Spoilers DS9: Force and Motion by Jeffrey Lang Review Thread
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I gave it an average.
I only read half of it because it was uninteresting. I may finish it sometime, maybe. That's how uninteresting it is and for the last years I've gobbled up every newly released Trek book. Lang is a competent author, he's an ok writer no complaints but man, couldn't he have chosen a better story. This book felt like a one off episode that develops a character, Maxwell, who appeared in one episode (?). Maybe it's just me but come on man, there are other more interesting things in the Trek universe you can write about especially if you're going to write a whole book.
I guess it was interesting reading about a civilian run Federation starbase, I guess ....
I only read half of it because it was uninteresting. I may finish it sometime, maybe. That's how uninteresting it is and for the last years I've gobbled up every newly released Trek book. Lang is a competent author, he's an ok writer no complaints but man, couldn't he have chosen a better story. This book felt like a one off episode that develops a character, Maxwell, who appeared in one episode (?). Maybe it's just me but come on man, there are other more interesting things in the Trek universe you can write about especially if you're going to write a whole book.
I guess it was interesting reading about a civilian run Federation starbase, I guess ....
I finished it. Maxwell as the focus of the novel is not interesting enough and Nog and O'Brien cannot really carry it either.
I found Maxwell plenty interesting. Just inherently non-sympathetic, and Lang had an uphill battle (and a remarkably successful one) doing the "Hitler's Whistle" thing to make him sympathetic.
What's the "Hitler's Whistle" thing? I looked up that title, and I found a number of rare-book sites offering copies of a book of that title by A.G. Street, but nothing discussing the contents of the book beyond a short blurb.
I'm not familiar with that idiom either. Is it like a "Hitler Painted Roses" kind of thing?
It's a term the professor teaching the Short Story Workshop class I took (for four semesters, the maximum it could be repeated for credit) at a local junior college used, to refer to the process of giving the most despicable of "bad guys" some humanizing characteristic (e.g., having Adolf Hitler enjoy whistling), in order to make them more believable and less of a melodramatic cardboard stereotype.
And I hear you on the Google search coming up mostly empty. In that sea of references to the aforementioned rare book (about which I know absolutely nothing) were at most one or two entries that looked like an approximation of the concept. It ain't exactly a household word among writers (cf., "Chekhov's Gun").
And I hear you on the Google search coming up mostly empty. In that sea of references to the aforementioned rare book (about which I know absolutely nothing) were at most one or two entries that looked like an approximation of the concept. It ain't exactly a household word among writers (cf., "Chekhov's Gun").
IMO when the pseudo spiders seem more interesting than the lead characters that is a bad sign.
I just finished it and thought it was a wonderful read, just like all of Mr. Lang's Star Trek books. I was a big fan of Immortal Coil, The Light Fantastic, and Abyss. Still have to read the Left Hand of Destiny duology, but i'm sure they are good as well. Good job Mr. Lang! I hope your next book isn't too far away...and i'd also love it if you got to follow up on Data 
Thanks, Paris. Glad you liked the book. No news on the Data follow-up just yet, but keep your cybernetic fingers crossed.I just finished it and thought it was a wonderful read, just like all of Mr. Lang's Star Trek books. I was a big fan of Immortal Coil, The Light Fantastic, and Abyss. Still have to read the Left Hand of Destiny duology, but i'm sure they are good as well. Good job Mr. Lang! I hope your next book isn't too far away...and i'd also love it if you got to follow up on Data
I guess @Jeffrey_Lang must have missed my comments.
Sorry, I did mean to reply. Glad you liked the book. I assume you know Dublin pretty well?
Oh don't worry, I was just pulling you chain as it were. I thought it was a brilliant read and a refreshing change from some of the recent Trek novels I've read, as, it was fun.
Somewhat, my wife is Irish (she is from about 70 miles south of Dublin) and she has family up there, plus we tend to fly into Dublin when we go across, so I know the touristy bits around Temple Bar and the like.
I've this too - it's nice to see beyond the black and grey-suited world of Starfleet always.
Finished it this week.....it was alright. I think the shifting timeline messed too much with the progression of the story, to be honest. I also didn't get too interested in Maxwell here. The Robert Hooke was an interesting idea, but I think the characters came off too quirky to feel believable. I get that it was probably going to be too difficult to fill in the gaps of what happened with Maxwell between TNG and this novel, but there had to be a better way to pull it off. I rated it Average, a decent story but not the kind of one that will stick with me for very long.
Finished this today, and honestly wasn't that impressed. I did like the idea of learning more about Maxwell, as The Wounded is one of my favourite TNG episodes, but the story just didn't work for me...what little there was of it. Something just felt off about the relationship between O'Brien and Nog as well, that made it hard to engage with the characters.
I've enjoyed the authors other books a lot, but to me this one just missed the mark. It's not that it was bad...it just wasn't much of anything.
I've enjoyed the authors other books a lot, but to me this one just missed the mark. It's not that it was bad...it just wasn't much of anything.
Dan and I had a great time talk though this one with Jeff on Literary Treks.
