Read & Reread "Greater Than The Sum"- My Opinion (Spoilers)

[Dayton3]

William Leisner wrote:

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From this criteria, I can't imagine you ever enjoyed the original series (rare space battles with low-tech SFX), TNG (French captain always avoiding battles)

Arena
The Doomsday Machine
Elaan of Troyius
Balance of Terror
The Tholian Web
Errand of Mercy
The Ultimate Computer
Obsession
The Deadly Years
The Corbomite Manuever

Arsenal of Freedom
Q-Who
Peak Performance
Contagion
Yesterdays Enterprise
The Best of Both Worlds I
The Best of Both Worlds II
The Defector
Conumdrum
All Good Things
Redemption I
Redemption II
Darmok

I hope that clears some things up.

[Rosalind]

Therin of Andor wrote:

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Folks, you heard it. She won't weaken. Galaxy Bookshop has had it in stock for almost a month. I told her right on this bbs the night i bought it.

Want me to shout you an airfreight copy, Rosalind?

why should I spend the extra $2 on a mmpb when I know the probability of me reading it within two months is zero?

Therin of Andor wrote:

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I know there's a magical multi-post feature now, but I often don't know I'm planning to respond to more than two points when I start. And my ol' iMac doesn't like cutting and pasting here sometimes - depends on how recently I've rebooted usually.

well, like I said before, just press multi-quote everytime you want to reply, then press quote on the last post, and delete (or not) that last bit of quote.


:: kick the thread back on topic ::

[William Leisner]

^^That's ten out of 79 TOS episodes, and 13 out of 178 TNG episodes. That's still not enjoying Trek "for the most part".

What I can glean from this list is you like standoffs, and cat-and-mouse strategy stories. And there's nothing wrong with that. But that's such a small and minor element in the huge tapestry that is Star Trek. Trek is also "The City on the Edge of Forever" and "The Trouble with Tribbles" and "The Measure of a Man" and "The Outcast" and "A Fistful of Datas" and "The Visitor" and "The Siege of AR-558" and "Bride of Chaotica" and on and on and on. If you only enjoy Trek for one thing, then you're just not getting it.

[Christopher]

Rosalind wrote:

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well, like I said before, just press multi-quote everytime you want to reply, then press quote on the last post, and delete (or not) that last bit of quote.

Or, more simply, press Multi Quote on every post you want to quote, then press the Post Reply button beneath the last post on the left side of the screen. It took me a few weeks after the switch to vBulletin to realize that button was there.

[RandyS]

Allyn Gibson wrote:

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I liked T'Ryssa a lot.

I'll go a step further. As fascinating as I found the star cluster beings, T'Ryssa was the part of the book I liked the most.

I really liked T'Ryssa. I hope she sticks around. If Dave Mack frags her in Destiny, I'll mourn for a week.

Me too. But I'll get drunk for a month.

By the way, I really liked T'Ryssa alot, just in case that wasn't clear.

Oh, the book was quite good too. I guess I should say that.

[Rosalind]

Christopher wrote:

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Or, more simply, press Multi Quote on every post you want to quote, then press the Post Reply button beneath the last post on the left side of the screen. It took me a few weeks after the switch to vBulletin to realize that button was there.

and I didn't even notice it's there.

very convenient!

[Therin of Andor]

Rosalind wrote:

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just press multi-quote everytime you want to reply

Nope. Multi-quote still refuses to work for my iMac (running 10.2.8 and Firefox).

I have to upgrade again.

[LightningStorm]

Dayton3 wrote:

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I've listed Star Trek novels that I've enjoyed. I enjoy Star Trek for the most part. At least as long as I can ignore most of the humor that sometimes works itself in. Or the diversity stuff.

Remember the entire "IDIC" thing was something that Gene Roddenberry came up with to make some extra money.

No, Star Trek is not for you. While I agree that Star Trek is different to different people, it's core values of what makes Star Trek what it is, is not different. And that is diversity and peaceful exploration. Sure battles and war all come up at some point, but those are effects of living in a diverse universe and having different ideas about how to live (and die) in it.

And to follow on to what William Leisner said: If you can make a list of Star Trek episodes you liked and that list is smaller (and yours is by quite a lot) than the list of episodes you didn't like, then you did NOT enjoy Star Trek for the most part. Just because a series may have a few episodes you really liked, if the vast majority of them you didn't, how can you reasonably say you mostly enjoyed it? Nevermind the fact that we are talking about the novels not the episodes. It really sounds like Star Trek lit is most certainly not for you.

