STUART BUCK on the novelization of the Narnia movie: “If you make a movie out of a classic and beloved children’s book that has sold millions of copies, why on earth would you want to have someone write a book based on the movie?”

I remember when they made the movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula, they hired Fred Saberhagen to write the novelization of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which I had previously thought was, you know, Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Silly me.

But at least they had the good taste to hire Saberhagen. However, his own Dracula novels — starting with The Dracula Tape — are undoubtedly better than the novelization of a bad movie based on Stoker’s novel.

UPDATE: Reader Mark Beadle writes that it’s not really a novelization: “[I]t is a 48-page story book featuring pictures from the movie. This changes the view entirely, I believe.” Yes, it does, and I stand corrected.

The Saberhagen / Dracula point still holds, though.