SGA Legacy Book Series

[Ripple in Space]

I'm hoping you folks can answer two questions about this series

1.) Is it worth reading?--for someone who doesn't tend to read pseudo-canon books.

2.) Does Teyla actually wind up with Shep?

The latter would bother me a whole lot since TPTB heavy-handedly spent the last year shoehorning Teyla's partner in as her lifelong best friend, and off-screen love interest for most of the series.

In the past I would've been fine with a Shep/Teyla pairing, but not when it goes against a year's worth of Teyla's character development.

[hedwig]

I'm hoping you folks can answer two questions about this series

1.) Is it worth reading?--for someone who doesn't tend to read pseudo-canon books.

2.) Does Teyla actually wind up with Shep?

The latter would bother me a whole lot since TPTB heavy-handedly spent the last year shoehorning Teyla's partner in as her lifelong best friend, and off-screen love interest for most of the series.

In the past I would've been fine with a Shep/Teyla pairing, but not when it goes against a year's worth of Teyla's character development.

This series is well worth reading, regardless of whether it complies with canon. They deal quite well with the subject of Teyla and Kanaan. If you really want to be spoiled about it:

Spoiler:

Teyla and Shep are more or less together since they share quarters with each other upon returning to the Pegasus Galaxy. While Kanaan is the father of Teyla's child, he is shown to be not much more than a really good friend who had a few nights together with Teyla, which produced the baby. Sheppard winds up being as much a father to the baby as Kanaan, since he gets to spend more time with the kid.

Since we never got a sixth season, this makes a really good substitute for it since it features the Atlantis gang, and the wraith (with more detail about the wraith than we ever got in the series), and the Genii are featured as well. Plus, Sam Carter, The Hammond, The Daedelus and it's crew, and a few original characters are featured as well.

In my opinion, you could set aside your misgivings and read it. It will be worth it.

[sueKay]

I'm hoping you folks can answer two questions about this series

1.) Is it worth reading?--for someone who doesn't tend to read pseudo-canon books.

2.) Does Teyla actually wind up with Shep?

The latter would bother me a whole lot since TPTB heavy-handedly spent the last year shoehorning Teyla's partner in as her lifelong best friend, and off-screen love interest for most of the series.

In the past I would've been fine with a Shep/Teyla pairing, but not when it goes against a year's worth of Teyla's character development.

1.) The books are entirely worth reading...best tv tie-ins I've ever read, and by quite some margin. Not perfect by any means, but they show a breadth of insight and plot/character development that was arguably missing from the show itself

2.)

Spoiler:

I was never a fan of the pairing...wouldn't go as far as being an anti-shipper, but I definitely had other pairing with these two that I would have preferred (Spanky; McShep, Sparky) but I think it was handled fairly appropriately, and considering I never got any spark of chemistry from Teyla and Canaan, I don't think it reflected badly on either character to mutually end their relationship, or for Teyla to go off with John.

Plus according to Joe Mallozzi they would have ended up together either in season 6 or the movie.

[lightsyder]

When did Joe Mallozzi say they would have ended up together?

[Ripple in Space]

2.)I never got any spark of chemistry from Teyla and Canaan, I don't think it reflected badly on either character to mutually end their relationship, or for Teyla to go off with John.

Plus according to Joe Mallozzi they would have ended up together either in season 6 or the movie.

While Kanaan is the father of Teyla's child, he is shown to be not much more than a really good friend who had a few nights together with Teyla, which produced the baby. Sheppard winds up being as much a father to the baby as Kanaan, since he gets to spend more time with the kid.

Thank you both for your replies

Teyla & Kanaan have zero chemistry, which is really strange since she had some to speak of with both Shep & Ronon. I thought he was an awful character created simply to explain Rachel's real life pregnancy. That said, TPTB shoved down our throats that, "oh yeah, these two have been a couple forever, it's just all been off screen", ie:

WEIR: Let me guess: Kanaan.

TEYLA: Yes! How did you ...?

(Elizabeth smiles.)

WEIR: Every time you spoke of him -- this friend -- there was always a sparkle in your eyes.

