Farscape: The Beginning of the End of the Beginning [Hardcover]

Rockne S. O'Bannon (Author), Keith R. A. DeCandido (Author), Tommy Patterson (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 6, 2009

Features the first four issues of the first arc of the "Farscape" comic series. This title is suitable for hard-core scapers and new fans alike.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up–While the Farscape TV series ended in 2004, its universe shows no signs of slowing down. This volume contains the first four issues of the comic book written by the series creator. The story takes place just after the miniseries Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, which followed the original TV series, so it is essential for readers to be familiar with these shows in order to appreciate and understand it. John Crichton, the former astronaut who spent years as the only human in a group of aliens, plans to settle down with his wife and child. But when Rygel, Chiana, and Jothee are captured and held prisoner on planet Hyneria, he has no choice but to try and rescue them. When his strong-willed wife refuses to stay behind, it becomes a family rescue mission, bringing even more risk and danger to the equation. The colorful artwork effectively captures the action, and is especially stunning when highlighting the skin tones, clothing, and skies of this alien world. An unusual but welcome bonus is O'Bannon's original story that was adapted into the script of these comics. While this book's reading level is appropriate for teens, it will be most appreciated by adult fans of the original series who will delight in revisiting old friends.–Andrea Lipinski, New York Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Keith R.A. DeCandido was born and raised in New York City to a family of librarians. He has written over two dozen novels, as well as short stories, nonfiction, eBooks, and comic books, most of them in various media universes, among them Star Trek, World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Marvel Comics, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Serenity, Resident Evil, Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, Farscape, Xena, and Doctor Who. His original novel Dragon Precinct was published in 2004, and he's also edited several anthologies, among them the award-nominated Imaginings and two Star Trek anthologies. Keith is also a musician, having played percussion for the bands the Don't Quit Your Day Job Players, the Boogie Knights, and the Randy Bandits, as well as several solo acts. In what he laughingly calls his spare time, Keith follows the New York Yankees and practices kenshikai karate. He still lives in New York City with his girlfriend and two insane cats.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: BOOM! Studios; First Edition edition (October 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934506753
• ISBN-13: 978-1934506752
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 7.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #847,461 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hoped to give this 5 stars, but..., October 17, 2009

By 

jannert "jannert" (Hamilton Scotland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Farscape: The Beginning of the End of the Beginning (Hardcover)

While I'm not a big fan of comics, as such, I found this one very easy to follow, and quite true to the spirit and tone of the series in many respects. It was great to finally get another dose of Farscape, which I've been missing like crazy. Farscape is still my favourite TV show of all time, and I still re-watch the entire series frequently on DVD. Nobody wants more Farscape than me.

Unfortunately, this effort --subtitled The Beginning of the End of The Beginning -- is nothing more than a coda tacked on to the end of Peacekeeper Wars. In fact, it begins only MINUTES after the final scene in Peacekeeper Wars, and merely chews away on a few old plots for a while. It reads more like a Deleted Scene from one of Farscape's DVDs than any new story.

BEWARE. SPOILERS FOLLOW:

What do we get with this 'new' story?

Rygel gets his throne back and becomes a wise, but humble despot -- after a short burst of mild Farscape pyrotechnics and a smidgen of crude intrigue -- but we already knew that was going to happen, didn't we? Ho-hum.

A mysterious Black-Cloaked-Critter-With-Red-Eyes is following Crichton around, taking pot-shots at him and Aeryn. Their baby slows the bullets by blinking. Exciting stuff? Ermm ...not really, at least not yet. We're only mildly curious, that's all.

Chiana and Jothee grieve for D'Argo by having lots of sex. Aeryn obsesses (constantly!) about being a "bad" mother, just like Xalax! -- hold me back. Shallow, overcooked, predictable rubbish.

And Scorpius ...the most marvellous 'dark' character ever committed to screen? In this story, Scorpius's character has lost all the subtle ambiguity Wayne Pygram built up during the entire TV series. With a bound, Scorpius is once again the power-hungry, ruthless, friendless villain from Season 1, who is willing to choke Crichton's child to death in order to extract a basically irrelevant hunk of 'truth' from Crichton and Aeryn. We're given a token explanation for his action (he no longer has an Aurora chair!) but none at all for the complete regression of such a thoughtfully-constructed character. Come back Wayne Pygram. Please.

