 |
Battlestar Galactica
Paradis
Novel
By Richard Hatch and Brad Linaweaver
(The page numbers come from the 1st printing, hardcover edition,
published July 2003) |
The fleet's latest quantum jump lands them
at a planet called Paradis, where many of the survivors vote to
make a permanent home, abandoning the search for Earth.
Notes from the BSG chronology
References in the book place it immediately after the events of
Rebellion.
Didja Notice?
Has a new Imperious Leader been activated?
Is Iblis still the Imperious Leader in current times?
On page 3, Baltar sees many eyes watching
him in his nightmares, following him everywhere like a "skyeye".
His musings reveal that a skyeye is a hovering robotic device
that can watch and follow someone. It's not revealed whether
this is a Colonial device or a Cylon one.
Throughout the novel, Baltar has nightmares relating to the
Cylons, which later seem to be unintended mental transmissions
he is receiving from them, thus containing truths. Page 4 implies that, to the Imperious
Leader, it is impossible to coexist with a species corrupted by
such an emotion as love as humans are. The Leader cannot accept
how love can make one sacrifice for another individual ahead of
the group.
Page 5 suggests that there may be dissension
in the Cylon ranks, a growing divide between biological and
technological Cylons. This is somewhat similar to the events in
the Cylon Apocalypse
comic book mini-series.
Page 5 also presents Count Iblis as stroking
a loathsome reptilian pet as he speaks to Baltar. Possibly this
is merely symbolic of Iblis' manipulation of the Cylon species
for thousands of years, but it also reflects back to the pet
lizard seen on the Imperious Leader's shoulder in the three-part
"Saga of a Star World" pilot
episode of the series.
Page 6 refers to Omega as Omegas. Unless
this is actually a different bridge officer with a similar name?
Rigel is also mentioned here.
The author uses the terms "yahren" and
"year" interchangeably throughout the novel. Also, the
term "centon" reverts back to meaning "hour" as it did in the
Hatch novels prior to
Rebellion, where the
more commonly known centon=minute was used.
Dr. Salik's description of red giant stars,
white dwarfs, and habitable planets on pages 6-7 is largely
accurate. However, I have not found any corroborating literature
on his statement that some stars will go through cycles of
expanding to a red giant and then shrinking to a white dwarf
over-and-over several times before dying.
This book refers to "birds" instead of the
Colonial word "avions".
Page 13 has Apollo musing on the possibility
of the primitive natives of Paradis seeing his Viper and
treating it as a chariot from the gods. This is a reference to
Earth's own Ancient Astronaut Theory of
the present-day, which suggests that Earth was visited (or
even colonized) by extra-terrestrials in the distant past and the
beings were worshipped as gods by the primitive humans, with the
"gods'" spaceships thought of as "chariots". It is likely also a
reference to the bestselling 1968 book on the subject called
Chariots of the Gods? by Erich Von Daniken.
The native Gamons of Paradis look nearly
identical to the Borellian Nomen and have a similar language to
the Nomen's native tongue.
On page 15, Athena is referred to as
Commander instead of Colonel as established in
Armageddon. It's
possible she was promoted to Commander when she was given
command of the new battlestar Daedalus in
Warhawk. Apollo seems to have the
expanded title "Commander of the Fleet" on page 10.
This novel again refers to the Life Center
as sickbay, as in the previous novel
Rebellion.
Page 15 reveals that Baltar's home world was
Caprica. This seems to conflict with evidence in
"Exodus", in which Baltar argues with
the Imperious Leader that his colony (unnamed) was to be spared,
but wasn't. Yet, Baltar was on the surface of Caprica after most
of the destruction in "Annihilation"
and he seems far from distraught over it. I suppose it could be
argued that Caprica was his home world, as in place of birth,
but he moved to one of the other colonies and gained power
there.
Page 16 reveals that Baltar is attracted to
Athena and finds his mind occupied with thoughts of her.
