Destiny: Gods of Night by David Mack Review Thread (Spoilers!)

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

Haven't read the whole book yet, but I can see how the resources issue works against the UFP from here already. The Borg have effective control of the better part of an entire quadrant of the galaxy.

The Federation and all of its neighbours, allied, hostile and neutral combined? Barely a tenth of the Orion Arm.

You do the resource math from there.

 

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

My two cents... I liked it. It moved quickly and was dynamic. Everyone was in character. I know that sounds like kind of generic praise, but those things are very important to me in a Trek book.

Is there a Choudhury/Worf connection coming? Seems possible.

I am getting a bit tired of the whole Picard/Borg thing though. We saw it in Resistance, we saw it in Before Dishonor, we saw it in Greater Than the Sum. Like some others here, I am honestly getting a bit tired of the Borg in general. I hope after the Destiny Trilogy they are put on the backburner for awhile.


I still have kind of a hard time accepting Ezri as a Captain. I didn't have a problem with the explanation of how she got there so quickly, she is just someone I have never really warmed up to. So that is more of a personal feeling than anything else. The Aventine sections were my least favorite parts of the book, but I still liked them.

Is someone EVER going to actually do something with Geordi?? He still seems trapped in a kind of limbo. I keep thinking "maybe in the next book", but he never gets any real focus. We already know he is still depressed about Data..is that all there is to this guy? I hope he has a bigger role to play in the upcoming books.

I really enjoyed the scene with Nan Bacco and Akaar. The Admiral Paris scene was very well written. I hope that Tom dealing with this is a part of the Voy relaunch.

The Riker/Troi storyline was a bit of a surprise. At first I didn't really know what to think, but the more I read the more I was caught up in this aspect of the story. Vale is right, Riker isn't living up to his responsibilities as a Captain. There is no way she should be on active duty in her physical and mental condition. Ree needs to do his job and sideline her ass.

I am not an Enterprise fan and wasn't really excited about the Columbia being included. I was pleasantly surprised at how seamlessly it fit in. In fact I really got caught up in the story of the Columbia. I am quite interested in the new alien culture we were exposed to. I hope we get to learn more about them.

Overall I was really happy with this purchase. I'm looking forward to seeing what surprises David Mack has coming up in the next two parts.

p.s. If Tev doesn't at least make a small appearance in Destiny 2 or 3, I am going to be disappointed! Maybe he has been working on some Transphasic Apple Rancher Missles?

 

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

Osquevel, DEWline, and destro, thanks for all of your comments.

To address (in an oblique way) a couple of destro's questions/remarks: I admit that Geordi is not as pivotal a character as some in the trilogy, but I think he has some very good moments coming up; and I regret to say that Tev will not appear in the trilogy — sorry!

I'm glad to hear that the three of you seem to have enjoyed what you've read so far, and I look forward to more of your responses after the next two books.

 

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

No problem David. I really did enjoy the 1st Destiny book quite a bit, I tore through it in just a few hours. I am anxiously awaiting the next two books.

I wasn't really expecting Geordi to be a central character, but I'm glad to hear that he will have a few moments to shine! I did enjoy the few scenes that he had in Gods of Night, especially the scene with Dr. Crusher. Sounds like it won't happen in Destiny, but can somebody get this guy a decent love interest at some point??

 

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

Same here. David has singlehandedly made me care about something to do with Enterprise. I never thought it possible.

 

Star Trek: Destiny - Gods Of Night REVIEW (NOTE: SPOILERS ABROAD!!!)

Here is my extensive review of Star Trek: Destiny - Gods Of Night. The document is seven pages long, so I'm going to chop it up, and hope that it'll all be understandable to read. Note: there are MANY spoilers here, not just for this story, but for Trill: Unjoined, Kobayashi Maru, Before Dishonour and other stories. You've been warned.

