sholio | Stargate Atlantis: Exogenesis (review)

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Stargate Atlantis: Exogenesis (review)

So I read the Exogenesis novel last night ...

My advice is don't buy this one; see if you can bum it off somebody or at least pick it up used for cheap. Of the three SGA novels I've read so far (Reliquary and Chosen were the others), this is my least favorite by far, for reasons addressed in the spoilery section below.

It's got some neat (but inconsistent) character moments, and Teyla gets a large role, which is nice to see. But, all in all? Not that good.

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SPOILERY (and very uncomplimentary) REVIEW

There were a few things I enjoyed about this book. They had some neat team/friendship scenes, although these were oddly inconsistent. For example, I really loved Teyla's determination to save her people, and John and Radek's horror when Rodney was being eaten alive by the sand, and injured John sneaking out of Atlantis -- and shanghai'ing Ronon *heh* -- to look for Rodney. But why wasn't there an equivalent level of concern when Teyla was apparently killed on the mainland? Here and there, you'd get the "Wow, these people would do anything for each other" vibe -- and then in the next scene, you'd get the sense that they were just co-workers.

I think a lot of this comes down to poor plotting and the fact that the book tried to cram too much into too few pages, leaving it impossible to fully develop any given subplot. Looking at this book strictly as a novel (as opposed to a novelization), I cannot honestly say this is the worst science fiction novel I've ever finished. There have been others. But it's definitely a contender.

Now, I don't go around looking for reasons to tear a book apart. (It just sort of ... happens.) But this book would be poorly plotted even if it were a fanfic, where my standards are a lot lower than they are for published fiction. (Some fanfics are brilliantly plotted, don't get me wrong ... but the average does tend to be a lot lower than for published work.) There are some really horribly plotted fanfics out there, and this isn't *that* bad, but it certainly is not, by any stretch of the imagination, good.

It's basically two plots grafted together, and not very well. The trouble is that they're both "A" plots, as opposed to an "A" and a "B" plot where one has clear dominance over the other. You can get away with doing this -- in fact some writers can juggle more than two plots without it feeling crowded or confusing; the Dresden books and Terry Pratchett's novels are good examples -- but your different plots can't take away from each other by covering the same territory, which is *exactly* what this book does. You've got two high-intensity disaster stories running side by side, and the result is a major case of reader fatigue, as well as difficulty jumping back and forth, because the plots aren't integrated well at all. Even within one or the other plot, there's a lot of jumping around -- body snatching and natural disasters and nanobots and time dilation all rear their heads as needed for the plot but don't really touch the other parts of the novel. It doesn't feel *integrated*. The body-snatching bit at the beginning doesn't feel part and parcel with the same novel that has Teyla evading mudslides on the mainland, which feels disparate from the team fighting a sandstorm or a wave of gray goo engulfing Atlantis. When you're in the middle of a book, and you think back to an event from earlier in the book and can't remember if it's the same novel or not, you've got a problem.

But that's not the only problem with this one BY FAR.

Arthur C. Clarke wrote that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. This doesn't mean that it should actually *be* magical, though. I can swallow a lot in SF, and SGA in particular, but this book pushes scientific credibility to the breaking point and then snaps it. The toxic red sand on the desert planet is the worst offender, because it bears zero resemblance to any actual substance in our universe, and the authors make no plausible attempt to explain it -- which is just beyond impossible considering that we've got so many brilliant scientists running around on this planet. It does precisely what is needed for the plot, when it's needed for the plot: it burns the skin (but only in people who aren't acclimatized to it), it disrupts sensors, it's mutagenic (but only over a lot of generations and only in certain ways -- and how can you have a mutagen that only triggers certain mutations?), it can dissolve in water and cause the water to become poisonous, it is capable of tunneling into the human brain itself and destroying it. And yet under certain circumstances it neutralizes *itself* (the red-to-yellow sand conversion). What the heck IS this stuff? It acts radioactive in a lot of ways, but not others; it acts like a poison in some ways, but not others. I'm not a scientist and I don't need a total scientific explanation for everything in SF, but I at least need some indication that we're not breaking 15 different physical laws in order to get the stuff to work.

And then there's the nanobots, and the utter implausibility of terraforming an entire planet in a week utilizing a device the size of a pipe bomb -- let alone the whole *galaxy*. I couldn't help thinking, from both the Atlantis and the offworld/releasing-the-water parts of the book, that the authors don't really understand how big a planet is, let alone how big a galaxy is.

