The animated skeleton of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons owes it all to Mr. The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958) was the first in a trilogy, along with Jason and the Argonauts (1964) and finally, Harryhausen’s swansong, The Clash of the Titans (1981). Ray Harryhausen’s fantasy animated adventures inspired much of what Fantasy writers did after the 1950s. I thought I’d take a look at some S&S novelizations from films and see if any are worth a read. Alan Dean Foster and the rest of the novelization crew weren’t far behind. The 1980s produced buckets of them after Conan the Barbarian (1982) with Arnold Schwartzenegger. There have been many heroic fantasy films over the years 1924 to 2021. Not surprisingly, most novelizations are connected with Science Fiction and Fantasy. Home video should have killed this market but many movie tie-ins have been million copy sellers such as those for Star Wars and Star Trek films. Not being based on an original novel, the book allowed viewers to re-experience the film at their leisure. The history of the novelization goes back to King Kong (1933), which was one of the first films to get a book version. I can’t recall ever purchasing a novelization new off the paperback wrack but have acquired several in used book stores, usually for the lowest prices. Wikipedia states: “Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent of home video, but continue to find commercial success as part of marketing campaigns for major films.” Marketing, not literary production. I use that word consciously as I can’t quite bring myself to call them novels. Sword & Sorcery novelizations of major films are a common product. Richard Wormser’s Thief of Baghdad might be novelization of the oldest S&S film.

Dungeons & Dragons by Neal Barrett Jr.