Customer Reviews

Rebellion (Stargate #1)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was quite intrigued to see where Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich had intended to go had further Stargate films been made. They have said on several occasions that the series (SG-1) has gone in an entirely different direction than their planned sequels would have. As a big fan of both the original film and the series, I was curious to see what was lost. (It has been stated that McCay worked from Devlin and Emmerich's "sequel" ideas to create this series of books.)

I can only hope that Devlin and Emmerich would have made a better film than this first book indicates.

McCay seems to have little interest in character development, at least among those on Abydos. What he does do in that department results in some major changes to already established characters. O'Neil (and the rest of his men from the film) have changed from Air Force officers to Marines. Kawalsky has been demoted from Lieutenant Colonel to a mere Lieutenant, and poor Feretti has been bumped from Lieutenant all the way down to Corporal. Daniel Jackson, whose sense of wonder and awkward charm made him such a memorable character, has been reduced to little more than an interpreter and English teacher. And the values and motivations of almost everyone who travels to Abydos via the Stargate are picked out in stark black and white, without much personality or humanity.

On the other hand, the goddess Hathor and her fellow would-be godlings are much more interesting. Their infighting and petty bickering in the face of Ra's mysterious disappearance are much more intriguing than the utterly predictable Earth-exploits-the-natives plot back on Abydos. On Tuat, McCay gives us a glimpse of Ra's empire, or at least the leadership thereof. We see some of it's former glory and the current decay, the result of centuries of apathy or decadence. (One must wonder what Ra and his underlings have been doing all these years, if not conquering new worlds to expand the empire.)

McCay suffers from a very telling lack of military knowledge, which is most apparent during his description of the climatic battle. In many places, he glosses over entire engagements with a few words, leaving the reader begging for more. His lack of military terminology does not seem to be a problem when describing Ra's fictional technology; but when dealing with the Earth forces, it's a bit difficult for someone with some military background to take.

All in all, this is not a bad story. If this is where Devlin and Emmerich were planning to take us with their sequels, it would have been an enjoyable journey. It's unfortunate that McCay seems just a bit lacking in his ability to translate that to print.

While there are some flaws (and mistakes)the book has a lot to offer. The characters of Jackson and O'Neil seem to be in-character and many of the new characters, such as Hathor and Walter Draven, are very interesting. For example, Walter Draven, of the UMC, is both greedy and forward, yet knows how far he can push people. Hathor wants power, but is realistic about what she can and can not do.
The book allows you a peek at Ra's decaying empire and the reality of having a Stargate to another world. The language barrier is still a problem, no short-cuts here, and Bill McCay does not plan to make it easy for any of the characters. Both Earth and Hathor wish to exploit the planet of Abydos, whose natives just want to be left alone.
The book does give hints and flashbacks of past events to help fill in the setting and give background on some of the 'evil' characters BUT not too much.
The best part is while the book can stand alone, it is the first of a five book series. If you overlook the small flaws the story is very solid.

The reintroduction of the key figures from Stargate are welcome.The Colonel, Daniel, Feretti et all, are there and several new characters are introduced. The book captures the action/adventure feel of the film and at times has you gripped (so much so that this reviewer stayed up way to late one night to finish the book!). The new threat to Abydos and its people , in the shape of Hathor, is a worthy successor to Ra. She is evil and wicked and everything that a good enemy should be. The final confrontation between her and the powers of Abydos and Earth is a match that I look forward to with eagerness. I sincerely hope that the original cast of the film Stargate read this book themselves and decide that there should be a Stargate 2. A great book which will make your imagination soar. Thoroughly recommended

STORY: Colonel Jack O'Neil is sent back to Abydos as a liaison with a private corporation to harvest the rare crystal that gave the now dead Ra his technology. Little do they know but the newly freed people of Abydos aren't about to tolerate another dictatorship. Nor is Ra's vicious successor, Hathor, going to let someone else move in on her rightful territory as a god ruler.

