Book Review: The Queen's Gambit - Walter Tevis
By @edent
· Book Review · 1 comment · 200 words
The novelisation of the TV series! OK, OK, the book was written nearly 40 years before the Netflix miniseries. But it is uncanny how close the two are.
Most adaptation are really "creative reimaginings" of the source material. Taking liberties with the source material, introducing new, relatable characters, and monkeying around with the plot. But the series is almost beat-for-beat the same as the book.
Except where it isn't. It's curious how the TV series ignores the themes of racism and sexual experimentation. There's a touch of the Magical Negro trope around Jolene - but her character is a bit more fleshed-out her than in the TV show.
But, back to the book. It's a zippy and exciting little novel. It suffers a bit from the density of the Chess terminology. There's only so many times you can read "and then I moved my knight!!!" without it sounding like Rimmer's war diaries.
It's a fine novel, but probably not worth reading if you've watched the series.
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- Buy the eBook on Amazon Kindle
- Get the paper book from Hive
- Author's homepage
- Publisher's details
- Borrow from your local library
- ISBN: 1400030609
I wondered if the friends/mentors and her relationships with them all were more fleshed out in the book because they seemed so superfluous. She doesn't really change either does she, and seems to have no trouble binning the drugs and booze.