Spoilers TF: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow Review Thread

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by Sho, Nov 17, 2013.

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Rate The Poisoned Chalice.

  1. Outstanding

    55 vote(s)
    50.0%
  2. Above Average

    49 vote(s)
    44.5%
  3. Average

    5 vote(s)
    4.5%
  4. Below Average

    1 vote(s)
    0.9%
  5. Poor

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  1. Paper Moon

    Paper Moon Commander Red Shirt

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    Re: TF: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow Review Thread (Spoilers!

    Yeah, I did. Well, I could find it on the website, but only to order online. No way, as far as I could see, to check in-store availability. :vulcan:
     
  2. kirk55555

    kirk55555 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Re: TF: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow Review Thread (Spoilers!

    I voted average. This is the weakest book so far. The political stuff was a bit too crazy, and I'm not a fan of the Titan books anyway. The Nog and Tuvok stuff was the most interesting, but overall the book was very average.
     
  3. Man of Steel

    Man of Steel Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Re: TF: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow Review Thread (Spoilers!

    Now if only they'd review them.
     
  4. ATimson

    ATimson Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Re: TF: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow Review Thread (Spoilers!

    The more I think about it, the more it seems like the "rank as position indicator" behavior seen in the Abrams movies probably applies to the Prime universe, too, rather than the "standard" military rank model. With rare exceptions (Worf being the only one that comes to mind - Troi got added responsibilities with hers), we don't normally see people moving up rank and keeping the same position in the canon. And we do see Kirk moving down rank to Captain in TMP when he takes over the Enterprise.
     
  5. The Nth Doctor

    The Nth Doctor Infinite Possibilities... Premium Member

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    Re: TF: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow Review Thread (Spoilers!

    Wonderful novel from the always reliable James Swallow. I didn't quite enjoy it as much as the excellent The Crimson Shadows and A Ceremony of Losses, but I think that's largely due to my greater love to Garak, Picard and Cardassian culture in the former and Bashir, Ezri and the Andor crisis in the latter, whereas I've never really been a fan of Titan. That being said, I still love Riker and Troi, and to a lesser extent, Vale and Tuvok. I also loved the supporting roles for Nog and Akaar as well as the surprise return of Tom Riker (complete with references to Imzadi II and Double Helix: Quarantine). Lastly, I really liked Commander Atia and I hope we see more of her in the future.

    While I was disappointed A Ceremony of Losses didn't feature Bashir reflecting on Garak's pending castellanship, The Poisoned Chalice more than made up for it with Bashir's two qups, particularly "I knew we'd make an honest man out of him someday."

    Good to know I wasn't the only one who kept drawing all of these parallels while reading this mini-series. I knew you and I had similar thoughts in regards to Manning/Snowden and Ted Cruz, but that was only the tip. I was further reminded of the false pretenses of invading Iraq in comparison to falsifying evidence on the Bacco assassin in order to have a more agressive standing against the Typhon Pact.

    Fantastic news! Congratulations!
     
  6. Mage

    Mage Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Re: TF: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow Review Thread (Spoilers!


    Congratulations, that must feel fantastic!!
     
  7. David Mack

    David Mack Writer Rear Admiral

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    Re: TF: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow Review Thread (Spoilers!

    The reason there was no reference to that event in A Ceremony of Losses is because the shared timeline for The Fall, from which we all were working, indicated that the election of Garak as Castellan occurred on 25 September 2385, while the main narrative of A Ceremony of Losses ends on 19 September 2385.
     
  8. The Nth Doctor

    The Nth Doctor Infinite Possibilities... Premium Member

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    Re: TF: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow Review Thread (Spoilers!

    Ah, very good. I'm not surprised I lost track of the timeline (I'm always getting dates mixed up in such, not just in reading). Thanks for clarifying, David.
     
  9. Garrovick

    Garrovick Commander Red Shirt

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    Re: TF: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow Review Thread (Spoilers!

    Finished this book a few days ago, loved it! I've really enjoyed all of The Fall so far, but this one is my favorite. I'm anxious to see how the events of this book play out in the future, especially in regards to Riker, Dax, Bashir, and Vale. It was good to see Tom Riker again, too.

