Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda: Waystation Review

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Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda: Waystation ReviewI began WAYSTATION without high expectations, since spin-off novels from video series or films are rarely masterpieces. I was pleasantly surprised. The novel shows some surprising quality in places. It really had me turning pages and enjoying myself. Too bad that, overall, it lacked a satisfying ending and -- at the end -- just sort of twittered out into limbo.
At first I was a bit put off by the constant flip banter between the characters. However, this constant banter became more familiar by the second chapter and I started to flow with it. Perhaps because I came to enjoy the characters. I have seen the Andromeda TV show and expected the characters to be cardboard cut-outs from the show, but the author did a surprisingly good job of bringing them to life. The best developed character by far was Trance Gemini, that peculiar little elfin woman whose role I never understood in the TV series. She becomes the focus of this book, and carries it. I need to give Mr. McDonald a gold star for developing her into an interesting character for the reader, given that I am not sure the TV show provided him with much to work with in this regard.
The novel also helped me to understand some riddles of the TV series that never made sense to me. Like, why there are TWO Andromedas -- one a hologram and one an android. Turns out they are two different characters. At times they even begin to argue with one another.
The plot started so well. The ship Andromeda Ascendant has been badly shot up in a battle with defense forces of the planet Kantar; she escapes, limping, into Slipstream drive, but is forced to drop out of hyperspace when systems fail. The ship thus defaults into a very bad location, a quadrant with little but empty vacuum. No planets, no moons, no asteroids. However, by good fortune Andromeda's star charts reveal an old waystation, built centuries earlier to service starships in the early days of exploration. The plot centers on a desperate effort to (1) travel to the waystation, (2) find materials necessary to effect repairs on the Andromeda Ascendant, and (3) return.
Here's where the book runs into major problems. At least three-quarters of the book (roughly 200 pages) has concluded before members of Hunt's crew even REACH the waystation. Thus the author has only about 65 pages to roll out most of the plot and wrap up the book. Scene follows scene in a rush, blurring past the reader as the author tries to tie everything up in a few tens of pages. Even with all this haste and compression, a lot is left hanging as the book ends.
Perhaps the author might have had more room to conclude the book if he did not devote so many pages to Trance Gemini's dimension doors and encounters with quantum alternates of herself. While this element worked well for a while, and was genuinely interesting when first introduced, it eventually got to be very repetitious and overworked. I kept asking, "oh, no, not again -- haven't we been there before-- like four times at least?" A sub-plot that got out of control?
To wrap this up -- this novel had many elements I liked a lot. The characters, plenty of drama, great sense of humor, and a fast-moving action plot that takes us to about page 200. At that point structure seems to break down. The ending is compressed, cursory, and disappointing.
This book is too good to pan, but too weak to praise.
Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda: Waystation Overview

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