NOVELS |
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COMICS |
THEN
Space: 1999 appeared to great fanfare in the fall of 1975 along with a fairly extensive merchandising campaign. Novelizations were published for all of the Year 1 episodes in both the US and UK, which were then followed by a string of original Year 1 novels in 1976.
When new Year 2 episodes arrived in the fall of 1976, Space: 1999 had changed in very dramatic ways in almost every aspect of the show (characters, style, tone, etc.). But it wasn't until early in 1977 that merchandise began to appear that coincided with this new format. Unfortunately, the cancellation of Space: 1999 in the spring of 1977 resulted in publishers quickly terminating their imprint lines. This was most likely due to an anticipated waning of interest in a show which would no longer be produced, and by correlation, reduced sales of any merchandise associated with it.
In the UK, Star Books Space: 1999 publishing terminated early, stopping on book 5 of the six written episode adaptation novels. Although the US sales were stronger and all six of these books saw publication, Warner Books decided not to continue the series onward after the adaptations were complete - unfortunately declining to purchase the novel The Brilliant Suns which Michael Butterworth had already submitted in outline form.
But the US and the UK were not the only countries publishing Space: 1999 books... In 1977, the German publisher Bastei Lübbe published translations of the six Butterworth books, and then continued the fiction line in 1978 by producing six full length original Space: 1999 novels featuring the Year Two characters and scenarios. The first four novels in the set were written by H. W. Springer, the fifth by Kurt Brand and the sixth and final one by M. S. Thomas. These novels were written in Deutsche/German, published in Western Germany and were never translated for English publication. Because of their relative scarcity outside of Germany, and due to the fact that they were not written in English, they have maintained their obscurity to the majority of Space: 1999 fandom throughout the years.
NOW
With this web site I hope to reveal to those interested in these "lost" Space: 1999 materials a comprehensive overview of the books and comics. Herein are links to web pages for each of the six original and the six translated novels - as well as the Zack comics, including both the adaptations and the original stories.
For each of the six original novels there are Stats, my personal Comments on the book, a Summary of the story and a translation of the Back Cover blurb. At the bottom of some of the web page are links to 'pages' of the books. These 'pages' are my prose interpretations of the translations I've made of the first two or three chapters in each of the books. (Currently there are only pages for The Andromeda Mystery, The Robot Inheritance and The Immortals of Luna). For the Zack comics, there are scans of all the pages of the story - as well as some of the Mondbasis Alpha 1 ads that were included from time to time for cross-advertizing as well as contests.
I've included these novel translations, in addition to the summaries and comments, in order to convey a sense of the style of writing and the tone of the stories. Also, to help keep the feel of the original books, I have maintained a similar formatting and the same page breaks. It's for this reason that the book 'pages' begin at 5 - which is the start of chapter 1 in the novels.
I've also worked to smooth over the roughness of my initial literal translations while trying to stay true to the original source. Even so, there still remains an awkwardness to some of the prose due to both the difference in German sentence structure and my (in)abilities to translate.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy these novels as much as I did.
To everything that might have been.
Patrick Zimmerman
Even though I've been a diehard Space: 1999 fan ever since watching Breakaway on September 13, 1975, buying all the books and other merchandise, it wasn't until the early 1990's that I discovered that these books even existed. And soon after discovered that there were over 20 comic book adaptations as well as original stories that had been published as well!
To everything that was.
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All text © Patrick Zimmerman 2002 - 2007
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