Fairy Tale Spotlight: Scanners [Book Review]

"Scanners" is a novel written by Leon Whiteson. It was published in 1980. This book was intended to come out before the release of the film of the same name. I actually sought this book out after seeing that movie for the first time. This blog is more about the book than it is the movie.

The whole idea of Scanners is that there are a group of certain human beings that have strong psychic powers. They can hear people's thoughts, and they can also "scan" people to figure out what they know. The scanning technique is invasive and causes a lot of friction. It is much like having a real spectral hand shoved into your head. It doesn't feel nice, and, in the worst of cases, it can actually cause your body to heat up and possibly explode.

The way the movie delivered these concepts were so fascinating to me that it made me want to read a book about it. I wanted more vivid descriptions of what it felt like to be a scanner and what it was like to be the one being scanned. Thankfully, the book delivered.

Before you ask, I'm not really going to spoil anything in the book. You can just as easily see the movie and get what the book is about. I like the movie too much to spoil it. You should see the film. It's surprisingly realistic in its presentation for a movie made in 1981. It is hard science fiction.

The book is a little hard to find for a reasonable amount of money. I threw out a good chunk of cash just to get it. It paid off enough. I've mentioned this before, but a lot of these adaptations tend to be based off the original movie script. I like to read them because it shows me what the original idea for these films might have been and also to help me get a better lock on the events portrayed in the film.

In the case of this novel, there are notable differences from the film. Some are improvements and in some cases the movie did it better. But really the thing that makes the book worth a damn is its vivid descriptions of the scanning technique. That was the reason I wanted to read it to begin with.

The most notable thing I learned had to do with the strange warbling noise you heard in the movie whenever scanning was happening. I thought that this was just a soundtrack thing that was put in to help the audience know that scanning was taking place. However, the book makes it clear that the scanners can hear that noise. It is referred to as a "scan tone." That is extremely cool to learn.

I recommend both the movie and the novel for "Scanners," but you really should see the movie if you had to choose between the two. The movie was what made me even care about the book. The book is secondary, but it is really quite good and I am glad I got the opportunity to read it.

This blog was written on October 7, 2023.

Thank you for reading my blog! Did you enjoy it? Either way, you can comment below, or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. Also stop by my Amazon.com listing by clicking this link: https://www.amazon.com/T.K.-Wade/e/B07BQK9RTZ

Check out my books! Thanks!