Battlestar Galactica (Paperback)

by Jeffrey A. Carver (Author) "The Cylons were created by Man..." (more)
Key Phrases: Commander Adama, Colonel Tigh, Captain Russo (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for the Battlestar Galactica television series: "'GALACTICA'S BACK, BETTER THAN EVER . . . You don't have to love sci-fi to love Battlestar Galactica . . . a great TV series."
--USA Today

"Rapidly shaping up to be the most influential Science Fiction series since Babylon 5 and the original Star Trek."
--TV Zone magazine.

"Serious and sexy, Battlestar Galactica is the best sci fi on TV."
--CFQ (Cinefantastique)

“Even if you're not normally a fan of the genre, you may find that this Battlestar is smart enough and entertaining enough to win you over.” --USA Today

“The new and darker Galactica is an intensely suspenseful journey of survival. Well worth staying home on Fridays to watch.”
--Matt Roush, TV Guide

Product Description
In 1978, Battlestar Galactica appeared, an SF television series starring Lorne Greene of Bonanza fame and a cast of young actors. Inspired by Star Trek and Star Wars, the original series, though it lasted only a single season, is fondly remembered. Now Battlestar Galactica has been resurrected in spectacular fashion by Ronald Moore, for many years a successful writer and director of Star Trek episodes. With sharply written, literate scripts and a cast of fine actors led by Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, the reborn Battlestar Galactica has been a huge success, first as a miniseries, and now as a continuing series on the Sci Fi Channel. Tor Books is proud to publish a novel based on the exciting, suspenseful miniseries.Humanity created the robotic Cylons to help itself, but the Cylons turned on their makers and fought a terrible war until the armistice. Forty years later, the Cylons are . . . different. Now they look and act human. Some of them even think they are human. When the Cylons attack the twelve human worlds, only a single ship survives the onslaught: the oldest ship in the fleet, Battlestar Galactica. Led by Commander Adama, President Laura Roslin, and pilots like the fiercely independent Starbuck and Lee Adama, the refugees fight for the survival of humanity in a riveting epic of interstellar adventure.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 318 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books (December 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765315416
• ISBN-13: 978-0765315410
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #415,360 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Author comment, January 10, 2006

By	Jeffrey A. Carver - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Battlestar Galactica (Hardcover)

Um, yes...actually the author did view the show, many times, and is well aware of the polytheistic nature of the Colonists' religion. If indeed the spellings are as reported by the previous reviewer, then that would indicate typos introduced into the text following my last proof check. (Not impossible.)

In truth, I would love to have gone into more detail about the differing religious viewpoints and what it meant to the characters. But as that was still under development in the minds of the show's creative team, it was an opportunity I never really had. Like viewers everywhere, I had to wait and see what was going to unfold with the characters. So yes--the scope of this novel is a rather sharply focused retelling of the miniseries, with gaps filled in and characters brought into clearer relief--but not too much expansion beyond the original.

What I tried to do was to retell the story in as fast-moving, plausible, and entertaining a fashion as possible--and I hope I succeeded. (You must of course take my star rating with a grain of salt.)

If you'd like to read more about the process of writing this book, there are some entries about it in my blog, at http://starrigger.blogspot.com.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Remember that this book is based on the Miniseries - not the series itself, January 17, 2006

By	Mr. M. W. Allen (Bristol, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

cwldm "cwldm" who wrote the review `Less than the original' (and who only gave this book 2 stars) would have you believe that the use of the word 'God' in this book is an oversight on the part of the author, due to the fact that the religion of the Colonials is polytheistic in nature and the word used should be 'gods'.

However, if the reviewer were a true fan of the show, he/she would realise that the opposing religious views of the Cylons and Colonials was not actually officially introduced until Season One. If you watch the Miniseries, you will see that the word 'God' is used several times (by Cylons and Colonials alike) and the word 'gods' does not appear at all.

In fact, the only slight reference to polytheism in the Miniseries is to the 'Lords of Kobol', and Ron D. Moore himself has admitted that at that point, the Lords of Kobol were only going to be historical figures in Colonial history (like the saints in Catholicism) and not any sort of deities.

There are other aspects of the Miniseries which were changed in actual series in order to make more sense (i.e. changing the Astral Queen from a freighter to a prison transport and changing the number of prisoners from 500 to 5,000), and is to be expected.

In short, it is the job of the author to write a book that is true to the specific subject material, in this case, the Miniseries. In this, I believe that Jeffrey Carver has done his job, and done it well (hence the five stars).

It is not however, the job of the author to attempt to fill in every plot-hole, contradiction and continuity error made by the show's creator's. And considering the fact that most books based on television series are never truly considered to be `canon' by either the fans or the powers that be, any changes made by the author would be futile, as the 'official version' (the Miniseries) despite being contradicted later, will always be considered to be the `correct version`.

The Miniseries is the starting point for every other story about the Galactica, and it makes sense therefore, that the first book Tor would release would be a novel of the Miniseries. Anyone who has not seen the Miniseries in a while should get this book before reading any other Galactica novels (released in the latter half of 2006), if only to serve as a reminder of the events that led to the situation in which the Galactica now finds itself.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good Novelization , February 19, 2006

By	M. E. Newell (Marietta, Georgia, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Battlestar Galactica (Hardcover)

The novelization of "Battlestar Galactica" by Jeffery Carver is a pretty good one. Mr. Carver does a very good job in his visualization of many of the battle scenes. While this novelization does not offer the reader many extra or deleted scenes, he does give the reader good insight to several characters. Overall this novelization very good.