Spoilers TNG: Greater Than The Sum Review Thread

She was good but I wish she had more scenes with Spock

 

GREATER THAN THE SUM is a book I bought in paperback and then bought in Kindle format because I enjoyed reading it twice. It's definitely a book that benefits from reading BEFORE DISHONOR first, though I enjoyed it both before I read the latter and just moreso afterward. It deals with some of the fallout of that book and the scenes resonate better if you've read it first. Do I wish that T'Lana and Zelik Leybenzon had stayed on the Enterprise? Yes. Probably unrealistic given what happened in Before Dishonor but I would have enjoyed them dealing with the crew. I understand this wasn't Christopher Bennett's choice, though, but something dictated from on high.

The biggest thing I love about this book is T'Ryssa Chen and she is easily my favorite character from the original TrekLit characters. Yes, that beats out the cast of NEW FRONTIER, VANGUARD, and even the Picard novels. She's a bubbly, exuberant human-choosing Vulcan that reminds me of a number of more fondly remembered ex-girlfriends who just so happened to have all been Trekkies themselves. If I had to vote for any of the TrekLit characters to come back then I'd definitely choose her and hope she gets revived in the Nu Expanded Universe at some point.

I think there's a lot to like about T'Ryssa Chen beyond the fact I'd love to see her in live action too (Jessica Henwick?). She's a character that shows a wonderful to contrast with Spock with him choosing Vulcan and her choosing human. The specter of Spock must also hang over her as the ultimate example of a half-human/half-Vulcan in Starfleet. However, she's more like B'Elanna Torres in that just makes her even more likely to reject her alien heritage. Picard helping her accept her Vulcan side without rejecting her human was good too.

More likeable characters are created with Choudhury, who is the kind of peaceful warrior that Jedi should aspire to being (while also being entirely based in real life spiritual/cultural practices) and seems to be the only security officer trained in conflict de-escalation until (of all people) Shanx. I also like Elfika even if it's only the humor that poor Geordi, the most sexually frustrated of TNG's crew, gets assumed to be uninterested in her because he's blind. That was a very relatable moment and just Geordi's luck.

The book is another Borg story and that's probably inevitable given it is a lead-in for the controversial but very enjoyable "Destiny" universe tales. Basically, I feel like the Borg work best in small doses and they were somewhat overexposed by this time (even if I feel like S3 Picard confirming they're all dead was a waste). Christopher Bennett does a good job combining your typical Borg story with a V'Ger/Nomad-esque, "we encounter something utterly beyond our understanding" sort of tale.

It reminds me of how he handled the aftermath of TMP with EX MACHINA and I think it is a very good "Clarke-ian" sort of sci-fi. Which is the best term I can put for this sort of Trek tale and works better than the Borg themselves. I would have enjoyed it even if it was trying to keep the Klingons, Romulans, or whoever from getting the alien planet's power. It didn't need to be the Borg but the fact it is the Borg works well as Christopher takes advantage of it to incorporate Hugh into the story.

It's interesting to contrast this version of Hugh with Picard Season 1's and I think I like both of them about equally. Hugh continues to lead the Liberated Borg and wants to, err, well, make himself capable of procreation again--which is a nicely direct way of addressing what we could all guess was going on down there. I also appreciate the book addresses the idiotic statement the Borg didn't procreate in VOY and just assimilated other species (how inefficient). I actually was more interested in Captain Picard meeting one of his original lost crewmen from "The Best of Both Worlds" and how she had begun a relationship with Hugh.

I admit I was confused about her final decision as Hugh willingly sacrifices his life so she can go visit her daughter and then she decides...not to. Ouch. Way to render another person's sacrifice meaningless--I get her reasoning but I think I'd have at least said I was going to keep in touch with her--it also makes me wonder if Rebekah ascended with the caeliar and abandoned her daughter completely. I do also give props for CB causally mentioning her daughter was in a relationship with another woman and not being at all noteworthy by her mother except for how happy it made Rebekah. I recall that was still a bit of a push in Star Trek at the time.

I can't say I was really all that into Picard and Beverly Crusher's storyline regarding whether or not to have a family or not, but I think it was handled better here than a similar one in P2 and 3. Another prop is the fact that reproductive science in the 24th century means that it's not any sort of issue over whether or not she can have a child, though. They never developed uterine replicators in the 24th century like, say, the Vorkosigan Saga but you certainly would like to see progress there.

