Spoilers PIC: The Last Best Hope by Una McCormack Review Thread

[thribs]

Just how old is Jurati? If we go with Alison Pill’s age, she would be 16 at the time she met Maddox. Rather young for her to be already a Medical Doctor. Also she seems to be obsessed with him, to the point I wouldn’t be surprised if they started banging uglies with each other. Now I know they seem to imply that Narek and his sister are rather “close” but I think statutory rape would be a bit much for Trek.

 

[Tosk]

That's a heck of a leap you're attempting to make. From guessing a character's age even though it's extremely common for actors to play a different age (especially in Trek), over to inferred obsession, and on to statch.

 

[F. King Daniel]

150 pages in and nothing from Spock or the Red Matter? You can’t just ignore that part of the story.

My impression from the show is that Spock and the Red Matter are the emergency Plan B after Picard's evacuation fleet plan crumbles in the wake of the Sythetic attack. It may not have been thought up by the time the novel ends.

 

[thribs]

My impression from the show is that Spock and the Red Matter are the emergency Plan B after Picard's evacuation fleet plan crumbles in the wake of the Sythetic attack. It may not have been thought up by the time the novel ends.

But the issue becomes how the Red Matter would be useful in this situation. Previously, it was going to be used as a way to Dissipate the wave from the Hobus Star before it hit the Romulus system, but here it is the Romulus star itself that is going nova. I don’t see how Red Matter and the Jellyfish would solve the issue.

 

[thribs]

That's a heck of a leap you're attempting to make. From guessing a character's age even though it's extremely common for actors to play a different age (especially in Trek), over to inferred obsession, and on to statch.

I’m just having a little fun. I don’t actually expect her to be that age.
She’s probably in her early 40’s in the present making her in her early 20’s in the book.

 

[F. King Daniel]

But the issue becomes how the Red Matter would be useful in this situation. Previously, it was going to be used as a way to Dissipate the wave from the Hobus Star before it hit the Romulus system, but here it is the Romulus star itself that is going nova. I don’t see how Red Matter and the Jellyfish would solve the issue.

This post is the best explanation I've read. While it wouldn't quite "save their planet" as Spock says (ST: P has already ignored Spock's talk of the supernova "threatening to destroy the galaxy" so I don't think they're too fussed), it'd replace the sun with a black hole of equal mass, preserving planetary orbits and buying time for further evacuation.

Nero's ship, being ridiculously enormous, may even have been on the way to aid the evacuation.

 

[Kilana2]

https://www.cross-cult.de/news-details/picard-auf-dem-bildschirm.html

 

[rfmcdpei]

I think the comic takes place during the novel. I seem to recollect Dayton saying that the novel and comic are complementary with one another. I'm imagining something like the Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire project, where the novel and the comic told different stories but locked together.

Despite working in the comics industry, I was unable to get the first issue of the comic, as its orders were due around the time I was hospitalized in the autumn, so I'm trade-waiting.

The Last Best Hope is a book that covers the planetary evacuations of 2381-2385, while Countdown covers one of the more eventful evacuations towards the end of that period.

(Yes, Picard leads a fleet that spares the populations of multiple planets successfully.)

 

[rfmcdpei]

This post is the best explanation I've read. While it wouldn't quite "save their planet" as Spock says (ST: P has already ignored Spock's talk of the supernova "threatening to destroy the galaxy" so I don't think they're too fussed), it'd replace the sun with a black hole of equal mass, preserving planetary orbits and buying time for further evacuation.

Nero's ship, being ridiculously enormous, may even have been on the way to aid the evacuation.

I wrote about it here.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromIn...ks_goal_was_never_to_save_the_sun_of_romulus/

Suffice it to say it was a desperate plan indeed.

 

[thribs]

I don’t know...
It’s easier just to say that Spock never did anything in this timeline and is in fact still around.

 

[rfmcdpei]

I don’t know...
It’s easier just to say that Spock never did anything in this timeline and is in fact still around.

Why?

 

[Christopher]

I wrote about it here.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromIn...ks_goal_was_never_to_save_the_sun_of_romulus/

Suffice it to say it was a desperate plan indeed.

That's a very good analysis and I agree with your conclusions. It still leaves one lingering question, though. According to the movie, the supernova happened before Spock could get there, but he still deployed the Red Matter anyway. Why? The star had already emitted its radiation and blown off its atmosphere. The damage had already been done. There was no way the black hole could magically suck all that radiation back in, any more than handcuffing someone after they clap their hands could keep people from hearing the sound of the clap. And Romulus and Remus were already gone. So why go through with a plan that had already been rendered irrelevant? What good did it do at that point to deploy the Red Matter? This is the one part of the movie's supernova scenario that Picard hasn't found a more plausible explanation for.

The simplest explanation I can think of: After a Type II supernova happens, the expanding shell of superheated stellar atmosphere continues releasing radiation for months. At first, that radiation is largely contained because the ionized hydrogen around it is opaque to it, but as the cloud expands and cools, the hydrogen becomes transparent and the radiation escapes. So maybe Spock was trying to reduce the amount of radiation that would be released at that time. Maybe, instead of shooting the red matter into the core of the already-exploded star, he shot it on a trajectory that would orbit the core, sweeping through the hydrogen shell and sucking up as much of it as possible before its radiation was released. So it was a last-ditch attempt to at least moderate the amount of radiation the supernova would release in the long term.

