Well what do you know? You came back again.
After such a long review on the episodes between the books, we have come back to another book review!
Now, ‘Mirror, Mirror’ is one of the books that wasn’t clearly defined where to read it other than somewhere in Season 2. However, while reading I kept track of anything that might give a clue to where it falls (only 2 things appeared), and I decided that the best place for it was after this episode.
My reasoning is that Rodney thinks of Samantha Carter (in one sentence in the book), but I felt that he doesn’t usually give her much thought since she isn’t around, and his ego has nothing to prove to her. Thinking along those lines, ‘Grace Under Pressure’ (Season 2, Episode 14) is a fabulous episode rife with funny and heartfelt moments, but it also has McKay hallucinating Carter in an attempt to stay alive.
With the trauma of the ordeal (I’ll get a little into in a moment) still pretty fresh in his mind, I feel that reading ‘Mirror, Mirror’ after this episode would work much better than any other before it.
Of course, this is my personal opinion so feel free to read it wherever you’d like.
I still want to see if I can find an episode where the Daedalus is attacked after dropping out of hyper space reentering the Pegasus Galaxy since the book specifically mentions it’s been 3 weeks since then, but as of the end of Season 2, no such luck.
If I find such an episode in Season 3, I’ll update my watch/read order list accordingly.
Stargate Atlantis: Mirror, Mirror
SGA #9
ISBN: 9781905586127
In ‘Grace Under Pressure’ McKay and Captain Hugh Griffin are testing a Jumper that was damaged previously and Zelenka fixed but wasn’t enthused about testing it out himself.
On the return trip from the mainland the Jumper malfunctions and they plummet into the ocean. Sinking fast, it doesn’t take long for the forward window to crack so they get into the back of the Jumper and try to close the door between them but it won’t work.
Captain Griffin than says he has an idea, goes back and hits the control that closes the door.
Rodney hears the glass break and knows Griffin is dead and yells “Why would you do that?!”.
I like this moment because they had been arguing right before and Rodney is well aware that others find him abrasive and annoying so the question is definitely multilayered.
Things only get worse as the Jumper keeps falling and he loses contact with Atlantis, carbon monoxide levels rise, temperatures fall further down he goes and he has a head wound that’s causing his concentration to slip.
He starts hallucinating Samantha Carter (from SG1. If you haven’t seen it yet, she’s part of the first Gate team) of whom he’s worked with and has a crush on (but insists she has a thing for him).
His hallucination continues as he tries to fix the Jumper, though it keeps insisting that he just keep himself alive and let Atlantis save him this time instead of wasting power on a failed attempt.
In the end, Sheppard, Zelenka and ‘Sam’ the whale, find him and rescue him.
Which lead me to ‘Mirror, Mirror’.
This book was a roller coaster from page one!
Atlantis finds a room with a computer and, of course, turn it on only to find out that it has an A.I. inside it. Both Zelenka and Rodney realize the potential problem before anyone else does and shut it off.
Turns out the A.I. is so far advanced as to actually be A.I., as opposed to what we call A.I. which does not in fact have the same capacity to reason and make decisions with eh same speed as a human brain. (this isn’t me talking, it’s Rodney and Zelenka explain why it’s a bad idea to turn the computer back on).
Weir, however, decides it’s worth the risk once she’s read a report about the Alteran child prodigy who created the way to store his consciousness (and also a weapon on another world) in the first place. It was intended to change the timeline so that the Iratus bug never evolved into the Wraith but leave everything else alone.
Not unsurprisingly, it doesn’t work.
Rodney warns about it because he has a bad feeling about the whole thing, but everyone just thinks he’s being too cautious after the Arcturus incident when he destroyed a solar system. Even Sheppard feels the same way and brushes Rodney off.
The weapon splinters the realities and leaves the team in vastly different scenarios and they have to not only find a way back to each other to restore the original line, but they also have to stay out of the weapons way because it’s sentient enough to try and stop them.
Along the way they meet up with other versions of themselves. Sometimes it’s helpful and sometimes another version of Weir tries to kill Sheppard. They each go through their own twisted nightmares where the worst thing is thinking the others are dead and there’s no hope left.
I greatly enjoyed this book!
It was a little hard to keep track sometimes with the different realities and timelines, but within a few words I fell back in. The character development as they each try and survive just long enough to find their originals is fabulous and the fact that sometimes they are the original was an added ‘woohoo’ moment for me.
I definitely see why it’s a little harder to place the book though because it can be read any time after the Arcturus episode as far as I can see.
Once again I decided to read some of the comments/reviews on Goodreads for this book (in case anyone else had a different opinion of when to read it) and wasn’t surprised that some people thought it was ridiculous because of all the different realities and how truly different they were.
I thought it was wonderfully written and in keeping with what’s been established so far in the Stargate Universe to this point. I did think it was going to be another Quantum Mirror type thing though because of the title, but it not only proved me wrong but made my day. I hope it does the same for ya’ll, and I’ll see you next time for the ‘Exogenesis’ review!
The Dark Library 