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

[JD]

If it's a price issue going digital isn't going to help much, both versions are usually about the same price.

Yeah but it’s JJVerse canon. No one cares about that.

It was in a Kelvin movie, but all of the backstory about Spock and the supernova happened in the Prime universe, so all future stories set in the Prime universe have to use it.
The local digital library got a copy, but it looks like it will be six months before I get a chance to read it. I checked and there are already 14 people waiting ahead of me for it.
I'm a little confused by why they limit how many people can get each e-books, since their digital shouldn't that mean they basically have an infinite number of copies?
Hoopla, the other digital library app I get my comics from doesn't seem to limit how many people can check out their content.

 

[Christopher]

It was in a Kelvin movie, but all of the backstory about Spock and the supernova happened in the Prime universe, so all future stories set in the Prime universe have to use it.

Well, they choose to use it, because the working assumption of all Trek productions is that they all take place in the same continuity (at least in broad strokes), and because building on it gave them a story they thought was worth telling.

The creators of a fictional franchise never have to use ideas from earlier installments, because the whole thing is just made up and they're the ones in charge of making it up. So they're perfectly free to rewrite or ignore all past continuity if they want to. You can find plenty of fictional series out there that rewrote their continuities midway through or ignored the assumptions of past installments. Trek has done that on occasion, which is why most Trek series depict crossing the galaxy as something that takes decades without special drives, despite ST V showing a trip to the center of the galaxy taking mere hours or less. But this isn't a case where they've chosen to do that.

 

[David Weller]

Just started it. 10 pages in. Liking it so far:

Smiled at the H2G2 reference.

 

[Jedi Ben]

Does anybody have any info of when a paperback version of this might release? Hardcover only from what I've seen in the UK

You can get the hardback for around £11-12, which is pretty decent. Paperback prices are now at RRP £9.99-10.99, so for the sake of a couple of quid....

 

[Jinn]

Halfway through the first chapter and I'm loving it!

 

[ITDUDE]

Anyone finish it yet? Any speed readers in here?

 

[JD]

Well, they choose to use it, because the working assumption of all Trek productions is that they all take place in the same continuity (at least in broad strokes), and because building on it gave them a story they thought was worth telling.

The creators of a fictional franchise never have to use ideas from earlier installments, because the whole thing is just made up and they're the ones in charge of making it up. So they're perfectly free to rewrite or ignore all past continuity if they want to. You can find plenty of fictional series out there that rewrote their continuities midway through or ignored the assumptions of past installments. Trek has done that on occasion, which is why most Trek series depict crossing the galaxy as something that takes decades without special drives, despite ST V showing a trip to the center of the galaxy taking mere hours or less. But this isn't a case where they've chosen to do that.

Fair point. I have to admit, I get used to the books and comics having to follow the shows and movies and forget that that rule doesn't necessarily apply to the shows and movies themselves.

 

[locborg]

Anyone finish it yet? Any speed readers in here?

No and i don’t intend to, too many pages... I read the beginning, the end and some interesting passages i figured out by using the word search function. Most of the book seems to be endless gibberish on the possibilities on how to save the Romulans. Also the Maddox backstory stretches like gum.

with help of the great search function i am going to give you a word/reference occurrence count for the most important Trek words:

Picard: 582 occurrences on 326 pages (must be a record...)
Raffi: 332 (this is a raffi book! She just doesn't want to shut up)
Worf: 12 (yeah, he is captain now alright..)
Riker: 0 (that is zero occurrences! Just like he doesn’t exist anymore...)
Number One: 1 (nope not a riker reference, only the introduction of the frigging dog...)
Troi: 1 (one namedrop on page 150, don’t bother...)
Enterprise: 31 (looks like the Enterprise is just too scary for the Romulans..)
Spock: 5 (some namedrops and a cameo, nothing special)
Nero: 0 (no one knows Nero...)
Maddox: 97 (he is all over the book but doesn’t appear to do anything except complaining and cursing)
La forge: 145 (Geordi and Bruce... on Tanagra)
Beverly: 8 (anyone understood what happened to her?)
Data: 24 (Maddox is still obsessed with Data)
Supernova: 24 (kinda obvious)
Borg: 0 (!!!)

curse words:
Merde: 2
Fuck: 19!!!! (Yes it is a dirty book and maddox has some anger management issues)
Shit: 17
Crap: 2
Pussy: 0 (thank god!)

Thanks for reading my review

 

[Avro Arrow]

If it's a price issue going digital isn't going to help much, both versions are usually about the same price.

Unless you're in Canada!

Print, in store (Indigo/Chapters): $34.00
Print, online: Indigo/Chapters: $25.80, Amazon: $25.44
eBook (Kobo & Amazon): currently still $3.99!

I'm actually honestly surprised they're selling the eBook version that cheaply...

