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Stargate Atlantis #4
Halcyon
Might makes right…
In their ongoing quest for new allies, Atlantis’s flagship team travel to Halcyon, a grim industrial world where the Wraith are no longer feared — they are hunted.
Horrified by the brutality of Halcyon’s warlike people, Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard soon becomes caught in the political machinations of Halcyon’s aristocracy. In a feudal society where strength means power, he realizes the nobles will stop at nothing to ensure victory over their rivals. Meanwhile, Dr. Rodney McKay enlists the aid of the ruler’s daughter to investigate a powerful Ancient structure, but McKay’s scientific brilliance has aroused the interest of the planet’s most powerful man — a man with a problem he desperately needs McKay to solve.
As Halcyon plunges into a catastrophe of its own making the team must join forces with the warlords — or die at the hands of their bitterest enemy…
HALCYON
“So, how we going play this, Sheppard? You let them bottle us up, and—”
“I’m working on it,” Sheppard replied, cutting Ronon off . “We miss our call-in and Atlantis will send out Lorne and a rescue team.”
“That’s not much of a plan.”
“Hey, I’m making this up as I go.”
Rodney snorted. “No change from normal there, then.”
“I see one,” said Bishop. “End of the street, he’s scoping us.”
“They won’t try to wait us out,” said Dex, “that’s not how they do it. They’ll rush us.” He sneered. “Wraith like the direct approach.”
“Couldn’t be more than a dozen of them clowns out there,” noted Hill, “even counting those we put down.”
Sheppard looked around. “Ammo check. Anyone low?” He got a chorus of negatives from everyone except Teyla. The Athosian woman was stock still, sighting down the length of her gun. “Teyla, you with us?”
She shuddered, and he saw the distant, fearful look in her eyes that he knew meant trouble. “John. There are more Wraith out there. A lot more. They know—”
Teyla’s words were drowned out in a howling chorus of blaster bolts as the aliens opened up on the stone building from all sides.
“Return fire!” barked Sheppard. “Targets of opportunity!”
In their ongoing quest for new allies, Atlantis’s flagship team travel to Halcyon, a grim industrial world where the Wraith are no longer feared — they are hunted.
Horrified by the brutality of Halcyon’s warlike people, Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard soon becomes caught in the political machinations of Halcyon’s aristocracy. In a feudal society where strength means power, he realizes the nobles will stop at nothing to ensure victory over their rivals. Meanwhile, Dr. Rodney McKay enlists the aid of the ruler’s daughter to investigate a powerful Ancient structure, but McKay’s scientific brilliance has aroused the interest of the planet’s most powerful man — a man with a problem he desperately needs McKay to solve.
As Halcyon plunges into a catastrophe of its own making the team must join forces with the warlords — or die at the hands of their bitterest enemy…
HALCYON
“So, how we going play this, Sheppard? You let them bottle us up, and—”
“I’m working on it,” Sheppard replied, cutting Ronon off . “We miss our call-in and Atlantis will send out Lorne and a rescue team.”
“That’s not much of a plan.”
“Hey, I’m making this up as I go.”
Rodney snorted. “No change from normal there, then.”
“I see one,” said Bishop. “End of the street, he’s scoping us.”
“They won’t try to wait us out,” said Dex, “that’s not how they do it. They’ll rush us.” He sneered. “Wraith like the direct approach.”
“Couldn’t be more than a dozen of them clowns out there,” noted Hill, “even counting those we put down.”
Sheppard looked around. “Ammo check. Anyone low?” He got a chorus of negatives from everyone except Teyla. The Athosian woman was stock still, sighting down the length of her gun. “Teyla, you with us?”
She shuddered, and he saw the distant, fearful look in her eyes that he knew meant trouble. “John. There are more Wraith out there. A lot more. They know—”
Teyla’s words were drowned out in a howling chorus of blaster bolts as the aliens opened up on the stone building from all sides.
“Return fire!” barked Sheppard. “Targets of opportunity!”
284 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2006
28 people are currently reading
358 people want to read
About the author
James Swallow
305 books1,072 followersJames Swallow is a New York Times, Sunday Times and Amazon #1 bestselling author and scriptwriter, a BAFTA nominee, a former journalist and the award-winning writer of over sixty-five books, along with scripts for video games, comics, radio and television.
DARK HORIZON, his latest stand-alone thriller, is out now from Mountain Leopard Press, and OUTLAW, the 6th action-packed Marc Dane novel, is published by Bonnier.
