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Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday (Transformers)


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A good tie-in story that should've been better
Review date: 2008-07-12 Rating: 6 out of 10

Whenever you have a huge, summer blockbuster film out like Transformers (released back in 2007), all kinds of tie-in merchandise is released to help promote the film as part of the marketing campaign, be it soundtracks, computer games and of course, books. Novelisation of films are both expected and commonplace. I understand its place in marketing, but it's not really something to be excited about. If you've watched the film, then reading the book isn't going to surprise you, story-wise. And you can't really read the book if you're going to see the film as it's filled with spoilers which will take the enjoyment away. Either way, it's a lose-lose situation, making the idea rather redundant.

Having said that though, Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday hits upon an idea that is much more like it, in terms of sensibility, originality and fine marketing. And that is to be a prequel novel to the events of the film. The idea is brilliant on principle alone, as it either builds up interest and anticipation OR covers things that weren't in the film (depending on whether you've seen it or not).

Ghosts of Yesterday (written by Alan Dean Foster) actually takes place almost forty years before the start of the actual film. The year 1969, to be precise. While the major event of that year was obviously Neil Armstrong going to the moon in Apollo 11, another more important space mission was being conducted in the shadows.

The enigmatic, secretive Sector Seven organization have reverse-engineered their latest technological feat from the Decepticon Leader Megatron (dubbed `The Ice Man`). The result is Ghost One, the most advanced spaceship developed by mankind. The purpose is for a crew of Sector Seven operatives to pilot the craft to explore outer space for any signs of life similar to `The Ice Man', but the mission soon takes them far beyond their own solar system...and right into the thick of the Autobot-Decepticon war.

Already, Ghosts of Yesterday gets a good amount of merit for the story-premise alone. The early days of Sector Seven's experimentation with Megatron, coinciding it with the Apollo 11 mission (which is another inventive use of real history that makes this incarnation of Transformers so appealing), along with Foster's good, descriptive (some times deep-thought provoking) writing style, makes this novel a good read.

Unfortunately, the whole story isn't pulled off as well as it could and should've been. There are quite a few major faults that take points away. The first is obviously the glaring continuity error, where Megatron here is in the midst of being shipped to Hoover Dam from an artic base in 1969. This contradicts the events of the film, where it's decreed that Megatron was shipped to the Dam in 1934 and put in suspended animation in 1935. For me, that tarnishes my enjoyment of this book somewhat and upsets the continuity aspect for this universe. It makes one struggle to compare this to the film and devise a way how best to place it in film continuity...when it SHOULDN'T. Foster could've easily avoided this issue in my opinion if he'd studied more.

Another problem with Ghosts of Yesterday is the cast of humans. The crew of Ghost 1 and the various members of Sector Seven, have little (if any) personality to really make me care about them. Only the circumstances here give them any kind of value, which also means that Foster could've come up with any human characters to throw into the story, depending on PLOT alone to make this novel a success. There have been some excellent human characters in Transformers incarnations past, including the film, and the inclusion of that quality could've really helped this story. It's a real missed opportunity here.

On the other hand, though, Foster DOES get quite a lot right here. He has the character of Optimus Prime absolutely spot-on here, writing the Autobot Leader as we all know and love him; strong, wise, inspirational and compassionate to Autobot and human alike. Prime is the undisputed hero and main star of all Transformers history, and Foster's writing style solidifies that here.

The machinations of Sector Seven and overseeing of the Ghost One mission is also a terrific sub-plot. Having to deal with `The Ice Man' and opposition from the Russian KGB (during the Cold War crisis) is really entertaining stuff, as is the well-written action towards the end of the story, featuring the Autobot/Decepticon conflict, the Sector Seven/KGB conflict, the Megatron crisis, the Ghost One's arrival/involvement in the Transformers' civil war...it's very good indeed.

Foster also gives some of the Decepticons here some much-needed character development, which was somewhat lacking from the film. That's where Starscream comes in, once again a legendary villain/character. Here he's the current Decepticon Leader and wants to stay that way. Relying on deceit and treachery to maintain his position and take the AllSpark for himself. Opposition comes in the form of Blackout, whose fierce loyalty to Megatron and subsequent despising of Starscream's command make for a compelling rivalry. Throw in Barricade, who tolerates his leader only for the good of the Decepticon cause/mission, and you get a situation that is perhaps the highlight of the whole novel.

In closing, Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday is a good bit of tie-in merchandise. But as I said earlier, the major continuity-error and lack of human-character depth stops this from being the outstanding read it deserved to be. Things like the Transformers themselves and Sector Seven save this from being a disappointment, and the ending leads into the film rather nicely.

Is it essential? No. And if you're looking for a REALLY good prequel to the film, then check out IDW's Beginnings comic series, which is MUCH more like it. Still, Ghosts of Yesterday (despite its faults) remains a nice little read. The surprises on hand here make this worth the money, but aren't anywhere near enough to make it a classic. Your choice.

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Reviews


Do not bother!!!
Review date: 2007-08-13 Rating: 2 out of 10

This Book is an insult to the name Transformers!

Considering it is supposedly written By Alan Dean Foster, who is a great writer of Sci-fi, This so-called prequel is terrible in the most harsh sense of the word. It is clearly just a marketing ploy to make Hasbro a few more pennies.

The book is a little over 250pages, I read it on the afternoon of it arriving at my house and found the last 100pages difficult after I realised there was nothing interesting happening throughout.

