I finally founfd Forgotten History at Barnes&Noble. I plan on reading this book after I finish reading another TNG novel.
Definitely an interesting read, and, now that I'm done with it, Bennett's stated confusion over whether the book would be marketed as a TOS or DTI novel makes much more sense. It's certainly hard to classify, but that ultimately makes it a very satisfying experience. I very much enjoyed the "rehabilitation" aspects of it involving Kirk, or at least the popular impressions of his temporal misadventures, and the nods to The Animated Series, which I've really got to get around to rewatching one of these days. Bonus points for the lines where Spock muses about how he'd feel if his home planet were destroyed in some alternate continuum. Nice nod. The book feels a bit disjointed occasionally as I went through it, but ultimately it's all tied up in a pretty neat bow. The upending of Lucsly's worldview, and his realization of the necessity for origin legends and boogeymen both to himself and the DTI, even if they're not completely accurate, was very well done and really made the character for me.
Good to hear. I was actually reluctant to include that bit for fear it would be too cutesy a continuity nod, but it was actually a reasonable thing for him to think at that point in the story.
so did you deliberately set out to eliminate Spoiler: the book Miri's planet from our timeline in order to remove a plot hole from Trek IV or was that just a happy coincidence?
It only occurred to me when one of the characters mentioned that there were still animals living on the planet after it was returned to its proper timeline. If it was accessible during ST IV they could get Humpbacks from there instead of having to go back in time. Removing it nicely eliminates that possibility.
No, they couldn't take the risk that the plague which killed off the adults might have affected animals as well. There wasn't enough time. They couldn't afford to waste the effort of going all the way to Miri's planet and then find no humpbacks. The past of Earth was absolutely assured of having some, OTOH.
What can I say except that it was a hugely enjoyable read and a jolly good page turner. I've always been a sucker for novels that delve into the latter days of the first five-year mission and into the post-TMP era. Kudos for exploring Spock's pon farr and his relationship with T'Pring and the fall-out of "Amok Time". If nothing else, you've removed the need to consider Triangle in continuity because, unless I'm mistaken, that dealt with Spock's pon farr in the same time period. Interesting explanation for Miri's planet as well, definitely one that made more sense than a parallel world. Although the disappearance takes a rather good comic story with McCoy's daughter out of continuity. A small price to pay. Similarly the explanation for Omega IV/VI. I wonder though, what would the explanation be for planet 892-IV (Magna Roma) from "Bread and Circuses".
I didn't consider the specific TVH connection that you mentioned; it's just that in general, we'd never subsequently heard any mention of a Spoiler: DTI:FH duplicate Earth lying around somewhere. More importantly, though, it served the needs of the story I wanted to tell. Spoiler: ditto I needed a mechanism to switch things between two timelines in order to get the Enterprise into the, err, Miri-ad Universe. Contrary to what some people think, I don't create plot points solely so that I can explain away things from episodes. I bring in elements from episodes if they serve the plot I want to do. In the case of "Miri," I'd long since decided to simply ignore the whole episode and pretend it never happened. I would've been happy to keep doing so. But when I was developing this book, I wanted a storyline that involved parallel timelines and I wanted it to be rooted in something from TOS (other than the Mirror Universe, which has been thoroughly treated elsewhere in recent years). I remembered a thought I'd had long ago (before I decided to just ignore the episode) that maybe the Onlies' Earth was a parallel-timeline duplicate that had somehow crossed over, and I got to wondering how that timeline's history would've developed without an Earth and humanity. That was an interesting enough story to justify (ugh) acknowledging the existence of "Miri." And the mechanism behind the transfer, the subspace confluence process that drove much of the technology, came from an unused Voyager episode pitch I came up with in the '90s, as a way of bringing the characters into temporary contact with the folks back home. I'd hardly say it was necessary to have Triangle in continuity. After all, there are presumably multiple other unexplained pon farrs in Spock's life that haven't been chronicled. Well, I think that Untold Voyages in general is difficult to reconcile with my post-TMP continuity. I tend to assume that's a Preserver-seeded world. Explaining how they speak modern English is trickier, but maybe a colony expedition from Earth crashed there a century or two before the episode.
Thanks for the reply, Christopher. In all honesty, your post TMP continuity (even in three stories) is head and shoulders above a group of disjointed novels released between 1981 and 2005. Those earlier novels ignored the V'Ger experience that Spock had undergone, where you have embraced it and really gone in an interesting direction with it. Reading Ex Machina initially, I was unsure in the direction you were going with Spock, but seeing it work here, I think I definitely need to go back and reread. What I really, really want to see though is for you to get more opportunity to tell stories in the post-TMP timeframe. Pocket Books take note. Oh, one little thing I wanted to mention. I may be way of here but Antonio Delgado being a "master manipulator" and a rather keen interest in time travel. Any allusion to The Master.
I admit I did come up with the name "Antonio Delgado" as an allusion to the two main actors to play the Master, but it was initially just a placeholder in the outline; I just never got around to changing it. And I'd forgotten about that when I wrote the "master manipulator" line.
I got a quick and possibly dumb question. I saw this at the bookstore yesterday and it looked really enticing. Thing is the first DTI book wasn't there. Is it recommended that I read Watching the Clock first or can I just dive into Forgotten History? Thanks.
^You can dive right in. I intentionally wrote it with an eye toward TOS fans who were unfamiliar with the first book. Ideally, the two DTI books can be read in either order, which is kind of fitting.
What an outstanding read! I especially liked the way the "Miri" Earth was worked in; opens a whole LOT of future suppositions. So, including this one-- I guess the 18th Kirk-responsible temporal incursion--how many would we count, at this point? I did notice, Christopher, a lack of Zar (A. C. Crispen). But I guess that would be a Spock "incursion", and an older one at that. Also a "Guardian" premise. Kinda hard to include ALL of Trek Lits' temporal incursions! Still, I hoped. Tracking the relativistic images from Sarpedeion (?) had me going! I think I'm getting Only Superhuman next, my Good Sir! Rock and Write on!
It's hard to reconcile Yesterday's Son with modern understandings of TOS continuity, let alone with TAS. It's supposed to be two years after "All Our Yesterdays," which would probably put it in early 2271, past the endpoint of the 5-year mission. You could fudge it to be toward the end of year 5, but the novel ignores the existence of "Yesteryear." I believe it also indicates that the Commander from "The Enterprise Incident" was executed, contradicting the Vulcan's Noun books where she's alive and well generations later. And there's no way to reconcile Time for Yesterday, its sequel, which is deeply interconnected with the 1980s novel continuity (and indeed is pretty much the linchpin of the whole thing, with more references to elements from other books than any other pre-2000 Trek novel). So I think of the Zar duology as being part of that classic book continuity that also included The Final Reflection and the Rihannsu. I'm glad to hear you're getting Only Superhuman. I'm hoping there will be a lot of crossover interest from my Trek buyers. Unfortunately, the online vendors have it listed under "Christopher Bennett" instead of "Christopher L. Bennett," so people buying Forgotten History aren't seeing it listed among my other works. But the folks at Tor are taking care of that and it should be fixed pretty soon.