The books.

Karl Hungus

So, how many of you guys have read the books?

Honestly, I've found them a cracking good read, and I'm almost, just about finished Dexter In The Dark, which unfortunately has let me down quite a bit.

Mr E

I liked the first 2, but I wasn't crazy about the 3rd (in fact, I stopped reading the 3rd with 100 pages to go because I found something better to read - I must get back to it and finish it).

I'm glad the showrunners aren't sticking religiously to Jeff Lindsay's books...

doonothing

i havent read them, but from what ive heard, the show has skimmed the fat somewhat.

had anyone read the books before the series was shown? if so, let down? happy?

qwertplaywert

Ordered 'Darkly Dreaming Dexter' the other day, can't wait

Mr E

doonothing wrote: »

i havent read them, but from what ive heard, the show has skimmed the fat somewhat.

The books have no fat to trim! If anything, the show has bulked the books up. The books are about 300 pages each - you'd finish one over a couple of nights.

doonothing wrote: »

had anyone read the books before the series was shown? if so, let down? happy?

Nope, I read the books after the show. I think the show is better - the characters are more three dimensional and the story works better.

BKtje

I saw the first series then read the first two books followed by start of season 2 and reading the 3rd book (dont you just feel better now you know the order i know my dex in? )

First book was brilliant but i prefere'd the ending in the tv series, just made more sense to me. Second book was a great read but again i think i prefer the direction the tv writers took it.

The third book? Well i enjoyed it buuuut it was by far the worst of the three books (and worse than the tv series of course as well)

Karl Hungus

I have to say, the 3rd book was pretty god damn bad. I just couldn't take the story seriously because of

whole Moloch thing.

BKtje

Yeah i agree.

Others were pretty much grounded in fact while the third hit us with some supernatural power controlling his darker side. It was an interesting idea but didn't really work.

jor el

I've read the 1st book, have the 2nd but haven't started it yet. After the differences between book and series at the end of book/series 1 I'd imagine there's going to be quite a few differences in the 2nd ones. I'll wait till series 2 ends before reading the book.

I did think the first series was better than the book, but it was still a damn good read.

Ste05

Meh, I just read the first book and didn't bother reading the second (bought them both at the same time) and thought it wasn't great, I think the show is much better and so have no desire to read any of the other books. I might read them one day if I'm very bored but I doubt it TBH.

im...LOST

I'm reading the first book at the moment and it's good so far. The show seems to use a lot of the book already. For example, the conversation with Deborah is nearly word for word in both the film and the show. I'll see how the rest pans out.

im...LOST

Another question. I just noticed that on the title credits it still says "based on the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter". Now, I was just wondering if this second series is just using the characters from that novel or is this season based on the second book of the Dexter series?

Karl Hungus

im...LOST wrote: »

Another question. I just noticed that on the title credits it still says "based on the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter". Now, I was just wondering if this second series is just using the characters from that novel or is this season based on the second book of the Dexter series?

The second season is just using the characters, the second book has a completely different plot.

Necronomicon

Well, finally bought the books and just finished the first one. I agree with what people are saying, I thought the series was much better.

I preferred being introduced to the Ice Truck Killer rather than being led to believe that Dexter might have done the murders himself. I thought the ending of the book was rather rushed; only being introduced to the killer in the last five pages, as well as discovering what happened to Dexter's mother. I thought the build up of that was done much better over a few episodes in the series.

Also, Deborah was awake during his internal struggle over whether or not to kill her, so presumably she now knows what he is?

I do prefer the series but I'm looking forward to reading the second book. The one advantage of the books is having more narration from Dexter, we hear more of his thoughts. Apparently the next book is out sometime this year, so it may coincide with Season 3.

Prowetod

Just got the first book yesterday, I will give feedback once I have read it....

hiro_fan

Necronomicon wrote: »

I do prefer the series but I'm looking forward to reading the second book. The one advantage of the books is having more narration from Dexter, we hear more of his thoughts. Apparently the next book is out sometime this year, so it may coincide with Season 3.

Second book
http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/925721/Dearly-Devoted-Dexter/Product.html

Third book
http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/5322083/Dexter-in-the-Dark/Product.html

Fourth book
http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/5601885/Dexter-by-Design/Product.html

I've read the first one and liked it and have just ordered the second book. Judging by some of the comments here it should be good.

tman

Got halfway through the first book and keep meaning to get back to it.
I made the mistake of starting it as soon as I finished watching the series, so it was just needlessly rehashing what was already fresh in my memory...
Might give it another chance now while I'm waiting for S3 to start properly

ixoy

Just about to read 'Dearly Devoted Dexter'. I read 'Darkly Dreaming Dexter' and it did indeed follow the first season's plot except for an important divergence at the end. It also wasn't nearly as good as the first season had more time to flesh out the plot and characters (which is unusual - normally adaptations condense the source material).

I'm not expecting all that much, to be honest but at least this time the plot will be fresh to me. I've heard what they do in the third and I'd be very apprehensive about reading that!

Necronomicon

You might be pleasantly surprised with the 2nd book ioxy. Good read, definitely the best out of the three for me.

I agree with your comment about the end of the first book.

Introducing the Ice Truck Killer and the revelation that he was Dexter's brother in the last few pages felt way, way too rushed.

ixoy

Necronomicon wrote: »

You might be pleasantly surprised with the 2nd book ioxy. Good read, definitely the best out of the three for me.

I did actually and posted a spoiler-free review here. There's some interesting differences from the TV show, particularly around

the fate of Doakes here

and, from a future development point-of-view

having Cody turn out to have his own Dark Passenger

. I still though couldn't help but read the book and hear Michael C. Hall's voice throughout!

Stark

Read them myself. The second book was definitely the best out of the 3. The third one wasn't as bad as the reviews made it out to be though I thought.

BKtje

Didn't even realise that there was a 4th book. Must read it.

3rd book really did let me down somewhat. Must read it again actually.

Yelnahs

The fourth book was meant to be out by now buts its been brought back to February unfortunately.

vincenzo1975

Dexter in the Dark is just disappointing. The develiopment of the kids and the MLK concept were just ridiculous. Also, the Doakes situation just did not add anything to the storyline as a whole. I hope the series keeps building its own storylines, because the writing and character development is much richer and darker.

But then again....... Moloch is actually a real historical concept. I reckon Jeff Lindsey was looking for a paranormal edge to the third book, sacrifice and voodoo etc, and turned to this instead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch

Stark

Yelnahs wrote: »

The fourth book was meant to be out by now buts its been brought back to February unfortunately.

Nice timing in some ways. We'll have the series until December, and then the book will be timed to fill the void.

Karl Hungus

Stark wrote: »

The third one wasn't as bad as the reviews made it out to be though I thought.

Really? I was bitterly dissapointed by it.

I'm not sure about the 4th book, I'll probably read it out of sheer curiosity, but I won't be expecting much.

I disagree with people about the first book though, especially about the ending feeling rushed.

It seemed to be presented as more of a 'twist' ending than the way the show went with it. Rather than really focusing on introducing new characters.

Although I'd say that I probably did enjoy the second best out of the three, possibly because it doesn't need to live up to the show.

Energizeer

Just finished Darkly Dreaming Dexter on audio book(I'm lazy)
I liked it! But I do prefer the show much more.