Battlestar Galactica: Warhawk by Richard Hatch: I Wanted This Book To Be So Good!

After reading and not liking the first Battlestar Galactica novel Richard Hatch (not the Survivor, the actor) penned with co-author Chris Golden, I saw him at a science-fiction convention where he promised to fix all of the little inconsistencies that had surfaced in that first novel. 

I really wanted this book to be good. You see, at the time, Richard Hatch was the best hope for a Battlestar Galactica revival. The trailer I had seen had dazzled me and I was hoping that he's learned from his mistakes with the first novel to improve with the second. 

He hadn't. 

The main problem that both novels reflected was the fact that neither Hatch nor Golden bothered to ever go back and rewatch the original series before sitting down to write. Instead, they seem to rely on Hatch's sketchy memory of events from 20 years ago. 

As general science-fiction novels, these would not be as bad. In fact, if Hatch and Golden had just written a series of science fiction book, they probably would've held up just fine. The problems come when they use characters that fans of the series got to know and love, then have them behave in ways that come across as totally out-of-character. 

The original series was about the destruction of thirteen planets and the survivors' decision to leave their planetary system in a fleet of starships to search for the mythical planet Earth. 

There were so many characters that fans grew to know and love. In the last novel, Starbuck disappeared for most of the novel. The cynic in me said that this is because Hatch always felt that his character of Apollo was overshadowed by Starbuck in the series and wanted to eliminate any chance for that in the novels. 

In the new novel, Warhawk, it is the supposed love of Apollo's life, Sheba who disappears for much of the novel. This is a woman he has supposedly loved for twenty years, and yet he hardly thinks about her disappearance throughout the novel. At one point, we are told that Apollo is sure she is all right... 

First of all, the Sheba we knew in the series was very strong and independent (some say a bit whiny as well). I don't see her being the type of person to wait twenty years while someone hedged on whether he wanted to be married. I also don't see how after having a relationship with someone for that length of time, you can go on about your life as business-as-usual once that person has disappeared. Even if Apollo didn't believe her to be dead, then he should have been doing a whole lot more to find out what happened to her. 

The title Warhawk refers to the discovery of Sheba's father, the legendary Commander Cain. He was long believed to be dead, but in the novel he is found being the leader of a prolific society that is preparing to do battle with the Cylons - the enemy of all humanity. The depiction of the character of Cain is probably the best one and the one that most closely resembles what we knew from the series. I guess Lloyd Bridges' portrayal made a lasting impression. 

Apollo must make decisions about what the fleet must do with regard to the Cylons, Cain, and the truce they are trying to forge with other alien species. The politicking in the background as this is going on makes many of those involved come off as complete idiots while Apollo appears to be the only one who can possibly save the fleet. 

The telepathy and psychokinesis angles are good and would've worked, had it not been for two factors. In the original series episode War of the Gods when Apollo's father, Adama (now deceased), demonstrates some of this ability, he makes it clear that they were not well understood in the original Thirteen Colonies and had only been explored superficially. Here, Apollo and Athena manage to use them as if they are old pros. 

The other factor boils down to something that was brought up in the first novel, that somehow those of Pure Kobollian descent were better than others in the fleet. Many fans of Battlestar Galactica rejected this idea sine it seems way too reminiscent of the super-race Nazis once talked about. 

There are other nit-picks as well. The time units are off from what has become the accepted norm. While at the beginning of the series there were some conflicts in the use of these, by the end you had a pretty good idea of how the Galactican time unites compared to our own. Rarely are they used correctly or even consistently in this novel. 

Omega, in the original series, is almost the same age as Apollo, maybe five years older. Here, Hatch refers to him as the tall, elderly officer. 

All that needed to be done was one viewing of the Battlestar Galactica episodes. Either Hatch or Golden should have done this, and I put more responsibility on Golden since he is the experienced author (his works include an X-Men trilogy). 

Hatch is developing his own series at this time titled The Great War of Magellan. I will be interested to see this series as I think he will do fine with something that has no history to it.