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A review by jamespatrickjoyce
Roswell by Jennifer Fallon, Sonny Whitelaw
3.0
I was a big fan of the Stargate series. Big fan of the characters. And it's been awhile (and there's only so many rewatches you can do) and I thought... why not? Maybe I can get back into touch with these characters in a new adventure!
THE CHARACTERS
These are kind of like the studio rebooted the series, with the same characters but different actors playing them. In other words, the authors didn't get the characters right.
One example I'll give is that Jack O'Neill, erstwhile lead of the team. In the series Jack likes to play dumb, making witty remarks to avoid seeming intelligent. He would even pretend to not understand some principle which he would, later, make use of. And he was called on that, by a couple of characters. He's actually pretty smart, just not technically-oriented. He's a very intelligent man who, like most of us, isn't a scientist. In the novel, however, this character is played as not understanding things, period. He's a really good soldier. And there are enough of those in the book.
It was disappointing, every few pages. (not just Jack, I mean different characters, constantly). For the record, Daniel isn't such a helpless emotional child. They play him like he never had to deal with sacrifice, even though by this time in the series he had dealt with the loss of entire peoples and had ascended to a superior realm on two occasions and (despite it being a goal of his), on both occasions chose to return to physical form to help his friends.
To be fair, I believe that T'ealc was mostly portrayed properly... though minimally.
THE STORY
Not really like an episode, even though it borrowed (and referenced) actual episodes. What it most felt like was someone who thought they would get only one chance to tell a Stargate story and wanted to be sure to cram every damn idea into it in one breathless, running monster of a story. Time travel, the Ancients, the Goa'uld, the very first Stargate bad guy, (straight out of the movie where Kurt Russell played Jack O'Neill) alien invasion and conquest of Earth, Area 51, a few famous historical figures, and more!
Ultimately, the adventure itself was not so much a terrible thing, but my ability to stick with it and enjoy it was hampered by---
THE PHYSICAL BOOK...
...is atrocious. I mean horrible. Capital "H" Horrible. It was line-edited by monkeys who were not given the benefit of infinities. Constantly, every single page. I am not exaggerating. From spelling errors to simple grammatical slips...
...to a few cases where it took me a moment to realize the line had been edited, but the original line was still there. They had added the new words, but failed to delete the others. I can't be bothered to find one of them, but here is an example (made up) of what I mean:
1st DRAFT: "The truck drove around the corner."
2nd DRAFT: "The truck turned the corner."
ACTUAL PRINT: "The truck drove turned around the corner."
It really, seriously detracted from enjoyment to be frequently pulled out of the story to figure out what they meant. Or just coming out of the story because WTF?
(EDIT ON 04/04/2019: In retrospect, I stand by my comments, but failed to admit that the authors did manage enough true character moments to make the "movie" stick in my memory. So... if you're jonesing for new SG-1 stories, this will suffice)
THE CHARACTERS
These are kind of like the studio rebooted the series, with the same characters but different actors playing them. In other words, the authors didn't get the characters right.
One example I'll give is that Jack O'Neill, erstwhile lead of the team. In the series Jack likes to play dumb, making witty remarks to avoid seeming intelligent. He would even pretend to not understand some principle which he would, later, make use of. And he was called on that, by a couple of characters. He's actually pretty smart, just not technically-oriented. He's a very intelligent man who, like most of us, isn't a scientist. In the novel, however, this character is played as not understanding things, period. He's a really good soldier. And there are enough of those in the book.
It was disappointing, every few pages. (not just Jack, I mean different characters, constantly). For the record, Daniel isn't such a helpless emotional child. They play him like he never had to deal with sacrifice, even though by this time in the series he had dealt with the loss of entire peoples and had ascended to a superior realm on two occasions and (despite it being a goal of his), on both occasions chose to return to physical form to help his friends.
To be fair, I believe that T'ealc was mostly portrayed properly... though minimally.
THE STORY
Not really like an episode, even though it borrowed (and referenced) actual episodes. What it most felt like was someone who thought they would get only one chance to tell a Stargate story and wanted to be sure to cram every damn idea into it in one breathless, running monster of a story. Time travel, the Ancients, the Goa'uld, the very first Stargate bad guy, (straight out of the movie where Kurt Russell played Jack O'Neill) alien invasion and conquest of Earth, Area 51, a few famous historical figures, and more!
Ultimately, the adventure itself was not so much a terrible thing, but my ability to stick with it and enjoy it was hampered by---
THE PHYSICAL BOOK...
...is atrocious. I mean horrible. Capital "H" Horrible. It was line-edited by monkeys who were not given the benefit of infinities. Constantly, every single page. I am not exaggerating. From spelling errors to simple grammatical slips...
...to a few cases where it took me a moment to realize the line had been edited, but the original line was still there. They had added the new words, but failed to delete the others. I can't be bothered to find one of them, but here is an example (made up) of what I mean:
1st DRAFT: "The truck drove around the corner."
2nd DRAFT: "The truck turned the corner."
ACTUAL PRINT: "The truck drove turned around the corner."
It really, seriously detracted from enjoyment to be frequently pulled out of the story to figure out what they meant. Or just coming out of the story because WTF?
(EDIT ON 04/04/2019: In retrospect, I stand by my comments, but failed to admit that the authors did manage enough true character moments to make the "movie" stick in my memory. So... if you're jonesing for new SG-1 stories, this will suffice)