Rating: 
Summary: No battles but heavy character play
Review: Richard Hatch attempts in his books to keep the essential spirit of Battlestar Galactica alive. Hatch himself is promoting a continuation movie (although he will appear in the reimagined version on SCI-FI Channel). His books thus far have been working towards keeping the story alive with our favorite characters and villains.
That being said, this book is not great compared to the first few in this series. Its strength lies in the characters themselves facing the possibility of being left behind to face the Cylons. However poor editing and continuity problems plague this book, which is unfortunate.
The main character in this book is Baltar and Hatch has managed to take this traitor and turn him inside out for us to view. Also underlying the book is the civil war within the Cylons between those who were genetically manipulated by Count Iblis and the pure Cylons. Both sides of the civil war want humans dead though, so the war will not end no matter who wins.
Destiny here refers to not only where the humans are going but what they must do in order to move forward. The Cylons are debating this by killing each other. And with the colonials, the old guard (the Council) is not happy it is being stripped of its power. Baltar surprises everyone by what he does in the end with that council and the Cylons that arrive
Apollo learns that it is time for his people to move forward, to a destiny, and that means leaving behind some elements of the Twelve Colonies that do not function at all when society is not stable and under constant threat of attack. One of the complaints of the original BSG was that it portrayed the civilian government as fools, knaves, and blackguards bent on all kinds of deceipt. That issue is resolved in this book (and some say good riddance to the council).
This book is like an intermission of sorts to another possibly interesting set of story possibilities. The Cylons make no real appearance (except in Baltar's mind which is now a piece of Cylon tech) and Iblis not at all. However in the future they should spellcheck, grammar check, and continuity check before publication. One of the big continuity errors is that Iblis was banished not to Cylon but to Kobol! (If you read Resurrection Iblis tells exactly what happened when the Kobolians exiled him).
There is good character development in this book for Apollo, Starbuck, Cassiopeia, and Sheba. In many ways the book resets those relationships back to their proper place (which will make many happy). And one good thing to about this book and the previous ones is that at least Athena is developed more than the televised BSG ever did.
If you are looking for a good character story, then this is for you. If you want to see Cylons and the Colonials battle it out, pop in a dvd from the recent released version. You will need to overlook some sloppy at times writing and other things that get in the way but once you do, there is some good stuff to be found here.
Rating: 
Summary: as a Baltar fan I loved it
Review: Destiny is a very good read that kept me entertained from start to finish. I love what Hatch and company have done with Baltar. You can almost hear Colicos' voice as you read Baltar's thoughts and words. Colicos' Baltar was one of the most complicated villains in 70's TV, but that wasn't understood by some. Hatch didn't miss it. He's given us a portrayal of this character that is extremely faithful and yet new. Hatch and company have really fleshed out many of the ideas and characters from the TV series. I have not read all of the books in this series, but sadly I have noticed typos in those that I have read. That's too bad. The stories are winners. The characters are on target. The new ideas and characters have made things more exciting. It seems that there are readers who did not like the idea of Sheba and Apollo's romance breaking up in Resurrection, but I thought that was very well done. It has also made things more interesting in the long run. Any complaints I could have about these books would be very minor compared to the positive aspects. I've had a very good time reading these.
Rating: 
Summary: i'd love to see this on t.v.
Review: destiny would really make a fabulous episode and it's a shame that these novels haven't been turned into t.v. or big screen movies. seeing this on the screen would be great. destiny is a marvelous tale and i'm very glad i took the journey.
Rating: 
Summary: IT IS YOUR DESTINY- NOT TO READ THIS BOOK!
Review: I am a HUGE fan of the first 3 BSG books in this series, especially Armageddon and Warhawk. Those were fun books with tons o' action and hot warrior and cylon action. They were like really good episodes of the second season that never was (BSG 80 doesn't count). But all of the collaborations with Brad Linaweaver are just plain awful. Linaweaver is a simply horrific writer. His sentences and dialogue are completely disjointed, illogical, and nonsensical. The plot and story don't go anywhere. There is a lot about what people are thinking and no one is actually doing anything. Hey Hatch, how about some action and some Cylons!!! How about good story and plot??!! Too much to ask, I guess!! And Starbuck is once again turned into a minor character, whereas Hatch's Apollo is a divine god. Get back with Chris Golden and write some good books again. This Linaweaver is just such a bad, bad, bad writer.