On page 17, nurse Elayna remarks to Baltar
that when he's feeling better he can get a better view of
Paradis from the Celestial Chamber. But the last remaining
Celestial Chamber on the Galactica has always been
described as the secret of Apollo (and the few he's shared it
with) in all past stories. So how does Elayna know about it?
(Though Baltar himself already knows about it from his actions
in
Rebellion.)
Page 23 states that Baltar had built his
original fortune through dealing in tylium. This is established
more fully in "There Will Be
Blood".
Also on page 23, Apollo refers to the
tylium-powered drives of the fleet as Marron drives.
Gar'Tokk gradually develops a telepathic
link with the Gamon.
When Yarto, the leader of the local tribe of
Gamons, gives the book left behind by the Thirteenth Tribe to
Apollo, no mention is made of the Galactica symbol being on the
cover as described at the end of
Rebellion. Page 151 suggests that the book bears the seal of the
original tribes, not the seal of Galactica.
As in
Resurrection, this book seems to confuse the roles of
Doctors Salik and Wilker. Salik is presented as the electronics
specialist and Wilker as the medical practitioner when, in fact,
they had the opposite roles in the TV series.
In paragraph 7 of page 34, Starbuck is
mistakenly referred to as Apollo.
On page 38, the engineer Ryis plans to build
a permanent city on Paradis called New Caprica City. Possibly
this inspired the naming of the virtual reality game New Cap
City in the BSG2000 spin-off series
Caprica.
Baltar begins in his position as teacher
(ethics and history!) in this novel, but no mention is made of
his wanderings to ponder his fate as first suggested at the end
of
Rebellion.
On page 45, Baltar reflects on a time in the
past when a young ensign named Greenbean told him he was a
natural contrarian who would always take the opposite position
from the majority. The only known time when Baltar met Greenbean
was after Greenbean's capture by the Cylons in
The Nightmare Machine,
though this particular exchange does not occur in the novel.
On page 46, Boomer remarks on having once
been hijacked by Baltar. This is a reference to the events of
"Baltar's Escape".
On page 49, Baltar implies that the fleet
has been on the run for the past 25 yahrens. But according to
the times presented in
Armageddon and
Warhawk, it has only been about
18.5 yahrens.
Page 53 reveals that Apollo has adopted Koren after the death of
the boy's father in
Rebellion.
Page 60 describes the small shelter
constructed by Gar'Tokk and some of the other Nomen on a hill on
Paradis as Spartan. "Spartan" seems an odd word to use because
of its definite connection to our own Greek mythology, becoming
a descriptive term from the disciplined, simple, and frugal
workmanship of the Greek city-state of Sparta from about 650-146
BC.
Page 60 introduces two Nomen we've not met
before who have befriended Gar'Tokk despite his friendship with
the human Apollo: H'Mal and Bu'Klin.
Starbuck is again referred to as a colonel
in this novel, so I guess it's official!
Page 70 reveals that Baltar continues to be
required to wear a tracking device on his ankle.
Page 97 has Sheba musing on how civilians
had hated her father, Commander Cain. This is not the view
presented in previous mentions of the character, where he is
described as a legend and practically worshipped.
On page 100, Dr. Wilker remarks that when a
star dies, "it throws out a stream of pure neutrinos." This is
more-or-less true, neutrinos being subatomic particles that are
created within nuclear reactions such as the core of a sun.
Cassie's Gamon midwife sensed an evil
presence within her newborn child and performed a cleansing and
healing ritual on it. Considering the Gamon's later-revealed
superiority in spiritual matters, did she successfully rid the
boy of his father, Iblis', influence?
Since Cassie has now had her baby, it's
obviously been 9 months since her impregnation. Which means that
the baby Boomer and his wife Phaedra were expecting should also
have been born by now. But no mention of it is made.
On page 108, Starbuck makes a reference to
death as "the Grim Reaper". You'd think there'd be a more Colonial
term for the personification of death than the common western
reference here on Earth.
Troy examines Sheba's eyes on page 113 to
determine if she might have a concussion from her crash.
Presumably, he is looking for unequal pupil size, which can be
an indication of brain injury.
