Novels
V spun off a series of original novels, five were originally planned but the range soon extended beyond these. The first was a novelization of the first two miniseries combined into one story, originally planned as 2 books, Pinnacle later changed their minds during its writing, and decreed that it should be one book (The publishers were then left with the option of another book,this became "East coast crisis" ) Because the Writers guide was not ready in time for the authors to consult, most of the original novels that followed did not feature characters or continuing storylines from the TV series, but rather focused on battles against the alien invaders in other parts of the world, some were also set during the "unrecorded year" between the end of "The Final battle" and "Liberation day" to get around this problem.
While the series was on the air, new novels were published once a month by Pinnacle Paperbacks, and in the U.K. every 2 months by New English Library. In 1987-88, The remaining 5 books, left unpublished with the demise of pinnacle books, were published by Tor. No U.K. publisher was found for these.
| Num. | Title | Author | Published | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "V" | A.C. Crispin | May 1984 | 0-523-42237-7 |
| An adaptation of the original miniseries, as well as The Final Battle. There are some differences between the novel and the televised miniseries,due to the author working from a different script to the televised version,and not being made aware of changes made to said script, including the deaths of several characters who are still alive in the televised version. This includes Chris Farber, leading to confusion about his return in V: The Series, also different in this novelisation is the manner in which Elizabeth a.k.a The Starchild, deals with the doomsday weapon. | ||||
| 2 | "East Coast Crisis" | Howard Weinstein | September 1984 | 0-523-42259-8 |
| Concurrent with the first novel, but set in New York and Washington D.C., the book begins in space while the fleet approaches the Earth,( the ending of the novel briefly goes into the aftermath of The Final Battle). The commander, Roger, and his subordinates, Angela and Jennifer, arrive and after the Visitors are revealed, the resistance group named White Christmas is formed to combat them. They now have to face Roger's devious plan: to surpass the human food storage by emptying one of New York's neighborhoods next to their chemical plants. | ||||
| 3 | "The Pursuit of Diana" | Allen L. Wold | December 1984 | 0-523-42401-9 |
| While Donovan pursues and recaptures Diana,the LA resistance tries to revive those stored on the mothership after capturing it in the events of the first book. However they are faced with the converted government, and several of the "sixth column", surviving Visitors on board the mothership who are still loyal to Diana, who is imprisoned on board after her capture. | ||||
| 4 | "The Chicago Conversion" | George W. Proctor | January 1985 | 0-523-42429-9 |
| In Chicago, the Visitors' grip on the Earth has been freed with the release of the Red Dust,the bacteria discovered in the digestive tract of Robin Maxwell's hybrid children,which killed the more reptilian twin.Cultured and dried,and dispersed via hot air balloons across the world by the resistance,it causes near-instant death to Visitors, but can also cause mutation, sterility and ultimately, death, to all Earth life in excessive amounts. Prior to this event, High Captain Gerald manages to finally storm the resistance, but with little success, as they were currently liberating the Chicago Art Museum, the Visitors' ground base. Seconds before the commander of the Chicago Mothership, Alicia, calls him back for withdrawal (after the Red Dust is deployed worldwide), he is able to distribute anti-toxin from the resistance base into his shock troopers. Though Alicia is frustrated at her subordinate, she gives him a chance to redeem himself, which Gerald jumps at, as unknowingly to Alicia, Gerald is a double agent. Her plan is to convert the resistance, and "unlock the key" to regaining Chicago. | ||||
| 5 | "The Florida Project" | Tim Sullivan | February 1985 | 0-523-42430-2 |
