Rating: 
Summary: Not Bad, but could have been better...
Review: Man, I can't believe it's come to this: that I'm writing reviews of novels based on "Andromeda". My mother begged me to become a doctor, but instead I decided to go into the highly exciting world of Betamax sales, and now I'm reduced to this. Look for me to cough up a review of a "Red Dwarf" episode guide soon or something.
Anyway. This novel is by Keith DeCandido and is the first published volume of "Andromeda" fiction. It's a prequel to the show's pilot episode and establishes backstories for Tyr and for how Trance (her happy and guileless purple version, not the later enigmatic and secretive gold version) hooked up with Beka and stuff. DeCandido does a good job of capturing the flavor of the show's first season (by far the best out of the four that have aired thus far), and even throws in cryptic citations and sayings as chapter headers, just like the actual TV episodes do. Lot of Nietzschean maneuverings and plots. The bits about Tyr and his ilk are really nice. The biggest bonus, though, is that Dylan only appears in about five pages. Yay! 'Cuz he is just terrible.
This is better than a lot of the recent episodes and is worth reading if for no other reason that that DeCandido wrote it. He's done a lot of excellent Trek work and if you like reading this sort of thing, I would highly recommend that you pick up his efforts. He shows a great deal more imagination than most authors in these series and does some real nice character work. If you've got some time to blow and you want a taste of "Andromeda" in its "almost good" period, give this book a try.
Rating: 
Summary: Very well done, faithful to show's 1st yr's high standards
Review: This book is hard to put down.After watching the dreck being passed off by the TV show's 3rd year, this book comes as a welcome and surprising read. I don't expect a lot from sci-fi tie-ins, and I usually skip them. The Destruction of Illusions is really well written and renders the characters' dialog crisply. There are many wonderful scenes such as the commendation over a fallen mercenary; Tyr's humiliation by a Nietzschean field marshal; the "dog house" scene with Captain Valentine, Rev Bem, and Harper -- to name a few.
Rating: 
Summary: A Very Fun Read
Review: This is the first time I've ever posted a review on Amazon about a book. While I enjoy reading quite a bit (and follow quite a few series such as Star Trek, Star Wars, etc.), my feelings after reading a book tend to vary from "great" to "okay" with few eliciting a reaction any more negative than that. Since this is the case, I guess I've felt that my reviews would be a bit boring. That said, I've been praising DESTRUCTION OF ILLUSIONS on the Star Trek books board (Keith DeCandido is an author of many Trek books and editor of the "Star Trek: S.C.E." eBook series) ever since I read it so I figured that I should put it in writing here as well. DeCandido has a real knack for getting dialogue right in his series books. I mean, you have absolutely no problem imagining Beka Valentine or Seamus Harper or Tyr Anasazi saying DeCandido's lines. The fact that this is a prequel novel is also nice because it lends a "special" feeling to it, giving the reader something he or she would most likely not see on the average episode of the TV series. The only possible downside, also due to the book's prequel nature, is that Captain Dylan Hunt and "Rommie" only appear in the first and last chapters (the present day framing story for the rest of the book's prequel setting), so if you are wanting to read about those characters, well, they're not in it very much. Still, that's a very small thing (and some might actually consider it a good thing because it gives the spotlight a chance to shine on the other characters for once). So, if you are an "Andromeda" fan, I'd definitely recommend DESTRUCTION OF ILLUSIONS to you.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Fun Read
Review: This is the first time I've ever posted a review on Amazon about a book. While I enjoy reading quite a bit (and follow quite a few series such as Star Trek, Star Wars, etc.), my feelings after reading a book tend to vary from "great" to "okay" with few eliciting a reaction any more negative than that. Since this is the case, I guess I've felt that my reviews would be a bit boring. That said, I've been praising DESTRUCTION OF ILLUSIONS on the Star Trek books board (Keith DeCandido is an author of many Trek books and editor of the "Star Trek: S.C.E." eBook series) ever since I read it so I figured that I should put it in writing here as well. DeCandido has a real knack for getting dialogue right in his series books. I mean, you have absolutely no problem imagining Beka Valentine or Seamus Harper or Tyr Anasazi saying DeCandido's lines. The fact that this is a prequel novel is also nice because it lends a "special" feeling to it, giving the reader something he or she would most likely not see on the average episode of the TV series. The only possible downside, also due to the book's prequel nature, is that Captain Dylan Hunt and "Rommie" only appear in the first and last chapters (the present day framing story for the rest of the book's prequel setting), so if you are wanting to read about those characters, well, they're not in it very much. Still, that's a very small thing (and some might actually consider it a good thing because it gives the spotlight a chance to shine on the other characters for once). So, if you are an "Andromeda" fan, I'd definitely recommend DESTRUCTION OF ILLUSIONS to you.
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