I’ve said before that Cox is not one of my favorite tie-in novelists, because he seems to think he’s more clever than he is. He comes across as the stereotypical fanboy, and beyond his excellent Khan novels (where it worked to his advantage), that tendency has been a detriment to his work. That kind of thinking (and plotting) carries through in this novel, the first of the “APO Series”, set vaguely in the fourth season of the television series.
The book is riddled with continuity references, which is both a positive and negative development. On the positive side, this helps to ground the book into the series more completely than the “Prequel Series” ever could, since the previous books were often too streamlined to delve into the pre-history of the series effectively. Unfortunately, the attempt to incorporate continuity into the series brings about errors.
The most annoying error is the notion that Sydney had been with SD-6 for a total of five years before the events of the series itself. That’s flatly contradicted by the continuity of the first couple seasons and the entire “Prequel Series”, books of which were written by writers on the show. All of this is designed to give Sydney enough history with SD-6 to allow for a new villain from her past on the level of Anna Espinosa. Instead, because that error comes early in the book and is repeated endlessly, it makes the author look sloppy.
On the positive side, the tone of the book seems to have evolved from the “young adult” mindset of the “Prequel Series”, which also includes some additional length. It’s no longer possible to devour an “Alias” book in one quick sitting, so it feels more substantial. Future installments will prove out the more mature treatment of the novels, in better keeping with the television series itself, but this is a good enough start for the format.
Rating: 6/10
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