Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday

Transformers Movie Tie-In Novels #0

by Alan Dean Foster

The first human-alien contact. The last word in galactic warfare. The story you must read–before Transformers rockets to the big screen!

A mammoth robotic being, clearly of alien origin, has been found beneath the Arctic ice. Its advanced engineering dwarfs known human technology, and unlocking its secrets will catapult American science eons into the future. In search of the mysterious artifact’s origin, a covert government agency sends the manned craft Ghost 1 on a perilous journey of discovery.

When a mishap maroons Ghost 1 in the far reaches of unknown space, the ship’s distress beacon reaches the very alien race Ghost 1’s crew has been the Autobots. The gigantic mechanized beings are also on a to find the Allspark, a device crucial to the salvation of their home world, Cybertron. But they’re not alone. The Decepticons, the Autobots’ brutal enemies, have their own sinister purposes in seeking the Allspark. As these adversaries are drawn together once more, the stage is set for a death-dealing new battle in which each is driven by a single-minded total annihilation of the enemy.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Robots, Fantasy

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 27, 2007

About the author

Bestselling science fiction writer Alan Dean Foster was born in New York City in 1946, but raised mainly in California. He received a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA in 1968, and a M.F.A. in 1969. Foster lives in Arizona with his wife, but he enjoys traveling because it gives him opportunities to meet new people and explore new places and cultures. This interest is carried over to his writing, but with a twist: the new places encountered in his books are likely to be on another planet, and the people may belong to an alien race.

Foster began his career as an author when a letter he sent to Arkham Collection was purchased by the editor and published in the magazine in 1968. His first novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang, introduced the Humanx Commonwealth, a galactic alliance between humans and an insectlike race called Thranx. Several other novels, including the Icerigger trilogy, are also set in the world of the Commonwealth. The Tar-Aiym Krang also marked the first appearance of Flinx, a young man with paranormal abilities, who reappears in other books, including Orphan Star, For Love of Mother-Not, and Flinx in Flux.

Foster has also written The Damned series and the Spellsinger series, which includes The Hour of the Gate, The Moment of the Magician, The Paths of the Perambulator, and Son of Spellsinger, among others. Other books include novelizations of science fiction movies and television shows such as Star Trek, The Black Hole, Starman, Star Wars, and the Alien movies. Splinter of the Mind's Eye, a bestselling novel based on the Star Wars movies, received the Galaxy Award in 1979. The book Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990. His novel Our Lady of the Machine won him the UPC Award (Spain) in 1993. He also won the Ignotus Award (Spain) in 1994 and the Stannik Award (Russia) in 2000.

Reviews

[Samuel Tyler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have you ever wondered what happened to the Transformers before they landed on Earth in the Michael Bay films? Me neither, but via various means I have found out anyway. Having played the Cybertron games I was aware of the mythos behind the robots in disguise, so what did ‘Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday’ have to offer? Firstly, a new book by Alan Dean Foster, a great author in his own right, but also one of the best tie in novel specialists ever. Secondly, this is not a tale that tries to explain the entirety of the Transformer’s past, but instead takes a glimpse back into the late 60s to a couple of days that would prove an future echo for Earth.

When Armstrong, Aldrin etc. set off for the moon, did you know that another advanced spaceship was being sent up in a hidden Alaskan location? Using tech found on the remains of a sleeping mechanical beast the US fired a covert rocket into space. What are the chances that the crew of this ship would stumble across the intergalactic conflict between the Autobots and the Decepticons? If ‘Ghosts’ is anything to go by, it is a 100% chance.

The mistake that Foster would have made is to go into too much detail in ‘Ghosts’, therefore it is a relief that he decided to write a contained action adventure. The story is split between the mysterious base on Earth and a skirmish between the Transformers in space. There is plenty of action on offer; the conflict in zero gravity is especially well written. There is also a surprisingly nuanced look at how the two races of Transformers differ. The Decepticons bickering and disloyalty really plays a role in their downfall.

