Amph Dexter

I've recently started watching the TV series from Showtime (just finished season 2). And I was wondering if anyone has actually read the books that they're originally based on.

 

No, Ive thought about it as I love the show and would think the books would have to be kick ass to have a show that will have 6 seasons based on it. Ive wondered how much into his head the books are. It would be wicked cool to know what he is thinking. lol

This isnt really SF or Fan though.

 

Actually, from what I've heard, the books do get into some bizzaro territory in their later installments, and could be labeled as scifi/fantasy: In the novels, Dexter's Dark Passenger is Cthulu

I haven't read the books myself, but I as I understand it, this series falls under the old maxim that the best screen adaptations of novels begin with the weakest source material. Dexter is a great series, but the books haven't been that well-lauded. The story on screen also differs wildly from the plot of the novels, with some major characters getting killed off early, other major characters surviving through, things like that.

If you do pick up the novels, I'd love to hear your opinions of them!

 

So thats what that name comes from?? lmao Damn I hear that all the tim on the Malazans boards and I have just been scratching my head at it. Thanks.

 

Actually I enjoy the novels but gave up on the series. I just couldn't get into it.

 

Er, if you're wondering where C'thulu comes from, it's H.P. Lovecraft that's responsible.

 

Book 1 is pretty good. It is the basis for most of the 1st series. Actually, season 1 has a lot of padding. Details get changed, including different characters killed off, so by the end of book 1 and season 1 are in different-but-similar worlds.
Because of the differences, Book 2 is completely different, but enjoyable.

Then we get to book 3, which was just bloody awful. I mean seriously awful. (spoilers)Essentially, the Dark Passenger that makes up Dexter's motivations (barely mentioned in the Show) is a fragment of Moloch, an ancient evil Babylonian diety who was destroyed thousands of years ago. Whenever 2 fragments meet, one tries to consume the other. This is how Dexter is able to learn about all the crime scenes by intuition. But then he meets someone who has a Bigger Fragment than he, and his Passenger goes into hiding. It's awful.
Book 4, well, It might get better... And it does. Largely by ignoring 90% of Book 3. It's OK, but Dexter isn't playing up to his usual speed. He's sloppy--the sort of sloppy that should lead to his getting caught.
Book 5: the baby is turning Dexter into a total moron. Seriously. He makes so many mistakes and leaps in judgment that are outright stupid, I cannot believe this is the same character from book 1. I prize books. I value books. Books are a standard of culture. When I don't want a book anymore, I look for someone to give it to--either a friend, library, or random stranger. I threw my copy of book 5 in the recycle bin. No one should have to read something that bad.

 

Dexter is brilliant crime drama procedure and i've enjoyed it's all season 5 at once. But now i am waiting for it's season 6 release.









Don't post links like these.

 

The guy was allowed to write more books after the third one? And you bought them? Why???
(google search for info)


I think the author has a mutilation fixation.
Dexter chops up the bodies after he kills them as a purely practical matter. Tamiami/Ice Truck Killer does it as a way to kill and for personal fixation reasons.
Yodeling Potato Killer was into dismembering people, but left them alive to enjoy the torment.
Moloch guy dumped pieces in different locations. When he felt like it.
Book 4 has mutilation as an art form, specializing in self-inflicted.
Book 5 has people who want to be eaten?(not in the good way) Really? There's a fetish for people who want to have other humans eat their muscle tissue? Can some alien race show up and just wipe the scourge that is humanity from the face of the planet?

 

I really really enjoy the show but I really dont think that Id be able to get into the books tbh. Id like to know how faithful the show is to the books.

 

Book 1 is the basis for season 1. Some things change. Season 1 pads out a lot. I mean a whole lot. There are a couple episodes (the father's house) that are pure pad created by the show. I am not to saying that the padding is bad, wrong, or not worthwhile, just that it is a whole-cloth creation of the show that was not in the books. Rita's kids are a lot more evil in the books, even from the beginning. Dokes has more of a military background fleshed out. There are some other character differences. Dokes' career ends rather differently.

But please, only read the first 2 books. Then for the love of whatever you hold dear, STOP. I looked at the first couple of chapters of books 4 and 5, and they are just as bad as others have said. Better than book 3, but not by much.