I can’t find much on Mr. Milne. He wrote three books, the novelization of Ghostbusters, a novelization of Biggles: The Movie and a novelization of the Bob Dylan movie, Hearts of Fire. Huh. That’s news to me. Bob Dylan acting in a movie?
Ghostbusters was the god damn biggest movie to come out in 1984 so they hired a guy who had never written a book before?? I don’t think so. This has got to be a pseudonym. Does someone out there have the answer? Please let me know.
Everyone knows the Ghostbusters so no basic plot premise.
This book adds little to nothing from the movie. What a disappointment. Not only that but without the comedic timing and emphasis on the lines everything reads really dry. This is my favorite movie. I’m not even joking. I was so excited to read this, and it crashed hard.
One positive item I can take away from this is that I knew the movie so well, like I could probably recite 75% of the movie from memory, that when I was reading the flat dialogue, it opened up my mind to how a story should be visualized by the reader. I have always read the lines straight forward in books. I didn’t put any emphasis on how a character’s personality would affect how a line was delivered. This opened my eyes to all I was missing. There is a sort of artistic license for lack of a better term as readers of books that we can hear and see these characters how we wish and bring them to life in our minds. Ever since I read this novelization it has made other books I’ve read more enjoyable. And really my thank you goes out to Bill Murray and Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis in how they brought this to life.
So, did anything interesting or different happen in this book?
Venkman is a the responsible one in the book. I mean, he’s kind of the same guy but he worries about bills and responsibilities. It was weird. Also, he’s totally the main character where in the movie I’d say the three main guys are pretty even.
Egon doesn’t have a lot of dialogue in the book.
Winston has a backstory to rival any Men’s Adventure character.
Venkman doesn’t say, “nobody steps on a church in my town.” Which I always thought was an out of character thing for him to say so that was cool.
And the biggest difference of note, Luis Tully is not only interested in dating Dana Barett he has fantasies of her raping him.
And scene.
Coronet Books 1984
Video review:
Bob Dylan was in at least four movies.
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