Taken By Thomas H. Cook Reviewed

Steven Spielberg's Sci-Fi Series Adapted by Prolific American Author

Jan 21, 2009

Thomas H. Cook's adaptation of sci-fi series Taken by Steven Spielberg tells the story of alien abductions and the far reaching impact on the victims and their lives.

Adapted from the Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks miniseries of the same name, Taken is a novel spanning three generations and their encounters with an otherworldly alien force, beginning at the close of World War II and charting the impact of the visitations on several families, changing their lives and their children’s lives, forever.

Taken begins with three events spread across the Americas. As the end of World War II shines on the horizon, an Air Force pilot by the name of Russell Keys is saved when the rest of his squad mysteriously go missing after seeing a strange series of lights whilst on a mission.

At the same time, across the country in Roswell, New Mexico, a man by the name of Owen Crawford finds himself inexplicably drawn to a crash site where an unidentified object fell from space.

Then, in a small rural Texas town, the somewhat abandoned Sally Clarke finds a wounded man in her barn who’s a stranger in more ways than one. She takes him in and watches as, slowly, a great many things begin to happen that seem impossible, culminating in a pregnancy that yields a very different child than her existing small brood.

In the present day the impact of all these events come to a head when one little girl finds she has extraordinary powers, and that both the government and some extra-terrestrial force are after her, in an enviably complex, if sometimes needlessly drawn out, plot to Taken by Dreamworks as serialised by Thomas H. Cook.

In a word, no. The mini-series sported impressive, dramatic visuals the kinds of which the book does not even attempt to replicate. And nor should it. Yet, without the visuals, it becomes clear that the story of Taken, whilst, yes, complicated, is somewhat preposterous.

For instance, one of those characters abducted in Taken, Owen Crawford, takes on a psychotic preoccupation in trying to find out the nature and motives behind the alien visitations, but pursues it to a point that leaves the audience somewhat perplexed at his stupidity.

It’s not Crawford's obsession that worries, but that he pursues a boy head-on who may be the offspring of a human and alien coupling, in spite of the fact that the boy has power enough to end the man by a mere thought. And eventually does.

In the context of the miniseries, this seemed a minor point as some terrific acting masked what was one of several weaknesses in the story. Sadly, the novel by Thomas H. Cook has no such shroud behind which to hide, and is revealed, at its base, to be wooden, quite hollow and, although at times dramatic, ultimately unsatisfying.

Thomas H. Cook as a Writer

In spite of this, Thomas H. Cook, who’s other works include The Fate of Katherine Carr and Master of the Delta, makes the best of a story that is wire thin, with some clever adaptation of Taken.

In the original television series, the wildly charismatic child-star Dakota Fanning narrated the tale, adding a layer of refinement and emotion beyond her years. Cook does well in contrasting this with a bare bones narrative that feels reminiscent of a government report, being unafraid to take a different approach for the novel version of Taken and saving it therein from being an out and out failure.

However, the pace of Taken is so fast that, at times, the reader may have to pick bugs out of their teeth, and occasionally there are lapses in consistency where almost impassable gorges in one paragraph morph into allowing a plethora of government officials to attend the scene in order to scan for alien life in the next, and this is just one of many examples.

But, taking the book as a whole, the culmination of the plot does manage all the suspense of the television drama version of Taken and even adds something to the bitter-sweet conclusion, which is largely because of Thomas H. Cook’s impressive writing talents.

This novel isn’t a triumph, nor is it a particularly well adapted piece, but that is largely because Taken was always going to work better on screen, yet there are some clever moments that redeem the book, and for fans of the television mini-series, Taken the novel, as adapted by Thomas H. Cook, is a passable companion.

(Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages, Publisher: Bantam Dell, Date: October 29, 2002, Language: English, ISBN-10: 044024126X, ISBN-13: 978-0440241263)

The copyright of the article Taken By Thomas H. Cook Reviewed in Alien/Space Fiction is owned by Steve Williams. Permission to republish Taken By Thomas H. Cook Reviewed in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.