OMEGA/ALPHA

[William Latham]

[spoiler]MFMA is totally canon! Trust me, everything’s still in place for it.[/spoiler]

[Patricia Sokol]

[b]MLP* wrote:[/b]
[spoiler][quote]

OK, I finished reading Omega / Alpha.

…the “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to continuity actually reduces the book to the level of “fan fiction” as it just feels like a fan trying to cram everything they ever liked about the show into one book.[/quote]

I believe The Powys That Be knew they had to tread very lightly to avoid this. Really, though, these books do only tie in fewer than half a dozen episodes, and fortunately they are some of the better known ones – the ones that a majority of fans will remember fondly. Also, Omega/Alpha were about tying up loose ends, and to do that, you’ve got to gather the ends together. Where the story proceeds from here will determine how successfully they’ve accomplished their goal of addressing things that fans have been talking about for 30-odd years. -PTS [/spoiler]

[b]He also wrote:[/b]
[spoiler]
[quote]…the offspring of the Alphans coming into conflict with their parents would have made the basis for a terrific episode or novel. As just one sub-plot in a novel which has a ton of other things going on it just didn’t leave room do the idea justice…. [/quote]
For me, their presence was a plot device as much as a sub-plot. NotMike was using two typical tactics – isolate the head, and divide and conquer:
What is/was/is Victor’s role on Alpha? A mentor to Koenig, as well as a father figure. What’s the first thing he does upon his return? Saves their hides with his ingenuity. Victor had been propagandized by NotMike, and NotMike believed that Koenig would believe anything Victor told him. Unfortunately, Victor is also very astute, and eventually saw through NotMike.
What is Helena’s role on Alpha w/ respect to JK? She comforts him, listens to him (though not as much as she ought, perhaps), and is a sounding board. Then, pregnancy hormones start rewiring her brain, PseudoRobert shows up, and she – irrationally, perhaps – fears losing him and sees JK as the vehicle through which he is lost. Before long, they can’t even be in the same space without arguing, he gets in something of a mood, and that – NotMike hopes – clouds his decision making.

So, Victor’s presence and the future Alphans’ presence are thrown in the mix as a way to knock out two legs of the tripod. -PTS [/spoiler]

[b]He continued:[/b]
[spoiler][quote]
To have these “future” Alphans and the “alternate Earth” Alphans in the same novel felt like overkill. [/quote]

As much as I enjoyed Omega/Alpha, I think I would have to agree about the Another Time, Another Place Alphans. I understand why they were there (humans – Earth – device – MoonMUFs), but aside from a mechanism for (re)uniting Carter and Ariana, and perhaps Koenig and Cellini, for me this was the weakest and (sorry) least interesting part. Again, if/how Powys uses these characters in the future will determine the success of their being around. Koenig needs a pal, but, as I recall, Helena considered Cellini an irritant and encumbrance in her relationship w/ JK. (Please though, not too much more of that, OK?) Maybe that’s over with, however, since the dragons were real, and not just windmills. And Carter gets a girl (Eroca) for more than 52 minutes. That’s nice. – PTS
[/spoiler]

[b]And finally:[/b]
[spoiler][quote]

I know Powys are looking to emulate the style of the Doctor Who New Adventures …[though]… the difference in approach is that the New Adventures had ambitions to cross over into a more mainstream … sci fi audience. Here Powys seemed to be aiming soley at a small but highly dedicated bunch of Space : 1999 fans.

For future novels my preference would be for well written, standalone sci-fi novels which take the Alphan characters forward into new and fresh adventures rather than harking back to stories from the past. [/quote]

Any Doctor Who novels – and I have not read any, though I should – have the advantage of a current TV series, and one that is larger, probably, than Space:1999 ever was. Powys was hatched as a way to tie up all those loose ends and to take the Alphans beyond The Dorcons – but this is a show that ended almost 35 years ago – so it sort of is a niche audience.

For future novels my preference would be for well written, standalone sci-fi novels which take the Alphan characters forward into new and fresh adventures rather than harking back to stories from the past.

