Warhawk: Battlestar Galactica (Hardcover)

I became an instant fan after Saga of a Star World. I then began reading my husbands collection of Battlestar Galactica books by Richard Hatch. Both the books and the series have flaws (what doesn't?), but they also have wonderful characters, heart, imagination, and warmth. There's a special charm to Battlestar Galactica. Watching the episodes and reading the books has been five star experience for me.

Do not be put off by the uninspiring cover art! The sequel to Armageddon, also written by Hatch & Golden, is indeed a triumph. Hatch not only captures the essence of the original TV series but actually improves on it. I found the writing to be better than Armageddon but this could also be down to the fact that Warkhawk does not have the same number of plot strands and devices as Armageddon, and so the writing and story does seems more linear and structured.

"Warhawk" is a Colonial term refering to a military overlord. The term is indeed a reference to Commander Cain who was a character who appeared in the "living Legend" episode of the TV series, and subsequently was believed to be killed in a battle with Cylons at the end of the episode. However in the story of Warhawk, Apollo leads the Galactica to the planet Poseidon, believing it to be one of the outposts of the fabled 13th tribe. Instead, Poseidon is a planetary fortress of Cain who had surived the confrontation with the Cylons, and since then had joined up with a small lost fleet of ships that had fled the Colonies at the time of the massacre before establishing a base with them on Poseidon. Apollo and his followers are overjoyed at finding Cain but the celebration soon becomes sobered once Cain's ambitions, which are contrary to the Galactican mission of finding the Earth, are finally revealed.

Apollo learns that Cain has turned Poseidon into a vast armaments facility which is in production of a war fleet. There is something of a power clash between Cain and Apollo, as Cain wishes to go on the offensive against the Cylons. Apollo opposes the notion and is shocked to find that Poseidon is under martial law. There are other shocking developments, as it is revealed that Cain is trying to make allies with a mysterious warlike race known as the Chitain, who appear to have an agenda of their own. These developments result in Apollo leading Starbuck and Boomer on a diplomatic mission to the Chitain homeworld, leaving the galactica under the command of Athena.

But unknown to the Colonials, the Imperious leader (a villian which unfortunately was never explored in the TV series, thanks to the studio execs favouring a rather camp Baltar as the series main villain!) is hot on their heels due to receiving their coordinates from the mysterious Count Iblis. All this results in a brilliant and superbly written space battle which will have the reader hanging on for dear life on the edge of every page, as the Galactica finally goes on the offensive (which makes a welcome change from the Galactica trying to simply run from every threat it encounters).

Despite what other readers of said, Warhawk is very well written. Although there is not much action in most of the story, there is a brilliant climatic space battle which makes up for it. There are also new additions to the BSG saga such as new weapons like the viper-duet - a type of viper bomber developed by Cain's military. Also there are new aliens such as the Chitain who are a creepy insectoid/reptillian race, that are equipped with a scorpion-like stingers, and who seem to "glide" on a snake-like trunks. The Chitain certainly make a worthy addition to BSG saga since the TV series, I felt, never showed enough alien races during it's brief run.

The characterisation of Cain is also interesting, he appears to be a much more stern and aggressive character than his TV counterpart. I found this interpretation of Cain much better than the Lloyd Bridges portrayal of the character in the TV series. I felt that Bridges was miscast as Cain as he seemed to be at times merely lampooning general Patton with his overuse of "swagger-stick gesturing", rather than portraying a great Colonial warlord. His Cain appeared more shifty and smug rather than a hardened, fascist officer that the character seemed to be conceived as. But in Warhawk, Hatch does do justice to this concept as Cain appears to be a very militaristic and brave anti-hero among the Colonials. In the novel Cain requests advice from Colonial prisoner Baltar about the reptillian Cylons and their genetic make-up. Cain exudes delight upon hearing from Baltar that the Cylons, despite their cybernetic implants, can indeed feel pain and suffering, and he swears to Baltar & present company that he will make the Cylon race suffer for it's crimes against humanity.

(To be continued in part 2 of the review!)