Spoilers DS9: The Missing by Una McCormack Review Thread
- Thread starter JWolf
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Nie gehört.Yes.
And "Himmelsweite".
Honestly, wasn't thoroughly impressed like I have been in the past with Una's work. I did enjoy all the major female character's we did see in this title & of course Garak's role/appearance is enjoyable. Still though, below average in my opinion.
So do you prefer Brinkmanship over The Missing?
Specific to your question--Oddly enough, I enjoyed Brinkmanship. My Favorite title of hers thus far would have to be Never Ending Sacrifice. Also, though a bit too short in my opinion, her Fall title The Crimson Shadow was beyond impressive ! 
Specific to your question--Oddly enough, I enjoyed Brinkmanship. My Favorite title of hers thus far would have to be Never Ending Sacrifice. Also, though a bit too short in my opinion, her Fall title The Crimson Shadow was beyond impressive !
I agree with Neverending Sacrifice - it's a crying shame that it was cancelled as German translation. It was one of the best Trek novels ever......
Not a bad little book. I did find it odd that it's labeled a DS9 book when Ro, Crusher and Pulaski are TNG characters. I know it's probably labeled as such since it's based on DS9. It was good to see more of Odo. He seems a little happier here than last time we saw him. Didn't mention anything about that mission the President gave him about the Changleing though. Maybe that is in another book.
Is this the first we've heard of Transwarp beaming outside of the JJVerse? Looks like it isn't as impressive as the JJverse counterpart as it does damage to the body using it. No beaming to Qo'noS from Earth yet it seems.
Every time they called the Tzenkethi "Cory" I kept thinking of the Teen Titans character, Starfire. Seemed like a apt comparison to me.
Is this the first we've heard of Transwarp beaming outside of the JJVerse? Looks like it isn't as impressive as the JJverse counterpart as it does damage to the body using it. No beaming to Qo'noS from Earth yet it seems.
Every time they called the Tzenkethi "Cory" I kept thinking of the Teen Titans character, Starfire. Seemed like a apt comparison to me.
Odo's mission re the Changeling is one of the sub-plots in Sacraments of Fire and Ascendance. It is tough to know where all of these novels fit in with each other though - there didn't seem to be a great deal of editorial oversight in that period to make them all tesselate seamlessly.
And I think of Ro, at least, as more of a DS9 character than a TNG character nowadays anyway. She appeared in 8 TNG episodes over the course of three years of story time, but more than 25 DS9 novels over ten years of story time.
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And I think of Ro, at least, as more of a DS9 character than a TNG character nowadays anyway. She appeared in 8 TNG episodes over the course of three years of story time, but more than 25 DS9 novels over ten years of story time.
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Finished it earlier today. I enjoyed it quite a bit, as I've tended to all of McCormack's works that I've read to date – The Lotus Flower, Hollow Men, Last Best Hope, Never-Ending Sacrifice, and Second Self. I like her style and perspective.
It's kind of funny how many TNG characters were in this one, between Pulaski, Crusher, Ro, Picard, O'Brien, and even the Olympic Class ship. Reminds me a bit of the new Sisko comic series just called Star Trek that includes characters from multiple shows.
I think my biggest problem with the book was that I didn't have a sense of the station. I couldn't really picture it or get a sense of it – the internals, there's obviously a picture of it on the cover – and that bothered me. What does this Quark's look like, or Ops, or Security, or how is the Plaza laid out...I kept getting flashes of the Cardassian station then had to dismiss them. This is maybe more the editor's fault: you can't do a whole new station without having your writers flesh it out more. But once done, this isn't the standard media tie-in that doesn't need, or indeed suffers, from more description and mood setting. Commit or don't do it.
But I enjoyed the multi-species crew on the Olympic Class Athene Donald. Isn't that what Star Trek going back to TOS is all about – a diversity of characters united toward some higher cause? Especially a scientific one, setting aside the glorified playground antics that are war and international politics. Though I did like the Romulan-Cardassian issues (I was dreading what happened the 'the missing') and the insights into both cultures. And I enjoyed hanging out with characters we saw less of in the canon – Drs. Crusher and Pulaski, and Ro. We get enough of the others in the canon; good to get more with these here at least.