 

[Jarvisimo]

No and i don’t intend to, too many pages... I read the beginning, the end and some interesting passages i figured out by using the word search function. Most of the book seems to be endless gibberish on the possibilities on how to save the Romulans. Also the Maddox backstory stretches like gum.

with help of the great search function i am going to give you a word/reference occurrence count for the most important Trek words:

Picard: 582 occurrences on 326 pages (must be a record...)
Raffi: 332 (this is a raffi book! She just doesn't want to shut up)
Worf: 12 (yeah, he is captain now alright..)
Riker: 0 (that is zero occurrences! Just like he doesn’t exist anymore...)
Number One: 1 (nope not a riker reference, only the introduction of the frigging dog...)
Troi: 1 (one namedrop on page 150, don’t bother...)
Enterprise: 31 (looks like the Enterprise is just too scary for the Romulans..)
Spock: 5 (some namedrops and a cameo, nothing special)
Nero: 0 (no one knows Nero...)
Maddox: 97 (he is all over the book but doesn’t appear to do anything except complaining and cursing)
La forge: 145 (Geordi and Bruce... on Tanagra)
Beverly: 8 (anyone understood what happened to her?)
Data: 24 (Maddox is still obsessed with Data)
Supernova: 24 (kinda obvious)
Borg: 0 (!!!)

curse words:
Merde: 2
Fuck: 19!!!! (Yes it is a dirty book and maddox has some anger management issues)
Shit: 17
Crap: 2
Pussy: 0 (thank god!)

Thanks for reading my review

Please, this is borderline trolling. And it didn't even answer the question, so what was the point?

 

[Koric]

@Christopher Point taken. Thanks

@Avro Arrow I like to believe the ebook is discounted to $3.99 because Picard and CBS ALL ACCESS isnt available in Canada now. Congrats on the discounted ebook.

I cant wait to see how the podcast goes for this book on Literary Treks with @Kertrats47

I'm glad that people are enjoying this book honestly. I wish I could too. It stuck with me all night like a bad fever. Someone possibly the President of the Federation commenting on the Supernova saying HOLY F-ING SH-T.

This must be one pissed off world of 2399, the waiter telling Maddox to F-OFF.
Or the Romulan telling Picard, F-You Starfleet. Picard reaction? Why not angry Picard from First Contact? Nope.

Im just like why? Why is the author so angry to add such harsh prose into this world. Ladies and gents this is not one random curse word. Its over and over.

Another rub why the premium $1 surcharge on this ebook over current $12 Trek ebooks?

I couldnt stay with it honestly.

For some reason I kept thinking of the future and the Federation as the one line in Back to Future: "What are we in the future Doc, do we become A-holes or something?"

I gave the book a 5 star rating, but I cant finish it at all. I kept being distracted by the fact in my mind, ok this a dark time, but why would someone WRITE Trek this way? Who edited this? Who OK'ed this? ISNT TREK for everyone, of all ages?

So maybe one of the other Trek writers can chime in? I don't believe in censorship or taking away anyone's choice of their freedom of expression at all, but it has to make sense at least.

Has any Trek writer been tempted to throw these words around in your stories or books? Asking?

Disclaimer I'm not trying to be a moral authority. This is more like a heads up or an FYI. But it the end, it really got to me. I have almost 340 Star Trek ebooks now out of the 850 and I cherish them all, but I couldnt see myself keeping or re-reading this ebook again. I just couldnt finish the book at all.

I hated the passage of the Starfleet Admirality questioning Worf becoming Captain and including the DS9 Dominion incident as a reason for not promting him or givin him the rank. The prejudices of the Federation against the Romulans, but would they want to deny the sole Klingon officer in Starfleet who decorated and to question giving Worf the rank of captain of the Enterprise, I just didnt understand.


So maybe considered SPOILERS: (sorry not sure how to tag it properly)

Did Maddox actually use B-4 neurons for fractal cloning in all of the synths?

Wouldn't Maddox know B-4 didnt not have Data's abilities and capacity?

This bothered me to no end. As a joke, I kept thinking of LaForge saying to Maddox: "You did get Hans Delbrooks brain did you?"
Maddox: "No it was B-4...no ABBY-Something"
LaForge: "Abby-Something?"
Maddox: "Yes, Abby-Normal"

Yes a Young Frankenstein reference in Trek. I felt it fit. LOL.

So if B-4 was told of Data's demise and death at the hands of Shinzon a Reman.
Is the reason the for the sythnetics killing thousands on Mars and destroying the Romulan rescue fleet, the result of B-4 being special and getting the facts wrong to seek revenge on the Romulans for the death of Data?

Is this possible?

in any event cheers to all enjoying the Picard novel. I said it and I meant it. I want the book to succeed despite the language.

-Koric

 

[SolarisOne]

This was the best goddamn Trek novel I've read in a while--fucks and all.

Long live the new Litverse continuity!

