TOS: The Weight of Worlds by Greg Cox Review Thread (Spoilers!)

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by Sho, Mar 16, 2013.

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Rate The Weight of Worlds.

  1. Outstanding

    8 vote(s)
    18.2%
  2. Above Average

    24 vote(s)
    54.5%
  3. Average

    9 vote(s)
    20.5%
  4. Below Average

    3 vote(s)
    6.8%
  5. Poor

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  1. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Don't worry. I get them mixed up sometimes! :)
     
  2. xortex

    xortex Commodore Commodore

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    Sounds like what America is doing to the rest of the world. :guffaw: Too much righteousness is not necessarily a good thing?
    Depends if you're talking to the licencing dept at Trek or Seria. I think you're confusing the historical records with the sacred texts but they did have the Therbian flu, so... I'm up to chapter sixteen and hope to finish it today. Though it does like you got the real world philosophy backwards, unless you read it backwards and it cuts both ways. Interested to see how it ends. Similar to practically every ep of Trek so far, the spores, Plato's Stepchildren, etc.. What's the name of your next book?
     
  3. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    The working title, which is subject to change, is No Time Like the Past.
     
  4. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    ^A bit of a Twilight Zone nod there, perhaps?
     
  5. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Actually, it's a line from a Voyager episode, and apparently also the title of an old Gold Key STAR TREK comic . . . although I only discovered that a few days ago! :)
     
  6. xortex

    xortex Commodore Commodore

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    Greg, you'ld make a great misarian and I, the anarchist from that TNG ep. I finished it. Nice ending but Spock shooting up into the atmosphere, lol, sounds like a comic book. How did he survive that or does nobody really die in sci-fi. Ah, well, the future isn't what it used to be. J.M Strazinsky. I'm not him, but I wish I was.
     
  7. ProwlAlpha

    ProwlAlpha Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I enjoyed the story, especially with Uhura getting a shot at the center seat. However, I do notice that there are a lot of references to the episodes and frankly it got annoying after the first ten. The Meow scene from Super Troopers popped in my head every time a TOS episode reference was made.
     
  8. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Yeah, I know this bugs people, and I probably overdo it sometimes, but, honestly, such references always seem plausible to me . . . and hard to avoid. In real life, people have memories and flash on past experiences when they find themselves in similar circumstances. One of the things that occasionally bugs me about TOS (the tv episodes) is that nobody on the ship ever mentions anything that's happened to them before . . . even when they're running into an android or a shape-shifter or a berserk computer yet again. I mean, why wouldn't Sulu worry about being zombified again, like he was in "Catspaw" and "Return of the Archons"? Seems to me that's something you wouldn't soon forget! :)

    Ditto for finding yourself stuck in another person's body, or having a mind-meld with a Horta, or being split into your good and evil halves, and other traumatic, unforgettable experiences that most people would never, ever get over.

    And why wouldn't Kirk think ruefully of Edith Keeler or Miramanee or poor Sam Kirk now and then? Again, in real life, people don't stop mourning dead loved ones once the episode is over. I like the fact that these characters have complicated, colorful pasts that they carry with them everywhere they go.

    Anyway, that's my reasoning at least . . . .

    (You'll be relieved to know, however, that my editor deleted a Miramanee reference from my next book on the grounds that it was one too many trips down memory line!)
     
    Last edited: Jun 16, 2013
  9. DaveR

    DaveR Commander Red Shirt

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    Greg, I appreciate that it's a fine line that all Trek authors walk, and I have to admit that sometimes the excessive continuity references really annoy me. On the other hand, just the right amount actually makes me feel good.

    Where is that line? It's hard to say.

    What would be more realistic would be to also have memories that don't refer to old episodes, but then you'd get readers who do nothing but say "what episode did that take place in?"

    So you can't really win. You can just do what makes you feel comfortable.
     
  10. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Well, people have made the same complaint about my LEVERAGE and 4400 novels, so I probably do overdo it sometimes. But, really, it's partly an (unfortunate?) side-effect of trying to put myself in the characters' heads.

    "Gee, wouldn't this kind of remind Kirk of Janice Lester right now?"

    But maybe this is an instance where psychological "realism" bumps into the practical conventions of series fiction. Realistically, a guy who was briefly trapped in his insane ex-girlfriend's body would not just shrug it off like another day at the office, but so much weird shit has happened to Kirk and the rest that you can't have them dwelling on all of it all the time! (Despite my best efforts.)

    Then again, I do like the idea of the characters having memories. One of the things I loved about BUFFY was that (unlike the TOS crew) the Scooby Gang did remember previous episodes and talked about them when appropriate, as when Xander and Willow compared notes on what it was like to be replaced by an evil twin . . . .

    That's usually what I'm going for, maybe to excess! :)
     
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2013
  11. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    I try not to put more detail into the episode references than is needed for the story, and make them subtle enough that they aren't blatantly episode references at all. For instance, I might say "The ritual dance reminded Kirk of a belly dancer he'd once seen in a club on Argelius II," but I wouldn't add "who had then been murdered by the disembodied spirit of Jack the Ripper, which had possessed Scotty and gotten him blamed for the crime before taking over the Enterprise and trying to frighten the crew to death," since those parts probably wouldn't have anything to do with the story I was telling. The key is to make it feel organic, like part of the background texture of the characters and their world, or like necessary exposition, rather than like "Hey, you remember that episode where this happened?"
     
    marlboro likes this.
  12. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    ^ Probably a sensible approach!
     
  13. Ronald Held

    Ronald Held Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I have no problems with the way Greg did it in this novel.
     
  14. Relayer1

    Relayer1 Admiral Admiral

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    None whatsoever.