MY FEEDBACK: To be able to compress a full novel to two cassette tapes shows that there is very little meat or character development here.
Plot lines were telegraphed and thus provided zero surprises. Characters were cardboard and had little or no depth. You are better watching a rerun episode of the Sci-Fi channel series or watching the movie again than wasting your time on this one.

The one redeeming factor that let me give this a 2 star instead of a 1 star rating: is the entire end battle goes on for a good portion of the story and thus kept me listening through the last audio tape. Yet, even this was anticlimactic as it set things up for the next book in the series. It is all more of a marketing ploy than a desire to write a good book. Highly disappointing and I'm not going to involve myself in the next book, Stargate: Retaliation.

This is a great book for those of you out there who, like myself, nearly died of curiosity at the end of Stargate. Questions like 'what about the other gods?' and even more importantly,(I thought, anyway)..'was Ra single?' ;) are answered. I was tempted to give this only 4 stars because of the absence of Ra,(an absolutely stunning villain embodied nicely by Jaye Davidson), but that wasn't really the author's fault (some jerk decided to vaporize him in the movie), so...heck, why not five?

There are a few holes here and there, such as the Stargate suddenly becoming gold instead of grey, and Barbara Shore transforming from a shy, 45 year old disaster to a blunt, prime-aged Texan man-izer (actually, that's in the second book), but all this is made up for by the introduction of a very, very cool new villain, and frequent flashbacks about things that happened among the gods (mostly Ra) back at the beginning of Egyptian civilization. Also, if you've done any research on Ancient Egypt and have a lot of background knowledge on the gods and goddesses, you'll find this book(series) especially interesting. There are a lot of references to actual Egyptian legends, and lots of other things you might find amusing. (like the fact that Hathor was actually a cow-headed goddess.)

I have to say this is one of the only series that has me sitting in the bad-guy's (or in this case, bad-girl's) cheering section. I know good always prevails over evil and everything, but I honestly hope that Hathor kicks all their heroic butts.

This story continues very cleanly from the original movie and moves you quickly into the new situations that occur on the planet. There are more characters, both good and bad, mortal and 'immortal', which keep you riveted and guessing who is doing what to whom. Bill McCay handles the suspense and enertia of the moment well. When I started reading, I did not know that this was book one of a trilogy, although it quickly became apparent that the story encompasses more than the pages I held. I anxiously await the continuing saga. Egyptian history lives, as do their gods.

This book is more realistic than the TV show (Stargate SG-1) mostly because of the "take over" of the UMC. Of course if the Stargate was real, this would probaly be what actualy happens on Abydos, inculding the conflict between the Earthmen and The natives. The Earthmen (urt-man) are gready and try to cheat the natives, at the same time colapsing their world in violence and destruction. Ra is dead, but his more deadly succesor, Hathor (the goddess of sex, drugs, and rock n roll), covered the worlds before Abydos with blood, and has plans to do the same. :)

If you enjoyed the movie Stargate and wondered what happens next you should check out this book. All of your favorite characters plus more and a new villian are here and it retains the stargate feel. A great read.

Bill McKay did a good job in carrying on the thread first engendered in the original "Stargate." Readers will note that more proofing could have been done, but that shouldn't detract from a fine story featuring most of the original characters and many new ones, including the stunning yet deadly Hathor.

Rebellion by Bill McCay is, in my opinion, a poorly written and poorly edited book. The book contains multiple errors in the names, ranks and descriptions of the major charactors in the movie. In addition, poor editing creates extreme frustration as it is obvious that whoever proof read this book lacks a basic grasp of English grammar and spelling. In addition. the fact that you need to have events happen in sequence seems to have eluded the author. The fact that Colonel Jack O'Neill's name is spelled O'Neil and the fact that the author has O'Neill, who is a career Air Force officer, portrayed as a Colonel in the US Marine Corps adds to the confusion as he or she reads this novel. There is one page which is interesting and well written. Unfortunately, it is the last page in this book.

It is my understanding that the book is based on the original script for the movie but I fail to see why the author chose to use that script as the basis for this book when he could, and should, have used the script used when the movie was filmed.

In my opinion, this is a poorly written and uninteresting book. Why is now in its' 10th printing is beyond my comprehension.