A few new topics touched-on in this book ARE interesting, and worth further exploration in another Farscape story. For example, the Peacekeepers may indeed begin to fragment their society, now that their war with the Scarrans is over, and they have discovered their true origin with the Eidelons. (However, it's hard to believe that this sea-change would happen OVERNIGHT as it seems to have done in this book.) The idea that the Scarrans will eventually violate the peace treaty is also a good one. The idea that Scorpius suspects this might happen, is also an idea well worth keeping.

Of course, still lurking in the background but not touched-on in this book, are the Nebari -- another group bent on domination, with mind-control as their major weapon of choice. Indeed, they were built-up initially as a very dangerous and powerful race, so they should certainly figure in any new story. (And we would love to see Chiana and Nerri reunited at some point, wouldn't we?)

And there is still Earth to be reckoned with. Humans are stuck behind a closed wormhole at present, but Crichton left "us" with all that new technology as well as all our old prejudices. Earth is, after all, the key to Farscape. It always has been. It MUST be a major player in any new Farscape story. Without it, Farscape is just another space opera in a galaxy far away, and Crichton might as well be Buck Rogers.

Any story should always begin with a life-changing moment for its main character -- like John Crichton unexpectedly getting sucked down a wormhole into another galaxy. That story held us spellbound for five seasons, and ended most satisfactorily, with Crichton holding his newborn son up to the window of Moya so the baby can see the stars, and saying: "This is your playground." (And they all lived happily ever after.)

The original Farscape story ended there -- at least for now. Crichton needs a rest -- and we, the audience, need some distance -- before he gets hammered with another life-changing moment and a new story. We also need a few new major characters to replace the ones who have been killed off. And -- BIG warning to the writers who seem to be starting down this path already -- this new story should NOT involve the entire Universe chasing Crichton's ass around, as per usual. The writers seem to find this funny. It's not. It's boring. It's been done to death. Farscape's main strength lies in its unpredictability. The writers should give Crichton something else to do in the next story besides running for his life. Maybe he could even call the shots himself from now on.

Of course, I'll be delighted to eat my shirt and rescind all this criticism, if the upcoming issues of this comic book series take a huge turn for the better. In fact, I've pre-ordered the lot, so my money is already where my mouth is! Here's hoping for the best ...again. Meanwhile, just three stars for this one.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars True to the series and characters. Great story., April 10, 2010

By 

Nerdybird21 (Yakima, WA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Farscape: The Beginning of the End of the Beginning (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed this comic. This is the hardcover, which includes all four comics in this series. It starts moments after the end of "The Peacekeeper Wars." I really liked the story. It stayed true to the characters. I laughed and worried with them. It really seemed like our Crichton, Aeryn, Chiana, and Rygel! This book tied up some loose ends and answered some questions that there wasn't time to cover in PK Wars. It also opened up some new questions and concerns to pave the way for more comics, which is awesome! Farscape is such an amazing series and it is great to be able to follow my favorite characters through more adventures. I highly recommend that all Farscape fans sit down for an hour and give this book a read! I don't normally read comics, but I loved it. It was written by Farscape creator Rockne O'Bannon.

More Farscape hardcovers are being released in 2010. They are in four parts like this series, so that means these comics are also available individually, too (produced by Boom! Studios. If you want them individually, I recommend ebay.). So far, I've seen the following hardcovers released or available for pre-order, "Strange Detractors," "Gone and Back," "Tangled Roots," and "Red Sky At Morning."(In that order) There are also hardcovers that follow the story line of individual characters, especially D'Argo. There is "D'Argo's Trial," which goes into D'Argo's back story about his wife. There's "D'Argo's Lament" which takes place in season 3 and includes him and Jool on a mission to save the others. "D'Argo's Quest" is also a new hardcover coming out that takes place in season 3, where he is hunting down his wife's killer." Lastly, there is a hardcover coming out following Scorpius after the events in "The Beginning of the End of the Beginning". All these can be found here on Amazon. I'm pretty excited to read them as they become available!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Continuation of the Series, December 5, 2009

By 

C. Scott Smith "dcstud" (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Farscape: The Beginning of the End of the Beginning (Hardcover)

This book brought me home again. Being able to rejoin the Farscape crew was great and Rockne's story was where I expect he would take it if he had a huge budget and the show was still on.