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A Wet Work review.
The good people over at Unreality SF have posted a review of our 4400 novel Wet Work.
Read all about it!
While I have a couple of very minor quibbles with one or two points they raised, they're certainly not anything I can't live with. Overall, it's thoughtful and balanced, and by any measure a quite favorable review. And hey, we definitely appreciate the exposure (Hey! Somebody actually read the thing!).
Nice way to start the day. :)
Read all about it!
While I have a couple of very minor quibbles with one or two points they raised, they're certainly not anything I can't live with. Overall, it's thoughtful and balanced, and by any measure a quite favorable review. And hey, we definitely appreciate the exposure (Hey! Somebody actually read the thing!).
Nice way to start the day. :)
We took advantage of the longer form to expand backstories and characters in ways that could never happen in an episode, particularly of the "Returnee of the Week" variety. That's pretty much what a tie-in novel is supposed to do. Otherwise...we ain't doin' our jobs.
As I said, it's a minor thing, and doesn't lessen my appreciation for the review, or the exposure you gave us. :)
For me, though, there's a fine line between taking advantage of the novel form and doing stuff that episodic television doesn't allow, and straying too far away from the "feel" of the show itself.
As a character, Lona was far more rounded than all the Carl Morriseys and Gary Navarros from the TV series, and I did like that. A lot.
At the same time, the way you introduced and developed her character was so different from the treatment of, say, Alana Mareva or Tess Doerner, that Wet Work didn't always feel like a 4400 story for me.
Glad you appreciate the review, though. The 4400 is my favourite genre show by far, beating Trek and Who into the ground, so I'm thrilled by the books and happy to give them exposure. :]
Well, yeah, but Lona's the villian of the piece, and villians are so much more fun to write :D
Seriously, though: Point taken. The double-edged sword of tie-in writing is that while the main characters are familiar, there's often a lot we can't do with them. That's definitely the case of a show in active production at the time the book's being written, as The 4400 was when we were working on the book. We knew from the beginning that Baldwin and Skouris would not grow or change in any meaningful way simply due to when the story takes place. We had no option but to leave them largely as we found them.
Therefore, you take advantage of the novel form to go hog-wild with the characters you know won't raise too much fuss with those approving the manuscript. In our case, it was the "Returnee of the Week" and our main antagonist.
So, there. :)