‘Ghosts’ is certainly not great fiction and non-fans of the series will get next to nothing from reading the book. However, fans of the Transformers themselves, or science fiction, will get some good military sci fi as well as a few interesting questions about how a long living mechanical race see the Universe. If this does not float your boat, there are also plenty of explosions and action. A fun, if forgettable, read.

[Greg Heath · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can really tell that Foster wasn't exactly enthusiastic with this project, and that's a little sad, because this could have been a wonderful opportunity to give the movie lineup the depth and stage time denied them in the film. It's not a total loss here, though - Foster hilariously over-focuses on setting details for the exotic little pocket of space and its unnamed moon, replete with ravenous insectoid monsters. What does this have to do with the Transformers franchise, you ask? Well, not a whole lot, actually. Sure, Optimus and crew set foot on the world, poke around in space, and so on. But this is largely just a quick paycheck, and it becomes easy to read early on in his lackluster writing - especially for anyone familiar with his superb writing for the Commonwealth series (his own creation). There are a few unusual, quite interesting things to take note of, though - Megatron thaws out and wakes up, for one. He manages to maim and kill quite a few S7 operatives before they manage to put him back to sleep, and it's a pretty memorable scene. In addition, the empty character of Blackout from the movie is given personality here, and he's a rather interesting 'Con. He serves essentially the same function here as Soundwave did in G1, but he does a little more than simply whine in monotone - he actually challenges Starscream. The resulting battle is a very cool read for fans, and is a saving grace in a largely forgettable novel.

[Gwen Tolios]

I was rather disappointed. I remember finishing and thinking 'so little happened, how'd the book get to be so large?' The pacing was slow and the POV from the bot's side of things was lacking. I wanted more computers and engineering talk (not that I'm an engineer) because I feel like that is what the mechs would talk about, but it was hardly mentioned. And I wanted character information, backgrounds and interactions with each other. While it was given for human characters (who DIED and thus had no place in the movies, even in passing) there was none for the stars of Transformers, the Cybertronian's themselves. And this really did not set up anything for the Earth chapter of the war. Still no answers as to why Bee was sent onto earth alone, or how the Cons got there first, or any such interactions. I wanted more canon information and was disappointed.

I really would only recommend this book to those who are over the top fans, for anyone else it really wouldn't be worth the time. Hell, the 80s Marvel comics were more interesting than I find this to be.

T

[Mati · Rating 1 out of 5]

I returned to the innocence, respectively I saw the Transformers movie blockbuster and I remembered my childhood with the cartoon and I begun to reread the old comixes and such. When I noticed the new novel, it was clear that I had to read that book. I hoped for some adult Transformers novel. I was very disappointed. The plot is almost like that of porn movie, it is missing or just pretending to be there. At least porn does not pretend to be intellectual or plotful.The idea of Sector 7 space ship looked interesting at the firs look, but at the second it was killed by boredom of long text and musing about the rules of the universe.I think it deserved its fate to the fullest. Speaking about Transformers, autobots are boring fellows and even Optimus is dull, which is shame. Decepticons were drones except Starscream who showed some chara development and messing with the plot line.It was lost time to read that book and even being deep Transfan did not save it.

[Shelby]

I loved this book so much because I am a HUGE Transformers fan. Anyone who loves Transformers should read this awesome prequel.

[Cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spoilers for the book! If you haven’t read it yet and you want to, please skip this review!

Okay, as a lifelong Transformers fan and someone who grew up watching the Bayverse movies, I really wasn’t expecting a whole lot from this book. After all, the Bayverse Transformers films aren’t exactly known for their stellar scripts, so the main reason why I picked up Ghosts of Tomorrow was purely due to me being a Transformers fan and wanting to read every Transformers novel that’s been out out there. After finishing the book however, I can happily say that I was pleasantly surprised! This book isn’t all that bad! The writing is good, and the author seems to have a good grasp of the lore they were trying to create for these films. Is it a perfect read? Eh, not exactly. There were some moments where I definitely thought the chapters were dragging and some things could be cut out. The sequence with the dead planet and the underground snake-worms seemed kind of pointless. It gave the protagonists a level of peril and also provided an opening for the Ghost crew to meet Optimus and Bumblebee, thus leading to proper introductions and the two groups teaming up. But there could have been a more meaningful way for the Autobots and humans to unite I feel? I don’t know exactly how I would rewrite it, but it sort of just felt like they were there, they met, and they were gone. Nothing to really contribute to the plot itself besides the very abrupt introductions.

Another thing that had me thinking was how the whole first contact scenario between the humans and Cybertronians played out. I’ve read A LOT of Transformers first contact writings over my years as a Transformers fan, and one thing this particular one was missing was the purely alien feeling Cybertronians give us. The language barrier was solved way too quickly. You can blame that on the drastic difference between Cybertronian technology and 1960’s human technology, but I feel like there should have been a period of time where the characters had to work together without knowing what each other are saying. There was also just…way too much immediate trust shown to Starscream by the Ghost crew. This is literally the first human-Cybertronian interaction to ever occur in this universe. And Starscream is not a friendly-looking bot. Why just trust what he says? Take a good look at Starscream, then compare him to Optimus Prime; you better believe I’m thinking the latter is more benevolent than the former. Maybe I’m looking way too into this, but the book just seems to rush into these interactions way too quickly, and I feel like the author should have taken a more tentative approach.

That being said, this isn’t a book totally without feels! The ending was especially sad! I wasn’t expecting the Ghost crew to die at all! I actually got a little emotional! These characters weren’t the best at being fleshed out, and I definitely wasn’t attached to them, but I still felt disbelief when Starscream blew them up in the end! But I guess that explains why no one was there to talk about these events in the 2007 Bayverse movie. But still, the chapters leading up to the end definitely had some emotional scenes and quotes in them that tugged at my heart strings!

My favorite scene in the whole book was when Megatron woke up. That was a greatly written moment that really displayed how menacing it would be for us to meet a Cybertronian for the first time. It was everything the Ghost crew’s interactions with the bots was lacking: the initial terror of seeing something so massive, so inhuman, awaken and cause so much destruction without even doing much. Megatron was barely awake and he caused so much destruction. Really good.

All in all, if you are a Transformers fan, I recommend reading this book! It gives ample backstory to the Bayverse films and provides great moments of the Autobots and Decepticons, especially Starscream and Jazz. It’s a slow read with a lot of details and human scenes, so if you’re in it purely for the robots, you might get bored. But it’s a good instruction novel, and for people who don’t know much about Transformers behind them being giant mechs from space, you can read this and not have to know anything about the lore. 4/5 stars!

[Swapnil Dubey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel doesn't miss a single necessary element to keep the excitement going on and ends with a promising next part. A lot of people, including me, always had the problem with the excess use of humans in Transformers movies. Well, here you get the expression... WHAT A PERFECT blend of humans and transformers and other alien beings.

The search for All Spark is taking forever and Autobots and Decepticons meet again only to find out they are not alone in interstellar space. An uncharted vessel that looks similar to Cybertronion design, yet not Cybertronion, is hovering around them. Is it with Autobots? Is it with Decepticons? The answers lie in pages.

"THE ICE MAN HAD AWAKENED."
In Transformers movie this has been established that Megatron was frozen when crashed landed on Earth and was only awaken when Starscream destabilized the circuitry to keep him iced. Well, he awoke when Humans did not even know how to deal with him. That was the part that deserved the most to be on screen. I got goosebumps on this part and the way Alan Dean Foster narrated the story brought all the scenes come alive in the greatest theater of the mind.

"they were going to save the world- by not going back to it."
Humans on Earth, humans in space... the secret heroes. It's a story of first human-alien contact and how Russians involved in wanting what isn't theirs. An all-out secret war breaks out in space and on Earth and the sacrifices have to be made.

The wave of untrust is among the Decepticons and the leader has been challenged by subordinates to reveal his treachery against the search of Megatron. This was completely unexpected. But you know what.. leader becomes a leader because of some reason. I liked this version of Starscream, don't know why Mr. Bay hated him in the movies.

Suggestion
Highly recommended to read Exodus, Exiles and Retribution, the official history of the war for Cybertron. The story makes more sense after reading the origin story. It's just a suggestion to make it more fun. The novel can also be considered as a standalone one.

The story is simply amazing and it was hard to put it down and do other stuff like go to the office or eat or sleep. I was already in love with movies, series, and comics... now Transformers Novels belongs to the same.

[Troy Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Book

This book was very good. Lots of action and interesting characters. The human characters showed great spirit and tenacity. Soldiers who were not afraid to sacrifice themselves to get the job done. The book was exciting and moved at a very fast pace, never a dull moment. The only flaw, and this was more in the way the book was edited, and not in the writing, was there would be a change in the dialogue or the action and there was only a difference in the paragraph. An extra space between the paragraphs would have been good enough to let the reader know that the scene was changing. Otherwise, A great book. I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it.

[Anthony Pangilinan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short read that gave some information to preclude the first Transformers movie. In general, I liked the story, not the most difficult or profound read, but it pleased a fan of the Transformers. The story was a bit predictable and had moments I felt were a bit cheesy, but I felt it did it's job at giving fans some look at the origins of Sector Seven and how they got their hands on the Deception Leader.

[starscream · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I enjoyed reading this, but it’s not my favorite written TF media I have consumed. It was still cool as it is not a novelization of something that already exists; I got to meet new characters in new situations, with a new plot. (Little late to the game in reading this (18 years)… but I still showed up to the party.) Honestly? This was basically authorized fanfiction and that was kind of funny.

[Kenneth · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 and a half stars. This was a very dull book that focused too much on humans that I didnt care about. The Transformers scenes were enjoyable but the human scenes dragged on. I expected more from a prequel to my favorite film of all time

[Silo · Rating 3 out of 5]

We've reached an interesting point of my book hoard, the movie novelization. Though its a prequel to the first live action transformers movie, I'd count it. It's a book about human astronauts meeting Transformers. Decent

[D. E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

And the beat goes on. An outstanding novel and another in the Transformer series.

[Benjamen Dees · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5 / 5.0

[Sam Nicholson · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10

[Ahmed Mohamed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

[tammy (eskel's version) · Rating 3 out of 5]

the optimus&bumblebee father-son content in this was immaculate

[Shana Bury · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh 🤷‍♀️ it’s an interesting lead up to the film

[Anthony Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would definitely want this novel to be turned into a motion picture

[Jacob.C · Rating 4 out of 5]

this story is about a man and his crew going into spaceship called Ghost 1 that is lunched at the same time as the first spaceship goes to the moon. And met the Transformers when they messed up on there speed up around the sun. It takes place on a planet galxice far far away. they are trying to get to tell of there great descover.

When the first meet a cybrtronen they are miss guide by Starscream and are told the autbots are evil.
But when Starscream leaves them in a alien cavern to die by giant missformed snakes. But the Autobots Optumis Prime and Bumblbee find and saves them from the threat the under stand they are good and that starscream is evil.

It was great to here about what happened before the first Transformers movie and under stand why they came to earth and found out about it. I was sad about the ending of the book and how so mean people died but also here about the ice man. And I think it is a great book to read about if you love robots.

[William Sauerbier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tranformers: Ghosts of Yesterday is the official prequel to the Michael Bay trilogy written by Alan Dean Foster. The book is set in 1969 at the same time that the Apollo 11 mission was launched. While the world was focused on Florida, the Apollo mission, and the moon there was a secret mission located at the North Pole. The secret mission led by a organization called sector 7 had two parts. The first part was to send a shuttle to the far parts of the solar system to look for signs of alien life. The second part was to transport the giant Ice-Man that was found decades earlier to Nevada where it could be hidden. The spaceship Ghost 1 accidently moves into a wormhole after a slingshot around the sun and winds up in an area of the galaxy never known before by humans. The problem they have is not only do they not knwo where they are, but they are also not alone. The humans meet up with The Decepticons led by Starscream, and The Autobots lead by Optimus Prime. The Americans on Earth are also having problems trying to get the ice-man ready for transport as there is a rumor of a spy in their group. Will Ghost 1 make it home while being involved in the alien civil war? Will transport of the Ice Man go smoothly?

The book is a great start to the series.. It sets it up to the first movie well and lets people meet the transformers and you get all you need to watch the first movie. If you watched the triology, there are a few things that seem wrong, but they are small things that dont harm the story... Overall this is a great book for fans of the Transformers series

[Adam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Incredibly awful. It read like fan-fic. BAD fan-fic. I've read much better TF fanfic, to be quite honest. This was not worth the pages it was printed on.

Huge print and huge margins. Maybe 150 pages total, but fluffed out to 285. I gave up after 80 pages and 20 minutes. The human characters were the same flat, quasi-military people in the TF movie. The TF characters were written the same way: flat and quasi-military. Verb tense didn't even match in the same paragraph. It was shockingly bad.

I'm trying not to repeat my 20 minute rant to my poor wife about how TF fans didn't deserve competent, interesting writing in this review. It was a shameful book. I'm ashamed the writer, the publisher, and for everyone who has purchased it.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book with my six year old who eats and sleeps transformers. He loved it, although I am sure he didn't understand all of the vocabulary. For an adult, it is not a bad book either. The characters are complex enough, it is similar to a Star Trek venture. And, the authors use of the language was interesting and used lots of vocabulary. A few words I didn't even recognize. I took us about three week to read out loud and two renewals at the library. Having seen the movie, it was interesting to see what happens in the prior story.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Transformers, Ghosts of yesterday, is set before the first transformers film, at the time of the apollo missions to the moon. the story line is that megatron, who is located in the artic, is being transported to hoover dam. at the same time, they are launching a space ship, based on megatron. the shi is set to go to jupiter, but all goes horribly wrong. this is a very well written book which ties in very well with the first movie, even thoough there are a few mistakes it still makes for a very good read for anyone who has seen the first transformers moveie, or is a fan of the series.

[S · Rating 4 out of 5]

I truly enjoyed reading this book. Already an Alan Dean Foster fan, "Ghosts of Yesterday" gives you an inside look at the Autobots (and Decepticons) that you see in the live-action film (2007). You get to see how Bumblebee (my favorite Autobot) interacts with his friends, enemies, and alien species (humans). Plus you are privy to every scuffle among the Decepticons, who REALLY don't like taking orders from Starscream. Through it all, humankind is teetering on the edge of discovery... will earth be found and destroyed? You'll have to read this book to find out!

[Ricky Ganci · Rating 1 out of 5]

It set up a pretty cool premise for the movie (the Allspark just sounds sweet; I hope we get to see it), and that was all I was really looking for. I thought it offered the reader a manageable amount of Autobots and Decepticons for a 286-page novel, and the action was good. Very little transforming, but I’ll bet that having read this novel will make certain aspects of the plot a little more understandable, which in turn will allow me to enjoy the action and CGI effects even more.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

If anyone grew up with the old transformers and enjoyed the new dreamworks movie likeI did, then I would SERIOUSLY recommend reading this book. Ghosts of yesterday, is the prequel to the movie. Amazing action with the other transformers in outer space.(Duh...thats awsome). The finish is amazing. The action sequences are mind-blowing. and the plot holds up like a brick building.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an absolute insider for a new Transformers fan.
It was both awesome and a bit sad. I loved how the characters came in, and how it all played out. Very mind grasping, I just couldn't put it down! Great story! I also own this one now.

Currently 3rd favorite book. Read it: 8 times now. ----No, I never get tired of rereading my fav books. :)

[D.seL · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here again we have a series that had great promise..let's face it this story is based on a childs toy...so you know the younger people are going to read it..so why chunk it full of profanity?? Not very good planning by the writer..still a good read .. parents be warned..docked 2 stars for profanity.

[Doreen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starscream is the main villain in this book. one thing which does not make sense is that Megatron is referred to as the ice man by humans. clearly he is not a man but a robot. very misleading in this case because it was not revealed until the end that the ice man was actually Megatron.
a good prequel to the 2007 transformers movie.