[.ca] Stargate (ISBN 2277238708)

Watch the movie instead.:
I loved teh movie Stargate, and it's spin-off series Stargate SG1, yet this book was a terrible disappointment. Filled with continuancy errors (i.e. there is a creature that is male for most of the book, then it becomes female, a bomb countdown gets mixed up), I found reading this book a painful experience, and when I finished it, I planned to write the publisher and complain. If you want to read this book, get it from a library, and watch for the continuancy errors; it's not often that you see errors this bad in a published book.

A Mixed Bag:
Devlin and Emmerich are decent filmmakers, but their writing ability leaves a lot to be desired. The publisher bears the responsibility, however. The book has numerous typos and the kind of word and continuity errors that a good editor should have caught. During a critical moment, I wasn't anxious for the characters, but laughing. A character "collapsed like a sack of steak knives." Steak knives! And a character who dies on one page is back again 15 pages later. Still, the book is interesting for the background, the revelation of character and for the inherent vision--the images of light, shape and sound--that a good filmmaker must have. Please, D & E, at least hire an editor, since Signet can't be depended on.

Entertaining as far as movie novelizations go.:
If you saw the movie, and enjoyed it, then you should buy the book for the extra details included in it. Or if it sounds interesting enough, just buy the book without the movie. Pretty light reading, but fun enough.