Miami Vice-The Novels

[Bren10]

Has anyone here read the novels by Stephen Grave?  How does MV translate to the written page?  Are any of these better than actual eps?  Thanks for any info.

[vicegirl85]

I've read The Florida Burn and The Vengeance Game, and used to own both of those (a long time ago!).  I enjoyed both of them although would not say they are "better" than the actual eps.  Both are novelizations of actual episodes--Brother's Keeper and (I think) Hit List/Calderone's Return.  It's been so long since I've read them that I don't really remember many details.  At the time, I felt they were pretty well-written, and delved into the characters' backstories a bit more than the TV series ever did--but the character backstory never got in the way of moving the story along.   I bought them while the series was still airing on NBC.  Ten years ago when I got rid of all of my old MV VHS recordings, I donated those to a thrift shop.  Sorry now that I did, but that's life for you.

More recently (3 or 4 years ago) I searched out China White and Probing by Fire and bought them used on Amazon.  China White is a novelization of the 2 eps Score and Golden Triangle (later renamed Golden Triangle 1 and 2).  Probing by Fire is based on Back in the World and Stone's War.  I read both and they were OK, I felt.  They didn't make me feel I absolutely had to have the remaining books.

Two more novels are available on Amazon:  Hellhole and Razor's Edge.   Prices for used copies on Amazon are not too bad, but I didn't want them badly enough to add $3.99 shipping for each one to the purchase price.  If I found them in a used bookstore for $2-10 I'd probably buy them for the sake of being able to read all of the novels.  Not sure which eps they retell; I didn't find a blurb in the listings I found.  I think it's most likely they retell additional first-season episodes.

Reading the stories rather than watching--I miss the music, the characters' actual voices, the colors, etc.  I am able to imagine them, but I'm a book person.  So some of that depends on whether you like to read or not.  I wish the author had written some actual original stories based on MV and its characters, but possibly he was contractually obligated to only novelize actual episodes.  Don't really know anything about that side of it.   

[Bren10]

I do like to read and plan on getting all of them.  Not having a soundtrack was one of the things that would concern me too, but I can always put on a Miami Vice album or other music as I read.  

[Daytona74]

I read the novelization of Brother's Keeper by Steven Grave, also a very, very long time ago.

What I do remember is that it wasn't entirely true to the pilot, in a few details here and there. Not sure if that's something that would bug somebody else reading it who has seen the pilot, I just thought I'd mention it.

 

[Sea-light]

My big dream is-to read a book "Miami vice".. If it was:)

[johnnyfarragut]

I've read them all. They're pretty good. Pretty faithful to the TV series too, considering that tie-in novels are always written from earlier drafts. Smuggler's Blues, for example, has Tubbs rescuing Trudy  and Crockett going after the bad cop.

Some of the additions are great. For example, in 'Smuggler's Blues' Crockett busts his game knee in the escape from Grocero's henchmen. He spends the rest of the novel in extreme pain, barely able to walk. It makes for a great deal of suspense. That's probably my favorite adaptation of all (by the way, we learn from Gina that the rumour around OCB is that Crockett didn't bust his knee in a football game; he busted it after falling two stories exiting one of his girlfriend's  apartment by the window. Running from a jealous boyfriend I suppose LOL).  

They adapt two episodes in each novel (the two-part pilot, Heart Of Darkness, Smuggler's Blues, Back In The World, Stone's War, Shadow In The Dark, Walk-Alone,  The Hit List, Calderone's Demise and the two parts of The Golden Triangle).  Nice selection, if you ask me (though I'd  much rather prefer an adaptation of The Prodigal Son to Ira Stone's saga). There are no adaptations of S4 or S5 episodes.

It's a novel, so you get to 'read' the inner life of  the characters, what they're thinking, what makes them tick. For example, in one of the novels Tubbs is worrying about the toll the job is taking on them: lower scores on the shooting range, Crockett's hangovers last longer, etc. There are many of those  inner monologues (lots of action too!). It helped me to understand the TV characters better (including Elvis! The alligator gets much attention in these novels, mostly for comedy purposes. The vinyl eating incident is hilarious. We also learn he is in a chronic hallucinatory state after eating an enormous LSD stash).

Both Crockett and Tubbs have a pretty ugly side inside of them: Crockett can be very violent and impulsive, much more so than in the TV series. In 'Shadow In The Dark', when he beats the psycho to a pulp it says something like 'Crockett hears (the psycho's) shoulder tendon snap. He finds the sound very satisfying.'  In ' Back In The World' Tubbs finds Dakota so attractive she intimidates him. When she arrests her he puts on a macho display (he points a gun to her head and other things) to avenge his wounded pride. Etc.

There is far more violence than  in the TV series.Lots of dark stuff that wasn't fit for TV (Maynard's Laotian goon rapes Stone's wife before killing her and dumping her body in a trash container. The writer had the good taste of omitting the attack. We learn that from her autopsy report).

 

Stephen Grave is a pseudonym for David J. Schow. I read he is a well regarded horror writer (novels, Fangoria magazine, ...). I think he made a more than adequate job with these novelizations.  I definitely recommend them.

Edited April 4, 2023 by johnnyfarragut

[Robbie C.]

I was pretty unimpressed by them, honestly. Bubba Switek? Really?

But I'm also somewhat biased...although I did read them before starting to write Vice myself.

[johnnyfarragut]

Reading the novels it's pretty obvious the writer had access to project development stuff. The thing we see is only 1/10 of all the work. The other 9/10s remains unseen, like a supporting structure. I think Hemingway called it The Iceberg Theory?

BTW congrats on your writings Robbie C. I have only read some bit parts and liked them very much. You must have put an awful lot of work in it.

I'm trying my hand on a MV screenplay. Writing down ideas and gathering plot material for a treatment as of now. Hope I can make something half-decent. 

Edited May 4, 2023 by johnnyfarragut

[Robbie C.]

On 4/4/2023 at 11:04 AM, johnnyfarragut said:

That's probably my favorite adaptation of all (by the way, we learn from Gina that the rumour around OCB is that Crockett didn't bust his knee in a football game; he busted it after falling two stories exiting one of his girlfriend's  apartment by the window. Running from a jealous boyfriend I suppose LOL).  

This is actually in the draft pilot script.  Except Gina says it was some "baton-twirler's" dorm room. Given the era, he likely would have been breaking curfew in the dorm. Gina also says he was supposed to be drunk at the time, so maybe he thought it was the bathroom or something...

[Robbie C.]

6 hours ago, johnnyfarragut said:

Reading the novels it's pretty obvious the writer had access to project development stuff. The thing we see is only 1/10 of all the work. The other 9/10s remains unseen, like a supporting structure. I think Hemingway called it The Iceberg Theory?

BTW congrats on your writings Robbie C. I have only read some bit parts and liked them very much. You must have put an awful lot of work in it.

I'm trying my hand on a MV screenplay. Writing down ideas and gathering plot material for a treatment as of now. Hope I can make something half-decent. 

Actually, everything I've posted here is first draft. I enjoy writing it, so it's not so much work as it is a fun exercise.