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A Rambling Defense of Media Tie-In Books

semartens

My first blog post in a year and I'm going to use it to talk about media tie-in books and why I love them!




Tie-Ins - are they cringey trash or are they fun? Personally, I've always enjoyed them. One person's "trash," after all . . .


2023 was a year I read a lot of tie-in books and I began to wonder why I liked them so much. When I was feeling busy, overwhelmed, or stressed a Doctor Who or Smallville tie-in novel was what I reached for.





Sure, there are reasons not to like them (even beyond the inherent geekiness.) Even if you are a fan of the media in question, tie-in books often feel constrained. The status quo must be maintained for the next episode of the TV series, so if you want to see something really different or experimental done with the property, you need to turn to fanfiction. Which I also read - I don't have time for people who are snobs about this type of thing.


But the official tie-in books possess their own charm. They're cozy! It is both easy and welcoming to slip into a familiar world, with characters you already know (and presumably love) where the stakes are not going to be particularly high.


I mean, they're not going to kill off Clark Kent in an official Smallville tie-in novel, are they? Reading a tie-in novel is like being swaddled in an electric blanket with a mug of hot cocoa pressed into your hands.


Media tie-in books tend to fall into 1 of 4 categories:


  1. Novelizations - this is literally taking the script of a film or TV series (usually 1 or 2 episodes for a series) and adapting it to a prose novel.

  2. New Adventures - this works better for TV series, particularly if it has an episodic/"monster-of-the-week" style set-up. These tend to be quite light-weight because the writers aren't allowed to upset the status quo of the series. Sometimes, if a series is off the air, they will go farther and be more experimental or take bigger risks with the tie-in adventures. Either way, it is still possible to find lots of fun stories.

  3. Canon Continuations - Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Smallville both continued their stories with official comics series: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 and Smallville Season 11. I'm sure there are other examples of this as well. Buffy now also has a direct continuation in novel form with the In Every Generation series by Kendare Blake, which is on my TBR. I've heard it doesn't follow the previously established Season 8 comics, so fans now have a choice in continuities.

  4. Companion Books/Guides - I find these really fun. I know that we live in a time when one can easily search for episode summaries or trivia online, but there's still something fun about these guidebooks.


But revisiting it is powerfully nostalgic and a lot of fun. I picked up the first of the Smallville Companion books (as well as a bunch of the young adult novels!) to go with my watching. The companion book was really well done and included things like lists of songs used in the soundtrack for each episode and a gorgeous full-color photograph spread in the middle, including the reproduction of a beautiful Alex Ross painting.


Anyway, I'm well aware of how nerdy this all is, but I wanted to share something that's brought me genuine joy in the past year.


Media tie-in books - love them? Hate them? Have you read any? Are there series out there you wish had tie-in books but don't?


Have a Happy New Year everybody! Read what makes you happy and try not to get exploded by any stray meteorites!

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