Spoilers SKRS #3: Long Shot by David Mack Review Thread

I finished it. It was better than average, but all of the improbable events began to wear after a while.

 

"Above average" from me. Loved the character work, especially the opening scenes on the other planet where we get to spend a little time with every crew member before the mayhem starts. It really helped bring the crew alive, as after the story on Anura got going, the crisis at hand began to dominate the narrative.

The story was generally well paced, but towards the end I began to struggle a bit with the technobabble for the various attempts to shut down the generator. While I appreciate that for once it took several different attempts to get it right, it did threaten to slow down the story in the phase where I felt the crisis got at its most urgent. On the upside, I liked how this was a first contact with a pre-warp culture that for once was not bogged down with a prime directive discussion, and the story had lots of little nods that made me smile, such as the "why does your escape pod only seat 6" scene and Terrell's heartfelt speech to Kavalas about moving forward at the end.

And to add to the discussion above: I have no problems with Sagittarius crashing again. It's a small ship with limited means, designed to operate in planetary atmospheres, so naturally it is more likely to be there and run into trouble. At this point, I think we can safely say the hull was built to withstand it.

 

I don't think the complaints are directed from a logistical point of view, but rather a narrative one; that it's somewhat repetitive a threat, and that the more often it happens, the less drama there is when it happens.

 

Is crashing the Sagittarius going to be an ongoing arc occurrence?

 

The ship did not crash. It made a high-risk landing and touched down safely. Stop saying it crashed.

 

^^^
My apologies. It did land safely, of course. I meant my comments in general terms.

 

Hmm. I'm surprised that, given how an infinite improbability generator is at the center of the story, I didn't see any further HHGG references.

And I didn't see anything about anybody finding out

Spoiler: . . .

whose crashed ship provided the booby-trapped technology.

Of course, if it were Hactar and the Silastic Armorfiends who provided the booby-trapped technology, that would satisfy both.

 

For me, it's always nice to read well-written stories not focused on the mains from their particular eras. Seekers 3 is especially nice in this regard because it gives us more of Terrell before he dies as a cardboard-cutout captain years on.

Also, this is a nice perspective of the typical on-goings for the Sagittarius class. I don't think any other ship in Star Trek has this kind of mission profile or space restrictions (not even the Defiant). It's still TOS Starfleet, but starfleet from a different ship with a different mission profile than the typical cruisers like the Enterprise.

Spoiler: story spoilers

I think my favorite plot point of the novel is when they're forced to throw the prime directive out the window because they're immediately observed by the Anurans. Rather than get their, pardon the expression, panties in a twist over this they immediately set down and help.

The space station rescue was particularly tense. I honestly expected Sorak (and the Anuran he was rescuing) to die. I'm glad they didn't, and in the end I don't remember seeing any casualties.

I'm also grateful we were spared any scenes of the landing party held hostage by vengeful Anurans. I like the story as it unfolded.

One point that particularly intrigues me is the identity of the aliens whom the Anurans reverse-engineered their technology from. Most of my trek lore is TOS, so I cannot identify them from races we will identify in the future. Maybe we'll never know, but it's an enticing idea to think about.

I'm loving the idea of the Seekers so far! It's almost like getting another season of TOS Trek from somewhere else in the universe.

 

Given that we're dealing with a concept from HHGG,

Spoiler: my money is, as I said (and initially forgot to spoiler-tag) is on . . .

Hactar and the Silastic Armorfiends

 

Finished this book yesterday - and I liked it more than the first Seekers book (still less than the 2nd, mind you).

Personally, I liked Dastin - maybe because of his clashes with Theriault whom I can't stand. Enjoyed Torvin and Taryl. Also liked the way the Prime Directive was rendered moot right from the start - although I still think that first time Sagittarius landed on the planet was a bit risky (especially the way everyone wondered later on that someone got that landing of an alien species on tape). The idea that the main species on that planet was frog-like and they wondered that the monkeys on their planet were the main race on other worlds... loved that. But I would have loved it even more to see that idea played out some more, like in the way machines were operated with the different physique etc.

The story itself felt more like an (over)extended SCE story: planet tinkers with technology that they either have come up with themselves (barely researched), bought from unsavoury characters and/or was left behind by unknown entities - everything goes to hell, and the Starfleet miracle workers have to come rescue the place. What bothered me was the attitude of that main researcher, the way he reacted to Ilucci's ideas... Man, you screwed up royally and now you're criticizing those who are trying to help save your world?!?

One thing: Dastin was tasked to research where that technology came from, whether from any known species... but the result of his research was never mentionned. Was it dropped/forgotten? Or will it come into play later on when Sagittarius meets other worlds?

And the last issue is one that was already discussed in another thread: How does the Sagittarius work with only 14 people (and only 8 have room on the evacuation buoy???)? I guess they're working in 2 shifts - but that's only possible for a short time. So how long are the Sagittarius' missions usually? Where is their homebase in the Taurus Reach which was described as vast in Vanguard?

Overall, the Sagittarius part still has plenty of room for improvement but at least this time I could spot characters that I could become invested in... which, after all, is the main reason for me to buy a book.

 

Finally got around to this.

Found it to be an enjoyable read. What I particularly liked was the shell game Mack played, where a solution was thought to work and either didn't, or brought to light a new aspect of an ever increasingly dangerous game.

I also liked that it was never answered as to whose tech it was, just that they were clearly a nasty bunch of bastards.

Finally, it was refreshing seeing the Federation presented in an unambiguously positive light. They helped them because? Because they could, you really need a better answer than that?

 

Hear, hear! I liked that aspect of the book, too.

 

Please don't buy eBooks from Apple. Because of Apple, we are now paying more for eBooks and Apple deserves no eBook sales at all.

 

Given that that post was 7 months ago, I think you might be a little late to warn Klaus off of that.

 

I've posted it so anyone seeing it will see my warning.

As to getting back on topic, I really enjoyed the crew interactions. They were very well done.

 

My constant feeling reading this book is that it would have made a great SCE story. As is, it's just a bit too padded.

 

^ On that note, I was surprised that I haven't seen much (if any) mention of "Sargasso Sector," which also involved an Adams-esque improbability field.

I would argue the predatory practice of selling books at a loss in order to build monopsony power over eBook retailing was the greater wrong.

 

Cheers for sharing that, it was an interesting and informative read.