Spoilers TNG: Collateral Damage by David Mack Review Thread

Dayton just answered that in post #48. "Collateral Damage was written before we had any sort of specific knowledge about the new show." At this point, the regular Trek novels are just continuing as always. Only The Last Best Hope is a Picard tie-in.

 

Spoiler: spoiler

I'm just surprised that this was a major David Mack novel and nobody we've come to love died.
-I did enjoy the inclusion of a certain crack crime fighting team, that was definitely unexpected.
-I liked the continued rounding out of Worf as a capable commanding officer. While we will probably never get a TV series on him, I really hope that we can get a book series on his future adventures should he ever get a command. And please god, if that ever happens, let him be in command of an Akira class.
-I thought the ending was good, but honestly I felt like it lacked any real weight. We seem to be right back where we started. I thought the biggest revelation was the clarification on Geordi's relationship with Dr. Brahms and Harstad

 

Not really, no. It builds on and resolves some of the ongoing story threads from the last 16 years of published Treklit, but it does not link in any way to the new Picard TV series.

There is no reason to wait for that.

Then you should do so.

 

I have ordered the book because Control was ridiculous addictive, so I hope that I can read ''colateral damage'' next week

 

The quality of this book is exactly the same as every other Star Trek book. Then computer files feel exactly the same,

 

Do what I do. I get the ePub version. I have not had any problem downloading Star Trek ePub. It has no DRM, so you can convert it to use on your Kindle very easily.

 

I enjoyed this book, although I admit the differing points of view took some getting used to. And I certainly appreciated all the appearances of some long-lost characters we haven't seen in at least a few years (particularly a former Federation Councillor who's absence in a previous book caught my eye and left me wondering what happened to him...now I know).

One thing I want to clarify: is Admiral Akaar's official rank as the Commander-in-Chief of the Federation Starfleet now Chief Admiral? And if it is, is that analogous to Fleet Admiral or is it a separate rank?

 

It is not a separate rank, it is a billet.

Officially, the highest rank in Starfleet is "admiral." Everything after that ("Chief Admiral, Starfleet," for instance) is a billet, with some being higher than others in Starfleet's hierarchy of command.

The "commander-in-chief" of Starfleet is the President of the United Federation of Planets.

 

Finished it quite quickly - as Mack's novels tend to be very sweeping and engaging reads Rated it "Outstanding" and also rated it on goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44451909-collateral-damage (you can read my review there).

Basically and bottom line (no spoilers) - a great Trek adventure - not really a stand alone, as while on a factual level, everything the reader *needs* in order to understand the plot/story is explained, it is *preferable* to have at least a passing knowledge with Mack's A Time to Kill / Heal duology, Section 31 duology (Disavowed / Control) and Titan: Fortune of War. Also, Dayton Ward's Available Light, pretty much sets up the Picard-based portions of the book, so I would definitely recommend reading it first.

 

I thought it was average and if the Worf plotline hadn't been redeemed a bit at the end I might have gone lower than that.

I think half the problem is a lot of the characters aren't particularly engaging and we've been here before with a lot of the action sequences - the Nausican, Okona, Lavelle, the inhabitants of the station in danger, none of them really caught my interest or felt particularly new or original in their use.

Other returnees like Wildman and Lavelle didn't really feel like the characters we knew before, partly due a shift to everyone speaking a bit more informally than usual in Trek (though I didn't see any vulgar language!) which I don't have a massive issue with but alongside so many odd references about getting paid or salaries it jarred somewhat. Same with what was done to the Enterprise to stop them getting involved, I didn't really buy it or how poorly the crew handled it.

All that time might have been better spent doing more with the crew, Smrhova gets a lot of focus, picking up a thread about her feeling she isn't as capable as others. Great to see it touched on again as she has been all but ignored since the last time David Mack wrote her but it doesn't really go anywhere and she doesn't really achieve much other than be angry most of the time. When it is hinted that Worf could make her his First Officer in the future you have to wonder why he would bother. Though saying that I was quite uncomfortable as to her last scene, I really wish that hadn't happened.

Worf as Captain gets some great stuff right at the end though before that he barely makes an impact. The odd Geordi revelation at the end might have worked better if there had been any sense of that previously. No one else, other than Picard, really gets anything to do.

The Picard thread works best though it feels a bit predictable - we know he didn't go as far as he has been accused so it doesn't feel as big a challenge as it might have. Phillipa Louvois may not have been the most likeable character but she deserves better than being written as a one note vengeful harpy as she is here. I think absolutely there should be people who find what Picard did unacceptable but a bit more shade in their characterisation, and a bit less willingness to stretch the legality of the situation themselves might have been nice.

 

This whole review sounds like it should be "spoilered".

 

^There's a spoiler flag in the thread title. Review threads are for open discussion of plot specifics, so spoilers are expected.

 

Changing the TNG logo on the cover might be indicative that they only want to set future TNG novels during the TV series.

 

Exactly what I was just coming in to say - thank you Christopher!

There have been a couple of references to "No spoilers" in the thread - however this is (and all review threads are) deliberately designed to allow people to discuss the book fully including spoilers.

So if you don't want spoilers - please stay out of any thread with the red "SPOILER" tag by the title.

 

Out of curiosity, are the billets Commanding Officer, Starfleet Command (often abbreviated Commander, Starfleet), Chief of Staff of the Federation Starfleet, and/or Commander-in-Chief of the Federation Starfleet the same position? Throughout the serialized novel-verse, I've seen the top-ranking Starfleet officer referred to as all of those at one point (I know Admiral Akaar specifically has been addressed/referred to as both Commander, Starfleet and the Commander-in-Chief of the Federation Starfleet, as has Heihachiro Nogura); my personal interpretation of this apparent discrepancy is that Commander-in-Chief of the Federation Starfleet is the official title, while Commanding Officer, Starfleet Command and Commander, Starfleet are used on a more day-to-day basis, especially since "Commander-in-Chief Akaar" does make it sound like he's the President.

Also, if you know, who was the Chief Admiral during the Tezwa crisis? I know Admiral Ross took the position after Nanietta Bacco became President, and he was replaced by Edward Jellico after his retirement (and then Akaar replaced Jellico after the Borg Invasion), and I suppose it doesn't really matter (especially if it's some admiral we've never heard of), but I'm curious if you have any thoughts on the matter.

Oh, and @David Mack, thank you for giving the Borg Invasion, the resignation (and death) of Zife, and Data's death specific calendar dates; I'm one of those guys who loves details like these!

 

One thing I wish, as this is now 2 books in a row that did it - why can't we just have a story about picard going back to earth and the politicking of that. I don't need a B story (and in the last book the picard stuff was the B when it should have been the A!). A worf adventure is fun, go make a different book out of that, I wanted the Picard fallout to be the whole thing and that's it. I'm assuming publishers don't think that's enough meat but who knows.

 

Because the contract calls for a 100,000-word story. It's very difficult to get 100k words out of a courtroom drama (or out of any A-story without a B-story and sometimes a C-story).

 

totaly makes sense, I just think a long full on court-room drama in the trek universe sounds great!

Law and Order/JAG spin-off anyone?

 

Even JAG and Law and Order had more going on than just the stuff in the courtroom.

 

Just a few chapters in. Maybe too many subplots. Definitely a Mack book,with the body count so early.