By Sonny Whitelaw and Elizabeth Christensen.
Summary: A series of gruesome murders on Earth leads back to the SGC, with ties to Pegasus. Weir and some team members are recalled to help Daniel Jackson and an FBI Profiler solve the mystery.
Review: I enjoyed this story.
This is a heavy crossover that leans more into SG1 than SGA and if you haven't watched a lot of SG1 (like me) parts won't be perfectly clear. Me, I'm easily pleased so I just accepted that things would make sense in the end, despite me not knowing all the SG1 backstory. And I basically read between the lines and figured most of it out.
Still, for me it always felt like an SG1 story that just happened to have most of the SGA characters in it, but that's probably due to 1) it happens largely on Earth, and 2) a lot of the "reasons why" everything happened were related to or were explained in SG1 episodes I didn't see.
Were the characters In Character? Yes. I thought so. They sounded like themselves to me.
Since finishing this book I read the Amazon reviews and was really surprised. I didn't think Rodney came off as a coward. He isn't my favorite character though, so sometimes I miss the nuances, but he wasn't so off that I even noticed it. Several people think Larance, the OC, is a Mary Sue. I didn't really think so, at least not as much as Keller was. The reasoning given for who was killed and "planted in position", etc., applied to Larance too, even if she didn't know it, and gave a reason in my mind for her to be in the story a lot. She was in it more than most of the SGA characters, other than John and Rodney--something that bothered me a little and I suspect bothers others too. That she was also the one who happened to clear John to go to Antarctica years ago was a little bit of a stretch to me, but not too bad.
And I saw references to John "Kirking" and flirting a lot in the book which just made me go, huh? To me, he was uncomfortable with all the women in the book except for Weir and Teyla. All of them. He acted like he wished they weren't there. That's how it read to me, though he did admit to sleeping with Chaya in this story.
The story was obviously heavily-researched and was well-written. I don't recall any typos or bad editing at all. There was a little, to me, gruesome Shep whump and I liked the way Teyla was used near the end. Some of the dialogue had me chuckling aloud--mostly Rodney's lines. I did like the new aliens and the new world the authors created.
For the most part it was really interesting. The only parts that dragged for me were some of the long explanations about mythology or genetics, but thankfully there wasn't a lot of it. Most was sprinkled throughout.
A good read? Yes. For me it was. I liked it, stayed up late a few nights, and am glad I read it. I tried to relax and just enjoy a new adventure with characters I like in it.
If you're looking for a mostly SGA or "Team" SGA story, this isn't it. If you aren't a fan of OC's or Daniel Jackson, then maybe you should skip this one.
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So far I haven't read any SGA books I truly disliked enough to "toss out". The worst I can say about a few is the editing isn't always terrific and they have boring stretches. But then, the same can be said of a lot of non-tv tie-in novels too. To me, part of the reason some are a little dull is that the characters are the same at the end as they were when the story started, with only minor changes, so some exciting stuff has to be downplayed. That's basically the nature of tie-ins though and doesn't leave any room for major character growth like you'd find in other types of novels. It doesn't often bother me, though I'm hoping growth happens in the new, approved series that starts with Homecoming, the book I've chosen to read next.
I have to hurry though. In three days I start the 2011 SFR Reading Challenge and will have to set aside SGA until I can read my quota. I haven't signed up for a level yet but the 2010 challenge had a minimum of 25 books--a LOT for me to squeeze in particularly since this year I want to revise my novel. Also, I signed up for a writing workshop given by the charismatic and talented Margie Lawson. Her classes take so much work I may have to set aside Homecoming for a month too. LOL.
Happy Reading, everyone!
Anna
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