Okay, so let's swallow the scientific implausibility for a moment. As if all of that wasn't bad enough, BOTH plots wrapped up with deus ex machina endings, and the ending of the desert-world plot was such a gigantic painful cliche that you could see it coming from a mile away. Anybody who has been reading or watching science fiction in the last 40 years has probably seen both the psychic-children-save-the-world plot and the big "OMG I've been sleeping with a mutant/alient/monster who is only beautiful on the *inside*" reveal -- scores of times. (Have these writers never seen Star Trek: TOS? "The Cage"? Hello?) And once the implausibilities and cliches start coming, they start coming fast and thick -- like Nabu's parents having been (OMG!) the very Ancients who started this whole mess! What were the odds! Luckily Nabu is on hand with his day-saving, Lantea-restoring device. There wasn't even really any suspense with that one at all, seeing how we knew from the beginning that Lantea couldn't really be destroyed, so once it went past the mudslide point it was pretty obvious that they were going to find a reset button sooner or later.

And Turpi kept herself looking like a hideous mutant on purpose so as not to set herself apart from the children? What the HELL kind of stupid reason is that? At the very least, couldn't she have made herself a slightly *less* hideous mutant? Yes, yes, beauty on the inside and all of that, but really, if everyone who sees you totally freaks out, is there any point to looking that way on purpose? Shaving your head in solidarity with a kid who has cancer is one thing, but this is more like having your face horribly mangled and your legs chopped off in a farm equipment accident and refusing to use prostheses or reconstructive surgery.

Good thing she was around to magically fix everyone's injuries before Ascending in a cloud of Mary Sue-ness and Rodney's adoration. Yeah, like we couldn't see THAT one coming.

Definitely my least favorite of the books so far.

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thanks for the review.

Cruel though it was ...

your review sounded valid to me. :) it's not your fault the author couldn't balance the two plots in a way that made the story entertaining and tense. Plus it's good to know why the story didn't work so I can make a more informed decision before I decide to either check the book out or buy it.

Ah, thank you. I was considering buying this book because it seemed very Rodney-centric and therefore of interest to me, but hesitated. I'm glad I did now. I love a really well-written tie-in novel (at one point, I was buying every single Star Trek: TOS book published), but a poorly written one puts me off the whole genre.

And then there's the nanobots, and the utter implausibility of terraforming an entire planet in a week utilizing a device the size of a pipe bomb

Hee! Apparently someone's watched Total Recall one too many times - or maybe The Wrath of Khan.

Thanks for taking one for the team and reading this and reviewing. Life's too short to read bad books. :)

Life's too short to read bad books.

*laughs* So true!

It did have a handful of neat character moments, and quite a lot of Rodney (though not as much as the preview chapters made it seem); the trouble is, the good stuff was overshadowed by the badness of the rest of it, and the inconsistency in how the characters, and their interactions, were written. And then they got to an ending which was basically "The Cage" meets "Dune" meets "Total Recall", and I had one of those I can't believe I waded through all of that for THIS sorts of reactions...

Have you thought about putting up a review on Amazon.com? You'd be doing a great service to ~~humanity~~ the fandom. :)

On the one hand, it's sort of tempting, but on the other hand, a part of me balks at posting uncomplimentary reviews in a really public venue like that. Telling the (relative) handful of people who read my journal that a book sucks is one thing, but telling the whole world is a little harder for me to deal with. I used to be a regular reviewer for Sequential Tart (http://www.sequentialtart.com), and what made me stop was mostly guilt, because I was getting packages of comics to review that were just *awful* ... and I know, intellectually, that someone who sends out a book or comic for review is taking their chances and they can't be *too* thin-skinned, but it still didn't make me feel any better about taking somebody's baby and roasting it over the coals. *g*

And all that, but it was still better than their first, The Chosen.

You know, I hadn't even noticed that they were the same people who wrote Chosen! Come to think of it, there was that same "wandering randomly around between plot points" sense to that one, too...

I actually liked Chosen better than this one because at least there, they only had *one* plot to deal with, and the ending wasn't too bad (I thought). It didn't engage me emotionally, which is why I liked Reliquary a lot better of the two tie-ins I read last year, but it didn't make me want to scream and throw the book across the room, which this one did.

You know what's REALLY sad is that I'm tempted to keep this book just for the meager handful of John and Rodney scenes, despite all of its sucking. I think I have a problem.

Now see, I think The Chosen was a lot worse. The scene jumping was just so choppy in Chosen, worse than in Exo. Half the time I couldn't keep it straight what the heck was going on, and while I know I'm not the fastest boat in the ocean, I can normally keep what I'm reading straight.

Also, I found the plot so implausible.

