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A review by misterjay
Warehouse 13: A Touch of Fever by Greg Cox
3.0
Good tie-in novels are hard to come by. The author has to find that perfect balance between the new and the familiar; he or she is denied the luxury of introducing new principal characters and is limited in both setting and scope. Anything said by the characters cannot sound too different from a given actor or actress' cadence and rhythms. Any props have to realistically fit into the mythology and feel of a show.
At the same time, readers expectations are perhaps higher than they would be for a stand alone novel by the same author. We know what we want to read (see), we know these characters. We know what they look like and what they sound like. Further, we have a carefully nurtured feeling for the time and place of the show. Because of this, anything that is even slightly off begins to feel forced and unnatural.
Greg Cox's Warehouse 13 novel suffers from none of these problems. This is the Warehouse crew; this is a Warehouse story. Pete, Myka, Artie, Claudia, and even Lena sound just like they should, especially when bantering with each other. The side characters and artifacts introduced fit into the established world of the Warehouse with ease and the novel bounces between the A plot and the B plot just as the t.v. show does. In short, this novel reads like the script of an episode of the show.
Thus, my expectations were met and the novel was a good read.
Except...
The other expectation from media tie-in novels is that they can cut loose. A novelist does not have to deal with budget constraints or shooting schedules. The author can ratchet the action and absurdity up to eleven without fear of being reigned in by anything as mundane as the realities of modern television production.
And, as much as I enjoyed this novel (and I did), it was not enough. I could see everything happening exactly as it would in an episode. Not even the inclusion of the Red Baron's Fokker tri-plane prevented me from easily imagining this novel on t.v.
There was plenty of room, within the context of the story, to crank up the action and, more importantly, the interaction of the characters beyond something we could see on t.v. There could have been more time (and words) given to the scenes we often can't see on t.v., the scenes that get cut short to make way for commercials and broadcast times, the scenes that are too effects heavy to make it through the scripting process.
This was a good novel. Light, easy to read, fun, and true to the series that spawned it. But it could have been so much more.
At the same time, readers expectations are perhaps higher than they would be for a stand alone novel by the same author. We know what we want to read (see), we know these characters. We know what they look like and what they sound like. Further, we have a carefully nurtured feeling for the time and place of the show. Because of this, anything that is even slightly off begins to feel forced and unnatural.
Greg Cox's Warehouse 13 novel suffers from none of these problems. This is the Warehouse crew; this is a Warehouse story. Pete, Myka, Artie, Claudia, and even Lena sound just like they should, especially when bantering with each other. The side characters and artifacts introduced fit into the established world of the Warehouse with ease and the novel bounces between the A plot and the B plot just as the t.v. show does. In short, this novel reads like the script of an episode of the show.
Thus, my expectations were met and the novel was a good read.
Except...
The other expectation from media tie-in novels is that they can cut loose. A novelist does not have to deal with budget constraints or shooting schedules. The author can ratchet the action and absurdity up to eleven without fear of being reigned in by anything as mundane as the realities of modern television production.
And, as much as I enjoyed this novel (and I did), it was not enough. I could see everything happening exactly as it would in an episode. Not even the inclusion of the Red Baron's Fokker tri-plane prevented me from easily imagining this novel on t.v.
There was plenty of room, within the context of the story, to crank up the action and, more importantly, the interaction of the characters beyond something we could see on t.v. There could have been more time (and words) given to the scenes we often can't see on t.v., the scenes that get cut short to make way for commercials and broadcast times, the scenes that are too effects heavy to make it through the scripting process.
This was a good novel. Light, easy to read, fun, and true to the series that spawned it. But it could have been so much more.