Friday, April 18, 2014

The Barque of Heaven by Suzanne Wood * * *

This story takes place during 3rd season. You definitely need to know the series up to that point, but not the previous book.
The story itself is pretty exciting. As can be seen from the summary, they are going from planet to planet in a test. It's very hard to stop reading, because you keep wondering how they are going to get the address and password to the next gate, and when they go through, what's going to be the next challenge. Though there are more exciting planets than others, but if we were talking about actual people, then they would be all dead halfway through.

The characterization is generally good, but O'Neill feels a bit off. On the one hand, he says these nicknames that I can't remember him doing in the show. He calls Daniel "Danny" sometimes, and Teal'c "T". I took off half a star for that. My actual rating is 3.5 stars.
What it also lacked for me was Carter. She seems to be sometimes forgotten. The guys all have something going on, but Carter feels like she's just dragged along.

Overall, an enjoyable story, exciting, and interesting. Good entertainment.

Friday, April 4, 2014

Sacrifice Moon by Julie Fortune * * * *

Before I go into the review of the book, I have to tell you about my "love affair" with Stargate SG-1. I can't remember when I started to watch it, but the movie I did see in the theatre, and it was absolutely great. It combined my love for sci-fi, and Egyptian mythology. The series got me hooked right away, but for some time there were problems, because in my country they wouldn't screen it past season 2. However, for some years that has changed. There is a channel, where they have an episode on every evening at 7.20pm, and they have for years. If they reach the end, they just start again. That actually happened last week, and I realised that some episodes I've seen almost every showing of, some almost none, so now I want to watch every episode again. Then I happened on a collection of almost all the books, and yesterday decided to try them out. I'm glad I did.

This is an interesting book for fans. It fills a gap between episode 2 and 3. At the end of the second episode we see the newly formed team, but in episode 3, they already had time to gel. They also refer to something happening, that they didn't want to talk about. Well, this is it. I'll attempt not to spoil it, but let me just tell you, it may be a short book, and that's why I could read it in a day, but it was also because I couldn't put it down.

The story opens with some light bits. At first I felt it was somewhat drawn out, but it reminded me that the first episodes were a bit more light-hearted at times than the later ones. During the course of the book those also made good references for the team to look back on. Later events were anything but light.

The characters didn't know each other well yet, and their actions made sense. They sometimes seemed a bit different from the people I got to know, but the differences were logical, since they changed as the series went along, and I can see them from the end product. Still, their actions showed signs of the people they were going to become, and therefore I think they were portrayed really well.

With every book that is a companion to the series, there is the question, can this be read by people who haven't seen the show? Definitely not. At least you have to see the movie and the first two episodes, because it doesn't make sense otherwise. Can this be read by people who just casually like the series? It can. The book in itself is very engaging, full of action. It's not exactly like the series in that it uses everything a book can be, and a TV show can't. If it was filmed it would probably be a two episode story, but there are also insights that can't be told in a show. So if you've seen it, and want to have some fun in the world, you should read this book. That's why I gave it 4 stars.