I re-read the nice bit of McKay-Sheppard h/c and not any of the rest. It's just tedious.

But I will say this, in Chosen I think they really did get the voices good. It was just the plot, the whole 'attemping a LOTR epic battle stretching over vast areas' was a disaster.

In Exo, I think the characters were a little weaker (Rodney's most noticeably), the plot a bit more interesting if not still unrealistic. But clarity was better.

Overall, I'm just not really sure how they got the novel deal though, because of the other two novels, Reliquary and Halycon, these (exo and chosen) are far weaker.

I've talked to a few people who didn't like Reliquary, but I really did -- of course, it was very John & Rodney focused with lots of h/c, which helps. *g* And I thought the character voices were very good in it. Luckily it was the first of the tie-ins that I read, which means I keep trying them even though none of the others have measured up so far.

I've been hearing good things about Halcyon -- I think I'll be picking that one up next.

*grin* Well, I'm with you there. I've heard a couple people say they didn't like Reliquary but I don't know their reasons.

I think Reliquary was smoothly told, good voices and I loved the storyline *vbg*.

Halcyon is a good solid book. It's very much like an episode. Don't expect anything outstanding, but a good adventure romp and I did like the worldbuilding in it.

But there wasn't any really good character development. They start out like they are and end like they are.

Good stuff -- Nice smooth storytelling. Great worldbuilding.

Bad stuff -- the ending was a little anticlimatic. It needed a bit more oomph.

This Halcyon sounds like a typical episode of SGA. :)

Ding! Ding! Ding! *grin*

But in fairness, there's been far more character growth in SGA of late than in this book. If they could just pin down more of the oomph and patch some plot holes, I'd be 100% in love.

season 3 has had more character development. :) but um yeah I'm still loving the show and after seeing the season finale I'm really looking forward to what's going to happen.

I just put in an Amazon.com order for the rest of the Dresden books and decided to throw in Halcyon on top of it, since I'm getting free shipping and all.

Character development has always been the area where tie-in books don't do very well, in general. There are exceptions to that, but most of them aren't very good at it, since they can't really change the characters in any significant way.

I've not finished Halcyon yet (it's my companion on public transport, which I've not been using much) and mostly it's very good. The feint at the beginning, with the running woman, and finding out who she was, was something I've not seen before, and liked immensely (though I can imagine others hating it).

My only real complaints so far are that while I applaud the inclusion of British characters, they're voices are almost written in dialect. I'm sure there are people who speak that way, but it just seemed a bit much.

I already own 'Exogenesis' and I will read it, if only to savage it, and take notes on 'how not to write SGA'.

I haven't read Exo, but I have read (most of) 'The Chosen' and I couldn't agree with you more. I love LOTR, and I've read detailed accounts of battle in my studies, but it was just so darn confusing. It started off really well, and they did a much better job of ATA = nobility or favour than 'The Tower' (my most loathed of SGA eps) but honestly, I couldn't tell one group from the other in the end, and have given up caring.

If they'd gone for something less complex, I would have enjoyed it greatly.

Thanks for the review, which made me feel better. I thought I was alone in not being able to keep the plots straight. The Chosen I couldn't even finish. Okay. So it's not just me. Turpi is quite definitely a Mary Sue--without the good looks.

Halcyon, yes, is a good read. Reliquary I enjoyed but I won't be buying any more of Martha's books for other reasons.

Perhaps it's silly to be so involved in thinking about this, but I do hold the tie-in novels to a higher standard than fan fic. However, in my experience, the great majority of fanfics that I have read are better written, more cohesive and more enthralling than the tie-ins. Does anyone know how the Fandemonium writers/stories are chosen and who in the publishing house edits their books?

I thought Reliquary was one of the best tie in books I'd ever read, why wouldn't you want to get any more that she writes????

I happily admit that Martha is a wonderful, very talented writer! Her next book is no doubt excellent. I'm not buying her books for other reasons entirely.

I'm confused, if you like her writing and the books, why don't you want to buy them??? I mean if it's a financial thing I'd understand but this sounds kind of personal and I don't recall the author doing anything controversial in the news.

Perhaps it's silly to be so involved in thinking about this, but I do hold the tie-in novels to a higher standard than fan fic.

I don't think it's unreasonable at all! After all, not only are we paying for the novels, but the writers themselves are getting paid, as well as having the advantage of editors to look over their work. You'd think that what you'd end up with would be better, not worse. I can understand the books not having as much emotional depth as some of the fic, because they're shooting for a general audience where fic writers can be as specific as we please as far as targeting people who have our particular fic kinks and favorite characters. But there's just no excuse for the plot problems.