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STAR TREK: DESTINY – Gods of Night (Book 1)
WRITTEN BY DAVID MACK, REVIEWED BY JEREMY WOOLWARD

On September 30, 2008, I was able to secure my copy of the long-anticipated novel Gods of Night, the first part of the epic crossover Star Trek: Destiny event. Now, we had learned very little about Destiny as a whole, with the editors and the author being tight-lipped. However, buzz about the book was rampant, and many ideas were thrown around. A preliminary blurb on the amazon.com page for said title basically blew the lid off all the quiet speculation and a full onslaught began. The one thing that got everybody’s attention was the return of the Borg in this filler, and conversations ranged from people looking forward to seeing this all out Borg-invasion to those who felt that the one-time ultimate baddies of Star Trek have become overused, clichéd, and worn-out, especially in light with the previous Borg stories Resistance and Before Dishonour. Note: Greater Than The Sum had yet to appear in print, so discussion was limited to those first two, and in particular, the hate-fest that resulted after the end of Before Dishonour. So, from the get-go, Gods of Night had huge obstacles to overcome. Later, as the months went on, and the conversations became at times very heated, we learned more about the core of the story.

In the twenty-second century, the Earth starship Columbia went missing in action and was found two hundred years later in the Gamma Quadrant by Jadzia Dax and the USS Defiant, shortly before the beginning of the Dominion War. Sent to investigate further was Captain Ezri Dax of the recently commissioned USS Aventine, seven years later. A sense of irony for some, but in fact, deliberate, because Dax gave Starfleet a reason to make this investigation important; the arrival of the Columbia half a galaxy away could explain a lot of the Federation’s current ire: the Borg have returned, and their previous goals of assimilation are null and void: the Collective seeks to exterminate the Federation and its allies. However, Starfleet’s unaware as to how the Collective is making the jaunt from the Delta Quadrant to the Alpha and Beta Quadrants without the use of the transwarp conduits that were destroyed by the crew of the USS Voyager upon their return to the Alpha Quadrant. For Dax, the incident with the Columbia and the Borg threat are anything but coincidence.

The narratives in the story deal with Ezri Dax and three other captains: Jean-Luc Picard of the Enterprise, William T. Riker of the USS Titan and Erika Hernandez of the Columbia. For Picard, the current crisis has affected him personally more than anybody else. Having been raped by the Borg years earlier, Picard’s connection to the Collective is as he calls it “an asset and liability”. He can anticipate and exploit, yet feel the rage and savagery that is the Collective. The stakes for Picard couldn’t be any more real: having married Beverly Crusher and having conceived a child with her, Picard fights for the future of that unborn child, knowing full well that short of a miracle, this war the Federation cannot win. His crew is concerned for his well-being, and ponders his objectivity when it comes to the Borg. However, there is a slight glimmer of hope: after watching a colony world go up in flames, and leaving it up to the politicians to deal with the aftermath, Picard learns that a possible explanation for the Borg’s incursions come from somewhere within the Azure Nebula, a region of space near the Federation, Klingon and...

 

Re: Star Trek: Destiny - Gods Of Night REVIEW (NOTE: SPOILERS ABROAD!!

Romulan borders. He takes the Enterprise there, hoping to end this threat once and for all. ‘Once more unto the breach’, he tells his crew that the Enterprise is expendable, and they fly off to investigate.

For Riker, his problems are two-fold: being far off in the Beta Quadrant, the Titan is too far away from Federation space to be of any real help in the conflict with the Borg, and onboard the ship, his personal crisis has reached an all-time high. Deanna Troi, his Imzadi, wife, and ship’s diplomatic officer, has suffered a miscarriage of their first child, and has since decided to try again. They conceive, but complications in the pregnancy have put a strain in their marriage, and Riker’s capacity to command his ship. Riker knows that the pregnancy threatens Deanna’s life, but understands her connection to her child, and cannot draw the line in being the captain and her husband to make that call to terminate the pregnancy, even when he knows it’s for her own good. Echoing those statements is Doctor Ree, who pushes the limits of tolerance and patience for himself, Riker and Troi, suggesting that aborting the pregnancy is the only way to save Deanna’s life, and refusing to hearken to any other suggestions. Knowing he could pull rank, Ree also knows that Riker wouldn’t back down, and this draws Christine Vale into the conflict, putting Riker and Vale back at the same place where they were before she took the offer to be Riker’s XO in Taking Wing. In that story, she questioned the logic of having Troi serve in the command staff of the ship, concerned that in times of crisis, their objectivity (Riker’s and Troi’s) would be compromised. Riker assured her that wouldn’t be the case, but it has since blossomed into such. Personal drama aside, the Titan makes an incredible discovery: they find that a star system has all but been cloaked, hidden for a long time; its only tell-tale sign is the energy pulses it emits, many of which directed towards the Alpha Quadrant and the Federation. Suspicious that this relates back to the Borg, Riker orders the ship to investigate. Upon their arrival, they make a discovery that none of them expected to make, and stumble across an answer to a question that had been around for years.

