Blurb: A thrilling prequel adventure based on the acclaimed TV series Star Trek: Picard! Two years after the USS Voyager’s return from the Delta Quadrant, Seven of Nine finds herself rejected for a position in Starfleet…and instead finds a new home with the interstellar rogue law enforcement corps known as the Fenris Rangers. The Rangers seem like an ideal fit for Seven—but to embrace this new destiny, she must leave behind all she’s ever known, and risk losing the most important thing in her life: her friendship with Admiral Kathryn Janeway. _______________________________________ I hadn't yet seen a review thread for this one, and today's the official release day, so... here it is! Personally loved this one. Really looking forward to sharing my thoughts on Trek Lit Reviews and Positively Trek!
Loved the book! I’m pleasantly surprised at the amount of Janeway in this and how in character she is — I admit to be protective of Janeway ever since I found that one book that killed her off — I felt so betrayed by that book and one of the reasons I stopped reading Trek books until recently. I don’t agree with some of the things there but I really like the story! I’ll just do the thing just like comicbook continuity where I take what I love and ignore what doesn’t work for me. I love how it shows that Seven of Nine really needed to forge her own path away from Starfleet, and fight for people on her own terms. And I can also see how, eventually, in the long and winding road she will decide, on her own terms to return to Starfleet. Because at that point, as Star Trek Picard: Stargazer points out, Spoiler it’s not that Seven needs Starfleet, it’s Starfleet who needs Seven . I also love when Seven does some unhinged heroics that clearly shows she’s been mentored by Janeway. Very Voyager crew heroics, unhinged and at 110% (affectionate). But also, I love, love Janeway in this book. It’s so Janeway the way she goes 100% for Seven but also I’m so intrigued by how she’s not satisfied with Starfleet right now, and how lonely she is. I do like that despite their differences about the Rangers, Janeway and Seven don’t end up in a bad place but they end up in a good place. Overall, I would recommend this book. And I’m actually listening to the audiobook version now!
My, you read very quickly. I only just now found out that it's finally out. And under present circumstances, it might take a while before I'm able to buy it, much less scrape together enough time to read it.
I've been listening to the audio book cds and I really like the story so far it's fast paced and I like the Fenris Ranger characters. Seven is lost and Adrift and feels she's got more in common with the Rangers that she has a place where she belongs and wants to help the people Starfleet abandoned to help the Romulans . I like how Katherine Jane way is portrayed in the story so far.
Picked it up this evening on the way to a Leila Josefowicz recital at Disney Hall. Leila was magnificent. It may be a while before I have an opinion on the book.
I've just started. It's so strange to get to read a new ST novel nowadays because it is so rare. What a luxury the olden days with a book a month were. Seven does not seem to use a regeneration alcove anymore. Is it said anywhere when she was able to stop using one? PIC really is dystopian, compared to the way Federation living was in the 2360s 2370s on the shows. Where Seven worked at the Daystrom Institute in the 1st Splinter Timeline and STO's original backstory, even was advisor to the UFP President in Destiny, here the most intelligent Human alive is forced to live in seedy places. Getting rejected for being Borg. In the 1st Splinter, Seven had a loving relationship with Aunt Irene. Here, definitely not.
One character living in less comfortable circumstances is not "dystopian." People need to stop abusing that word to mean any story they find depressing. It's only dystopian if the depressing or disturbing things are true on a society-wide level as the result of an oppressive or unjust government, post-apocalyptic anarchy, or the like. The Mirror Universe is dystopian. The century after the Burn was dystopian. The Picard status quo is just slightly less utopian than usual -- but then, so was Deep Space Nine. While we're at it, the "utopian" First Splinter timeline included multiple quadrant-wide cataclysms like the Genesis Wave and the Borg invasion, the Tezwa coverup, the assassination of two consecutive presidents, the annihilation of entire galaxies in The Body Electric, and the revelation that the Federation's entire history was shaped by a Section 31 AI. And most of that happened in David Mack novels, so were you expecting sunshine and roses in the latest one?
David Mack should write a book that was all sunshine and roses just to mess with people. Though usually it seems disaster and destruction sells. A Hallmark movie style Star Trek novel probably isn't going to do as well. And his books generally keep my attention with all the action and consequences. I know I've made no secret that I greatly prefer the so called "First Splinter" timeline over Picard. Though Picard did end on a more hopeful note. It's kind of odd I guess that I prefer the novelverse over an actually running show. Though as you pointed out a lot of disasters occurred there as well. I guess I see the Federation depicted there to be more like the positive vision I always loved Star Trek for. Doesn't mean some people didn't do bad things and mistakes weren't made. But in the grand scheme of things that Federation seemed more enlightened than what we saw in Picard, at least until the end of the show. For instance, I can't see the Federation of the novelverse abandoning the Romulan Empire to their fate (again, it saddens me we never saw the destruction of Romulus in that timeline--a lot of great stories could have been told like how the Typhon Pact would respond, both to the Romulan Empire and among each other, the relationship between them and the Federation---as Kor would say, 'it would have been glorious.' ) I still hate how the Coda trilogy ended. Wiping out everything that happened there for all time just seemed to make all those stories pointless (I know the books are still there but knowing that it was all erased from history in story makes it 'feel' pointless). I had really hoped that the relaunch characters saved all eternity for both universes and then sailed off into the sunset intact. Knowing there would be no future books in that timeline was one thing. I understood that and why it was necessary. But did they really have to erase that timeline from existence to achieve that goal? I probably will one day revisit the relaunch books. But I probably would stop at Collateral Damage. Basically that novel ended as I had hoped, the Section 31 issue resolved, the Federation at peace and the Enterprise sailing off to do what it does best...explore.