Along with the Marc Dane thrillers, his writing includes, the Sundowners steampunk Westerns and fiction from the worlds of Star Trek, Tom Clancy, 24, Warhammer 40000, Doctor Who, Deus Ex, Stargate, 2000AD and many more.
For information on new releases & more, sign up to the Readers’ Club here: www.bit.ly/JamesSwallow
Visit James's website at http://www.jswallow.com/ for more, including ROUGH AIR, a free eBook novella in the Marc Dane series.
You can also follow James on Bluesky at @jmswallow.bsky.social, Twitter at @jmswallow, Mastodon at @jmswallow@mstdn.social and jmswallow.tumblr.com at Tumblr.
DARK HORIZON, his latest stand-alone thriller, is out now from Mountain Leopard Press, and OUTLAW, the 6th action-packed Marc Dane novel, is published by Bonnier.
Along with the Marc Dane thrillers, his writing includes, the Sundowners steampunk Westerns and fiction from the worlds of Star Trek, Tom Clancy, 24, Warhammer 40000, Doctor Who, Deus Ex, Stargate, 2000AD and many more.
For information on new releases & more, sign up to the Readers’ Club here: www.bit.ly/JamesSwallow
Visit James's website at http://www.jswallow.com/ for more, including ROUGH AIR, a free eBook novella in the Marc Dane series.
You can also follow James on Bluesky at @jmswallow.bsky.social, Twitter at @jmswallow, Mastodon at @jmswallow@mstdn.social and jmswallow.tumblr.com at Tumblr.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
April 8, 2021
This is a decent Stargate Atlantis book. The pacing was a little uneven and the characters weren’t quite written as they are in the show, but it wasn’t a bad book. I’m not quite sure why I look at the book and feel dislike for it, because it wasn’t bad, but every time I attempt to reread it, I put it down before I open it.
August 27, 2010
The only book I threw against the wall in frustration. Ever.
June 29, 2021
3/5
The first two chapters were hard to get through because this planet of people we're introduced to are super pompous and pathetically aristocratic. It's hard to read without thinking they sound like cartoonish supervillains. Luckily, you move on from that cliched persona and the book becomes more interesting.
The planet/society of Halcyon is definitely interesting as they are warriors and believe in strength above all else. They were also a steampunk-ish society which is always fun. They were definitely barbaric and sadistic but entertaining anyways.
Wraith as slaves through a mind bending Ancient machine was an interesting concept and it was good to see Atlantis struggle with the moral implications of that. The Wraith Scar was also an interesting character.
I loved seeing the team interact with another team and not have that entire team be killed off. Although it was kind of torturous with the way the other team was written, the author had to make it abundantly clear every sentence that this team was British and solely used British slang. It was actually incredibly annoying and kind of unbelievable.
Another annoyance was Ronon constantly being referred to by his last name, something that never happens in the show.
All in all it was a good mission book.
The first two chapters were hard to get through because this planet of people we're introduced to are super pompous and pathetically aristocratic. It's hard to read without thinking they sound like cartoonish supervillains. Luckily, you move on from that cliched persona and the book becomes more interesting.
The planet/society of Halcyon is definitely interesting as they are warriors and believe in strength above all else. They were also a steampunk-ish society which is always fun. They were definitely barbaric and sadistic but entertaining anyways.
Wraith as slaves through a mind bending Ancient machine was an interesting concept and it was good to see Atlantis struggle with the moral implications of that. The Wraith Scar was also an interesting character.
I loved seeing the team interact with another team and not have that entire team be killed off. Although it was kind of torturous with the way the other team was written, the author had to make it abundantly clear every sentence that this team was British and solely used British slang. It was actually incredibly annoying and kind of unbelievable.
Another annoyance was Ronon constantly being referred to by his last name, something that never happens in the show.
All in all it was a good mission book.
January 22, 2020
Again, SO GOOD!!!
I loved Scar if only for the living out of sheer spite thing. The entire situation was astounding and the deviousness of the Magnate and his family for so long made the story way better.
This one gave off faint Red Rising feels with the hierarchy and Hound’s, but not enough to pull you from the story. Just enough to note and appreciate the similarities.
The entire book from page one to page 306 was none stop action and intrigue. Plenty of battles too but this one was more court politics and sneaky shadow for a lot of it and though that’s not usually my thing, I really enjoyed it here. A good dose of action at just the right times made it a fast, can’t put down read!
I loved Scar if only for the living out of sheer spite thing. The entire situation was astounding and the deviousness of the Magnate and his family for so long made the story way better.