For Dax, scientific curiosity leads to even greater intrigue as the mysteries of the Columbia are unravelled. Too many discrepancies in the records of the ship’s final hours lead Dax to question boldly what actually happened. Coupled with the deaths of several crew members of the Aventine, it’s become more important to discover what happened to the ship. Learning that the ship was sent here via autopilot, and that the tunnel, similar in operation to the Bajoran wormhole with some distinct differences, which brought the Columbia to the Gamma Quadrant exists still, Dax plans to follow the tunnel back to its source, hoping to answer questions seven years in the making. Instead, an unknown hostile assumes command of one of the ship’s runabouts and pilots towards the tunnel, and Dax is forced to pursue. Upon exiting the tunnel, they make contact with an alien species that dies before revealing any pertinent information, except that the alien was responsible for the crash-landing of the Columbia on that desolate world in the Gamma Quadrant. However, Dax’s timing couldn’t have been more perfect as their exit point is the Azure Nebula, the same place where the Enterprise was heading, and receive a mayday from the Enterprise, saying that they’ve engaged the Borg.

For Hernandez, the Sisyphean task of escorting convoy ships as seen in the novel Kobayashi Maru has become deadly. Having survived a Romulan attack at Alpha Centauri, the Columbia has been providing protection for a convoy in the Onias Sector, the same sector which houses the Azure Nebula. This narrative opens with the Columbia under attack by the Romulans, and the successful use of the Romulan’s enhanced telepresence units, which were able to successfully neutralize the Columbia and...

 

Re: Star Trek: Destiny - Gods Of Night REVIEW (NOTE: SPOILERS ABROAD!!

turn it against the mining convoy. Helpless to stop the Romulans in their act, Hernandez ponders options when her engineer gives her one: the Romulans left a figurative ‘calling card’ that could be neutralized. After successfully neutralizing the Romulan threat, the Columbia is left adrift, stranded without warp drive, and with limited power. Impossible to return to Earth in their lifetime at sublight, the ship discovers a Minshara-class planet not too far from their position, relatively speaking. Manipulating their engines to dilate time, the Columbia travels to the planet that took the crew approximately sixty days, but in reality, took twelve years. Upon arriving on the surface, Hernandez makes first contact with a reclusive species known as the Caeliar, a society much more advanced than Earth. Hernandez learns that the Caeliar are pacifists, citing events in their distant past that led them to this condition, and that they are also isolationists, seeking to remain to themselves. Hernandez learns another aspect about the Caeliar that makes their situation even more dire: they have the ability to displace people to other galaxies, or have them remain on their world, this never allowing the outside society to learn about them. The Caeliar desire to make contact with someone more advanced than they are, and can send pulses to the furthest reaches of the universe. Faced against a pacifistic foe that can literally be deities themselves, Hernandez resigns to her fate, but her crew has other ideas as some decide to stage a mutiny with disastrous effects. The Caeliar are threatened with imminent destruction, and are forced to flee from their home, and to avoid a similar fate, the remaining crew onboard the Columbia fly into a subspace tunnel, but fail to anticipate the effects the tunnel has on the crew, except for one: a Caeliar prisoner who manages to survive. The Caeliar are thrown back into the distant past, and are not heard of again, until an away team from the Titan finds them in the twenty-fourth century, and Commander Tuvok recognizes Hernandez for who she is.

