Customer Reviews

Stargate Atlantis: Angelus: SGA-11

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

 

 

Almost four stars but not really, though I will bump it up to four. It was definitely better than Swallow's "Nightfall" - it ran more smoothly, there was a very logical process going from point A to point B, the characters were rather true to themselves and the idea itself was awesome (horror and scifi in one). Also, I love stories that take place in Atlantis because the show itself took precious little time to explore the city which was a shame. And then there was the Apollo and it was nice to see its crew in action, again something that we didn't really see on the show.

But there were two things that quite didn't click for me:
a) All the technical jargon. Sometimes dumbing it down serves the story better. Some parts were a bit hard to follow for someone without a background in physics.
b) Sam Carter was without any doubt the main character of the whole story. John and Rodney were reduced to supporting characters, Teyla had one big scene and Ronon was background material (even the author's original characters had bigger parts). I missed the team terribly, the interaction between the main four: John, Rodney, Teyla and Ronon.

To sum it up, a very good, action-filled tie-in. But I miss the female touch of the previous books, the focus on the relationships between the characters.

When i got this book, I expected a good tie-in. Everything I've heard is praise. Now, however, i look back, and wonder if we read the same book. first, the positive points: it had good action, and the storytelling was acceptable. It wasn't subdued and drawn out. That's about the most I can say for that. what was wrong with it? For starters, the plot holes are immense. The purpose behind Angelus' gold mask is never revealed, never even touched on later in the story. The whispering on the radios is never explicitly revealed, though I could hazard some guesses as to it's function. Another point is why the expedition didn't check the Atlantis database for an ancient named Angelus. If he wasn't there, he simply didn't exist. The explanation for why the replicators would try this is lacking. Numbers were never the problem of the replicators. they could generate however many other personalities they needed, and simply build new bodies for those they lost. they would never need to do something like this. Colonel Ellis is another thing. Throughout his time on the show, he displayed a manifold dislike of McKay. he never showed any respect for him, at one point challenging his manhood. He would think of mcKay as a tool before he thought of him as a respectable person. Carter and several other members of the expedition also showed an inability to grasp the obvious, or even stay in character for more than a few paragraphs. The Damage done to the city is also over the top. of course, the damage done to the city has been great over the years, but nothing like what was displayed here. If this author publishes another stargate novel, I'll probably buy it just for the sake of reading a stargate novel, but not for the story.

This left me disappointed and angry and going WTF??? Because it's not what it's advertised to be, i.e., a novel about Stargate: Atlantis. At least, this isn't Atlantis as the show appeared on TV. As an original science fiction novel, it might have been acceptable, although not to *me*, because the plot involves an alien entity that grows (and grows, and grows) by absorbing and mutating human flesh, a process which involves a lot of blood and viscera and bodily fluids and "gobbets of flesh", and oozing and swelling and...well, suffice it to say that the whole thing was more Lovecraft than Stargate, and not at all what I expected from Stargate: Atlantis.

Also, my two favorite characters, McKay and Sheppard, were relegated to bit parts, and had very little interaction when they did appear. The story was told mostly from the alternating viewpoints of Samantha Carter and Colonel Ellis of the Apollo.

And all of it in that oddly-sized font used in all of the Fandemonium Stargate novels, which is just a little too small. Or maybe the lines are spaced a little too closely together. Whatever. Maybe some of their books are worth getting eyestrain over; it's not this one.

Angelus starts out pretty well..several plot arcs going on at once, a mystery, and some good character writing. Then the story gets bogged down in the middle, and falls apart at the end. While the evil creature is killed, there are loose threads hanging which make it feel like the story was simply closed rather than explained and tied up in a pretty package. Overall, it's not toooooo horrible, but definitely not one of the better Atlantis fan novels.

I thought the storyline was good in this book. It was good sci-fi, however, the multiple spelling and grammatical errors were distracting and there were some other errors just in the writing.
I was not impressed by this author's grasp of the characters and their relationships to one another...it seemed apparent to me that he had seen the show... but was probably not a fan. Overall, it was an okay book...but I only gave it 3 stars.

While I was able to finish the book, I can't help but agree with some of the other reviews. It was good enough that I'd rather not spoil it for others by giving away too much of the plot.

It almost seems like someone wrote a generic science fiction premise and stuck some Stargate Atlantis names into it. The plot seemed to slow down at points and the pace would slow to a crawl with exposition. It made for difficult reading but not enough to make me stop. I've still not figured out why the mask was so important that it was given so much attention and then dropped. The characterization always seemed to feel a little off. It's like the author watched enough of the show to understand the premise and who these people are, but didn't get the essence of why they are the way they are - sort of like an uncanny valley.

The ending didn't blow me away, it was just over about forty pages before it should have been. Things were left hanging that shouldn't have been. It's an acceptable book as far as science fiction goes, but a bit of critical thinking would have stopped the premise flat. It's worth the Amazon price, but I'd do two and a half stars if I could.

I just finished this book last night. I don't think there are any big spoilers in this review.

The story was interesting, but wasn't really "stargate-like" to me. Change the names of the key player and the city, and you have any other sci-fi/horror book off the shelf.

A golden mask is focused on early in the book and made to seem as a very important item, and then never mentioned again.
A highly technical stranger is in Atlantis that is not trusted, yet Carter sends Sheppard and McKay off on a mission that could have been handled by just about anyone else?
At one point the book gives a view of the replicators disgust for non-replicator kind, yet they create the protagonist in this storyline?

Atlantis is portrayed to be damaged almost to the point of being condemned, yet everyone acts like 2-3 weeks and it'll be as is nothing ever happened to the city.
Where do they get the supplies to rebuild what was apparently at least a quarter of the city. A city made from some special kind of metal and embedded with all sorts of ancients technology. Not really believable.

Ronon Dex. Based on the other reviews, I'm the only one who was really bugged that the author referred to Ronon as "Dex" through-out the whole book.
At first, I figured, "Okay.. he's using everyone's last names, but c'mon, he's always called Ronon in the show", and then he calls Teyla... Teyla...
Every time I read something like "Dex said this" or "she could hear Dex" I wanted to cross out Dex and write in Ronon.

What I did like, Dr. Radek Zelenka had a good appearance in this book, I always wanted to see him come out of McKay's shadow a bit.
Also, like I said earlier, the story was interesting.

I've read worse.

Tony!

I really liked the book. It has the feel of the show and it's characters. I found the story intriguing and the dialogue between the characters was excellent. A good read for Stargate Atlantis fans.

Love SG-1. Not so crazy about the Atlantis show, but sometimes the Atlantis books are good, like Mirror mirror. This one however is just not so great. Too much babble going on. Too be honest I have not even finished the book after 2 months of having it. Which is unusual because I usually don't put a book down until I've read it. Probably will not be buying another Atlantis book after this because they are just a waste of money to me. Others may enjoy this book.

I bought this one and read it a few weeks ago and found to be pretty interesting. The only problem that I could see in it was that there was at least one typing mistake in the middle of the book, but other than that the book was really good. This one is placed at the start of season 4 after their leader was taken and the team is getting used to things again. When they suddenly run into a ancient on the run and political problems just make things worse. I'm not going to spoil things for anybody, but pick this one up, you won't be disappointed.