What do you think?
Rate this book
The X-Files: Middle Grade #10
Krieg der Koprophagen
Everybody hates roaches, but at least they're harmless--except in Miller's Grove, that is, a small town with a giant roach problem. Reports of killer roach attacks are pouring into this once-peaceful village, and human corpses are piling up. Special Agents Mulder and Scully have to find out what's happening or face certain extermination--of the entire human race!
123 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1997
124 people want to read
About the author
Les Martin
58 books8 followersLes Martin has written dozens of books for young readers, including the RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM movie storybooks, and many Young Indiana Jones middle-grade novels. He has also adapted many classic works of fiction for young readers, including THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, EDGAR ALLAN POE'S TALES OF TERROR, and THE VAMPIRE. Mr. Martin is a resident of New York City.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 3, 2017
“Don’t you understand?” Dr. Eckerle said, and his voice rose like a wailing siren. “Bugs drive me crazy!” (excerpt from Die, Bug, Die).
Die, Bug, Die is a novelization of a classic Season Three installment of The X-Files titled “War of the Coprophages,” adapted by Les Martin. While visiting a small Massachusetts community, Special Agent Fox Mulder stumbles upon a series of unexplained deaths in which the victims’ bodies are found crawling with cockroaches. Working from the comfort of her home, Dana Scully provides her FBI partner with scientific explanations for each bizarre death, but Mulder—who has enlisted the help of an attractive “bug doctor”—suspects the insects are neither organic nor earthly.
Re-reading these novelizations is usually a pleasure because they allow me to relive such memorable episodes. Unfortunately, certain aspects of these books—specifically those penned by Les Martin—detract from my enjoyment; for one thing, Martin grossly modifies the character dialogue, oversimplifying things so as to cater to juvenile readers. Example: both Dr. Bugger’s opening monologue in Chapter One and Scully’s soliloquy in Chapter Two about the improbability of extraterrestrial intelligence on other planets are substantially dumbed down to the point that it not only loses any vigor it once had, but also fails to challenge younger readers intellectually. What’s worse is that several of Mulder's comedic lines—dubbed ‘Mulder-isms’—are omitted from the book, including his deadpan reference of Scully being his drug dealer. Revising Mulder and Scully’s rich, sophisticated dialogue grossly disservices their characters. For instance, on page 56, Mulder explains to Scully that an entomologist is a “bug doctor”, as if Dr. Scully, a physicist and medical doctor who graduated top-of-her-class at Quantico, was unfamiliar with the definition. Even the author’s renaming of the clever title from “War of the Coprophages” to simply Die, Bug, Die is a ridiculous distortion of a well-conceived title that was intended as a homage to H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds.
Another issue I took exception with is how the author (possibly under advisement by his editor) amended the “Stoner”, “Chick”, and “Dude" characters. In the TV episode, the teens were huffing methane generated by filtering fumes from burnt manure just before Dude observes cockroaches burrowing into his arms. However, in Chapter Five of the novel, the teens—who were given bland and contrived names—were changed from drug-abusing losers to science geeks conducting a vague experiment for Science Club. I just have one word for that: laaaaaaaammmme! I realize this is a juvenile adaptation (of a TV series that’s intended for older audiences, which really begs the question as to why these episodes were adapted for younger readers) and the author-slash-editors clearly wanted to keep everything here G-rated—but, c’mon, seriously?! Besides, I see a missed opportunity here; one in which the author could’ve used the undiluted scene to illustrate the dangers of drug abuse. Yet, instead of conveying a valuable lesson to younger readers, the writer opted to take the safe (and less imaginative) route.
The abovementioned problems aside, the writing was less than remarkable with a few too many terminal prepositions to boot.
Much as I relished this absurdist cockroach invasion story on TV, this novelization was stultifyingly awful. The whimsical repartee between Mulder and Scully is diminished to an almost childlike quality by the author’s wanton reduction of their dialogue and the complete omission of many of their hilarious witticisms—Scully: “Did you know the inventor of the flush toilet was Thomas Crapper?" WHY?! Why did this classic line have to be removed?—significantly impaired the comical vision of script writer Darin Morgan, widely heralded as the show’s best comedic writer. Younger readers unfamiliar with the series may find this story enjoyable, but most X-Philes will see this adaptation as nothing short of an insult.