[Hardin]

well, I'm late to the party (er...) but I've finished this book this morning and I wanted to say how much I liked it, especially after the big disappointment that Before Dishonor was for me. I closed the book feeling like Post Nemesis TNG was back on track, at least as far as my personal tastes go.

I did groan a little that the next book(s) are apparently going to have, once again, the Borg, but I trust the writers to make it interesting, since it was this time around.

I also derived a twisted, sick but very sweet pleasure from the circumustances of the death of Leybenzon who I despised even before the mutiny thing. I'm glad he's dead because hopefully we won't see him again (never quite sure with Trek) and I'm glad he had his pigheaded attitude blown up in his face in the worst way. I went from "Oh, please, no, not this guy again, he left the ship, good riddance" to "yuppeeehhh!!!!" in those few pages. Did I mention how much I despised the character?

Oh, I loved T'Rys. Childish, perky, smart, witty, not big on authority figures, thinks on her feet and she gets it done when it counts. It's a bit like early seasons Buffy in space or something... Please, please don't off her.

[Christopher]

Hardin wrote:

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well, I'm late to the party (er...) but I've finished this book this morning and I wanted to say how much I liked it, especially after the big disappointment that Before Dishonor was for me. I closed the book feeling like Post Nemesis TNG was back on track, at least as far as my personal tastes go.

Thanks!

Oh, I loved T'Rys. Childish, perky, smart, witty, not big on authority figures, thinks on her feet and she gets it done when it counts. It's a bit like early seasons Buffy in space or something... Please, please don't off her.

Nice analogy. A Whedon-type character is kind of what I was going for.

[captcalhoun]

were Leybonzon and T'lana deliberately introduced to then be removed? or is this actually response to fan dislike of the characters?

[Christopher]

captcalhoun wrote:

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were Leybonzon and T'lana deliberately introduced to then be removed? or is this actually response to fan dislike of the characters?

The decision was made before Q&A and Before Dishonor were even published. It was decided that their actions in BD made it unfeasible for them to continue as members of Picard's crew. It wasn't planned that way, because -- as stated earlier -- the authors get to come up with their own storylines rather than following someone else's plan. Peter David chose to take them in a certain direction that required changing the original plans for the characters. Which I'm sure has happened before with other characters in other books. Even within an author's own works. When I created three alien characters for Titan, it was my intent for them all to stay with the crew indefinitely, but when I wrote Orion's Hounds, I decided that the story called for one of them to leave the crew. And one of them, conversely, has been made into a much more prominent character by my successors than I expected. We can't always predict where a story will take us.

[Quimby]

Just finished GttS myself.

I am still not sold on T'Ryssa. I didn't hate her as others seemed to but she stradled that sit-com'y line where everything out of her mouth is just oh so clever that can be annoying at times. It's a charcateristic shared by everyone in New Frontier that can make reaidng that series tedious at times, but she just stradled the line, not cross it and I did appreciate her growth in the end (for what it's worth I understood she was just buttering up her superior in the opening scene. That people took "Commander of my heart" seriously makes me never want to see a love poem from some people here :-)

It seemed that the book was stuck having to clean up the mess created by Before Dishonor and that seeemd to reign it in somewhat. But even still, Christopher's books are very good at presenting big sci-fi ideas and even with the limitations, this one delivered with the idea of an interstellar life form. I loved it.

I felt the storyline between Bev and Picard was very well done and realistically portrayed given their cicumstances. I was surprised at the negative reation to it I have seen elsewhere in this thread. I wonder if perhaps the storyline was too--and no disrespect intendeed to anyone here--"adult" for the tastes of some readers.

Regarding the Borg. I must admit it was a drag to see them yet again but obviously there was no choice given the end of Before Dishonor. At least something new was done with them here unlike Resistance which I found to be very disappointing. I am crossing my fingers that Destiny will be the Borg's big send off...Bye Bye Borg!

[Christopher]

Quimby wrote:

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Regarding the Borg. I must admit it was a drag to see them yet again but obviously there was no choice given the end of Before Dishonor.

You know, not necessarily. I could probably have gotten away with making the hunt for the Einstein a more minor background element in the book. Heck, maybe I could've even gotten away with having it fall afoul of some accident and get blown up in the prologue and then go on with telling a totally different story. (Maybe. That's probably an exaggeration.) But I decided I'd rather tackle the Borg-related questions lingering from the previous books and shows and try to synthesize a cohesive big picture out of them.

[Therin of Andor]

Christopher wrote:

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I decided I'd rather tackle the Borg-related questions lingering from the previous books and shows and try to synthesize a cohesive big picture out of them.

And you did a great job of it!