Customer Reviews

Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda: Destruction of Illusions (Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda)

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Fans of Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda are sure to be pleased with this first novel based on the popular Science Fiction television series. Author Keith R.A. DeCandido has crafted a well written and compelling story in the new hardcover novel Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda: Destruction of Illusions. Penning the first novel in a series can be difficult but Mr. DeCandido has risen magnificently to the challenge presenting for the readers enjoyment a tale that has action, adventure, humor and spot on characterizations.

Destruction of Illusions is a prequel, taking the reader through the story of how Beka Valentine and the crew of the Eureka Maru and Tyr Anasazi and his band of mercenaries came to find themselves part of the bold salvage operation of the Andromeda Ascendant in "Under the Night", Andromeda's pilot episode. Fittingly Destruction of Illusions begins and ends with the recovery of the Andromeda Ascendant.

As the reader follows the crew of the Maru through the events and adventures that lead them to Dylan, the hardships and realities of their life eking out a living in the former Commonwealth are vividly presented. We also get to learn what drove Tyr to do what he has done in his pursuit of restoring the Kodiak Pride to glory. Along the way there is a daring breakout, a liberal sprinkling of Nietzschean politics, a dangerous and dramatic museum heist, the appearance of several familiar faces and most importantly great character development. Oh yes, and Dylan and Roomie are in it as well.

DeCandido adroitly fleshes out the back-stories established onscreen for the characters in a tight well-paced plot. In the style of the show each chapter begins with a pertinent quotation. Since he has only been mentioned twice in the series, one character we finally get learn more about is Vexpag, Trance's forerunner on the Maru. He even gains a given name in the novel. But the character that I found myself seeing in a new light was Rev Bem. His importance to Beka and his unique personality shines through better in the pages of Destruction of Illusions that it has onscreen. Each and every character and event in Destruction of Illusions is keenly and skillfully portrayed allowing the reader to loss themselves in the story right up until you turn the last page.

Author Keith R.A. DeCandido has even surpassed his Farscape novel House of Cards with this book... and I did not even think that was possible. He proves that he knows the characters of the series well enough to capture each individual's voice perfectly and manages to mix elements of the show only previously discussed.

Whether it is Charlemagne Bolivar, Rev Bem, Seamus Harper or the Andromeda Ascendant herself, the characters are "spot-on" with how they are portrayed on the series. And even Vexpag is someone we grow to care about, even though you already know what is coming his way in terms of his fate. When Trance shows up... I had a huge smile on my face.

This book is highly recommended, especially for those fans who enjoyed seasons one and two, and those who miss that quality from season three. This is bar-none one of the best media tie-in novels I have ever read. I look forward to more Andromeda work, particuarly from Keith.

Finished this book in one day and all I can say is GREAT! As a die-hard Classic Star Trek fan I was quick to dismiss Andromeda as the latest Trek "rip off". What I have discovered after watching the first selection of episodes on DVD (received as a gift), is that the show is witty, intelligent, smart and fun (something that Star Trek lacks today). This book is as fun to read as the show is fun to watch. It is a great intro to the series with dead on characterization and fresh back stories (especially for Beka and crew). The author did a great job referring to popular episodes and is some cases expanded upon them in subtle ways.
This is a great read and reminds me of the early Star Trek novels of the 1970s and 1980s when authors had the freedom to expand upon another creators universe. Great job Mr. DeCandido! I look forward to your next visit to Andromeda!

This is the first time I've ever posted a review on Amazon about a book. While I enjoy reading quite a bit (and follow quite a few series such as Star Trek, Star Wars, etc.), my feelings after reading a book tend to vary from "great" to "okay" with few eliciting a reaction any more negative than that. Since this is the case, I guess I've felt that my reviews would be a bit boring.

That said, I've been praising DESTRUCTION OF ILLUSIONS on the Star Trek books board (Keith DeCandido is an author of many Trek books and editor of the "Star Trek: S.C.E." eBook series) ever since I read it so I figured that I should put it in writing here as well.

DeCandido has a real knack for getting dialogue right in his series books. I mean, you have absolutely no problem imagining Beka Valentine or Seamus Harper or Tyr Anasazi saying DeCandido's lines.

The fact that this is a prequel novel is also nice because it lends a "special" feeling to it, giving the reader something he or she would most likely not see on the average episode of the TV series. The only possible downside, also due to the book's prequel nature, is that Captain Dylan Hunt and "Rommie" only appear in the first and last chapters (the present day framing story for the rest of the book's prequel setting), so if you are wanting to read about those characters, well, they're not in it very much.

Still, that's a very small thing (and some might actually consider it a good thing because it gives the spotlight a chance to shine on the other characters for once). So, if you are an "Andromeda" fan, I'd definitely recommend DESTRUCTION OF ILLUSIONS to you.

This book is hard to put down.

After watching the dreck being passed off by the TV show's 3rd year, this book comes as a welcome and surprising read. I don't expect a lot from sci-fi tie-ins, and I usually skip them. The Destruction of Illusions is really well written and renders the characters' dialog crisply.

There are many wonderful scenes such as the commendation over a fallen mercenary; Tyr's humiliation by a Nietzschean field marshal; the "dog house" scene with Captain Valentine, Rev Bem, and Harper -- to name a few.

if you like the show you will like this book. it is not a rehash of an episode you have already seen. the author imagined what the crew were doing before they discovered the andromeda. the best part? dylan is frozen in time so he's not the focus of the novel as he is in most of the tv shows. the bad part? very little trance until the end, although she does play an important part. lots of beka, so if she is your favorite character you will be pleased. i would definitely like to see more andromeda original novels from this author.

Since i try to be a positive person ill start with the positive. The plot sequence was relatively good. By this i mean the plot fit the personality of the characters from the original show and one would have no problem visualizing the characters in these situations. However this was the only good point. The dialogue written between characters was awful. The dialogue was very choppy and throught the entire book made the characters sound awkward. The dialogue certainly failed to portray the characters from the show. In my opinion it was something i would have expected to find on a fan fiction site and definitely not something that should have been printed and sold. The dialogue was just that bad.

I had high hopes for this book to fill out the background on the shows main characters, other than Dylan, but found it rather lacking. If you want to know more about Beka, Tyr and Rev. Bem, the book does a fairly good job but hardly expends any effort on Trance and Harper who have great potential for interesting story lines. In fact, there is far more expansion upon a tertiary character who is barely memorable from the first episode than for Trance and Harper put together. In addition, if you're a Trance fan, you likely won't care much for the less than flattering descriptions. Anyway, it's not a bad story but could have been a lot better.

Oh, the beauty of the backstory, the prequel, the whatEVER you want to call it, especially when it comes to novel vs. television. It gives a writer a goodly amount of space to supply the characters with all the depth and strange habits that make for meaty personalities - something TV viewers might have to wait a long time to see, if they *ever* get to. And, as has been the case with pretty much every one of Keith DeCandido's novels, the man doesn't disappoint, providing us an excellent and plausible look at how it came to be that Beka Valentine should rescue Dylan Hunt in the pilot episode of "Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda." Of course, now I really wanna go back and watch that pilot again, armed with this new information. Nice job, oh Great Hairy One.

I found this book rather enjoyable but, despite the great details, still somewhat lacking. A lot of effort was put into giving great insight into the characters of Beka, Tyr, and to a lesser extent Rev Bem, but Harper and Trance (my two favourite characters) get rather short shrift. I had high hopes that there would be more about Harper and his life while on earth, but there was more detail on the thoughts and history of a tertiary character that I barely remember from the first episode. In addition, it is plain that the Author doesn't care much for the character of Trance, as displayed by his repeated less than flattering descriptions. Given all this I'm rather surprised that I even gave it a 3! However, I am an Andromeda fan and the book definitely gave a better insight into where Beka, Tyr, and to a lesser extent the rest of the crew, were coming from.
So, if you like Beka, buy the book and you won't be disappointed. For everybody else.... you most likely will be.