Favorite Published QL Novel?

HologramIAm

Project QL Intern
Sep 15, 2006
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Speaking of the 18 novels, I would like to know which of these books is your favorite... and why (didn't you used to hate that "and why" or "Explain" at the bottom of your math homework?). I realize this has likely been discussed before on here, but I didn't want to dig up old threads... you might have read something you like better since then .
I'll start us off off with my choice...

"Angels Unaware"

I LOVED "Another Mother" (being sort of a Mr. Mom myself) and this was a perfect sequel to it. And adding Angela to the mix? Priceless reading for any QL fan. This story goes to show you must watch out what you say and promise to children... they'll carry it with them throughout their entire lives.

Next...
 
I've literally just finished reading all of the books from start to finish, so this is a well-timed thread.

I'm torn between two books; '"Carny Knowledge" by Ashley McConnell, and "Obsessions" by our very own Carol Davis.

"Carny Knowledge" was the very first QL book I read, which is probably part of why I like it so much. The storyline kept me interested, and the characters had depth and gave me an emotional investment in the story. I thought it was tautly plotted and paced, and well written.

"Obsessions": Carol is my all-time favourite fan-fiction author, and I have every zine she ever published. She writes my favourite Sam and Al, and isn't scared to write them as normal, flawed people with fears and hopes and dreams. Her Sam isn't some perfect boy scout - he's made his mistakes, but has learned from them. "Obsessions" is the perfect example of why Carol was one of the foremost QL fic writers for so many years (and she is now writing incredible fiction for the series Supernatural). Painfully all-too-human characters, a showcase of the Al we don't see often enough in the series, and even a sympathetic adult Donna. I LIKE Carol's Donna; I didn't like the Donna in The Leap Back, so it's testament to Carol's writing that she is able to stay faithful to the character as seen in the show, yet make her likeable.

And, I know you didn't ask, but I think the worst novel is Independence. I've only read it twice, and I had to force my self to finish it both times. Characterisation was awful; it was if someone had taken a novel about the war of Independence, and shoe-horned in Sam and Al to make it a QL story. It just didn't work for me.
 
EmmaCMF said:
And, I know you didn't ask, but I think the worst novel is Independence. I've only read it twice, and I had to force my self to finish it both times. Characterisation was awful; it was if someone had taken a novel about the war of Independence, and shoe-horned in Sam and Al to make it a QL story. It just didn't work for me.

I loved "Angels Unaware" and "Obsessions" too.

As for worst, to my mind exactl the same objections Emma has about "Independence" can be leveled at "Search and Rescue" - the characters were unrecognisable. It just didn't fit.
 
I agree about Independence :hurray:
Carol Davis hangs out here? Awesome! I guess I didn't notice, but I'll be sure to say hello. She is an awesome writer and I thought Obseesions was great! The blurb on the back of the book was a great one, too! I was hooked and ready to read.
 
I do indeed hang out here. Thanks for the kudos, guys! I appreciate all the kind words, and I'm glad you enjoyed the book.

For anybody who hasn't posted yet, if you want to pick either Obsessions or Mirror's Edge as your least favorite, feel free. Just try to leave my kidneys where they are. 8)

If anybody's interested in the Supernatural fic, it's over here: http://ficwriter1966.livejournal.com.
 
I just realized you wrote Mirror's Edge, too :) Awesome book! While "Angels..." is my favorite one, these two rank very highly with me. And I like "Heat Wave," too. Hmm.
Say, Carol, if I mail these two novels to you with enough return postage and perhaps a copy of one of my comics I was published in, would you sign them for me (not my comic, tho)? I'm a shameless autograph/QL memorabilia pest, and I would really dig that. If you can't, it's cool, but I count you among the great writers of this show. See, I think of the novels as part of the Quantum Leap contiuum... it's all one great story without a proper ending anyway (minus a couple of novels and Mirror Image), and your books are better than many of the episodes I can think of... I'd be honored to have it, Carol :bow
If you can, send me a message with the where to mail it stuff, and I'll have them in the box Monday morning. If you're too busy, I'll understand that, too, and don't worry... I'll still be a fan and friend ;) God, I'm just going on and on about it. Time for bed now! Talk to you guys tomorrow and again, it feels great to be back at the board after only staying a brief time at this and the Sci-Fi board years ago. Quantum Leap RULES!! :hurray:
 
Ok this is a hard decision but a few of my favorites are:

WARNING: SOME SPOILERS AHEAD! IF YOU HAVE NOT READ SOME OF THE FOLLOWING NOVELS IT'S ADVISED THAT YOU DO NOT READ MY REVIEWS.

