7 Books that Capture that Summer Blockbuster Magic
Seen any good movies lately? The numbers suggest the answer just might be no—for the month of July (prime blockbuster season), box-office receipts are lagging some 30 percent behind last year. While I’d love to call it a referendum on Mark Wahlberg as an action star, that would suggest that there are people out there who would rather Shia LaBeouf had remained with the Transformers franchise, and that’s a truth too terrible to contemplate.
Instead, why don’t we forget going to the movies altogether and read a book instead? What’s that you say: but you love big summer blockbusters? Well, you’ve clicked on the right blog post, because below, I’ve matched 7 of the biggest summer movies of all time with their perfect literary counterparts. The best part is, the special effects will age only as poorly as your imagination.
If you like The Pirates of the Caribbean, read On Stranger Tides, by Tim Powers
Everything the Pirates movies did, Tim Powers’ 1988 World Fantasy Award–nominated novel did first (aside from featuring Johnny Depp in pirate drag). Zombie pirates? Check. A cursed treasure? Check. A search for the fountain of youth? Check—the plundering was so out in the open by the fourth movie that Disney optioned the name and basic premise, never mind that the actual plot of the book is closer to that of the first flick.
If you like Jurassic Park, read Fragment, by Warren Fahy
Well, sure, you could just read Michael Crichton’s original book, but that’s just…lazy. For thrills just as thrilling, chills just as chilling, and nature run equally as amok, Fahy’s book is your perfect summer escape. Granted, you probably wouldn’t want to actually escape to this place: the premise is that scientists have discovered a lost fragment of the primordial supercontinent Pangaea, broken off from the mainland and isolated for centuries. Here, evolution has proceeded along a different path. Of course, a reasonable reaction is to send a bunch of wet-behind-the-ears researchers to explore it while being filmed by a reality TV crew. Right? Right?
If you like The Goonies, read House of Secrets, by Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini
Who better to recapture the magic of the legendary oddball-kids-on-a-treasure-hunt classic than Chris Columbus, who penned the screenplay for the 1985 Richard Donner film? Columbus has called the House of Secrets series (cowritten with late YA author Ned Vizzini), about siblings on the hunt for a magic book that just might save their parents’ lives, a close cousin to The Goonies.
If you like Independence Day, read Footfall, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
In 1995, Independence Day was more than enthusiastically welcomed to Earth by my 14-year-old self, but these days, I can’t watch it without noticing the aging special effects, the undue weight given to the life of a single, admittedly adorable golden retriever, or its profoundly confused understanding of how networked computers operate (the movie’s, not the dog’s). The 1985 alien invasion thriller Footfall, the rare sci-fi novel to hit number one on the New York Times best-seller list, has aged much better, depicting the political and military response to an invasion of Earth by an alien menace that recalls human-sized, multi-trunked elephants, eager to claim our resources for their own uses. (Just take the peanuts, okay? No need to drop an asteroid on us from orbit, jeez.)
If you like Ghostbusters, read Discount Armageddon, by Seanan Maguire
It’s hard to top a giant walking marshmallow mascot or Bill Murray’s legendary one-liners (“Cats and dogs, living together!”), but Maguire’s urban fantasy satire series InCryptid, starting with Discount Armageddon, takes a decent stab at it. Protagonist Verity Price, whose family has been studying ghosts, ghouls, and things that go bump in the night since her childhood, tries to escape her destiny and spend a year studying ballroom dance in New York. Unfortunately, the telepathic mice, bloodthirsty monster hunters, and sleeping dragons converging on the Big Apple have other plans for her.
If you like Die Hard, read Vertical Run, by Joseph R. Garber
Die Hard is about an everyday dude trying to survive a terrorist attack while trapped inside a skyscraper in which every person wants him dead. Vertical Run is about an everyday businessman trying to survive multiple attempts on his life and figure out why every person in the skyscraper in which he is trapped wants him dead. Done and done. Hey, if it ain’t broke…
If you like Raiders of the Lost Ark, read The Lost City of Z, by David Grann
Fearless (except for the snakes) adventurer Indiana Jones is the sexiest tomb-hunting college professor of them all, but the real-life saga of Peter Fawcett, an explorer who set off into the Amazon in 1925 in search of a lost civilization and never returned, offers a far more harrowing, realistic take on the dangers a real Indy might have faced. Bonus: some think Fawcett served as an inspiration for the whip-toting, Nazi-battling rogue.
Share your own blockbuster movie/book combos below!