Customer Reviews

Stargate Atlantis: Nightfall: SGA-10

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

 

 

It's really hard for me to somehow rate this book. You see, on the one hand, it was really good - the story was quite intriguing and well plotted - on the other hand, quite often I asked myself if the author had even seen SGA. Why? Well...

SPOILERS ahead!

a) He got some of the most basic SG "hard facts" wrong - according to him, the 'gate wormhole goes both ways!
b) The characterization. Oh, boy. Teyla kept snapping/barking/snarling. Rodney either whined or he was painfully meek, his acerbic - and intelligent - humor was completely absent etc. etc.
c) The author moved the plot forward through completely illogical decisions on the part of the main characters. Example? Carter forced Sheppard to take Keller, an untrained doctor who refused to even accept a gun, with his team - on a recon mission to a possibly hostile planet! When Teyla and Ronon were kidnapped in a space ship, Sheppard and the Marines went searching for them - on foot!
d) The author's style... If I hear "the Athosian woman" or "the warrior woman" or "the P-90 submachine gun" or "the submachine gun" again, I will scream!

I think that Swallow would benefit from either having a co-author or a better editor.

To sum it up? My least favorite SGA book so far. I won't be re-reading it any time soon, that's for sure.

The two stars are for the story. This book actually did have a decent storyline. That said, I subtracted three because of very sloppy writing. Numerous typos, to begin with, and continuously referring to characters as "the warrior woman" or "The Satedan" or "the ex-Runner." It got very old very fast, as did the number of times McKay was referred to as "Rodney McKay."

The worst offense, however, was the unforgivable science mistakes. Stargate 101: You cannot have two-way travel through a wormhole. This book mentions two-way travel twice. Once when Lorne's team goes through an incoming wormhole to the planet Sheppard is calling from (although it's conceivable they shut down the Stargate and redialed without any comments whatsoever). Second, they are concerned about the Wraith getting to Atlantis through an incoming wormhole. The same incoming wormhole Sheppard suggests a beseiged team use to escape. Two-way travel is impossible. Has been since the first five minutes of "Children of the Gods."

I've read all but one of the SG-1 books, but this is my first Atlantis novel. I'm not blaming these errors on the company, but really, someone somewhere along the line of publication should have caught these simple mistakes. I'm definitely going to buy more SG-1/SGA novels in the future, but I'll think twice about buying one by James Swallow.

I just finished reading this book and I am really disappointed with it. One of the major reasons is the character development. All the major characters are in this book, Sheppard, Carter, Teyla, Rodney, Keller, Lorne, and Ronan so you would think you have an amazing story set up. However, all the characters are described and portrayed as 1-dimensional. They are not given any personailty and the dialogue between characters is so dull and stagnant that its like listening to someone recite their grocery list. In plain terms....they are boring, boring, BORING! No friendly fun banter, witty quips, serious or funny sarcasm...nothing its a basic he said she said he sighed she yelled he growled......yea thats about it.

The vibrant and intriguing characters from the tv series are non-existent. In addition, there was a situtation mentioned in the book that wasn't even created yet...Angelus was mentioned, and correct me if I'm wrong...but Angelus comes after this book so we shouldn't be discussing any of that in this book. I honestly did not enjoy this book, I read it basically to get through to the end, which was also a disappointment (Spoiler) because it left the reader asking "what really happend with the Asgard ship that John piloted?" "Did it fly away on its own? Did someone hijack it off the planet? What????" Sad to say this book is going to be tucked into a corner somewhere and probably not read again for a loooong time.

The author had previously written Stargate SG-1: Relativity. Now that was a good book. But once again something in that book that irritated me, was the he wrote about the characters and the way he referred to the characters. Calling them O'Neill, and Jackson seemed odd, in the way he did it. He does the same thing with this book. But what was really dissappointing was the bland execution of the book. He had an interesting idea, but it was so boring the way he wrote it. Of all the SGA books, I have read this has to be the most excruciating of all, next to SGA:Angelus. Skip this one altogether and save your money. If ya wanna read a really good SGA title, try Mirror Mirror. The characterization is spot on, and the story execution is entertaining.

This was definately not the best SGA book. Character development was lacking and the interactions between characters was not very true to my interpretations as an avid SGA fan. Everyone seemed to be in a bad mood throughout most of it. Most people are not reading SGA or SG-1 books unless they are fans...so the writers need to make sure they are well versed in the characters and the tone of their dialogue.
I have re-read most of my SGA books more than once...haven't really even considered this one for a second read as yet. I gave it 3 stars only because the storyline was fairly decent sci-fi...from the perspective of SGA...I would have given it only 2.
With the recent delays in production of new SGA novels I am hungry for more...but this one was not very satisfying.

I've read nearly all the SG-1 and SGA fan books and there have been some great ones and some bad ones. This is one of the bad ones. The author has written for a whole bunch of different science fiction fan audiences, but I think it's pretty clear he only watched a few episodes of Stargate before writing this. The plotline could have been good, and it started out nicely with a touch of mystery. But then everything slowed down and sagged. There was a nice twist here and there, but not enough to retrieve the story; in most cases I could see where the action was going quite a bit in advance. The characterizations were pretty generic and a bit dull. Overall, the story wasn't horrible but it totally failed to reach its potential.

I liked Nightfall pretty well. I thought the characters were fairly true to how they were portrayed on the TV show, despite what some of the other reviewers thought. The characters weren't quite as funny as they are on the show, but McKay wasn't as obnoxious either, so I'll give the author a bit of a pass on the humor. I liked that there was plenty of Carter and Lorne and very little Zelenka. The plot was creative and there was a good amount of action. I could easily imagine this as a 2 or 3 part story arc in the series. This book stands up pretty well in the genre of novelizations of TV shows.

I really wanted to read an SGA book that takes place in season 4, but after reading the reviews for this book, I think I'll skip this book. I'm glad that there's another season 4 book out that is not written by James Swallow.

I bought this book for my wife and so far it seems to have lived up to the other STARGATE books she has which are all good.

I don't normally write reviews on here but wanted to on this book. I just finished it yesterday and loved every moment of it. I could not put it down but had to each day due to work. It was fun to read a book where Carter was involved with Atlantis and seeing their battle with the Wraith while trying to save the people on the planet. I don't want to reveal the big surprise on the book with another race but lets say it was a shock although you could tell as you read who it was. I agree on the other review on the names being said with their whole name later in the book but once you are in a grove on reading, you don't notice it much. I have noticed that same thing in a number of the Stargate books, so am a bit use to it. I would recommend this to anyone in heart beat, especially if you loved the fourth season of Atlantis. Add in a major role for Lorne as well, who has become my favorite character after Carter.