Born for Adversity was pretty much a stand-alone, although you did have to know about Dorzak. Now that these things gelled into place and a certain continuity established, I guess one could say the fun can begin. Do you consider maintaining continuity and building on their experiences as harkening back? (This is not meant to be a snarky question.) Though not directly depending on the Great Forty-eight, I’d like to explore things like how they knew the ship in “Dorzak” was transmitting the universal plague signal, for example, as well as moving forward. -PTS

[/SPOILER]

I enjoyed reading your perspective. Discussion is good! 🙂

-Pat.

[matt pearson]

[SPOILER][quote]
Born for Adversity was pretty much a stand-alone, although you did have to know about Dorzak. Now that these things gelled into place and a certain continuity established, I guess one could say the fun can begin. Do you consider maintaining continuity and building on their experiences as harkening back? (This is not meant to be a snarky question.) Though not directly depending on the Great Forty-eight, I’d like to explore things like how they knew the ship in “Dorzak” was transmitting the universal plague signal, for example, as well as moving forward. -PTS [/quote]

I [I]loved[/I] Born For Adversity. B)
No, the continuity didn’t bother me there. I always liked Maya so having a novel focus on her story was great. For me the continuity that was in that novel was only what needed to be there to tell the story. I guess what I was really objecting to in Omega / Alpha was that at least [I]some[/I] of the continuity in the book felt to me like it [I]didn’t[/I] need to be there but was included because it appealed to a fannish urge to tie all of this stuff together.
I kind of preferred the idea that Alpha’s missions had a randomness to them and you weren’t sure where the moon would end up next. At the moment I’m feeling like I can be pretty sure that it will, in part at least, be somewhere we’ve been before. For me this makes the 1999 “universe” feel smaller.

With regards to addressing loose ends from the series, I think an anthology like Shepherd Moon is the way to go. The stories can be slotted in between episodes without the feeling that the moon is going backwards ! 😉
I agree with the comments in the other thread though that it would be helpful to have some text somewhere in the book (or maybe on this website ?) which tells you the chronological placement of the stories. I’m waiting on a Blu Ray release before I go back and watch the episodes again so my memories are getting rather hazy. 🙂

[quote]
I enjoyed reading your perspective. Discussion is good! 🙂

-Pat.[/quote]

Thanks 🙂 [/SPOILER]

[meredith]

[quote]For future novels my preference would be for well written, standalone sci-fi novels which take the Alphan characters forward into new and fresh adventures rather than harking back to stories from the past. [/quote]

I have very much enjoyed all the new stories (have not yet read [i]Alpha[/i]), but I find I agree with this sentiment.

I would also enjoy seeing a small amount of balancing hope in the Powys plots, which up to now have been, on the vast whole, rather ‘down,’ … although [i]Alpha[/i] might well have this. The universe of S99, especially series one, is certainly a somber place, but even so, there are moments where the Alphans are enjoying just being people. The music concert in ‘The Troubled Spirit’, the interactions of Eva and Anton Zoref in the opening of ‘Force of Life’, Koenig presenting Helena with the flower in ‘Testament of Arkadia’, even the chess match and guitar playing in ‘The Black Sun’. (Although I’ll grant the last was done as the moon plummeted to its expected death… at least they were not shown to be weeping and gnashing their teeth!) Just my 2¢.

[Molly]

Well, I’ve read both born for Adversity and Omega, and loved them both (btw, they’re both for sale on ebay right now, if anyone is interested). My financial situation at the moment doesn’t allow me to purchase “Alpha”, 🙁 and I’m just dying to know what happens. Does Koenig die?
[spoiler]What about Robert Koenig, is he real or just another “ghost”? [/spoiler]

Can anyone post the ending here or email me at mollysemanian@yahoo.com? Pretty pretty please???? :woohoo:

[Mateo Latosa]

We are grateful for Molly’s enthusiasm and understand her financial situation, but we’d like to respectfully ask that people refrain from posting synopses of our books on this (or any other) forum. For Powys to survive, we have to sell books. Doing so allows us to invest the money earned in MORE books.

We want you to feel free to discuss the books, certainly. But we still need to be able to sell them in order to keep running. It’s a thin line. Everyone so far has been very respectful of it. We are grateful for that too!

[Molly]

I’m sorry, I didn’t mean any disrespect or to cause any problems for Powys Media. I certainly wouldn’t want anyone to post a whole synopsis, just a little teaser. I fully intend to buy the book in the future, just not right this minute. Would it be ok if someone were to email me the information instead of posting it here?

[Mateo Latosa]

How about this: send me your name and address and I’ll have Lulu ship you a copy of Alpha compliments of Powys. Getting the info any other way would just spoil it for you.

Mateo (name of the company all one word in lower case) @ prodigy.net

[Michael Schwartz]

[b]blatham wrote:[/b]
[quote][spoiler]MFMA is totally canon! Trust me, everything’s still in place for it.[/spoiler][/quote]
[spoiler]Sorry, but it just seems weird when Sandra says, “… to Luke and Anna on your new Arkadia …” Everything else fits, but the context of that phrase just seems odd considering that “original” Luke and Anna were slaughtered on Arkadia and “Another Time, Another Place” Luke and Anna are now living on their… Wow, you’re right! Luke and Anna are on their “new” Arkadia!

I withdraw my concern. You twisted the S1999 universe into a moebius loop that still gets to the right place! Incredible![/spoiler] :cheer:

[Tim Hartswick]

Another excellent Alphan adventure. Again beautifully printed and delivered quick by LuLu.
What an enjoyable ride Powys Media has provided for the last few months. Congratulations to all involved! Don’t stop now!

[Patrick Zimmerman]

Ok, I finally finished up Omega and Alpha. I’m not really sure why I put off reading these two for so long, maybe it was just the thrill of seeing unread Space: 1999 books sitting on my shelves. But, it was finally time, and luckily I had been able to get through the past year avoiding most of the spoilers – although it was pretty much completely impossible to get away from everyone’s endless reference to “the hand”…

I was pretty excited about the publication of these books and the chance to read them. It seemed clear from the hints and teasers that this duology was a major event in the 1999 chronology and it was going to be a massive coming-together of various story elements resulting in a universe forever changed.

And, now that I’m done reading them, I find that that’s exactly what they were – a valiant attempt to explain the MUF, to tie together various different year 1 episode threads, to weave in the prior Powys universe creations and to bring about a brave, new path forward for any later stories – all in one fell swoop.

I found the Omega/Alpha novels to be well written in a fast-paced, big spectacle manner – in a Michael Bay movie type fashion if you will – with big events, large battles, huge explosions and the occasional down time for some character exploration. And unfortunately, just like in a Michael Bay movie, if the reader stops to take a breather from the non-stop action to think about what is actually going on, they’ll quickly notice a lot of things don’t really make a whole lot of sense or don’t really add up. It’s a difficult task to write a story involving omnipotent powers that aren’t quite omnipotent anymore. How do you balance the characters doing truly amazing powerful events one moment and then not being able to do an incredibly simple action the next? For the most part it worked, but there were also notable sections of the story where this incongruity was glossed over or ignored. At times it made for very frustrating reading, and like a Michael Bay movie, I found that I really needed to just switch off my brain for a time and go with the flow to enjoy it.

A few of my pro and con highlights of these books, with an overall score at the end.

Pros:

The covers. The inside/outside the rift cover image pairing is inspired. Although not an actual scene in the novels, it works really well to show a key aspect of the story and intrigues the potential reader to pick up the books to find out what’s going on.

The Brell. This was a truly fascinating, new species of life created for this book. The first few chapters where they showed up, and had to be initially dealt with, were extremely well done. Reminded me in a tiny way of one element from Robert Reed’s Well of Stars – an author who I think could write an amazing Year 1 1999 story.

Having a character named Meyer. His name made me laugh every time I read it, as it always made me think of Tony calling out Maya’s name.

The incredible thought and effort that went into plotting out this story. It had to be a near endless task to map out the convoluted path of this story, to pore over it again and again, spending days (years?) making sure everything works from within the episodes and within the novels.

Cons:

The covers. I was excited to see Mars on the cover of Omega visible through the rift in space, only to find that Mars has nothing to do with this story. A picture of one of the planets actually used in the book or even a unique alien world would have been more meaningful.

Victor. He is either really brilliant or surprisingly stupid, depending on what is required of the plot. I also found his character to be the most “off” and for the majority of the story I could not picture Victor saying what he was saying, as he continuously spoke… in endless… ellipses. He was also a non-stop pessimist, throwing in the towel, over and over again, at the slightest drop of a dragon (to abuse the phrase). I lost count of how many times he just gives up and accepts impending death instead of working to figure out a solution. Was he ever like that in the show? And I found it odd that not once did he pause to remark about his pulse quickening, or something to that affect – after all, this is the first time in dozens of years that he has a flesh and blood heart. You’d think he’d notice.

The random killing of Sara Picton. Her death clearly didn’t fit in with what else was happening and made no sense at all, and yet none of the characters thought about it or questioned it for even a second. It was such an incongruous event, and required the characters to play stupid for such a long time to make it work, that it was aggravating to read the next 200 pages before it was finally explained. It did keep me trying to figure out what was really going on for a long time though, because clearly something was seriously amiss, so I’ll give it that.

The eclipse in Chapter 12 of Alpha. Before I could even finish the thought that an eclipse was impossible, it was labeled a “lunar eclipse”. At which point I nearly threw the book against the wall and gave up reading the story. I know I shouldn’t let these little things bother me so much, but Koenig would know the difference between a solar and lunar eclipse.

Typos :
Minimal, only a handful in total, with Omega having more than Alpha. What made them stand out though is that they were complete corruptions of whatever word should have been there as opposed to just a misspelling or incorrect word. These made for some ugly stumbling blocks as I tried to figure out what word was really supposed to be in the text. Oddly, three of them started with “ignif”.

Overall
A rollicking convoluted story for the hard-core fan that brings in everything except the kitchen sink to explain and resolve the meta-story of 1999 – but unfortunately requires a brain check at the door.

Rating: 6/10.

[Charles C. Albritton III]

>from [b]The Dictionary of Stuff I Pulled out of My MUF[/b]<

“ignif” — Arcadian word meaning "D'oh!"

Tex
(hey, Printer's Daemons happen)

[Steve Foster]

Ultra… I enjoy your reviews, so please keep posting them! 😉

Here are my thoughts on what you’ve posted on this thread:

[b]Ultra wrote:[/b]
[quote]The eclipse in Chapter 12 of Alpha. Before I could even finish the thought that an eclipse was impossible, it was labeled a “lunar eclipse”. At which point I nearly threw the book against the wall and gave up reading the story. I know I shouldn’t let these little things bother me so much, but Koenig would know the difference between a solar and lunar eclipse.[/quote]

I find it astonishing that something so utterly trivial provoked such an OTT reaction! Yes, he would, but this is FICTION! Koenig would know if he were real. He isn’t. The writer goofed. And you’re (quite probably) the only one that noticed.

[b]Ultra wrote:[/b]
[quote]
Overall

A rollicking convoluted story for the hard-core fan that brings in everything except the kitchen sink to explain and resolve the meta-story of 1999…

Rating: 6/10.[/quote]

I agree (with the summing up) but I disagree with the score you’ve given (with all of my heart and with MUCH passion! So much passion, I have to post in CAPITAL LETTERS!) Haha! 😉

Let me give away a little secret here…

(forgive me Bill).

I read the Prologue of [b]OMEGA[/b] several years before it was published (because William Latham and I were corresponding 1 to 1 by e-mail – for the most part, I was fighting for the integrity of all that was good about Year: 2 and begging him and Powys to preserve those things!). Let me make this VERY CLEAR: I have NO INFLUENCE over Powys or what they do with my favourite TV series ever WHATSOEVER. But when I read…

[spoiler]Luke Ferro’s dying words/thought: “The Testament of Arkadia… is that all life… is ultimately… extinguished!”[/spoiler]

I was COMPLETELY blown away! I thought about it for days afterwards. I’d be making a cup of tea, having come home from work, and suddenly stop and think about what Luke had said/thought… and it just blew my mind! This… was something beyond this passionate fan’s comprehension. & I liked it!

Thank God for the genius of William Latham!

I think that one remark symbolises why the death of Sara Picton is handled/portrayed in the way that it is.

And I was actually very happy with Victor’s characterisation. He, like all the characters, is growing and changing. Remember, he lost his wife to the Dragon’s. Confronted with them and the Brell and everything else… wouldn’t YOU give up and just want to crawl under your bed and hide? And, if Victor hadn’t given up, Bill wouldn’t have been able to give Sandra one of her best lines in the series EVER!

“If the pity party is over…”

God, I love these novels. All of them. For me, they are absolutely canon.

[b]Ultra wrote:[/b]
[quote]…but unfortunately requires a brain check at the door.

Rating: 6/10.[/quote]

On this point, I must PASSIONATELY DISAGREE!!!!

I give [b]ALPHA[/b] & [b]OMEGA[/b]… 512 out of 10

To be honest, if you look at Star Trek, [b]SPACE: 1999[/b] and many, MANY other TV series, you’d have to leave your brain at the door with regards to most, if not all of them 😉 Perhaps, if you did, you might enjoy the stories more. At the end of the day, science fiction is enjoyable, sometimes provocative nonsense imho.

I’m happy to leave my brain at the door… if doing so enables me to: “Escape to world’s beyond belief”. The world of [b]SPACE: 1999[/b] as portrayed in shocking, moving, unpredictable novels such as [b]OMEGA[/b] & [b]ALPHA[/b], leaves me hungry and desperate to do so far more! They are enjoyable, thrilling novels, both of them! B)

The defence rests. No further questions at this time your honour 😉 :silly:

[Patrick Zimmerman]

[b]Steve F wrote:[/b]
[quote]Ultra… I enjoy your reviews, so please keep posting them! 😉 [/quote]
thanks. I do spend some time on them, so that’s good to hear.

[b]Steve F wrote:[/b]
[quote]I find it astonishing that something so utterly trivial provoked such an OTT reaction! Yes, he would, but this is FICTION! Koenig would know if he were real. He isn’t. The writer goofed. And you’re (quite probably) the only one that noticed. [/quote]
I think it’s *because* it’s such a trivial thing – and it’s wrong – that it bugs the crap out of me. For fiction that takes place in space, I would hope that these simple astronomical things, like solar and lunar eclipses, would get labeled correctly. Some things that are more obscure, such as the incorrect use of geosynchronous orbit on page 293 of Born for Adversity, when it really should have been a synchronous orbit (or seleno-synchronous if you want to get fancy), is getting into some deeper subject knowledge and I can let that slide. But the mainstream info should be correct.
And yeah, I know it’s the writer making the error and not the character, and perhaps saying that ‘Koenig would know this’ confuses the real intent of my remark, which is that I think these works should have a little QA done on their technical aspects to avoid these kinds of simple mistakes.
And only a little. I’m definitely not advocating that these books should hold up to some rigid rules of scientific accuracy, because that would be the ultimate buzz-kill and destroy any fun or flare in the story-telling (and couldn’t be done, anyway). So as unlikely as it is that “the edge of the moon grew fiery as the Earth’s atmosphere heated it, destroying an abandoned base, lost Eagles, etc.” when the Earth collides with the Moon, it’s an incredible visual image and a great dramatic moment and is fine just the way it is. (and I say unlikely, since the Moon would go through the Earth’s atmosphere in just a split second)

[b]Steve F wrote:[/b]
[quote](Re: the opening paragraphs.) I was COMPLETELY blown away! I thought about it for days afterwards. I’d be making a cup of tea, having come home from work, and suddenly stop and think about what Luke had said/thought… and it just blew my mind! This… was something beyond this passionate fan’s comprehension. & I liked it![/quote]
Your thoughts on the Testament of Arkadia opening to the book are interesting in their intensity. For me, it just provoked the thought “Really? was that really necessary to have this happen? what’s the point?” Of course, after reading the rest I see why it was done, but I wasn’t blown away by it like you. I couldn’t see the consistency of this event with oldMike’s later actions, and that lingers in the back of my mind while I’m reading the rest of the story.

[b]Steve F wrote:[/b][quote]I think that one remark symbolises why the death of Sara Picton is handled/portrayed in the way that it is.[/quote]I think you misunderstand what I was trying to say about her death. I didn’t have a problem with her getting killed. My problem was with having Enlen show up and use force to kill her so easily. If this was really, truly a full-on battle between Mike and Enlen, why in the world was Enlen playing little games by tossing a fleet of starfish ships around in space that couldn’t win a battle but yet popping into a single Eagle to kill off just one person? If this was war, Enlen should have popped in behind all 300 Alphans one-by-one and snapped each and every one of their necks in a matter of minutes. Who would stop him? Story is over before chapter 6. I was not satisfied with the brush off miss-direction answer given at the time, and it annoyed me the characters refused to think about this incongruity for the next 200 pages.

Although, really, goodMike’s battle tactics throughout the novels wavered between full-on battle mode and “we can’t kill the main characters” mode, making it difficult to pin down the point of some of the battles. They were more than just warnings, but never enough to really damage things. Which goes back to how do you have omnipotent beings battle it out without the story ending after only 10 pages?

[b]Steve F wrote:[/b]
[quote] And I was actually very happy with Victor’s characterisation. … Bill wouldn’t have been able to give Sandra one of her best lines in the series EVER!
“If the pity party is over…”[/quote] we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one. I think Bill did an amazing job with Victor in Resurrection, but I didn’t care for him at all in either Spider’s Web or Omega/Alpha. Heck, in Spider’s Web he’s fighting tooth and nail for most of the story, and winning!, but as soon as he meets up with Yendys, he quits. She saves his butt, and the next moment they are confronted, he quits again. Where is this coming from? He’s survived so many things, through his own ingenuity or through the mysterious forces of the universe, over and over again, but he suddenly becomes a negative sourpuss and it’s strange.
And I agree – Sandra’s line was great, because Victor needed a serious b*tch slap to the face to get his head back in the game and be in it to win it.

[b]Steve F wrote:[/b]
[quote]you’d have to leave your brain at the door with regards to most, if not all of them Perhaps, if you did, you might enjoy the stories more. I’m happy to leave my brain at the door… if doing so enables me to: “Escape to world’s beyond belief”. The world of [b]SPACE: 1999[/b] as portrayed in shocking, moving, unpredictable novels such as [b]OMEGA[/b] & [b]ALPHA[/b], leaves me hungry and desperate to do so far more! They are enjoyable, thrilling novels, both of them[/quote]
Thing is, I have enjoyed these novels, and gave BfA a 9. I just found these two lacking.
As for the rest, up to a point I agree. SF allows fantastic concepts to be delved into, philosophies to be bantered about, spectacular epics to be portrayed – and I love it. I loved Space 1999 Season 1, faults and all, and I really do enjoy seeing these new adventures. And although I may not agree with some of the changes, I have enjoyed most, and I’m certainly onboard for more.
Now that I’m starting to read Chasing the Cyclops, I’m seeing better the years of preparation and back and forth that went into these books, the continued changes to the plot, the development of eye-popping twists and revelations and on and on and on. Tons and tons of work and effort. And I applaud it! Great job and keep it up.
And it almost makes me want to revise my score up a notch to a 7. But then I think back on the issues I had with the story and I can’t do it. I’m stuck with huge unanswered questions like:
Why were Alan and Maya transported to Earth? And Koenig later on?
Why didn’t badMike transport a badArkadian to Arkadia to trigger the device at any time after it had been uncovered?
Why were the Moons moved towards the planets?
Why weren’t the two moons smashed into each other to end their ability to trigger?

Questions like those bother me and keep me from rating these books higher.

But overall I’m still really enjoying these books. I’m in it for the long haul and have been buying them ever since Resurrection was announced way back when. And certainly looking forward to more.

-Patrick

[Patricia Sokol]

[b]Ultra and Steve F wrote:[/b]
[quote]lots and lots of interesting things [/quote]

For me, it’s important to think about what happened because of certain events, and not why they happened, or didn’t happen. If you answer the first part, the second part falls into line.

BadMike is all about manipulation – he gives you a fish.
GoodMike is about actualization and realization – he teaches you to fish.
7 out of 8 of the major players (and I do mean that quite literally) gained something from this little cosmic scuffle.
There were rules in this game, and you can discern them if you tease things apart.
Glossed over is not the same as unanswered.

I know with absolute certainty there is a virtual draft of an upcoming Powys publication, currently in the proof-reading stages, that was written in an attempt to answer some of these questions from a non-author perspective and ask even further questions. [url=http://www.mysmiley.net][img]http://serve.mysmiley.net/rolleye/rolleye0017.gif[/img][/url] (Do you realize how easily two-letter words get bungled, and not a spell checker in the world will pick it up?)

-Pat.
[url=http://www.mysmiley.net][img]http://serve.mysmiley.net/rolleye/rolleye0012.gif[/img][/url]

[Author]

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