City of the Gods

[GateWorld]

DISCUSS ... CITY OF THE GODS AUTHOR - Sonny Whitelaw SG-1 is marooned on a dying planet, where the inhabitants' only hope of survival is an ancient prophecy with Jack O'Neill at its center. Visit the Books Section >>

[Elite Anubis Guard]

So what does everyne think?

[Dana_Jeanne]

So what does everyne think?

I read it last night.

This has got to be one of the most boring, over-educated books I've ever read. Researching your subject matter is one thing, writing a textbook on it is another. I was looking for a yellow highlighter and getting ready for the Test That Will Follow before I was a third of the way into the book.

This book had two strikes against it from the beginning as far as I'm concerned since I'm neither a fan of the Carter-who-can-do-no-wrong, or the Sam and Jack romance that is supposedly 'canon' if you go by the writing rules at Fandemonium. There was entirely too much Carter worship here, and too many places where Carter and O'Neill were channelling Daniel and Jack.

The prologue starts the story with Carter in Washington DC in a meeting with Hammond and others regarding the demise of the rest of SG-1 duing their last mission. It opens with entirely too much setting of the scene, using too many discriptive words about things I didn't care about.

The bulk of the book up to the final chapter is a 'flashback' to what happened. The team is immediately split into Daniel/Teal'c and Sam/Jack, and the book see-saws back and forth between what's happening with each half. They do eventually all converge on the same planet, together, but by that time the book is almost finished and I was so dulled out with boredom, I couldn't really care if they all survived or not.

The research done by the writer is way too obvious; I become bogged down in useless facts very quickly and ended up skimming through several explanations. I felt a bit like Jack, wanting to tell the writer to "stop...do I really need to know this?" Unfortunately I didn't have that opportunity.

There was a plot in there somewhere, but I'm a little unclear on just what it was as nothing much was really accomplished by the end. The flowery writing style of this author forced me to break out the anti-allergy medicine and take out stock in Kleenex.

"Carter turned to face him (O'Neill). Backlit by the glow from Meztli, her hair shown like a burnished halo. The vapor from her breath curled softly around her in the windless night, adding to the illusion. She was a guardian angel; one who'd saved them countless times..."

"Jack caught Hammond's eye, silently not asking permission for something he would never admit to. Hammond nodded once; the only acknowledgement he would ever give. O'Niell opened is(sp) arms and held Major Carter like a drowning man clinging to a life raft."

Aside from the rather important fact that O'Neill has never been shown in the series to have any feelings for Carter other than Commanding Officer to a subordinant, the way these paragraphs (and others like them) are constructed would make any intelligent person ask for the barf bag. This is the 21st century, not the 19th.

If anyone was considering buying the book based on Dr Jackson's Diary...don't. You can find the same information in an encyclopedia and it would probably read easier. We don't need these additional 14 pages of baffling, scholerly meanderings to prove to us the writer did her research. No, that was very apparent in the body of the book, a case of too much showing off and not enough attention paid to writing the actual story.

I understand this author has written two professional novels prior to this; based on what I read last night I have no desire to even look at the covers of any other books she's written.

Dana Jeanne, waiting to count how many red dots are going to show up....

[Elite Anubis Guard]

I shall be ordering this next week, I hope I will find it entertaining, Im not bothered bout shipping now!

[Sia]

I read it and really enjoyed most of it.

I agree the level of detail on the mythology is a bit too much and I struggled with the pronounciation of so many difficult names but on the whole I would definitely recommend it.

Having said that, I am in the JacknSam camp so didn't really object to the implications made, although I was surprised that it was so upfront. If you feel different then this may grate on you.

The characterisations were spot on for me - I could just see RDA saying the words!

[Albion]

For me, this was the first dud that Fandemonium have produced. On the face of it, it should have had a lot of elements that would appeal to me. Some ship, Aztec/Myan mythology, team...but it was all so clumsily put together that it was just a huge turnoff for this reader.

I found everything about it unoriginal and so badly presented that it was a real chore to make it to the end. Daniel, for example, seemed to have no other role in the novel than to act as a walking encyclopedia on the culture - just there to spout large amounts of factual text whenever anyone pondered a question.

