End of Days

by Frank Lauria, Andrew W. Marlowe (Creator)

In the final days, Satan arrives in Manhattan in search of a mate and sets his sights on pretty young daycare worker, who must rely on an ex-cop named Jericho Cane for protection. Original. Movie tie-in.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Fantasy

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 15, 1999

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

End of Days was never my favourite Arnie film, and on a recent re-watch, it suffers greatly from bad lighting and a disjointed storyline.

The novelization sticks very closely to the film, and it as well, suffers from a disjointed storyline. It takes a good 30+ pages before it really gets going. These first 30 pages drag quite significantly, and even though the book is only 210 pages, the slow beginning makes it feel a lot longer.

I just don't think this film works as a novelization. With the all-over-the-place storyline and multiple forgettable characters. I found it hard keeping some of them straight in my head, despite the film remaining fresh in my head.

There are no major changes to this novelization, it's pretty bare bones. There's no significant changes to the dialogue and no background to the characters either. The ending does change, from what must have been in the original script, to a slightly more upbeat ending, compared to what was shown in the original film. I think both endings have their good and bad points, and I like both equally.

Frank Lauria has done an OK job with the novelization, but feels like it's just been dashed off in a couple of hours, with no imagination or thought put into it. I'm not sure if it was a rush job to cash in on the release of the film, or if it was just because he was working from a fairly awful script.

It's not one of the favourite novelizations in my collection, but it's worth picking up if you can find it for a reasonable price. ​

[Marian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must admit that I’ve found the story and plot entertaining. Fortunately, both the film and the book have different endings, which means if you read the novella and watch the film, you’ll have to pick out which ending you like best. As an avid reader myself, I choose the book. Always.

[Alexis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book reads like exactly what it is - a bad action movie from the 90s. With corny dialogue and tons of blowing things up, you can skip the book and just watch the movie if you really need to see it.

[Dawn]

Suspenseful!

[Graduated Cylinder · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book I found in a second-hand store (cost: 50 eurocents)

End of Days was not one of the best Arnold Schwarzenegger films. However it was still enjoyable Arnie action film and also starred great Gabriel Byrne as the Devil.

The novelization gives a bit more back story for Jericho Cane, he was previously a SEAL-soldier working on black operations. Some of the characters are a bit different looking (for example Christine is blond in the novel and brunette in the film, and detective Marge is redhead in the book but black woman in the film). Also the end of the book is slightly different than in the movie.

The book was a quick read (it lasted about as long as the movie). As a movie tie-in it was quite average.

[T R Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based on the screenplay for the 1999 Arnold Schwarzenegger film, End of Days is a moderately entertaining supernatural horror novel. It’s been a very long time since I last watched the film this book is based on, but from what I can remember it mostly seems to be a faithful adaption that expands on things here and there, such as Jericho’s backstory, and I feel these expansions may make it slightly better than the film. The book is relatively easy to read with some reasonably good action sequences. Most of the characters seem a little dull and underdeveloped but the two main characters, Satan and Jericho, are reasonably interesting.

My paperback edition also includes an excerpt from the novel Afterburn by Colin Harrison that looks mildly interesting.

[Jonathan Davison · Rating 4 out of 5]

A taxi driver gives lift to his fare only to be targeted by a priest with no tongue. The fare is possessed by the devil. The man wants to mate with a female New Yorker so Lucifer can walk the earth.
He has his followers. The catholic church are there to stop him. The taxi driver becomes the unlikely
hero of the story and stops the man from meeting his goal. Taxi driver is played by Arnold "the govenator" Schwartzennegger, Robin Tunney is Christine York and the man is played by Gabriel Byrne.

[Matthew Broman · Rating 3 out of 5]

thought it was alright, never seen the movie but now I want to. . not bad for a novel adaptation of a movie (or is it vis versa?) nothing super special. always have been a fan of Arnie's work (movies). I think he represents that embodiment of what every man's man wants to be (don't care what ppl say about him)

[Ying · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this so long ago I have no idea how I found it, especially given its length and having seen the movie not long before reading this movie-based version of the book.

[Dc · Rating 3 out of 5]

I ended up DNFing this book. It started out good, but half way through I was begging for the apocalypse to strike me down.