This makes up the narrative for Book One of the three part Destiny trilogy. For me, the primary narrative was the fate of the Columbia, which in essence became the catalyst for Dax’s story and Riker’s story. As I read the chapters that dealt with Hernandez and her crew, I was struck by the huge differences there are between Hernandez and Archer. I also couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened had it been Archer and Enterprise meeting the Caeliar rather than Hernandez and her crew. Without even mentioning Archer’s crew, Dave’s created foils for them out of the Columbia crew. I doubt that the mutiny would have taken place had Archer been calling the shots, but I also speculate that the Caeliar would not have dealt with Archer as well as they dealt with Hernandez. Reading the events of the twenty-second century brought to mind the fondness I had for Enterprise, and the fact that I miss that show so very much. There was a lot of potential there, and although the show had found its stride, it came too late for those in the industry to save it. The show lives on in these pages, and even though it’s not Archer, the spirit lives on. I enjoyed the story of the good ship Columbia, and found it humorous that Dave threw in the reference to the ship being The Flying Dutchman, because in essence, that’s what the ship had become: displaced, forever consigned to their fate of flying in the stars, never really reaching their destination. Furthermore with this narrative, we can come to appreciate Hernandez and her role as a starship captain. Even faced with the opportunity to get home, Hernandez refuses to take it, citing concern for the Caeliar after they left, and more in particular, what would happen to Earth. Making a sacrifice for the greater good reminded me a lot of Captain Janeway’s decision in Caretaker to destroy the array, thus protecting the Occampa, yet earning the wrath of the Kazon. Janeway would come to later regret (or at least, second guess ) that choice as Voyager continued on, and I can’t help...

 

Re: Star Trek: Destiny - Gods Of Night REVIEW (NOTE: SPOILERS ABROAD!!

but wonder whether Hernandez would do the same. For me, I think the similarities between this and Caretaker are not coincidental, and will be extrapolated later in Mere Mortals and Lost Souls.

Regarding the story on the Titan, I found it very small, and that’s not in a bad way. A lot of the preconceptions about Destiny involved galactic epics that threatened every molecule of existence (and it does fulfill that), but it also involves people. When people refer to one’s destiny, they’re talking about other human beings, and if there’s one thing that Star Trek does well is explore the human condition, even if it’s not necessarily human beings in place. Although having some great character work for Keru, Choblik and Palzar, the story centered around Riker, Troi, Ree and Vale. We can feel for each of these characters and the situation they’re forced into. We can feel for Riker because of his duty as a Starfleet officer , a starship captain, and being Deanna’s husband. Riker’s caught in the most unfortunate dilemma in keeping balls juggling in the air, and by letting one fall, they all fall down. Riker’s sacrificed a lot to be the captain of the Titan (images of him in Kinchawn’s redoubt from A Time To Heal comes to mind), and endured years of unexpressed feelings to finally marry Deanna. He always put career first, and when he had come to accept that Deanna and him would never really get together, the events of Insurrection, and later, the A Time To series got him to that point where they became husband and wife. Now, everything’s come to a head because he cannot make a sound decision and not get somebody hurt in the process. Riker’s passionate and that passion has become a handicap for him. For Troi, the book talks about the feelings Lwaxana had when Kestral died years earlier, and Deanna remembers vividly what that did to her mother. Now, she has to deal with the potential loss of another child, and it threatens to destroy her. Her emotions are unbalanced, and she needs to seek the help of her own, and when she does, she refuses to take it. However, Deanna’s anything but stupid: she knows what Ree’s saying is right, and she knows that Vale isn’t being nasty on purpose. She knows that they’re doing their jobs. But, she’s unable to reconcile her own feelings about losing the child and in the case of holding someone accountable, since we all don’t like holding ourselves accountable, we shift the blame elsewhere. Being scripturally minded, I remember a passage from the Book of Genesis that depicts this:

And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. (Genesis 3: 11-13)

In this instance, the Lord sought to know whether Adam partook of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Being human, Adam shifted the accountability to Eve, who in turn shifted the accountability to Satan. I could go on, but this is not why I’m writing this review. For Troi, it’s a similar pattern, if not necessarily the same condition. But, now we can understand Ree and Vale’s positions.

