Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been trying to up my reading game, partly by reading more books in general, and partly by trying more books that I wouldn’t normally pick up, like stories in the contemporary genre. It’s been an interesting journey of discovery, finding new favourite books and authors. But one of the biggest surprises to me was discovering movie universe tie-in books. These books are stories set in popular movie universes, such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, following the outside adventures of some of the characters. I’ve read four (well, three and a bit as I’m still reading one currently) so far, and these books have been exceeding my expectations in a lot of ways.
I have tried reading movie to book adaptations before, and let’s just say that it wasn’t my favourite experience. Just as book to screen adaptations don’t always work so well, neither does the reverse. Movies and books have such different ways of telling stories that translating one of the other is a huge task. And movie to book adaptations just don’t work for me. Though maybe I just haven’t read the right ones. In which case, feel free to recommend me some good ones. I’m always more than willing to have my mind changed.
So far, the books set in movie universes that I’ve read (or am reading) are:
- Black Widow | Forever Red
- Black Widow | Red Vengeance
- Wonder Woman | Warbringer
- Leia | Princess of Alderaan
Coming into reading these movie universe books, I was a little apprehensive. Were they going to be as disappointing for me as the film to book adaptations I tried in the past? Were the characters going to feel similar enough to the movie characters I already knew that I was going to feel comfortable with them? How restricted were the stories going to be due to the fact that they are set in the established universe of the movies? I had a lot of questions.
Much to my surprise I enjoyed all of these books. Each handled being in a movie universe a bit differently, but they were all stories that fitted well into these respective canons, and the characters were compelling and familiar enough that I wasn’t put off by their book portrayal. Black Widow’s books appear to be in the MCU as far as I am aware, but plays loosely with the canon, introducing characters not seen on the screen in MCu movies yet, like She-Hulk, and giving us the non-avengers related Black Widow adventures I for one have always wanted to see.
Wonder Woman’s book is less connected to the movies and while it definitely trades off the new familiarity non-comic readers like me have with the character of Wonder Woman thanks to the movie, it appears to be separated from the canon of the movie, allowing Diana more freedom to leave her island, play around in the wider world, and have adventures that the movie set up really doesn’t give her the space for. It’s a cool take, and gives us more Wonder Woman adventures, which is fantastic.
I’m still reading Princess of Alderaan but this is a definite movie tie in. It was published before the release of The Last Jedi and was designed to have hints towards the new movie woven in, which, reading it now, having already seen the movie, is kind of cool. So far (I haven’t finished the book yet), it’s playing well with the severe restrictions placed on it. the book has to play carefully not to upset the established canon of the movies, and has to handle Leia herself very respectfully, as her character is so well known by now. It’s been handling it pretty well so far, and it’s interesting to see how the book foreshadows the events of the movies. It definitely doesn’t quite have the creative freedom that the other books have, but it’s working well inside those restrictions.
I might have been hesitant about these books in the first place, but they have definitely exceeded my expectations. I do like the idea behind the writing of these as well, especially these ones in particular. These are characters that many people want to hear more from. We want to see more of their adventures outside of the movie universes. We want to see these strong female characters get their own chance to be awesome and save the world. And that’s what these books are giving us. If they were poorly written cash grabs playing off movie goers enthusiasm for the characters I would be a lot more skeptical, but well-written, well-presented books that show the authors’ real love for these characters, these are books I approve of.
So that’s where I stand on movie universe tie-in books. I’m definitely looking forward to getting my hands on a few more whenever I can find them in my local library. But I would love to hear from you. What do you think of these books. Have you ever read any books set in a movie universe? What did you think? If you haven’t read any, what do you think of the idea of these books? Do you think you’d ever be tempted to pick one up? Let’s chat!
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