ROSWELL on PLANET-SF

Simon Pulse continue to fill the gap between seasons 2 and 3 of ROSWELL, with ROSWELL HIGH books editor Laura J. Burns penning her second Pod Squad story.

The recent trend of appalling covers continues, but more worrying is the novel's brevity - at just 172 pages, it's fifty pages lighter than recent ROSWELL novels.

But it's quality that really counts, and since Laura Burns' previous ROSWELL story was the highly enjoyable TV episode A TALE OF TWO PARTIES, I was reasonably optimistic when I started reading.

As I've said in earlier reviews, the gap between THE DEPARTURE and BUSTED provides an opportunity to set a few novels, building on the changing relationship between Max and Liz and the one that developed between Isabel and Jesse.

QUARANTINE opens with Maris Wheeler opening Meta-Chem's new research lab, and what better way to curry favour with the locals than by offering one of them a scholarship and the chance to work at the plant?

Unsurprisingly, the "lucky" winner turns out to be our very own Liz Parker, Of course, Maris Wheeler isn't remotely interested in providing Liz with a bit of work experience, she's more interested in using the alien DNA that recovered from a certain waitress' uniform.

Of course, things backfire and - as the back cover blurb tells us - pretty soon Roswell's residents are all falling ill to a mysterious disease that appears to have started at the Crashdown. Liz is Patient Zero and anyone who ate Michael's soup appears to be affected.

Naturally, the obvious solution is for Max and co. to break into Meta-Chem and then repeat the events of A ROSWELL CHRISTMAS CAROL. Only one problem - this doesn't work.

Meanwhile, there's a new kid in town, but why is Sadie following Maria around and why does she start dressing like her? Well, if you read the back cover before the book, then you'll know, but fortunately I managed to avoid stumbling across a rather large spoiler.

The disease plot is a bit of a no-brainer really, as clearly Liz, Kyle, Amy and Jesse can't die. Instead we can concentrate on the character moments that arise from their lives being in danger, which fits in with the TV series being just as much about characters and relationship than science-fiction.

The author's background in the younger-skewed ROSWELL HIGH novels is reflected in the Maria sub-plot. Of course, it's possible for something like this to occur in the ROSWELL universe, but given Maria's character, I would expect her to mention these events later on (i.e. in the TV series).

That also applies to the Meta-Chem storyline, and it might have been better had their experiments been carried out in isolation, providing a bit of a back story to the events of PANACEA, rather than having them front and centre with the Pod Squad. It works as a one-off here, but hopefully Meta-Chem won't be featuring quite so much in any future novels.

However, judging the novel as it stands, it's still pretty enjoyable. The plot is fairly straightfoward, but the author has a good handle on the characters, continuity references aren't overdone.

It's a shame that Simon Pulse have moved away from the more adult books, but this is still an enjoyable outing for the characters, even if there are only a couple more books to come in the series. BACK TO THE TOP

QUARANTINE

Written by LAURA J. BURNS

SIMON PULSE

$5.99

RATING: 6/10

NEXT RELEASE:
A NEW BEGINNING

PREVIOUS RELEASE:
DREAMWALK