Blue about Paths of Disharmony

[pymfan2000]

I finished this one today and I have some questions/issues.

1. Given the state of advanced medicine shown on TNG and other shows, how can fertility still be a problem in the Star Trek universe? I get the impression the Andorian fertility issues might be in other novels or the like but its news to me.

2. I was thinking this book was going to feature the Andorians more and go into their history and culture. Not much there at all. And I really don't understand why...

3. Did anyone else think the scale of things was off? On the TV shows we saw very little because of budget contraints. I don't understand why Andor was basically just a city, some Aenar ruins and the environs of a power facility.

4. The whole thing with the Tholian ambassador really didn't work for me. I really appreciate the tie-in to Vanguard as I loved that series but this felt very much like something happening because the plot outline demanded it and not as a result of the plot unfolding in an organic fashion. I don't but the Andorians believing the Tholians and I don't buy them getting that deep into Federation space without being challenged. I realize this is post that big Borg dust-up but really! The universe is not in that kind of shambles!

5. Alot of time is spent on developing stuff on board the enterprise-E and not so much on issues on the ground on Andor. I don't understand why none of this was developed in further detail.

I'm a big fan of the Andorians and I really wanted to love this book but I didn't. Andor leaving the Federation was a shocker sure but the road getting there in the book was not especially plausible or interesting.

And it could have been...

 

[DimesDan]

I finished this one today and I have some questions/issues.

1. Given the state of advanced medicine shown on TNG and other shows, how can fertility still be a problem in the Star Trek universe? I get the impression the Andorian fertility issues might be in other novels or the like but its news to me.

It seems to take four of them to make baby Andorians so it's become a bit tricky as time has gone on. Most of the story line for this arc was in the original DS9 post finale novels, mainly the Mission Gamma stories and Worlds of DS9, Andor.

2. I was thinking this book was going to feature the Andorians more and go into their history and culture. Not much there at all. And I really don't understand why...

This is just a guess as it's been a while since I read Paths of Disharmony, but maybe that wasn't relevant to the story.

3. Did anyone else think the scale of things was off? On the TV shows we saw very little because of budget contraints. I don't understand why Andor was basically just a city, some Aenar ruins and the environs of a power facility.

No, not to me anyway, the story that was written didn't need more locations, so, they weren't included. I liked the fact it was half way through the book untill their was a scene onboard the E-E bridge.

4. The whole thing with the Tholian ambassador really didn't work for me. I really appreciate the tie-in to Vanguard as I loved that series but this felt very much like something happening because the plot outline demanded it and not as a result of the plot unfolding in an organic fashion. I don't but the Andorians believing the Tholians and I don't buy them getting that deep into Federation space without being challenged. I realize this is post that big Borg dust-up but really! The universe is not in that kind of shambles!

5. Alot of time is spent on developing stuff on board the enterprise-E and not so much on issues on the ground on Andor. I don't understand why none of this was developed in further detail.

Again. Story. Relevance and all that jazz.

I'm a big fan of the Andorians and I really wanted to love this book but I didn't. Andor leaving the Federation was a shocker sure but the road getting there in the book was not especially plausible or interesting.

And it could have been...

Well it seems your problems with the novel are because you wanted something else from what was told and your likeing of Andorians has coloured your opinion of the story which is a bit unfair on Ward. Personally I though Paths was the best of the four original Typhon Pact novels and I rather liked it.

 

[DS9Continuing]

A lot of the questions you have are addressed in other books that are set before this in the timeline, so if you'd read them you'd have a better basis. Not saying that HAVE to have read them - I assume you still got the general gist of what was going on - but the fertility explanations and world-building you're looking for are in those other books, particularly the ones Dimesdan mentioned. I would guess that they weren't addressed quite so heavily in PoD just because they'd already been established earlier and the writer didn't want to repeat things.

.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I finished this one today and I have some questions/issues.

1. Given the state of advanced medicine shown on TNG and other shows, how can fertility still be a problem in the Star Trek universe? I get the impression the Andorian fertility issues might be in other novels or the like but its news to me.

It comes up a lot in the DS9 novels set after the TV series (which began waaaaaay back in 2001). The Andorian stuff from TP: PoD continues in Titan: Fallen Gods.

2. I was thinking this book was going to feature the Andorians more and go into their history and culture. Not much there at all. And I really don't understand why...

I think (although I haven't read it yet so can't be sure) that Andorian history and culture was already explored in some depth in Worlds of DS9: Cardassia/Andor, and since TP: PoD is in the same continuity, the author presumably didn't want to re-cover the same ground.

 

[rfmcdpei]

I finished this one today and I have some questions/issues.

1. Given the state of advanced medicine shown on TNG and other shows, how can fertility still be a problem in the Star Trek universe? I get the impression the Andorian fertility issues might be in other novels or the like but its news to me.

It comes up a lot in the DS9 novels set after the TV series (which began waaaaaay back in 2001). The Andorian stuff from TP: PoD continues in Titan: Fallen Gods.

Andorian fertility issues didn't strike me as implausible, alien biology and whatnot. I do think that, based on a simple perusal of demographic statistics, outsiders would have an idea that something was up. ("Hmm. Even though average age at marriage has dropped sharply along with overall rates of involuntary celibacy, completed fertility has still fallen.")

2. I was thinking this book was going to feature the Andorians more and go into their history and culture. Not much there at all. And I really don't understand why...

I think (although I haven't read it yet so can't be sure) that Andorian history and culture was already explored in some depth in Worlds of DS9: Cardassia/Andor, and since TP: PoD is in the same continuity, the author presumably didn't want to re-cover the same ground.

For the record, I thought that Paths of Disharmony did a decent job of building on the detailed provided in Jarman's novella. The worldbuilding had already been done earlier.

 

[pymfan2000]

Thanks for the responses. I'll try to track down some of the other books you guys mentioned and see if the further information helps.

I may enjoy the novel more with some of that background.

 

[tomswift2002]

Just watch out for "Falling Gods" though, if you continue. It wasn't as well written and even no I'm still confused as to where the storyline went and why exactly things were happening; suffice it to say it wasn't written that well.