BSG novelizations compared

In a recent blog essay, Timothy Sandefur thoughtfully compares the two Battlestar Galactica novelizations: the original novel by Glen Larson and Robert Thurston, and the novelization of the new miniseries by Jeffrey Carver.

Although both series feature the genocide of the human race, Larson’s original was much gentler; the Cylons were bumbling fools, for one thing (mostly because Universal ordered him to avoid human casualties as much as possible so as to make the show child-friendly).

And far more humans escaped the destruction of the home worlds: Larson says in the book that the fleet is comprised of more than 22,000 ships, far more than in Moore’s version. (Moore hasn’t told us how many ships there are, but there are only about 50,000 humans surviving in his version.)

Read the rest of the essay.

Of course, only Jeffrey Carver's novelization features Helo and thus its superiority to Larson's version should come as no surprise.