Since we never got a sixth season, this makes a really good substitute for it since it features the Atlantis gang, and the wraith (with more detail about the wraith than we ever got in the series), and the Genii are featured as well. Plus, Sam Carter, The Hammond, The Daedelus and it's crew, and a few original characters are featured as well.

Which Sam appears? The brilliant trailblazer, or the one who briefly commanded the Atlantis Expedition?

In my opinion, you could set aside your misgivings and read it. It will be worth it.

I'm strongly considering it

[WraithTech]

1.) Is it worth reading?--for someone who doesn't tend to read pseudo-canon books.

Here is another 'yes.' The Legacy series was written by a team of 3. Individually, authors can have personal character favorites and tunnel vision when focused on their favorites. It's understandable because it is hard for one person to notice everything about every character, but an authorship team results in shared expertise and personal character favorites to combine to create fairness and time devoted to all the characters.

2.) Does Teyla actually wind up with Shep?

Technically, this was already answered, but I didn't think it was overdone. Character growth, action, and experience are the core focus. Also, at least the characters are happy. That counts for something.

[hedwig]

Which Sam appears? The brilliant trailblazer, or the one who briefly commanded the Atlantis Expedition?

The Sam that commands The Hammond.

[Ripple in Space]

The Sam that commands The Hammond.

I picked up the first, and am almost through Ch. 3...

My first impression is that I'm really enjoying it, but it reads a bit like fan fiction to me.

My two main issues so far are with Shep. Firstly him randomly using profanity: hey, some of my favorite characters have filthy mouths, but why on Earth does Shep need to start now when it's entirely out of character for him? Yes, you can argue Stargate was "clean" because of its family status & network, but nevertheless, that is the sandbox where our favorite heroes were created.

Secondly, him claiming he & Teyla were married is sheer stupidity. When it's someone who has direct authority over the Atlantis Expedition, how long would it take for him to realize the chief military officer isn't married to an alien?

Fake!Obama's dialogue was pretty cringe worthy. Love him or hate him, President Obama is one of the most eloquent men on the planet, so instead of the nod-and-wink "this guy is definitely Barack Obama, 'hey look! He's even talking about healthcare reform and nutjobs accusing him of being the antichrist' heheheheh roflol," maybe they should've left it a little more ambiguous, or written dialogue for him a little closer to the caliber of his eloquence and intellect. It was almost like Jack Black's portrayal of Paul McCartney in Walk Hard, where the joke was how unlike McCartney he was...

The author tries to make the Wraith more gritty & realistic, yet gives them names that Adam West would struggle to say with a straight face--all we need is Ronon saying, "I'll rend you limb from limb Bone White, you dastardly scoundrel."

Tonal & characterization issues aside, this is by far the most poorly written book I have ever read. Admittedly, the only series of remotely similar origin that I read is Joss Whedon's Buffyverse graphic novels. As many issues there are with the Buffyverse's jump to print, I think the entirety of the print Buffyverse that Whedon's put his name is producible material. By no stretch would I put this in that caliber.

I mean no disrespect to anyone who loves this series, I'm having fun reading it so far, it just feels to be of very poor quality to me.

PS: Woefully OOC for this series to say exactly how many drones they have left. The showrunners always made a massive effort to leave it ambiguous so they would have as many or as few as the plot called for...

[WraithTech]

The author tries to make the Wraith more gritty & realistic, yet gives them names that Adam West would struggle to say with a straight face

Sorry to hear you are not enjoying the book, Ripple, but at least it's apparent you are reading it, unlike the sporadic negative comments from people who haven't read the books and only want to complain about specific characters they disliked in the series.

The Wraith names are not so unusual in the context of other fandoms like Transformers and X-Men (Cliffjumper, Trailbreaker, Rouge, Storm, etc.) or cultures with names which are descriptive, such as as the Asian and Native American traditions. Even Western names have meanings which were lost over the centuries. The name Amanda, for example, is from Latin and means "worthy of love." There's a new way to look at Amanda Tapping's name.

EDIT: I can't add anything about details like if Shep cursed in the show or not (as Zelenka did in Czech) or other character details and will leave those points to their respective fan followers.

EDIT #2: Jewel Staite and Rainbow Sun Francks are cool real names too.