Agreed. I would've liked the First Splinter timeline to have been preserved, but with all the deaths that occurred during Coda still being permanent. Coda could've been a meta-commentary on how other interpretations of Star Trek had a right to exist even after they've been contradicted by canon. As it stands, I feel like it's just a repeat of the Millennium trilogy which ended the same way.
But everyone died in Coda, so even if the First Splinter were preserved, if all the character deaths were permanent, than there'd still be no one to follow. Besides, after Picard was announced, everyone flocked to this forum with "let the Litverse be resolved!" That's what Coda was, which I'll add they were under no obligation to provide. They could have just cut off that continuity due to it being overridden by canon, which is what everyone else in the same situation has done. Be thankful you got your wish. And I say that as someone who has my own issues with Coda.
Personally I didn't care for all the deaths in Coda either. There was very little about Coda that I really liked overall. It was very depressing at the end of the day. All the death and destruction, and then the complete erasure of that timeline was the real kicker. The Genesis Wave, the end of the Borg, the end of Section 31...effectively none of that ever happened. I knew the litverse was going to end. That was never in doubt. I had just hoped for a 'happy' ending. Where most of the major leftover plotpoints of the litverse were resolved (I knew they'd never be able to resolve every plot point, so I'm not suggesting that), they saved the universes once again, and they go on to a bright, optimistic future. Granted there would be no more stories in that timeline, but at least you'd be left with some optimism. Looking back, Collateral Damage mostly did that, at least for TNG aspects of the litverse, and DS9 as far as Section 31 was concerned. On a side note Enterprise is the one relaunch series that could continue for the most part. I'm not aware of any major plot points from that series that would be affected by any of the shows. Though realistically I imagine the chances of that are slim to none, especially considering now we are only getting 3 to 4 books a year (maybe if they were still doing 12/year it'd at least be in the realm of possibility). I guess this is the new norm for Star Trek novels, just a handful each year. My wallet will be happy, esp. considering how expensive books have gotten. I'll have to wait until the price comes down on Firewall before I even think about getting it. But I guess the glory years of Star Trek novels is over.
Well, my portrayal of Rigel VII in Tower of Babel has been contradicted by "Among the Lotus Eaters" on SNW. But that's a minor part of the novel, and the rest of Rise of the Federation seems okay for now.
The PIC timeline does include state-wide oppression. We learned how artificial lifeforms were treated after the apocalyptic decimation of Mars. Imagine losing a member world and then seeing Federation enforcement going from door to door to shoot every artificial lifeform in every household. Then we have all those seedy places we see in PIC. That’s nothing like Earth, Betazed or Vulcan were like. The PIC prequel novel showed the Federation mistreated entire member worlds even before the 2385 catastrophe. Even the STO timeline is better, despite frequent wars and crises. At least the streets are clean and the replicators run. Many people even from outside the Federation have the opportunity to join Starfleet and wear a uniform, rank insignia and weaponry from across the multiverse.
That's an overstatement, given that no sentient androids were known to exist at the time, so there wasn't really anyone to be oppressed, as far as the Federation knew. The status of holograms was unclear, but the ban only applied to the creation of new synths, so there's no indication that it would've oppressed the EMH, Moriarty, Peanut Hamper, and the like -- except to the extent that restricting people's reproductive rights definitely does count as oppression. Anyway, dystopia is often relative. Look at how genetically engineered people have always been oppressed in the "utopian" Federation, from the time of SNW to the time of DS9. The same society can seem utopian to the "in" groups and dystopian to the "out" groups, and sometimes it's just a question of what angle you're looking from. (A Trek show told from the Maquis's perspective would look a lot like Firefly, and the Firefly 'Verse depicted from the perspective of the elite classes that Simon and Inara came from would look a lot like Star Trek.) But in Trek, the oppressive laws that persist are generally portrayed as the exception rather than the rule, and that's certainly true of the synth ban, given how few individuals it actually affected. Those seedy places were explicitly outside UFP territory, in the lawless realms left when the Romulan Empire fell. They're not a reflection on what the UFP itself was like, any more than Bajor or Ferenginar or the Maquis colonies were in DS9. Most of Trek has always taken place outside the Federation, on the frontiers. In the opinion of some of those worlds' politicians. And not so much that they were mistreated or oppressed, merely that, as relatively new, far-flung member worlds, they weren't being given enough of a voice in the Federation Council compared to more established, central members. They didn't feel oppressed, just overlooked and undervalued. Note, also, that the reason the UFP government was pressured into abandoning the Romulan evacuation was because those young frontier worlds threatened to secede if it didn't. The politicians representing those worlds resented that so many resources were being devoted to saving the Romulans rather than being sent their way, so they basically blackmailed the UFP into abandoning its humanitarian traditions. Far from oppressing those worlds, the government bent over backward to appease them.
Seeing as the books so often try to tweak weird little quirks of the show, I'm curious if this one says anything about how Seven can't get into Starfleet but Icheb can.