Mirage in the title was not a homage or reference to a hotel of that name?
Spoilers DS9: The Long Mirage by David R. George III Review Thread
- Thread starter Defcon
- Start date
I don't think so? I don't believe the Mirage Hotel was mentioned anywhere in the book, as far as I can remember. (Though obviously recent posts have illustrated how much that's worth.
)It's likely more just a twin reference to the Endalla falsework and Vic's status as a hologram, I'd think.
I think it's a play on the long con, but mirage has a kinder connotation as well as references Vic, the Falsework and of course, Vegas, which is in the desert 
Dan and Bruce had a great interview with David on the latest Literary Treks!
Did he say something about the upcoming December novel?Dan and Bruce had a great interview with David on the latest Literary Treks!
I don't know about "personal gain", but after the whole "doctor needed to contact her superiors because Vic might be just what they're looking for" thing, I just assumed the doctor was lying about Vic's sentience, so that there would be no reason for Federation Security to charge him with anything, and then he'd be available on DS9 whenever she and her superiors decided to do with him whatever it is they have in mind.
I think that's just a difference in perspective, because I just assumed that the doctor was right and Vic really is pre-sentient rather than sentient.
A pre-sentient hologram would probably be more interesting to Federation science than a sentient one. They've probably not ever caught one in the act of "becoming" yet, so the opportunity to study the process would probably qualify as "what they've been looking for." Not to say that Vic wasn't tricking her to just seem like a plain, simple hologram, but she may have been telling the truth about her assessment of him, while omitting that that made him more scientifically interesting.
I appreciated the line about Altek trying to deduce places he knew based on the shapes of the continents and gross geography, after I was complaining in prior books how implausible it felt that he could find literally nothing beyond Prophets and wrinkled noses that connected our Bajor to the world he knew. Though it did turn out that there was a reason for that. I'm still a little confused about some elements, probably because this plotline has been unfolding over about half my life at this point. Can they really be sure that Altek's universe had a wormhole? I mean, they have Orbs, and the Orbs come from the Prophets, and the Prophets live in the wormhole, but that doesn't necessarily mean the Orbs came from the wormhole. They could've been made by the Prophets before they made the wormhole, in which case his conclusion about the false moon still doesn't tell them anything. I don't remember Altek's Bajor having spaceships, so unless they saw it in the sky, would they know, I mean really know that their Celestial Temple was a place you could fly to (and through) in a ship?
Also, does this mean that the entire "Liberation of the Bajora" subplot dating back to "Horn and Ivory" has been retconned/revealed to have taken place in a parallel universe, and not Bajor's lost history, or does it just apply to the events that began in "The Fall"?
I appreciated the line about Altek trying to deduce places he knew based on the shapes of the continents and gross geography, after I was complaining in prior books how implausible it felt that he could find literally nothing beyond Prophets and wrinkled noses that connected our Bajor to the world he knew. Though it did turn out that there was a reason for that. I'm still a little confused about some elements, probably because this plotline has been unfolding over about half my life at this point. Can they really be sure that Altek's universe had a wormhole? I mean, they have Orbs, and the Orbs come from the Prophets, and the Prophets live in the wormhole, but that doesn't necessarily mean the Orbs came from the wormhole. They could've been made by the Prophets before they made the wormhole, in which case his conclusion about the false moon still doesn't tell them anything. I don't remember Altek's Bajor having spaceships, so unless they saw it in the sky, would they know, I mean really know that their Celestial Temple was a place you could fly to (and through) in a ship?
Also, does this mean that the entire "Liberation of the Bajora" subplot dating back to "Horn and Ivory" has been retconned/revealed to have taken place in a parallel universe, and not Bajor's lost history, or does it just apply to the events that began in "The Fall"?
Hasn't Starfleet done scans on Altek to search for the phase variance of time travel? When that happened wouldn't they have detected Altek's quantum signature being different from that of the prime reality? Or can the Prophets hide alternate quantum signatures as well?
The damn DTI had a presence in this novel! Why weren't they just called in to investigate?
The damn DTI had a presence in this novel! Why weren't they just called in to investigate?
The "Horn and Ivory" stuff was entirely different; it was specifically dated thanks to the collapse of the Fire Caves, there were people whose names she recognized from history, Kira was herself rather than embodying someone else. (Plus it was the Iconians who sent her there as a favor to the Prophets, not the Prophets directly.) The only events this impacted were the events where Kira was embodying Keev Anora, yeah.
Honestly, because outside of Christopher's books, the DTI are only ever mentioned so that people can whine about the existence of bureaucrats that might actually care about dealing with the dangers of time travel. Like I mentioned upthread, they've had to deal in his books with scenarios involving potential time travel also involving cross-universe travel, and knowing as a basic step to scan for quantum signature as one of the first investigatory steps.
Yes, and DTI agents are perennially frustrated that the amateurs in Starfleet think they can muddle through dealing with temporal anomalies themselves instead of calling in the experts.
In this case, though, didn't the first book after Altek's cliffhanger appearance say the DTI did investigate him in the days or weeks after he showed up?
I'm honestly asking; it's been a while since that one, but I'm pretty sure I remember Ro griping about that investigation back then. I feel like this is DRGIII screwing up the DTI more than Starfleet not letting them do their jobs.
I'm honestly asking; it's been a while since that one, but I'm pretty sure I remember Ro griping about that investigation back then. I feel like this is DRGIII screwing up the DTI more than Starfleet not letting them do their jobs.
I haven't read the book yet.
I like the storyline with Nog and Candlewood looking for Vic Fontaine . In the interview with David George he talks about Nog and Candlewood and Vic Fontaine. what he had to say was really interesting about whether Vic was a sentient hologram or not.I also liked him discussing Kira's story arc and the Bajorans religious groups and the uproar about Endalla and the studying the mysterious endworks moon. Jinn David Just said His next book will be out in December .He really didn't say what the next book was going to be ds9 or some other trek series. He's also writing some original fiction.
Last edited:
time to wipe the ds9 relaunch from the timeline and start over again at after the end of Unity and try to get it right this time. yeeesh.
I think the DS9 relaunch is doing fine.
We've gotten book after book with unusually high word count, taking Ben Sisko away, making Kira a boring Vedek and dumping in 30 new characters that we don't care about and on TOP OF THAT, we get a subplot tracking down Morn and Vic Fontaine. WILL THIS THRILL RIDE NEVER STOP!?
Similar threads
- Poll
