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I have my 20% off Lulu coupon ready to go – good until 2/16: FEBREADS
just itching for a chance to use it before it expires….
Well, I’m almost embarrassed to admit it, but I finally got around to reading Born For Adversity just last week (and still have Omega and Alpha on the night stand). And yes, it’s been tricky to read and post on this forum without accidentally getting spoiled on some really key points about these books, but so far so good…
Regarding BFA, I thought it was a fantastic “season premiere” episode for Year 3. I’m not a fan of Year 2 by a long shot, but I do find that I’m really enjoying the serious approach to the material – which is the overriding ideal in all the Powys novels. The two transition novels (The Forsaken and Survival) had storylines and events that gave me workable and acceptable reasons for the transformation of the world of Alpha from Year 1 to what we got stuck with in Year 2 (with the exception of the destruction of Main Mission, which I felt was completely pointless and unnecessary in Survival). BFA continues that directive and provides a serious look and assessment of what can be done in a Year 3 environment. From this book I found that I can enjoy Year 2 – as long as I’m not being subjected to the worst elements of Freiberger’s makeover (although there was that little nod on page 117 to his ridiculous abuse of warning signs with large lettering. But I had to laugh at that). I do have some minor quibbles though, mostly technical in nature, but overall this was a superb achievement and a great addition to the Powysverse suite of novels.
Pros: As was been mentioned in an earlier review and is worth bringing up again, this is an excellent, professionally crafted novel and clearly not a work of fan fiction. It was well written, suspenseful, and demonstrated a strong knowledge of the 1999 universe by using thoughtful, episode based explanations to what would otherwise be the unbelievable coincidences that drive the narrative. The suspense in the story is derived from knowing that Powys has been and is still making significant changes to the 1999 universe, but not knowing what the changes to the universe are going to be – who leaves, who arrives, who lives, who dies – keeps the reader on edge. (Going in to this book, I secretly hoped it was Maya that would be leaving and heading out to the stars forever…).
The characterizations were really solid as well. For the most part I could hear the actors saying the words as written. The conversations and discussions worked well amongst all the players. And the best part was seeing that the characters had matured and the story was addressing adult themes, something that was glossed over in Year 2.
It was another interesting push forward in the 1999 universe, told with well thought-out use of in-universe story elements to tie it all together.
Cons: The multiple technical errors (see quibbles below) and the odd pacing through the last few climactic chapters. The finale swung from moments of intense fighting and fast pacing to pages of leisurely discussions without a sense of urgency of the life-and-death battle swirling around the base. And although overall the read was a professional experience, one element of the story stood out as pure fan service to me, and that was the creation of the Hawk ships within a matter of days. It’s one thing to perhaps manufacture a basic structure and hull of a ship in just a couple days but to outfit the guts of the ships with the thousands and thousands of machined or electrical items to really make a spaceship fly is beyond the credible. As well, as interesting as the prologue was, it spoiled the true nature of the Pyschons as aggressors as soon as I read that Psychons were aboard the non-Psychon ship in Chapter 6 – as it was then immediately obvious that the marauders in the prologue were just shape-shifted Psychons. It took away the “are they or aren’t they” element to their true intentions.
Overall: a fantastic work digging into Maya, her background, loyalties and resolve in the face of life altering events. A solid edition to the Powys lineup. 9/10.
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The Quibbles: Unfortunately, I found numerous technical issues in the novel, and although this has never been a strength with Space: 1999, I can still hope for a story that gets much of the science right. For the most part, these errors didn’t really diminish my enjoyment of the book, but being a rocket scientist, they all made me wince, or confused me as to what was going on or just flat out distracted me enough to completely pull me out of the story. (Mateo – if you need technical QA of any of the upcoming novels, let me know, I’d be happy to vet them) :cheer:Chapter 1 was filled with the most errors – The readings of the Eagle’s ranges, velocities and times to impact didn’t match up – the specific values given didn’t track out accurately as the events progressed. Shuttle Mission Control is at JSC, not KSC. Alan’s last minute high-rate-of-speed 180-degree yaw of the Eagle before impact, although dramatic, is bad flying. As an astronaut Alan would know that starting the yaw maneuver as early as possible and at a much slower rate would be the far better thing to do, providing more time and safety to the action. The phrase Terminal Velocity is used incorrectly, so I don’t really know what the author is trying to say with the phrase “euphemistically called terminal velocity”.
After that first chapter there was huge improvement, and only a handful or so of things bothered me for the remainder of the book, things like the continual swapping between English and Metric units, the occasional erroneous words and phrases (“terminal velocity”, “the lunar satellite of our home planet”, “took up a geosynchronous orbit”, “it’s going haywire, literally”), the random typo (I counted five) or little inconsistencies in story elements.
