Enjoyable for what it was. Alan Dean Foster did maybe too good a job of making the Transformers alien, to the point where I enjoyed the Earthbound "Project Ice Man" plot the most by far. ( )

I'll admit, I wasn't really expecting to like this novel -- I'm not a big fan of media tie-ins -- but I was pleasantly surprised. The story of an unrecorded first contact between humanity and the Transformers is fast moving and has some real excitement. The human characters are reasonably well-developed and sympathetic -- especially Colonel Kinnear, in charge of the Arctic Sector Seven base that is simultaneously in control of the launch of Ghost 1, a space ship reverse-engineered from studying the "Ice Man" -- Megatron, and moving the frozen Megatron from the Arctic to a new secure location. Of course, both operations go dramatically wrong. Ghost 1 draws the attention of both the Autobots and the Decepticons, while Megatron's transport is targeted by Russian saboteurs.

The story's point of view weaves between Kinnear on Earth, the commander of the Ghost 1, Optimus Prime with the Autobots, and Starscream, leading the Decepticions while Megatron is missing. One of my small disappointments in the movie was that they spent too much time with the humans and not enough with the robots! The Transformers happily get equal time here.

The ending neatly ties up loose ends and sets the stage for the events of the movie. A very enjoyable read! ( )