TP: Plagues of Night by DRGIII Review Thread (Spoilers!)

[Enterpriserules]

Reanok wrote:

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I'm so glad that storylines from previous ds9 books are being dealt with at long last.especially Ben Sisko and Kassidy Yates strained relationship.I haven't Had any luck finding this book yet,I can't wait to finally read this one at long last!

I don't think that you will be disappointed!

[ST20133]

RTOlson wrote:

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I read the book cover to cover in one sitting. It was pretty exciting overall, although it had to recap a lot of previous activity. Considering that people don't buy all the books (especially the eBook that I didn't know existed), I thought the exposition was OK and it better helped shape the timeline of the previous Typhon Pact books. It also did a good job of presenting events detailed in the previous books from the perspective of other participants (such as the raid on Utopia Planitia).

I disagree with that, the book could have been a third to a half shorter if it credited people with remembering what had happened in past storylines. It's true that people don't read all the books (I certainly don't) but there is far, far too much harking back to the past when it doesn't add much to the story in trek books. (Not a criticism limited to this book/author). I haven't read the other DS9 books but I know the major threads discussed in this book because they are repeated so often.

KingDaniel wrote:

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I've just this second finished it. I voted "Average", and thought it was a step down from the excellent Rough Beasts of Empire. Too much of the novel felt like just a bunch of stuff happening, rather than a story (or stories) unfolding. If that makes sense. But still worth the read and I'm looking forward to Raise the Dawn.

Definitely more a "bunch of stuff happening" rather than a story. Things are flagged up early and then end up happening. A character thinks "wouldn't it be wierd if this happened?" and then it does later on. There are probably a few too many things happening in this book so that not enough depth is given to any one.

Parts I did like though were around the new praetor on Romulus.

[MatthiasRussell]

Just finished. I enjoyed it much more than RBOE but not as much as other recent Trek books. I'm not sure how I rate it, will have to think about it.

I will say that I like how the Bajoran sector is made relevant again after events in this book and I am in much expectation as to where this is going. However, I'm disappointed that it looks like the cold war is heating up and there is a high possiblity of another war.

[Enterpriserules]

MatthiasRussell wrote:

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Just finished. I enjoyed it much more than RBOE but not as much as other recent Trek books. I'm not sure how I rate it, will have to think about it.

I will say that I like how the Bajoran sector is made relevant again after events in this book and I am in much expectation as to where this is going. However, I'm disappointed that it looks like the cold war is heating up and there is a high possiblity of another war.

I can understand what you are saying, but I am looking at this like the Cuban Missile Crisis, we come to the brink of war, only to have it averted.

One of the things that Trek books have to be careful of is having too much galactic war; the Dominion War, then the Borg, it gets to be too much death and not the hope that Star Trek has always stood for. I found that the Praetor was such a great addition to this story because she is different to the other Romulans that we have seen, more interested in peace and stability and not the back-stabbing and conquest of previous leaders. I am hoping to see how peace can win out because of people like her.

[Christopher]

MatthiasRussell wrote:

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However, I'm disappointed that it looks like the cold war is heating up and there is a high possiblity of another war.

I'm always surprised when people react to the potential for war in a Trek story as evidence that war is inevitable. How many Star Trek episodes have been about being on the brink of war and averting it at the last moment? "Balance of Terror" started with an act of war, but they managed to avert it in time. "Errand of Mercy" featured an actual shooting war that then got halted. On TNG, "The Defector" was about a barely averted war with the Romulans, and "The Wounded," "Journey's End," and probably others entailed barely averted wars with the Cardassians. On ENT, both "Cease Fire" and the Vulcan Reformation arc involved barely averted wars between Vulcan and Andoria, and the "Babel One" arc involved averting a war between Andoria and Tellar.

So Star Trek often involves bringing nations to the brink of war, but only rarely does full-fledged war actually break out.

[Truth]

Wow its like one step forward two step backs when it comes to gerodi, Not to be mean but has anybody who writes trek ever served, if so they would understand how absurd the reason they gave for his reponse to spock question truly was, I felt they undid alot of the progress for him that IFM did, it just one sitting , dont know if this was the writers choice or the editors,ither way to crap on him again, just kill him off it would be more mercyful in alot of ways, he is the travis of thg, or kim of voy

[King Daniel Into Darkness]

Yeah, Geordi's demotion was kind of a "Remember Indistinguishable From Magic? Well, we're never mentioning it ever again."

