Stargate Atlantis: The Chosen: SGA-3 [Paperback]

The Editorial Review on this Amazon page is like describing Lord of the Rings as a bunch of elves and humans fighting some orcs while a couple of Hobbits try and destroy an evil ring that powers the bad guys. The Chosen is mind blowingly more dramatic than the review! Sure, the team go through the gate to another world, but everything takes a complete left turn and bang! One minute you think your going in one direction and the next you're thrown 180 degrees and the world is falling apart. Worse, it all goes badly, amazingly, profoundingly wrong just as the Wraith hive ships attack. And this is a huge ground attack by tens of thousands of Wraith who can't use Darts because of the technology on the planet. The way Rodney figures out how to defend against them is sheer genius but it involves putting him in a real ugly situation, which is half the fun! I think McKay is the only person you can be laughing at the guy one second and crying with him the next. Anyway, the reason for this Wraith attack puts a whole new twist on the situation in the hive ships. Also love Sheppard's strategy with the `weapon'.

For me the biggest thing I wanted was for the characters to be exactly as we see them on the screen. That's especially true of McKay. He's my favorite and I didn't think anyone could get `him' in a book. I'm happy to report that I was way wrong. Even better, it's McKay at his best...or worst...well it's McKay! And then he falls flat on his face in a twist to the story I just did not see coming.

This was slightly more a McKay/Sheppard heavy novel. Those two together are hilarious but Teyla's insight was a real eye opener, too, which fitted perfectly, and Ford wasn't just standing around pointing a gun. Like the scenes with Carson Beckett, we get insights into their issues about dealing with the problems on Atlantis. I had some of my own issues about the decisions Weir made in Season One given her `diplomatic background'. The Chosen let's us see why she did some of the stuff that she has even when she doesn't want to.

Not only an excellent take on the TV series, it's a excellent SF story in its own right. The Chosen pulls you in and the best you can do is grab the edges of the page and hang on tight because it's not going to let you go until the end. I'm going to re-read it because like McKay, I want to see why I was blindsided by what I thought was right and wrong. Like all great sci fi, it isn't afraid of dealing with social and political issues that force you to realise that that the moral high ground is a damned murky place.

When is the next book by these authors? Please, hurry up!

The plot dragged out for far too long, loosing my interest with well over one hundred pages left to go, and wasn't even original. The season two episode The Tower, which had aired in December of 2005, months before this book came out, dealt with the same topic of "genetic superiority" determining the ruling class. Also, the characterizations didn't ring true at all. Dr. McKay was made out to be stupid, and Teyla was written as judgmental and cruel. If you like Stargate Atlantis, stay away from this mockery of a book.

I own all of both SG1 and Atlantis novels and am an avid Sci Fi reader. I have found that anything with Sonny Whitelaw will be tons of extranious description and very poor character and plot development. If you want to read some great Stargate books try the ones by James Swallow or Salley Malcom.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 11 reviews  3.5 out of 5 stars