Spoilers DSC: The Enterprise War by John Jackson Miller Review Thread

[JD]

Well, that was its brief -- to explain what the Enterprise was doing during the entire first season. And it's nice to get the occasional story spanning a considerable length of time. When you're not obligated to fit stories between episodes, you have room for that sort of thing. Typhon Pact: Rough Beasts of Empire spanned about a year. Voyager: Full Circle covered a couple of years or more. And a number of the Lost Era books span quite a lot of time. My own TNG: The Buried Age covered close to 9 years. Each volume of the Terok Nor trilogy spans from 8 to 10 years, and The Art of the Impossible spans 18 years.

If we go outside of Trek Lit there are some novels that cover centuries or even millenia. For instance, a few months ago I got the e-book of London by Edward Rutherfurd, and that covers four million years ago all the way up through 1997 when it was published.

 

[Christopher]

I guess I wasn't expecting the book to take place over the entire course of the first season. It just seemed a bit long for a single mission event.

The book established pretty clearly why it took unusually long, though.

 

[Tuskin38]

Trek Core interviewed with the author

http://blog.trekcore.com/2019/09/interview-star-trek-discovery-john-jackson-miller-enterprise-war/

Apparently one of the supporting characters in the book (unnamed in the interview) is in one of the upcoming Short Treks.

 

[Damian]

The book established pretty clearly why it took unusually long, though.

Yeah, I guess I wasn't paying that close attention to the blurb. I knew it was to explain where the Enterprise was during the 1st season, I guess I just didn't realize it was the entire 1st season.

But really, it wasn't a big deal. I still thought it was an excellent book. I just can't let something go with some nitpick. I don't feel complete otherwise .

Though, you know, it was kind of stressful. It's hard to explain. Not stressful in the sense of the stress my 14 year old daughter causes me . But sort of the kind when you watch a movie or show that creates tension or stressful situations. A credit to Miller I guess that he was able to get some of that emotion across.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I feel like I just finished reading two separate books. The first didn't feel like Star Trek at all (it felt more like a comic-book-based movie; see my prior snarky comments), and was as slow a read as The Handmaid's Tale was, and yet the second one felt very profoundly like Star Trek (and went very fast; I think it took me less time to get through the last 2/3 of the book than it took me to get through the first 1/3 of it).

 

[Ronald Held]

Read Absent Enemies so long ago, that I did not recall the reference Mr.Jackson mentioned.

 

[David cgc]

I only realized the reference at the very end, because they mentioned the planet the Lurians were headed to by name, and the Law of Conservation of Detail meant that if it was named and had nothing to do with the story at hand, we knew about it from somewhere else, so I looked it up on MA and MB.

 

[Ronald Held]

Never heard of the Law of Conservation of Details.

 

[WebLurker]

Never heard of the Law of Conservation of Details.

TV Tropes thing. Long story short, the idea is that elements in the work are streamlined to things only relevant to the plot. As a for example, the way that the culprit in Scooby-Doo is one of the characters the Mystery, Inc. gang meets at the beginning would be detail conversion, since it allows the motivation to be set up for the crime and to avoid pulling out new characters just to fill a role that could be filled by someone we already knew.

 

[JD]

I feel like I just finished reading two separate books. The first didn't feel like Star Trek at all (it felt more like a comic-book-based movie; see my prior snarky comments), and was as slow a read as The Handmaid's Tale was, and yet the second one felt very profoundly like Star Trek (and went very fast; I think it took me less time to get through the last 2/3 of the book than it took me to get through the first 1/3 of it).

What books were they?

 

[Christopher]

TV Tropes thing. Long story short, the idea is that elements in the work are streamlined to things only relevant to the plot. As a for example, the way that the culprit in Scooby-Doo is one of the characters the Mystery, Inc. gang meets at the beginning would be detail conversion, since it allows the motivation to be set up for the crime and to avoid pulling out new characters just to fill a role that could be filled by someone we already knew.

It's basically another way of putting Chekhov's Gun: If there's a gun on the wall in the first act of the play, it will be used by the third.

Although that's not absolutely true. Not every detail in a story needs to serve the plot or have a payoff later on. Sometimes a detail is there to develop a character, to add texture to the world, to make a joke, or the like. Or as a reference to an outside work, as in the very example being discussed.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

What books were they?

