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

[BillJ]

Markonian wrote:

---

Btw, ENT featured Arik Soong in the Augment trilogy after Immortal Coil was written. They do not contradict one another, or do they?

Nothing I can really think of and I'm almost to the end of the book.

[King Daniel Into Darkness]

Markonian wrote:

---

Btw, ENT featured Arik Soong in the Augment trilogy after Immortal Coil was written. They do not contradict one another, or do they?

I dont see how they would, at least not in any big way. At most, Immortal Coil would assume Noonien's quest to create artificial life is his own, not one begun by his father(?) Arik.

[Sho]

Review thread for Immortal Coil: Click me.

[Ronald Held]

Due to Mr. Mack I am now rereading "Immortal Coil".

[Tirius]

Ronald Held wrote:

---

Due to Mr. Mack I am now rereading "Immortal Coil".

I've also pulled it from the shelf again, as I'll likely be buying PoM next thursday. I wasn't too crazy about Immortail Coil during my first read - certainly a minority opinion at the time - but I'm finding that I'm enjoying it more this time around.

[rfmcdpei]

One thing about this novel that I appreciated was the sense of humour, some of it approaching the level of meta-humour. The example of Galor IV, with its governor wondering whether it was the mere presence of the Enterprise that triggered planetary emergencies, was one example.

Two meta-jokes that stood out for me involved Soong's failure to determine a consensus among the locals whether the actual name of Alpha Centauri IV is a
Velestus, Centaurus or Al Rijil IV, or his purchase of a class-M moon called Yutani IIIa presumably named after the android-making Weyland-Yutani Corporation] of Alien fame, or--for that matter--his discussion of how incredibly difficult it is to amass the funds necessary to buy a world outright (sorry quark). Later, in a different sort of meta-joke Faur warns Picard that taking the Enterprise to hide in the atmosphere of a gas giant could have calamitous results--why, look at what happened to the Da Vinci when it entered the atmosphere of Galvan VI.

There are other, non-meta, bits of humour, too. There's Soong's complete surprise when the Borg open fire on his Yutani IIIa in 2381 without communicating a word, and then there's the Breen reaction to the surprise of the Enterprise landing party when they offer them prisoner of war status (basically, that they had to change things a bit when they signed onto the Typhon Pact, but they still retain the right to execute spies).

I liked this. There's nothing quite like reading a good book that's also incidentally funny.

[JD]

Elias Vaughn wrote:

---

Mostly. He is back, but Data himself isn't sure if he's Data or just another android with Data's memories.

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!!

Do any guest characters from IC other than Maddox appear in PoM?

[Christopher]

JD wrote:

---

Do any guest characters from IC other than Maddox appear in PoM?

Yes.

[Ronald Held]

I should have it downloaded tomorrow?

[JD]

Christopher wrote:

---

Yes.

Cool! I might have to move this up to the top of the line for my stuff to buy. Would I miss anything if I the last 3 or 4 Typhon Pact books, and moved on to this?

[BillJ]

Just downloaded to my ipad. Probably wont be able to start it until later today or tomorrow.

[BillJ]

It's funny, for a democratic body ran by a civilian government. It seems Starfleet has an awful lot of power to come in and take over without even consulting the government. Like a battalion commander shutting down Ohio without first consulting elected officials.

Not a complaint about the book, just an observation about our utopian Federation.

[Christopher]

JD wrote:

---

Would I miss anything if I the last 3 or 4 Typhon Pact books, and moved on to this?

I don't think so. The first book, at least, has virtually nothing to do with the Typhon Pact storyline.

[Patrick O'Brien]

Got it! Love how my kindle updates with no effort on my part Now I need to finish IM and get on with the show.

[The Evil Dead]

Was waiting for me on my Kindle app when I woke up this morning!