Ree’s the example of pure objectivity: he has no interest in this, save for the life of Deanna Troi. He doesn’t want to know that a patient could die on his watch when he had a chance to prevent it. The Hippocratic Oath, ‘do no harm’, does factor into consideration here. And, knowing that there is going to be harm one way or another, Ree takes the path of least harm: terminating the pregnancy. As someone who is “pro-life”, I find the idea of abortion to be disheartening, but I understand fully well that there is...

 

Re: Star Trek: Destiny - Gods Of Night REVIEW (NOTE: SPOILERS ABROAD!!

a time and a place for it. Reading this as a member of the LDS Church, and with our own insights as to the purpose of life, this was probably the hardest part of the book to read because it forced me to wrestle with my own conscience. Is Troi right? Is Ree right? However, I was reminded that if the life of mother or child is threatened by the pregnancy, aborting it is the lesser of two evils. I chose to side with Ree on this one, but liked how Vale found a solution that made everybody ‘equally unhappy’. The prolonging of the pregnancy is definitely a great short-term solution, but it’s just that: short-term. That brings us to Vale’s position: in this instance, she’s the perfect foil for Riker. In fact, I think that’s what makes the scenes between Riker and Vale so perfect is that without saying it, you have Picard and Riker from their days on the Enterprise: Riker, the by the book first officer doing what’s best for the ship and the crew, including the captain. I remember Riker’s words to Troi when she attempted to take the bridge officer’s test: “My first duty is to the ship.” In a time of crisis, Vale’s rationale is spot on: if the Borg come knocking, the last thing the ship needs is the captain and his wife (also a senior officer) involved in some personal drama that inhibits their ability to perform their roles adequately. I think Vale has made an excellent first officer thus far on the Titan, and coupled with her own losses, she shines brightly. Vale’s a fighter, a survivor. Often enough, she reminds me of Tasha Yar. I look forward to seeing where this is going.

In contrast to the personal drama on the Titan, it’s nice to see the ship prepare for a potentially dangerous situation, and like how David puts Ranul Keru in the same position that Worf was in during First Contact: up against the Borg and potentially sending a colleague to his death. At first, I found the whole Hawk/Keru story to be a little overdone, but in this instance, I think it was appropriate for the story. Keru promises himself that Torvig will come back from the mission, even if it means his own life. And, considering Keru’s story, I don’t doubt that he wouldn’t falter if it came down to that. Keru had already experienced something similar in evacuating the Neyel in The Red King, but now it’s become even more personal. Keru’s already lost people, and has rebounded. However, none of them were to the Borg. Personally, I’d hate to see either of them go, but I’d rather see Torvig go if anything but to force Keru to really ‘let go’ of his past by having to face it. If the Titan does show down with the Borg in the next two instalments, I wouldn’t be shocked to see this manifest itself.

The story on the Enterprise picks up nicely where Greater Than The Sum left off: right in the middle of everything. Picard’s the only line of defence against the Collective at the moment because the Enterprise has the one weapon the Borg haven’t adapted to....yet: the transphasic torpedoes acquired by Voyager shortly before their return home to the Alpha Quadrant. However, Picard knows it’s only a duct-tape solution: eventually, the Borg will adapt to the torpedoes, and then everything would be lost. His intention is to find out how the Borg are slipping past Starfleet defences and to stopping it once and for all. Often, Picard describes the war as a war of attrition, and because of the numerous resources at the disposal of the Borg, the Federation’s hopeless. When looking at Picard’s actions, the scene from First Contact comes to mind about Moby Dick. In this instance, Picard has become Captain Ahab. He won’t stop. In this war of winner take all, Picard insists on delivering the final blow to the Collective, even if his crew doesn’t necessarily agree. In one scene where Crusher confides in La Forge about Picard’s sanity, La Forge ponders about finding out why the Borg are the way they are, and neutralize that problem, knowing that inside the cybernetic exterior, people remain. In that moment, we catch a...

