THe Sorrows of Empire - Expanded version

[wew]

As I promised in another thread, I went and bought Sorrow of Empire.

I picked it up last night and finished my reading it about 10:30 last night. Its a quick read, but I thought it was a great read. The additional material really adds to the original version.

I enjoyed watching Mack weave elements from the original Television series, as well as elements of other works into the novel. If I'd have to compare it to something else, I'd argue its like the Extended Editions of Lord of the Rings. The original story is great, but I think the expanded version really provides a greater expansiveness to the story.

[David Mack]

^ Wow — having my work compared to the expanded versions of The Lord of the Rings? I'll take it.

[Paris]

I just picked it up and put in my "to-read" pile. I only skimmed through, but it looks great. Can't wait to read the expanded parts with the MU Vanguard people.

[Ronald Held]

so far it is turning out somewhat better than I expected, even thought I am not a quarter done.

[Admiral_Young]

My Chapters still doesn't have any copies...probably will have to wait a week or so before they do. They're always slow.

[Nerroth]

I got my copy of the Director's Cut... er, stand-alone edition today, and read through it surprisingly quickly. (Or maybe I didn't notice the time passing so much when reading it.)


Some of the additional parts were very nice to see - but the Vanguard stuff felt a little less coherent, not least when building up towards, then leading back down from, a short story that is printed in another volume. To me, it felt like the effort would have been more rewarding had the events of The Black Flag had been shown in this work, instead of leaving a point hanging that someone won't see unless they go and buy Shards and Shadows.

(Even if the events were shown from an alternate perspective, so as to leave the version in S&S equally valid, or something.)


Also, I have to say that while I understand why a character like Mirror-Decker was portrayed in the manner he was, I still find it more disturbing than I'd really care for to read some of the ways in which his cruelty towards Takeshewada-san was made manifest.

(I didn't feel overly comfortable reading some of how mirror-Reyes acted in The Black Flag, either, to be honest.)


In all, I suppose it's hard to judge the story as a whole like this, when I feel that perhaps I might have felt differently had I not read the abridged version from Glass Empires first.


I have to say, though, that I'm probably not going to rush back to reading about the Mirror Universe... at least until, or unless, the time finally comes for the oppressed people of the Alliance, alongside the holdouts in Memory Omega, finally get to Rise Like Lions!


(Or if they have the wormhole open up and introduce a mirror Dominion, perhaps.)

[Thrawn]

^ Interesting. I haven't read the Mirror Universe stuff yet, and was planning on reading the expanded Sorrows Of Empire in place of the shorter one from the trade, but do everything else in publication order, reading Shards & Shadows last. Would you recommend I read the Vanguard story before reading this book?

[Mysterion]

Loved the Big Bang Theory reference! And the story was pretty cool, too. Best ST novel I've read in awhile. Thanks, Mr. Mack.

[Nerroth]

Thrawn wrote:

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^ Interesting. I haven't read the Mirror Universe stuff yet, and was planning on reading the expanded Sorrows Of Empire in place of the shorter one from the trade, but do everything else in publication order, reading Shards & Shadows last. Would you recommend I read the Vanguard story before reading this book?

I wouldn't be so sure about that.

I guess, if you had both books to hand, you could stop reading The Sorrows of Empire once you get to 2276, switch to The Black Flag, then jump back in again after that.

(There are other, later, points you could stop at, perhaps - anywhere up to the start of chapter 22, really - but that was just one example.)

[Paris]

^This talk of jumping around the MU timeline sounds interesting. Someone should make a little chart saying which stories come in what order so we can read it all chronologically. There were two novella collections, an anthology, the DS9-R MU books, the expanded Sorrows of Empire, and the upcoming story in the Seven Deadly Sins anthology. Am I missing anything?

[JD]

We don't know where it will fit in yet, but there will be a MU story (or is it novella?) in Seven Deadly Sins.

[Paris]

^I know. I mentioned it in the post above your last one .

[JD]

Ooops, I didn't see in in your list.

[DarkHorizon]

Paris wrote:

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^This talk of jumping around the MU timeline sounds interesting. Someone should make a little chart saying which stories come in what order so we can read it all chronologically. There were two novella collections, an anthology, the DS9-R MU books, the expanded Sorrows of Empire, and the upcoming story in the Seven Deadly Sins anthology. Am I missing anything?

KRAD wrote an MU chronology in issue 142/US #15 of Star Trek Magazine - it covers up to, and including, Shards and Shadows.

[Paris]

DarkHorizon wrote:

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KRAD wrote an MU chronology in issue 142/US #15 of Star Trek Magazine - it covers up to, and including, Shards and Shadows.

Sweet . Do you know where can I find a copy of it online? I don't think my local Chapters has any copies of #15 left...