Customer Reviews

Farscape: Ship of Ghosts

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

If you know nothing of Farscape...

...then perhaps you'll enjoy this book. I found the concept intriguing, the story mediocre, and the representations of characters, defined and honed in season after season of the series as well as the previous books, abominable. I have no idea who these people were based upon but they were the most overtly simplistic caricatures of Crichton, Aeryn, D'Argo, et al. It has taken me over 3 months to finish this little book because I keep it in my car to read only when I'm going through a drive-thru and have no other escape. I would have put it down long ago but (a) I'm stubborn, (b) I really liked the concept, and (c) I keep hoping it will get better.

The idea of beings, after charting galaxy after galaxy, suddenly being stuck in space for millennia is intriguing and I did enjoy the sub-plot with Sha Sutt and her crew. Perhaps because I knew nothing of these characters I found their bits more interesting than anything else. Frankly, leave out the stock FS characters and this book would have been much better.

As for my expectation of the FS characters and the inept portrayal of their humor, I nearly burned the book when I came to this paragraph:

"There was dead silence from Pilot, then with low and sincere tones, he commanded the former ruler. `Use the furze, Rygel!'"

I might have tolerated this from Crichton, but not from Pilot. Instead, Crichton's dialog was more befitting of a Keanu Reeves impersonation that despite his acting talent, I just couldn't see Ben Browder as Crichton delivering. Therefore I was left wondering who was possessing Crichton's body and thankfully it finally was possessed so at least he didn't have to be the "normal" Crichton.

The list goes on, each character seeming strange and unknown as if it were written beforehand and the character names changed to fit the FS universe. Or maybe my imagination isn't as good as it used to be. Either way, if you love Farscape, don't bother with this book unless you are prepared to ignore things like D'Argo's flat "I am warrior. I will fight. Grrrr..." representation.

This book was probably the least researched piece of literature ever written. The author obviously had never seen an episode of Farscape in his life. The characters were so out of character that I wouldn't know I was reading about Farscape without the help of the cover, which the book didn't deserve. He didn't even use any of the Farscape-isms that make farscape so popular. He used seconds instead of the Farscape term microts for an example. I give this book two thumbs way down. I am a die hard fan of the show and this book makes a mockery of it.

I've bought and read both House of Cards (EXCELLENT) and Dark Side of the Sun (poor), but I must say this one truly takes the cake. I couldn't even bring myself to finish it. It goes from wildly inaccurate characters (Rygel saying "Oh Dear" and "Fiddlestickoids"?!?) to the bizarre end of a medieval fantasy run amok. At one point, Aeryn and D'Argo ride a mechanical Dragon piloted by some sort of ghost! That's right, a robo-dragon in the middle of the uncharted territories. That's when I put the book down for good.

If you're looking for a good adaptation to text from the screen, I highly recommend House of Cards. If you're somehow able to look past the obvious mistakes, assumptions and flat out idiocy presented here, you may get a kick out of it, but I sure didn't.

I actually liked this book in spite of only giving it two stars which might lead you to believe otherwise.

The characterizations were alright, not outstanding. And the story itself was intriguing, although ultimately I felt the pay-off for reading it through to the end wasn't memorable. For example, some stories leaving you thinking about them for days/weeks/months...even years after you read them, this isn't one of those stories.

If you're desparate for a Farscape fix though, you'd be better off buying this than "Dark Side of The Sun".

The author of this book obviously had never seen the show before. He did not use any of the words or phrases that made Farscape the show it is. He used the "earthling" mode for time management i.e. "second" instead of "microt" or "hour" instead of "arn". I couldn't get into the story because the way the crew was portrayed was totally out of character. I was a die hard fan of the show and this book did it no justice.

Another [disappointing] Farscape book. I'm a big fan of the series and this book was sooo disappointing. The characters are completely off and left me wondering if the author has actually seen an episode or if he just looked a picture of the characters. The plot is uninteresting... Don't waste your time. I threw my copy [away]--couldn't even stomach selling or giving it away. I give this one star because of the cool bookcover artwork.

I liked Bischoff's solo material well enough to look forward to the new Farscape book, Ship of Ghosts. What happened after I started reading was a different tale. The book is hideous. I had just finished reading House Harkonnen by Brian Herbert, which was a fantastic book. Going from that to this was like going from Bugs Bunny to the Teletubbies. Horrible and shocking. The characterization was very off, the mannerisms of our favorite characters were over the top when they were at all accurate. The story was boring, and I put it down a few chapters shy of the end. I couldn't bring myself to finish it. The previous FS book was horrid as well. Come on, Keepers of the Farscape Franchise, let's do better next time! They're already fleecing us by releasing only 2 episodes per DVD, this latest insult is almost too much to bear.

House of Cards...Excellent. Dark Side of the Sun...reviews so bad I didn't bother. Ship of Ghosts...bought it without looking at reviews. The reviews here? Accurate so far. When Rygel starts talking about controling the DRD's with some sort of wireless Ethernet device...well, that's not very creative, especially for something supposedly in the Sci-Fi genre. I've never written a book, but I'm betting I could do better than these last two Farscape books. C'mon Farscape book editors...get it together.

David Bischoff did a great job with the descriptions, but at times they could be overwhelming. Ship of Ghosts almost crossed over into Fantasy, which makes it a different type of writing then the other Farscape books. The storyline was very well written but could be a little confusing. The story of Rygel was hillarious and shows you just the kind of personality he has (although some might consider it overdone). The other story of the Peacekeepers seemed to be only a background but at the end of the book they all came together, which makes it such a great ending. However, I didn't like the very end because it seemed almost like a way to write off a part of the story because he didn't know quite what to do with it. However, I would still reccomend this book to the Farscape lover.

Ship of Ghosts was a horrible example of Farscape. Rygel with his "army" of DRDs was rediculas. The villan was weirder than Scorpius, but totally unbelievable. Ghosts have never been introduced in the show, and frankly the science fiction and spritual worlds are very difficult to cross effectively. Even good crosses are a little off, but this was the worst example i've ever read. Some advice to the author: If your gonna try something like this, at least make the characters match. The one cool part was the going into the PK world. That was one thing the other novels did not accomplish.