Except that she is neither formidable nor a pragmatist. She is a martinet. Plain and simple. She was allowed to amass (to quote Spock's line to Trelane) power without constructive purpose. And she is a slave to her own insecurities.
Spoilers TNG: Available Light by Dayton Ward Review Thread
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I have also interacted with my sister.
How is she a martinet? For telling off Picard for failing to do his duty to protect Federation lives from the Borg or for telling him to follow orders that she clearly didn't agree with when it came to resettling the colonists on Dorvan 4, in the name of peace?
Does Nechayev ever actually even discipline Picard?
An interesting observation I've noted about Nechayev that depending on who is dealing with her, we see completely different sides to her. In TNG, she comes off as strict and no-nonsense, she reassigns command of the Enterprise to a hawk and later chews Picard out for not committing genocide against the Borg. On DS9, in The Maquis two-parter she insists Sisko should try finding a peaceful solution, noting the Maquis were Federation citizens so they should see reason. Then in The Search, which admittedly isn't actually her but rather a simulation based on Sisko's impression of her, she basically rolls over and allows the Dominion unfettered access to the Alpha Quadrant.
Loved this book! My full review just published at TrekCore: http://trekcore.com/blog/2019/05/book-review-the-next-generation-available-light/
Just completed "Available Light" I rated it above average overall.
I found myself much more fascinated with the Section 31 elements of the story and the fallout of the revelations in the novel "Control". We do learn the final fate of Admiral Ross, first of all, and we hear a bit about some characters who we haven't seen in a while like Admiral Nechayev and Admiral Jellico. We also learn of the Klingon reaction to the revelations of what happened at Tezwa and President Zife's role in it all. Much of that is unresolved probably because I expect David Mack to continue that story line in force in his next novel. So "Available Light" probably serves as a bridge of sorts in that respect.
However, that is not the primary story. The Enterprise finds what they believe is a derelict in space, a very large derelict. And while investigating they are attacked by ships looking to scavenge what they think is a derelict and they believe the Enterprise is there to steal the booty from them. Eventually they find the derelict is not so abandoned as they thought, but is inhabited by a race who has basically reduced themselves to a virtual consciousness maintained by the ships computer. Comparisons are made to what Scotty did in "Relics" with the transporter.
Another similarity I was surprised wasn't mentioned is to what was done in "The Thaw". The aliens there did much the same thing to preserve their consciousness and the computer created a virtual environment for them to keep their minds active, like the novel. Now their bodies were not reduced to 'date storage' like they were in the novel, but the consciousness end of things seemed similar (except in the case of "The Thaw" the computer manifested their fears as the 'clown', whereas in the novel their computer technology was much more sophisticated). Still I was a bit surprised when they were considering prior similar circumstances no mention was made of that experience by Voyager. But I digress.
Eventually the inhabitants solicit the Enterprise's help through Chen, and while trying to help them they have to defend against the scavengers. They learn the ships builders had to leave their homeworld secondary to the end stages of pollution and a greenhouse effect that made their home uninhabitable, basically.
I was personally very drawn to the Section 31 fallout elements of the story. But that's a secondary story here. The primary story has to do with the space vessel. That part was pretty good mostly, though somewhere in the middle of the novel my attention started to waver a bit, but it picked up again as we got closer to the end.
I found myself much more fascinated with the Section 31 elements of the story and the fallout of the revelations in the novel "Control". We do learn the final fate of Admiral Ross, first of all, and we hear a bit about some characters who we haven't seen in a while like Admiral Nechayev and Admiral Jellico. We also learn of the Klingon reaction to the revelations of what happened at Tezwa and President Zife's role in it all. Much of that is unresolved probably because I expect David Mack to continue that story line in force in his next novel. So "Available Light" probably serves as a bridge of sorts in that respect.
However, that is not the primary story. The Enterprise finds what they believe is a derelict in space, a very large derelict. And while investigating they are attacked by ships looking to scavenge what they think is a derelict and they believe the Enterprise is there to steal the booty from them. Eventually they find the derelict is not so abandoned as they thought, but is inhabited by a race who has basically reduced themselves to a virtual consciousness maintained by the ships computer. Comparisons are made to what Scotty did in "Relics" with the transporter.
Another similarity I was surprised wasn't mentioned is to what was done in "The Thaw". The aliens there did much the same thing to preserve their consciousness and the computer created a virtual environment for them to keep their minds active, like the novel. Now their bodies were not reduced to 'date storage' like they were in the novel, but the consciousness end of things seemed similar (except in the case of "The Thaw" the computer manifested their fears as the 'clown', whereas in the novel their computer technology was much more sophisticated). Still I was a bit surprised when they were considering prior similar circumstances no mention was made of that experience by Voyager. But I digress.
Eventually the inhabitants solicit the Enterprise's help through Chen, and while trying to help them they have to defend against the scavengers. They learn the ships builders had to leave their homeworld secondary to the end stages of pollution and a greenhouse effect that made their home uninhabitable, basically.
I was personally very drawn to the Section 31 fallout elements of the story. But that's a secondary story here. The primary story has to do with the space vessel. That part was pretty good mostly, though somewhere in the middle of the novel my attention started to waver a bit, but it picked up again as we got closer to the end.
I was reading some prior reviews and I noticed a number of complaints about the recaps in "Available Light". Now I did notices a bit more than usual here. The relaunch novels always have a little bit of recap involved, usually just enough for you to go "Oh, yeah, that's right" but not usually overwhelming. I think perhaps with "Available Light" some of that may have been due to the fact that it's been well over a year since the last relaunch novel has come out. That probably led to a bit more recapping than usual because of such a long layover.
/\You’ll have to ask the slashfic crowd about that!!
Mod request: please let this mark the end of the discussion of fan-reaction to Nechayev with regard to sex, gender, social skills etc.
thanks heaps
thanks heaps
I finished it and rated it average.
It was 80% a tng episode and the remaining 20% was dealing with the section 31 aftermath. And neither plot lines were connected in any remarkable way. The section 31 plot was the more interesting one. The tng plot was predictable and tedious at points. Like why bother getting technical trying to rationalize this scifi tech.
And the expositions ... I get you have remind readers but there's a way to do it. Its just info dump after info dump, oh here's a secondary character lets info dump his background, why? ...
A good story or character is when it changes from what it was to something different. It reminds me of a car stuck in mud spinning its wheels. It goes nowhere.
I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.
It was 80% a tng episode and the remaining 20% was dealing with the section 31 aftermath. And neither plot lines were connected in any remarkable way. The section 31 plot was the more interesting one. The tng plot was predictable and tedious at points. Like why bother getting technical trying to rationalize this scifi tech.
And the expositions ... I get you have remind readers but there's a way to do it. Its just info dump after info dump, oh here's a secondary character lets info dump his background, why? ...
A good story or character is when it changes from what it was to something different. It reminds me of a car stuck in mud spinning its wheels. It goes nowhere.
I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.
If the Discovery novels are any indication, we'll probably get a lot of prequel books to the TV series.
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