Any other issues? Hmmm. I feel ending Hugh's story here was something of a waste, especially with the culture built up in the book (and which is gone by Destiny). but as deaths go, he died for the woman he loved knowing fully he was going to do it. Few of us get as honorable a way to go. I also feel Kadohata got off too easy. She's there standing beside T'Ryssa, judging her as unprofessional and not Enterprise material, when she just got off on a failed mutiny. I'm surprised T'Ryssa didn't throw it back in her face.

Fantastic book.

 

Well, partly from on high, partly from Dave Mack, since he outlined Destiny before I was given the gig to write its lead-in.

I'm really glad that T'Ryssa resonated so well with the fans, even if I didn't get to write her much after her debut. Dayton Ward did some excellent work with her in later novels.

I tried to do something similar with Rennan Konya in SCE: Aftermath, but later writers didn't take him in that direction. It always seemed to me that it was a mistake to approach security officers as fighters; ideally, their job is to prevent conflict. If weapons are fired or punches thrown, they've already failed. And surely part of security is making people feel secure, not intimidated.

Not a bad characterization, since Clarke was one of my main influences growing up. But -- though my memory is vague -- I think there's a thematic tie between the carbon-planet consciousness and the Borg, since they're both collective cybernetic intelligences but have very different approaches.

For 2008? Not really. It was a bigger push for Section 31: Rogue in 2001 to introduce Ranul Keru as Sean Hawk's partner, and of course he then became a regular in the Titan novels starting in 2005.

 

Yeah, I may have to re-read her other books.

That was actually something I really liked in the episode where Boimler trains under Shanx and they mostly do poetry and learn how to keep morale up. Because, obviously, they're individuals who want to avoid conflict and not intimidate their own community. Which is interesting as one of those explored alternatives to policing in the real world.

Yeah, the Borg are actually not very much of a collective consciousness as depicted but more like a slave consciousness. The Collective/Queen (assuming there is any kind of real distinction) enslaving all of the drones underneath it to one will. Whereas the Medusans in Prodigy are all one of a greater whole or like Deus Ex 2's ending.



Surrender of self and openness is not necessarily terrifying or destructive to many RL religions but the Borg destroy the self violently. It's why I hope we will see a return of Jurati in future novels even if it's been dropped by Picard. Presumably the little borg children in the flash forward of Lower Decks comes from her Collective.

True. I suppose I'm mostly thinking of how background normalizing it has its own effect.

 

Oh, huh. It's been roughly a billion years, and I do vaguely remember something about the trilogy conceptually predating the "season" of TNG novels that came between NEM and Destiny, so the earlier books had a degree of directionality to them, but I don't remember that playing into the shake-ups of the secondary cast (...or do I?). From the outside, it looked like the litverse "replacements" were fine in Q&A, everyone got all riled up in Before Dishonor, and then you had to sort out who was salvageable and who wasn't in Sum, and introduce the successors for the characters that couldn't plausibly stay on the Enterprise for Destiny. It all felt a little accidental, but if there were two separate sets of new crew members conceptualized in parallel, and one of them had to go... well, the hardcore-ness of the mutiny in Before Dishonor makes a lot more sense as a creative choice.

I'm trying very hard to remember if this is all stuff I already knew. I'm sure we've talked about it to some extent before.

 

No, I'm fairly certain that the concept for Destiny was developed after Resistance/Q&A/Before Dishonor. Destiny was still in outline when I was brought on board in June 2007, and I know from my records that Q&A, and presumably the other two novels that came out a month before and after it, was outlined in the first half of 2006 with a completed manuscript by spring 2007 at the latest. So GTTS was the only pre-Destiny novel whose plotting was influenced by Destiny. The intent when Kadohata, T'Lana, and Leybenzon were introduced was that they would be permanent new cast members, but things went in an unexpected direction and the plan changed. My job in GTTS was basically to tie off the loose ends and reset the board for a fresh start.

 

You are correct. Destiny was commissioned by the editors in November 2006. In June 2007 the final version of the Destiny trilogy outline was being approved. Part of what had inspired the eventual story arc of the trilogy was the plot of Before Dishonor, which was already written and in editing/production while I was developing Destiny. In July 2007 I began writing the manuscript for Gods of Night.

 

Looks like I submitted my GTTS outline on July 9 and its revision on July 19, but didn't start the manuscript until September 15. So you were working ahead of me, but we were comparing notes by e-mail throughout.