Stargate literature covers the novels and short stories in the Stargate fictional universe (based on either the original Stargate film or the Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis television shows) and non-fiction literature.

There are three series of novels based on the Stargate franchise and short fiction has also been published in the official Stargate Magazine. It becomes difficult to discern what is and what is not canonical due to the fact that much of the literature is based on the canon, whilst some of even this type of work deviates from the main productions, or is later contradicted. There's no official word from MGM about the canonicity of the Stargate written fiction. MGM does, however, approve each stage of novel's production, from initial outline to final draft. It remains up to the fan's discretion whether or not to accept Stargate literature as part of the combined Stargate universe.

Movie-based

The movie's novelization

Written by the movie creators, Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the novelization of the original Stargate movie was published by Signet Books, an imprint of Penguin Books, in December 1994.

The novelization greatly fleshes out the backstory of the movie, placing emphasis on matters only lightly touched upon in the film, such as the prehistory of the ancient Egyptians, Ra's conquest of Earth and the following creation of Egyptian religion and culture, and insight on the background and personalities of the main characters.

Movie sequels

A series of five novels written by Bill McCay were published from 1996 to 1999, based on the story of the 1994 film, Stargate. Each book was also produced as a book on tape read by David Fox. These were produced by consulting the original notes made by film director Roland Emmerich, in an attempt to envision where the film "would have gone". Neither party has commented on whether McCay's interpretation was correct. The film's producer, Dean Devlin, had his own ideas, but he did not bring them to light until interviewed much later, after the publication of all the novels. The subsequent television series Stargate SG-1 was an entirely independent development, making no attempt to reconcile with the plot line of the books. This marked the first major branching of the franchise.

The story continues immediately after the events of the film, with the US government (military) interested in the mineral that is mined for Ra by the Abydonians. As conflict arises in many forms on the planet of Abydos, a new threat comes when other gods from Ra's pantheon (namely Hathor) come looking. Bits of the Ancient Egyptian myth, The Destruction of Mankind, is acknowledged in the novel's construction.

The first three books form one complete storyline:

• Stargate: Rebellion (October 1995)
• Stargate: Retaliation (September 1996)
• Stargate: Retribution (October 1997)

The last two continue after the events in the first three books, but move the story forwards by dealing with the Abydonians and the events which happen at the climax of the trilogy.

• Stargate: Reconnaissance (May 1998)
• Stargate: Resistance (October 1999)

New characters

• Hathor: Although Hathor wears the Mask of the Cat in the books, the Hathor from ancient Egyptian mythology was personified by either the cow or the hippopotamus, and was known as a gentle goddess, not a fierce warrior. However, a mythological tale developed by Lower Egypt regarding the factual event of Upper Egypt's Pharaoh, Mentuhotep II, taking control of Lower Egypt, describes the warrior goddess Sekhmet as becoming much like gentle Hathor at the end of the tale. A cult soon arose which described Sekhmet and Hathor as being one goddess, who was sometimes depicted as a lioness. It is possible that this version of Hathor is the one Bill McCay chose to portray in his novels.
• Sebek: Like all the other "Egyptian gods" created by Ra, Sebek was a human taken from his people at a young age, and raised to serve Ra, later wearing the Mask of the Crocodile after traditionally assassinating the preceding Sebek. When Ra took a routine trip to Abydos, he took Anubis, the head of Ra's warriors, leaving Sebek behind. When neither Ra nor Anubis returned, Sebek became the new leader of the warrior caste. However, Sebek's rule was reasonably short-lived; when Thoth woke the sleeping Hathor from Ra's secondary sarcophagus, Hathor's first goal as successor to Ra was to take control of the warrior caste. To do this, she personally assassinated Sebek, gaining entrance to his inner sanctum by posing as a prostitute. Upon assaulting and beheading him, Hathor established herself as leader of the warrior caste; she did not take his place as the next Sebek, as was traditional.
• Thoth: Thoth wore the Mask of the Ibis. He was homely and overweight and was referred to derogatively as an "accountant god". Thoth was the one responsible for waking Hathor from Ra's secondary sarcophagus.
• Ptah: Ptah was Ra's chief engineer and husband of Hathor, he was in charge of maintaining Ra's spacecraft. An accident involving exposure to a ships engine exhaust forced him to graft limbs made of the quartz element onto himself, to replace the ones that had been damaged.

