Customer Reviews

Battlestar Galactica: the Cylons' Secret

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is nothing more than a hack job, intended to cash in on the Battlestar Galactica name. The author has no regard for Battlestar Galactica continuity, and violates it left and right.

He attempts to work events into the backstories of Adama, Tigh, Zarek, and the Colonies that simply don't fit - we're supposed to believe that news of the Cylons lurking about in a Dreadnaught ("close to ten times the size of Galactica") wouldn't leak from the crews of 6 battlestars to the rest of the populace, right after we're told that the Admiral couldn't keep the CIC personnel on the Galactica from blabbing to the rest of the crew. Yet, we're told in the TV series that nobody has seen the Cylons since the armistice - that's a critical backstory element.

Cylon Wariors from the period of the war look like the 1978 series' Centurions, not like the more modern versions that Shaw describes.

The Colonial High Command would not have been as lackadaisical about computer control of the Colonial military, had they known that a Cylon Dreadnaught was still out there at the edges of human space - even 20 years after the fact. Especially when they had been concerned enough to send 6 battlestars after it.

I can only guess that this was a manuscipt that the author had sitting around, in which he replaced his own characters with the BSG characters - labelling this as Battlestar Galactica is a fraud. I haven't been this angry about a book in a long, long time - unless you're short of material to burn in a fireplace, avoid this one... you won't know how bad a sucker job you missed. And if you see Craig Shaw Gardner, tell him I want my three hours back.

Before I get too far, I'd just like to say I only got to page 77 of this book. If it picked up and got better by page 78, then I missed it. Unfortunately, the frst quarter of this book was a snoozer.

If I had picked up a phone book I'd have a better chance of finding people I knew that reading this thing. Set 20 years in the past (ugh) the author tries to make a lot of his own square pegs fit into the BSG round holes . Too bad they just don't fit.

This book seemed more like a rewrite of a 1960s Star Trek episode, trying to be shoehorned into BSG -- 20 years in the past.

Utter crap. Reads like the outline to a bad fan-fiction movie, complete with a girl-crush from the plucky young heroine on a young Tom Zarek.

For anyone that seriously enjoys the show, you need to skip this "book" and pretend it doesn't exist. Reading it will be painful and annoying - thankfully it is a very quick read so the torture doesn't drag on too long.

On a more serious note, it is written for preteens with a crude, simplistic plot and nearly non-existent character development. There are gaping plot holes and serious deviations from established canon that are distracting. While it claims to "based upon" the re-imagined series, the word "loosely" should be included in that statement.

This is an interesting story, but it in no way fits with the show's premises. Twenty years after the first Human-Cylon War, Adama is on the Battlestar Galactica and looking for outposts who lost contact during the war. The find a small outpost and some salvage operators. The salvage operators find the outpost first but meet disastrous results when making contact. The outpost is a scientific research facility meant to examine the relationship between Human and Cylon. That means that there are Cylon's present. But these Cylon's seem to be living in harmony with the few remaining humans but with the arrival of outsiders it would appear they are not as harmless as thought.

The Galactica crew manages to safely land and make contact with the outpost. Slowly they learn something about what has been going on but it is a surviving salvage crew member that discovers some of the hidden secrets on the planet. When more Cylon's show up, the Galactica crew has to remember that there is an armistice and the Cylons are not currently a foe although prejudice runs deep. Things escalate of course and soon the skies are full of Battlestars and raiders looking to stave off or end a possible Cylon threat.

Knowing that the Cylons have been active in Human space and that they have very powerful ships does not seem like something the Fleet would have completely forgotten about by the time of the show's beginning. Having main characters from the show and multiple Battlestars involved just succeed in making sure this story will not fit with the television show. The book also suffers heavily from the Christmas Curse where books put out too close to the holidays do so without benefit of proof reading. I have enjoyed many books by the author and would like to think that he would have had a better polished product. Could it be this was another instance of a draft getting released as a final copy (i.e. NERILKA'S STORY by McCaffrey)? The draft-like nature and the way it fails to fit the show will have disastrous effects on this book's popularity. But despite the two major flaws I did find the story fun to read but most readers familiar with the show will not be able to overcome the discrepancies.