How I wish they let him keep his own ship.

[Truth]

KingDaniel wrote:

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Yeah, Geordi's demotion was kind of a "Remember Indistinguishable From Magic? Well, we're never mentioning it ever again."

How I wish they let him keep his own ship.

Maybe its the sailor in me , but having served aboard a carrier I can tell you most department heads aboard large ships have captains hell My cheif engineer was a captain , so was , half the dept heads, that does not mean they could overide the XO or even the second officer since , thier power did not come from their rank but the navy itself, meaning while yes you can out rank a person you can not overide their authority without the consent of a flag officer.. least not as for as that ship is concern

I agree I felt like they said pretty much ehh screw the little growth he had in almost 20 years !! This is coming from some who was never really a huge geroid fan, but I felt IFM gave him a nice spot light, and was a good story,now the whole book seems pointless, nothing really came from it

[Patrick O'Brien]

Just started the book today on the train. Enjoying it so far

[CaptainDonovin]

Well that was fun, can't wait to see how it ends next book. Just finished it this morning @ 4am cause I just had to keep reading it. A lot of moving parts in this one which I really enjoyed. Wasn't quite expecting the ending but knew DS9 would figure heavily in it. The Breen species with the sensory organs (can't remember the name or the characters name) was an interesting one.

I keep thinking the Romulan Praetor may meet her end sooner then later.

The scenes with Prynn dealing with her father & her choice was very moving.

[MatthiasRussell]

I didn't like the demotion of Geordi either. In ST V and VI, both Spock and Kirk were captains so why is having 2 captains an issue? I didn't see why it was necessary to even make that point come up. Geordi's rank had nothing to do with what was going on. Why did DRG III even need to make an issue of it?

Then there is Spock saying Scotty is dead rather than lost. Lone Magpie made a point of saying that the editors wanted Scotty's fate unclear. Also, RBOE ended with Tomalek stepping down from the proconsul position, now he takes it back only to step in agian.

Why was it necessary to undo or change these points from previous books?

[MatthiasRussell]

Christopher wrote:

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I'm always surprised when people react to the potential for war in a Trek story as evidence that war is inevitable. How many Star Trek episodes have been about being on the brink of war and averting it at the last moment? "Balance of Terror" started with an act of war, but they managed to avert it in time. "Errand of Mercy" featured an actual shooting war that then got halted. On TNG, "The Defector" was about a barely averted war with the Romulans, and "The Wounded," "Journey's End," and probably others entailed barely averted wars with the Cardassians. On ENT, both "Cease Fire" and the Vulcan Reformation arc involved barely averted wars between Vulcan and Andoria, and the "Babel One" arc involved averting a war between Andoria and Tellar.

So Star Trek often involves bringing nations to the brink of war, but only rarely does full-fledged war actually break out.

It has also been said that the Typhon Pact is NOT an enemy but it clearly is. Multiple characters keep speaking of the Pact as an enemy and now we have open conflict. I think the "last moment" has passed as of the last few chapters of the book.

[DS9forever]

I'm enjoying the book a lot as I go through it; some of the new characters on DS9, particularly the new security chief, are very interesting. Rogeiro also gets a bit more to do this time.

As for Geordi, the novel says having two captains wasn't an ideal situation. Anyway, Indistinguishable from Magic sort of put all the toys back in the box at the end.

[Sho]

This is off topic, but I can't believe I still haven't gotten around to reading Indistinguishable from Magic as a big fan of engineer characters and Leah Brahms ... well, it's because I don't want to read it out of order and I'm a Bajoran wormhole or two away from catching up with the continuity, but it's soo tempting ...

[Truth]

DS9forever wrote:

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I'm enjoying the book a lot as I go through it; some of the new characters on DS9, particularly the new security chief, are very interesting. Rogeiro also gets a bit more to do this time.

As for Geordi, the novel says having two captains wasn't an ideal situation. Anyway, Indistinguishable from Magic sort of put all the toys back in the box at the end.

Like I said, rank does not always denote postion with a command structure, IDM even with out of the way to expain the captian of engineering part , and How it fitted into the over all command strucure, so them to reverse that served no real logical sense, other than they just wanted to