Space:1999 Born for Adversity [Paperback]

Taking place after the conclusion of Season Two, author McIntee knows his stuff and weaves a tale that makes use of the best elements of the shows first and second seasons, wraps up some continuity issues and answers questions fans have wanted to know for years, in an incident packed story with some nice surprises and discoveries along the way, too, whilst also carving a new beginning for the shows format in book form, in many ways cutting down on the elements fans hated in season two and steerring the show back to its adult sci-fi roots. It may be a little over written at times, but its certainly a worthy original SPACE: 1999 novel that fans will enjoy...

A newly published book by Powys Media. It brings 'back to life' my favourite tv series ever. Space 1999.

The book is excellent, well written and full of the characters I've missed for so long.

If you enjoyed the adventures of Commander Koenig and the other Alphans in the 70s you'll love this new book. If you're new to Space 1999 why not do a spot of internet research and find out what happened on Sept 13th 1999...

Born For Adversity is just one in a series of excellent books published by Powys Media a small company dedicated to the renaissance of Space 1999 !

ENJOY !

After enjoying all the original Space 1999 novels from the 70's I approached the continuation novels from Powysmedia with the same trepidation one approaches fan-fiction on the internet. The problem with fan-fiction is that it is very much a hit & miss affair, some of it is very good but some of it is hard to enjoy as it is very subjective to the fan-writer's own interpretation of the franchise, which can sometimes leads to exercises of sheer fan-induced eccentricity.

But after reading many of the novels from Powysmedia I can attest that they are even superior to the original series of novels. This is due to the Powysmedia books being written by Space 1999 fans who are also professional writers. Plus the entire series is professionally edited to induce the sort of 'fanboy-restraint' that is sadly missing from some examples of online fan-fiction. It's this combination of both professionalism & dedication that really shines through in the text which elevates it above the standards set by the original series of novels from the 70's.

'Born for Adversity' is the 2nd best Space 1999 adventure that I have read so far (as there are more Powysmedia releases being planned). The story contains many varied plot-threads, including many internal & externals dangers that threaten the safety of the Moonbase which all culminate into the most epic space battle to ever appear in the franchise. Like I said in the title for this review if the franchise were to be relaunched into a threatical release (ala Star Trek 2009) then 'Born for Adversity' would be the most perfect candidate for the movie's storyline.

The finest aspect of this novel is the author's dedication towards carefully correcting the mistakes wrought on the 2nd season of the series by producer Fred Frieberger. Thanks to the author's skill this ongoing saga of Space 1999 has now diverted from the 'eccentric & cheesy' Season 2 back to the serious & clinical style of Season 1 (even the uniforms have retained their style from season 1 so there's no brightly coloured-jumpsuits to be found here!!). The author's 'Back-to-Basics' sensibility is the perfect compliment to series creator Gerry Anderson who also preferred Season 1 over the very eccentric affair that was Season 2.

To sum up if you are a fan of Space 1999 (whether casual or passionate) you will definitely enjoy this novel. Strangely enough, even if you are NOT a fan of Space 1999 you may also find yourself enjoying 'Born for Adversity', the writing is that good.

BTW - The best Space 1999 novel I have read so far is 'Shepherd Moon' which is also released by Powysmedia (a combination of short stories written by various sci-fi authors including E.C. Tubb, an author of the original Space 1999 novels from the 70's). Unfortunately it seems that Amazon is not selling this title as of yet so I could not write its own individual review for it. However I would definitely recommend Shepherds Moon as the first Space 1999 novel to anyone who may have some reservations about delving into the Powysmedia universe (due to the same weariness brought on from reading some of the more eccentric examples of online Fan-fiction). Shepherds Moon will easily dispel any such fears as it is the most perfect example of the combination of both dedication & professionalism that is prevalent within this continuation series of Space 1999