In fact anything that the characters and readers needed to know to further the plot was forced into the novel in the most boring way possible, with no attempt to blend it into the story. Just shoved in there in large, boring blocks. A mark of a very poor author. Nick Ballard for example - he steps unexpectedly through the gate, stays at the SGC just long enough to impart info that Daniel needs to know (all of one minute by my calculation) and then about turns and goes back through the gate. Very clumsily done.

What can I say about the ship? It didn't thrill me. And usually if I get some good ship in one of these I'm ecstatic. (Sally Malcolm is my heroine in that respect). It was partly, I think, as Dana_Jeanne says - it was all just too much like a tacky romance novel. And I found the hugging way OOC. It wasn't ship as I know it and love it. It had no...soul to it. No heart. It was bland and colourless.

In the main, I didn't find that our heroes were acting OOC - but I did find that there was no real exploration of them, nothing added that we didn't see on the show. At every point, whether it was a quip from Jack or a comment from Sam, it was just a repetition of something we've heard or seen many times before on screen. This is also the mark of a poor author for me. It's the main reason I close down fanfic files halfway through and read no more, whenever I find it. Use what we saw on screen as a starting point, yes. But do add something to it - a twist, a variation....something. Don't just parrot the characters. That's boring.

And, that's really my entire judgement on this one. It should have enthralled me. It should have interested me. But thanks to the author's poor writing abilities and lack of imagination, it just bored me to tears.

Ah well - roll on MOH II.

Albion

[Elite Anubis Guard]

Gateworlds released a review:
http://www.gateworld.net/books/cityofthegods.shtml

I have to disagree on the timeline setting because it didnt seem to be able to choice its season, it seemed to be set in season 7 at some points. I havent fully read the book but Im getting the hints as to what it's gonna be like. Alot of Sams POV is starting to annoy!

[Frostfox]

Didn't like it at all.

The Sam and Sir smooshiness was horrid (and I had no problem with it in the Sally Malcolm book - it was much more subtle and better written and easy to ignore) but if you like that sort of thing, I'm sure you will love it.

The names of both natives and their god were too distracting and I'm a fantasy reader, I'm used to odd names and expect them in a book but this was too much.

I was also dissapointed in Daniel's Diary which read pretty much just as textbook info on the area and history without any of Daniel's 'voice' in it.

I'd pick any of the other books over this one.

FF.

[Albion]

The Sam and Sir smooshiness was horrid (and I had no problem with it in the Sally Malcolm book - it was much more subtle and better written and easy to ignore) but if you like that sort of thing, I'm sure you will love it.

See, I'm a big J/S shipper and loved it in Sally's novel - but absolutely loathed it here. So it has to be awful. It takes a lot to turn me off the ship. It was just so clumsily written, like everything else in this one for me.

I actually came back in though because I remembered something else in this one which really annoyed me. The lack of continuity with the series and lax attention to detail.

At least twice in the book, we have Daniel musing that he will take the aliens to the Salish to resettle them on that world. The implication is that Earth has maintained a relationship with the Salish and gotten friendly enough with them over a period of time to be confident that they will take in this race and share their world with them.

As we know, that's complete rot. The whole point of the end of Spirits was that the spirit-aliens were going to bury their Stargate, with the intent of severing all contact with Earth. And everyone else out there - but most especially Earth.

So for Daniel to have visited them after that point is nonsense. Unless of course (for some strange and unknown reason) the Salish changed their minds. But if that's the case, there's no record of it in the novel. No reason is given for the break with series continuity.

That kind of lack of attention to the details and history of the show is an unforgiveable faux pas for this reader and certainly didn't help endear the book to me.

Albion

[Elite Anubis Guard]

Played heavily on continuity at points. I thought it was too bogged down wiv aztec names and information on the history, was very descriptive and had good imagry tho!

[jackspal]

If you haven't read it Don't. If you have I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOO sorry you and I had to go though that. Boring. I use it instead of sleeping pills. It's great that she did all that research, but she didn't have to prove it to us. And so much boold shed with very little feelings ie.fear-anger-sick I don't care who you are if that was as bad as she let on, even Jack would be having a real tough time.