This one gave off faint Red Rising feels with the hierarchy and Hound’s, but not enough to pull you from the story. Just enough to note and appreciate the similarities.
The entire book from page one to page 306 was none stop action and intrigue. Plenty of battles too but this one was more court politics and sneaky shadow for a lot of it and though that’s not usually my thing, I really enjoyed it here. A good dose of action at just the right times made it a fast, can’t put down read!
February 14, 2021
Excellent story. All the main characters portrayed perfectly.
September 24, 2023
Excruciatingly slow and long start that devolves into something uncomfortably un-Stargate. On the surface it could be an episode, plot-wise, but the character choices read like they’re having their worst, most poorly thought-through days. The characters’ voices, too, are incredibly off (‘Whoa, Ronon! You’re hit, you’re bleeding, man!’ says Sheppard). There’s writing skill here, of course! But this book wasn’t what I was hoping for when I picked up a tie-in novel.
September 26, 2024
Ahh, I love it so MUCH when a franchise novel gets so involving, so cinematic as to be read as if you were watching a TV episode!
Truly, a rollercoaster where everyone gets their moment to shine, finely characterized, with an enemy from whom you'll never know what to expect, and rich with action that will keep you glued to the pages!
Truly, a rollercoaster where everyone gets their moment to shine, finely characterized, with an enemy from whom you'll never know what to expect, and rich with action that will keep you glued to the pages!
August 6, 2017
A good story; a bit tragic towards the end, but the charged action, intrigue, and positive changes brought about by the Atlantis team, a very worthy read!
January 25, 2018
It was great
I would give 5 five star rating this trilogy never get boring it was simpering me how similar is for tv series and I would recommend to everyone
I would give 5 five star rating this trilogy never get boring it was simpering me how similar is for tv series and I would recommend to everyone
August 8, 2018
Really enjoying this series! (Please see extended review of this series under my "read" book, Stargate Atlantis #2, Reliquary.)
August 2, 2022
Very well written on a dystopian world. Action and world-building plus character description, not OOC. Good and understandable description of authors own characters.
December 23, 2023
A lot better than the previous 2 , though the timeline is jumped ( series 2 of the show )
February 17, 2023
It seemed to jump all over the place and Teyla and Rodney's characters seemed a bit off. But I still enjoyed it.
December 4, 2019
While on an ice moon doing routine exploration, Sheppard’s team is attacked by Wraith. It looks like the end of the line, as the team is out-manned, out-gunned, and out-maneuvered. However, a group of trained Wraith hunters arrive in the nick of time. Their leader, a woman called Erony, insists that they accompany her hunt splinter back to their world, Halcyon. Situated on the very edge of the Pegasus galaxy, Halcyon is far enough away from Wraith worlds to have been safe for many years. As more of Halcyon’s secrets come to light, the Atlantis team is certain their arrogance and ignorance will attract the attention of the Wraith very soon.
The technology on the planet Halcyon is steampunk, which is a very cool addition to a space science fiction story. I loved the steam-powered muskets. The world-building was good, the team was in character, and the original characters were interesting and well-developed. I really enjoyed this book all the way up to the end, which felt forced and unreal.
In this story, we’ve found a world that operates much like the SGC and Atlantis in terms of their Stargate operations only to take the massively idiotic step of undoing all their safety precautions. If these people aren’t annihilated within a month, it’ll be a miracle.
The technology on the planet Halcyon is steampunk, which is a very cool addition to a space science fiction story. I loved the steam-powered muskets. The world-building was good, the team was in character, and the original characters were interesting and well-developed. I really enjoyed this book all the way up to the end, which felt forced and unreal.
In this story, we’ve found a world that operates much like the SGC and Atlantis in terms of their Stargate operations only to take the massively idiotic step of undoing all their safety precautions. If these people aren’t annihilated within a month, it’ll be a miracle.
June 23, 2011
I both liked and disliked this story.
Were the characters in-character? Well, most of them, most of the time. Teyla sounded wrong enough of the time to annoy me.
Was the writing good? For the most part. After a very slow start the pace picked up and there was lots of action that was interesting, though some was a bit predictable. The entire story had a slight British tint to it in my opinion. The team uses "torches" at one point. Rodney says "bloody" something or other and I don't remember him saying that in the show. The characters use the word "quite" a lot, as in 'quite unique'.
The worldbuilding is fairly deep and interesting. Halcyon is a steampunk world with zepplins and steam-rifles. Fun stuff. Though it, again, was a bit too old world Earth for me to suspend all disbelief. The government and society weren't very alien considering they sprang up in another galaxy. Okay, so they didn't seem alien at all to me.
Some of the original characters were good. Erony. Scar. And the British soldier detachment were good.
All in all this book was okay. Better than some of the other SGAs I've read but not as good as others.
Were the characters in-character? Well, most of them, most of the time. Teyla sounded wrong enough of the time to annoy me.
Was the writing good? For the most part. After a very slow start the pace picked up and there was lots of action that was interesting, though some was a bit predictable. The entire story had a slight British tint to it in my opinion. The team uses "torches" at one point. Rodney says "bloody" something or other and I don't remember him saying that in the show. The characters use the word "quite" a lot, as in 'quite unique'.
The worldbuilding is fairly deep and interesting. Halcyon is a steampunk world with zepplins and steam-rifles. Fun stuff. Though it, again, was a bit too old world Earth for me to suspend all disbelief. The government and society weren't very alien considering they sprang up in another galaxy. Okay, so they didn't seem alien at all to me.
Some of the original characters were good. Erony. Scar. And the British soldier detachment were good.
All in all this book was okay. Better than some of the other SGAs I've read but not as good as others.
November 29, 2011
While on an away mission John’s team is rescued by a group of hunters. The hunters invite them to the world of Halcyon and make it clear that refusing would be unacceptable. When they arrive they are introduced to the Lord Magnate, supreme ruler of Halcyon. He invites them to learn about the Halcyon culture. The more the team discovers them more worried they become. On Halcyon, might truly does make right. Conflicts are decided by holding a mini war. Life is cheap. Then the team discovers that the people of Halcyon capture the wraith and make them warrior slaves. Deeply disturbed the team tries to leave Halcyon, but Rodney is kidnapped. Getting him back will pit the team against the Lord Magnate, and the wraith.[return][return]This was a well written tie in novel for the Stargate Atlantis universe. The character voices were fairly well done and the plot was believable. There were moments when the storyline and the characters felt just a little off but all in all an enjoyable tie in.
January 30, 2015
It's rare I rate a book five stars, even more so that I rate a television tie-in novel so highly, but this one really does deserve it. James Swallow does a fantastic job of capturing the pacing and character of the series so well and my one negative point would be that it's deeply unfair that this story never got made into an episode of a show I will never stop missing. Every single character was true to their on-screen portrayals and the narration was gripping and intelligent. The original characters the author introduced were rounded and believable as individuals and I cared about each of them in different ways, genuinely reacting when they were written out in one way or another.
If anyone is looking for a good Stargate tie-in this is the one I would recommend, hands down. I've read a few of these books over the years and this is the best by far and I highly doubt I will find one that does a better job than this one. It hits all the right notes and ticks all the boxes. A definite winner.
If anyone is looking for a good Stargate tie-in this is the one I would recommend, hands down. I've read a few of these books over the years and this is the best by far and I highly doubt I will find one that does a better job than this one. It hits all the right notes and ticks all the boxes. A definite winner.
July 4, 2013
The team visit a feudal world which hunts wraith, but all is not what it seems. A good story with everybody acting how they should. This would have made a good tv episode. All the team shine, and all have their subplots. The introduction of UK marines added something extra too, though I'm not sure whether non-English people would have understood it as well. A good read.
July 5, 2013
I really enjoyed this story that was in the straight line of the SGA show but also original as it didn't remind me of any plot already used in an episode. And it doesn't hurt that the suspense and action were great.
July 3, 2014
The team is invited to (more or less voluntarily) visit a steampunk world inhabited by a brutal society thriving on war and violence, the ruler of which hides a terrible secret that puts his entire planet at risk. Not one of the best SGA novels, but still an entertaining read.
November 25, 2008
Mediocre. A verrrry laaaaagggiinngg pace. Nothing to look forward to there.
May 31, 2016
Better than the last tie-in novel I read, but not without issues.
April 6, 2016
A really good SGA read, Highly recommend you pick this one up. Characters are well written, and the new society the encounter is well done. Would have liked to have seen this one as an episode.
January 7, 2016
Halcyon
Not too sure about this book.
In some places it was exciting but others I found boring.
I would probably not re-read this book.
Not too sure about this book.
In some places it was exciting but others I found boring.
I would probably not re-read this book.
July 27, 2021
I can’t believe this wasn’t an episode! So good!
April 9, 2020
An exciting story and James Swallow really has captured the characters so well that, for me, it was like watching an episode of the TV series, which I used to love. A very enjoyable read.
November 8, 2020
A fairly average adventure, but a relief to read after the previous book.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews