The Children of Kings

[JD]

Sounds good. Have we gotten alot of background on the Orions in the novels before this?

[Deranged Nasat]

I'm looking forward to this- an exploration of Orion culture aND history seems long overdue- but sadly it must wait unrtil exam period is finished. I'll have quite a backlog of novels to look forward to. I have glanced througj it, and what 've seen looks interesying.

please excuse my drunkneness. Annual tradition. I'll be myself again tomorrow.

[mbruno]

Could a mod please fix the topic title? The book is called "The Children of Kings", not "The Children of the Kings".

[Deranged Nasat]

mbruno wrote:

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Could a mod please fix the topic title? The book is called "The Children of Kings", not "The Children of the Kings".

Indeed. That's been boryhering me, too!

[mbruno]

Deranged Nasat wrote:

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I'm looking forward to this- an exploration of Orion culture aND history seems long overdue- but sadly it must wait unrtil exam period is finished. I'll have quite a backlog of novels to look forward to. I have glanced througj it, and what 've seen looks interesying.

please excuse my drunkneness. Annual tradition. I'll be myself again tomorrow.

Hope your hangover isn't too bad tomorrow Nasat.

[seigezunt]

Amazon delivered it today.


It's so...thick. Oh my.







Can't wait! But I see the author thanks MWB for Burning Dreams, so I will likely read that first...

[JD]

Oh, The Children of Kings (416p) isn't thick, A Storm of Swords (1216p) is thick . Luckily I'm on the book that comes before it, A Game of Thrones (835p).

[BolianAuthor]

I just got my copy. Looking forward to reading it! Hearing that the book's Pike is a lot like Bruce Greenwood's Pike is a good thing... I loved Greenwood's portrayal of Captain Pike.

[21Spike65]

Hmm...the good reviews are making me curious. How would you say this rates in comparison to Dave Stern's previous works, for those of you who have read both?

[Garm Bel Iblis]

21Spike65 wrote:

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Hmm...the good reviews are making me curious. How would you say this rates in comparison to Dave Stern's previous works, for those of you who have read both?

That's what i'm worried about. Daedeuls\Childrent and Rosetta were meh. And Cowabunga or whatever it was called left mewith a great big

[mbruno]

mbruno wrote:

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Could a mod please fix the topic title? The book is called "The Children of Kings", not "The Children of the Kings".

Please?

[HOoftheKinshaya]

Deranged Nasat wrote:

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I'm looking forward to this- an exploration of Orion culture aND history seems long overdue- but sadly it must wait unrtil exam period is finished. I'll have quite a backlog of novels to look forward to. I have glanced througj it, and what 've seen looks interesying.

please excuse my drunkneness. Annual tradition. I'll be myself again tomorrow.

I think it gives a fairly good explanation of why the Orions are a dimorphic species with the Males being so much larger than the females and so incredibly strong. The hormones in their body chemistry basically enhance the development of the sexes differently as they grow to a much higher degree than other species, enhancing pheromones and sexual appeal in females and size and strength in males. So you end up with hulking mammoths, brutes and sexual vixens, seductresses. Basically the Uber-Masculine and Uber-Feminine.

It also touches on the history of the Orions when they were and empire and the issues that caused their society to devolve.

I loved the portrayal of Orions in the Enterprise series. Seeing the "Big Show"Orion Slaver toss people around and manhandle and shake T'Pol like a little doll was classic.

This book does a good job fleshing some of that out with a strong story and some strong character development of Pike's crew. It almost makes you wonder how Dr. Boyce would have interacted with Kirk and Spock.

[JD]

Wow, this sounds fascinating. I can't wait to get my hands on this book.

[Christopher]

Tara wrote:

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ETA: looks like the ref to NCO Colt as an Ensign was a one-off, tho the spelling of Ilyria as "Illyria" and as a colony I suspect was due to an old error at Memory Beta.

Not necessarily. There are a number of clear differences from canon here. Garison is a lieutenant instead of a chief petty officer, Pitcairn is chief engineer instead of transporter chief, the Klingons already have a prototype cloak in the 2250s, and there's even a reference to the Ferengi. Plus it's evidently before "The Cage" yet Colt is already Pike's yeoman, rather than the replacement for the one he lost on Rigel VII immediately before "The Cage." I was confused at first, until I read the author's note at the end, where Stern says that the new film continuity "freed [him] of the need to write specifically to one vision of humanity's future" and that the book shows "the Enterprise as it might have been under Captain Christopher Pike." He calls it a "prequel" to the movie, though it can't be, since the movie showed the Enterprise's maiden voyage. So it's not quite in the Prime universe and it's not quite in the Abramsverse. It's apparently sort of a stealth Myriad Universes tale, an alternate take on Pike's captaincy and on the astropolitical situation of the 2250s.

It's an interesting approach. I'd imagine it's a product of the period when the editors weren't sure how to deal with the new continuity and were developing projects adaptable to either timeline, or at least not specifically bound to either one.

[Garm Bel Iblis]

I'm diggin' this books

SPOILERS



























But the death of Captain Pike has me bummed