The Host, an excellent sci-fi novel by Stephenie Meyer (yes, the author of "Twilight"), is being adapted into a feature film and the first http://youtu.be/i1Kkn7IMt50?hd=1 has been released.

The story follows the struggle of a group of resistance fighters after Earth has been conquered by a species of alien parasites, known as "Souls."

Haven't read any of the Twilight books, but I really enjoyed http://www.amazon.com/Host-Novel-Stephenie-Meyer/dp/0316068047.

All I've heard about it is that the answer lies in the power of Love. Sounds a bit cheesy to me. I've already been burnt by reading all of the Twilight books so I'll probably give that one a miss. If the film gets good reviews I might check it out.

I must admit that I'm dubious regarding the quality of anything produced by the person who comes up with ideas such as "Vampires sparkle because their skin is made of diamonds", but I won't go dismissing it entirely without reading/watching it. I doubt I'll bother with the book, but if the movie turns out okay I might give it a chance .

That is cheesier than power metal.
I'll admit the trailer looks cool. Ya know, it might not be such a bad thing if this happened.

Could be interesting. I know my wife is a fan of the Twilight series. I've read through them, myself. I wasn't overly impressed - but then again, I also don't fall into the young girl supernatural romance novel reader that was the target audience of that series. She's not Shakespeare, but she also managed to create characters that obviously to spoke to something in a lot of very dedicated fans of hers, so I don't think it'd be terribly fair of me to discount her entirely as a writer.

Generally speaking, writers tend to get better as they gain more experience, so I'll probably keep an eye on this - out of curiosity if nothing else.

(And the whole "love" thing - if true - might sound cheesy. But then again, it worked just fine for Dan Simmons' Hyperion series...)

Yes- but those characters were either mary-sues or one dimensional stereotypes without any real characterization. For example, Mike is the nice guy who can't get any play, Edward the flawless hero, Charlie the stereotypical police father, Jacob the dark and ever so slightly bitter rival to Edward. Worst of all is Bella, who is essentially a blank slate for which teenage girls to project themselves into.

I think I read somewhere that every phrase that commented on Edward's physical appearance occupied approximately 30 pages over the series. That's quite clearly excessive.

Also- I think her funding of the Mormon church contributes to all manner of sinister lobbying, but I can't and won't expound upon this here.

Maybe, but from what I understand a lot of the plot revolves around who loves whom, and how love is the be all end end all when it all comes down to it (convincing the Host). Like I said, after going through all of the Twilight novels I'm not willing to waste any more time on it. I've gone through a pointless Mary Sue, her abusive relationship and the grooming of her child to what used to be her love interest. That was enough for me (and let's face it - an abusive relationship with a vampiric entity which spawns a halfing that is then brought up to love and then marry their werewolf uncle/husband should have been suitably gothic and creepy tale - it's astounding that the writer made it so dull and crap).

I tried getting into the Twilight series. But halfway through the first book, I stopped reading it. The characters are superficial. I didn't much like the writing either. The whole damsel in distress theme turned me off from the series. The way she uses words in Twilight give me the notion that she had a thesaurus beside her the entire time she was writing the book, and she just replaced some words with other synonyms.

Not sure about the film, but certainly wasn't my impression of the book.


It's been a while since I read it, but I don't remember any sort of dating scenes like that. It's definitely not a romance novel.

The plot for The Host revolves a small group of people resisting the aliens after the fall of Earth. It was about these folks simply trying to survive and not get caught, more of a post apocalyptic vibe.

So it's basically fanfic, except not (directly) based on any other work. Explains its appeal to its audience .

Sounds like it has potential. The execution is key, though.

Having read the Host, I have to say the concept was surprisingly interesting, especially considering who it had been written by. The quality of the writing still wasn't stellar, though, and a lot of the characterization bugged me, as with Twilight. It is far superior to Twilight, though... not that that's saying much. The Host isn't excellent, but it's not fully bad, either.

I might actually see this movie, just out of curiosity. I'm not expecting much.

Haven't read it, but isn't the Twilight series considered "young advlt" fiction?

Maybe the author had to adapt her writing style for a younger audience?

"Adapting her writing style for a younger audience" is a horrid excuse for constant glaring grammatical errors. I wish the style/grammar was all that was bad in those books. The characters are also unlikeable and the characterization is sloppy, and the "ideal relationship" portrayed is a bad example for young, impressionable (pre-)teens. Edward is incredibly manipulative and controlling, and Bella is like a sheep, completely dependent on Edward and going along with everything he says because she feels so unworthy of him that she doesn't feel it's right for her to disagree with him, as he knows better anyway. This is kind of worrying to me, especially since the author herself has stated that she left Bella quite loosely characterized so that the reader could "place themselves into the story" better. It's not a relationship model young girls should find appealing. Bella is not the kind of character they should be inserting themselves into.

*I* wouldn't go inserting myself into someone that crazy, for sure.

Maturity...

I realized this too. She can't live without him. I found Bella a horrible character. The author used Bella's clumsiness to try and make her an interesting character.I think the reason Twilight appeals to so many people is because the writing is so crappy it's simple. Plus Edward is a female teenyboppers fantasy... Or males.

Hey, I'm sure we have the odd impressionable young woman around here, and it's good for them to get a man's perspective on it -- i.e. that kind of dependency is a good way to scare them off (well, the ones that are vaguely worth having, anyway). That's totally my motivation . So, yeah, entirely mature .

It sounds interesting, may have to keep an eye on it.


As for Twilight, I'm not a 13 year old girl so I haven't bothered reading the books though I have a sneaking suspicion that if a fan of twilight were to read a Star Wars book Or something similar they would have the same opinion that you guys have of Twight. Other than that, this is not a Twilight thread, so I won't speak omit anymore.

Ah, okay, I'm sorry for doubting your honorable intentions.

Heh...I thought this thread was going to be about http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468492/.

All I read was, Stephanie Meyer...Twilight... The Host and based off the first two names and immediately became disinterested.

I did too, actually.

Yep, Bong Joon-Ho's movie was great.

Me too.

On topic, it is from Andrew Niccol, so I am in.



Gattaca
The Truman Show (written by)
Lord of War
The Terminal (story)
S1m0ne
In Time (I personally liked "In Time".)

Think http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzwYN-wcSSE said it best really concerning "Vampires that sparkle."

In all honesty *meh*, I really feel that this has been done to death. Sounds like Invasion of The Body Snatchers with the body snatchers having a "consciousness" instead of being mindless creatures. Usually excited to see movies with aliens in them since different people have different takes on them. However, i'm just left scratching my head on this one it doesn't feel very "inventive."