STO: The Needs of the Many by M. A. Martin Review Thread (Spoilers!)

Re: Star Trek: Online: The Needs of the Many - Discussion (Spoilers)

If they ever do a remake of First Blood they should set it in Berkeley.

 

Re: Star Trek: Online: The Needs of the Many - Discussion (Spoilers)

Ah. I stand corrected. I thought it was the name of the gay pro-gun group. Turns out I was thinking of Pink Pistols. Mea culpa.

 

Re: Star Trek: Online: The Needs of the Many - Discussion (Spoilers)

I came here to say exactly this.

One can be a patriot and a critic. I tend to think to be a true patriot your must be a critic.

Starfleet has never been portrayed as perfect. Trek is mostly built upon a belief that humanity is mostly evolved and much better than now. But that doesn't mean that individuals don't mess up. Criticizing the military (Starfleet) doesn't make you a bad person, especially if you have cause. Unlike the state of Texas, you can't simply re-write the book and pretend the bad things never happened and skip over things. One of my favorite quotes is "experience brings success, but failure brings experience". Many of the good things that people and nations do come as a result of fixing mistakes or knowing better because of mistakes. Irnoring them makes you ignorant, embracing them and using them to inspire and bring about change is patriotic.

As for the military stuff, I merely think that "stereotype" was done to show the juxtaposition. The character was set up as a stereotypical soldier, but by the end of the interview (if you actually read it all) the reader (and Jake) realize he is a much more complicated and haunted character. Also, living in a city with a military base I have met TONS of soldiers who have talked or acted like this. But as is the case with everyone, when you break it down and talk to them that outer layer peels away and reveals much more complicated people. It's easy to accuse the author of "stereotyping", but not ready the book or simply dismissing everything else used to describe the character is no better. In other words, you are classifying every gruff soldier who speaks with bravado as some kind of negative. That is a stereotype. The irony is thick.

Overall i thought a few interviews were weird and surreal, but many others were excellent. Overall i graded it as "average".

My apologies for any typos or other things, this was the first thing of length i typed on my iPad.

 

Re: Star Trek: Online: The Needs of the Many - Discussion (Spoilers)

I'm not going to get into a debate about the politics of the game or the book because I didn't read it because of that aspect. I can understand why so many people are disappointed with this book. The presentation and format of the novel isn't what I was expecting. I was expecting this to be a series of stories chronicling the events of pre-Star Trek Online not interviews Jake conducts with various figures on their views of a war against Species 8472. Is there going to be another Star Trek Online book that deals with the events in the game? Or is this it? I mainly got it for a friend since he has the game and I wanted to finish reading the time line which I found interesting. Some of the fanwank stuff I'm not sure about...I'm glad this is just game material and not Trek Lit canon.

 

Re: Star Trek: Online: The Needs of the Many - Discussion (Spoilers)

I have scanned this thread and found very little actually discussing the book....I am going to avoid the whole military debate because I could honestly care less...

I thought this was a terrific book. I couldn't put it down and really hope that a sequel is written. It depicted an interesting post-Nemesis timeline which I found to be engaging and creative.

 

Re: Star Trek: Online: The Needs of the Many - Discussion (Spoilers)

So I remembered that one of the main volleys being heaved at the author of this was his portrayal of the soldier in one of the "interviews". Many of the people who slammed him said that he should read "Band of Brothers" and other works by that author to see some quality writing about soldiers.

Well I just got done reading an article that states that the author of BoB might have made up stuff for one of his books, possibly many. Now this doesn't mean that he made stuff up for BoB, but is interesting to note that the guy a couple of you slammed TNOTM's author for not emulating might have made stuff up.

 

Re: Star Trek: Online: The Needs of the Many - Discussion (Spoilers)

An undine (or ondine) is a female water spirit or water elemental in European folklore and the writings of the Renaissance alchemist Paracelsus. I assume that some human in the Federation named them that as an acknowledgment of the fact that they come from a fluidic universe.

Species 8472 surely wouldn't have a pronounceable name for themselves, since they don't have mouths and communicate telepathically. So any name for them is going to have to be something from human language that's applied to them descriptively. (In Places of Exile, I called them Groundskeepers.)

Undine is pronounced "un-deen" (as with "Nadine" or "Carradine"). Indign is pronounced "in-dine" (as with "sign" or "align").

 

Re: Star Trek: Online: The Needs of the Many - Discussion (Spoilers)

I too fiund the name a little coincifdental with Indign until I realized thanks to the name "deano" that it was prpnopunced unDEEN, I must admit to ign orance of the actual name "undine" in mytholtogy.

PS: Please excuse me, I'm drubnk tonight. I'll be my usual self tomorrow, so please jjust put up with this for tonight. I'll be quite apologetoc tomorrow, I'm sure

 

Re: Star Trek: Online: The Needs of the Many - Discussion (Spoilers)

^ I'm not noticing anything amiss.....

 

Re: Star Trek: Online: The Needs of the Many - Discussion (Spoilers)

We're all entitled to one drunken evening of posting here; io'm sure it's in the forum rules somewherwe!

 

Re: Star Trek: Online: The Needs of the Many - Discussion (Spoilers)

A drunk Nasat. What an interesting idea...

Would it be an angry drunk and start a fight, attempting to clout people with it's little cillia while yelling incoherently?

Would it curl into a ball and roll around giggling, eventually falling asleep after getting stuck under a desk or in a corner?

And how many drinks does it take to put a Nasat under the table?

Would alchohol even have an effect on an alien insect? I'm sure they'd have some local intoxicant with equivelent effects. Would they have a synthehol?

 

Re: Star Trek: Online: The Needs of the Many - Discussion (Spoilers)

 

Re: Star Trek: Online: The Needs of the Many - Discussion (Spoilers)

Well, there's nothing wrong with drinking and posting....you just have to know how to do it and not let on that you're doing it

 

Re: Star Trek: Online: The Needs of the Many - Discussion (Spoilers)

^ In fact, Dayton has never posted sober...

 

Re: Star Trek: Online: The Needs of the Many - Discussion (Spoilers)

^ How else do you think I avoid going off on some of the stuff posted around here?

 

Re: Star Trek: Online: The Needs of the Many - Discussion (Spoilers)

With the movie series, it is quite obvious artistic license has to be taken, for the parts that actually portray the action "as it is occurring." However, what it would be extremely foolish to deny would be the interviews given by the people who were actually involved in those events--specifically, the documentary We Stand Alone Together. If you want to argue with primary-source material, if you want to suggest all of those men are shamming and that "real soldiers" couldn't be as levelheaded and humble as those men were...trust me on this--it won't go well.

 

Re: Star Trek: Online: The Needs of the Many - Discussion (Spoilers)

So I'm the only one who pronounced it "In-Dige-iN" as in indiginous?

 

Re: Star Trek: Online: The Needs of the Many - Discussion (Spoilers)

Does anyone know if we'll get another Star Trek Online book? I seem to remember reading an article when this was announced saying that there would be a follow up (I'm guessing next year).

 

Re: Star Trek: Online: The Needs of the Many - Discussion (Spoilers)

An interview with Michael A. Martin, around the time of release, indicated that he did have an idea for a future volume, but that any more STO books would be contingent on sales of the first.

 

Re: Star Trek: Online: The Needs of the Many - Discussion (Spoilers)

I should hope so, because that's not how it's spelled. It's indign, a real (if archaic) word meaning "unworthy" (hence the title of the book), and it's related to the words "indignant" and "indignity," not "indigenous." (And "indigenous" is pronounced with a short i in the second syllable, like "smidgen.")

Dictionaries: they're not just for propping up table legs.