Differences between the books and Stargate SG-1

In the books, Ra is the last of his race, and all of his lieutenants (such as Hathor and Ptah) are actually loyal humans who pose as the other Egyptian gods created by Ra to enslave the populace. The movie version of Ra inhabits a human body by possessing the human with his soul, rather than as the parasitic snake as seen in the SG-1 TV show.

The books focus more on politics, with budget issues and human rights considerations playing a large role. The book's version of O'Neil is much more of a straight soldier, while Jackson remains the idealistic maverick scientist. The quartz-like mineral (called Naqahdah in SG-1) remains unnamed. The city that Kasuf and Sha'uri live in is called Nagada and more cities on Abydos are shown.

While the first three books focus on the plight of the Abydan (called Abydonian in SG-1) people and the war between Ra's humans and the humans from Earth, the last two books introduce other worlds and other races.

Series-based

There are two series of novels, one based on Stargate SG-1 and the other on Stargate Atlantis.

Stargate SG-1

There are two series of Stargate SG-1 novels, one published by ROC and the other by Fandemonium Press.

The ROC novels

ROC published four novels written by Ashley McConnell from 1998 to 2001. These novels were available only in the US.

Title	Date	Timeline
Stargate SG-1	October 1998	Novelization of the series' pilot, "Children of the Gods"
The Price You Pay	July 1999	Season 1
The First Amendment	February 2000	Season 3
The Morpheus Factor	February 2001	After The Devil You Know

The Fandemonium novels

In 2004, UK-based Fandemonium Press started a new series of licensed tie-in novels based on Stargate SG-1. Due to the conflict with ROC's license, these books were available not in the US until 2006, but were available from the beginning in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK. Fandemonium books became available in the US in 2006. Fandemonium accepts fan submissions for these novels.

Series no.	Title	Author	Date	Timeline
1	Trial By Fire	Sabine C. Bauer	June 2004	Season 7
2	Sacrifice Moon	Julie Fortune	September 2004	Season 1, after the episode "Enemy Within"
3	A Matter Of Honor (1 of 2)	Sally Malcolm	November 2004	Season 7
4	City Of The Gods	Sonny Whitelaw	April 2005	Season 5
5	The Cost Of Honor (2 of 2)	Sally Malcolm	9 September 2005	Season 7
6	Siren Song	Jaimie Duncan and Holly Scott	7 February 2006	Season 7
7	Survival of the Fittest	Sabine C. Bauer	7 July 2006	Season 5, before the episode "Meridian"
8	Alliances	Karen Miller	15 September 2006	Season 4, just after the episode "The Other Side"
9	Roswell	Sonny Whitelaw and Jennifer Fallon	25 June 2007	Season 10, between "Memento Mori" and "The Quest"
10	Relativity	James Swallow	October 2007	Season 7, between "Inauguration" and "The Lost City"
11	Barque of Heaven	Suzzane Wood	January 2008	Season 3, just after "Deadman Switch"
12	Do No Harm	Karen Miller	March 2008	Season 3, before the episode "Nemesis"
13	Hydra	Jaimie Duncan and Holly Scott	April 2008
14	Shadows (The Iblis Trilogy - 1 of 3)	Steven Savile	January 2009

Stargate Atlantis

In late 2005, Fandemonium launched a new series of books based on Stargate Atlantis. Unlike with the SG-1 books, Fandemonium does not accept fan submissions for the Atlantis books and commission them only to professional writers. These books are available in all English-speaking countries and through online bookstores.

