.
From a promising start, the novel soon became very predictable, with a narrative that trudged along at a snail’s pace. About two thirds of the way through I had to put it down. I’d tried to immerse myself into the world of Cowboys and Aliens but to no avail. I’d had enough. If the movie is anything like the book, I would see it at your own peril… The book was enough for me.
Grant Knox, Creative Writing student, Edinburgh
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