TNG: The Persistence of Memory by David Mack Review Thread (Spoilers!)

[Sho]

It was fall 25 years ago that The Next Generation first appeared on television sets across North America, and timed to commemorate this occasion is a brand new trilogy of novels by author David Mack dubbed the Cold Equations (thereby paying homage to yet another classic of the genre). The first installment is called The Persistence of Memory and has already inspired heated debate well in advance of its debut on October 30th, with the cover art's inclusion of a certain vain robotics pioneer causing us to reexamine and question the fate of his most successful creation at some length. Meanwhile Mr. Mack did no more than tease with regards to this (or did he?—damn, the man is good), but he did humorously suggest a working title of "A Soong of Ice and Fire" for his latest work.

The official blurb commeth:

A BRAZEN HEIST Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the Enterprise crew race to find out who has stolen Data’s android brother B-4—and for what sinister purpose.

A BROKEN PROMISE One desperate father risks all for the son he abandoned forty years ago—but is he ready to pay the price for redemption?

A DARING MISSION Against overwhelming odds, and with time running out, Commander Worf has only one chance to avert a disaster. But how high a price will he pay for victory?

And in a development I chose to interpret as a good omen, Simon & Schuster even got their excerpt up in time for our review thread: http://books.simonandschuster.com/St...650723/excerpt

[Edit_XYZ]

The first excerpt, the first inconsistency:
In 'Zero sum game', a phasing cloaked ship had no problem beaming a breen spy aboard without decloaking (as evidenced by the starfleet sensor readings of the event).
In 'The persistence of memory', beaming with an active phasing cloak is no longer possible; and you now need a large amount of energy for this cloak (despite Geordi's and Ro's experiences with it in TNG).

I guess the phasing cloak, that lets the romulans get wherever they want inside federation territory (such as the orbit of every inhabited federation world, ready to subject said world to a nuclear holocaust at a moments' notice; or cloaked agents in the presidential office) was belatedly seen as too great an advantage for the romulans; as such, draw-backs are attempted to be established - but they're neither consistent with previous events nor sufficient (by a large margin).

[Deranged Nasat]

Very glad to see an excerpt. I'm sure it's no surprise to hear that I'm looking forward to this. A Mack novel is always a good bet; three Mack novels is spoiling us. And novels set at the cutting edge of the timeline, too!

I note that Galor IV has wised up regarding the Enterprise. Planets must live in fear of Star Trek's heroes, keeping their heads down, trying desperately not to attract attention and so become the site of an adventure, or Events of Interest. It's like if Titan cruises into your space - you might as well implode there and then, get it over with. In seriousness, I like the continuity references to Immortal Coil.

[Christopher]

I got my copy last week from Dave himself, and I think he did a terrific job. People stereotype him as the action guy, but as with Mere Mortals, TPoM is a solid work of science fiction on a fairly epic, sweeping scale. I liked the way the book resolved and clarified a number of conceptual and continuity questions, fleshed out significant pieces of backstory, and moved the storyline forward in an unexpected way with a lot of new potential.

[BillJ]

I'll pick it up when available on iBooks on October 30th.

[Hartzilla2007]

Edit_XYZ wrote:

---

The first excerpt, the first inconsistency:
In 'Zero sum game', a phasing cloaked ship had no problem beaming a breen spy aboard without decloaking (as evidenced by the starfleet sensor readings of the event).

Read Plagues of Night they didn't beam the spy on board, they did something arguably cooler.

they actually flew the ship through part of the station over where the spy was and used some contraption to bring the guy into phase in the ship.

[Paris]

Just read the excerpt. Very exciting stuff ! More allusions to Picard giving up the center seat, and clarification on Worf's standing in Starfleet's eyes. I can't wait for this to ship! David Mack is the man! C'mon Amazon!!

[JD]

I just read the excerpt and really enjoyed it, I can't wait to read the rest.

[WarsTrek1993]

Way to tease with such an awesome excerpt! Now to eagerly await the release...

[Patrick O'Brien]

Sounds like a winner, cannot wait to read this one

[ToddCam]

I assume the "twenty-five years" reference is an error. That would place the story around 2390.

[David Mack]

^ Yeah, that's an error. It should have been simply "twenty years".

[shanejayell]

Preview looks good.

[CaptainDonovin]

Charging my kindle at this moment so it'll be ready for download, looking forward to this.

[ToddCam]

Thought so! Looking forward to this. Good preview.