Incidentally, you're not missing much with her other books. I read one of her fantasy novels, and it was quite bad. Her writing skills are pretty good, but when it comes to original fiction, she's not good at introducing information about the characters and world in a subtle way; the book drove me away with horrible infodumps.

I'm uncomfortable criticizing her stories because I did like "Reliquary," and I'm sure her next SGA book will be fine. She is a great writer; her fanfic ranks among the most engaging, IMO. Her other, non-SGA work is unfamiliar to me, so I can't comment on it. As someone whose own fiction has its share of weaknesses and mistakes, I don't ever feel at ease publicly criticizing someone else's work. My reason for not reading any more of her stories is purely personal. However, "Exogenesis" is an exception to my no-criticizing rule because its plot and character problems are so immense and glaring. That's why I was wondering whether these tie-in works are edited by Fandemonium editors or outside staff or...anyone at all. I believe that with a good beta or two, this story could have been much better.

*snerk*

Turpi was all kinds of MarySue; the only thing that she didn't do was die leaving Rodney a wuvly baby to wuv fowever in memory of her.

*barf*

My thoughts reading this novel were much the same as yours; too much in too little space, not believable, and over and over and over again, "Dude! Any beta reader worth their salt would have shredded this for you!"

Not the best, at all.

Turpi was all kinds of MarySue; the only thing that she didn't do was die leaving Rodney a wuvly baby to wuv fowever in memory of her.

Or a really ugly baby...

It really boggles me that not a single editor or beta reader or concerned friend or SOMEONE pointed out even the most glaring problems with the book to the authors. (Or ... chilling thought ... maybe they did; maybe this is the better version.)

I *have* actually read worse SF novels than this one, but not many.

you hit the nail on the head there and astute summary of the main problems in the story. I was just chatting with a mate on LJ about this and called it 'The OMG Mary Sue book'.

the nanites that reversed the terraforming soup *rolls eyes*.

The big no-no for me (aside from the MarySueness and awful science) was that Nabu was too powerful. I was waiting for Atlantis to *oops* accidently destroy the gate so that they can't call Nabu for help everytime that they get stuck with an Ancient tech problem.

The big no-no for me (aside from the MarySueness and awful science) was that Nabu was too powerful.

*laughs* Yeah, that too! My God, was there anywhere the book didn't go wrong?

Thank you for saving me from making a bad book purchase! Like you I am much more tolerant of poorly written fanfic. But if I am going to shell out money for a book I'd like it to readable. I have been burned by novels based on tv series in the past and have been reluctant to invest in any of the SGA novels. On the lists I lurk around everyone always gushes over each of the books, but it usually sounds like the same praise they give any fanfic - good for encouraging fanfic writers, but I'd like a little more substance in a book review. Thank you, again, for providing it.

On the lists I lurk around everyone always gushes over each of the books, but it usually sounds like the same praise they give any fanfic

Yeah, and I remember seeing fairly positive things about Exogenesis, which just goes to show that you can't believe everything you read. Of course, others may disagree with me, and there may well be people out there who really enjoyed the book -- although this thread seems to indicate that most of them aren't here. ;)

I've encountered some really awful tie-in novels in the past, or at the very least, exceedingly lackluster ones. It happened that I really liked the first SGA tie-in that I tried (Reliquary) but haven't been nearly as impressed with any that I've read since.

Gee Friendshipper, don't hold back, tell us how you really feel. :-)

I am glad to see I was not the only with problems with the book. Like you, I never worried that the planet would be destoryed - a tie-in novel is not going to allowed to do that. I have heard enough about the restictions of tie-in novels that I know what they can and can not do. And the biggest is no-no is major changes to the characters - those are reserved for the show's writers. (for good or for ill) So a novel that is based on that premise is not going to keep me in suspense. I also knew from the get-go that Rodney was not dead - hence there was no reason to keep the readers wondering if that is the case or not for more then a chapter.

I got a good laugh at the Star Trek comment because that was the first thing I thought of when I read that part.... that Turpi was Susan Oliver.

I also had some problems with Rodney's speech at the end. It just didn't sound like Rodney to me.

Like you, I never worried that the planet would be destoryed - a tie-in novel is not going to allowed to do that. ... I also knew from the get-go that Rodney was not dead - hence there was no reason to keep the readers wondering if that is the case or not for more then a chapter.

See, yeah ... it's kind of pointless to try to string your readers along with fake suspense when it's totally obvious that it's fake. Threatening another planet works because we don't know how it'll turn out. Threatening the Atlantis planet, or the galaxy ... not so much, because it doesn't take much deduction to figure out that it's not going to really be destroyed. And basing a whole plot (or part of the plot) around that non-suspense is just silly.

