By: Max Allan Collins Publisher: Del Rey Average Rating: Binding: Mass Market Paperback Label: Del Rey Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 272 Publication Date: February 04, 2003 Release Date: February 04, 2003
Product Description: The saga of Dark Angel continues!
Someone is killing normal humans in the fog-enshrouded city of Seattle. The murders are brutal and grisly, but inside Terminal City they barely cause a ripple of concern. The transgenics who live there have problems of their own. In an area under siege by the oppressive arm of the police, the transgenics must protect their fledgling colony against the outside world—a world that eyes them with contempt and suspicion . . . and will do anything to be rid of them.
As the killings escalate, Joshua comes to Max with a dire suspicion: the killer may be one of their own. Tensions are high between normal humans and transgenics, and many inside the protected City would just as soon let the humans fend for themselves. Yet Max and her inner circle know they must investigate the crimes and stop the bloodshed. Doing nothing would simply give the normals more reasons to hate.
But what they discover will shock even the most jaded among them—and expose a sinister agenda that leads to an old, nefarious foe. . . .
A fun return to post-Pulse Seattle Okay, nobody is going to confuse this with great literature, but for fans of the short-lived television series, this book should provide a satisfying trip back to the Dark Angel world. This story is essentially a sequel to the final episode of the series, and tells us the story of the showdown between Max (and the other transgenics) and Ames White, renegade NSA agent and member of a secret conclave dedicated to erradicating the transgenics. As the tensions between the two groups build, Max and her friends must find out if a transgenic is behind a string of gruesome murders, as reported, before they are used as an excuse to slaughter the transgenics.
This was a very fast read, and fans of the show will find the characterizations true to the on-screen depictions. For a television tie-in novel, this book actually tackles some moderately heavy themes of discrimination and ways of comping with it. Even so, this book never gets too weighted down with moral ambiguity, and provides an entertaining return to the post-Pulse Seattle of the series.
skin game Although it doesn't provide all of the answers to all of the pressing questions that left you hangin at the untimely end of the awesome television series, this book provides another good chapter for what would have been another good episode. TRUE, the author seems to have missed the fact that Logan can walk due to his latest transgenic blood transfusion, which everyone else brought up as well, but whatever. I read the entire book in less than a week, which tells myself that I enjoyed it and was engaged in the story. It provides closure to at least the trouble the transgenics were in at the end of "Freak Nation" having been surrounded by the police and military and the first step to curing the Max-Logan virus, although you don't really see it at the time. The book's weakest aspect, in my mind, was that the author spent an entire chapter repeating the events at the end of the "Freak Nation" episode that most who read the book would already know and would find boring. I, for one, am just glad that Cameron/Elgee and Fox were kind enough to allow SOME KIND OF continuation to the abrupt end of the series that left me, and I'm sure many others, really confused and wanting a lot more.
Lame! My, oh my, that was lame. Yes, Max Allan Collins' "Skin Game". It's a tie-in novel to Dark Angel and it takes place during and right after the series finale Freak Nation. Well, let me tell you, if the show was planned to continue in this direction, then I'm happy that it ended when it did.
You know, when I picked up this book, I thought that it would expand the main players, Max, Logan, Alec, Joshua but all we got was secondary characters - Otto Gottlieb and Agent Thompson. Those two had more scenes and got more background info than any other character in the book. Max was her usual bitchy self, Logan played the good little puppy that heeled whenever she ordered, Joshua and Alec were reduced to two scenes, other than that they were just a part of the crowd... Ick.
Badly written literature I've read Skin Game and After the Dark in hope of learning what happened after the exciting events at the end of Dark Angel's 2nd seasons, and I'm disappointed. The books suffer from several problems, including:
Certain plot lines were dropped. The runes were a dramatic & important part of the last chapters of the 2nd season. The runes are mentioned only once, toward the end of After the Dark, to acknowledge the runes' appearance on Max's body.
Some plot lines, such as finding Sandeman & Max's mother, were left open, possibly in order to leave the door open for more books depending on the success of Skin Game and After the Dark.
The text is repetitive, reiterating material from the TV series.
The books contradict the series on certain points, such as Logan being unable to walk without the exoskeleton.
Other problems are due to the attempt to close the rich and complex series with the equivalent of two episodes, where a dozen would probably be required.
One such problem is using deus ex machina like solutions to certain problems, such as to remove the siege on terminal city and removing the anti-logan virus from Max's blood.
Another is the lack of development in the characters. Combined with the repetitive use of phrases to remind the reader of the characters from the series, it gives the effect of flatness or even caricatures.
Terrific! The book is extremely true to the series and i would recommend it to any dark angel lover! it's one i'll read over and over.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
