As usual there were novelizations of the summer blockbusters, such as The Mummy Returns by Max Allan Collins and Dave Wolverton’s young-adult The Mummy Chronicles: Revenge of the Scorpion King, Lara Croft Tomb Raider by Dave Stern, Final Fantasy The Spirits Within by Dean Wesley Smith and Planet of the Apes by William T. Quick.
Frankenstein: The Legacy and Night of Dracula were a pair of pot-boilers updating the classic monsters by Christopher Schildt, featuring introductions by Sara Jane Karloff and Bela G. Lugosi, respectively.
Larry Mike Garmon’s Return of Eviclass="underline" Dracula, Blood Moon Rising: The Wolf Man and Anatomy of Terror: Frankenstein were the first three volumes in Scholastic’s young-adult series Universal Studios Monsters, about a trio of children battling the classic movie monsters when the latter were released during a special film transfer.
David Jacobs’s The Devil’s Night was the second volume in another series featuring all the classic Universal Monsters.
A. A. Attanasio’s The Crow: Hellhound was the latest novelization of the movie and comic-book series created by James O’Barr.
Based on the Hallmark Entertainment TV miniseries, The Monkey King by Kathryn Wesley (aka Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch) contained sixteen pages of colour photos.
There was no sign of the series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer novelizations slowing down. Yvonne Navarro contributed The Willow Files Vol. 2 and Nancy Holder’s latest was The Book of Fours. The Faith Trials by James Laurence contained eight pages of colour stills, and the prolific Christopher Golden published his four-volume serial novel The Lost Slayer, comprising Prophecies, Dark Times, King of the Dead and Original Sins. Tales of the Slayer Vol. 1 was an anthology of seven stories about different Slayers by Nancy Holder, Yvonne Navarro and others.
As if that was not enough, Holder and Jeff Mariotte published the Buffy/Angel crossover trilogy Unseen: The Burning, Door to Alternity and Long Way Home, while Angel continued in his own series of novelizations with Avatar by John Passarella, Soul Trade by Thomas E. Sniegoski, The Summoned by Cameron Dokey and Bruja by Mel Odom.
TV’s witchy Halliwell Sisters appeared in the young-adult Charmed novelizations The Legacy of Merlin by Eloise Flood, Soul of the Bride by Constance M. Burge and Beware What You Wish by Diana G. Gallagher. Blair Witch Files: The Death Card by Cade Merrill was the fifth in the unlikely young-adult series.
She may be growing up on TV, but Sabrina the Teenage Witch still proved popular with younger readers in Pirate Pandemonium and Dream Boat by Mel Odom, Wake-Up Call and From the Horse’s Mouth by Diana G. Gallagher, Witch Way Did She Go? by Paul Ruditis and Milady’s Dragon by Cathy East Dubowski.
Hidden Passions: Secrets from the Diaries of Tabitha Lenox was purported to be written by Juliet Mills’s evil witch from the daytime soap opera, but was more likely authored by series creator James E. Reilly.
Lawrence Miles’s The Adventures of Henrietta Street was set in 18th-century England and featured the eighth Doctor Who encountering a coven of comely witches. The Ghost Hunter’s House of Horror by Ivan Jones was a young-adult novelization of the BBC-TV series.
Resident Evil 6: Code Veronica by S. D. Perry was based on the popular zombie video games.
Featuring his mismatched heroes Gotrek Gurnisson and Felix Jaeger, William King’s Beastslayer and Vampireslayer were the author’s fifth and sixth Warhammer novels in the new series from Black Library, based on the fantasy role-playing game.
White Wolf’s ever-popular World of Darkness series, based on the role-playing games, continued with Predator & Prey: Judge and Jury, both by Gherbod Fleming. Heralds of the Storm was Book One in the ‘Year of the Scarab’ trilogy by Andrew Bates, and Tremere: Widow’s Walk and Widow’s Weeds were the first two books in a new trilogy by Eric Griffin based on the Clan series.
Inherit the Earth edited by Stewart Wieck, collected nine stories based on Hunter: The Reckoning. Silent Striders and Black Furies, Red Talons and Fianna and Shadow Lords and Get of Fenris were all omnibus volumes in the ‘Tribe’ series based on White Wolf’sWerewolf: The Apocalypse game.
Diablo #1: Legacy of Blood by Richard Knaak was based on the Blizzard Entertainment computer game.
Inspired by Eden Studios’ zombie survival role-playing game All Flesh Must be Eaten, editor James Lowder’s trade paperback anthology The Book of All Flesh contained twenty-five original stories about the walking dead by Scott Nicholson, L. H. Maynard and M. P. N. Sims, Michael Laimo, Mark McLaughlin, Scott Edelman and others.
Edited by the busy Stanley Wiater, Richard Matheson’s The Twilight Zone Scripts was the first volume of a projected two-volume trade paperback set from Gauntlet Press/Edge Books that would publish for the first time all fourteen of Matheson’s scripts for the legendary TV series. The collection also included extensive commentary by Wiater on each episode, new interviews with Matheson, plus supplementary material.
Published as a large-sized softcover by Reynolds & Hearn, Christopher Lee: The Authorized Screen History was an excellent biography of the Hammer horror star by Jonathan Rigby, with a foreword by George Lucas and profusely illustrated with numerous black and white stills and a useful film and television filmography. Lee (who was busier than ever in 2001) became a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in June.
Daniel O’Brien’s The Hannibal Files from the same imprint was an unauthorized guide to the Hannibal Lecter trilogy, illustrated with two colour spreads.
Boasting a foreword by actor Ian Richardson, David Stuart Davies’s information-packed Starring Sherlock Holmes from Titan Books detailed every Holmes movie, TV show and stage production, illustrated with numerous rare stills and posters. This beautifully designed hardcover also had a reversible cover for those readers who preferred either Basil Rathbone or Jeremy Brett as their ideal Holmes.
From the same publisher, Stephen Jones’s Creepshows: The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide looked at the movies, sequels, spin-offs and TV adaptations of books and stories by King, illustrated with posters, stills and book covers. It also included an introduction by director Mick Garris and an exclusive career interview with King.