This novel reveals that Cain had an unknown
daughter, Rhaya, while his fleet of survivors was living on
Poseidon. Sheba discovers Rhaya has the same birthmark on her
arm that her father did. It's not revealed in this book whether
Sheba will inform Rhaya of her parentage or not (Rhaya was told
by her mother growing up that her father died before she was
born).
Sheba makes a sort of pun in her head as she
reflects on Rhaya's attitude and parentage on page 123,
thinking, it sounded as if she wanted to raise Cain! Of
course, the phrase "raise Cain" in Western cultures is a
reference to the Biblical Cain, one of the sons of Adam and Eve,
who committed the first murder, killing his brother Abel.
On page 124, Apollo thinks in terms of
sleeping for 5 minutes. It should be either "centons" or "centari",
depending on whether one goes by most of the TV episodes or by
the first four Hatch novels.
At his planetside home, on page 129,
President Tigh has made a pet of a native animal which he calls
a blooie whom he has named Cyranus. Cyrannus is also the name of
the Colonials' home galaxy. On page 135, the pet is mistakenly
referred to as Centarus! (Possibly a reference to the Centaurus
A/M83 group of galaxies visible to us in the constellations
Hydra, Centaurus, and Virgo.) As the humans retake to their
spaceships and leave Paradis, it's not revealed whether Tigh has
brought his pet with him; but the following novel, Destiny,
states that pets are not allowed in the fleet due to the
difficulty of keeping even the human occupants of the ships fed.
At the bottom of page 134, Starbuck is
mistakenly referred to as Apollo as he speaks to his fellow
Viper pilots on their search for the missing pilots.
On page 142, the Gamon are mistakenly
referred to as the Nomen.
On page 154, Koren is studying the equation
f = ma as part of his studies, explained as "force equals mass
times acceleration". This is the second of Newton's Laws of
Motion.
On page 169, Rhaya uses the phrase "finders
keepers" in relation to the ancient ship she's found in the
cavern. This seems like a strangely Earth idiom to use.
The ancient city-size ship of the Thirteenth
Tribe found in the ground is said to be of technology in advance
of a battlestar, despite being later said to be many thousands
of yahrens old.
On page 172, Dalton grabs one of her
father's cigars and smokes it! Possibly this scene was an
inspiration for the female Starbuck of BSG2000.
On page 185 Sire Opis seems to imply that
Apollo has been Commander of the Fleet for several yahrens. From
the continuous pace of the Hatch novels though, it has been less
than two yahrens, even including the fleet's many months at Paradis.
Pages 233-234 reveal that
Baltar's original brain was apparently removed and replaced with a genetically-engineered one by the Cylons at some point in the past. Baltar
was not aware of this, so it must have occurred at a time when
he was injured and operated on. Possibly, this surgery took
place after the injuries sustained by him in the crumbling tomb
of the Ninth Lord of Kobol in
"A Death in the Family".
His brain is transmitting to the Cylons in some manner, which is
what has allowed them to track down the fleet several times
since his defection back to humanity in
Armageddon. It is also
implied that the nightmares Baltar has been having are actually
unintended transmissions back to him from the Cylons, revealing
a civil war within the Cylon Empire.
By the end of the book, both Apollo and
Starbuck have proposed marriage to Cassiopeia! She turns them
both down, content to raise her new baby boy as a single mother
for now.
The records of the ancient space ark
indicate that the Thirteenth Tribe expected the current human fleet
to eventually arrive,
and intended the fleeing humans to use Paradis merely as a place
of rest and repair, not the permanent home many of the survivors
wanted to make it.
Unanswered Questions
Why do the Gamon look so much like the
Nomen?
Why is there so little presence of Gamon
women?
Speaking of Gamon women, since are no Nomen
women in the fleet, the race seems doomed to extinction. Would
the male Nomen be able to mate with the female Gamon,
considering the two races similarities?
Why did the Thirteenth Tribe stop at Paradis
in the past? How did they seemingly know that the current rag-tag
fleet of humans would one day stop by there as well?
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