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

[Sci]

Read Plagues of Night, and I'm somewhere between a third and halfway through the book now. It's my first time reading a book cover to cover on an eBook reader -- very different experience. I feel vaguely like I'm on Star Trek, reading a book from a PADD.

Really liking the novel so far. Gotta say, in terms of narrative complexity, this is probably the most ambitious Star Trek novel since the Destiny trilogy. By my count so far, it advances at least 12 major factions' plot arcs from all across the books:

- Sela's Tal Shiar faction
- The Breen regime and its relationship with the Tal Shiar
- Kassidy and the Sisko family arc
- Captain Sisko aboard the U.S.S. Robinson
- Captain Picard aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise
- Captain Ro aboard Starbase Deep Space 9
- Gell Kamemor's praetorship
- Spock's Reunification Movement
- Nan Bacco's presidency
- The Tzenkethi government's role in the Pact and towards the Federation
- Section 31 and Sarina towards Bashir
- The Cardassian Union reconciling with the Federation and joining the Khitomer Accords

[MatthiasRussell]

Sho wrote:

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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 ...

Plagues of Night will give you a few IFM spoilers, but shouldn't harm your enjoyment of the book too much. Definitely read it.

[MatthiasRussell]

Sci wrote:

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It's my first time reading a book cover to cover on an eBook reader -- very different experience. I feel vaguely like I'm on Star Trek, reading a book from a PADD.

That's the main reason why I like reading trek books on an e-reader.

What we really need is a bluetooth combadge. SOMEBODY MAKE THIS!!!!

[rfmcdpei]

Oh. My. God.

This book is made of pure win.

[dispatcher812]

Just finished and gave it an above average. I did not like most of the back story. To me it seemed to much of that and not enough current action. I had hoped that this book would be more action packed. those types tend to keep my attention and make me not want to put it down.
As far as Sisko. Being a farther my self myself, I can see why he did what he did. He wanted to protect his family. Can't blame him for that. I do like though how it is somewhat resolved and he gets back into Rebecca's Life. Could he have handled it better in RBoE? Maybe, I had no problem though with how it was written. He made a decision and stuck with it.
One thing that did bother me was the incorporation of Cardassian and Ferengi personnel into Starfleet operations. DS9 had a Cardassian in ops and I think the E did as well. It just did not seem to make sense. Were these people still part of there own force or SF people? Why so many? The Klingons of been Khitomar partners a long time and as far as I remember there only 2 Klingons in SF.
Geordi I think got screwed. Not fair. I liked him as a Captain of engineering. But now that he is 2nd officer, should he be at ops?
Now, the ending. The last line sent chills up my spine. While I had read a few posts that hinted to this possibility, it did not hit home until that last line. Did the station really explode or as mentioned it just looked like it as a core went up? Hopefully. I was stating to like Ro as a captain. I did like though that Rebecca was on Bajor when it happened. As far a Kassidy, earlier in the book it mentions her ship exploding and then when it really does while she is on DS9 a breathed a sigh of relief, again till that last line. Can't wait till next month.

[David Mack]

dispatcher812 wrote:

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But now that he is 2nd officer, should he be at ops?

No, there is no direct relation between the two responsibilities. One is a job description; the other is a description of one's place in the ship's chain of command. In fact, DRGIII and I talked about this and decided it makes sense to have La Forge as the ship's 2nd officer (i.e., third-in-command) from main engineering; if the ship suffers a hit that takes out the CO and XO on the bridge, and command transfers to engineering, it makes perfect sense to have the chief engineer as part of the chain of command to keep things running without interruption.

[Sci]

David Mack wrote:

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No, there is no direct relation between the two responsibilities. One is a job description; the other is a description of one's place in the ship's chain of command. In fact, DRGIII and I talked about this and decided it makes sense to have La Forge as the ship's 2nd officer (i.e., third-in-command) from main engineering; if the ship suffers a hit that takes out the CO and XO on the bridge, and command transfers to engineering, it makes perfect sense to have the chief engineer as part of the chain of command to keep things running without interruption.

And, incidentally, that's the same set-up as what Kirk had aboard his Enterprise: Scotty was 3rd in command after Kirk and Spock. Though he usually took over the bridge whenever Kirk and Spock were off getting Ensign Ricky killed.

[Christopher]

What Dave said. Harry Kim was Voyager's ops officer, but he was an ensign, clear at the bottom of the chain of command. And if "second officer" means "third in command," then that would be a position generally filled by Scotty in TOS and Trip in ENT, both of them engineers.

[dispatcher812]

Christopher wrote:

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What Dave said. Harry Kim was Voyager's ops officer, but he was an ensign, clear at the bottom of the chain of command. And if "second officer" means "third in command," then that would be a position generally filled by Scotty in TOS and Trip in ENT, both of them engineers.

Did not realized that about Tripp and I never watched TOS. ( I know, shame on me). Thanks guys.

[JD]

Christopher wrote:

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What Dave said. Harry Kim was Voyager's ops officer, but he was an ensign, clear at the bottom of the chain of command. And if "second officer" means "third in command," then that would be a position generally filled by Scotty in TOS and Trip in ENT, both of them engineers.

Who was Voyager's second officer? Tuvok?

[Truth]

Im glad I,m not the only one who felt that demoting geroidi made no sense and served no real purpose, also undermined the only only progress he has made in 20 plus year, the excuse he gave was so damn lame, he is a side bit they should have killed him off or sent him to the musgrave, it not like they actually do anything with him, I thought after the death of data his profile would have gone up a little , instead he is still largely ignored by the writers, and the one time they move him foward , some else comes along as pushes him back...

The postives-
Command suits Ro and to finally get to see her interact with picard as equals was cool.

Sisko seems to be balancing himself better in this book over RBOE, where he just annoyed the hell out of me the whole time.

I always love bacco , and I,m always impressed how no matter the writer they all seem to capture her personality.

Impressed with How they made DS9 inportant again, for awhile people keep asking with slip stream drive would,nt it value decrease.

[Sci]

Truth wrote:

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Im glad I,m not the only one who felt that demoting geroidi made no sense and served no real purpose, also undermined the only only progress he has made in 20 plus year, the excuse he gave was so damn lame, he is a side bit they should have killed him off or sent him to the musgrave, it not like they actually do anything with him, I thought after the death of data his profile would have gone up a little , instead he is still largely ignored by the writers, and the one time they move him foward , some else comes along as pushes him back...

Geordi's gotten plenty of attention in the TNG books the last several years. For an exploration of his ambivalence towards command, read A Time for War, A Time for Peace (2004) by Keith R.A. DeCandido.

[Skywalker]

I actually like that Geordi seems to be moving away from a command track. Not everyone who enters Starfleet needs to (or even wants to) captain a starship. Geordi certainly never struck me as the type in TNG or the movies. Granted, I haven't read much of him in the novels yet...

[Truth]

Sci wrote:

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Geordi's gotten plenty of attention in the TNG books the last several years. For an exploration of his ambivalence towards command, read A Time for War, A Time for Peace (2004) by Keith R.A. DeCandido.

He got a few pages in the time series , and a bit part where he stood up to picard the borg plot , the only real focus on him was IFM

[Sci]

Truth wrote:

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He got a few pages in the time series , and a bit part where he stood up to picard the borg plot , the only real focus on him was IFM

You are severely understating the amount of attention Geordi received in the A Time to... novels, in Greater than the Sum, in Destiny, and in Paths of Disharmony. And an entire book dedicated to him in the form of Indistinguishable From Magic is more than any character save Picard, Beverly, and T'Rhyss have received.