There is no insight into the Wider Universe of the Transformers or Cybertron, The characterisation is nonexistant; we are Told everything: "Bumblebee is loyal, is smart, is small, is courageous." BLAH BLAH BLAH! We are not shown anything, merely told that the Autobots are the goodies and the Decepticons are bad.

There is almost no character description; The only difference between Bumblebee, Optimus, Jazz, Ironhide, Ratchet, Barricade, Frenzy, and Blackout is apparently their size! Also, the characters could literally be mistaken for human if it were not for the constant references to "Mechanical lifeform" or the like; there is no insight into the inner-workings of a Cybertronian or their psychology, for effectively immortal beings they are incredibly caught up with the issue of time.

Time is another problem; Bumblebee is referred to as being "Younger" than Ratchet without anything to elaborate on cybertronian age, do they mean literally; That he was build later? or that his mental state is younger? These and so many other important issues like how long the transformers have been seeking the allspark are merely overlooked, the latter is handled with the catch-all "centuries".

There some vague, non-commital reference to the history of cybertron but it is fleeting and serves only the most rudimentary of purposes: Explaining why the spark went missing, Why bumblebee cannot speak and why Megatron left. Even this is done as if in passing.

The human Explorer aspect of the story is almost redundant, it is basically more humanist trumpet blowing: "Wow, Look how brave and selfless people are!" that directors and film makers adore these days.

The only involved character who really does anything and gets any kind of development is Starscream, who is basically a direct port of his G1 incaration with the Ballsiness turned up a notch. This is no bad thing.

There are 3 Stories running symultaneously here: The Transformer War, The human explorers, and the "Ice Man" Situation. Only the latter is handled with any finesse, and to be fair I enjoyed that section, which makes me believe that the book is at least worth 1star. The other sections are badly handled and the continuity between all three is confusing.

And finally, the book fails to serve its purpose. It is meant to be a springboard into the film - a prequel, But it does not work, the ending is so rushed that it leaves more questions unanswered than otherwise and the book and film events do not match up except with the most wild stretches of the imagination.

I Seriously regret having bought this book, it is truly terrible. The only people who should bother reading it are the profoundly stupid who cannot work out what is happening in the film, and the Die-hard TF fan who should merely buy it then lay it on a shelf to make a collection complete and not soil their eyes by actually reading it.



Disappointing
Review date: 2007-07-29 Rating: 4 out of 10

A very disappointing book. The characterization of the transformers is shallow and formulaic. The approach taken in writing this book seems largely based on writing a list of human body parts, coming up with 'robot terms' for them, and substituting as required. There are few glimpses that the real thought has gone into writing about sentient robots.

The main emotional highlight of the book for me was my shocked disbelief that the human crew were unable to work out the meaning behind the 'code phrase' they were given.

I was afraid a movie tie in book would be poor. I had some hope when I saw it had been written by Alan Dean Foster, who was at least an author I had heard of, but alas it really is quite poor.


A VERY good read. Highly recommended!
Review date: 2007-07-21 Rating: 10 out of 10

Originally, I purchased this book by accident, believing it to be the adult novel of the new Transformers Movie. However, I'm now very happy that I made that mistake because in addition to having the adult novel of the new Transformers movie (I bought it later from Waterstones), I now have the story that takes place BEFORE the movie. In other words, this novel is a prequel.

On the front cover of this book, it states that this is the story you MUST read before you watch the movie. This is indeed a highly recommended book to read, if possible, before watching the movie. It's a good idea because this book explains quite a lot of things about the Autobots and Decepticons that may or may not have been totally explained or even spoke off in the movie. For example, this book will tell you everything that happened to poor little Bumblebee and the reason why he is unable to speak when in robot-mode and is only capable of speaking through his radio. The reasons behind his dumbness are only briefly spoken about in the movie, but not made completely clear, hence the reason why you should read this book.

In addition to that, this novel will also give you a greater indepth history as to the importance of the Allspark and why the Transformers are fighting so desperately against each other to obtain it.

You also learn how Megatron became the Iceman.

Anyway, this is a highly-addictive book that kept me up till 1 - 2am in the morning just to finish the chapter. Give this book a read, if only for a few chapters. You will be grateful that you did as it will help you to enjoy the new movie even more by understanding what everything means.

Just the begining
Review date: 2007-06-17 Rating: 8 out of 10

This book story only tells part of the story for the movie background. Set back in the days of the first moon mission, a single ship launches around the same time from elsewhere on earth and during a testing of a new highly advanced engine design based upon Transformer Technology taken from the dormant Megatron. The Ghost during its maiden voyage encounters the transformers after they end up in a another solar system and their hope of getting back, fast fading.

On Earth, Megatron's dormant form is being prepped for Transfer from Alaska to Hover Dam, but things don't go to plan when the Soviets turn up and their after one thing, the Iceman (Megatron)!

Overall this is a good book to read, but if you want to fully understand the story, its best that you get the prequel comics as well. Compared against the last set of novels based on Transformers, this one out strips it by miles, so its worth the read!

Product Details/Specifications


Authors:
Alan Dean Foster

Recording label: Titan Books Ltd
Manufacturer: Titan Books Ltd
EAN: 9781845766023
Binding: Paperback
ISBN: 1845766024
Number of pages: 304
Publication date: 2007-05-25
Language: English (Unknown)
Language: English (Original Language)

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