 

Re: Star Trek: Destiny - Gods Of Night REVIEW (NOTE: SPOILERS ABROAD!!

glimpse of the relevance of the Caeliar to the Destiny trilogy as a whole and begin to see that this story is beyond a fight to the finish. One of Picard’s finer moments in the book is he also indulges his curiosity in finding out why the Borg went from assimilation to extermination. This too, makes me think of the Caeliar, and that there’s definitely something between the Caeliar and the Borg that will outline the rest of the story.

The story began and ended with Dax, (kinda... I know it ended with Titan's discovery) so it’s fitting that this part of the review does the same. I’m going to put my foot down and say this about Ezri Dax: she’s a fine captain, and Dave did a fantastic job of portraying Dax as such in her part of the story. Appreciating Ezri Dax and her being a captain definitely comes from reading the post Deep Space Nine finale literature, and seeing the evolution of her character. Despite the fact she’s earned a battlefield commission, she’s still Ezri Dax. In particular, her jabs and quirks of humour between her and Bowers reminds me of the playful Ezri we saw on the show. (and by extension, Jadzia’s playfulness as well) However, when in command mode, you know you ought to shut up because she owns herself as a starship captain. Often, I hear Jadzia Dax when Ezri’s serious and on the ball, but part of it is Ezri as well. Her experiences with Worf during the first part of Deep Space Nine’s denouement episodes shaped her well for this situation. Having read the excerpt for Mere Mortals, I am excited to see Dax and Worf together again, and see how that bond evolves in this story. This part of the narrative was straight-forward: what the heck happened to the Columbia. It’s funny because the starting point for the entire trilogy is the one that’s the most direct. I enjoyed it, and look forward to seeing where it goes.

With each of the separate stories reviewed, I’d like to take a moment to discuss the Caeliar: I think that these people are the most unique of the races created for any Star Trek series. There’s a lot more to them than their pacifistic natures suggest. As we learn during the Columbia segments of the story, the Caeliar had aspects of their life that were subsequently removed in favour of other societal aspects. It’s funny that anything that could breed contention is disallowed and frowned upon. Why is that? The answer that I’m pondering now is whether or not the Caeliar were responsible for the Borg’s current status. Now I’m not saying ‘current’ in the sense that the Caeliar turned the Borg from assimilation to extermination, but something along the lines as we learned in Unjoined where the parasites and the Trill symbionts are one and the same, allowing for mutation and drift over the years; that it was that the Trill themselves that c reated the parasites, and why they loathed them so much. I think something similar occurred between the Caeliar and the Borg, many years ago. Maybe the Caeliar once upon a time were the first Borg drones; an attempt to evolve to a higher form of life, yet something went horribly wrong. Knowing this contradicts what is said by the Borg Queen in First Contact about the origins of the Collective, surely there’s a way to explain it. Nevertheless, whatever is there, the Caeliar and the Borg have a past, and that past has led to the Caeliar’s isolationism, and the fact that the Columbia showed up at the wrong time set their current path down the road it is. The Caeliar have earned their title of ‘gods of night.’

Now, one more thought that came to my mind while reading, and that is the Janeway factor. No, I’m not talking about the dead Janeway; I’m talking about the future Janeway from Endgame. Here, we see on a galactic scale what happens when you screw with the Temporal Prime Directive. Because Janeway lost people close to her (specifically, Seven of Nine), she chose to re-write history in an attempt...

 

Re: Star Trek: Destiny - Gods Of Night REVIEW (NOTE: SPOILERS ABROAD!!

to get her crew home earlier. Sure, she cited her reasons as to why she did it, and in the end, Voyager did get home, but at what cost? Countless people are dead, and many more are threatened to be killed, even Janeway herself met her fate in Before Dishonour, as a result of her future self’s blind determination to get home. Hindsight being twenty-twenty, I’m sure those on Voyager who were in the Delta Quadrant might be re-assessing everything that happened, and wondering whether it was right to do what they did, but I don’t think that it’ll be explored in this book. However, Kirsten Beyer might have answers for Full Circle, due to arrive next year on your bookshelves. So, when you read these books, just think about everything else that factored into this story, and the title Destiny starts to have a more profound meaning.

