Although published within a few months of the cancellation of the Buck Rogers In The 25th Century teleseries, there was no connection between the program and these books. In fact, I suspect they didn't use the "Buck" name, in part, to distance them from the show.This is not unlike the Flash Gordon novels published by Tempo Books around the same time - those books had no connection with the recent animated and film versions of Flash, either.
I haven't actually read any of these yet because I wanted to collect all four first. Now that I have them on the shelf, I'm hoping to get to them soon.... and further hoping that they're a lot better than the two awful Buck Rogers TV tie-in paperbacks published a couple of years before by "Addison Steele" (Richard Lupoff).
Interesting. The idea of putting out a novel but trying to capitalize on the name recognition of the main character strikes me as bit of a challenge. I wonder what other novels with main characters not named exist out there?
ReplyDeleteAs fortune would have it, Netflix just put Buck Rogers back in their On Demand library this week.
I'm pretty sure they were aiming at the "hard SF" crowd, and were using the Niven-Pournelle brand as their selling point.
ReplyDeleteOh - and I don't think Buck Rogers ever went off of Netflix instant - it's been in my queue for months, and I watch an episode or two a week....
ReplyDeleteGil Gerard has announced that he is writing a series of Buck Rogers books that tie in with the series he starred in. He stated that his intent is to explore story lines and ideas that he wished had been explored in the series. Looking forward to seeing what he comes out with.
ReplyDeleteIf it happens, I'll be interested in reading them.
ReplyDeletePatrick Duffy has said the same thing: that he is writing some Man From Atlantis novels.
We'll see.
Last month I finished reading Mordred, the first of these sequels. The author John Eric Holmes earlier wrote an authorized Burroughs sequel, Mahars of Pellucidar (1976, also by Ace), and edited the first Basic set (1977, TSR) for Dungeons & Dragons (which my website and blog are devoted to). Holmes' story is a faithful continuation of Nowlan's Armageddon 2419 novel (a fix-up of the original two stories), which was republished by Ace in a mass market paperback in Aug 1978, possibly in advance of the TV show. While the original novel is clearly the "primary invention", in some ways I found Holmes' Rogers story (which begins 60 years later after the death of Wilma) to be more engaging (better/more dialogue and characterization), though the endless descriptions of dis ray attacks (also shared with the original) were still a bit taxing to this reader. As you mention, the Mordred novel has nothing that connects it to the TV show other than Rogers' white suit on the cover.
ReplyDeleteHolmes passed away in 2010 but there's an interview with him over here that explains the name issue:
"In writing "Mordred," Holmes told me he originally included a line in which Anthony Rogers tells someone: "You can just call me Buck." But the editors told him: "No, he CAN'T just call him Buck!" Due to various copyright considerations, the name "Buck" was not available for use by ACE Books. The company owned only the rights to the novel concept, and didn't own anything else associated with Buck Rogers properties."
I had never heard of Rogers' Rangers but have read the other three books. How did I miss that one? Weird. Enjoy them, I think Warrior's Blood was my favorite of the three.
ReplyDeleteWell, from the publication dates, it appears that the first three books all came out in '80 and '81, but Rangers saw print two years later, in '83. Maybe Silbersack was as slow a writer as I am.... ;)
ReplyDeleteWell, by 83, girls had finally overcome (temporarily) my love of Sci-Fi. I guess that explains it! HA
ReplyDeleteUntil I started following this blog, I had no idea there were any authorized sequels to Phillip Francis Nolan's Armageddon 2419 A.D. I have the Ace edition published in 1978, which was revised and updated by Spider Robinson. I'm guessing the authors of the later novels couldn't use the name "Buck" because it was owned by Robert C. Dille. But since these books were written as direct sequels to the original source material, it only makes sense that they would use the character's original name.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I found this blog, as I had no knowledge of the books after Mordred. Must try to get copies, thanks!
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