This author obviously didn't know a darn thing about the source material. He explains in the story that Zarek was brought up on Caprica by well-to-do parents. WHAT?!? Anyone who has watched the show knows full well that Zarek was the son of a dirt poor couple who were basically slaves....ON SAGITARON! That's why he was in prison. He was a freedom fighter/terrorist, fighting for the equal treatment of his people. His story is even fleshed out in the 4 part comic series, BSG: Zarek. His parents were killed when he was young. Killed by the authorities. That's why he fights so hard against the established government. I would say that if you can get over the glaringly dreadful screwup, that it would be an adequate novel, but I just can't excuse this kind of major storyline foulup. Wish I could give it 0 stars, but 1 is the lowest. BSG fans, stay away from this book like it's contaminated. All other people, if you want to get into BSG, read the other books and forget this one exists.

This is the first tie-in novel to the critically acclaimed SciFi re-imagined Battlestar Galactica TV show but I doubt this book will garner such praise. It was just OK, I'd probably grade it a B-.

THE GOOD - The story is a prequel and the setup/reveal chapters describing the Cylon revolt were absolutely terrific. The "Cylon Cuisinart" killing a "June Cleaver" was my favorite part of the book. The Cylon Revolt should have been the main storyline.

THE BAD - The main story is crap. It read like a bad Star Trek episode. Much closer in tone to the 1970s show than the current BSG incarnation. Lots of pages dedicated to characters not in the TV show. As a professed BSG nerd, I felt it broke the established BSG continuity/back-story in several places. I don't know if these novels will be considered canonical or not.

THE UGLY - The Cylons do some nasty modifications to some humans. I won't give spoilers away here but it may somehow tie into Season 3 of BSG.

OVERALL - Worth reading, mildly entertaining but keep your expectations at comic book not Hemingway level.

So say we all! - Brenthrax

I'm not finished reading this book yet, but so far it seems like a good one for fans of the TV series like myself. The action takes place between the first cylon war and the second one (the TV series). Lots of interesting background info on the past events that caused the first war and the events that followed it. Adama and Zareck are much younger at the time... and Saul is the same drunk we love to hate. In conclusion, I got this book for $5 shipped, so it's great value, go for it! :)

I felt it was important to write this review because when I had decided to read the Battlestar Galactica (BSG) novels, the reviews on amazon.com dissuaded me to buy this one. Only when I was forced to feed my BSG addiction did I read this one, and when I did, I learned that it's negative reviewers were SO WRONG.

If you're expecting to read some literary masterpiece, like "Moby Dick," you will be disappointed. If you're hoping that this book will somehow elevate your BSG universe knowledge, giving you the superior-nerd edge, so that you can brag to your other nerd friends that you know more about BSG than they do and are somehow a bigger fan.....you will be kind-of disappointed.

However, if you are a big fan of the show, like me, and just love any fantasy-adventure into the universe of BSG, you'll enjoy this book.

I really don't understand the naysayers big peeves. I thought this book was fun from beginning to end. It had decent action and maintained a steady plot, unlike "Sagittarius is Bleeding," which went all over the place. I also like how it is the only BSG novel that is brave enough to write about the Colonies before their extermination and the period after the Cylon War. The author also fills in a very believable back-story between Adama's and Tigh's friendship.

All of the BSG books are about the same in literary quality for different reasons:

"Unity" was great because it had the best action, though it was arguably too simple/shallow.

"Sagittarius is Bleeding" was cool because the complexity of its plot and the meaning of the story reached farther, and it had more than a man vs. cylon (nature) plot but also a man vs. man and man vs. himself drama. However, it dragged and could get boring as well as the action being minimal and unsatisfactory.

"Cylon's Secret" felt most like watching a show in the sense that the book was written similarly to how the show is directed. It was consistent and entailed a greater use of imagination. In other words, the author never deviates too far from the plot's natural "flow. Meanwhile he puts in a good amount of suspense and action.

It's a good buy, and a good read. Don't listen to the naysayers!

I'm not a fan of the show, but my husband is, and he truly enjoyed this story. He read it in only a day, which is a near-record! He said it doesn't exactly follow the show, but it was a good, quick read that fans should really like.

Set twenty years before The New Series - sheds some new light on three characters- Adama, Tigh and Zarek. The latter two are much more prominent and interesting here than Adama. There is some more information about origins of Cylon and their rebellion. Author introduces some new characters and makes you wonder will they somehow turn up later in the TV series or they perished in the Second Cylon War. Overall nice fast read, very plausible scenarios and details perfectly fitting with what we saw on TV. Great companion book for fans of the Series and probably a waste of time for those not familiar with it - word of advice: GET FAMILIAR WITH IT you won't regret.