Spoilers TOS: The Face of the Unknown by Christopher L. Bennett Review Thread

[Nyotarules]

That's certainly implied, though a gentleman doesn't kiss and tell...




That and the flirtation between them in "The Man Trap" and "Charlie X." The reboot relationship didn't come out of nowhere. There was clearly something being set up between Spock and Uhura in the early first season, but it was presumably kiboshed due to the censors' fear of an interracial romance (they couldn't care less about interspecies romance as long as the actors were white).

But, but Spock is not a gentleman he is Vulcan!
When is the Next Rise of the Federation book coming out... I miss that series.
(I'm on Kindle to buy your Ex machina story..think of me when you spend your royalties lol)

 

[Idran]

When is the Next Rise of the Federation book coming out... I miss that series.

Patterns of Interference, scheduled for August 2017!

 

[KirkPicard]

In the soundtrack of my imagination I heard the "Night On the Yorktown" track from "Beyond" upon the reveal of the Web of Worlds. Outstanding read overall from the characterizations to the pacing of the plot. An overdue tale of one of the iconic TOS civilizations.

 

[Christopher]

In the soundtrack of my imagination I heard the "Night On the Yorktown" track from "Beyond" upon the reveal of the Web of Worlds.

I think I was hearing something more like Goldsmith's "The Cloud" and "Vejur Flyover" in my head when writing it.

Outstanding read overall from the characterizations to the pacing of the plot. An overdue tale of one of the iconic TOS civilizations.

Thanks!

 

[JWolf]

Wherever you linked the cover from, it no longer shows. Please find a site where the images do not just vanish so soon.

 

[Idran]

Wherever you linked the cover from, it no longer shows. Please find a site where the images do not just vanish so soon.

I think you're having cache troubles, JWolf.

I even just opened the image directly and did a force-reload and it showed fine.

 

[Jbarney]

Great story. I'd urge anyone to pick up this FYM gem. For me, the best part of this one was CLB's ability to paint a totally realistic home for the First Federation. Loved it. Probably can't discuss too much because of spoilers and how recently this came out, but I loved the effort made to ground everything in believable science. Where the crew had to go to meet up with the First Federation population was extremely well done.

On another level, I really enjoyed the novel's exploration of the climate change issue. Star Trek at its best.

Finally, continuity buff here....always enjoy the use of material from other novels.

Peace,
JB

 

[Riverside2233]

By the way, I now have a page up for this at my site, though I haven't had time to do annotations yet:

https://christopherlbennett.wordpress.com/home-page/star-trek-fiction/tos-the-face-of-the-unknown/

(Sorry about the formatting... Suddenly WordPress isn't letting me do double spacing for some reason.)

What is the timeline here within the Lit-Verse? 2266? I've got a running list that is mostly chronological of the novels and need to update some of the latest.

Thanks.

 

[Jbarney]

If you are asking where the story takes place, it is in 2269....before TAS, but after the end of the original series. CLB has it unfolding just prior to The Latter Fire....

 

[Leto_II]

Do you mean The Face of the Unknown? It takes place just prior to the start of TAS (and fellow novel The Latter Fire), so Autumn 2269 or thereabouts ("Yesteryear" takes place in October 2269, according to DTI: Forgotten History).

EDIT: Ninja'd by Jbarney!

 

[Jbarney]

Marshak & Culbreath had their own... idiosyncratic take on Kirk and Spock as characters. Maybe they felt that TMP ran counter to how they wanted to see Spock and so they chose to tell a story that refuted it so that they could keep writing Spock their own way.



Well, aside from M&C's Prometheus Design and Triangle, Howard Weinstein's The Covenant of the Crown was also written pre-TWOK and set post-TMP. It doesn't directly acknowledge TMP's events either, just uses trappings of the setting like the supporting characters' new titles (Dr. Chapel, Lt. Chekov, etc.) -- although it presages TWOK by having McCoy preoccupied with feeling old.

By the way, has anyone caught the Covenant of the Crown nod I worked into The Face of the Unknown?

I missed it....(ahem)......the nod to Covenant of the Crown.

 

[Ronald Held]

I finished it. Nothing particularly wrong with it, but perhaps too detail rich which slows up progress in the story.

 

[JD]

Great story. I'd urge anyone to pick up this FYM gem. For me, the best part of this one was CLB's ability to paint a totally realistic home for the First Federation. Loved it. Probably can't discuss too much because of spoilers and how recently this came out, but I loved the effort made to ground everything in believable science. Where the crew had to go to meet up with the First Federation population was extremely well done.

Plenty of people have already been discussing spoilers, and there is a warning in the thread name, so I don't think it's a problem at this point. If you don't want to post them out in the open, you can always just spoiler code them.

 

[T'Ressa Dax]

Just started, and already found my new signature. It had to be said.

 

[Nyotarules]

Christopher, I noticed that there is an in universe reason why the TOS Enterprise is not diverse, is this a reference to your in universe reason (Ex Machina) why things changed when TMP came along?

 

[Christopher]

Christopher, I noticed that there is an in universe reason why the TOS Enterprise is not diverse, is this a reference to your in universe reason (Ex Machina) why things changed when TMP came along?

Not really; if anything, they don't quite line up, since Kirk defended it in TFotU as mere happenstance while ExM presented it as an inadvertent bias that it took an effort to recognize and counteract. Although that's understandable, since often people who are the beneficiaries of such a bias would unquestioningly assume it was mere happenstance or the natural order of things. In real-world terms, I had to acknowledge the more diverse crews depicted in TOS-era series like Vanguard and Seekers in the years since ExM was written. By now, there are no doubt a number of minor details in ExM that no longer line up with what's been established in subsequent years -- for instance, Commissioner Soreth holding the kind of Vulcan values seen in early ENT before the Kir'Shara reformations (which I was able to reconcile in Uncertain Logic) and Chekov musing about how the origins of the different subtypes of Klingon were still unclear to the Federation (which is something I haven't yet found an opportunity or a way to reconcile).

 

[Nyotarules]

Well Soreth was old, (180?) no doubt set in his ways under the old guard since we know Vulcans are not infallible. I would assume that truth of Archer and the Klingon virus would be under 'lock and key' in a Section 31 vault, the only Starfleet officers who know the truth are all dead in the TOS era, so that can remain a mystery forever, cos the Kingons are not gonna talk. As Worf said 'we don't speak of it to outsiders' and why should they lol

 

[Enterprise1701]

Some dedicated scholar-types know about the origins of Hem'Quch and Quch'Ha. In Myriad Universes - A Gutted World (a timeline which diverges from the prime timeline just before the start of DS9), the Romulan ambassador to the Klingon Empire in 2373 knows about it.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Otherwise known as

Spoiler

"Ambassadorships for everybody". I really liked that this one was more subtle about characters getting together.

Kirk's greeting upon meeting Koust for the first time - priceless!

 

[Nyotarules]

Otherwise known as

Spoiler

"Ambassadorships for everybody". I really liked that this one was more subtle about characters getting together.

Kirk's greeting upon meeting Koust for the first time - priceless!

That was one messed up universe lol