City of the Gods
by Sonny Whitelaw
Published by Fandemonium

by Karen Greim Mullian
© March 13, 2007

I had ordered this book from Amazon ages ago and kept getting messages from them that the order was delayed. A part of me now wishes that my order had actually gotten lost. There are now seven SG-1 Fandemonium books in print, and this is the second one in which I've been disappointed.

I'll be brief in this review: The only character who seems like himself is Teal'c, and that's because the author gives Teal'c very little to do or say.

Jack's a love-sick moron in this one, concerned about Sam's welfare even when she clearly can take care of herself. He doesn't have much intelligent to say. Nearly every line he has is nothing more than an opportunity to mispronounce the name of something important. The proverbial Jack-bonding-with-kids scenario was there, but it's worn a little thin in this one.

Sam's a love-sick moron worried about whether she'll ever meet the right guy, settle down, and have children.

And what can I say about Daniel? Clearly, the author did a lot of research for the Mayan and Aztec background, but did she have to cram every scrap of information she acquired into Daniel's mouth? And as if it weren't bad enough that she made our favorite archaeologist a walking, talking encyclopedia with no soul (there wasn't even any decent Daniel whumping), she had to recap all of her research in the form of Daniel's mission report at the end of the book.

This is a retread of The Crystal Skull. Nicholas Ballard makes a few appearances, though he seems to have lost his Old World charm and childlike amazement. The Giant Aliens show up to with a much broader vocabulary. There's a truly villainous archaeologist gone mad and a vulcanologist thrown in for good measure, but even these original characters aren't enough to redeem this story.

While I forged ahead and finished the book, my eyes glazed over about half-way through. Maybe it's because Mesoamerican archaeology doesn't hold much interest for me. Maybe it's because the Mayan and Aztec names are tongue twisters. Maybe it's because the author misuses a lot of basic grammar (i.e., "This differs to what we know," instead of "This differs from what we know"). Maybe it's because this story just isn't very good, but my recommendation is to borrow it from somebody who doesn't care if you lose it. There's far better fanfiction being written and published on the Internet, and it's free.