Mad Max: Jenseits der Donnerkuppel

Mad Max #3

by Joan D. Vinge, Jürgen Langowski (Translator)

A novelization by Joan D. Vinge, based on the screenplay by Terry Hayes and George Miller.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Dystopia

219 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1985

About the author

Joan D. Vinge (born Joan Carol Dennison) is an American science fiction author. She is known for such works as her Hugo Award-winning novel The Snow Queen and its sequels, her series about the telepath named Cat, and her Heaven's Chronicles books.

Reviews

[Dirk Grobbelaar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was recommended by my wife as part of our 2014 have-to-read agreement. Being the good husband that I am, I pre-empted her and read it in 2013.

Actually, I was quite keen to read this. Chances are I would have read it even if she didn’t recommend it. I rather like it when movie novelizations are written by authors who have a good track record.

This one didn’t disappoint. To be honest, it didn’t blow my mind, but it was fun in a pulpy kind of way. The depictions of the wasteland that the earth has become in the Mad Max universe are eerily atmospheric (my throat is getting parched just thinking about it), but Bartertown could have done with some fleshing out.

I’d seen the movie, of course, but eons ago. I couldn’t remember plot details but knew more or less what to expect. The book delivered exactly that. No more, no less.

So, not a literary masterpiece, but a nifty companion to the film and recommended to lovers of post-apocalyptic fiction and Mad Max buffs.

3.5 Stars.

[Love of Hopeless Causes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hell was waiting patiently, holding hostages. Stillness pervades while listening to a great audiobook. I move about my tasks with slow purposeful deliberation, trying not to lose the thread. The focus allows me to be present and pulls me out of the thinking mind: a welcome relief. If you are obsessing on a subject or experiencing racing emotions, try listening to the audiobook version of a beloved film. It probably won't be a five star novel, but it empowers you to enjoy the movie in your mind's eye for eight hours--without the deep attention required of a new cast of characters, and the mind's inevitable judgement throughout.
Tell the balls of it.
I prefer to know for whom a story was recounted, in many books this is unclear, but here I assume the perspective comes from Savannah and the wild children doing the tell. The characters are exotic yet familiar, with the focus of their desire bringing new emphasis: Tomorrow-morrow Land is so chrome.

[Gregg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh hell, I read this years ago. I just wanted something else to put under the "Apocalypse" heading in my category list.

Although I will say that it was surprisingly emotive for a movie tie-in. The descriptions of the blasted Australian outback made me thirsty just reading about them.

[Eve · Rating 4 out of 5]

epic incredible show-stopping... i love mad max. the wasteland descriptions in here were so fun and vivid (joan vinge did a great job of putting the chaos of the post-apocalypse into words) and i loved the extra backstory we got about the lost kids tribe!

[Mira · Rating 2 out of 5]

Movie adaptations are hard. Especially when you're transcribing a dystopian, sci fi film heavy on the action sequences.

As expected there is a lot of description but character development and motivation is minimal. Even so this book matches the pace of the film and will have you gripped through some sequences. (It does fall foul of having to describe how every henchman is dispatched pretty tricky when each one is just named and described as Guard.)

[Cecily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the book (which is based on the screenplay)before watching the movie. Book: very entertaining - movie: boring. ???

[RdWd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that this is the first novelisation I've read, and as a big Mad Max fan it was a good read. It doesn't deviate that far from the film, but gives you some idea of Max's thoughts via monologues, as well as filling in some gaps between the scenes that made it to the film screen. It offers a few MM lore pieces too, for example, telling us that Bartertown lies about 500 kilometres west of Sydney in the part of the Wasteland known as The Devil's Anvil. From what I've been told, a lot of this was written directly from various stages of George Miller's screenplays, so it's all good and canon as far as I'm concerned.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to say, for a movie-adaptation novel, this was actually really good. I may have actually liked the novel more than the movie (whenever I last watched that a long time ago).

A good random find that I picked up from a used book bin in Penang, Malaysia!

[Sara K · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a fan of the Mad Max franchise I can safely say that this is a solid book. It is based of the screenplay for the movie after all. It even had its funny moments among the hopeless desolation of the plot that were much appreciated.

[joaqui. · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Now when men get to fighting, it happens here. And it finishes here. Two men enter. One man leaves.”






adapted film:
mad max beyond thunderdom (1985) dir. George Miller and George Ogilvie.

[Michael Hanscom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than I expected for a novelization of an ‘80s action flick. Makes me want to re-watch the film again to see if it’s better than I remember, or if Vinge just did a particularly good job.

[Mike Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

23

[Dion Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is my least favourite of the original 3 movies but I still loved it, If you like the movie you will like this.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mad max actually seems like the villain from an outside view

[CHILTONM · Rating 2 out of 5]

Makes very apparent how goofy the plot of this movie is but a bit at the beginning about how max accidentally got in the habit of living and now can’t bear to give it up got me genuinely upset

[Jemiah Jefferson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of course, like all mass market novelizations of the era, it's riddled with typos, and the photo section in the middle of the book chose some of the most boring, static images it could... and yet nothing really interferes with the grace and delight of Joan Vinge's interpretation of this iconic Mad Max movie. Chock full of additional detail that was maybe in the script, but then ended up not being filmed or was left on the cutting room floor, Vinge is sure to emphasize the menacing sexiness of Aunty Entity, the cruelty of Bartertown administrators like Ironbar Bassey (the guy with the doll head headdress), the hopeful, ignorant naivete of the abandoned children (all of whom have NAMES, thank you very much, even if none of them were ever said on screen!), and of course the world-weary heroic ennui of Max Rockatansky himself. I acquired this book in a Max frenzy after seeing FURY ROAD, obviously, but now I definitely want to own every possible novelization about the chronicles of the Wasteland I can find. (Yeah, I know, I won't hold my breath for MAD MAX, but I will also not give up my quest.) MAX FOREVER. May his legend never dry up...

[Mikepottz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Max is mad bloody raving mad. Someone has stolen all his shit and left him for dead. Stumbling through the desert he will reach Bartertown a crazy place where everything can be traded. He will make a deal and step in to thunderdrome. " two men enter one man leaves " and duel to the death against the Blaster a muscle-bound freak who also is part of a team with the Master a little person who has all the brains. Max has a conscience and will " bust a deal face the wheel " and be sent back out into the desert to die. The post apocalyptic world is a great setting. Loved Bartertown and the Underworld, as well as MasterBlaster but didn't like the tribe part of this story.

[Donald Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the story behind the intriguing "B grade movie" that happened to be my favorite of the Mad Max series. It touched on some deep emotional and human elements that I felt were timeless. I have this book on the shelf somewhere half read until I get the time to fully appreciate its pages.

[nidah05 (SleepDreamWrite) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Faintly remember this. Basically its the movie but in book form. This story in the movie could of been better. Did like Savannah NIx and Max together for some reason. Again, haven't seen the movie in years.

[LibraryDanielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

so bad, and yet so good.

[Jeff Koeppen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember buying this at Target after I saw the movie and reading it shortly after. It was an OK adaption of the movie.

[Celo · Rating 5 out of 5]

One (long) sentence review:
If youa re fan of the series, this story will repeat what you saw in the movie, but with an extra touch of explanatory informations.