TP: Seize the Fire by Michael A. Martin Review Thread (Spoilers!)

[Ferd Burfel]

Christopher wrote:

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^I just don't understand that reaction. Do you feel "preached to" by the fact that Voyager's cast includes black, Asian, and Hispanic actors? Sure, there are some early Titan books that make a point of addressing the diversity of the crew, but in subsequent ones -- certainly the ones I've written -- the nonhumanoid crewmembers are simply there, participating in the stories like everyone else. Yes, their diverse viewpoints, beliefs, and so forth are addressed, but that's not preaching, that's just doing what any story does -- developing its characters' distinct identities and exploring the interactions and tensions among them.

I'm not trying to preach to anyone. I don't see why I should need to; I would expect that any Star Trek fan would acknowledge it as axiomatic that diversity and inclusion are good things. I'm just interested in exploring beings and cultures that are more interestingly alien than just another bunch of humanoids with a culture that represents some single particular human value or attitude.

I don't wanna speak for anyone, but the sense I'm getting isn't one of a dislike of diversity. It's a dislike of being constantly reminded of it. To answer your question, no I wouldn't feel preached to because of Black, Asian or Latino characters. But I would get annoyed if I were reading something that constantly said "life is so different on our ship because we have all these Blacks, Asians and Latinos". I'd be offended. And I think that distaste is what many are speaking of. We know the diversity exists, we don't need the constant recap and reminder. And I know each book has dealt with different characters and species as a way of discovering the crew, but it is frustrating to read a book and get to love a character and then you don't hear from them for a book or two. It's like loving Geordi and him not being in the next three episodes.

I like Titan, but I too could do without the constant reminder of diversity, the challenge it poses and how awesome they are for undertaking it. Simply treat each character as a character, not as a lesson of tolerance I should be learning. It's awesome how diverse the crew is, but it cheapens it when you feel the need to constantly explain it to me.

[Bishop76]

^ Bingo.

[JoeZhang]

Yep, it's not the diversity that the problem, it's the completely unsubtle after-school special feel to the writing about it that is.

[Csalem]

Finished this yesterday. Was disappointed and found it boring. Tuvok back-story seemed irrelevant and really got fed up with all the mentions of Cestus III. It seems to be the only thing all the Gorn and Federation could only think about. Hope the other books are better.

[Bishop76]

They are much better. This is the weak link of the bunch. I really hope that they stop letting Martin write Treklit or at least confine him to the Enterprise stuff.

[JoeZhang]

I thought the first three were average to poor and on that basis don't plan to pick up the fourth.

[Bishop76]

Well, I won't argue too much with you, my only point was that the other 3 were much better than this steamy turd.

[captcalhoun]

it was alright. some nice development to the Gorn, but otherwise a tad 'meh'.

[Enterprise1981]

Yep, it's not the diversity that the problem, it's the completely unsubtle after-school special feel to the writing about it that is.

Haven't really been following this thread lately, but I understand the sentiment. If I had a nickel for every reference to cross-phylum mutual distrust...

Chapter 10 was a major snoozer with an appealing cliffhanger ending. It was like Quark's "Humanoid tolerance for alien life doesn't extend beyond non-humanoids" speech-- which did then raise a valid point mind you-- multiplied by 100. They'd be having the same discussion if a guest requesting asylum was Romulan, Cardassian, Silwaan, or Fenisral (if you want to expand to non-humanoid, but sentient mammalian species).

[JWolf]

Thrawn wrote:

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Well, being totally honest though, aside from David Mack, I haven't been especially impressed with ANY author's output since Marco was laid off. And even Zero Sum Game was pretty lame.

I think we might be missing a bigger picture thing here.

To me, Zero Sum game felt like an overly long episode of DS9 where we got Bashir playing at being a spy for Section 31. And it felt like it was just not quite right. Like the timing was off. It was better in the second half, but the first half just dragged.

14thDoctor wrote:

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-I did a double take when Hawk is mentioned as having been killed during an encounter with the Gorn instead of the Borg.
-Why did the Gorn only seem to have accents when saying names?

That error with Hawk actually brought me out of the story. Glaring errors can do that. Took me a bit to get back into it after that.

Read some of the TOS books and you'll find the same sort of thing (sort of) with Scotty and Chekov. Sometimes the accent is there, sometimes not and sometimes it's there and not there in the same book. In The Sundered there was an issue with Chekov's accent not really being there but being mentioned. I found that a bit offputting.

[JWolf]

Steve Roby wrote:

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So, ignoring the troll (and if admitting to insulting regulars here and passing it off with a lol isn't trolling, what is?)...

This was a frustrating book. It took forever to get moving; I was nearly halfway through it before it actually got me interested, and the payoff never really came. For instance, at one point there's a page or so from one particular POV that never gets revisited, even when it really should. It seems to be there mainly to explain what otherwise would seem arbitrary.

Dunno whether the book needed some Andy or some Marco or both, but something was definitely missing.

It needed Andy to keep the characterization in line. It needed Marco to help deal with the repetitiveness there was in a lot of places. It needed Andy and Macro to make it a better book.

nickyboy wrote:

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I am 220 pages into the book, I am about to give up. Can someone please tell me what happens

I hope not. I'm about 2/3rds done and I do not want to read then ending before I get there.

[Admiral_Young]

Half way through this (borrowed it from my friend) and I must say this is the slowest paced and boring Titan novel to date. Previous books I've flown through in a single sitting usually, this one has taken me half a week to get half way through. Not sure what it is about it but it's doing nothing for me whatsoever. I might eventually end up not finishing it.

[Admiral_Young]

Well I don't think I'm going to be able to finish this book. Just boring...and flat out uninteresting. I caught the aforementioned error regarding Hawk being killed by the Gorn then the line right after mentions the Borg invasion!!! This is by far Michael's worst book in my opinion.

[Quimby]

I know this book is older but I just finished and I was disappointed.

1. The pacing was awful. It seemed like pages and pages would go by while characters just discussed things instead of actually doing something.

Every action or decision seemed to require a meeting or conversation. It was like Star Trek: Middle Managers. I think the book needed another pass in editing because it was as if the author had multiple ideas how a scene could go ad instead of picking the best, he used them all in the form of a meeting between different characters.

2. The Gorn names were too similar. Maybe this was just me but I had a hard time realizing who was who. I 50 pages in before I realized the Gorn who mutinied was not a part of the other Gorn fleet.

3. As others mentioned, it was unbelievable the Mind Meld and Riker's meeting on the Gorn vessel happened off screen. it was the climax of the book!

I usually like the author's work but this one was a tough one to get through.

[jjh19]

Not. Very. Good.

Riker was depressing and insane beaming willy nilly to Gorn ships. Troi has turned into a boring shell of a character. And when the plot turned to sending an away team to the surface, well, I knew this book had gone to a ridiculous place.

I've stuck with this book for a long time and to get a payoff as weak as this book delivered was quite disappointing.

No heart. Trek books need to be better.