VAN: Storming Heaven by David Mack Review Thread (Spoilers!)

[MatthiasRussell]

I do find it difficult to believe that David never confronted his mother as to who his father was.

[beamMe]

MatthiasRussell wrote:

---

I do find it difficult to believe that David never confronted his mother as to who his father was.

As do I. But he obviously didn't know.

[RPJOB]

We didn't really get a feeling that Kirk & Carol were one of the great romances. It seemed to me that it was a more casual relationship that ended up with a surprise package. Maybe carol wanted a child and stopped using whatever future birth control she was on. She might have selected Kirk for the very reason that she knew he wouldn't do the "honorable thing" and try to marry her. His line "I did as you asked. I stayed away." makes it quite clear that it was Carol who didn't want Kirk around her son. She saw David as hers. It's possible that she simply saw Kirk as a friend who she chose to be the sperm donor.

[CaptainDonovin]

Just finished it & loved it. I raise my glass of warnog!

[Christopher]

"Warnog." That always sounds to me as though it's like the Klingon version of eggnog, except you drink it during war rather than Christmas.

[BrotherBenny]

Christopher wrote:

---

"Warnog." That always sounds to me as though it's like the Klingon version of eggnog, except you drink it during war rather than Christmas.

It is a warrior's drink.

Like prune juice, chilled.

At least we know now why Worf mellowed when he discovered prune juice. He wasn't constipated any more.

[Mike Winters]

Ok, I just finished it, and all I can say is W O W!!!!. What a finish to this tale. Truly no-one in this story was safe except for those we already knew survived because they have already seen them in the future.

At some point we will get a listing of the dead (perhaps on your annotations if ever published)? I lost track of who was alive and dead by the end of the battle of the regular/recurring characters.

This novel ended and my first thought was, how long till the next one comes out... completely disregarding logic based on the outcome.


Well done Mr. Mack... Well done.

[MatthiasRussell]

I started reading Storming Heaven again and am picking up some points along the way that didn't occur to me the first time.


I found it interesting that the Wanderer roused her people to war by saying Starfleet has a terror weapon to use against them.

I noticed now that the Maker was left out in the depths of space so it wasn’t captured and destroyed. So we could have a Shedai in a later story.

Nogura mentions to Kirk that Carol Marcus and his son are on the station. How did he know? Was David the only one who didn’t know who his father was?

I don’t understand why T’Prynn won’t open up to Pennington about her emotional pain. Pennington is someone she became friends with over a long period of assisting one another whereas Spock, she barely knows at all.

[Dimesdan]

MatthiasRussell wrote:

---

I don’t understand why T’Prynn won’t open up to Pennington about her emotional pain. Pennington is someone she became friends with over a long period of assisting one another whereas Spock, she barely knows at all.

Easy, Pennington is an emotional Human, Spock, although a half breed see's himself more as a Vulcan and T'Prynn would easily open herself top the latter and not the former.

[Relayer1]

Wow.

Whilst I realise it was an achievement and an event I wasn't blown away by Destiny. This is on another level entirely.

The climax is one of the few times I have been genuinely excited by what I was reading. Well done David - it's one of the very best pieces of Treklit I have ever had the fortune to read, and I'm not usually fond of TOS era novels, or at least the standalones !

There's only one real drawback -I still want more.

As I've posted before, with the end of Vanguard there's a real opportunity to continue opening up TOS era in the same way that the 24th century has been. Give us another lose series of novels, follow the surviving Vanguard cast, TOS and 23rd C. SCE crew and show us younger versions of characters from the movies. Throw in some new ships and crews and a big plot arc or two and TOS era is suddenly interesting !

Don't let all the good work on Vanguard go to waste...

[MatthiasRussell]

Dimesdan wrote:

---

Easy, Pennington is an emotional Human, Spock, although a half breed see's himself more as a Vulcan and T'Prynn would easily open herself top the latter and not the former.

But she had developed a relationship with Pennington where they had learned to trust and possibly like one another. He was also coping with the violent loss of a loved one. I feel like she suddenly was acting like the old T'Prynn, which is odd after Pennington saved her life and she melded with him to relieve his phantom pain.

[Relayer1]

What happened to Quinn ?

[Deranged Nasat]

Relayer1 wrote:

---

What happened to Quinn ?

He's gone out to Kennovere to live a fresh life under his new identity. Other than that, we don't know, and neither does anyone else. He's disappeared off the face of the galaxy, and we have to be content to let him.

[Relayer1]

Deranged Nasat wrote:

---

He's gone out to Kennovere to live a fresh life under his new identity. Other than that, we don't know, and neither does anyone else. He's disappeared off the face of the galaxy, and we have to be content to let him.

Are we sure ? Could T'Prynn have taken him out ? I raced through the end of the book and may have missed something...

[Christopher]

Relayer1 wrote:

---

Are we sure ? Could T'Prynn have taken him out ?

Nahh, she only goes out with girls.

The old T'Prynn would've assassinated him. The new T'Prynn chose to spare his life despite her orders.