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Battlestar Galactica
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Product Description
For forty years, the Twelve Colonies of Man were at peace, united since the war against the robotic Cylons. These mechanical beings, created by mankind to perform the manual labor civilization required, were gone forever…or so humanity thought.
But in those years, the Cylons developed new Cylons that looked and acted like humans…and then they attacked the Twelve Worlds.
Only a single warship survived the massive attack: Battlestar Galactica, the oldest ship in the fleet, ready to be decommissioned and turned into a museum. Commander William Adama, himself set to retire, had but one course: to marshal his meager forces, and somehow keep the Cylons from wiping out the last vestiges of the human race. But their inhuman Cylon enemies—stronger, smarter, and driven to destroy—may be too powerful for them, and all of humanity, to survive.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #861732 in Books
- Published on: 2006-06-27
- Released on: 2006-06-27
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Mass Market Paperback
- 352 pages
Features
- ISBN13: 9780765355164
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
--CFQ (Cinefantastique) on the Battlestar Galactica TV Series
“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 on the Battlestar Galactica TV Series
From the Back Cover
In 1978, Battlestar Galatica was born, inspired by the success of Star Trek and Star Wars. Now, re-imagined by the brilliant Star Trek writer/director Ronald A. Moore, Battlestar Galactica lives again, a hard-hitting, suspenseful sci-fi series unlike anything ever seen on television before. In late 2003, an original Sci-Fi Channel miniseries heralded its arrival. Starring Edward James Olmost and Mary McDonnell, it electrified viewers and critics alike, and has been hailed as a landmark in television drama.
Now, published for the first time, here is the novel based on that exciting miniseries.
“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
About the Author
Customer Reviews
Author comment
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.
Remember that this book is based on the Miniseries - not the series itself
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.
Pretty good Novelization 
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.
