With Installments Like Endangered Species, the Line of LOST Novels May Be Endangered
Written: Jun 09 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: it's the island, and we catch of glimpse of most of the characters
Cons: main characters from the show don't have enough to do
The Bottom Line: Recommended, but only if you're really suffering from a lack of LOST. Mostly, this will just whet your appetite.
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| bilbopooh's Full Review: LOST: Endangered Species |
Shortly before the finale of this season of LOST aired, I got my hands on a copy of Signs of Life, the third in a series of tie-in novels about the epic stuck-on-a-mysterious-island drama. I found it very disappointing, but not as disappointing as the prospect of enduring the rest of the year without any new installments of my favorite current series. So I rushed to the website of the Erie County Library and discovered that I could read the first two books in the series in electronic format. Hoping for the best, I downloaded both and was pleased to find that author Cathy Hapka demonstrated much greater skill and familiarity with the show than Frank Thompson, at least with Secret Identity, the second of her efforts.
Her first outing, while still considerably better than Thompson's, is not as successful as her second, which impressed me more than it should have simply because Signs of Life was so dreary. Entitled Endangered Species, it runs parallel to Secret Identity in that it covers roughly the same time span of the first few days after the crash of Flight 815. The star red-shirt this time around is Faith Harrington, a graduate student passionate about ecology and wildlife, particularly snakes. Very quiet and unassertive, she has a tendency to get yanked around by people with more forceful personalities preying on her desire to make a positive difference in the world.
Faith is a sympathetic character, clearly a kind-hearted young woman who could be a valuable asset given her expertise. She and Arzt ought to put their heads together; I was a bit disappointed that he didn't have a role to play in this book, since I think they would have complemented each other nicely. She reminds me of myself, which is perhaps why I often found myself so frustrated with the way her rampant insecurities lead her to either hang back, so overwhelmed and intimidated that she is immobilized, or go along with the orders of somebody else even when her gut instinct tells her she shouldn't. She comes across as a bit whiny on the island, while in the flashback chapters she allows herself to be manipulated in a series events that rather obviously are leading to a calamitous conclusion. She puts her trust in the wrong people while allowing a moment of disillusionment to destroy a cherished relationship.
The writing in this novel is not as artful as in Secret Identity; the narration often comes across as rather cliched and bland. Moreover, Faith's actions leading up to the event necessitating her quick departure from Australia seem awfully dim-witted to me. Jeff and Dexter, the protagonists in the other books, also made some pretty grievous errors, but Faith just doesn't seem to be paying attention. Or maybe she's too blinded by love to realize what's happening. But when her overzealous activist boyfriend talks her into going to Australia to protest the lecture of her former mentor, it's only one in a series of very poorly considered decisions on her part. I guess the point is that the island is supposed to give her some backbone. Does it succeed?
Perhaps the biggest problem with Endangered Species is that the main character with whom Faith interacts on the island was invented for this book. When I spotted a couple references to him in Secret Identity, I assumed the middle-aged, talkative George must have been a throwback to this first novel, and I was right. The trouble is that even more than the island and all its inherent enigmas, what makes LOST compelling is its characters, so if people are picking up a book based on the show, they want to read about Jack, Kate, Hurley, Charlie, Sun, Jin and all the other castaways they've come to love. I can accept the decision to put the focus on characters who haven't been explored on the show, but in order for this to really feel like something that is part of the LOST universe, there needs to be a bit more involvement from the main players.
It doesn't help that although George is described as a pleasantly gregarious fellow, he's actually rather obnoxious, bossing Faith around minutes after meeting her and blowing a gasket because of her environmentalist views. His violent reaction is explained somewhat when we learn that his job as a real estate developer causes frequent clashes with people of Faith's persuasion, but his behavior is still less than laudable and has a pronounced negative effect on her, particularly when he needlessly squashes a spider that she points out.
What bothers me most about George is the fact that we're seeing him instead of the established castaways. Faith's interaction with most of them is minimal, in some cases limited to just a passing glance. She has brief conversations with Sawyer, Sayid and several others and forms the beginnings of friendships with Hurley and Claire. If I recall correctly, the back cover blurb on this seemed to indicate some sort of confrontation between her and John, but he actually seems poised to mentor Faith as he did with Charlie, Boone, Claire and several of the other castaways. It would have been nice to see that explored a bit more; as it is, she interacts with John, Claire and Hurley more than anyone else other than George, but all three relationships seem pretty tangential.
If you're a devoted fan looking for something to ease the wait until the fourth season, it might be worth it to see if your local library carries these books. This one is the longest, and even so it's barely longer than 200 pages, so you won't be wasting hours upon hours on shoddy writing. The story is engaging enough, but if you want a decent dose of all those fantastic characters from the show, Secret Identity is the only one of the three that really delivers. Something tells me the LOST tie-in novel is an endangered species...
Pilot Epiosde
Season One
Season Two
Secret Identity
Signs of Life
Charlie figure
Locke figure
Hurley figure
Jack figure
Hatch Boxed Set
Mystery of the Island Jigsaw Puzzle (The Numbers)
LOST Parodies:
Bohemian Rhapsody
I Am a Rock
White Christmas
Christmas Canon Rock
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Christmas in Killarney
Henry the Eighth
Sweet Baby James
The Only Living Boy in New York
Here, There and Everywhere
He Was My Brother
For Baby (For Bobbie)
Sloop John B.
When I'm 64
The Longest Time
Run for the Roses
You Don't Bring Me Flowers Anymore
Eye of the Tiger
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Leader of the Band
Same Old Lang Syne
Cat's in the Cradle
An Innocent Man
The Boxer
Sparrow
Loves Me Like a Rock
Der Fuehrer's Face
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Candle in the Wind
Scarborough Fair / Canticle
Hey Jude
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
bilbopooh
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Member: Erin McCarty
Location: Erie, PA
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