Greetings from Earth (Book)

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Greetings from Earth A book of the Berkley Books line
Book No.	8
Author(s)	Ron Goulart
Adaptation of	Greetings from Earth
No. of Pages	183 (1st edition)
Published	June 1983
ISBN	0425060470
Chronology
Previous		Next
War of the Gods	Greetings from Earth	Experiment in Terra
Paperback Version
Available at Amazon.com – Purchase
Available at Amazon.co.uk – Purchase
Available at BOOKSAMILLION.COM - Purchase
Available at Half.com by eBay - Purchase
Audiobook Version
Available at iTunes – [{{{itunes}}} Purchase]

The novelization to the Original Series' two-hour episode, "Greetings From Earth".

Review

The Berkley novels take a turn for the worse with author Ron Goulart at the helm. It doesn't help that Greetings From Earth isn't exactly the most popular episode of the series. Goulart does his best to differentiate the novelization by adding several new scenes and even a few new characters to the story, and while it may make the novel a little more interesting, the extra scenes and characters don't add much to the story as a whole.

The biggest fault of the book is Goulart's handling of Starbuck. Goulart takes all of Starbuck's least likable traits and multiplies them times ten! Sure, Starbuck was a loudmouth, a braggart, and a womanizer to some extent, but Goulart writes him so over the top that the character becomes a joke. If the Starbuck character had been like this on the TV series, he surely would have been hated and despised by every Galactica fan.

First of all, it gets annoying the way Starbuck is almost always chomping and puffing away on a cigar. Second, he is constantly saying "Hooey!" and addressing everyone as "chum". In the actual episode, Starbuck did go overboard a little when he told off Reese in the officers' club, but in the novel Starbuck blows up on Reese so badly that he comes across as an insufferable jerk. ("Reese, you have ten seconds to withdraw your snoot from our conversation," said Starbuck, grinning thinly. "After which time I will personally carry you bodily to the nearest wastechute and eject you into the vastness of space." Only moments earlier, Starbuck tells Apollo, "You're being dippy." Dippy???)

To make matters worse, Goulart feels compelled to pair Starbuck up with some country hick woman with psi-powers on Paradeen, and the whole thing never really clicks. This is one Berkley book you could skip, as well as the rest of the Goulart novels.

Notes

• There is a subplot involving Jolly hooking up with a woman named Zixi which never really goes anywhere.

• The class that Athena conducts is called Applied Science.

• Boxey says in class that Dr. Wilker might make a mistake and cause the people to die. Athena later admonishes Apollo for talking negatively about Wilker in front of Boxey.

• Adama explains to Boxey in his quarters why Starbuck and Apollo took the shuttle away.

• Apollo sends a communication to the Galactica soon after arriving on Paradeen.

• Sarah sets out at night down the road (to saboutage the ships). Hector confronts her, but she insists on continuing.

• Councilman Geller meets with Adama about the ships on Paradeen. They both become concerned when they can no longer communicate with them.

• The next morning, Apollo does some exploring in the woods. He is approached by a gaunt old man named Kertiz the Hermit who has low-level telekinetic powers. Kertiz tells Apollo that leaving the planet won't be as easy as he thinks, and then walks off.

• Apollo is headed towards the vipers to check them out when a man named Sut Meadows tells him they've been smashed. The shuttle is also badly damaged.

• Hector's hovercraft is able to fly high in the air. At the city, Starbuck threatens to jump out if Hector won't lower the ship to the ground.

• Apollo confronts the Morelands on their property, but they deny they had anything to do with wrecking the ships.

• In the city, Starbuck is captured by a gang. He tells them he can get them guns. One of the women, a red-head named Queenie, takes him to find the weaponry. She tells him she saw a blonde woman wrecking the ships, and Starbuck realizes it must be Sarah. Queenie has psi-powers and knows that Starbuck was lying about the guns, but she wants to help him. They both go to a library looking for records. A rival gang appears called the Commandoes. They are about to be killed when Apollo arrives.

• Kurtiz the Hermit saves one of the children, Cindy, from an Enforcer.

• Starbuck and Apollo disguise themselves as Enforcers when they capture Leiter and his men.

• Sarah apologizes to Apollo for wrecking the ships.

• Queenie joins the fleet (and so Starbuck apparently has another girlfriend!)

Cover views

• 
  Front cover.
• 
  Back cover.

Re-imagined Series definition: the process of using the FTL engines to make an near-instantaneous apparent faster-than-light transport of a ship from one point in space to another

Galactica 1980 definition: Dillon looks up this term after Gloria Alonzo asks if he has one ^{(1980: "Space Croppers")}