Series no.	Title	Author	Date	Timeline
1	Rising	Sally Malcolm	December 15, 2005	Novelization of the pilot episode.
2	Reliquary	Martha Wells	February 2006	Season 1, just after "Hot Zone"
3	The Chosen	Sonny Whitelaw and Elizabeth Christensen	19 April 2006	Season 1, immediately following "The Eye"
4	Halcyon	James Swallow	7 August 2006	Season 2, between Trinity and "The Lost Boys (Part 1)"
5	Exogenesis	Sonny Whitelaw and Elizabeth Christensen	December 2006	Season 2, immediately prior to "Michael"
6	Entanglement	Martha Wells	March 2007	Early season 2
7	Casualties of War	Elizabeth Christensen	25 September 2007	Right after the events of "Progeny" and "The Real World"
8	Blood Ties	Sonny Whitelaw and Elizabeth Christensen	25 November 2007	At the end of season 3 right after "Vengeance"
9	Mirror Mirror	Sabine C. Bauer	August 2008	During Season 2 but after the events of "Trinity"

Short fiction

The official Stargate Magazine, produced by Titan Publishing, began publishing short stories written by Fandemonium authors in their 8th issue. The stories alternate between both SG-1 and Atlantis. The magazine is available in the UK and internationally through Diamond Comic Distributors' Previews catalogue.

Issue	Series	Title	Author	About	Timeline
#7 (Nov/Dec 2005)	Stargate Atlantis	Flipside	Sally Malcolm	How Sheppard ended up in McMurdo	Pre-series until "Rising"
#8 (Jan/Feb 2006)	Stargate SG-1	Archeology 101	Martha Wells	Archaeological dig gone wrong for Dr. Jackson	Season 2
#10 (May/June 2006)	Stargate Atlantis	Choices	James Swallow	Lt. Aiden Ford	After "Runner"
#11 (Jul/Aug 2006)	Stargate SG-1	Medical Considerations	Karen Miller	Dr. Janet Fraiser	Season 4
#12 (Sep/Oct 2006)	Stargate Atlantis	The Companion	Sally Malcolm	Dr. Rodney McKay gets trapped with a mad hologram	Season 2 or 3
#13 (Nov/Dec 2006)	Stargate SG-1	Juju	Sabine C. Bauer	The aftermath of Daniel Jackson's death	Season 6
#14 (Feb/Mar 2007)	Stargate Atlantis	A Pebble On The Cairn	Jaimie Duncan	Ronon Dex	Season 3
#15 (Apr/May 2007)	Stargate Atlantis	Course Corrections	Elizabeth Christianson	John Sheppard	Season 3, just after The Return, Part 1
#16 (Jun/Jul 2007)	Stargate SG-1	The Bitter Hearth	Holly Scott	Teal'c	Near the start of Season 4
#18 (Sep/Oct 2007)	Stargate SG-1	K-T	Sonny Whitelaw & Jennifer Fallon	Vala Mal Doran	After the end of Season 10
#19 (Nov/Dec 2007)	Stargate Atlantis	Waypoints	Elizabeth Christensen
#20 (Jan/Feb 2008)	Stargate SG-1	Outsiders	James Swallow

Non-fiction

Companion guides

Thomasina Gibson and Sharon Gosling have written official companion guides for all seasons of Stargate SG-1 (seasons 1 through 8 as two seasons per companion guide) and Stargate Atlantis, published by Titan Books.

Stepping Through the Stargate

Stepping Through the Stargate: Science, Archaeology, and the Military of Stargate SG-1 is a collection of works which are centered around the science fiction TV series Stargate SG-1. The book takes a thoughtful, but light-hearted look at the popular, award-winning television series. It was edited by P. N. Elrod and Roxanne L. Conrad and published by BenBella Books in 2004.

The book is a non-fiction collection of essays, articles, and personal recollections by cast and crew members, scientists, military experts, and various science fiction writers, all of whom are fans of the show. Some of the writers are:

Archaeologist Sue Linder-Linsley, parasitologist Francine M. Terry, astronomer Sten Odenwald, philosopher Daniel Dennett, and science fiction authors Melanie A. Fletcher and David Gerrold. Other people who wrote for the book are the show's special effects head James Tichenor, actor Tom McBeath (who plays Col. Harry Maybourne) and Stargate comic book writer James Kuhoric. Even an Air Force Colonel wrote for the book.

References

External links

• Stargate Novels Official Homepage
• Gateworld Reviews of Books