4400 novels

[cwalrus2]

I was wondering if anyone here knew about these. I haven't seen them yet? As you may or may not know, The 4400 was sci-fi series on USA that got canceled but they were going to release novels to continue the series. I would appreciate any info anyone has on these as I really enjoyed the show and was sorry to see it get canceled. On Wikipedia, it says that 4 books have either been published or are in the process of getting published but only 2 of them take place after the season finale. The first post-finale book is actually due out in July 2009. Any info on it? Then there will be another one published in November 2009 as the "grand finale" of the series. Did the authors get any kind of input from the Series creators /producers? Was Ira Behr involved? Just wondering.

I just hate it when a good show gets canceled for no good reason and then they don't even let the producers wrap up the show.

 

[Greg Cox]

Thanks for asking. To date, two 4400 novels have been published. THE VESUVIUS PROPHECY by yours truly, and WET WORK by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore. Both of those novels take place during the series itself. (Mine's set about midway through Season Three, before Jordan Collier comes back.)

The next two books will pick up where the tv show left off. The first, WELCOME TO PROMISE CITY, was written by me and comes out next month. This will be followed by PROMISES BROKEN by David Mack. I can't remember when that's scheduled, but it's already listed on amazon. I've read Dave's manuscript, btw, and I think he did a pretty spectacular job of wrapping things up . . . mostly.

Whether there will be more books depends, of course, on how the remaining books sell.

Hope this answers your question!

 

[John Clark]

I've read two of them so far and enjoyed them.
Vesuvius Prophecy by Greg cox
Wetwork by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore

I'd recommend picking them up and will be getting the other two when I see them

 

[cwalrus2]

Thanks for asking. To date, two 4400 novels have been published. THE VESUVIUS PROPHECY by yours truly, and WET WORK by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore. Both of those novels take place during the series itself. (Mine's set about midway through Season Three, before Jordan Collier comes back.)

The next two books will pick up where the tv show left off. The first, WELCOME TO PROMISE CITY, was written by me and comes out next month. This will be followed by PROMISES BROKEN by David Mack. I can't remember when that's scheduled, but it's already listed on amazon. I've read Dave's manuscript, btw, and I think he did a pretty spectacular job of wrapping things up . . . mostly.

Whether there will be more books depends, of course, on how the remaining books sell.

Hope this answers your question!

Did you get any input from the producers /showrunners on what direction to take the show in with your novel because the series finale left things pretty open. If i remember corectly, Promicin is released to the entire city of Seattle killing half of the population while the half that survived now have abilities except for Diana Skouris who had been injected by Kevin Burkoff with something. Does that mean that Tom and NTAC agents now have abilities too? Is Jordan Collier part of The Marked now? I understand if you don't want to give too much away.

 

[Greg Cox]

Without giving too much away, some quick answers:

1) The good folks at CBS approved the new books, but gave us plenty of freedom to use our imaginations.

2) Tom was not exposed to promicin during the tv show's series finale, but, yeah, the rest of the NTAC gang have abilities now (except Diana, as you noted.) The final scene of the last episode had Tom debating whether to take the promicin shot his son had given him. Let's just say I deal with this issue in the very first chapter of the new book.

3) In the final episode, Jordan was rescued by Tom and Isabel before the Marked took possession of his mind. It was implied that Shawn would cure him, which is what I assumed happened. So Jordan is not among the Marked as the book begins.

As you may recall, Tom also gave Jordan a list containing the names of all the surviving Marked, with the understanding that Jordan would deal with them. I picked up on that plot thread and ran with it . . . .

 

[cwalrus2]

Without giving too much away, some quick answers:

1) The good folks at CBS approved the new books, but gave us plenty of freedom to use our imaginations.

2) Tom was not exposed to promicin during the tv show's series finale, but, yeah, the rest of the NTAC gang have abilities now (except Diana, as you noted.) The final scene of the last episode had Tom debating whether to take the promicin shot his son had given him. Let's just say I deal with this issue in the very first chapter of the new book.

3) In the final episode, Jordan was rescued by Tom and Isabel before the Marked took possession of his mind. It was implied that Shawn would cure him, which is what I assumed happened. So Jordan is not among the Marked as the book begins.

As you may recall, Tom also gave Jordan a list containing the names of all the surviving Marked, with the understanding that Jordan would deal with them. I picked up on that plot thread and ran with it . . . .

Thank Greg, I look forward to picking up your story. I'll see if I can order Vesuvious Prophesy at my local bookstore. You've been really helpful. I didn't expect that I'd get a response from one of the actual authors so this is really cool.

One last question: Any chance of Dennis Ryland's character returning. We last saw him in season 3 and then I suppose they couldn't get Peter Coyote to re-sign, but there's every opportunity to put the character in a novel.

Thanks again.

 

[Greg Cox]

Don't worry. We didn't forget about Ryland. He's all over these books.

I brought back Richard as well.

 

[cwalrus2]

Don't worry. We didn't forget about Ryland. He's all over these books.

I brought back Richard as well.

Awesome!! I can't wait.

 

[Turtletrekker]

. I didn't expect that I'd get a response from one of the actual authors so this is really cool.

Hell, if you had posted this in the Trek lit forum, you probabely would have gotten responses from Ward, Dilmore and Mack as well. All of them (and Mr. Cox as well) are all Trek authors that post here regularly.

 

[cwalrus2]

^ Wasn't sure I could post it in Trek Lit since these aren't Trek novels but I suppose if Trek authors are writing them maybe the Mod might make an exception. This way people who go there regularly for Trek lit are aware of their other work.

 

[Greg Cox]

My impression is that the Mods are generally pretty open to us Trek authors fielding queries about our other projects, as long as it doesn't get out of hand. I know there's been some discussion of the 4400 books over in the TrekLit forums before.

 

[cwalrus2]

Okay. Amazon has the cover and the description for Welcome to Promise City posted. I can't wait to read it. The release date is listed as 07.28.09.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/14...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846


Also, I see Terry Erdmann did the Companion Guide for the 4400 seasons 1&2. I loved his work with the DS9 Companion. The DS9 Companion was by far the most informative read about the inner workings of sci-fi show ever. I really loved the annecdotes and some of the descriptions of the challenges the writers and the producers faced. If his 4400 Companion is anywhere near as good as the DS 9 Companion, I'll want to pick that up too. Did he ever get to finish a Companion Book for Seasons 3&4?

Thanks again, Greg. My wife recently got me season 4 to complete my dvd set so I've started rewatching that season. I'm looking forward to hearing the audio commentaries to see if they were candid about the cancelation of the show.

 

[cwalrus2]

One critique I have about season 4 compared to the past 3 seasons is that seasons 1-3 seemed to be a lot more about the human drama of the returnees and Tom and Diana. Sometimes it was easy to forget that The 4400 was a sci-fi show because even though the premise was fantasy based, it felt like a real drama especially early on with Tom having a son in a coma, Richard and Lilly struggling to find a way together with Baby Isabelle, and Diana taking on the responsibility of adopting Maia. Believe it or not my mom is the one who introduced me to the 4400 and she does not like sci-fi at all. It wasn't until watching the pilot that I realized "Hey it's the same people who did DS9!!" The first 3 seasons really had a contemporary drama kind of feel to them that for some reason the 4th season seemed to be missing perhaps because season 4 placed more emphasis on the sci-fi aspect of the show (sure enough my mom lost interest during season 4).

Rewatching it now, it seems like the direction they took with Kyle was a mistake. Having him take the shot was good way to put him in conflict with Tom (in a sense Kyle could argue that he was originally supposed to be one of the 4400 were it not for Shawn's interference), but making him a Jordan Collier follower just lessened him as a character for me. It just seemed like after all his father went through with him, Kyle shows his appreciation by bestowing a father-figure type of status on Jordan when he of all people should know that Jordan's motives aren't always innocent. I'm still not convinced he his on the right side of things. Maybe the future he promises is one that the 4400s are meant to protect against, but then again why would the future chose him as a 4400 knowing that he isn't exactly the most honest person.

Not having Richard for a full season was also a mistake. Richard was probably the most sympathetic character of all the returnees, and aside from Tom and Diana his character played a central role in the prior seasons.

The one stand out episode was The Marked, but it seemed to come too late in the season. The Marked introduced a new faction to serve as villains, and answered some major questions about Matthew Ross, but it just posed a ll new questions that the show didn't have enough time to answer. We never found out the original reason for the 4400s being sent back. Only Jordan's dialogue early in season 4 hinted that the disaster was averted by his handing out promicin. Still, that doesn't answer why these specific people were chosen instead of just sending a whole vat of promicin into the past with instructions explaining that even though people have the 50/50 shot of surviving, it's necessary for the survival of the future.

Anyway, these are just some random thoughts I had on the show. Overall, it's still one of my favorite series and I'm looking forward to reading the books.

 

[Defcon]

This is from an interview I did last September with David Mack for Unreality-SF.net:

“It’s set a few months after the series’ final episode, The Great Leap Forward, and it will build upon events depicted in Greg Cox’s forthcoming post-finale 4400 novel, Promise City,” he explains.

“In a lot of ways,” he adds, “I approached Promises Broken with the mindset of crafting the ‘grand finale’ tale the show might have done if its final six episodes had been allotted a budget of two hundred million dollars. A lot of the lingering story threads and dramatic questions from the end of season four will be dealt with in Promises Broken. Its storyline, which has just been given the green light by the licensor, has been described as ‘epic’ and will kick over the status quo of the series.”

As one of only two authors writing post-finale books for that series, it seems possible that David will have a fair amount of influence on the direction of the line, but he disagrees. “I’m writing the last scheduled book in the series, which means I get to wreak havoc on the series’ status quo and the characters’ lives, but unless the book sells like gangbusters and spurs Pocket to extend its commitment on that license, I’d say my ‘influence’ on the line will be minimal.” On the other hand, that’s also had a positive effect for him, since on the creative-freedom front he “was all but given carte blanche.”

 

[Greg Cox]

Not having Richard for a full season was also a mistake. Richard was probably the most sympathetic character of all the returnees, and aside from Tom and Diana his character played a central role in the prior seasons.

I know what you mean. Bringing Richard back and putting him front-and-center again was near the top of my to-do list.

 

[SiddFinch1]

Good news. I will have to look for these books. Thought the show had lots of promise.

In the hands of talented authors like these 2, should be interesting to see.

 

[Greg Cox]

Good news. I will have to look for these books. Thought the show had lots of promise.

In the hands of talented authors like these 2, should be interesting to see.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. Hope you like the books!

 

[intrinsical]

I have several of your books on my shelf

I'll have to start looking for these books.. its going to be tough where I am.

 

[intrinsical]

The bookstores in my area tend to classify such books under the "teenage fiction" section, which is usually filled with AD&D and Star Wars novels than 4400 novels. Especially since The 4400 never aired in my country, imagine my surprise when I found the sole remaining copy of "The Vesuvius Prophecy" on the shelf at a small bookstore!

Naturally, I ignored funny looks from the counter staff and I have read to page 52. So far, the story feels as if its an episode from the show and Amanda Abizaid's "A Place In Time" (The 4400 theme song) is playing in my head. I'm enjoying the ride.

 

[Greg Cox]

Glad you're enjoying the book--and your mental soundtrack!