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The Omega Factor #0
Omega Factor
There is a highly-secret government organisation called Department 7. Its existence is known only to the Prime Minister and some members of the Cabinet. Its brief is to investigate the supernatural - to discover the Omega Factor. Journalist Tom Crane has been given the same brief by a Sunday newspaper and suddenly finds himself confronting inexplicable and even terrifying situations.
The Omega Factor is about the mysteries behind the seeming normality of everyday modern life; the night and darkness of human experience.
The Omega Factor will appeal to the nervous child in us all, determined to conquer fear and find out what is hidden inside a darkened room.
The Omega Factor is about the mysteries behind the seeming normality of everyday modern life; the night and darkness of human experience.
The Omega Factor will appeal to the nervous child in us all, determined to conquer fear and find out what is hidden inside a darkened room.
223 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1979
33 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 9, 2019
Now those eagle eyed readers of my comments and reviewed will see this that I have written about this before in paperback format and gave it a higher review - agreed however this is the hardback version although fundamentally the same book - I read this from new and hence the change in ratings.
You see since then I found a DVD collection of the original series and I have learnt more about the novelisation of what is effectively the introductory story to the series.
So without giving away spoilers I now know that the book has some differences to the TV episode - after all the book reads like the open and closed story it needed to be while the TV series ran for 10 episodes (and left the door open for further series which never materialised).
Also I have since read other books which have hints of similar storylines - so I now feel that this is not as unique and groundbreaking as it first one. I guess that is the curse of all good books that at some point you start to see similarities and suddenly it is no shockingly special as you thought it was.
That said the book is still as atmospheric as ever with the opening scenes still as chilling as they were when I first read them - and the scene with the streetlights still send shivers down my spine as I remember watching it on the TV at a young age. The book is still a great read and I am glad I now have it in hardback - hopefully it may age a little better than the paperback.
You see since then I found a DVD collection of the original series and I have learnt more about the novelisation of what is effectively the introductory story to the series.
So without giving away spoilers I now know that the book has some differences to the TV episode - after all the book reads like the open and closed story it needed to be while the TV series ran for 10 episodes (and left the door open for further series which never materialised).
Also I have since read other books which have hints of similar storylines - so I now feel that this is not as unique and groundbreaking as it first one. I guess that is the curse of all good books that at some point you start to see similarities and suddenly it is no shockingly special as you thought it was.
That said the book is still as atmospheric as ever with the opening scenes still as chilling as they were when I first read them - and the scene with the streetlights still send shivers down my spine as I remember watching it on the TV at a young age. The book is still a great read and I am glad I now have it in hardback - hopefully it may age a little better than the paperback.
May 6, 2020
I was extremely surprised to find it actually not that good!
Let's get few things out of the way. Firstly, I have no problem with audiobook format and I love Louise Jameson as an actress and as a narrator. For example, her reading of another book from Omega Factor universe "Spider's Web" is brilliant. She does a fine job here too.
Secondly, I did watch the original series a while ago and I really loved its gothic atmosphere and gloomy mood. I wanted to listen to this audiobook to refresh my memory of the series, though I knew going in that it was adapting episode 1 of the series faithfully and the ending was different. Though I wasn't expecting the adaptation of episode 1 to stretch to the half of the book (that's nearly 4 hours of normal listening time)!
Somehow it feels that I deserved much more from the story than what I've got or even that the author was a bit lazy. The narrative feels extremely disjointed and cobbled together in an attempt to cram the events of the entire series in just one short novelisation. The stories that don't fit in the story arc are thrown out, and therefore I don't see the protagonist's character growth. His affection to his colleague (though apparent in the series) doesn't really make sense here. And I have to briefly mention how abrupt this open ending is and how the climax doesn't feel meaningful at all.
The book started being really interesting, engaging, mysterious and spooky, but after the events of episode 1 (after the first half of the book) it looses all its mojo. The revelations make sense but do not seem impactful at all.
And let me say it, there's too many perspiration mentions!!
I'm really disappointed with this novelisation of the series I longed to revisit. Luckily the audio continuation of the series with Ann and Tom's son from Big Finish is worth your time. It has the atmosphere of the original series and the narrative is strong with engaging stories and permanent character development. I can't recommend the continuation enough.
But this I definitely cannot recommend. If you want to revisit the gloomy atmosphere of the original Omega Factor series, then listen to the audio drama sequel or the Spider's Web audiobook. If you want to refresh your memory of the series, just rewatch it either on 2x speed, or only the episodes key to the overarching plot! If this is your first ever contact with the Omega Factor universe then ditch the novelisation and just watch the original series.
Let's get few things out of the way. Firstly, I have no problem with audiobook format and I love Louise Jameson as an actress and as a narrator. For example, her reading of another book from Omega Factor universe "Spider's Web" is brilliant. She does a fine job here too.
Secondly, I did watch the original series a while ago and I really loved its gothic atmosphere and gloomy mood. I wanted to listen to this audiobook to refresh my memory of the series, though I knew going in that it was adapting episode 1 of the series faithfully and the ending was different. Though I wasn't expecting the adaptation of episode 1 to stretch to the half of the book (that's nearly 4 hours of normal listening time)!
Somehow it feels that I deserved much more from the story than what I've got or even that the author was a bit lazy. The narrative feels extremely disjointed and cobbled together in an attempt to cram the events of the entire series in just one short novelisation. The stories that don't fit in the story arc are thrown out, and therefore I don't see the protagonist's character growth. His affection to his colleague (though apparent in the series) doesn't really make sense here. And I have to briefly mention how abrupt this open ending is and how the climax doesn't feel meaningful at all.
The book started being really interesting, engaging, mysterious and spooky, but after the events of episode 1 (after the first half of the book) it looses all its mojo. The revelations make sense but do not seem impactful at all.
And let me say it, there's too many perspiration mentions!!
I'm really disappointed with this novelisation of the series I longed to revisit. Luckily the audio continuation of the series with Ann and Tom's son from Big Finish is worth your time. It has the atmosphere of the original series and the narrative is strong with engaging stories and permanent character development. I can't recommend the continuation enough.
But this I definitely cannot recommend. If you want to revisit the gloomy atmosphere of the original Omega Factor series, then listen to the audio drama sequel or the Spider's Web audiobook. If you want to refresh your memory of the series, just rewatch it either on 2x speed, or only the episodes key to the overarching plot! If this is your first ever contact with the Omega Factor universe then ditch the novelisation and just watch the original series.
April 30, 2014
This is a novelisation of the TV series from the late 70s of the same name - reading now it see that there are many cliches - from a bystander drawn in to a conspiracy on the grounds of finding answers and closure but in the end find a whole lot more - to top secret organisations that only the very highest levels seem to know anything about - its all here (but decades before many of its contemporaries that made it all seem so blasé) and not to mention the supernatural angel. So why the high praise for what is really little more than a condense book of the series. Well its the fact this book (and the series it was taken from) utterly scared me witless- I am a great believer that terror (rather than horror) can be subtle and subliminal - to the point where even the most mundane actions can have terrifying results, (one scene a character is walking down a darken street as each street light inexplicably turns off one after another following him) and this book to me captures this as I still remember the series from my childhood when it first was broadcast.
September 3, 2018
The story itself could be okay-ish 3 stars, but I had the audiobook, which made it very hard for me to go through it.
First of all, let me just say that I am not an audiobook kind of person. Or rather, I didn't really know how I would agree with audiobooks before this, and now I'm fairly convinced it's really not for me. Long story short, I was allowed one free audiobook on my e-reading app and figured I might as well get something and try it out, and this is the one book that caught my attention among what was available.
That was back in early April btw. And so, I started this back then, went through like a chapter or two at the time, and I just couldn't get into the story. I listened to another two chapters some time later on, discovered that I could set the pace faster and setting it to 1,2x the normal speed, I succeeded in going through another two chapters, but ended up dropping it yet again. So yeah, this was my first huge problem with having to listen to it: it's way way way too slow. The physical book is something like 200 pages, and the audiobook is more than 7 hours. I ended up setting the pace to "only" 1,2x because my non-English-native-speaker self couldn't grasp the words properly if I set it faster.
My other big problem with having someone read to me was the voices. I don't know if it's the case with all audiobooks, but Jameson making different voices for the characters during dialogues was very annoying to me for two reasons: 1) there was no consistency for each character and 2) it was often not coherent with the kind of voices I would have imagined for the characters. The accumulation of both these reasons made it harder for me to follow what was going on.
To be completely honest, I only made it through the remaining 5 hours (decreasing to 4-ish at 1,2x) in one sitting because I was crafting something in the meantime.
Now, for the story itself, I'm reading that it was a TV series back in the days? (Yeah well, I never heard of it before anyway.) Considering the time that happened in between, I forgot pretty much all of what happens in the first 3 chapters, but for the rest of it, like I said above, it's kinda okay. It's far from being fascinating, but it's fairly interesting, I guess. (Although, I would probably have enjoyed it a bit better if I read it in paper form.)
There are two things that I specifically didn't like though.
- It ends on unfinished business. Or well, basically the whole ending is very unsatisfying.
- The stupid romance between the protagonist and . (Sorry, I'm not buying it at all.)
Basically, it's a very easily forgettable book. Not necessarily to be thrown down in a dungeon to be forgotten by all mankind, but it's definitely not on the list of books I'd recommend.
First of all, let me just say that I am not an audiobook kind of person. Or rather, I didn't really know how I would agree with audiobooks before this, and now I'm fairly convinced it's really not for me. Long story short, I was allowed one free audiobook on my e-reading app and figured I might as well get something and try it out, and this is the one book that caught my attention among what was available.
That was back in early April btw. And so, I started this back then, went through like a chapter or two at the time, and I just couldn't get into the story. I listened to another two chapters some time later on, discovered that I could set the pace faster and setting it to 1,2x the normal speed, I succeeded in going through another two chapters, but ended up dropping it yet again. So yeah, this was my first huge problem with having to listen to it: it's way way way too slow. The physical book is something like 200 pages, and the audiobook is more than 7 hours. I ended up setting the pace to "only" 1,2x because my non-English-native-speaker self couldn't grasp the words properly if I set it faster.
My other big problem with having someone read to me was the voices. I don't know if it's the case with all audiobooks, but Jameson making different voices for the characters during dialogues was very annoying to me for two reasons: 1) there was no consistency for each character and 2) it was often not coherent with the kind of voices I would have imagined for the characters. The accumulation of both these reasons made it harder for me to follow what was going on.
To be completely honest, I only made it through the remaining 5 hours (decreasing to 4-ish at 1,2x) in one sitting because I was crafting something in the meantime.
Now, for the story itself, I'm reading that it was a TV series back in the days? (Yeah well, I never heard of it before anyway.) Considering the time that happened in between, I forgot pretty much all of what happens in the first 3 chapters, but for the rest of it, like I said above, it's kinda okay. It's far from being fascinating, but it's fairly interesting, I guess. (Although, I would probably have enjoyed it a bit better if I read it in paper form.)
There are two things that I specifically didn't like though.
- It ends on unfinished business. Or well, basically the whole ending is very unsatisfying.
- The stupid romance between the protagonist and . (Sorry, I'm not buying it at all.)
Basically, it's a very easily forgettable book. Not necessarily to be thrown down in a dungeon to be forgotten by all mankind, but it's definitely not on the list of books I'd recommend.
April 12, 2024
Ok Thant ending was brusque. And I didn’t really understand the plot, only through reviews did I get it. I thought at first it was doctor who related because Omega is one time lord’s name and it’s narrated by Louise Jameson. I’d like to watch the original series now with Jameson in it!
November 12, 2020
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this, with no prior knowledge of the show. Spooky, very page-turner. Glad I gave it a go.
January 12, 2025
Loved re reading this. It doesn't seem to have dated since the eighties either. I never read the pre- TV version but I read this after watching the series.
January 26, 2015
I read this when I was quite young because the series had been shown on BBC and I was interested to see how the book compared. The book was pretty much the same as the so-so series which was a lot less scary than Doctor Who.
I might get more out of it as an adult, but the main detail I remember from the book is that the main character goes into a pub called Goat And Compasses and is told that the pub name would originally have been God Encompasses Us. The man is looking into people who are dabbling in the occult, and at one woman in particular. I believe the tension was created by atmosphere rather than action which is probably hard to get across in the book.
I might get more out of it as an adult, but the main detail I remember from the book is that the main character goes into a pub called Goat And Compasses and is told that the pub name would originally have been God Encompasses Us. The man is looking into people who are dabbling in the occult, and at one woman in particular. I believe the tension was created by atmosphere rather than action which is probably hard to get across in the book.
June 16, 2015
Based on the 1970s TV series this book tells us the story of a man recruited by a psychic research team and ends up battling another psychic who killed his wife. There are portions of the story that may remind you of Scanners, though this novel predates that film. The writing style was much like the Millenium (Girl w/ Dragon Tattoo) series in the way it would tell a little bit of the action, then delve into explanations or the history of a character.
Overall, it was a good book and with Big Finish Audio picking up the rights to continue it in audio drama format, I can't wait for more!
Overall, it was a good book and with Big Finish Audio picking up the rights to continue it in audio drama format, I can't wait for more!
February 1, 2016
Highly effective reading by Louise Jameson of the simple, but compelling novel based on the 1970s TV series.
July 22, 2015
Really fun novelisation of the pilot to a 70s proto-X-Files series. Ends rather abruptly, imagine that worked better with end credits and stuff.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews