Powys Books - Space 1999 - back up

[Lonemagpie]

Six books are getting stamped right now, and I have some proofs of Born For Adversity with a "first printing December 2009" date on them - yay! Bloody nice cover too, and there's a foreword by Catherine (phwoar) Schell.

No, I don't know what the other five books are. I'm more bothered about this one:

 

[23skidoo]

I hope they're able to get a bit more distribution for the books this time around. I remember they were supposed to with the earlier 1999 and Prisoner books they put out, but I could never get them ordered in by any of the stores in my neck of the woods. I'm a big Catherine Schell/Maya fan, so this one at least is now officially on my radar.

Alex

 

[Gary Mitchell]

I've been waiting for new Space: 1999 books for awhile. I thought that the company might have gone out of business.

 

[WillsBabe]

^ Fabulous, avatar Gary Mitchell.

I'm pleased Powys looks like it'll be able to get more books out. I've read a couple of their Space 1999 titles. One I enjoyed immensely, and I really thought it asked some good questions about what it would be like to live in that isolated environment. The other book I enjoyed much less. Can't recall the titles of either of 'em.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

^ Thanks.

 

[Mr Awe]

Wow, I had no idea that there were going to be new Space: 1999 books!

Mr Awe

 

[Lonemagpie]

Whoops

 

[Christopher]

Is there any attempt in these books to justify the premise in a more plausible way than the show did?

 

[Lonemagpie]

Is there any attempt in these books to justify the premise in a more plausible way than the show did?

I don't think that premise *can* be done plausibly...

AFAIK, there is a story arc through the books, leading on to Bill Latham's Duology Alpha and Omega that there's a force at work that caused this journey.

 

[DEWLine]

IE: Someone behind the scenes was meddling to make sure their version of Luna turned into a relativistic fusion rocket.

It's the only answer that makes sense.

Oh, and URL, please?

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Is there any attempt in these books to justify the premise in a more plausible way than the show did?

I don't think that premise *can* be done plausibly...

AFAIK, there is a story arc through the books, leading on to Bill Latham's Duology Alpha and Omega that there's a force at work that caused this journey.

"The force at work" was also speculated upon in the series (see "Black Sun").

 

[Lonemagpie]

Is there any attempt in these books to justify the premise in a more plausible way than the show did?

I don't think that premise *can* be done plausibly...

AFAIK, there is a story arc through the books, leading on to Bill Latham's Duology Alpha and Omega that there's a force at work that caused this journey.

"The force at work" was also speculated upon in the series (see "Black Sun").

I think they'll probably go more into that in some of the books - not mine though, which was pretty much intended to do for 1999 what Wrath Of Khan did for Trek. The last third in particular is balls-to-the-wall action...

The editor describes it as: "It is a Year Three novel with Year Two and Year One characters told in an exciting Year One way. And way beyond what could ever have been filmed--re: the old Virgin tagline!"

 

[Christopher]

IE: Someone behind the scenes was meddling to make sure their version of Luna turned into a relativistic fusion rocket.

It's the only answer that makes sense.

Except it doesn't make sense. There's no way any fusion rocket could accelerate anything the mass of Luna to anything remotely near relativistic speed. The Moon couldn't contain enough hydrogen to get anywhere near that velocity. If it somehow had been accelerated to such speeds so abruptly, the sheer energy involved would've melted it. And if it hadn't, then it would've been melted by all the relativistic interstellar gas and dust hitting its surface and the severely blueshifted cosmic radiation hitting it as hard gamma.

I remember seeing a demo reel for a "Space: 2099" re-edit of the series that updated the effects, concepts, and references. I think they added FX to suggest that the explosion had caused a space warp that the Moon fell through. The execution was necessarily awkward, but the idea has merit.

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

It doesn't have to make sense. It's Space: 1999. I mean, the suggestion that the premise needs to be "justified" in some way is just ridiculous to me.

 

[DEWLine]

Considering the trouble they went to in making the base infrastructure at least borderline plausible - uniform standards notwithstanding - they could've put a little extra work into the physics of getting Luna broken out of orbit and into the galactic hinterlands.

 

[Steve Roby]

How long have we been waiting for Born for Adversity now? At least three years, isn't it?

I thought the first Powys Space: 1999 novel, Resurrection, was a bit weak -- as I recall, it focused too much on bringing back a bad guy and having the characters spend too much of the book with their personalities changed -- but The Forsaken was great and Survival was almost as good. And the first Powys Prisoner novel, The Prisoner's Dilemma, was outstanding.

If Powys has their act together at last, maybe I can finally get a copy of Andrew Cartmel's Prisoner novel, too...

 

[Stevil2001]

If I were Robert Sheckley, I'd be embarrassed: http://www.cerebralmassage.com/Powys/SF/colors.html

 

[Lonemagpie]

How long have we been waiting for Born for Adversity now? At least three years, isn't it?

I wrote it in 2006, yeah.

 

[Flibble]

More Space 1999 books? I bought the first set, but since no more appeared I thought that they didn't sell that well.

 

[Piper]

Excellent news, David, really pleased to hear that this is finally seeing the light of day.