Customer Reviews

Roswell (Stargate SG-1, No. 9)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First of all, I have to say I really enjoyed this book. The plot was good, the writing, the characterizations... it all easily kept my interest. It's one of my favorite Stargate books so far, following "Survival of the Fittest."

But next time, please, have an editor run over it once or twice? The typos were starting to grate by the time I finished it. At one point, a character named Bennett becomes Beckett. At another, Jack becomes the movie "O'Neil." There were a handful of occasions where "of" became "if" and the like. There were others that I can't recall off the top of my head, but I know a few times it seemed like there were entire words missing from sentences. All of these problems could have easily been fixed by an editor, so I don't know if this book had one or not.

All that aside, it was a good story and a good book. The authors did a great job connecting SG-1 to the events of Roswell (and a few other things I won't spoil here). The book was good... just not as good as it might have been or could have been.

This was the first book I've read based on the Stargate series and it was so good that I couldn't put it down. I read the whole thing in one day. I was already missing the series and this was a balm to Sci-fi canceling the show. I wish that they could have used this for the basis of the continuing movies on dvd but since their doing the Ba'al time tampering movie, I don't think they'll use it. The characters are true to form. Sonny Whitelaw & Jennifer Fallon know their stuff. I can't wait for them to continue thier story arc.

This book has Jack, Sam x 2, Daniel, Teal'c, Cam, Vala, the Asgard, the Goa'uld, H.P. Lovecraft, Howard Carter, baseball stats, H.G. Wells, time travel, alternate time lines, and, as promised by the title, the Roswell incident. It is packed full of stuff -- but not high-quality stuff, unfortunately. It is a grab-bag of disjointed subplots, none of them developed in a very satisfying way. And, though the characters aren't grossly misdrawn, there's no real depth to their reactions.

There were some spots near the beginning where I was enthused about the story and wanted to know what happened next, but it wasn't long before I was feeling annoyed by it all. Adding to my annoyance were the amazing number of typos. This book is just riddled with them, and I can't see any excuse for it.

I really enjoyed this book - it was great how it tied history to the story line of SG1. I could actually picture the characters like we see them on TV and they were true to form. Towards the end (last chapter or so) I got a little confused on the timelines and all the time jumping details regarding the Antarctic 'gate; but i got the gist of it. You have to watch the show and really love it to get all the hidden jokes - someone not familiar with the show would be lost on some of those jokes. Being a huge fan and wishing it was still around - I loved it. I was starting to go through 'gate withdrawls. I have read a couple of the other books and sometimes got bored or the characters weren't true to form. This one I had a hard time putting down!! Now with Universe ending - hopefully there will be books that will continue their journey on Destiny!

Being an avid fan of everything Stargate (yes, even the new SGU), I decided to give the novels a chance.

This book had excellent potential for a superb plot, but unfortunately, for me, it was just a little dry. I often felt that certain events in the book took longer than necessary to develop, while other events really deserved more attention. It almost appeared as though the author was told, "Your book needs to be this many pages, so start chopping." As is always the case with stories like this one, the events that take place in the second half of the book are the ones that suffered for the short length of the book.

The characterizations, for the most part, were pretty acurate. The banter between Daniel and Jack was not exactly spot-on, and at times I almost thought to myself, "How the heck did Jack O'Neill become a General being as ignorant as he is?" Teal'C was well-written and, thankfully, not too overwritten, as I have often seen in these novels. Daniel, while his characterization was captured well, was almost a useless character in this story, the author having given him mostly little places in which to fill in information gaps. By far, the best-written character in the book was Vala Mal Doran, who was true to the TV character in almost every way.

When writing this review, I knocked off 1 star for what I have written above. I had to downgrade another star for the absolutely dreadful editing job done on this book. The number of spelling errors, misplaced words, etc. in this book was almost too distracting for me. I would eagerly volunteer to re-edit this book and any future books for a fraction of the cost that the editors are being paid. The publisher should be ashamed they let this book be released with the number of errors abounding.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, absolutely (provided you can ignore the bad editing). It is not among my favorite SG books, but is well worth the read.

While the Roswell Aliens/Asgard connection is an idea begging for exploration, this book turns it into an often confusing and lackluster romp through time without much point or dimension. All the key elements for a great story are there, but it reads too much like a term paper written the night before the due date. Every time a storyline starts to reach some depth, it goes skipping off into another direction, leaving both the reader and the characters wondering, "What just happened here?" All of this could be forgiven and the book given at least a decent grade for good characterizations and originality if someone had actually bothered to re-read it before publishing and correct the dozens of typos. I have never read a professional work with so many distracting little mistakes.

This is defiantly one of the more better written stargate sg1 books out there could see it as one of those straight to dvd movies.

If you like SG-1 team stories, they don't get much better than Roswell. Sam fans will be over the moon with this one, as will fans of Mitchell and/or Vala. Even General Jack is on board for this mission, along with the ever mostly taciturn Teal'c. However, once again Daniel Jackson and fans of the character get short shrift in yet another Stargate SG-1 novel. The events take place over the course of July 7-8 Present Day specifically, along with some other timelines (yes, this is a time-travel story), and not once does anyone mention that July 8 is Daniel's birthday. Some friends these guys turned out to be. Considering that Daniel is the most talkative character, he probably has fewer lines than Teal'c in this story. In addition, the storyline for Mitchell and Vala rightly belongs to Daniel since they actually get to go back to early 20th century Egypt to meet Howard Carter. Nonetheless, this is an action-packed, Steven-Spielberg non-stop action book that will keep you turning page after page.

Sonny Whitelaw has done another great job of writing a Stargate novel. This book is action-packed, with a time-travel story line that rivals the TV episodes with the quantum mirror. Lots of twists and turns, excellent dialog that captures the voices of the characters, and a nice wrapup with just a touch of a mind twist to it. There are a few typos and a few editing mistakes, but they didn't drip me out of the story too much. This story line includes Jack O'Neill, Sam Carter, Daniel Jackson, Teal'c, Vala Mal Doran, and Cam Mitchell as active participants on the adventure. The authors includes some really neat tie-ins to actual events, making this a fun read.

The plot of Roswell sounded intriguing, but I was disappointed to find the writing mediocre and the pace slow. Typos aren't the only reason this book needs an editor - in several places the writing is unclear due to questionable grammar and poor organization. The characterization is (as is rarely the case in these tie-ins) fairly accurate, but rather uninspired. I have read a great deal of fanfic that's better written than this book. Worth buying if you find it on the 50 cent shelf at your library, but I wouldn't pay full price. Mine was a present, and if I'd know ahead of time what a slow read it would be, I'd have asked for something more exciting... socks, maybe.