A Singular Destiny review thread (possible spoilers)

[RonG]

Ktrek wrote:

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You guys from Israel could always buy a Sony Reader or a Kindle and not have to pay such outrageous postage fees and also get the books in a more timely manner in most cases. I personally prefer paper copies but if I lived in a place like you do I would do what I needed to.

Kevin

Well, I prefer the dead-tree versions as well...

I think that my LCS does a great job in that regard:

1. While the cost of a Trek novel when ordered or bought in one of the main bookstore chains is approx. 15.5 USD, the cost through my LCS is approx. 11 USD (including all costs) so it's not THAT expensive...

2. The LCS guys know what a Trek fan I am, so they often order a Trek novel just for me (thy did it in the case of Mere Mortals, which Id missed in Previews...). If for some reason I don't want the book, they just put it on display (though in several years, there was only time I declined a Trek book )

[Man of Steel]

Ktrek wrote:

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You guys from Israel could always buy a Sony Reader or a Kindle and not have to pay such outrageous postage fees and also get the books in a more timely manner in most cases. I personally prefer paper copies but if I lived in a place like you do I would do what I needed to.

Kevin

Ya know Kevin, I live in NY and it's never a problem for me to get the books. However, I happen to have an apt here in Jerusalem where I am staying for a few months visiting friends and family and I am still getting my stuff in a timely matter.

At one point, Barnes and Nobles was going to open a store near the Western Wall Mall but the deal fell through over a few disagreements but rumor has it that they have restarted negotiations to bring them here.

[DarkHorizon]

So, I managed to write a full review of the novel, reposted here from my blog:

So, Destiny has reshaped the state of the Star Trek universe. And now, the ripples from that catastrophic trilogy are beginning to spread. A Singular Destiny is the first novel to explore this new horizon - and it sets the seeds for the next two years’ worth of stories.

Ever since ASD was announced, I’ve been looking forward to its release, particularly since Keith R.A. DeCandido described it as “Clancy-esque” (I’ve been a fan of Tom Clancy ever since I read Red October at about age ten - well, of everything up until The Bear and the Dragon, anyway… but that’s an entirely different post). It’s a rare beast, this - a political thriller - which, like Clancy’s work, fits a lot of apparently unconnected events into a grand tapestry that leaves us hurtling along with the story.

It’s a few months after the end of Lost Souls, and the devastation isn’t going anywhere. Across the galaxy, empires and civilizations are struggling to rebuild, and to cope with the enormous refugee crisis that has accompanied the Borg invasion. Supplies are shorter, fleet resources are scarce, and hungry eyes are focusing on those weakened by invasion.

As the first book in the sequence helpfully titled “Cleaning Up Mack’s Mess”, A Singular Destiny has a lot to deal with. But, by not tying the story to any of the main casts, DeCandido is once again able to encompass a larger portion of the Star Trek universe, and address issues that have a more wide-ranging impact. After such a universe-affecting event like Destiny, this is exactly the book to follow it - showing how that universe as a whole is affected, instead of focusing on the effects on one small group of people.

Blending in between chapters are snippets of various documents, transcripts, and other material - along the lines of DeCandido’s work in the Shards and Shadows story “Family Matters” - to further establish the situation the Star Trek universe finds itself in. And these aren’t just throwaway asides, either - two in particular have major impact, one (between Chapters 7 and 8) especially so, which had me cursing DeCandido rather loudly for being such a magnificent bastard…

The new character we are presented with, Sonek Pran, is very much in the Jack Ryan mould - the man in the middle of it all, slowly piecing things together to realise the full scope of what’s unfolding. Being a brand new character thrown straight into the narrative, there is always the danger of appearing far too good to be true; whilst there are brief moments the character grates, it never gets to the point where the character appears larger than life - there’s no convoluted past relationship with every major character, nor endless discussions about his history (the bits that do appear are relevant to the plot, or right at the start, when the character is introduced) - or overpowers the storyline.

Throwing more focus on newly-promoted Captain Ezri Dax and the Aventine is a good move, since we didn’t get a huge amount of time in Destiny to explore this new ship and her crew. The continuing look at the political figures of the Federation - established by DeCandido in A Time for War, A Time for Peace, and explored still further in the wonderful Articles of the Federation (to which there is a minor callback - or, at least, an addressing of a continuity question that resulted from AotF and Before Dishonor) - helps to further develop the universe. And there are lots of wonderful little hints about, and cameos by, familiar characters, in some cases pushing their individual stories forward a little bit more since we last saw them.

The Kinshaya intrigued me - I shall have to see if I can get hold of a copy of The Final Reflection,which introduces them - hopefully, we’ll get to explore them a bit more in the coming novels.

