Title: Transformers: The official Novel
Author: Alan Dean Foster
Literacy level: Intermediate
Rating: 2.5/5
Published one week before the blockbuster film’s premiere on May 29th, 2007. This official novel tells the same story as in the movie, with a few missing details here and there, but regardless, the movie was faithful to the book. For those that have not seen the movie, it consists of an extraterrestrial war, between inorganic beings from a different galaxy, lasting eons. Their life essence gets stranded on our home planet, so good and evil forces do their best to get to it first. The protagonist, Sam Witwicky, sets out with the Autobots (Automatic Robots) to collect the missing artifact, The Decepticons, with zero regards for human life, demolish everything in their path in order to claim it. Life on Earth is in the hands of two 17-year-olds and a band of unearthly automobiles, versus the dark side. Who will win?
Review: Good leisure read, but I would rather see the movie.
Don’t get me wrong, it was very thrilling and enjoyable, with all the action
and impact the characters had. But, when there was no action, it felt stale and
unamusing, either they were over-explaining what was happening, or there was
idle chit-chat between characters. What I did like was the shift in characters,
running from one side of the world to the other, having three different
perspectives of what the evil side had caused. Ends with everyone meeting and
making their best efforts to save humanity. At times, it felt as if some
information was missing, and in the long run, sure, it would be presented but
would be confused until that point. On another note, this is a classic story of
Good vs. Evil, with Good being destined to win at the end and triumph over Evil. All in all, I would recommend it if you have seen the movie first and want
a different perspective of how everything went, otherwise, Michael Bay made a
better version. In this case, I will state that the movie is better than the
book.