Book Review: Fringe-The Zodiac Paradox by Christa Faust

The Zodiac Paradox (Fringe #1)by Christa Faust

Paperback, 355 pages

Published May 2013 by Titan

Before I get into this tie-in novel, I want to talk about the show it was spun off from. I am assuming if you’re checking out this book review you probably watched the FOX show. Fringe is one of my favorite shows of all time. I know many who watched the pilot and just a few episodes feel like Fringe is just an X-files rip-off.

If you watched the show you know it is much more science fiction than X-files and in my opinion it has a better mythology. Walter Bishop played in Emmy/ golden globe worthy performances over five season by John Noble is one of my favorite TV characters. The mythlogy of the show extends into alternate universes and perfectly incorporated monsters of the week which were always based on interesting sci-fi concepts. All the characters were well written and performed. The finale was heartbreaking and tear jerker so I was pleased when scanning the shelves in Sci-fi and saw this book.

What made me even more excited was seeing the name of the author. Christa Faust is a great writer twice nominated for the Edgar award. This told me instantly that the book would be high quality. Two Faust written Fringe novels have been released and from what I can tell we will get a third and maybe a fourth. It also appears that Faust had access to writers from the show to develop these books.

It seems she is genuine fan of the show and the characters, which is not always the case in Tie-in novels. I only had tiny nit-picks with how the characters were realized in the book, but they were such small problems they are not worth going into.

This is a very Fringe story, set in the late sixties and 70’s with young Walter Bishop, William Bell and Nina Sharp. Tied into the Zodiac killings, experimental drugs and an alternate universe origin of the Zodiac killer.

Faust ties all these elements together and created a excellently realized prequel. Above average prose for a tie-in and short fast moving chapters make this a must read for Fringe fans.