That's just it: they were both The Enterprise War.

 

[WebLurker]

It's basically another way of putting Chekhov's Gun: If there's a gun on the wall in the first act of the play, it will be used by the third.

That, too.

Although that's not absolutely true. Not every detail in a story needs to serve the plot or have a payoff later on. Sometimes a detail is there to develop a character, to add texture to the world, to make a joke, or the like. Or as a reference to an outside work, as in the very example being discussed.

My understanding is that background like that is a case-by-case basis on what details add to the story and what is just plain distraction.

 

[Christopher]

My understanding is that background like that is a case-by-case basis on what details add to the story and what is just plain distraction.

Right. It should serve the story, but there are other aspects of a story than just plot points. Sometimes it's just about creating a feel, setting a scene. The plot may not hinge on the fact that the clouds gleamed in the light of the setting sun like dying embers in a hearth, but describing that detail can be evocative and help set the tone for the scene. But if you go into too much detail about the scenery or whatever, then it becomes a distraction. And it's confusing if you call attention into an incidental detail in such a way that it seems like it should be important. You need to make sure it doesn't get in the way.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

ADF is a master at doing that with lots and lots of detail.

 

[tomswift2002]

I’m reading the book right now. I’m upto Chapter 6 and I really don’t give a care about the bad guys. The Lurians seem to be riff on the Pakleds and the new bad guys, in armour, seem to be a riff on the Bremen. And both seem to be rather generic pirates.

Also the book seems to indicate that the events of D.C. Fontana’s “Vulcan’s Glory” as it says that Caitlin Barry was a previous Enterprise Chief Engineer And Had left with a young engineer named Scott, both of whom were in VG.

And of course, Christopher Pike I’m getting a mix of Jeffrey Hunter and Bruce Greenwood. And the Enterprise I’m seeing as “The Cage” Enterprise.

 

[WebLurker]

I’m reading the book right now. I’m upto Chapter 6 and I really don’t give a care about the bad guys. The Lurians seem to be riff on the Pakleds and the new bad guys, in armour, seem to be a riff on the Bremen. And both seem to be rather generic pirates.

It gets better, trust me.

Also the book seems to indicate that the events of D.C. Fontana’s “Vulcan’s Glory” as it says that Caitlin Barry was a previous Enterprise Chief Engineer And Had left with a young engineer named Scott, both of whom were in VG.

Sort of? Miller did borrow names of old engineers from the other tie-ins (in fact, every former engineer Pike remembers was said to have been one in previous tie-ins). He also borrowed another old character. I got the impression it was less to do with establishing a common continuity and more of borrowing worldbuilding, but you'd have to ask him about that.

And of course, Christopher Pike I’m getting a mix of Jeffrey Hunter and Bruce Greenwood. And the Enterprise I’m seeing as “The Cage” Enterprise.

Well, it's supposed to be the DSC version; in an interview, Miller noted that his personal idea was that the DSC design was a refit specifically made for this mission (Pike does recall a recent refit early on), which is as good an explanation as any why the ship went from "Cage" version to DSC and back to "Cage" again when the episodes are stacked in chronological order.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Well, it's supposed to be the DSC version; in an interview, Miller noted that his personal idea was that the DSC design was a refit specifically made for this mission (Pike does recall a recent refit early on), which is as good an explanation as any why the ship went from "Cage" version to DSC and back to "Cage" again when the episodes are stacked in chronological order.

They'll need a sequel when the next Short Treks appears, showing Ensign Spock beaming onto the pre-"Cage" but still clearly Discovery-style USS Enterprise

 

[Christopher]

Sort of? Miller did borrow names of old engineers from the other tie-ins (in fact, every former engineer Pike remembers was said to have been one in previous tie-ins). He also borrowed another old character. I got the impression it was less to do with establishing a common continuity and more of borrowing worldbuilding, but you'd have to ask him about that.

I think it's more just homage, acknowledging the Pike-era stories that have come before him. Since those stories contradicted the heck out of each other anyway, it's not about continuity or worldbuilding, just tribute.

 

[Mysterion]

ADF is a master at doing that with lots and lots of detail.

Agreed - he's got a knack for packing in a lot of exposition and background detail in a very painless way that does not distract from the plot at hand.