 

[Christopher]

Im just like why? Why is the author so angry to add such harsh prose into this world. Ladies and gents this is not one random curse word. Its over and over.

You're assuming it's even about anger. It's just the way some people talk. People in different communities and cultures perceive profanities in different ways. I rarely curse in public myself due to my upbringing, but most of my writer friends from New York curse prolifically and casually and don't have any unusually strong anger or other emotion behind it; it's just an everyday verbal intensifier to them.

I often tell the story of the time I was on a bus and overheard a couple of people having a conversation in which an epithet I was raised to consider the worst obscenity ever was used so casually and frequently, basically as just a pronoun, that they elided it to "m'fuh" and used it with no particular feeling behind it -- but when the time came that one of them wanted to express his strong emotional reaction to something, he quite distinctly said, "What the hell?!" It was a complete inversion of my own assumptions about the relative severity of those words.

Bottom line, the f-word is one that's routinely used in emotional situations, and TV and movies have always artificially glossed over that everyday reality due to censorship. Picard is simply depicting the way people speak in a more realistic way, because it's not under those restrictions anymore.

As for whether profanity makes something inappropriate for children, in my experience, children swear like crazy when their parents aren't listening. Once, much more recently than the bus anecdote, I was taking a walk in the neighborhood park while a bunch of grade-school boys were playing on its swings and such, and the language they hurled at each other would've made a sailor blush, while their insults and barbs were far more vicious than the casual f-bombs my writer friends use for mere emphasis. I think that censoring profanity isn't about protecting kids; they hear and use that kind of language all the time. It's more about protecting the sensibilities of their parents and letting them retain their illusions about their well-behaved little angels.

 

[ITDUDE]

No and i don’t intend to, too many pages... I read the beginning, the end and some interesting passages i figured out by using the word search function. Most of the book seems to be endless gibberish on the possibilities on how to save the Romulans. Also the Maddox backstory stretches like gum.

with help of the great search function i am going to give you a word/reference occurrence count for the most important Trek words:

Picard: 582 occurrences on 326 pages (must be a record...)
Raffi: 332 (this is a raffi book! She just doesn't want to shut up)
Worf: 12 (yeah, he is captain now alright..)
Riker: 0 (that is zero occurrences! Just like he doesn’t exist anymore...)
Number One: 1 (nope not a riker reference, only the introduction of the frigging dog...)
Troi: 1 (one namedrop on page 150, don’t bother...)
Enterprise: 31 (looks like the Enterprise is just too scary for the Romulans..)
Spock: 5 (some namedrops and a cameo, nothing special)
Nero: 0 (no one knows Nero...)
Maddox: 97 (he is all over the book but doesn’t appear to do anything except complaining and cursing)
La forge: 145 (Geordi and Bruce... on Tanagra)
Beverly: 8 (anyone understood what happened to her?)
Data: 24 (Maddox is still obsessed with Data)
Supernova: 24 (kinda obvious)
Borg: 0 (!!!)

curse words:
Merde: 2
Fuck: 19!!!! (Yes it is a dirty book and maddox has some anger management issues)
Shit: 17
Crap: 2
Pussy: 0 (thank god!)

Thanks for reading my review

That’s funny. I like your review

 

[thribs]

Anyone finish it yet? Any speed readers in here?

I’m nearly done. Not really a fan. The only stuff I like are the Maddox/Jurati stuff.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

curse words:
Merde: 2
Fuck: 19!!!! (Yes it is a dirty book and maddox has some anger management issues)
Shit: 17
Crap: 2
Pussy: 0 (thank god!)

Thanks for reading my review

Isn't Picard rated TV-MA? It's a series aimed at adults, with content for adults; I'd expect the tie-ins to be aimed at the same audience.

 

[thribs]

Isn't Picard rated TV-MA? It's a series aimed at adults, with content for adults; I'd expect the tie-ins to be aimed at the same audience.

12 in the UK.
I don’t know why they insist on making it for adults. It’s not like the story needs the naughty language.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

12 in the UK.

"Cheeky fucker" wouldn't pass muster with Standards & Practices over here.

I don’t know why they insist on making it for adults. It’s not like the story needs the naughty language.

Because they can? It's produced for a streaming network, so someone isn't going to be flipping through channels and stumble upon it. The person watching Picard is probably the same person paying for the streaming subscription, and that person is almost certainly an adult. It's an unfortunate side-effect of the streaming era, that the programming produced for that era is targeted at specific audiences rather than a mass one.

 

[BillJ]

I don’t know why they insist on making it for adults. It’s not like the story needs the naughty language.

Working under the impression that cursing and boobs makes something adult, instead of the subject matter.

 

[thribs]

Cheeky fucker" wouldn't pass muster with Standards & Practices over here.

Not necessarily. The BBFC have relaxed the rules about language these days. It’s seen worse to them if they use the word in reference to the act.
I’m sure if they constantly used the word, it might go to a 15.