LE: One Constant Star by David R. George III Review Thread (Spoilers!)

Re: LE: One Constant Star by David R. George III Review Thread (Spoile

His 24th century novels are better.

 

Re: LE: One Constant Star by David R. George III Review Thread (Spoile

Technically this is a 24th Century novel. It takes place in 2319.

 

Re: LE: One Constant Star by David R. George III Review Thread (Spoile

Okay, 42 posts and still no one has posted a picture of the spines.

C'mon people. What's important to you?

 

Re: LE: One Constant Star by David R. George III Review Thread (Spoile

Oh, Stevil, it's too horrible to talk about. I caution you that the horrors I am about to describe may cause issues for those with weak constitutions.

The spine... well, it's the same design as the first six Lost Era books, but it...

It...

How to say this?

The band with the year on it is at a different height. The title is horizontal and not vertical, squat and ugly like a stunted gnome.

It's carnage; monstrous carnage on my shelves.

 

Re: LE: One Constant Star by David R. George III Review Thread (Spoile

Why no mention of the DTI after two inadvertent time travel incidents?

 

Re: LE: One Constant Star by David R. George III Review Thread (Spoile

The novel is somewhat underwhelming. In fact, I distinctly remember almost falling asleep at many times. Though, to be fair, I have had issues with my sleep this past week. The story pick up one Harriman is brought in, and his stuff is actually pretty good. I'll hand it to DRG, he does a good job with Harriman and making him look decent and competent despite intentionally being made to look like a useless boob in his one on-screen appearance. I wouldn't mind another Harriman novel, at any stage of his career. Unfortunately Demora Sulu and her crew just didn't grab my interest that much.

Also, the revelation about the Excelsior feels really telegraphed from one of the early chapters when Demora makes some off-hand reference to missing her father since the Excelsior's disappearance. As this is the first mention of Excelsior and its fate ever, and that it's only a casual off-hand mention, it seemed very obvious this would be picked up on later on in the book.

Finally, this seems like a missed opportunity to reveal the Enterprise B's fate by leaving them stranded in the other universe. Hell, there is another mention in the book to the Ambassador class being developed, so this seems natural.

And finally, on the nitpick side of things, did Starfleet have no record of the Excelsior being to Rejarris II? Or at least of it's last appearance being in that sector?

Not relevant to the story. Since the first time was a flashback some sixteen years in the past, we can assume Harriman filed a report with them when he made it to the starbase. Although given that was only a trip forward of a few weeks, they'd probably file it a low priority. The second one is a bit more serious, but again we can just assume that whatever business has to be done with the DTI will be handled when the Enterprise makes it back in contact with Starfleet.

 

Re: LE: One Constant Star by David R. George III Review Thread (Spoile

It's mentioned in the Excelsior portion that they had no real mission directives other than head 'that way' and explore. They also hadn't been to a Starbase is a year, I believe. Presumably there wasn't time to launch a buoy or whatever.

 

Re: LE: One Constant Star by David R. George III Review Thread (Spoile

So then is this novel outright incompatible with Burning Dreams?

 

Re: LE: One Constant Star by David R. George III Review Thread (Spoile

In terms of Burning Dreams' references to Captain Sulu having commanded the Excelsior past the year 2308 (when the Rejarris II incident occurs), and even past 2320, yeah -- it's rather tough to reconcile, now.

There are also references in other sources to the Excelsior having survived past the Dominion War, and those are now pretty well shot to pieces, too, though maybe some light retconning can change a few of those into references to a namesake-vessel or something.

 

Re: LE: One Constant Star by David R. George III Review Thread (Spoile

Only about 80 pages in, but a quick question, and please NO SPOILERS in the reply, but this Odyssy from chapter 1.... was that from an earlier novel I missed, or will more be explained?

 

Re: LE: One Constant Star by David R. George III Review Thread (Spoile

It's not from any earlier novel, but not much more will be explained - what you infer from what you read in the prologue is pretty much what happened. No big mystery twist that shows up later.

 

Re: LE: One Constant Star by David R. George III Review Thread (Spoile

Indeed. Although Sulu only shows up for a single (rather pointless, really) scene mid-way through Burning Dreams, so if we were so inclined we could just dump that scene and keep the rest of the novel in continuity.

Maybe Spock was dozing en route to Talos - he's getting older by this point - and had a Sulu-related dream?

 

Re: LE: One Constant Star by David R. George III Review Thread (Spoile

Goddamn it, Pocket, you had one job!



Just in case it's not clear, I am kidding.

 

Re: LE: One Constant Star by David R. George III Review Thread (Spoile

Also, the kangaroo has swollen to a bloated three times its previous size and is bright pink. Nor is it safely contained in its box, having presumably burst out of it in the process of expanding.

 

Re: LE: One Constant Star by David R. George III Review Thread (Spoile

Just finished this one. I rather enjoyed it, but i do echo some of the sentiments up thread about the abrupt ending and the fact that the mystery of the whereabouts of Rejarris II's former inhabitants is never revealed.

I like how DRG3 handles Demora and her crew, as well as Harriman (especially Harriman), and i really liked the whole Hikaru Sulu/Excelsior story. As for the inconsistency with MWB's Burning Dreams, I like to think that Starfleet treated Hikaru like they treated Kirk and gave him another Excelsior class ship when he returned all the way home, and then renamed it USS Excelsior NCC-2000-A in honor of his legendary service.

I hope DRG3 is able to revisit this time period again down the line and give us more Demora/Enterprise-B stories. I also wouldn't mind more Excelsior stories if pocket ever decides to commision more

 

Re: LE: One Constant Star by David R. George III Review Thread (Spoile

Not finished the book yet(I'm on chapter 9) but I'm liking it. I wish the story would move a bit faster, but I like the characters and what not. I think it's an improvement over Mr. George's "The Fall" novel which IMO was slow and boring as heck.

 

Re: LE: One Constant Star by David R. George III Review Thread (Spoile

Thing is, by TNG there is another Excelsior with a completely different registry number.

 

Re: LE: One Constant Star by David R. George III Review Thread (Spoile

I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. I thought "Serpents..." was great.

The prologue (which is never really explained) gives them the magic 'out' in the end and it seems really cheap. So many things aren't explained - and while that's perhaps realistic it doesn't make for a great story in this case. Harriman is shoehorned in for no apparent reason. The Tzenkethi only show up so the blurb is accurate, it seems.

In the end, I would've preferred reading a book about the 10 years the Excelsior crew was on the surface of the planet.

 

Re: LE: One Constant Star by David R. George III Review Thread (Spoile

Well...shit.

Maybe in between? Maybe Hikaru got his new Excelsior and then...lost it as well? In the 2330's? Oh well...

 

Re: LE: One Constant Star by David R. George III Review Thread (Spoile

Here here! I would love to read more about that. Actually...more Hikaru Sulu stories in general would be most welcome