Customer Reviews

Destiny (Battlestar Galactica)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Richard Hatch attempts in his books to keep the essential spirit of Battlestar Galactica alive. Hatch himself is promoting a continuation movie (although he will appear in the reimagined version on SCI-FI Channel). His books thus far have been working towards keeping the story alive with our favorite characters and villains.
That being said, this book is not great compared to the first few in this series. Its strength lies in the characters themselves facing the possibility of being left behind to face the Cylons. However poor editing and continuity problems plague this book, which is unfortunate.
The main character in this book is Baltar and Hatch has managed to take this traitor and turn him inside out for us to view. Also underlying the book is the civil war within the Cylons between those who were genetically manipulated by Count Iblis and the pure Cylons. Both sides of the civil war want humans dead though, so the war will not end no matter who wins.
Destiny here refers to not only where the humans are going but what they must do in order to move forward. The Cylons are debating this by killing each other. And with the colonials, the old guard (the Council) is not happy it is being stripped of its power. Baltar surprises everyone by what he does in the end with that council and the Cylons that arrive
Apollo learns that it is time for his people to move forward, to a destiny, and that means leaving behind some elements of the Twelve Colonies that do not function at all when society is not stable and under constant threat of attack. One of the complaints of the original BSG was that it portrayed the civilian government as fools, knaves, and blackguards bent on all kinds of deceipt. That issue is resolved in this book (and some say good riddance to the council).
This book is like an intermission of sorts to another possibly interesting set of story possibilities. The Cylons make no real appearance (except in Baltar's mind which is now a piece of Cylon tech) and Iblis not at all. However in the future they should spellcheck, grammar check, and continuity check before publication. One of the big continuity errors is that Iblis was banished not to Cylon but to Kobol! (If you read Resurrection Iblis tells exactly what happened when the Kobolians exiled him).
There is good character development in this book for Apollo, Starbuck, Cassiopeia, and Sheba. In many ways the book resets those relationships back to their proper place (which will make many happy). And one good thing to about this book and the previous ones is that at least Athena is developed more than the televised BSG ever did.
If you are looking for a good character story, then this is for you. If you want to see Cylons and the Colonials battle it out, pop in a dvd from the recent released version. You will need to overlook some sloppy at times writing and other things that get in the way but once you do, there is some good stuff to be found here.

Over the past few months I have begun watching the Battlestar Galactica televison program for the first time. I was never much of a science fiction fan and had limited access to televison while growing up. I didn't see the Battlestar Galactica televison series until my husband purchased the complete series on DVD.

I became an instant fan after Saga of a Star World. I then began reading my husbands collection of Battlestar Galactica books by Richard Hatch. Both the books and the series have flaws (what doesn't?), but they also have wonderful characters, heart, imagination, and warmth. There's a special charm to Battlestar Galactica. Watching the episodes and reading the books has been five star experience for me.

Destiny is a very good read that kept me entertained from start to finish. I love what Hatch and company have done with Baltar. You can almost hear Colicos' voice as you read Baltar's thoughts and words. Colicos' Baltar was one of the most complicated villains in 70's TV, but that wasn't understood by some. Hatch didn't miss it. He's given us a portrayal of this character that is extremely faithful and yet new. Hatch and company have really fleshed out many of the ideas and characters from the TV series. I have not read all of the books in this series, but sadly I have noticed typos in those that I have read. That's too bad. The stories are winners. The characters are on target. The new ideas and characters have made things more exciting. It seems that there are readers who did not like the idea of Sheba and Apollo's romance breaking up in Resurrection, but I thought that was very well done. It has also made things more interesting in the long run. Any complaints I could have about these books would be very minor compared to the positive aspects. I've had a very good time reading these.

This book is really interesting and is definitely a good example of traditional space opera. Very satisfying. Another satisfying space opera is "Advent of the Corps" which is more in line with Star Trekish space opera than Galactica.

When I saw that Baltar was on the cover I had to read this book. It's pretty good. Some of it is wonderful. Some of it could have been better. Baltar's place in this story made this BSG fan very pleased. Fans of laser beams and lots of exploding ships wont get hardly any of that in this one. Destiny is a book about people. Apollo, Starbuck, and the others are all portrayed as being very human. They always were but this book brings that forward and puts explosions and lasers largely on hold. Even the cylons are psychological in this one! You'll have to judge for yourself if that idea works or not. I thought it was a novel approach and enjoyed getting into Baltar's mind.

I haven't always had great luck with books based on my favorite TV shows. Often I read them and half way through I find myself wondering "who the hell are these people?" or "what the hell is happening?". Some of these types of books completely fail to capture the tone, stlye, characters, and events of the show. In an attempt to do something different they toss the baby out with the bath water.

Other books based on my favorite TV shows have the reverse problem. Those books are just "the same old same old". It's the same old thing done the same old way. It's all way too formulaic. Reading them makes me feel like I've seen it all before.

Destiny tries to avoid some of the beloved cliches from the TV show by being more about empathy than spectacle. There's little of the standard space dogfights and cylons this time around. This helps make things a little less of the "same old same old" without completely warping the whole thing into something that wouldn't be Battlestar Galactica. All of my favorite Battlestar Galacticans are in Destiny and their individual personalities are well done. In some ways Destiny reads like a love story but I didn't find that to be a bad thing. I had a good time reading this.

i first saw this book in the sci fi section of barnes and nobel and gave it a try. the first thing i liked about it was the cover art. once i started reading it i couldn't put it down. i just saw it last night and read it straight through. there are some threads from previous books going on, but i didn't find it tough to follow.

right off the bat i was impressed by the depth of characterization in this book. these are the same characters from the tv show but a little older and wiser and the writing gets inside their hearts and heads. all of the characters are engaging. the portrayal of starbucks' relationship with cassie and his daughter was a highlight. so was the way that athena was portrayed. i also thought athena had much more potential than we got to see on the show but she shines in destiny. i was also pleased with the cylons being reptilian and the role count iblis played in their creation.

i now plan to read the other books in this series. from the amazon site it doesn't look like brian linweaver has co-written all of the series but i liked his style and would read more of these by him. this is a solid read and it kept me turning the pages and not wanting to put it down.

The other reviews are right about the typos. They're also right about this seeming more like an episode of a bigger story than a complete novel. Part of me wishes this had been less of a follow-up and more of solid action/adventure story. The other part of me loved that Destiny was heavy on the character studies and introspective takes on the characters. I'd like more action in the next novel, but I was certainly moved by the events and people in Destiny.

Reading DESTINY was like visiting with old friends.
It brought back good old memories. I now have good new memories too.
I liked the changes, updates, and new characters. The Noman is a good addition to the crew. I also enjoyed the slightly older take on all my old friends from the series. They've all gotten better with age.
There's so much warmth in these characters.
Two thumbs up!

Not enough of what I expected. Not near enough action. But a lot of mystery. Clearly this book could have gone a lot more than what it had. I don't recommend it at all. I am a big fan of Battlestar Galactia,but this book is a big let down. Will there be a seventh story from Richard Hatch? If so I hope everything comes to a head in it. Baltar is a hero in this story and that was the only good thing about it.