TNG: Immortal Coil by Jeffrey Lang Review Thread (Spoilers!)

[trash80]

Yes i'm currently reading the book and i think the most he got from Exo III would have been inspiration

[Christopher]

And I've always thought it made perfect sense that Soong would've had Flint as a mentor. Rayna and Lal both died from essentially the exact same thing -- mental collapse upon emotional awakening/crisis -- so it seemed logical that Rayna was a positronic android, and that Soong's work expanded on Flint's. So I was pleased when IC came to the same conclusion.

[matthunter]

Jarvisimo wrote:

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What would be your summary of the plot of the book? and also any analysis (since Memory Beta often lacks that)?

The Enterprise-E is summoned to the Daystrom Institute to investigate an "accident" that put Bruce Maddox in a coma and destroyed a new "holotronic" android that he and a man named Emil Vaslovik were working on. The destroyed android turns out to be a fake and Vaslovik's death in the accident a ruse... Vaslovik is actually Flint (the immortal human from the TOS episode) and he worked with Soong and Ira Graves on android technology.

The lab was attacked by androids from Exo III, the planet were Kirk encountered them in What are little girls made of?. Flint, Soong and Graves had visited this world and inadvertently reactivated the androids, only narrowly escaping their wrath. These androids are imperfect - they lack creativity - and see the holotronic android as a template to upgrade themselves.

The holotronic android was actually activated successfully on the night of the attack, and Flint realized he needed to hide it. He thus planted a fake copy in the lab to be "destroyed", then gave the real android a human form and hacked Starfleet's files to have the android assigned as the Enterprise's new security chief "Rhea McAdams". She's there to observe Data, as the best instructor in life as an artificial being, but covertly... the crew think she's human and Data (who has his emotion chip) actually begins to fall for her.

The truth is revealed to Data when the Away Team is attacked by the Exo III androids - Data tries to hold them off and gets trashed - to the point of near-shutdown. McAdams gets him out of there in an escape pod and has to link to his systems to stabilise him until she can take him to Flint, who completes the repairs. The Enterprise is delayed by having to fight the androids' ship and rescue Riker and Barclay who were separated from Data and McAdams in the attack.

The Enterprise hooks back up with the shanghaied members during a firefight between Flint's asteroid base and the Exo III android ship. Via various convolutions, the day is saved and Rhea survives, but chooses to leave to pursue another group of androids - we meet one member of this group in the story, but he's linked to the Exo III lot... however he reveals that there is a society of androids who were all created by different races and outlasted them, who stay in touch as a sort of social club.

There's a lot more to it - Data is suffering from emotional overload from the chip due to the "death" of Juliana Tainer, his "mother" - so is questioning how his own ageless nature will affect him as his friends gradually die off. Flint has a collection of other androids and artificial intelligences from past Trek episodes - exocomps, nanites, the Mudd Planet androids... even a certain computer that was supposed to put Kirk out of a job...

[Deranged Nasat]

^ Good summary, Matthunter.

[Mage]

Meh, bit the bullet and ordered the 11 euro copy of Immortal Coil. I really, really want to read it before PoM, so hopefully IC arrives before PoM.

[Relayer1]

Sho wrote:

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Here's what I didn't like:
[LIST][*]Connecting Soong to Exo III sort of cheapens Soong's achievement in my book. Now, I realize this is sort of silly, because of course it makes sense that Soong's genius would not have developed in a vacuum. However it hit a sore point with me at the time because I felt like I could see a pattern of the franchise undermining its own legends by over-explaining them through continuity acrobatics. The major, most grating example of this for me is the Temporal Cold War on Enterprise during which Archer gets tipped off to the later creation of the Federation, thus emotionally cheapening the entire premise of the franchise of humanity managing to better itself under its own power. It's also just a big small universe syndrome thing ...[*]I have a thing for good locked room mysteries and Coil kind of tickles that in the beginning, but then unceremoniously sweeps it under the rug ...[*]Parts of it just felt a bit shaky and not very fleshed out, in particular some of the actiony bits were quite rough (e.g. that hand-to-hand combat scene with Riker) and the hideout towards the end.

Pretty much covers it. I'd add that the interesting locked room mystery is thrown away cheaply and disappointingly, the book reads like a loosely thrown together continuity exercise and was a real let down.

[rahullak]

I enjoyed this book. It had the right amount of action, emotional moments and exposition. Nothing was overdone, except maybe the continuity references, although I haven't seen or read any TOS so that wasn't a deal-breaker for me.

[Kertrats47]

I really enjoyed this one. I thought Jeffrey Lang nailed it, and to heck with it, I enjoy "continuity porn" from time to time, especially when it makes sense. Here's my review!

[BillJ]

Kertrats47 wrote:

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I really enjoyed this one. I thought Jeffrey Lang nailed it, and to heck with it, I enjoy "continuity porn" from time to time, especially when it makes sense. Here's my review!

It used elements from TOS to tell its story but those elements didn't feel forced, like they do in a lot of crossover stories.

[Mage]

Allright, just got this in today and since PoM should arrive in a few days, I'm making a pot of coffee and start Immortal Coil.

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

I thought this was a beautifully written novel. Data's courtship of Rhea was fun, charming and fascinating to witness from Data's POV. Lang treats the reader to brilliant insight into the character of Data through his emotional exploration and unique inner thought processes. A favorite scene of mine from the book is the flashback to Soong's past that takes Data just a handful of milliseconds to experience.

My compliments to the author for creating such a marvelous character as Rhea and my thanks, in advance, to David Mack for the possibility of her turning up in his new trilogy (my fingers are crossed). But if she fails to make an appearance, I'll still be grateful to at least see this fine story built and expanded upon in his books.

This is the first Jeffery Lang Trek novel that I've ever read -- does he have any other Trek offerings worth checking out?

[Turtletrekker]

Sto-Vo-Kory wrote:

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This is the first Jeffery Lang Trek novel that I've ever read -- does he have any other Trek offerings worth checking out?

"Dead Man's Hand" from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Lives of Dax

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Section 31: Abyss with David Weddle

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Left Hand of Destiny books 1 and 2 with J.G. Hertzler

"Foundlings" from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Prophecy and Change

"Mirror Eyes" with Heather Jarman, from Star Trek: Tales of the Dominion War

Star Trek: Voyager: String Theory, Book One: Cohesion

"Talent Night" from Star Trek: Voyager: Distant Shores

"Where Everybody Knows Your Name" from Star Trek: Constellations

[JD]

I've read and really enjoyed everything on that list except "Where Everybody Knows Your Name". I would highly recommend all of them.

[Paris]

Just finished this last night. It makes me wish for more Data. I loved the way Mr.Lang handled him. Rhea is now one of my favorite litverse characters. I really hope she shows up in Mack's trilogy. I would also like to see the cabal of sentient artificial life forms that Sam mentioned..

Gret job Mr. Lang

[Markonian]

Paris wrote:

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Just finished this last night. It makes me wish for more Data. I loved the way Mr.Lang handled him. Rhea is now one of my favorite litverse characters. I really hope she shows up in Mack's trilogy. I would also like to see the cabal of sentient artificial life forms that Sam mentioned..

Gret job Mr. Lang

I finished today. Otherwise, exactly my sentiment! Although I had read the book years before, I had completely forgotten the ending, so it was thrilling and all new to me again.