I know everyone is as excited as I am to get to the first in the Legacy series (especially considering last week), but first a note from the writer (that’s me! Feeling much better, thank you).
(two notes because I feel that this review is somewhat disjointed but I’m not sure how to fix it so I’ll most likely go over things again in Part 2)
Since I am now the proud owner of the entire Stargate Atlantis Blu-Ray/DVD set a shout out to my sister for that fabulous Christmas present!), I feel that I should share the goodies inside it cause, ya’ll, it has special features!!
Thus, after this review, I think I’ll do a book review then a review of a special feature/s depending on how long they are and what not. I totally plan to watch the entire thing again because from comments other fans have made it seems that the TV episodes didn’t show everything?
If that’s true than I’ll do posts of what was left out in case any of you don’t have the set yet (but you should totally get one cause it’s that amazing and don’t tell me you won’t watch it over and over again like me).
Also, before I forget once more, this review and others may be sliced into multiple posts because the new information and absolute amazingness that is the Legacy series will have me ranting way more than even Common Ground… and you all know how much I love Todd! (who, by the way, is even more awesome in the books!!)
Now that we are caught up with what’s gonna happen and all that good stuff, onto the review! (and there will be a TON of personal ranting and fangirling in these ones because of the WOW things that happen…you’ve now been warned.)
Stargate Atlantis Legacy: Homecoming
SGA #16
ISBN: 9781905586509
Many kudos to the authors, Jo Graham and Melissa Scott, for how they wrote this book. Its not chronological in reference to the events in the book, but the decision to start the book where Atlantis is en route to the Pegasus Galaxy instead of picking up where the last episode ended was a brilliant move.
So.
Dr. Becket and Lt. Colonel Shepard are switching off on piloting Atlantis back home. They’re taking twelve hour shifts each since there isn’t a third pilot (apparently that’s how the Alterans did things when piloting the city).
Between the Milky Way and Pegasus Dr. Beckett detects a ‘wobble’. Shepard verifies and they continue on, keeping an eye on it, but as is par for the course for our beloved peeps, things go wrong.
The ‘wobble’ is a massive problem that forces them out of hyperspace at the very edge of the galaxy with only twenty percent power in the ZPM’s and only two systems close by that they aren’t even sure have habitable planets.
And this is where we jump back in time!
Five months earlier is when we see Teyla in a meeting with the IOA trying to convince them that it’s in everyone’s best interest to get Atlantis fixed and back to Pegasus (WE know this, but they’re still idiots).
A hilarious scene where Torren is being carried around in one of those baby slings by Shepard and we jump to a gathering/party thing where the IOA, high up people from around the world and military brass are rubbing elbows and such.
Chapter two starts with our absolute favorite person in existence.
Todd!
Well, actually, that’s not his name.
(side note! I’ve read a ton of fanfic because I have to get my fix somewhere right? And in several I found references where Todd is called Guide instead. I thought it was something that was started by one author and it slowly became a fanfic canon because it fits him so perfectly and the reasoning behind it is so Wraith. Turns out it is canon and I about died when I began chapter two so ya’ll need to be careful! Side note end)
Our dear, lovely, imprisoned-despite-being-the-one-sole-reason-they’re-all-alive, Guide is pacing.
Glamorous right?
This chapter, the scene, is the reason I will forever love the Legacy series. For the entire show we only ever got to see the Wraith as the villains. The books touched on the Wraith being more. As humans and Wraith being more alike than not, but we never truly got to see the Wraith as people and now we do.
Hitting us several times in two pages, the authors put us in Guide’s head as he tries to take himself away from the cell and his starvation.
His pacing is familiar, something he did while in the ‘care’ of the Genii, and it takes him into his memories.
(this is what I wanted from the Wraith in the show and I adore the authors for how they wrote this and for bringing it up so quickly)
We all know he’s something of an enigma. Considered to be ‘weird’ by Wraith and human standards because he controls a Hive without a Queen and has for some time.
However, that’s a recent thing (relatively speaking for a Wraith) because he had a Queen. In fact, he thinks of her as his true Queen.
Something that is based on love as is suggested throughout the Legacy series where he, his past and family is brought up (there are short stories that are ALL WRAITH and one where he proves himself to his true Queen and it is so fantastic I can’t wait for when I do that review!!).
I know that’s not shocking to ya’ll, but keep in mind that until this book we haven’t been given any firm idea of how their family structures work or how they interact with their children, consorts (I don’t remember them using the word ‘mates’ but I’ll correct myself later if they do) and Hive in more than general ‘how do we kill them’ terms.
He had a son and a daughter.
Kids.
Guide had kids.
You’d expect him to have had several considering how old he is, so this brings up a question about how they procreate. Do they have trouble with fertility? Is it something of a failsafe in their genetic code because they’re immortal? Are the children casualties of war amongst their kind? Or do they negotiate the equivalent of contracts between adults to keep the lines from inbreeding and it takes time and a vast amount of trust?
Before I end this rant (yes I have to, I’m over a thousand words again), I leave you with this to consider in the week to come.
Guide has been Queenless by choice. He had a true Queen (whose name was Snow by the way) and loved her so much that he willingly kept himself from that kind of relationship again.
And I’m not talking about the Queen and Consort relationship here either (that is a whole nother thing entirely). I’m talking about how their species is matriarchal and how he’s kept himself from that by choice.
And don’t try and say that he didn’t have a choice. He tricked Teyla into being a fake Queen because he knew she would never allow herself to stay like that and that he would have the protection of a Queen without having to actually be around one in the way their kind are essentially programed to be.
Does anyone really think he couldn’t have joined another Hive or another fleet with a Queen if he wanted to? We’ve been led to believe that it’s all about power with him and it is, to a certain extent (he cares for his crew and his species which is why he’s allied with Atlantis so often even after being burned), but it’s just a tad more complicated than that apparently.
I guess there’s more to the Wraith than we know.
Till next week!
(oh, don’t worry. I’ll finish book one review before I get into special features from the DVD’s)
The Dark Library 