Lost Era: Serpents Among The Ruins

[Nathan]

Just wanted to say what a kick @$$ book this is. I'm on a re-read of this.

I want to say, "If you like Vanguard, you'll like this." I like the intrigue and it's reminds of a Tom Clancy novel and what a great era that isn't really touched upon.

Also, it was great when Elias Vaughn was a fresh character and not overly used at the time.

Refreshing as well as the main cast isn't your usual fare in the usual Trek Books. Plus a lot of the characters have enought backstory to be familiar with there is plenty of stories/details for them to be fleshed out even more.

It was nice how DRGIII sorta redeemed the Harriman character from how he was protrayed in Generations.

I do think more Enterprise B (or Enterprise C) stories would a be great. It seems that time period isn't really touched upon much (or I guess I should say those Enterprise Crews aren't utilized as much) and that Era really has potential.

I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts on the book.

Thanks all

Nathan

[Christopher]

Nathan wrote:

---

It was nice how DRGIII sorta redeemed the Harriman character from how he was protrayed in Generations.

Credit where it's due: The redemption of Harriman was actually achieved by Peter David in his novel The Captain's Daughterand his Enterprise Logs story "Shakedown." Serpents did add meaningfully to the Harriman saga, but it was building on PAD's redefinition of the character.

[Mage]

Woud love to read those two stories one day, since Harriman from Serpents is certainly one of the great characters of TrekLit, and Serpents one of the best novels. IMO that is.

[Paris]

I'm also a big fan of this book (and DRGIII in general) as i love the intrigue with the Romulans and the era in question. I recommend it to anyone with even a slight interest in Treklit

[WarsTrek1993]

It's one of my favorite Star Trek books ever, a real thrill ride! The end battle on the Tomed was really intense. It reminded me of the end of The Hunt For Red October a lot. (Jack Ryan searching for the saboteur).

[DS9forever]

I've never been that interested in Harriman; it was Elias Vaughn who was my favorite character in this.

[KRAD]

The next Lost Era novel, The Art of the Impossible, picks up on both Vaughn and the Klingon political stuff in this novel. Just FYI. {/shameless plug}

[ronny]

I can never decide which of three books from that series, Serpents Among the Ruins, The Art of the Impossible or Catalyst of Sorrows, I like better. I think all 3 are awesome.

[JD]

Serpents and AotI are two of my favorite books, period.

[Thrawn]

Serpents is, indeed, goddamn spectacular. Usually when a book is this good people say "I want more stories about Harriman! It could be a whole series!" but uniquely, in this book, I think DRG3 gave so much weight of backstory and characterization that I feel like I know what Harriman's whole tenure as Captain of the B was like, and I don't need any more stories about him there.

It's *incredible* how many levels this book works on. It's not just a thrill ride, it's also a history and tone poem of an entire era and a hell of a surprise ending. Which, seriously, when a book starts by basically telling you up front "I'M GOING TO HAVE A HELL OF A SURPRISE ENDING" it's pretty hard to deliver on expectations that high. I'm consistently amazed by DRG3's ability to create a situation it seems impossible to live up to... and then live right the hell up to it.

A serious epic novel about the Ferengi? No way. ...oh. Well that was good.
An epic thriller about Harriman? That guy? Really? ...oh. Actually Harriman was fantastic and that book was incredible.
A whole TOS trilogy about the Guardian of Forever? Hasn't that been done to death? ...oh. Well those were creative approaches.
Sisko leaves his family? Terrible storyline! ...oh. Actually that went somewhere completely fantastic.
The DS9 storyline is a mess after the time jump! Completely irredeemable! ...oh. Actually that's a killer new start.

I don't think any other Trek author has ever waded right into so many initially unpopular Bad Ideas and then nailed each and every one. It's almost hard to believe.

[Reanok]

Serpent among the ruins is one of the best Lost era novels.It's a multi layerd storythat reddems Harrimans character.And one of those great books you like to read more than once.

[DarKush]

I was a big fan of Serpents. Second to KRAD, it was one of the standouts in the Lost Era series. (Though I did like both the Sulu, Garrett, and Sisko/Tuvok novels; I picked up Christopher's novel but haven't read it yet. Overall, I thought Lost Era was better than Typhon Pact thus far). I thought it did a great job with Harriman and I also liked the Enterprise-B crew and what DRG III did with Demora Sulu. His take on the Romulans was great and Vokar was one of the best villains, especially among the Romulans, that I had read in Trek Lit.

I also thought he did a fine job with the Mission Gamma book. It was long, but it was well written and gave us a wealth of information about the DS9 relaunch characters.

It's a shame that I can't get into another DRGIII book since then. I couldn't stand Rough Beasts (despite the Romulan half-focus), Plagues of Night was just okay (saved by the cliffhanger ending), and I'm still slogging through Raise the Dawn.

All of the Typhon Pact books are well written in terms of details, though I haven't been a fan of DRG III's character choices. It's just something about the style that's just plodding, or too many unnecessary characters or something. Perhaps once I finish Raise the Dawn my opinion of the duopoly and Rough Beasts will change. But that remains to be seen.

[Spike730]

I consider SAtR and TAofI the best installments of the Lost Era-series. They are also among the few Trek novels I'd re-read.

[rfmcdpei]

It was a wonderful book centered around a remarkable surprise.

(Plus, do not forget that this book introduced Gell Kamemor.)

[Warp Coil]

I've only read this once (when it was first released) but I remember absolutely loving it. I still have my copy. One of these days I'll go back and give it a re-read.