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Spoilers VOY: Atonement by Kirsten Beyer Review Thread

Rate Atonement

  • Outstanding

    Votes: 48 64.9%

  • Above Average

    Votes: 21 28.4%

  • Average

    Votes: 4 5.4%

  • Below Average

    Votes: 1 1.4%

  • Poor

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    74
Amazon just messaged me. My copy has shipped and should arrive today! I'm a happy man! I never get quite this excited about other trek books...and I get plenty excited! Thank the maker that the next installment is just a few months away :)
 
Done reading! My vote is "Outstanding".

Well… no spoilers I guess ;)

…

I bought mine from Google Play Books, it arrived as soon as the clock turned 12mn there in the East coast. That was the 12nn of the 25th here in the Philippines.

Thank you Kirsten for this excellent sequel. Touching, teary, and plenty of quotables there!
 
Is this one the conclusion of the current trilogy or is that Pocket Full of Lies?
 
JD said:
Is this one the conclusion of the current trilogy or is that Pocket Full of Lies?
Click to expand...

Well, there's a "spoiler" warning in the thread title, so…

This is the conclusion, an epic one at that. The next book is a "new chapter" if you will.
 
This book was amazing, as was the entire trilogy. I loved it from beginning to end. But I have to admit, there's one ridiculously-minor thing that I just can't get out of my head:

Is the First Quadrant the same region as the Delta Quadrant, or is the Confederacy just located in the region where the First Quadrant as defined by them overlaps the Delta Quadrant as defined by the Federation? All this time I'd thought the latter, but there was a line in this book that made me think Kirsten meant the former, that the First Quadrant is literally just another name for the Delta Quadrant. Which makes no sense, because the quadrant borders are an Earth invention; Sol is to the quadrant borders what Greenwich is to Earth's latitude lines. You look down on the galaxy from above the ecliptic, draw a line that passes through both Sol and the center of the galaxy, and draw another line perpendicular to that, and that's how you get the quadrant borders; the Alpha/Beta border passes through the center of Sol by definition.

I feel silly even bringing this up because it literally doesn't matter at all, but it's one of those annoying thoughts that I can't get out of my head until I put it down somewhere else. :p
 
Ah. What the Alpha/Beta quadrant nations refer to as the "Delta" quadrant, the Confederacy refers to as the "First Quadrant".

From the Confederacy's naming system, the "Alpha" and "Beta" quadrants are "Second" and "Third" quadrants.

Only the Gamma / Fourth quadrant overlaps similarly.

Federation = counter-clockwise (lower-left) as Alpha quadrant.
Confederacy = clockwise (upper-right) as First quadrant.

You could say that both the Federation and the Confederacy have this idea that they're better than everyone else, and that the "Alpha/First" quadrant should begin with them. :p Hehe. Well, the two are a good contrast of each other. ;)
 
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I bought the E-book yesterday and read the first two chapters.
I'm going to try to read it slowly, don't know if I'll succeed.
 
Just finished and it was excellent.

I think having one author for this series was a smart decision. There is continuity and the arcs fit together so well. There have been times when I have read a series written by different authors and sometimes one author will forget a particular detail and its frustrating for those of us who pay attention to such things. This way there is none of that or if there is I haven't found it.

So is there another trilogy in the works?
 
laibcoms said:
Ah. What the Alpha/Beta quadrant nations refer to as the "Delta" quadrant, the Confederacy refers to as the "First Quadrant".

From the Confederacy's naming system, the "Alpha" and "Beta" quadrants are "Second" and "Third" quadrants.

Only the Gamma / Fourth quadrant overlaps similarly.

Federation = counter-clockwise (lower-left) as Alpha quadrant.
Confederacy = clockwise (upper-right) as First quadrant.

You could say that both the Federation and the Confederacy have this idea that they're better than everyone else, and that the "Alpha/First" quadrant should begin with them. :p Hehe. Well, the two are a good contrast of each other. ;)
Click to expand...

No, what I meant was making is that the borders for the quadrants are defined by Sol; the border between Alpha and Beta passes exactly through the center of Sol, that's where the border's set by definition. Like how the Prime Meridian is defined by a line passing through through Greenwich, England, the Alpha/Beta border is defined by a plane cutting through Sol. Earth invented the quadrant names based on no natural phenomena at all except its own star. So why would the Confederacy use quadrant borders defined by a star they'd never heard of on the other side of the galaxy?

That's why originally I thought that the Confederacy used a set of borders that was just rotated, and its location happened to be where the First Quadrant and the Delta Quadrant overlapped. Like, say, the First Quadrant covered part of the Delta and part of the Gamma Quadrant, for example.

(Also technically the Federation quadrant names aren't clockwise or counter-clockwise; in the usual orientation, Alpha is lower-left, Beta is lower-right, Gamma is upper-left, and Delta is upper-right.)
 
Idran said:
No, what I meant was making is that the borders for the quadrants are defined by Sol; the border between Alpha and Beta passes exactly through the center of Sol, that's where the border's set by definition. Like how the Prime Meridian is defined by a line passing through through Greenwich, England, the Alpha/Beta border is defined by a plane cutting through Sol. Earth invented the quadrant names based on no natural phenomena at all except its own star. So why would the Confederacy use quadrant borders defined by a star they'd never heard of on the other side of the galaxy?

That's why originally I thought that the Confederacy used a set of borders that was just rotated, and its location happened to be where the First Quadrant and the Delta Quadrant overlapped. Like, say, the First Quadrant covered part of the Delta and part of the Gamma Quadrant, for example.

(Also technically the Federation quadrant names aren't clockwise or counter-clockwise; in the usual orientation, Alpha is lower-left, Beta is lower-right, Gamma is upper-left, and Delta is upper-right.)
Click to expand...

Oh, wait, yes! Gamma first before Delta. I always switched the two. :D

Hmm, I would say that, for clarity's sake, the Confederacy is probably deep in the Delta/First quadrant (away from the borg area, upper-right-right from Sol's perspective) as opposed to Sol's position being the 'prime meridian'.

Although, realistically, it's one that I highly doubt the galactic nations have the same definition, especially when one goes to another quadrant.

So yes, it's possible the Confederacy have a totally different division of the galaxy.
 
Earth is the separation between the Alpha and Beta quadrants? I thought Earth was father into the quadrant, more towards the middle.
 
JD said:
Earth is the separation between the Alpha and Beta quadrants? I thought Earth was father into the quadrant, more towards the middle.
Click to expand...

Nope, every map I've seen has the border going straight through Sol. That's why Vulcan and Andor are technically Beta Quadrant worlds. Beta Quadrant is spinward of Sol, Alpha Quadrant is antispinward.

(It couldn't be more towards the middle anyway; we know for sure that the Klingon and Romulan Empires are Beta Quadrant powers, and that'd be way too much distance for how 24th century Trek presents things, that'd put Earth around 5k ly away from the border or so.)
 
If I remember correctly, back in the mid-90s, Earth was believed to be more in the Alpha quadrant. Then later, Beta quadrant.

After the 1999 book was released, the official was Earth is the "prime meridian" but since "Alpha" sounds cool and high and mighty, the Federation refers to its location as "Alpha" everytime. :D
 
I've got a sneak peek at some pages of Atonement. What I saw made me smile. I have to finish a Star Trek short story and then I'm going to head right into it.
 
Still not out on Kindle UK. Oh well; the final Discworld novel is out, reading that should give Amazon time to get their act together.
 
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