A more remote possibility is that it was some variant of a pulsation pair-instability supernova, a rare type where the star actually survives the first eruption and then goes through another later on. This should only happen to really, really gigantic stars, but it's anomalous enough for a star with an inhabited planet to go supernova at all, so maybe there was something abnormal about this supernova.

 

[rfmcdpei]

That's a very good analysis and I agree with your conclusions. It still leaves one lingering question, though. According to the movie, the supernova happened before Spock could get there, but he still deployed the Red Matter anyway. Why? The star had already emitted its radiation and blown off its atmosphere. The damage had already been done. There was no way the black hole could magically suck all that radiation back in, any more than handcuffing someone after they clap their hands could keep people from hearing the sound of the clap. And Romulus and Remus were already gone. So why go through with a plan that had already been rendered irrelevant? What good did it do at that point to deploy the Red Matter? This is the one part of the movie's supernova scenario that Picard hasn't found a more plausible explanation for.

The simplest explanation I can think of: After a Type II supernova happens, the expanding shell of superheated stellar atmosphere continues releasing radiation for months. At first, that radiation is largely contained because the ionized hydrogen around it is opaque to it, but as the cloud expands and cools, the hydrogen becomes transparent and the radiation escapes. So maybe Spock was trying to reduce the amount of radiation that would be released at that time. Maybe, instead of shooting the red matter into the core of the already-exploded star, he shot it on a trajectory that would orbit the core, sweeping through the hydrogen shell and sucking up as much of it as possible before its radiation was released. So it was a last-ditch attempt to at least moderate the amount of radiation the supernova would release in the long term.

A more remote possibility is that it was some variant of a pulsation pair-instability supernova, a rare type where the star actually survives the first eruption and then goes through another later on. This should only happen to really, really gigantic stars, but it's anomalous enough for a star with an inhabited planet to go supernova at all, so maybe there was something abnormal about this supernova.

Thank you!

I would note that, in McCormack's book, both Federation and Romulan scientists are deeply confused by the bizarre evolution of the Romulan star. The two biggest in-universe experts are on the verge of believing that the supernova was triggered artificially, restrained mainly by thrir reluctance to make remarkable claims without good evidence and by their own quiet horror at the very idea.

 

[Leto_II]

^ Waiting for my own copy to arrive from B&N, but for those who already have theirs, is there an official name given to Romulus's star in McCormack's new novel? The Michael A. Martin Romulan War Litverse-books carried over Diane Duane's designation ("Eisn") from the '80s, but was just curious if they dance around this issue or if McCormack used a completely-new name altogether.

 

[rfmcdpei]

^ Waiting for my own copy to arrive from B&N, but for those who already have theirs, is there an official name given to Romulus's star in McCormack's new novel? The Michael A. Martin Romulan War Litverse-books carried over Diane Duane's designation ("Eisn") from the '80s, but was just curious if they dance around this issue or if McCormack used a completely-new name altogether.

There is no star name given. "Romulan star" is most often used. It could still be Eisn, for all that we know.

 

[Christopher]

Plus there's no reason it couldn't have different names in different Romulan languages. Maybe the southern Romulans call it Eisn and the northerners call it something else.

 

[thribs]

Why?

That way Spock could still be alive. The LitVerse could continue the other story.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I finished the book today. It was extremely well done, but it was... wrenching. I know the book had to end in this place in order to line up to the TV show, but it was still a pretty big emotional punch. I'm not someone who needs a book/movie/etc to have a happy ending, but... wow.

The two biggest in-universe experts are on the verge of believing that the supernova was triggered artificially

I'm really curious as to whether this was planted because the show is eventually going to follow up on it, or if it was just something the author added. I actually kept hoping this plot thread would be tied into Sunseed somehow, but I suppose that was probably way too much to hope for.

 

[rfmcdpei]

That way Spock could still be alive. The LitVerse could continue the other story.

Is there any reason to do that? I mean, Prime Spock left the main universe altogether with Nero for the Kelvin Universe. What is the point of making the new incarnation of the novelverse into an AU from the start?

 

[rfmcdpei]

I finished the book today. It was extremely well done, but it was... wrenching. I know the book had to end in this place in order to line up to the TV show, but it was still a pretty big emotional punch. I'm not someone who needs a book/movie/etc to have a happy ending, but... wow.

You agree with me it is almost the inverse novel to her Cardassian novels? The scope of the catastrophic failure is ...

I'm really curious as to whether this was planted because the show is eventually going to follow up on it, or if it was just something the author added. I actually kept hoping this plot thread would be tied into Sunseed somehow, but I suppose that was probably way too much to hope for.

There do seem to be multiple starkilling technologies out there.

Star Trek Online does seem to be a testbed for at least some new concepts in Trek. I have no problem at all believing the triggering of the supernova of Romulus' sun might well have been enemy action. The question just remains as to who would have done that.