| Set during the unrecorded year between the end of "The Final battle" and "Liberation day", The Visitors, hidden in the everglade swamps, by hologram projection, kidnap human scientists to unwittingly aid them in their plan to create a human-reptilian hybrid to wipe out the resistance. Note: This novel was written before the writers guide was available, and so contradicts the tv series in some points. | ||||
| 6 | "Prisoners and Pawns" | Howard Weinstein | March 1985 | 0-523-42439-6 |
| The first novel to be actually set during the weekly series, Lydia and Diana try to wrestle power from each other while trying to get the resistance out of the way. The resistance find that there might be collaborators in their group. | ||||
| 7 | "The Alien Swordmaster" | Somtow Sucharitkul | April 1985 | 0-523-42441-8 |
| Another book taking place during the unrecorded year, Tomoko Jones is revived to become the consort of the fearsome Fieh Chan, Visitor Commander of Tokyo. Meanwhile, her husband finds a plot to capture the Earth's martial arts masters for conversion. | ||||
| 8 | "The Crivit Experiment" | Allen L. Wold | May 1985 | 0-523-42466-3 |
| A Visitor experiment in breeding, if successful, will ravage the Eastern Coast Seaboards (causing serious environmental consequences). The experiment is based on the crivit species, which exists in the Visitor's home planet. | ||||
| 9 | "The New England Resistance" | Tim Sullivan | June 1985 | 0-523-42467-1 |
| A human scientist tries to test a toxin that he developed, and that could help decimate the Visitors.Tipped off by a human collaborator, the Visitors arrive in New England, desperate to destroy this new threat to their renewed invasion of Earth. The local Resistance is then picked off, and a new group of resistance fighters ends up being formed. | ||||
| 10 | "Death Tide" | A.C. Crispin | July 1985 | 0-523-42469-8 |
| The Resistance works on a new version of the red dust that lives in seaweed and thus protects the planet's water, while also trying to coax a strain to live in land-based vegetation; Diana works on a defoliant that will destroy the seaweed. Marjorie Donovan returns. | ||||
| 11 | "The Texas Run" | George W. Proctor | September 1985 | 0-523-42470-1 |
| The Texas resistance has been weakened by Commander Garth and his batch of Shocktroopers. Set after the tv episode "Visitors choice". | ||||
| 12 | "Path to Conquest" | Howard Weinstein | September 1987 | 0-8125-5725-5 |
| The resistance of the East Coast, and the free zone, are in danger, if Project Icewind,part one of a new two pronged scheme by Diana to first radically alter the earths weather, and then contaminate our oil reserves with a new bacteria, rendering it both useless as a fuel and dangerous to humans too, is put into action. | ||||
| 13 | "To Conquer the Throne" | Tim Sullivan | November 1987 | 0-8125-5727-1 |
| Great Britain is to become the Visitor's conquest and the launching pad for them to conquer the entire Earth. | ||||
| 14 | "The Oregon Invasion" | Jayne Tannehill | January 1988 | 0-8125-5729-8 |
| The Visitors initiate a fourth invasion in Oregon. | ||||
| 15 | "Below the Threshold" | Allen L. Wold | March 1988 | 0-8125-5732-8 |
| Lewis is a Natural, a Visitor who wants to live in peace with the humans in Freeport, a city without red dust. But humans in Freeport are in danger of being controlled by the Visitors, through a local tv station. | ||||
| 16 | "Symphony of Terror" | Somtow Sucharitkul | May 1988 | 0-8125-5482-5 |
| The Jones family (from previous novel The Alien Swordmaster) enlisted by Juliet Parrish,goes to Washington DC, to uncover the plans of an Visitor spy who has a new visitor created metal alloy, Papinium, which is impervious to the Red dust, which he is using to coat secret tunnels into the free zone with, thus freeing up those areas to renewed visitor invasion. |
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Famous quotes containing the word novels:
“Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)
“Society is the stage on which manners are shown; novels are the literature. Novels are the journal or record of manners; and the new importance of these books derives from the fact, that the novelist begins to penetrate the surface, and treat this part of life more worthily.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“But then in novels the most indifferent hero comes out right at last. Some god comes out of a theatrical cloud and leaves the poor devil ten thousand-a-year and a title.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)