Product Description

Following on from 2005's critically acclaimed "Batman Begins", Christopher Nolan returns to direct "The Dark Knight", where Christian Bale's man-behind-the-mask is joined by Heath Ledger as The Joker. Batman continues to fight crime on the dark streets of Gotham City, but when a crazed psychopath unleashes a fresh reign of chaos, it seems Batman has met his match in the ultimate crime lord, The Joker. The official novelization is essential reading for fans wanting the full story of this extraordinary movie, and is written by acclaimed comic book writer ("Batman", "Green Lantern/Green Arrow") and editor Denny O'Neill.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #192625 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

About the Author
Denny O'Neil was for years a group editor at DC Comics and the guiding force behind the Batman mythos during the '80s and '90s, helping to return the character to his roots as a dark and mysterious gothic avenger. He has written several novels and works of non-fiction and has also penned, amongst others, Amazing Spider-Man, Batman, Daredevil, The Hulk, Green Lantern and Superman. During his tenure on Batman, he created many characters including Ra's Al Ghul.

Customer Reviews

An Obvious Rush Job
I'm about seven chapters in and I've gotta say this book is abysmal. It's poorly written, shallow and feels rushed. A lot of the subtle moments are totally removed; the tone of the Jokers voice, his walk, just how terrifying he is for example, all these details add up to make a mental picture in your mind which is part of what reading fiction is all about. O'Neil describes none of them, the Joker could be a postman for all the info we get.

We recieve no inclination about how the characters are feeling, or how they do things - much of the dialogue from the film is reported with litltle emotion and it feels as if Denny O Neil was rushing his way through the Nolan script in order to meet a tight deadline. The action scenes are dull and overall the writing just feels stale, it doesn't jump off the page at all.

A sample of the turgid writing; he describes Comissioner Leob's death as '...he made a few gurgling sounds and within seconds was dead.' Talk about sucking the drama out of the scene.

There's also page after page of boring exposition. Fair enough, the story of what Crane got up to after 'Begins' is a neat inclusion, but it bogs down the book and gets in the way of the actual TDK story. O' Neil seems to do this for more than one of the characters, even the infodump for Bruce Wayne is annoying. The events of the film don't begin until you're a quater of the way through the book, the first couple of chapters should've been called 'In case you haven't read Batman Begins...'

Very poor. Only earns a star because I'm a Batman fanatic.

A constant debate - do I like it, or not?
I recieved the book earlier today and began to read with anticipiation..., but I'm afraid a few of the chapters did not capture or enlighten me.

With this said, I didn't enjoy chapter one much-- the description was mediocre and it had little point to it. I continued to read nevertheless, and found that some of the description was a bit flakey. Overall, it describes the movie reasonably well, with other outlooks on characters such as Lucius Fox, but description does lack occasionally and I find myself skipping pages to reach a more interesting part. Re-written, I think the novelization would be more of a hit than it's currently deemed.

OK - but more like a children's adaptation
This book is the official 'novelisation' of the new film "The Dark Knight". Accordingly, the story of the book follows the plot of the film. In this sense, it's a good story - as the movie is well written and action packed. However, in every other sense this is a poor novel.

There is very little character development, and the overall style and tone of the book feels as if it were written for very young adults (age 11 to 14). But this is not the intended readership - as there is a children's novelisation, quite distinct from this book.

Like a different reviewer, I agree this book reads as if its writer were rushed. I say this because I've read other books by the same writer - Denny O'Neill. In fact, he wrote the novelisation for the film "Batman Begins" - which was a better book (3 stars).

Even so, in my view O'Neill should not have been asked to write this book (or any other Batman novel, regardless of whether they are slightly better than this) - because he's simply not a "great" fiction writer in terms of full-length novels. He is good in terms of comic books, but that's very different from novels.

The story of Batman's origins, as well as his first few years, has never been well presented in conventional book format. The story needs to be handled by a great writer - which O'Neill is not.

If you are a big fan, or a young reader, this will be ok - otherwise avoid.