I got a good laugh at the Star Trek comment because that was the first thing I thought of when I read that part.... that Turpi was Susan Oliver.

*laughs* Ah, it wasn't just me! That was absolutely the first thing that came to my mind! Along with the half a dozen other famous works of SF that they're ripping off at the end there...

*reads review and winces* Yeeeeah. Think I'll be scoping out the H/C scenes in this one and leave the rest to...someone else.

*grin* Good strategy! Although you never know; other people might find more to like than I did.

It *did* have a couple of nice h/c parts.

Well, shoot. I just ordered a few of the SGA novels from Borders, including this one. I guess I'll try and read it anyway, since I already have it. Or maybe I should just read my copies of the first three Dresden Files books instead. I was going to wait until the show is on hiatus like you suggested in another post, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to resist. I don't know how many times I've picked them up, read the covers, then put them back down because I don't want to read them yet. Boy, I really do need to get a life, don't I? LOL

Well, as far as the SGA book goes, it does have a few fun parts. And I know some people did like it. I just didn't happen to be one of them. *grin*

I'm off to order the last of the Dresden books from Amazon.com ... I'm such an addict.

Read the book about two weeks ago and *hated* it. I'm so glad I'm not alone in this. So terrible, bad characterizations, retarded plot.. and the first three chapters read like bad fic so much I almost put the damn thing down. I hoped it would get better, though... and it didn't. Definitely the worst novel they've put out based on the series.

Yeah. By far the weakest one I've read ... I just hope there aren't any more that are that bad.

Chosen wasn't that great, either. The knocking on McKay thing got on my nerves after about ten seconds, because okay -- on the show they roll their eyes and snark with him, but never to the level that the book portrays. The plot wasn't that great, either.

Reliquary was really great. Talk about a tie-in novel where the author has been watching the actual show! Martha Wells' new SGA novel, Entanglement (http://www.stargatenovels.com/), comes out next month, too, I'm all aflutter. And I just ordered Halcyon (http://www.amazon.com/Stargate-Atlantis-Halcyon-SGA-4/dp/1905586019/ref=sr_1_4/102-2162799-7995304?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175175397&sr=1-4) from Amazon, too, I'm pretty excited about it. I've heard good things. :)

It's so awesome finding someone else who reads the tie-ins. I really love gen fic in this fandom, and though the fic usually wins hands down over the novels, sometimes the novels surprise you. :)

I read this a while ago and was anting to see someone elses POV. I couldn't get my head around Tupri, and Rodney's reaction at the end. As you have mentioned it is predictable and cliched.

I'm now glad I'm not the only one.

LOL. Nope, not the only one!

I haven't read any of the SGA books, because I've read a couple of the SG1 novels, and didn't really like them. It's good to know I'm not missing anything.

Well, I really liked the first SGA novel I tried (Reliquary), although admittedly, it's mainly because it happens to hit my particular fannish happy-zone. But having had a good experience with that one, I keep trying the others, even though none of them have done much for me so far....

:::waves:::: I discovered your fic last week (although I had read Old Soldiers earlier, just didn't realize you had written it), and frankly, if you wrote an SGA novel, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I really wish you would do that. And I have no doubt it would be accepted for publication. :0)

In fact, I came over here last week to leave feedback, but couldn't figure out where to do it. So, basically, I just loved everything you've written. I even blew off an afternoon of work to read The Killing Frost, because I could not put it down to save my life. Now *that* was a well-plotted, satisfying read! Thanks for the hours and hours of entertainment you provided!

I tend to read a good deal of slash (of the John/Rodney variety), but I also love good gen and team fic. And yours is way beyond good and marching toward excellent.

Anyway, thanks for the book review. I almost ordered Reliquary (sp?) from Amazon, but wasn't sure if I would like it or not. Now it's definitely going in the shopping cart.

*squeak* Thank you so much for the lovely feedback! Thank you from the bottom of my inadequate thanks. *grin* I'm so glad that you've gotten so much enjoyment out of my fic!

*glows*

Most of my stories don't really have specific feedback posts, because many of them haven't been posted at LJ. I've had people occasionally ask me about where to leave feedback before, and I've thought about creating a post specifically for f/b ... maybe I should do that ... (but I'm probably too lazy...)

And yeah, Reliquary is a good read -- at least, I thought so. Of course, I'm heavily biased in the John/Rodney direction, and that book was very focused on them. *grins*

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Stargate Atlantis: Exogenesis (review)

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