Die, Bug, Die is a novelization of a classic Season Three installment of The X-Files titled “War of the Coprophages,” adapted by Les Martin. While visiting a small Massachusetts community, Special Agent Fox Mulder stumbles upon a series of unexplained deaths in which the victims’ bodies are found crawling with cockroaches. Working from the comfort of her home, Dana Scully provides her FBI partner with scientific explanations for each bizarre death, but Mulder—who has enlisted the help of an attractive “bug doctor”—suspects the insects are neither organic nor earthly.
Re-reading these novelizations is usually a pleasure because they allow me to relive such memorable episodes. Unfortunately, certain aspects of these books—specifically those penned by Les Martin—detract from my enjoyment; for one thing, Martin grossly modifies the character dialogue, oversimplifying things so as to cater to juvenile readers. Example: both Dr. Bugger’s opening monologue in Chapter One and Scully’s soliloquy in Chapter Two about the improbability of extraterrestrial intelligence on other planets are substantially dumbed down to the point that it not only loses any vigor it once had, but also fails to challenge younger readers intellectually. What’s worse is that several of Mulder's comedic lines—dubbed ‘Mulder-isms’—are omitted from the book, including his deadpan reference of Scully being his drug dealer. Revising Mulder and Scully’s rich, sophisticated dialogue grossly disservices their characters. For instance, on page 56, Mulder explains to Scully that an entomologist is a “bug doctor”, as if Dr. Scully, a physicist and medical doctor who graduated top-of-her-class at Quantico, was unfamiliar with the definition. Even the author’s renaming of the clever title from “War of the Coprophages” to simply Die, Bug, Die is a ridiculous distortion of a well-conceived title that was intended as a homage to H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds.
Another issue I took exception with is how the author (possibly under advisement by his editor) amended the “Stoner”, “Chick”, and “Dude" characters. In the TV episode, the teens were huffing methane generated by filtering fumes from burnt manure just before Dude observes cockroaches burrowing into his arms. However, in Chapter Five of the novel, the teens—who were given bland and contrived names—were changed from drug-abusing losers to science geeks conducting a vague experiment for Science Club. I just have one word for that: laaaaaaaammmme! I realize this is a juvenile adaptation (of a TV series that’s intended for older audiences, which really begs the question as to why these episodes were adapted for younger readers) and the author-slash-editors clearly wanted to keep everything here G-rated—but, c’mon, seriously?! Besides, I see a missed opportunity here; one in which the author could’ve used the undiluted scene to illustrate the dangers of drug abuse. Yet, instead of conveying a valuable lesson to younger readers, the writer opted to take the safe (and less imaginative) route.
The abovementioned problems aside, the writing was less than remarkable with a few too many terminal prepositions to boot.
Much as I relished this absurdist cockroach invasion story on TV, this novelization was stultifyingly awful. The whimsical repartee between Mulder and Scully is diminished to an almost childlike quality by the author’s wanton reduction of their dialogue and the complete omission of many of their hilarious witticisms—Scully: “Did you know the inventor of the flush toilet was Thomas Crapper?" WHY?! Why did this classic line have to be removed?—significantly impaired the comical vision of script writer Darin Morgan, widely heralded as the show’s best comedic writer. Younger readers unfamiliar with the series may find this story enjoyable, but most X-Philes will see this adaptation as nothing short of an insult.
March 26, 2025
A young adult version of an episode, but good enough to hopefully get them interested in the show.
May 4, 2021
A direct novelisation of the TV episode "War of the Coprophages", this was a lot of fun. A couple of interesting changes were made to sanitise this episode for younger readers. The attack on the teenagers at their drug-making setup became a 'science experiment' and the 'embolism' didn't happen on the toilet. These changes were more humorous than annoying.
August 22, 2019
An easy, short read. Not as finely edited as others I’ve read, but still an enjoyable tale.
March 28, 2024
This is the last book of the series that I actually own and I'm very glad I got to read it!
July 2, 2009
Kembali bernostalgia dengan masa-masa di kelas 1 SMA saat tergila-gila dengan segala sesuatu tentang the X-Files :-)
Cerita pembukanya sendiri sudah membuat saya bergidik. Seorang pest-controller datang ke sebuah rumah kosong untuk membasmi serangga. Di sana ia menemukan seekor kecoa yang tampaknya malah tertarik dengan manusia. Kecoa itu disemprotnya dengan racun khusus dan tampaknya tidak terpengaruh. Saat ia menjatuhkannya dari dinding dan menginjaknya (cara kuno yang tidak pernah gagal), ia menjerit! Kakinya serasa menginjak sebuah metal! Kecoa itu diam. Lantas perlahan tetapi pasti ia kembali bergerak dan bergabung dengan ratusan teman-temannya mengepung si pembasmi malang tersebut. Akhirnya orang itu ditemukan mati menggenaskan. Hasil medis menyimpulkan ia mati terkena shock anafilatik, sejenis reaksi alergi tubuh yang berlebihan. Who's wrong here?
Kali ini ceritanya akan terdengar sedikit creepy, bagaimana tidak bila Anda akan membaca 1 buku penuh yang berisikan tentang kecoa, kecoa, dan kecoa? Percayakah Anda bila kecoa dapat membunuh? Atau benarkah ada kecoa mutan hasil percobaan rahasia pemerintah yang berhasil melarikan diri dari laboratorium? Apakah mereka adalah mikro robot dengan teknologi terbaru? Yang jelas sebuah kota kecil di pinggiran Amerika sedang dilanda kepanikan menghadapi teror kecoa. Mulder dan Scully datang untuk menangani kasus-kasus aneh, seperti biasa.
Sekilas seperti: kembali menonton film "Joe's Apartment" di sebuah apartemen kumuh yang penuh dengan bungkus makanan-makanan berserakan.
Cerita pembukanya sendiri sudah membuat saya bergidik. Seorang pest-controller datang ke sebuah rumah kosong untuk membasmi serangga. Di sana ia menemukan seekor kecoa yang tampaknya malah tertarik dengan manusia. Kecoa itu disemprotnya dengan racun khusus dan tampaknya tidak terpengaruh. Saat ia menjatuhkannya dari dinding dan menginjaknya (cara kuno yang tidak pernah gagal), ia menjerit! Kakinya serasa menginjak sebuah metal! Kecoa itu diam. Lantas perlahan tetapi pasti ia kembali bergerak dan bergabung dengan ratusan teman-temannya mengepung si pembasmi malang tersebut. Akhirnya orang itu ditemukan mati menggenaskan. Hasil medis menyimpulkan ia mati terkena shock anafilatik, sejenis reaksi alergi tubuh yang berlebihan. Who's wrong here?
Kali ini ceritanya akan terdengar sedikit creepy, bagaimana tidak bila Anda akan membaca 1 buku penuh yang berisikan tentang kecoa, kecoa, dan kecoa? Percayakah Anda bila kecoa dapat membunuh? Atau benarkah ada kecoa mutan hasil percobaan rahasia pemerintah yang berhasil melarikan diri dari laboratorium? Apakah mereka adalah mikro robot dengan teknologi terbaru? Yang jelas sebuah kota kecil di pinggiran Amerika sedang dilanda kepanikan menghadapi teror kecoa. Mulder dan Scully datang untuk menangani kasus-kasus aneh, seperti biasa.
Sekilas seperti: kembali menonton film "Joe's Apartment" di sebuah apartemen kumuh yang penuh dengan bungkus makanan-makanan berserakan.
January 30, 2011
125th - 2011
December 2, 2015
Well written adaptation but so poorly read.
July 11, 2016
Ao estilo dos filmes de terror B muito em voga na década de 1970, o enredo de suspense prende expectativa do possível desenlace. Ao contrário destes mesmos filmes, acaba com algum humor.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews