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Cale's Story
When he was five, Cale Tucker watched the alien Drej destroy Earth and last saw his father shoot skyward in the great starship "Titan." Since then, the Drej have been after Cale because he holds the secret to the salvation of mankind. Only Cale doesn't know it, and that could cost him his life.
181 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2000
106 people want to read
About the author
Kevin J. Anderson
1,038 books3,106 followersYes, I have a lot of books, and if this is your first visit to my amazon author page, it can be a little overwhelming. If you are new to my work, let me recommend a few titles as good places to start. I love my Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series, humorous horror/mysteries, which begin with DEATH WARMED OVER. My steampunk fantasy adventures, CLOCKWORK ANGELS and CLOCKWORK LIVES, written with Neil Peart, legendary drummer from Rush, are two of my very favorite novels ever. And my magnum opus, the science fiction epic The Saga of Seven Suns, begins with HIDDEN EMPIRE. After you've tried those, I hope you'll check out some of my other series.
I have written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and I'm the co-author of the Dune prequels. My original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award-nominated Assemblers of Infinity. I have also written several comic books including the Dark Horse Star Wars collection Tales of the Jedi written in collaboration with Tom Veitch, Predator titles (also for Dark Horse), and X-Files titles for Topps.
I serve as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest.
My wife is author Rebecca Moesta. We currently reside near Monument, Colorado.
I have written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and I'm the co-author of the Dune prequels. My original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award-nominated Assemblers of Infinity. I have also written several comic books including the Dark Horse Star Wars collection Tales of the Jedi written in collaboration with Tom Veitch, Predator titles (also for Dark Horse), and X-Files titles for Topps.
I serve as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest.
My wife is author Rebecca Moesta. We currently reside near Monument, Colorado.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 13, 2019
Not particularly any worse than Akima's Story, though it was more of a slog since this time I knew it wasn't going to get any better. With Akima, an utterly flat and perfunctory character, there was the excitement of getting to flesh out and explore the character that was utterly wasted. Cale is even more of a stock archetype, and knowing in advance this time that the authors either weren't interested in doing so or weren't allowed to made this a deadening read.
It's as shallow as any basic sci-fi action knockabout for kids, but without the charm or imagination to stand out from being just another mediocre, boring bit of prose. All the issues with the Akima book return, from the characters all speaking in the same flat 'audible print' dialogue to leaving the reader wondering what the point of this thing was other than a nakedly cynical bit of marketing to add to the many, many other nakedly cynical tie-ins to Titan A.E.
While Akima's Story at least felt more like a standalone adventure, Cale's Story ends up with a bad case of Prequel Syndrome. An adopted sister character is introduced, and the idea that Cale is more of an adopted son to the scientist character Tek is a running theme. This, naturally, is a bit jarring with the movie where their relationship is treated with all the gravitas and meaning of someone you talk to on occasion at work. A lengthy detour to one alien planet is supposed to be an important bit of character-building for Cale, but since of course it doesn't play into the cliche archetype who ends up in the movie, it's all meaningless. The only other point of the subplot is to, of course, give an unnecessarily complex backstory to the shoulder tattoo he has in the movie. It's not quite on the same level as forced backstory as Han Solo's last name, but it adds little and knowing it's all going down the toilet in the movie this is an empty advert for drains it of what meaning it could have had.
That said, there is the odd bright spot. The book adds the idea that Tek was working on the Titan Project because his home planet Vusstra is basically Earth a century from now. Utterly toxic and polluted, the many, many species of natural life that would otherwise be extinct due to climate change remains in the form of samples frozen in stasis until the remaining Vusstrans can find a way to undo the damage they've done to their planet. The resolution to this idea is a bit rushed and simplistic, but that's one aspect of being a children's book that's excusable. Still, it adds some needed nuance to a tertiary character, which you'd think would be the entire point of this exercise.
If nothing else, the lifeless dialogue is endlessly amusing when it comes to Tek. He's given lines with even less character than usual, which is impressive on its own, but then you remember that he was played by rapper Tone Lōc in the movie. Imagining Lōc in his trademark lowkey style trying to perform lines like "Many scientists on Vusstra had given up hope for our tired world, but Ryt and I were willing to consider possibilities no one had even thought of before. [...] He was developing 'simple' methods of stimulating planetary ecology by using a revolutionary technique called 'bio-templating' at an elemental level" never stops being funny. Neither does the fact that there are ragtag space stations called Drifter colonies, and it seems like the editor did a find-replace on 'drift' to make sure every instance of 'Drifter' was properly capitalised... and then didn't check what they were doing properly, so every instance of the word 'drift' throughout the last third of the book is always capitalised. Not exactly a glowingly positive experience of a book when one of the most memorable things about it is accidental capitalisation.
In short, instead of reading like a book written for twelve-year-olds, it reads like a book written BY twelve-year-olds. I remember when I was that age, writing vacuous stories regurgitating cliche after cliche with zero flair, wit, or charm. I'm not sure whether it's heartening or terrifying to discover that I could have gotten my old crap published as long as I rewrote them to tie in to some Hollywood movie in desperate need of as much merchandise saturation as possible.
It's as shallow as any basic sci-fi action knockabout for kids, but without the charm or imagination to stand out from being just another mediocre, boring bit of prose. All the issues with the Akima book return, from the characters all speaking in the same flat 'audible print' dialogue to leaving the reader wondering what the point of this thing was other than a nakedly cynical bit of marketing to add to the many, many other nakedly cynical tie-ins to Titan A.E.
While Akima's Story at least felt more like a standalone adventure, Cale's Story ends up with a bad case of Prequel Syndrome. An adopted sister character is introduced, and the idea that Cale is more of an adopted son to the scientist character Tek is a running theme. This, naturally, is a bit jarring with the movie where their relationship is treated with all the gravitas and meaning of someone you talk to on occasion at work. A lengthy detour to one alien planet is supposed to be an important bit of character-building for Cale, but since of course it doesn't play into the cliche archetype who ends up in the movie, it's all meaningless. The only other point of the subplot is to, of course, give an unnecessarily complex backstory to the shoulder tattoo he has in the movie. It's not quite on the same level as forced backstory as Han Solo's last name, but it adds little and knowing it's all going down the toilet in the movie this is an empty advert for drains it of what meaning it could have had.
That said, there is the odd bright spot. The book adds the idea that Tek was working on the Titan Project because his home planet Vusstra is basically Earth a century from now. Utterly toxic and polluted, the many, many species of natural life that would otherwise be extinct due to climate change remains in the form of samples frozen in stasis until the remaining Vusstrans can find a way to undo the damage they've done to their planet. The resolution to this idea is a bit rushed and simplistic, but that's one aspect of being a children's book that's excusable. Still, it adds some needed nuance to a tertiary character, which you'd think would be the entire point of this exercise.
If nothing else, the lifeless dialogue is endlessly amusing when it comes to Tek. He's given lines with even less character than usual, which is impressive on its own, but then you remember that he was played by rapper Tone Lōc in the movie. Imagining Lōc in his trademark lowkey style trying to perform lines like "Many scientists on Vusstra had given up hope for our tired world, but Ryt and I were willing to consider possibilities no one had even thought of before. [...] He was developing 'simple' methods of stimulating planetary ecology by using a revolutionary technique called 'bio-templating' at an elemental level" never stops being funny. Neither does the fact that there are ragtag space stations called Drifter colonies, and it seems like the editor did a find-replace on 'drift' to make sure every instance of 'Drifter' was properly capitalised... and then didn't check what they were doing properly, so every instance of the word 'drift' throughout the last third of the book is always capitalised. Not exactly a glowingly positive experience of a book when one of the most memorable things about it is accidental capitalisation.
In short, instead of reading like a book written for twelve-year-olds, it reads like a book written BY twelve-year-olds. I remember when I was that age, writing vacuous stories regurgitating cliche after cliche with zero flair, wit, or charm. I'm not sure whether it's heartening or terrifying to discover that I could have gotten my old crap published as long as I rewrote them to tie in to some Hollywood movie in desperate need of as much merchandise saturation as possible.
June 21, 2018
It fills in a little of the background of Cale before Titan A.E. You get to learn a little about why he didn't care much for humanity, but also why he still had some hope. I really enjoyed Titan A.E., so this book just adds a little more to the storyline.
February 8, 2021
I was pleasantly surprised to see that this was more than a paint-by-numbers tie-in.
October 4, 2016
Well it's nice to see that Cale's character in the film pretty much matched who he was growing up. He still had a lot of growing up to do in the film so it makes a lot of sense that he really didn't do much getting there.
The book is essentially his early teenager years to shortly before the start of the film. We meet his foster sister and learn more about Tek (his foster father).
I'm not a fan of the SIBLINGS ALWAYS HATE EACH OTHER except deep down they love each other trope. I know siblings who care about each other. They get on each other's nerves no matter what in some ways, particularly when they're both very young, but Cale and his sister's relationship reminded me of some of the worst parts of my relationship with my sister, but from the older sibling's perspective, where you get to see how much of an ass the older sibling is. That's not an empathetic character. It's nice that he at least actually cares about her, but it's hard to read through.
And of course it's hard to really accept in some ways that this is the same Cale as in the film. He does some decent growing up and has some accomplishments under his belt and his situation (and particularly Tek's) are hard to reconcile with where they end up in the beginning of the film (like it's their last shot and they're stuck there until they hit gold, which is by NO means the case in the book). Not that the film was perfect by any stretch but it's not one of the better after-written prequels I've read. And honestly, if all you wanted to do was rewrite the film... then do that. That would have been a lot more interesting.
It was nice that they added another female character (technically two, but Tek's wife is dead in the book) to the mix and that she was really smart and adventurous and loving and capable. Although I wonder what she got up to after the events in "Titan A.E." or if she ever got to meet Akima or reunite with Tek. It was also neat to learn what exactly Tek DID on the Titan project, and I guess where Cale got the tattoo.
But other than that... it's not an enjoyable read. Kind of like reading a really long wikipedia entry on whichever character from any franchise you want to know more about. Boring. Lots of typos and badly edited moments (none of the tie-in novels were well-edited) and some plot holes.
The book is essentially his early teenager years to shortly before the start of the film. We meet his foster sister and learn more about Tek (his foster father).
I'm not a fan of the SIBLINGS ALWAYS HATE EACH OTHER except deep down they love each other trope. I know siblings who care about each other. They get on each other's nerves no matter what in some ways, particularly when they're both very young, but Cale and his sister's relationship reminded me of some of the worst parts of my relationship with my sister, but from the older sibling's perspective, where you get to see how much of an ass the older sibling is. That's not an empathetic character. It's nice that he at least actually cares about her, but it's hard to read through.
And of course it's hard to really accept in some ways that this is the same Cale as in the film. He does some decent growing up and has some accomplishments under his belt and his situation (and particularly Tek's) are hard to reconcile with where they end up in the beginning of the film (like it's their last shot and they're stuck there until they hit gold, which is by NO means the case in the book). Not that the film was perfect by any stretch but it's not one of the better after-written prequels I've read. And honestly, if all you wanted to do was rewrite the film... then do that. That would have been a lot more interesting.
It was nice that they added another female character (technically two, but Tek's wife is dead in the book) to the mix and that she was really smart and adventurous and loving and capable. Although I wonder what she got up to after the events in "Titan A.E." or if she ever got to meet Akima or reunite with Tek. It was also neat to learn what exactly Tek DID on the Titan project, and I guess where Cale got the tattoo.
But other than that... it's not an enjoyable read. Kind of like reading a really long wikipedia entry on whichever character from any franchise you want to know more about. Boring. Lots of typos and badly edited moments (none of the tie-in novels were well-edited) and some plot holes.
June 4, 2016
Very disappointing read for someone like myself who enjoyed Titan A.E. and is a science fiction fan. They had such rich material to work with, but fail in telling a compelling or even interesting back story for Cale. The book covers the years between Earths destruction and the beginning of the movie. Cale grows up on an alien planet, never fitting in and always restless. So his guardian decides it’s time for him to get out and meet more humans. Which goes wrong and leads to their nomadic life as seen in the movie.
December 17, 2015
So there are some really good parts to this book, mainly the plot--explanations that the movie left open, fun worldbuilding--but the character of Tek I just feel is so incredibly off. I know the two should stand separate from one another, but Tek in the book and Tek in the movie are two entirely different creatures, which bothered me a lot more than it probably should have. Cale is great though. It seems like they got him right. Overall, the spirit of the movie remains intact. I recommend for diehard fans of Titan A.E. But for everyone else, not necessary.
Read
September 22, 2016A delightful bit of backstory for the Titan AE movie character Cale Tucker for the YA readership. Action, adventure, space travel, and good clean fun. The story line follows Cale growing up, from his time spent with the non-human scientist Tek on Vusstra, Tek's home planet, and moving to a different location every time the Drej are sighted or attack. It reveals Cale's resentful attitude for his father, and how he came to despise the drifter colonies.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 31, 2010
Maybe 2.4 stars. Unlike Akima's story, there is closer to relevant information in Cale's book, but again like Titan A. E. (the book), it appears to be written for young children yet the characters are swearing. They also repeat things in and about the storyline over and over and over; and I don't mean relevant repeatings. They are just trying to take up space or something stupid like that.
July 9, 2009
I really like the way they provided two different books with the same story in it, each from a different character's POV. It gives more insight into the characters than the movie and novelization alone provided. A good sci-fi read that will definitely appeal to YA fans as well as older readers.
April 9, 2011
I'm a big Kevin J. Anderson fan and I wanted to see his take on the back story for one of the characters I came to know while working on Titan A.E. for Fox Animation.
I had read one of the X-Files stories from Kevin J. Anderson, so I know I liked his style of writing. I wasn't disappointed!
I had read one of the X-Files stories from Kevin J. Anderson, so I know I liked his style of writing. I wasn't disappointed!
June 28, 2013
This and Akima's Story are probably the best movie tie-ins I've read outside of the Star Wars extended universe. A breath of fresh air. Cale's story is definitely the lesser of the two books, but it's still very good. Worth reading if you like juvenile literature and movie tie-ins.
January 21, 2013
You should've seen when Tek's wife, Ryt dies of a disorder caused by the pollutants of the environment that she's studying.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews