Quantum Leap: Prelude

In general, McConnell seems to take a bare-bones decent-ish idea and then... flesh it out in odd ways. And she’s doesn’t pay much attention to canon on certain matters. Not my favourite QL writer. I don’t feel the need to read her stuff twice. But Prelude isn’t her worst novel. As for Prelude specifically: Some of the character motivations weren’t clear to me (the antagonistic Nons and their lackeys) and Sam was really out of character at one point (the one night stand thing). The bit with the neurosurgeon was just weird. But there were some nice details that I felt really fit into the world building, so you can take those and leave the rest. Ex. Sam keeps a piano at the complex. Al’s common sense (paranoia? PTSD?) about safety (the ladders) comes in handy. Having the boys exist at the same time is always going to be nice. The development of Ziggy is good. As for the quality of the edition I received, it was supposed to be “good” but I would call it “acceptable” at best. It’s in pretty rough shape, meaning the spine died a long time ago, pieces of the cover were torn off, and the pages were quite dirty and stained. Less than impressed on that front.

This is a well written (McConnell did most of the better Quantum Leap books) entry in the series. It goes back and tells a version of how the Project may have started (since Sam changes so many little details every time, the events surrounding the Project's beginnings would always be changing, as the book states). It is good to see San and Al together in the Project here, one of the good things about the books is that we see more of the internal conflicts, with Verbeena, Donna, Al, and Gushie. I always wanted to see them developed more on the show, but the hour format didn't leave enough time. Anyway, this has been out of print for a while, but if you can find it it is worth the effort.

This book explains what happened BEFORE Sam's first leap. Except for a couple parts, this book is by far one of the better Quantum Leap books. I like it for explaining what the TV show did not explain. For example: Why does Sam have that white streak in his hair? It's good! Other Quantum Leap books really bore me but not this one! What they should do is make a Quantum Leap 2 TV show like Star Trek does, (by the way Scott Bakula is IN the next Star Trek show!) have it be about one of Al's daughters trying to find Sam. Hell, I could star in it! Or start making new books! Just some suggestions.