The X-Files: Skin (The X-Files) | Ben Mezrich | A Good Science Fiction Novel

The X-Files: Skin (The X-Files) | Ben Mezrich | Not Bad, Not Bad

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The X-Files: Skin ...

	The X-Files: Skin (The X-Files) Ben Mezrich HarperEntertainment, 2000 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 40 reviews view larger image
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Fatal Flesh

When moonlighting medical students "harvesting" skin from a corpse for temporary use accidentally take it from the wrong donor, the results are catastrophic: a New York City hospital ward is destroyed in a bloodbath, and an elderly professor, admitted for a routine skin graft, is suddenly the city's most wanted fugitive.

Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are the only ones to suspect something more ominous than a medical procedure gone awry. As the FBI agents investigating the "X-Files"--strange and inexplicable cases the Bureau wants to keep hidden--Mulder and Scully are determined to track down the forces they suspect are behind the murderer.

While the police hunt the fleeing professor, Mulder and Scully track the skin that was grafted onto him, a trail that leads from the morgue to the headquarters of a cutting-edge biotech company to the jungles of Thailand. Together they begin to uncover an unholy and totally deniable alliance between a battle-trained plastic surgeon, international politicians, and a legendary Thai monster known as the "Skin-Eater."

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A Good Science Fiction Novel

In the Novel The X-Files Skin By Ben Mezrich Mulder and Scully are trying to find the person behind the disease thats on the skin and that gets people with superhuman strength and then dies later on. In the beginning of the book these two med. students are getting skin of a donor that is already dead for a professer that burned his skin in a water heater accendent that a bunch of steam went on his thigh. so after the opperation the doctor said he's find and everything went wrong from there. Agent Fox Mulder and Dana Scully got on the scene and ask workers and police what happened to the body of the professer where did it go and so on then they see a bloodbath in the Hosptial room where Perry Stanton was at and not no more only to find a nurse on the ground dead. As the Agents are investigating this strange case the Bureau is keeping everytthing hidden from Mulder and Scully. soon on Mulder and Scully are in Thailand searching for an abandoned MASH unit were nalpalm victims were treated for there injuryies even if some of the victims were nursed back to health and may not see there famlies. Scully goes on a hunt to find a experimental medical technology while Mulder stakes are even more higher than scully's while they try to find the Thai Monster known has the Skinn Eater. Ben Mezrich did a real good job in creating this novel because it even says on the back of the novel he's a X-Files Fan for many years and that he used to draw cartoons for a living but in the book he did good explaining every detail that Mulder and Scully went through, how everything that happened from begining to end. I my self really liked this novel its one of the best Science Fiction novels I read and i like the X-Files on tv because im really into top secert stuff like when Mulder searches for aliens and he thinks theres life out there so I think who ever likes the X-Files or Science Fiction Novels you should read this book

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Not Bad, Not Bad

This book took me almost 2 years to read (not because it was bad, but I have a hard time reading a book without putting it down for months at a time). I've owned it for 7 years, finally finished it last night and was actually quite impressed with it. I've read all but "Ruins" of the X-Files novels (that is next) and once I picked this back up about a month ago, I had a hard time putting it down. I found "Antibodies" to be the best of the series though.

Quick Plot: (Lets see if I remember this right) Mulder and Scully are investigating the case where a man who received a skin transplant from a John Doe became excessively violent and powerful. They travel and uncover a gruesome secret that has been going on for more than 25 years.

One note: There is a mistake in the book. The author mentions that Scully has a cross necklace, but mistakenly identifies it as being silver, not gold.

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Great X-Files Tale But With A Very Different Interpretation Of The Key Characters

"The X-Files: Skin" is a very well written, well-paced and imaginative horror tale that succeeds brilliantly at making what might otherwise seem far-fetched instead come off as completely plausible. The FBI's X-Files mainstays, Mulder and Scully, are caught up in a series of savage murders that somehow have a connection both to an illegal tissue-and-organ harvesting operation and a legendary Thai monster called the Skin Eater. Vivid descriptions of place and situation, plus use of very engaging and memorable supporting characters created specifically for this book are highpoints in what should be a highpoint in the whole X-Files mythos.

Where we run into trouble, or where I do anyway, is with the main players: Mulder, Scully and Assistant Director Skinner all come off very differently than I interpret them from their screen appearances. It's totally subjective of course, depending on how each person has previously perceived the characters, but this runs counter to my take on them. Mulder and Skinner seem almost like they hate each other's guts and are on the verge of coming to blows at times - totally different from my own interpretation, where Skinner is often frustrated by Mulder's bending of the FBI protocols and Mulder's often frustrated by Skinner's overadherence to those same rules (even though Skinner's their closest ally among the FBI's higher-ups), but underneath those frustrations I always sensed a lot of mutual respect and even a (subtly presented) growing friendship as the run of the show progressed. Dana Scully was, of course, the skeptic of the team, especially in its early years, and not the most emotionally extroverted person one's going to encounter, but in this book her presentation is beyond that - she seems cold and mostly devoid of compassion, which again is totally different from my take on the character.

It's a testament to the book's strengths and the author's skills that it came off so powerfully well in spite of this large flaw (then again, to another reader it may not be a flaw at all; it may be closer to their own take on the characters). So good I can't even consider writing it off in spite of the character discrepancies, and has me wanting to read more of Mezrich's work. Would have easily been a full 5 stars if the lead characters hadn't been so different from how I think of them; good enough despite that to actually manage to stay at four.
Story - 5/5
Writing- 4.5/5
Lead Characters From The Show - 2.8/5 (I have to admit they're very well written and well realized even if I don't agree with the take on them, and their dialogue is perfect, just not the inner thought processes revealed)
Other Characters, Good, Bad Or 'Neutral' - 4.5/5

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Book Goes South and Doesn't Recover

I finished this a few weeks ago and was disappointed. It's not that Mezrich isn't a good writer; he's probably the best of the bunch among the X-Files novel adaptationists.

Here's where things go south in Skin.

After Mulder and Scully get Skinner's permission to go to Thailand to pursue leads, it seems that the detail, atmosphere, and grittiness, which Mezrich does a great job of setting up, are largely tossed out the window. In Thailand, the atmosphere seems forced, the villians cardboard cutouts, and the plot preposterous.

Also, if you were a fan of Mulder's wry humor, there's little if any of that to be found here.

Kevin J. Anderson's novelizations, while not perfect, remain true to the spirit of the TV show.

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A competent, but not great book on tape

I heard this as a book on tape. It was narrated by Bruce Harwood, who portrays the most 'normal' of the conspiracy-addicted threesome known as 'the Lone Gunmen' on the X-Files TV show. Harwood does a competent, but ultimately uninspiring job of narrating the story. In fact, this is also a decent description of the book as a whole. It is okay, but not great. The characters act like they are supposed to, but those wry comments from Fox are mostly non-existent and Scully is just not quite right throughout most of the book.

The plot itself was okay. The ending was a bit anti-climatic.

It's entertaining, but not great entertainment.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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