So, now we have a new power on the scene - the Typhon Pact - who outnumber, outgun and surround the Federation. Now, my hope is that we don’t just dive back into another war in 2010 when The Typhon Pact miniseries begins, but that we get a tale of political machinations and a cold war. Personally, I think that bouncing from crisis to crisis can get a little bit tiresome - note the ongoing discussions in the comic book world about “event fatigue” - and something a bit different could be called for this time around.

All in all, though, this is another strong novel from DeCandido - poignant, witty, exciting, and heartfelt. It leaves you wanting to know more about what’s coming next - and the handy release schedule on the inside back cover certainly helps with that!

[Corran Horn]

Brendan Moody wrote:

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^Yeah, I was glad I read through that carefully. Whatever it means, the books in... the series in question... are certainly going to be interesting.

That was particularly depressing to see, at least in one case.

[Jean-Luc Picard]

Corran Horn wrote:

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That was particularly depressing to see, at least in one case.

Now I am really intrigued...

[Christopher]

DarkHorizon wrote:

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The Kinshaya intrigued me - I shall have to see if I can get hold of a copy of The Final Reflection,which introduces them - hopefully, we’ll get to explore them a bit more in the coming novels.

The Kinshaya were only alluded to in The Final Reflection, not depicted or explored in any detail. ASD is the first novel that's ever portrayed them "onscreen" or established anything about their culture.

They also appear in a FASA role-playing game book that John M. Ford wrote, The Klingons, but their description there is incompatible with what's described in ASD. I found this description online:

The Kinshaya average 2 metres tall and mass about 200kg. They have no discernable head, and their sensory organs are set in the upper torso, between the massive armoured shoulders. They are bipedal, with two arms, from which hang thick folds of skin resembling wings or a heavy cloak. The legs are covered in overlapping bony plates. The shoulders have similar plates, from which project a number of spikes or horns. They are covered in short green/black fur. The “face” has two large round twin-lensed eyes, a flap-covered breathing orifice and a round mouth ringed with three rows of sharp teeth. A third sight organ is in back, and is capable of not much more than detecting motion and light or dark. The hearing organs are covered by skin. To a Human, they would resemble a huge bat (though no Human has ever seen one), and to Klingons they look much like demons of myth.

Keith's Kinshaya are quadrupeds with actual wings and large, expressive ears. I imagined something like griffins. They do have the spherical black ships mentioned in the gaming material, though.

[Allyn Gibson]

RonG wrote:

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The LCS guys know what a Trek fan I am, so they often order a Trek novel just for me (thy did it in the case of Mere Mortals, which Id missed in Previews...).

Unfortunately, Diamond cancelled orders on Mere Mortals, probably because they were too low.

[RonG]

Allyn Gibson wrote:

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Unfortunately, Diamond cancelled orders on Mere Mortals, probably because they were too low.

So how come they were able to send out copies? Did they cancel orders other than the preliminary ones?

[JD]

Corran Horn wrote:

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That was particularly depressing to see, at least in one case.

Come, could you guys tell us? In spoiler coding of course.

[Allyn Gibson]

RonG wrote:

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So how come they were able to send out copies? Did they cancel orders other than the preliminary ones?

Oh, Mere Mortals. My bad, sorry. I thought you meant Mere Anarchy. (It's the "Mere" that threw me.) Which was reported on Psi Phi as having had its orders through Diamond cancelled last week.

Obviously, I need more coffee.

[Brendan Moody]

JD wrote:

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Come, could you guys tell us? In spoiler coding of course.

I think people should wait and read the book-- it'll be more fun that way, honest-- but if you absolutely can't wait, I suppose there's no harm in saying that

two of those listed as "confirmed dead" in a casualty report are Miral Paris and B'Elanna Torres.

Like I say, whether the report is right or not, the future looks interesting.

[LightningStorm]

Brendan Moody wrote:

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I think people should wait and read the book-- it'll be more fun that way, honest-- but if you absolutely can't wait, I suppose there's no harm in saying that

two of those listed as "confirmed dead" in a casualty report are Miral Paris and B'Elanna Torres.

Like I say, whether the report is right or not, the future looks interesting.

OMG. Thanks KRAD! I'm not looking forward to the

B'Elanna died?? In what book? thread.

[Rosalind]

^ I think we might as well start it, get it over with.

[Dayton Ward]

[JD]

LightningStorm wrote:

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I think people should wait and read the book-- it'll be more fun that way, honest-- but if you absolutely can't wait, I suppose there's no harm in saying that

two of those listed as "confirmed dead" in a casualty report are Miral Paris and B'Elanna Torres.

Like I say, whether the report is right or not, the future looks interesting.

Hmm, very intersting. Especially given where we saw that character's closest relation in the last book.