Spoilers TOS: Elusive Salvation by Dayton Ward Review Thread

Another gimmick.

Spoiler: Spoiler page 185

There is this kid, and he's got a friend who turns a car into a time machine. It's insanely funny.

 

Finished at lunch. Thought it was a good novel and I don't think I picked up all the easter eggs (though I did notice a few).

One I haven't spotted mentioned yet is

Spoiler: eggs

A Russian sub lost in the Laurentian Trench? - Presumably The Red October?

 

Heh. So the "In a Mirror, Darkly" credits really are part of something greater!

 

I voted outstanding although I haven't finished it yet. Crazy!

 

About half way through. Much improvement, although I wonder why it is Roberta interacting with the 23d century? Maybe Gary Seven in a follow-up story?

 

Novel continuity has already established Nogura stayed with Starfleet after stepping down as its chief of staff. He's in Forged in Fire (set between TFF and TUC) as one of the admirals involved in Sulu's hearing.

 

^ He also shows up in the storyline featured in DC TOS Vol. 2, #25-28, giving Kirk authorization to launch a mission set between The Final Frontier and The Undiscovered Country. As The Wormhole mentions, Nogura evidently stays on in at least a limited capacity in the admiralty into the Morrow/Cartwright/Smillie-era.

 

I made that mistake as well (I was peeking to see how long the book was and that particular phrase jumped out at me). It would have been a fun reveal for the end, but I sort of ruined it for myself since it was tickling the back of my mind for the final quarter of the book.

Another Easter egg:

Spoiler

The 19th century section with the sea ships trapped in the Arctic ice is no doubt an homage to / inspired by Dan Simmons' excellent novel the Terror.

 

^^The novel in question is a fictionalized version of those events involving a monster.

 

So... the non-fictional version was the one that involved a monster? Or is this why we have commas?

 

I'll bet monsters are interesting, I said. The places you must go and the places you must see, my stars! And I'll bet you meet a lot of interesting people, too. I'm always interested in meeting interesting people. Now let's dip our patties in the water!

 

In my defense, it was just past 1 am when I wrote that. Proper punctuation wasn't really on my mind.

 

I feel like the military guy Major (later Brigadier General) Daniel Wheeler is setup for a potential sequel.

 

^^I agree, and he was part of what I was alluding to earlier when I commented about the epilogue laying some interesting ground for a sequel to go.

 

The only fault I found with it was that it seemed like TMP-era until the uniform colors were mentioned. For that one glitch (misread-bait?), I'd have given it one of my exceedingly rare "outstanding" ratings.

 

Just finished it voted above average. Like others have mentioned I enjoyed all the little Easter eggs and historical trivia, including what I think were two little nods to The Terminator films and seeing Roberta and Mestal in action again.
I especially had to laugh out when I got to Chapter 16 and saw that it took place on my birthday. At least something exciting happened for someone.
Now, having said all that, I kind of got the feeling that the 20th Century is starting to play itself out.
How many more stories can we have about aliens stranded on/visiting Earth and Roberta and Gary Seven covering it up. It feels a little like MIB and its sequels.
Maybe one more story set in the latter part of the 20th Century with Roberta and Rain Robinson to wrap things up. The last chapter certainly seemed to be pointed in that direction.

 

We had a blast talking to Dayton about this one on Literary Treks this week.