Right. People like to invoke the "infinite multiverse" line as an excuse for any random nonsense, as if that somehow made it scientific, but in actual scientific practice, if your equation turns out an infinite result, that's usually evidence that you've done the math wrong. In practice, if we're talking about divergent timelines, we're not even really talking about the whole observable universe -- just about the ensemble of particles that have been able to interact with each other in the time since the diverging incident occurred. So in a physically realistic universe, that would mean a sphere n light-years in radius for a divergence that happened n years before -- although the sphere would be rather larger in a universe with FTL phenomena like subspace and tachyons and stuff. Either way, though, it's an even smaller finite number of particles, and the set of possible configurations would be commensurately smaller as well.
THAT was one of the best Dayton Ward novels I've read. Really, really loved it!! This is what happens when alien of the week/phenomena of the week is done totally right. Fast paced, some good twists in the plot, lovely character interaction. I voted outstanding. Also, Professor Bennett.
My Barnes & Noble just now got this in today. I don't blame them for not ordering it right away, this area is a Trekkie dead zone; there's novels from 2011 still sitting on the shelf.
When does this take place within the Lit-Verse? 2385? 2386? After The Fall? Trying to update this and Hearts and Minds on my to-read list.
Just finished it. I cannot say All back to normal. Probably little impact in the universe of theTalon. Not so with the acquisition of transphasic torpedoes. That should change history between the Borg and Federation. Short of Picard getting an extended visit from the DTI, no real impact on the E-E universe.
I voted above average. I enjoyed it. The sense of the Enterprise D and Bloodied Talon crews as having lives beyond the story of the moment was well done. But I felt that the tension dissipated in the final act. Some of that I think is almost inevetable. Unless the Romulans or the alien of the week style aliens make a heel turn to complicate things, it's pretty much going to be an ending of teching the tech and everyone living happily ever after. Some of the choices made by the author I can't fault but I might have made differently. For example I probably would have written it that Deanna was dead because Armus killed her instead of Tasha. But over all the differences made sense. My only other complaint is that Picard is honestly starting to feel to sure of himself. I would have liked a bit more soul searching and his discussing with at least Beverly if not his ship's counselor his decision to pass the transphasic torpedo schematics on to Captain Riker. Anyway, an enjoyable story, but probably not going into my must re-read pile.
Trek.fm has posted their Literary treks interview with Dayton Ward discussing Headlong Flight. The discusion about Dayton's story ideas for the Tng characters story arcs in this book was really interesting. He also briefly mentions Hearts and Minds near the end of the interview.
Okay so I have read this entire thread and this book intrigues me. I have been making my way through the DS9 Relaunch, up the Worlds of DS9 part of that series at this point. Will be able to read this and enjoy this or this book part of a larger arc? The plot of this just sounds so interesting...
It is only tangentially part of a meta narrative about the Enterprise E crew getting back to exploration after the events of Destiny, and The Typhon Pact, and The Fall. Anything you need to know is laid out concisely during the course of the story.
I voted above average on this one. I often have mixed feelings about Dayton Ward's work. On the one hand, I think he comes up with some of the most interesting ideas and premises of any of the current authors. On the other hand, there's something about his pacing and writing style that often gets in the way of my enjoyment of his stories. In this case, I was pleased that story was so interesting that I either didn't notice the usual issues I have with his style or perhaps they were not as prominent as they have been in some of his other work. Regardless, I very much enjoyed this one. A few things I would have liked to have seen, but didn't, however. As at least one other person has noted, the alternate Tasha Yar was underserved. While I sort of like the idea that she's just there (kind of like Wesley Crusher was present in one or two of the timelines in "Parallels" without it being remarked upon), it also seems like if a character like Yar is going to show up, who we really didn't see all that much of on the show, it would be nice for her to play a larger part in the story. Or, at least we could have found out how she survived in that timeline. Which brings me to a second thing - we really didn't learn too much about the intriguing differences in the timelines. While I don't think we needed to know everything, it would have been nice to get more than we got. For example, why did Beverly Crusher stay at Starfleet Medical instead of returning to the Enterprise? Might have been interesting to see her and Pulaski talk about some of the events of seasons three and four, or Pulaski filling her in on how she's been watching Wesley grow up in Beverly's absence. Could have been nice to see Picard have a conversation with Riker in which he's able to reassure Riker that he's every bit the captain that Picard himself was. Really, the biggest bit of info about the timeline differences we got was Picard's fate, which would have been easy enough to guess. Finally, someone pointed out earlier the the TV crew of the Enterprise E and the litverse crew don't really interact much in this novel. This is something that seems to happen in many of the recent novels. I did like that Chen had a fairly large role, but she is probably the best fleshed out of the current litverse original characters. Perhaps Smrhova could have been part of the away team, and we could have seen her helping Worf to figure out strategy. Certainly adding at least one of the litverse characters to Picard's "inner circle" is something that needs to happen soon. Sort of looks like I'm complaining a lot, but I really did enjoy the book. It's just that I think it fell a bit short of its potential. Still, a very solid entry, and I liked it more than some of Ward's other books. This is a great idea which I wish Dayton Ward had thought of!
Some decent points. As for Yar, I think the problem is that she never really was fleshed out as a character. Right now, she seems like the Yar we knew from season one. Were you to really flesh her out, you might get someone we don't recognize. Which could be either good or bad, depending on how you feel about Yar I suppose. As for the two crews not interacting. It was made pretty clear that the E-D crew should not know too much information about what MIGHT be ahead of them. But it should not have been an issue if the E-E crew learned some more about what happened to the E-D crew, so I do agree there. However, THAT would have slowed the narrative down and create the pacing issues you talked about earlier. So I'm fine with how things are now. As for going deeper into the newer crew members, I totally agree. I love Chen, I'm one of the TrekLit fans that totally adore her. But yes, there are so many new crewmembers that could use a bit more spotlight. So here's hoping.