The Starfleet Intelligence aspect with Alden was also nice (I never understand why all spies are Section 31 these days, when the whole point of 31 on DS9 at least was that they were more super black ops, or Illuminati), and it was interesting learning more about another species/local power that even once made war with the Federation, the Tzenkethi. How interesting they are being more beautiful aliens (unlike Klingons or Ferengi or Gorn or Cardassians or Borg or Jem Hadar or... who are always bumpier and uglier than humans), and genetically modified ones at that, from maybe a genetically modified planet (reminded me of Krypton in Man of Steel, or of the Sovereign in Guardians of the Galaxy), and how they were politically reminiscent of North Korea (compared to the Romulans' Rome, Klingons' Soviet Russia (TOS)/Feudal Japan (TNG), and the Cardassians' Nazi Germany).
The People I thought also were interesting. It's a big galaxy out there with so many who would benefit so greatly by them...in my head canon they're still out there, Coda be damned.
Interesting reveal with the logs. Earlier on I kept switching who I thought was making them (guessing that was the point), and I smiled upon finding out who even if they weren't my first choice. Nice way to tie different parts of the story together there as well. Another McCormack-ism I enjoyed in Second Self recently too.
It's kind of funny how many TNG characters were in this one, between Pulaski, Crusher, Ro, Picard, O'Brien, and even the Olympic Class ship. Reminds me a bit of the new Sisko comic series just called Star Trek that includes characters from multiple shows.
I think my biggest problem with the book was that I didn't have a sense of the station. I couldn't really picture it or get a sense of it – the internals, there's obviously a picture of it on the cover – and that bothered me. What does this Quark's look like, or Ops, or Security, or how is the Plaza laid out...I kept getting flashes of the Cardassian station then had to dismiss them. This is maybe more the editor's fault: you can't do a whole new station without having your writers flesh it out more. But once done, this isn't the standard media tie-in that doesn't need, or indeed suffers, from more description and mood setting. Commit or don't do it.
But I enjoyed the multi-species crew on the Olympic Class Athene Donald. Isn't that what Star Trek going back to TOS is all about – a diversity of characters united toward some higher cause? Especially a scientific one, setting aside the glorified playground antics that are war and international politics. Though I did like the Romulan-Cardassian issues (I was dreading what happened the 'the missing') and the insights into both cultures. And I enjoyed hanging out with characters we saw less of in the canon – Drs. Crusher and Pulaski, and Ro. We get enough of the others in the canon; good to get more with these here at least.
The Starfleet Intelligence aspect with Alden was also nice (I never understand why all spies are Section 31 these days, when the whole point of 31 on DS9 at least was that they were more super black ops, or Illuminati), and it was interesting learning more about another species/local power that even once made war with the Federation, the Tzenkethi. How interesting they are being more beautiful aliens (unlike Klingons or Ferengi or Gorn or Cardassians or Borg or Jem Hadar or... who are always bumpier and uglier than humans), and genetically modified ones at that, from maybe a genetically modified planet (reminded me of Krypton in Man of Steel, or of the Sovereign in Guardians of the Galaxy), and how they were politically reminiscent of North Korea (compared to the Romulans' Rome, Klingons' Soviet Russia (TOS)/Feudal Japan (TNG), and the Cardassians' Nazi Germany).
The People I thought also were interesting. It's a big galaxy out there with so many who would benefit so greatly by them...in my head canon they're still out there, Coda be damned.
Interesting reveal with the logs. Earlier on I kept switching who I thought was making them (guessing that was the point), and I smiled upon finding out who even if they weren't my first choice. Nice way to tie different parts of the story together there as well. Another McCormack-ism I enjoyed in Second Self recently too.
Does anyone know what "excellent speculative novel" Picard mentions reading? Has anyone ever asked @Una McCormack? Seems like the kind of thing that could have happened in Le Guin (there is a lot of Le Guinnish stuff in this book) but it didn't ring any Hainish bells for me.
Lol, ten pages more reading after I say there's "a lot of Le Guinnish stuff in this book" and Crusher is dropping the actual titles of Le Guin short stories!
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