Rating:
Summary: Great date with "Destiny"
Review: I haven't always had great luck with books based on my favorite TV shows. Often I read them and half way through I find myself wondering "who the hell are these people?" or "what the hell is happening?". Some of these types of books completely fail to capture the tone, stlye, characters, and events of the show. In an attempt to do something different they toss the baby out with the bath water. Other books based on my favorite TV shows have the reverse problem. Those books are just "the same old same old". It's the same old thing done the same old way. It's all way too formulaic. Reading them makes me feel like I've seen it all before. Destiny tries to avoid some of the beloved cliches from the TV show by being more about empathy than spectacle. There's little of the standard space dogfights and cylons this time around. This helps make things a little less of the "same old same old" without completely warping the whole thing into something that wouldn't be Battlestar Galactica. All of my favorite Battlestar Galacticans are in Destiny and their individual personalities are well done. In some ways Destiny reads like a love story but I didn't find that to be a bad thing. I had a good time reading this.
Rating:
Summary: Great date with "Destiny"
Review: I haven't always had great luck with books based on my favorite TV shows. Often I read them and half way through I find myself wondering "who the hell are these people?" or "what the hell is happening?". Some of these types of books completely fail to capture the tone, stlye, characters, and events of the show. In an attempt to do something different they toss the baby out with the bath water. Other books based on my favorite TV shows have the reverse problem. Those books are just "the same old same old". It's the same old thing done the same old way. It's all way too formulaic. Reading them makes me feel like I've seen it all before. Destiny tries to avoid some of the beloved cliches from the TV show by being more about empathy than spectacle. There's little of the standard space dogfights and cylons this time around. This helps make things a little less of the "same old same old" without completely warping the whole thing into something that wouldn't be Battlestar Galactica. All of my favorite Battlestar Galacticans are in Destiny and their individual personalities are well done. In some ways Destiny reads like a love story but I didn't find that to be a bad thing. I had a good time reading this.
Rating:
Summary: three and a half stars
Review: I've been enjoying Richard Hatch's series of Galactica books. But "Destiny" left me feeling a little shortchanged. All the events take place in what is essentially an epilog to the last book, "Paradis", also co written w/Linaweaver. There's not much plot development here. And what plot there is is getting formulaic: The surviving colonials are faced with a dilemma requiring decisive action (in this case, the same dilemma as the last book...); Apollo knows what to do but is challenged by some nefariously inspired villian(s); Apollo and Starbuck experience angst over their lives and loves; Conflict ensues; resolution makes it all better, and Apollo is right and proven so. This book was skimpier than most of Hatch's other Galactica books. There's not much there, there. No Viper action, really. No battles at all. And too much telling what happened as opposed to showing it. The book does have some good points, but overall does not do much to serve the arc Hatch has been developing in his books. And the typos mentioned in other reviews are there. Worst is Sire Rigginbok who suddenly becomes Sire Riggbok halfway through the book. And he is one of many undeveloped threads in the book, characters and ideas introduced and then never developed. Plus there's a glaring fact error. Hatch has Cassiopia looking at her new baby boy (of dubious sirehood) and calls him her only child, when the daughter she concieved with Starbuck, Dalton, has been a major character in some of Hatch's other Galactica books. Oops. I bought this book, I enjoyed it, to some degree, but I gotta say to Richard Hatch and his collaborators, don't pass this kind of incomplete meandering off as a novel again, okay?
Rating:
Summary: darn good
Review: Not a big GALACTICA fan (just never had time to watch it) but this is a good book. The characters are enjoyable and multi-layered. I'll have to check out the other books in this series.
Rating:
Summary: Great book! Brings back old memories of the series.
Review: Reading DESTINY was like visiting with old friends.
It brought back good old memories. I now have good new memories too.
I liked the changes, updates, and new characters. The Noman is a good addition to the crew. I also enjoyed the slightly older take on all my old friends from the series. They've all gotten better with age.
There's so much warmth in these characters.
Two thumbs up!
Rating:
Summary: Though I don't like BATTLESTAR that much....
Review: This book is really interesting and is definitely a good example of traditional space opera. Very satisfying. Another satisfying space opera is "Advent of the Corps" which is more in line with Star Trekish space opera than Galactica.
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