[quote][b]Steve F wrote:[/b] Still no sign of the Year 2 Omnibus on E-Bay (either it’s not on there yet, or I just can’t see the thing for looking! Haha!)[/quote]hmm. it’s definitely out there.
but when I look for it using ebay UK, it doesn’t show up
it must be something that ebay.com is doing to make it a U.S. only item. (insert derogatory comment about ebay here)
here’s the auction # 280619722317
just paste it in the ebay search field and it will take you to the itemI would say the easiest way to find these is to search by seller – powysmedia
searching “By seller” is an ‘advanced’ search.
and then use the option to ‘Save search’
by saving the search, ebay will automatically send you an email any time a new item is listed by powysmedia, and give you direct links to each item in the email.[b]Steve F wrote:[/b]
[quote]Would be great to see it… ;)[/quote]
yes it would…if only there were some way to perform a search on this site – then one could see if the book, and its smokin’ cover, had already been sneakily added – hidden like a royal blue Easter Egg waiting to be found, in the Underground….
but you didn’t hear this from me… :whistle:
[b]mateo wrote:[/b]
[quote]In the Main Menu, click on Space: 1999 Books, look at the list of articles on the right and click on Android Planet. I will link the image on the main page to this article later. You can see a larger image of the cover and read the back cover text.[/quote]
Although I love the color and the scenario, now that I’ve had a chance to look at it in a larger format, I’ve noticed something about the image.
The clouds appear as though we are looking directly towards a sunset, that the sun is down at the horizon somewhere below the Eagle.
but the lighting for the rest of the image – the android, the Eagle, the canyon, has the light source off low to the right
But maybe that’s just how a sky on an apricot colored world would look like?[b]mateo wrote:[/b]
[quote]Now, if you click on the image of the Android Planet cover at the top of the page, you’ll be taken to the novel’s page.
[/quote]I’ve been meaning to mention this for awhile now, and with Android Planet at the top of the page I finally remembered –
For some reason with Firefox that top row of items is getting pushed far to the right, with the first image being to the right of the long grey rectangular box just below the “About Powys Media”.
Basically the images can’t be seen at all – they are off the page.
Only happens with Firefox, and not IE or Safari. I don’t use Firefox that often, so keep forgetting about this nit.hey, that is a really nice one. I can totally recall that exact scene from the book – or at least the described setting
got my Cyclops today.
ordered it late last Wednesday night, and it arrived a week and a half later on a Friday. Took a few more days than the usual lulu speedy delivery due to the holidays I suppose.
always exciting to see that lulu shipping box on the front porch!!
tore into the packaging and pulled out the new book. Looks sharp. I really like that the title font is not done in the Futura used for all the novels. Having that different title font on the spine clearly sets it apart from the rest of the set, while still being part of the whole by maintaining the red Powys on the black background. Very nice.as for reading it…. er, well, I hate to even admit it, but I haven’t read Omega/Alpha yet… even though I think I was the first to receive Alpha. So I don’t want to even read any cover text for fear of spoiling what awaits me… although, even the imagery has me thinking I’m too late…
In a way though, it’s somewhat thrilling to have new, unread Space 1999 novels sitting on my shelf.
But my priorities need adjusting, so –New Year’s Resolution #1: Read my Space: 1999 novels!!
[b]mateo wrote:[/b]
[quote]The first five or six episodes will have their order changed. I don’t want to reveal the order at this point though.[/quote]
I’ll go out on a really long limb and guess that Breakaway is no longer the first story – and will actually occur fourth or fifth – in the middle of Earthbound as a “flashback” of past events as Koenig and crew describe to the Kaldorians why they landed so far off course.“Was your ship programmed to land on this moon?”, Koenig asked of Zantor.
“Only to orbit it. Then we would have reanimated and prepared for the final stage of our journey to your home planet.”
“Are you aware we no longer orbit Earth?”
“So we have discovered. Perhaps you could enlighten us as to how your community arrived at its current condition.”… we hear a slow whooshing sound, as we flashback “LOST” style to …
A day to be remembered. September 9th, 1999 – the day Koenig resumed command.
Command, basically, of a garbage heap.interesting. I saw the listing of Android Planet and Phoenix of Megaron on Wikipedia just now (before coming here and seeing it verified), and thought that that listing had to be a mistake.
But then I suddenly realized where that short novel excerpt you posted came from – Android Planet.
It will be interesting to see how Phoenix of Megaron is tweaked to work out the Rhoda situation at the end of the novel.[b]Zack wrote:[/b]
[quote] Damn you Powys, I want this book now! 😉
[/quote]you probably already have it … … as it’s from Rankine’s Android Planet – although slightly modifiedI knew that quote seemed very familiar in style somehow – and sure enough, there it is on page 35 of the US copy, page 31 of the UK copy
[b]Exabyte2e64 wrote:[/b]
[quote]Just got mine in New York! :cheer:Had to tinker with the file-names a bit to get the tracks in the right order to play on my iPod. Will be listening to it during my commute! B)[/quote]
I noticed something similar – when I copied all the tracks over to iTunes, they all got renamed and lost their unique numbering.
All except the 3 tracks that had their bit rate reduced in order to fit everything on one CD. Those 3 kept their original track names.I’ll have to keep tinkering with this, as I’d hate to have to manually rename the other 75 tracks that lost their identities
[b]PatS wrote:[/b]
[quote]And if I ask if it is a coincidence that the planet on the alternate cover art looks like Meta from Breakaway, will you answer? :huh:[/quote]He’ll probably say that it looks a bit more like Ariel from Last Sunset…
although there is a striking similarity to Meta as well. Perhaps some SFX of Meta were re-used in Last Sunset??
Forsaken cover superimposed over screen shot from The Last Sunset as the Moon approaches Ariel:
[img]http://www.captphilonline.com/powys/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/Ariel.jpg[/img]