[sueKay]

Characters couldn't use profanities often on the show because they wouldn't be able to get past the censors. McKay and Sheppard both used mild cuss words at times on the show, so I wouldn't be surprised if they swore a lot - especially with Sheppard being military.

[WraithTech]

About the comparison of the SGA books to fanfiction-- there are not many completed fanfics out there to begin with-- but the ones that are complete and feature things such as:
*complete plots
*themes
*foreshadowing
*idea of Doppelganger type characters
are generally either done by professional authors or people who go on to be published authors. Legacy has features like these.

There is a chance of getting two more Legacy books, if MGM approves them. According to Jo's LJ, the potential titles would be "Unascended" and "Endless" and the books would directly follow The Inheritors. The stories would be about Elizabeth and the Pegasus Asgard.

[lightsyder]

Those sound like fun. I really hope MGM renews their license. I really want to see done more SG1 books as well. At this point I think a novel to continue SGU is our only option as well. There was talk of a novel series tying loose ends from all three shows together written by a couple if the admin staff here at Gateworld. One can only hope..

[Ripple in Space]

The Wraith names are not so unusual in the context of other fandoms like Transformers and X-Men (Cliffjumper, Trailbreaker, Rouge, Storm, etc.) or cultures with names which are descriptive, such as as the Asian and Native American traditions. Even Western names have meanings which were lost over the centuries. The name Amanda, for example, is from Latin and means "worthy of love." There's a new way to look at Amanda Tapping's name.

The show strongly implied that Wraith names weren't audible. It wouldn't make any sense for "Michael" to start conquering the galaxy, and never angrily correcting them with his actual name if he had one that could be spoken by humans. That would be the equivalent of Kunta Kinte getting elected president, and allowing people to call him "Toby."

Michael's vanity aside, Todd surely would have given Teyla both his name and that of the allied queen when she was pretending to be a Wraith matriarch, if the Wraith did have audible names. There is no way Todd would favor secrecy over making the ruse work.

About the comparison of the SGA books to fanfiction-- there are not many completed fanfics out there to begin with-- but the ones that are complete and feature things such as:
*complete plots
*themes
*foreshadowing
*idea of Doppelganger type characters
are generally either done by professional authors or people who go on to be published authors. Legacy has features like these.

It reads like fan fiction because the characters are clearly being written in a way fans would expect them to, as oppose to the way they normally do. It would be like these folks publishing a Sherlock Holmes novel where Sherlock says, "elementary, my dear Watson" every few pages--in reality, Sherlock has never used that phrase in his canon.

There is a chance of getting two more Legacy books, if MGM approves them. According to Jo's LJ, the potential titles would be "Unascended" and "Endless" and the books would directly follow The Inheritors. The stories would be about Elizabeth and the Pegasus Asgard.

Wow! Those are the two most important unresolved B-plots, in my opinion! Obviously the fate of Atlantis, and war with the Wraith are the biggest plotlines, but the space-frozen Weirbot & Pegasus Asgard need a resolve.

Guys and gals, I'm 1/4 through Book 1 of Legacy. I have found the quality to be quite poor so far. Is this a situation where if I keep reading it'll get better--like how Brad Wright didn't feel episode 1 of SG1 was representative of the series--or is the remaining 3/4 of similar quality?

[hedwig]

Guys and gals, I'm 1/4 through Book 1 of Legacy. I have found the quality to be quite poor so far. Is this a situation where if I keep reading it'll get better--like how Brad Wright didn't feel episode 1 of SG1 was representative of the series--or is the remaining 3/4 of similar quality?

It depends on who is doing the reading. Most people seem to have fully enjoyed it.

[Arica15]

Are the books worth reading? Yes I would say so; I've read them all and quite enjoyed them; I didn't think they were amazing but they were very good; though the quality does vary from book to book.

I liked the overall arc; though like some other readers the slightly dippy hippy feel of the wraith at times I found a little annoying; and some of the character developments I really could have lived without - I was very disappointed by the way Teyla was written; I loved Teyla on screen but found her irritating and self important at times in the books; but those are relatively small nitpicks.

It's a good set of books but far from perfect and an interesting new angle on the Stargate Story; so all things considered I would recommend them.