    Mr. Swallow, congrats on making the NYT best-seller list!
     
  10. jla1987

    jla1987 Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

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    Re: TF: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow Review Thread (Spoilers!

    Perhaps it's only due to the previous book being so fast paced and awesome, but I really found this one to be average. Hoping the next one moves a bit faster.
     
  11. Sci

    Sci Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Re: TF: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow Review Thread (Spoilers!

    When all the books are released, might it be possible for that shared timeline document to be released to the Internet? It sounds like it would be a fascinating read in its own right!
     
  12. Nob Akimoto

    Nob Akimoto Captain Captain

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    Re: TF: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow Review Thread (Spoilers!

    15th! That's a very solid showing, especially for tie-in fiction. (Though based on the list, it seems like a lot of the mass market fiction is books that have been adapted, since it's been a lot of GRRM and OSC lately)
     
  13. JWolf

    JWolf Commodore Commodore

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    Re: TF: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow Review Thread (Spoilers!

    If you'd have gotten the eBook, you'd have it now and could have been reading (or have already read) this.
     
  14. Brefugee

    Brefugee No longer living the Irish dream. Premium Member

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    Re: TF: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow Review Thread (Spoilers!

    And if you had read just a bit further you would have seen this post from two whole days later:

    But I guess you couldn't resist that little swipe at non ebook readers.

    Anyway, finished this sometime last week (on my Nook actually not that it matters) and I thought it was brilliant and was on par with the last two Fall novels and can't wait for Peaceable Kingdoms in a couple of weeks.
     
  15. JWolf

    JWolf Commodore Commodore

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    Re: TF: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow Review Thread (Spoilers!

    Thank you for writing a book well worth buying and reading.

    I'm almost 1/2 done and I'm enjoying it.
     
  16. fleetcaptain

    fleetcaptain Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Re: TF: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow Review Thread (Spoilers!

    Finally got my copy. The last time I posted on here, went to B&N which they had Volume 6 After Darkness and I went to go check a few areas and they had one copy left. Went in today to pick my TNG/Doctor Who hardcover and they had more copies. Still didn't get what was up with the website though.
     
  17. zarkon

    zarkon Captain Captain

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    Re: TF: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow Review Thread (Spoilers!

    Just finished reading it (popped through the mailbox this morning; I've never had so much trouble getting a trek book at release).

    I liked the callback to the Zife regime, as I was thinking the same thing - a president relying on a smart deputy to manage events. Although given Velk is now off the chessboard, I hope Anjar ends up with more steel in him then Zife had(and after the scene with him and Riker I'm guessing that's the case).

    Loved the Doctor's Orders referencing(not to mention the Doctor Who one), and surprised seeing the Magna Romans again. Lionheart crew was rather fun!

    In all, t'was a great read. Built on previous books and told all its story threads equally well. If Peaceable Kingdoms is of the same calibre it'll have been a cracker of a mini-series.
     
  18. Newspaper Taxi

    Newspaper Taxi Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Re: TF: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow Review Thread (Spoilers!

    Am I dreaming, or was there an allusion made to the dolphin-like character in "Dark Mirror"?
     
  19. zarkon

    zarkon Captain Captain

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    Re: TF: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow Review Thread (Spoilers!

    Yeah, I assumed that was a reference to Hwii (don't remember him loving bad jokes, but it has been a while). Riker did make the distinction between dolphin and cetaceans (Hwii was a Delphine, and I think Duane wanted him to be a dolphin but wasn't allowed due to the limitations on trek writers back then).
     
  20. ToddCam

    ToddCam Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Re: TF: The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow Review Thread (Spoilers!

    Maybe this isn't the place to mention this, but I don't really care for the rating scale. What does average mean here? For all Star Trek books? For books by the author? For fiction in general? I enjoyed this book quite a bit, but as it wasn't outstanding or poor, I felt . I have found Swallow's books in general to be of high quality (making it average for him), but as I don't read all Trek books any more I don't know how it rates against all other Trek books, much less all fiction. I prefer a wider scale (1-10), and more along the lines of terrible/bad/mediocre/good/great than below average/average/above average.