TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic by McIntee Review Thread (Spoilers)

[Fer]

Personally I'm in favor of "fanwank." I find those kind of stories to be the most fun. But that's just me, YMMV.

[Fer]

Paper Moon wrote:

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(hint for anyone following this newbie's posts: I've liked almost every Star Trek novel I've read, though some have aged better than others)

Glad to see I'm not the only one. Isn't life more fun that way?!?

[JD]

Fer wrote:

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Personally I'm in favor of "fanwank." I find those kind of stories to be the most fun. But that's just me, YMMV.

Same here, as long as it's done well, and everything I've read on here about IFM leads me to believe that it is. Once I've finished reading the stuff I already started before cutting down the number of books I read, it's going to be the first thing I read.

[MatthiasRussell]

Magpie, the death of

Scotty.

is by no means certain, correct? Though he/she is definitely out of the picture for the foreseeable future. Whose decision was it to cause this death? Was it just how the story unfolded? Whose decision was it to leave it in question whether the character actually died or not?

I ask cause I didn't feel like digging through 29 pages of this thread and this matter came up in another thread.

BTW, don't know if I mentioned this before, but my Captain LaForge figure is sitting in my NX-01 command chair in honor of IFM. That and the Art Asylum ENT figures look odd when sitting.

[Lonemagpie]

MatthiasRussell wrote:

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Magpie, the death of

Scotty.

is by no means certain, correct?

Pretty much

Though he/she is definitely out of the picture for the foreseeable future. Whose decision was it to cause this death?

Mine

Was it just how the story unfolded?

Yep. It just seemed natural that way, and fit in so many ways.

Whose decision was it to leave it in question whether the character actually died or not?

CBS, though it conveniently fit the fact that in the days before it was greenlit, I was working on another pitch that would still need that character...

BTW, don't know if I mentioned this before, but my Captain LaForge figure is sitting in my NX-01 command chair in honor of IFM. That and the Art Asylum ENT figures look odd when sitting.

LOL!

[JD]

Was Scotty ever promoted to Admiral, or has he still been a Captain this whole time? Honestly, I would think by the time we read the post-Destiny time frame he should have made it up to Admiral.

[Lonemagpie]

He was always a Captain, AFAIK - and I suspect it'd be his preference.

[Lanny77]

Apologies for reviving an inactive thread but I needed to get this off my chest

I picked up a copy of Indistinguishable From Magic today. I'm about 150 pages in and just completely disappointed with it.

The plot lack any real energy to drive it foreword. All the characters feel flatl and uninteresting, Scotty especially. Don't get me wrong, I'm a massive fan of Scotty and enjoyed his scenes in Corps of Engineers and Ex Machina immensely. But here, he's just so....lifeless. I know he's supposed to be feeling the effects of his age is supposed to be an import aspect of the novel but he comes off so poorly, he come off sounding and feeling like a cardboard yes man

Geordi is also feels horribly out of character here too. He's supposed to a twenty something year veteran of starfleet but comes off feeling like a naive ensign in someone's bad fanfic.

Some one tell me, Does it get better? is it worth reading on?

[Lonemagpie]

If you're not enjoying it, nobody says you *have* to finish. There isn't an exam coming up...

[Lanny77]

I know that but I'm a bit anal when it comes to reading. I feel driven to complete books, even terrible ones. I just wanted to know if it picks up later on

[Lonemagpie]

Lanny77 wrote:

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I know that but I'm a bit anal when it comes to reading. I feel driven to complete books, even terrible ones. I just wanted to know if it picks up later on

I'd say yes, but I'd be biased and not the right person to advise you on that... But if I get that far into a book and still don't like it, I'd probably switch to another.

[PKS8304]

Recently finished this book myself, and I had a hard time with the "Part 1" getting through it. Wasnt necessarily bad but seemed a little disconnected especially with "Part 2"

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed "Part 2" and knowing that this was supposed to be 2 books, I think I was just more into the plot in the second half than the first.

[DarKush]

I finished this one a couple months ago, but I decided to post my thoughts once I saw the thread was hot again.

I was rooting for this book because it was Geordi-centric and every since I saw Captain LaForge in "Timeless" I've been wanting to see Geordi in command. I can say that the book delivered on having Geordi in command, if only briefly (too briefly) and it also brough Leah Brahms back into his life and ended with him promoted, so those were all good things. I'm not a Brahms fan, though I like the idea of Geordi having a relationship. And the author finally told us what happened to the Hera. Though I wonder why Aquiel or Geordi's father or sister didn't make an appearance since the book had few qualms about cameos.

Though ultimately I was disappointed with this novel. It felt like two different stories awkwardly put together. And I felt there were too many TNG characters (and Nog) just thrown in there. Though it was good to see Bok and Rasmussen, I felt Bok particularly was wasted. I did like the idea of Sela's half-brother, though I felt Sela wasn't really necessary for this story, despite her ties to Geordi. Perhaps the Romulan Bochra Geordi helped saved in "The Enemy" would've been a better choice, and keeping with the Geordi-centric theme.

I also felt that the main mystery, alien antagonist (s), or whatever wasn't fully exploited. Things just sort of ended, and it felt anti-climatic.

Another thing that irked me was Geordi forgetting the face of Dr. Harstad he had just began dating in Paths of Disharmony. I can see him moving on, especially since he carries this thing for Leah, but forgetting what Harstad looks like? Just felt unbelievable to me. I also think the relationship with Leah also felt a bit odd in terms of how it happened. I think what made it work was the character's appearance on the show, especially "All Good Things" since I knew that she and Geordi would be married in a possible future. But it didn't work in the novel for me because at first she was standoffish and somewhere along the way they wound up together. I wish more focus had been placed on how that came about, though let me repeat that I am glad it happened, for Geordi's character growth. In many ways this novel was a love letter to Geordi and I appreciate the author for doing something long overdue in that regard.

[timothy]

I am about to start this book and I was wondering if this has anything to do with the typhon pact series?

[captcalhoun]

not really, no.