Dave's Transformers Novel Rant

     Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday 

     Alan Dean Foster turns in a prequel to the 2007 Transformers movie (and
is also writing the movie novelization).  Originally slated ot be written by
David Cian, it was given over to Foster with only a few months to spare.  It
hit bookstores on March 27, is slated to ship via Diamond Comics on april 4.  

CAPSULE

     Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday: Del Rey - Somewhat stilted in places,
it feels like there was no time for any real revision or editing, relying
instead on Foster's experience to prevent any huge gaffes from getting
through.  Could have been made a lot better with a few more rounds of
revision, but as it stands is merely readable.  Mildly recommended.
$6.99/$8.99Cn 


RANT

     Here be spoilers.

     This is complementary to the prequel comic, in that it doesn't really
dwell on how certain things got in place, and only briefly sketches out the
battle of Tyger Pax (although it does confirm that the unnamed Autobot from
#1 is indeed Bumblebee).  There appear to be some inconsistencies between the
comic and the novel, but so far nothing that can't be handwaved away
(i.e. the art on the last page of #1 implies Bumblebee flew off on his own
and arrived on Earth in #2 also solo, but it could have just been a snapshot
taken out of context; or the fact the comic calls Megatron "Mega-Man" while
the novel has the Sector Seven people call him "Iceman", but a generation
does pass in the meantime).
     Set in 1969, it involves the launch of Ghost 1, a reverse-engineered
spaceship based on Megatron's tech, sent off while Apollo 13 provided
camoflage.  Ghost 1 falls into a wormhole and ends up in the Uncharted
Territories...er, off in some unnamed star system where the Ark and Nemesis
just happen to also be arriving.  Meanwhile, back on Earth, the "Iceman"
(Megatron) is being moved from the icy island he crashed on in #2 of the
prequel comic to the Nevada base he will no doubt escape from in the movie,
but a Soviet spy throws a spanner in the works.
     Hence, there's several interweaving conflicts, and as one might expect,
the crew of Ghost 1 gets in way over their heads.  All told, though, the
entire story could probably be done adequately in at most two standard TV
episodes, and two might require a little padding.  Some plot elements seem to
be tossed in just to provide distractions and additional fight scenes, like
the giant rockworms on the alien world.  Still, I think that given some more
time to tighten things up, it might have been turned into a much more ripping
yarn, instead of a workmanlike trek.
     That aside, though, I have two major complaints.  One is that the
dialogue for the Cybertronians seems almost deliberately bad.  Stilted,
awkward, and so forth.  Like Foster's trying to make them sound robotic but
hasn't quite found the right voice.  The other is the ablative nature of the
human cast compared to the plot invincibility of the Cybertronians.  Most of
the major, named humans die, usually in large explosions.  NONE of the
Cybertronians die on screen, we just hear about lost comrades and all that.
We don't even get names for the long-dead.  I think it would have made for a
stronger story if Foster had created a few non-movie characters, if only so
the reader might wonder about their possible fates.  Any he didn't kill off
could be taken as dying between 1969 and 2007, perhaps.  Instead, it reads
like the movie Cybertronians are all that remains of the entire race, and
every one of them also survives until the movie.  Eh.  Given the carnage
among the squishies, it seemed unfair and dramatically wrong to have all of
the Cybertronians survive the story.  Again, I suspect that given more time
to work in, Foster might have rememdied this, but he didn't.

     Obviously, as I write this the second half of the prequel comic has yet
to come out, so it's hard to say how well everything will mesh in the end.
Plus, as must happen, this novel was written based on the shooting script,
and could well be contradicted by late changes in the final cut of the
movie.  But it does do its job in terms of laying out background and some of
the basic rules of the game, not to mention getting the characters out in the
mass market in advance of the movie.  Remember, anyone reading this review is
probably in the tiny minority in terms of the audience they hope to get for
the movie.  If every Transformers fan saw it ten times the opening weekend,
and no one else did, it'd bomb.  Anything that gets people interested who
otherwise only have vague "I Love The 80s"-style memories of Transformers can
only help.
     Sadly, I don't think this particular novel will get too many people
excited.  It's not bad, but neither is it really gripping.  It's okay milSF,
but that's about it.

     Dave Van Domelen, "Phil, this is Sector Seven.  We never have 'slight'
problems." - Colonel Kinnear