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

[Mike Winters]

David,

How long did you foresee the final battle taking place over? Hour? Two Hours, half a day?

Also, I remember reading that the entire Tholian attack force sent to Vanguard accounted for roughly 20% of their entire fleet. After the Buenos Aries was lost, Khatami noted that roughly 65% of the attacking force had been eliminated.

So once the battle ended, most of the remaining attack force was eliminated. Given that the Tholians lost roughly a fifth of the entire fleet against one cruiser (not including the late comer on purpose) plus three other smaller vessels and a space station in that battle, would this be the reason as to why the Tholians never really engaged the Federation further (militarily) for the "Crimes of the Taurus Reach"?

Mike

[David Mack]

Mike Winters wrote:

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David,

How long did you foresee the final battle taking place over? Hour? Two Hours, half a day?

A matter of minutes. I'd say that from the first shot to the last was less than twenty minutes, maybe even under 15 minutes.

Also, I remember reading that the entire Tholian attack force sent to Vanguard accounted for roughly 20% of their entire fleet. After the Buenos Aries was lost, Khatami noted that roughly 65% of the attacking force had been eliminated.

So once the battle ended, most of the remaining attack force was eliminated. Given that the Tholians lost roughly a fifth of the entire fleet against one cruiser (not including the late comer on purpose) plus three other smaller vessels and a space station in that battle, would this be the reason as to why the Tholians never really engaged the Federation further (militarily) for the "Crimes of the Taurus Reach"?

Mike

Well, keep in mind that Vanguard was an absolutely massive starbase that was built to repel a major siege. Arguably, most of the losses inflicted upon the Tholians were caused by the station itself. But yes, I can certainly imagine that one of the effects of this battle upon Tholian foreign policy would be to persuade the Tholians to shy away from large-scale military engagements vs. the Federation and stick to ambushes and sabotage.

[MatthiasRussell]

After the station exploded, I believe it was said only a few of the Tholian ships survived the explosion so the majority of the Armada was taken out, more than 65%.

I thought the battle took longer than that, but it makes sense that massive space battles are over quickly. At least if the battle was over that quickly, the Endeavor's engineering crew knew that their ship survived the battle thanks to their efforts.

[David Mack]

Well, it does say clearly in the text on page 323, in paragraph one (the start of Chapter 34):

Khatami had lost count of how many hull breaches had been reported in the mere minutes since the battle began.

Just sayin'.

[MatthiasRussell]

If you want to cite page and paragraph of the book you wrote, then there isn't much wiggle room for speculation is there?

I'm curious, how long did it take to find that quote? Mere minutes?

[MatthiasRussell]

David, since you are monitoring this thread, any idea when we'll get to see some Cold Equations cover art?

[David Mack]

MatthiasRussell wrote:

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David, since you are monitoring this thread, any idea when we'll get to see some Cold Equations cover art?

Not too much longer. I've seen a comp for book one's cover, and it's very close to what I suggested to the editors. I'm not sure where they are with respect to art for books two and three, however.

MatthiasRussell wrote:

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If you want to cite page and paragraph of the book you wrote, then there isn't much wiggle room for speculation is there?

I'm curious, how long did it take to find that quote? Mere minutes?

No time at all, since I remember asking myself that very question (i.e., how long did the battle last?) during the writing of the novel.

[MatthiasRussell]

It was quite the battle and ending. I think it struck me even more the second time I read it, especially Pennington and the flower from the Bombay tree. For some reason, Oriana's death really stuck with me throughout this serires, probably due to the loves I've lost.

[Patrick O'Brien]

David Mack wrote:

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Not too much longer. I've seen a comp for book one's cover, and it's very close to what I suggested to the editors. I'm not sure where they are with respect to art for books two and three, however.

Cool, I just pre ordered all three books for my kindle

[MatthiasRussell]

Why? I don't order books for my Kindle until the day before?

[Defcon]

^ I don't know why Patrick does it, but I preorder the Star Trek Kindle books at amazon.de because a) I buy them anyway and b) so I get the cheapest price between my order and the release (there are sometimes fluctuations because of the $/€ exchange course).

[Patrick O'Brien]

MatthiasRussell wrote:

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Why? I don't order books for my Kindle until the day before?

Force of habit I guess Though it does prevent me from forgetting a release date. Don't publishers track pre order sales? Maybe if demand is strong they will force Dave to write more

[MatthiasRussell]

Maybe if demand is strong enough, they'll invest in cloning David so we can have that many MORE novels!

[David Mack]

MatthiasRussell wrote:

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Maybe if demand is strong enough, they'll invest in cloning David so we can have that many MORE novels!

Dear God, no. Then I'd have to split my royalties and share my scotch. The horror!

[WarsTrek1993]

I voted "outstanding". Wonderfully written, great ending to a great series. (Though, I confess, I did not read Books 3 or 4...)
I know, lame.
The scenes with Kirk, the showdown at the station, everything was SO well done! It's almost on par with my favorite TV series. (DS9)

Speaking of which, before reading, the FIRST thing I listened to was the theme from DS9, which fits Vanguard rather well.