So, seven pages later, I’m about ready to wrap up this review, and I’m left wondering something: previous David Mack titles left me exhilarated and anxious, and Destiny promised to be more of the same. So why is it that I do not feel this way? Does it mean I despise the books? Does it mean that Destiny failed to meet my expectations? What is it? I think that for me, the answer comes down to one thing: maturity. I noticed it with Reap The Whirlwind and I notice it here: the old moniker of ‘Mack The Knife’ is inadequate when describing David’s work. Gods of Night is a mature title with a mature feel to it. The story itself is paced quite nicely, and there’s a healthy balance of action and suspense tied in with a plethora of character development that makes an excellent read. Don’t expect to read it like one would read Warpath or A Time To Kill/Heal: the story’s not meant to be read that way. Read it with care, and with consideration for what’s being said. There’s more here than what meets the eye. All in all, a fantastic book! I’m excited to read them, thinking I would have had to wait two years before posting a review. David, fantastic job! Again, a pleasure to read. Pick it up today, and order Mere Mortals and Lost Souls while you’re at it

P.S: There’s enough ‘stygian’ in here for everybody, and I’m sure that Dayton Ward loved the obscure reference to his original work of fiction during the scene involving the crew of the Columbia disucssing the Caeliar city. I know I found it funny because it was just there out of the blue.
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Phew! Now that that's done with, let the discussion begin. Anybody who wants it in its non-chopped mode, email me and I'll send the document over to you. Feel free to use at your leisure.

 

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

Right, just literally finished. Can't wait to see how it continues.

 

Re: Star Trek: Destiny - Gods Of Night REVIEW (NOTE: SPOILERS ABROAD!!

Umm... wow. Thank you for taking the time to compose such a detailed review, Jeremy, and for all of your flattering comments. They are appreciated.

One question: in the Bacco scene, what is the "obscure reference" you mentioned? I don't recall having put in any such inside gag.

As for your other speculations … for now I need to be coy and say, "You'll see…"

I look forward to your reviews of Mere Mortals and Lost Souls.

 

Re: Star Trek: Destiny - Gods Of Night REVIEW (NOTE: SPOILERS ABROAD!!

^ You're right...fetch! It's not in that scene. All I remember was someone (I believe it was someone from Columbia) making an obscure reference to 'the last world war'...and that made me smile, 'cause that was the title of Dayton's book...now I can go back and find it and retcon my own review. HA HA

Page 237....Mr. Graylock makes mention of it when talking about Claytronic Atoms.....that's where it was.

NOTE: The review's been appropriately retconned.

 

Re: Star Trek: Destiny - Gods Of Night REVIEW (NOTE: SPOILERS ABROAD!!

Ah, yes.

P.S. — As long as you're retconning, the name of the engineer on Titan is Torvig — his species is called Choblik.

 

Re: Star Trek: Destiny - Gods Of Night REVIEW (NOTE: SPOILERS ABROAD!!

AH SON OF A..........GRRRRRRRRRRRR!

No wonder you guys have editors...I guess the last thing needed is another Warpath hiccup, eh? Thanks for keeping an eye out for it. I only wrote several thousand words...how you managed to write 400 000 of them...wow, I tip my hat. LOL

NOTE: The second ret-con has been done. Hopefully I haven't screwed anything else up. Just checked to make sure I spelled Caeliar right. Phew! (I guess after looking at a keyboard for 3 consecutive hours typing this up that words become other words, and whatnot...wait, I write 25 page religious studies papers..I know that feeling)

*going to walk away now before I put my foot in my mouth or something*

 

Re: Star Trek: Destiny - Gods Of Night REVIEW (NOTE: SPOILERS ABROAD!!

Except that the "Warpath hiccup" was the editor's fault.

 

Re: Star Trek: Destiny - Gods Of Night REVIEW (NOTE: SPOILERS ABROAD!!

We'll spank the editor later.

 

Re: Star Trek: Destiny - Gods Of Night REVIEW (NOTE: SPOILERS ABROAD!!

This was the book where Geddy Lee joined Starfleet, right?