RogerBW's Blog

Entanglement, Martha Wells 04 June 2024

2007 TV tie-in science fiction. The Stargate team from Atlantis finds an enigmatic artefact…

We're into season two of the Atlantis continuity now, but for inspiration Wells reaches back to SG-1 and its episodes "There But for the Grace of God" and "Point of View". Rather than giving us parallel versions of the main cast as those did, here the huge and unstable quantum mirror found by the Atlantis team has connected to a reality full of Wraith… or is that really what they are?

Wells manages the trick of having clearly absorbed enough of the show that these versions of Sheppard, McKay and the rest of the team come over as the same people one's seen on screen; but at the same time she's competent to write prose, at novel length, without leaving gaps for someone else's acting and visual effects.

At the same time, there's room for a certain amount of not judging a book by its cover (but at the same time not ignoring that cover), and plenty of action that manages to give an impression of what's happening where without coming over as mere notes for the TV adaptation. (Not to mention little details that wouldn't end up on TV, like an unbreathable atmosphere that requires the team to wear air tanks and masks—a visual production can't afford to cover up the actors' faces for too long, while a book can make it a recurring plot consideration.)

I mean, it's no Murderbot. Like Reliquary, it will probably have more appeal to a fan of everything Stargate: Atlantis than to a fan of everything Martha Wells. But I still had a good time reading it.

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See also:
Reliquary, Martha Wells

Previous in series: Reliquary | Series: Stargate Atlantis

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