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Mirror's Edge:

I just love the intense story of this novel and the intense situation Sam is in as Joe Powell. It was like something my best friend and I would have written. Carol and I seem to share a lot of opinions on QL including about Sammy Jo and Abigale. I loved how Sam remembered Donna through his vivid dreams of her and being torn between the question of it being someone he knows or a brain connection with Powell causing him to dream his dreams. It was so touching how he got his memories of his beloved wife back and how she goes into the imaging chamber so husband and wife can finally see each other after so many years. I also liked the idea of Tom finding out Sam's secret of being lost in time. The leap was also an interesting one, and the thing that really wowed me was Powells wife being the little girl in Killin' Time. The one thing that made me sad was the fact that Sam seemed to have grown away from his family even before he started leaping and how Tom was getting so mad about Sam missing so much before he knew his brother's secret cuz poor Sam its not his fault he can't get home. :'(

Overall great story, I always love unique situations such as Killin' Time and The Evil Leapers.

Odessey

This was an adorable story. I loved how they had Sam leap into the boyfriend of a child Tina yet they don't tell you its her because she goes by Chrissi instead of Tina. She is an adorable charactor and I loved how Sam was very sweet with her. I always love to see Sam's sweet side in action. :dreaming . The story itself was great too, I loved how Sam helped Shaun's mom quit drinking and Shaun's relationship with Al in the waiting room. I loved how he wanted to remember Al and requested to leap back into his own world with a reminder of him in his hands.

Song and Dance

This was a very interesting story. Sam leaped into a young kid who helps tach piano with a young and very desturbed woman. His mom is going to participate in a dance contest and Sam needs to make sure her partner Marty shows up. According to the back of the book Marty turns out to be a familiar face and when I read that I instantly though of Marty Elroy the Bigimest whom Sam leaped into previously however in a few chapters before revealing his true identity he shows up at the dance club with the mom for a practice run and the mention of his bad breath gave it all away ;)

I also loved Sam's relationship with Rebecca Wexler the young and desturbed piano intructor whom Sam assists. Her charactor confused me throughout the story as supposedly she has some big secret and there were chapters telling of her having vivid nightmares and I constantly wondered what it was all leading too. I love when a writer confuses you, thats the kind of writer I wish to one day be. I loved how Sam was very sweet with her. His narroration constantly spoke of how beautiful she was and at one point when they have a small dance in her living room he really likes the feel of her in his arms. And I am just a hopeless romantic who as I said before loves to see Sam's sweet side in action. :dreaming
Its an overall wonderful mystery story.

Angel's Unaware

Ok first of all Teresa Bruckner returns as a young adult, that's already the best part. This story I believe was very suspensful as it kept me wondering about various things all the time. Mostly when was she going to descover that Al kept his promise and returned to her, and that father O'keef was really Angel Sam and if Sam was ever going to get to eat. I mean poor baby he was denied a meal througout the entire book which both my BFF and I felt unecessary he was the priest he could have requested a small meal even after the kitchens were closed. I was hoping throughout the whole book that he would not get sick. This story also had a lot of good humor in it which is to be expected with Angela around which is another thing I loved about this novel anther appearence by Angela. I thought she was great in this book. I also liked the concept of the nuns being able to see Al and thought that he was an angel kissing a crucifix.

I was however confused by one thing and that's the woman and her son that the P.O.V occastionally went to. I did not understand who they were supposed to be except she was someone that knew the preist of course. Speaking of whom the preist was really a snob and mean. First of all we learn that Sam knew him in his past and that he had thrown his thesis on the floor, poor Sam. And also he was real snobby about Sam performing mass just becasue he was not a real preist. Its not like anyone would have known that as he appears as the preist.

I did however like the thing at the beginning of the story where we meet Father O'Keef hours before Sam leaps into him and he is playing a game of chess with none other than our favorite Scientist. It onlny refers to him as the former student however and boy did it ever confuse the hell out of me. It was a reference later in the story that clicked the light on.

The only thing I hate about this book is the end when we find out that Sam did all that work to save Teresa only so she can die of cancer about three years later. I was really mad at that because she was really glad to see Sam again and asked him to call her if he ever got home to go out for lunch or something. I thought that was really sad but I did however liked something that could not have happened had it ended with her still alive and that's when she told Al that his dad had made it ot heaven because of his praying for him.

great emotional story. To those of you that are not into mushy you may or may not enjoy this one.

Indepenence

Ok let me just say that no one could have written Sam's charactor better than a man, and this man did a wonderful job. John Peel, the series' sole male author completely captured me with this story. He did a wonderful job of writing this story and Sam's chractor especially because it involved Sam having a lot of male feelings and desires throughout the story. I thought it was brilliant to put Sam in an ancester that shared his name and his appearence. it mus have felt good to Sam to go by his own name. The story was great with him being in the middle of the Civil War and required to save a friend of his great several times grandfather. And I absolutly loved Hannah Samual's(the host not Sam Sam of course. The host is refered to as the complete Samuel while our hero goes by regular Sam to not be confusing.) wife. She conicenetly shared a lot of apparence of our Sam's beloved Donna which triggered male desires in our hero and it doesn't make anything better than Hannah is having some desires of her hubby in return. I also later in the story had picked up on something else. The Sam Becketts of the Beckett men seem to have some striek marring women with the double 'N' in their name. Hannah is Samual's wife and Donna is Sam's. They even sound mildly alike. I think Sam handled the leap very well although it was confusing figuring out exactly his task for a while.

I also loved Samuel in the waiting room. He kept thinking he had been captured by the British and Beaks and Al were having a hard time telling him that they were not the British. I really wish I could see this story as an actual episode as I would just love to see Scott double as Samuel in the waiting room seeing as he and Sam are supposed to look alike and Terri Hatcher should come back as Donna's look-alike Hannah Beckett.

This one goes at the top of my list.

*****************

I have read others of the novels as well but these one's captured my Attention, imagaination and interest the most.
 
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I loved Mirror's Edge, Carol! Thank you SO MUCH for a story involving Tom as an adult. The only thing that made me sad was the idea that Sam's family was on the outs with him, because it was always clear how important they were to him. I understand the logical necessity of it being so, but I just made me sad.

And thanks for the Donna/Sam backstory in Obsessions - I thought it was extremely well written and believable.

I also really liked Foreknowledge, because of the focus on a leapee post-Leap.

I thought Double or Nothing was interesting and well written, with Sam being "split in two" while leaping into twins that are at odds with one another. So there was a "good" Sam and a "sort of bad" Sam (not evil, of course).

I also share SBF's affection for Odyssey, for the same reasons.

I personally did not like The Wall or Carny Knowledge (also known as the Novel), because the authors insisted that Sam had the physical limitations of the leapee, and I agree that Search and Rescue was a bit off, too. I didn't object to Independence as much as others here did.
 
cookiemom6067 said:
And thanks for the Donna/Sam backstory in Obsessions - I thought it was extremely well written and believable.

I agree the story of Donna meeting Sam was soooo adorable. That whole book was not what I thought it was, I thought it was a real stupid idea and I hated Stephanie just from Kristen's descriptions of the book but then I tried it out and thought it was ok.
 
Thanks guys, this has been very helpful as I've been wondering whether it was worthwhile to get into the novels. Some TV series novels are so awful. It's a rarity that they hire any fans to write these books--usually they're professional writers who don't have a clue about the series, so they lose all the details and nuances that are so important to the fans.

I'll add another vote for Carol Davis as favorite fanfic writer (with the caveat that I haven't read that many of the writers out there). Carol, if you weren't one of the con planners, maybe we could have invited you as a guest! :D
 
I have to say Pulitzer is my all-time favorite. I haven't read the novels in years, though, so that may change once I reread them.
 
Snish said:
--usually they're professional writers who don't have a clue about the series, so they lose all the details and nuances that are so important to the fans.
Yeah that is Ashley Macconnell in my opinion. She has some really good ideas but she is poor at writing the conceps of QL. For example I am in the middle of Random Measures and I love the leap and the story but she wrote Al very very out of charactor with the one excpetion being his womanizing. And some Sam charactoristics are miswritten as well. Plus I don't like the way she writes PQL scenes sometimes like about the person in the waiting room although that part is mostly to do with the fact that I am highly against the concept of Sam's soul leaping. And some of her theories don't make a lot of sense. She has some great ideas she just needs to pay closer attention to the show.

that's just an opinion now so no head biting ok please. And also to prevent potentional confusion I am going to quote Sam in Liberation. "Don't confuse people and Ideas". I am not talking poorly of her as a person.
 
In McConnell's defense, when she wrote her QL novels, it hadn't been 100% clearly established in the series that Sam was leaping body & soul; she worked with what was there, and at that moment in time, there wasn't much.

To be honest, I liked Ashley's idea of just Sam's soul leaping. It makes the leaps that much more difficult when he has to overcome whatever physical impediments his hosts may have in order to complete his mission.

My absolute favorite QL novel, hands down, is Pulitzer. Now, I haven't read the entire QL novel series, but Pulitzer is what made me an Al fan before I'd even seen more than 10 eps of the series.... Interesting, eh?

Joy
 
I undertsand that the concepts were not all out yet but I just don't like the way she writes Sam's body in the waiting room I don't know I just don't like her style.