Spaceballs: The Book

by R.L. Stine, Mel Brooks, Thomas Meehan

Presents a spoof of the high-tech world of space travel and space exploration

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Humor, Comedy, Adaptations, Media Tie In, Science Fiction Fantasy

128 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 1987

About the author

Robert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children's literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series.

R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.

Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.

http://us.macmillan.com/itsthefirstda...

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do you like the Mel Brooks classic movie Spaceballs? But...do you wish you could read a novelization of it, written by the weird pen name of R.L. Stine? Did you really enjoy the acting and jokes and stuff that works because the movie is a movie, and do you wish that this could somehow be translated into words that explain every joke with exclamation points? This supposed novelization...would you like it if it got rid of all the adult humor and turned the plot into a kids' book? Even more so, would you really like it if it added a lot of nonsensical backstory (like naming all of the Dinks)?

If you're like me, then boy, is there a book for you...

Really though, people can complain all they want about how this book doesn't work. But c'mon, why would they be reading a novelization of such a silly movie? Of course, the book doesn't work. It's an extremely stupid idea, and I don't know how it ever got green-lit. That said, it's so stupid that it's entirely fun. Seeing the changes that R.L...I'm sorry, "Jovial Bob" Stine made, reading how he wrote out scenes like the Spaceballs going to plaid, just the entire idea behind this book... it's strangely entertaining.

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was randomly on the bookshelf in the living room of my parent’s house for years. One of those things that you wonder where it came from but had just always been there. Just read it on a plane. The “combing the desert” scene is one of my favorite sight gags of all time. Hilarious.

[Dylan Szczepanski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Biblical

[Z · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay a few important things about this book:
First: it was published by Schoolastic, so no virginity alarm, "we aint found shit," or "I see your Schwartz is as big as mine." Actually, any reference to a lightsaber-like weapon is removed, for what I assume are legal reasons.
Second: Spaceballs relies heavily on visual gags, and visual gags don't really work in books. Most of the jokes are a description of a visual gag followed by an exclamation point so the reader can tell when something was supposed to be funny. And as you may assume from my overall tone here, it generally does not work.
Third: When not trying to directly adapt the movie, the book is actually good. When scenes are reworked to work as a book, they're actually funny. Added elements like meandering character thought trails, and absurdly detailed descriptions of action are also good.
I don't know how much freedom Stein was given, but if he hadn't kept it so close to the screenplay it could have been a fairly good book.

[Richard]

We've all seen Spaceballs and thought it was hilarious, right? A novelisation should be a laugh too, right?

WRONG.

Someone needs to tell 'Jovial Bob Stine' that jokes aren't as funny if you add exclamation points and explain why its funny. Seriously, turn to any page in the book and see if you can't find at least three exclams - some paragraphs contained twice as many!

On top of that almost all the best lines from the movie are missing, the author added some hilarious(!) jokes of his own and all sexual references, and bad language have been removed. How many Assholes we got on this ship? None because in this pathetic re-write they're now 'Idiots'.

My review (in the style of Jovial Bob);

AWFUL!!! AWFUL!!! AWFUL!!! AWFUL!!! AWFUL!!! AWFUL!!!AWFUL!!!

[Colleen AF]

GUYS! That "Jovial Bob Stine" on the cover of this Spaceballs novelization...is actually R.L. Stine!!! That's right, I give that fact THREE exclamation points. Made me love this ridiculous novelization even more. Somehow this is even sillier than the actual film and unlike his other awesome books I read in my childhood, this one didn't give me nightmares. (Though I did once have a dream that a robot version of Joan Rivers picked out my clothes in the morning, but who HASN'T had that dream.)

[The Kawaii Slartibartfast · Rating 1 out of 5]

it's a kids novelization of a fairly raunchy movie. it would probably have worked if I'd never seen the movie. and was somebody who needed the jokes explained to me.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

perhaps Mel’s cruelest diss to Lucas is his blase attitude to his vision, as if he’s saying Star Wars is perfectly worthy of shitting on, but the problem is there is not enough to shit on to make a whole movie. Needless to say, doesn’t reach the heights of Young Frankenstein or Blazing Saddles, the distinction being that Mel has zero affection for the space opera genre. If you were to ask Mel I bet he’d lay the blame on Star Wars itself which gives him less to work with than the highs and lows of John Ford or James Whale.

I mean, what is funny about Star Wars? According to Spaceballs, everything, which then again, isn't all that much: crass commercialism, fetishized set design, simplistic kids plot. So the jokes suffer a bit, with a hit to miss ratio of 2-1, meaning that there’s a laugh about every minute and a half, which is still pretty damn good. At the end the reason why Mel is indifferent to Lucas’s vision is unclear, though best guess it’s either because he resented how much oxygen the thing sucked up, or maybe because he thought it just blows

[BookieWookie · Rating 2 out of 5]

What an oddity this is. The concept alone goes great with the merchandising gag in the movie, but that's just a coincidence and nothing clever is done with it... instead, this is a children's novelisation of a very adult movie!

It actually starts out alright, with some clever use of the format over film, but it quickly devolves into a recreation of the movie, including sight gags which just don't work in text (as others noted, Stine had to use exclamation points to make sure the reader knew something funny happened), and all the more adult jokes are either removed or nerfed. So the whole assholes scene is now about idiots instead. And no "we ain't found shit!"

But if I was a kid back in the day and wanted a fun book making fun of Star Wars, I probably would have enjoyed this... so three stars in that regards. But as for today, and especially as an adult who can actually watch the movie, this is pretty pointless and is a one star. So, two stars average.

It was a decent quick read for the toilet, at least!

[Naomi · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars, rounded down.

The only people who should read this are the following:
1. Fans of RL Stine
2. Fans of Spaceballs
3. Fans of reading movie novelizations to see what changed, or to find hidden details

Unfortunately, for myself, I am all three.

It's ultimately fine, with one major caveat: it's a children's book. So the more adult humour is removed, or altered, but then there's just a bunch of tropes I don't think its age range is going to understand. Truly bizarre.

[Paul Lunger · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Spaceballs: The Book" is the novelization of this 1987 film that is a parody of Star Wars amongst other things. The original movie works for so many different reasons simply because at times it isn't afraid to make fun of itself something the book even tries to do as well. This very easy read is one that will bring back memories of that film & remind anyone why it still stands the test of time 37 years later.

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. It's 122 pages featuring a whistle stop tour of the movie plot, with all the jokes replaced by excessive exclamation marks! It's surprisingly awful! Terrible, even! And I'll spell out all the jokes just in case they weren't already on the nose enough for you!

If you like the film, don't bother.

[Susan Mewhiney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used to hate reading. All my friends would talk about how much they love it. So, I decided I would give it another try and start real easy. This was the perfect book for that - it was characters I knew and loved in a story I was already familiar with, not too long, and a super duper easy read. Nothing to hate about that. I worked my way up from there and now I love reading! Thanks, Spaceballs: The book, You helped me harness the power of the Schwartz!

[Clayton Barr · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a Scholastic book for juvenile readers and is a terrible read. The jokes from the film do not translate well to the written page and anything vaguely sounding of sexual innuendo from the script's dialog has been excised. Give this book a hard pass.

[Ryan Krol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost exactly like the movie, with a lot more detail because it’s a novel and not a screenplay. The biggest difference is the language is tamed for young readers. This was the first novel I ever read on my own, outside of class. I was in the third grade.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a tamed PG version of the movie. Regardless it's still a fun book to read.

As a book collector this was a must own for me as it was written by Jovial Bob Stine aka R.L. Stine, author of the Fear Street and Goosebumps series. Couldn't pass up owning this book by him.

[Wolverinefactor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I honestly remember do little from the film. A bunch of jokes don’t transition to book firm but I still found myself laughing out loud a few times. I’ll be rewatching the film this weekend.

More like a 3.5 btw

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

With little exception this book follows the movie so closely the only surprises are the jokes that came to fast on screen, so you can at least process them all on the page.
The book is most notable for being written by R. L. Stine before he went by R.L.

[Leonard Kearon MSc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spaceballs: The Book is a concise version of the classic movie. It is well written with a lot of the jokes and everything else that you love about Spaceballs. However despite Stine's best efforts a lot of the jokes don't work on the page as Spaceballs jokes were mostly visual. Still a fun read.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an hilarious story with subtle jokes thrown in.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was just awful.

[Dana Whitmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

The normal irreverence you can expect from Spaceballs, but many of the jokes were reverted to PG versions - e.g., surrounded by Idiots vs surrounded by Assholes. Not bad bathroom book.

[Treliza B · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought the book was hilarious with a good send up of the original Star Wars Trilogy. Fantastic and very satirically written .

[Wyktor Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant! Gonna hafta watch the movie again now.

[Angie S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of jokes are different from the movie, most I can see why they changed them. Still really funny and worth the couple of hours it took to read.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spaceballs: The Book is exactly what it says it is. A simple telling of the movie, with a few things censored/left out. Still a fun and quick read.

[Johnathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fun. It was so well written I could practically see it like a movie in my head!

[Pammi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I laughed my ass off!

[Carrie Blythe · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Alex Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought the book "Spaceballs" by R.L. Stine was better than you would typically expect from the book version of a comedy movie made in the 1980's. If you have seen the movie, you can imagine all of this stuff actually happening, and it's pretty funny! It's definitely made for anyone that has interest in the arts of comedy, or anyone who just likes to laugh. The book was very close to the movie, which I watched after I finished the book. It's a spoof of Star Wars, based in space, but instead of the Empire being the evil side, the evil side is called "Spaceballs". They're on a mission to steal air from King and Princess Vespa's planet, when a spoof of Han Solo and Chewbacca show up and save the day!

The author's purpose was to make the readers laugh, and have a good time imagining what was happening. The book and movie are both amazing. I definitely recommend both the book and the movie to everyone, because although it's a comedy from the 80's, it's still interesting and it's still a quality movie. R.L. Stine did well on the book.

What I liked about this book was that it was very funny, and I liked it because I love comedy very much, and I love to laugh, so reading books that are funny is cool to me, because I'm usually a person that likes to see it. With this book though, I could imagine in my head what was happening and I liked reading the book. I would definitely recommend it to anyone that is interested in this kind of stuff (comedy, sci-fi, oldies, etc). To conclude, this book was fantastic, and I love how it kept me laughing and I really had a tough time putting it down when it was my favorite parts.