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

[Airmandan]

But wouldn't that be a pretty huge coincidence? An artificially induced supernova happening at the same time in two timelines with two completely different causes? That's very contrived.

Well if you use the idea of the fixed point in time, similar to the theme of admiral Janeway having to die for... reasons, the you could make the same excuse for the Romulan star going supernova.

I know in the recent Titan novels they'd been dealing with the Breen and their gaining access to subspace weapons. I figured that the Breen would grow tired of the Romulans friendlier status with the Federation and would blast the Romulan star with one of those weapons.

 

[Damian]

But wouldn't that be a pretty huge coincidence? An artificially induced supernova happening at the same time in two timelines with two completely different causes? That's very contrived.

It's one of those destiny paradoxes. It can't be stopped. Romulus is doomed.

But to be serious for a moment, for me at least the story would be how the rest of the litverse deals with the destruction, not so much the destruction itself. And in light of how the Federation dealt with it in the Picard universe, it would be interesting to see how the Federation of the litverse dealt with it. I have a feeling that Captain Picard would not have felt the need to resign from Starfleet based on where that version of the Federation was where we left it.

(What, I wonder, is so important about 2387? I wonder.)

It's Star Trek's version of 1955 from Back to the Future.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

One additional thing i wonder about, especially because of Una McCormack's great work in showing the Romulans as a multifaceted culture with some interesting traits and a rich mythology, is that there is absolutely nothing about the Remans or other alien species living in romulan space.

Especially as relocating these species should also be a big issue for the Federation and it was actually a plot point for IDW's Picard prequel...

 

[Damian]

One additional thing i wonder about, especially because of Una McCormack's great work in showing the Romulans as a multifaceted culture with some interesting traits and a rich mythology, is that there is absolutely nothing about the Remans or other alien species living in romulan space.

Especially as relocating these species should also be a big issue for the Federation and it was actually a plot point for IDW's Picard prequel...

I have to admit that seems a bit of an obvious omission. I'd have to think Admiral Picard would be concerned with them as well. I'm now in the last 3rd of the book (the Last section) and thus far, not one mention.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

I have to admit that seems a bit of an obvious omission. I'd have to think Admiral Picard would be concerned with them as well. I'm now in the last 3rd of the book (the Last section) and thus far, not one mention.

Not wanting to spoil anything, but there is absolutely nothing about this issue in this book.

Which is something, i find really strange.

 

[Damian]

Not wanting to spoil anything, but there is absolutely nothing about this issue in this book.

Which is something, i find really strange.

Hmm. At this point in the book if they haven't been mentioned yet I probably wouldn't think they would be.

The only thing I can think of us at least thus far it seems the Federation has not been allowed to participate in the evacuation of Romulus itself, and I assume Remus. Perhaps most of the Remans are there and thus inaccessible.

Still, you'd think there'd be some mention.

 

[rfmcdpei]

I am not sure about that. Maybe other sentient species native to the Romulan core regions did not survive the early Star Empire, Yuyat Beta being an exception?

 

[Damian]

Just completed this novel. I'm having a hard time rating it. There are some things I don't care for but that's because I'm not entirely sold on the show itself and where it's at. I was hoping it wasn't going to be a downbeat show about how the system turned on Picard, but it seems to be exactly that for the moment. BUT, that being said, I can't fault McCormack for that. She doesn't get to decide where the show is at. She had to write a book telling us how he got to that point.

And all in all she did that pretty well. She always did a pretty good job fleshing out her characters and this is no exception. We got more background on Dr Maddox, a significant part of the story, as well as characters unique to the show. Geordi is the lone holdover from TNG and for the most part is handled well. She also leaves a hint that there is more to the nova than meets the eye--something I imagine the show itself will delve into more.

I also liked that she added some complexity to Picard's foil, Quest and her allies for instance. It would have been simple for McCormack to write them as bigots and leave it at that. But she adds a few layers to that. There is even one point where another character, I forget which one, who notes that she can't remember Quest's homeworld and while she does not like Quest too much, she admits she may have a point about smaller worlds being ignored by the core Federation worlds. It doesn't make it right, what Quest is doing, but perhaps had the Federation been more inclusive of it's non core members public opinion may have been stronger behind the effort and people like Quest wouldn't be able to capitalize as much on the discontent.

One thing I was looking for was a few nods to the ongoing litverse as well (that is of the relaunch timeline) and McCormack did give a two or three nods that I found. One was Worf being Picard's first officer at the start. Another is a couple mentions of the Federation aiding in the Cardassian recovery after the Dominion War. I believe there was one other thing I picked up on but I'm having a hard time recalling it off the top of my head.

A few downsides: I'm sorry, but yes, I'm bothered a bit by what I see as excessive swearing. I won't belabor it again, but I'm just not sold on profanity in Star Trek to the degree I see it currently. It's not enough to downgrade a story or book, but it sticks out as a nuisance for me. If the show ends up being decent I'll get over it. And I'm just a bit bothered by Picard's lack of awareness of all the political ramifications involved. He's usually more in tune with things like that. He a bit too quickly dismisses the idea that worlds would secede from the Federation (this was before the Synth attack on Mars). Like that would never happen--maybe a bit of hubris on his part? But I think perhaps he could have helped Bordson and Clancy a bit on that front instead of seemingly to dismiss it out of hand.

 

[Leto_II]

I have to admit that seems a bit of an obvious omission. I'd have to think Admiral Picard would be concerned with them as well. I'm now in the last 3rd of the book (the Last section) and thus far, not one mention.

This is probably because the Romulan government all the way up to the very end absolutely refuses to give permission to Picard and Starfleet to help evacuate the Romulan home-system, and almost none of the story is seen from a direct POV on Romulus itself except for one extremely-insulated astronomer who is almost monomaniacally focused on his work to the exclusion of virtually all else in his existence.

Thus, no direct mentions of the Remans in the story that we can see, but in-universe their situation would’ve almost certainly come up at some point in Starfleet’s deliberations, outside of our own particular narrow “window” on the storyline.

 

[Christopher]

If the Romulan government was so willing to abandon the population of Romulus and just evacuate the high-ranked people, I doubt they bothered to save the Remans at all. Well, maybe a small number of them to continue using as servitors and cannon fodder.

Honestly, I didn't understand the logic of why they were slow to evacuate their homeworld because they were using the wrong figures. I mean, if it's their own star that's blowing up, then that means Romulus is toast no matter the precise figures of the supernova's wider reach. So there should've been no ambiguity about the need to evacuate the homeworld first, especially since it would be affected years before any other system (unless we assume FTL supernova effects as in Generations). But then, we're talking about a government used to rigid control over the homeworld and in deep denial, making irrational decisions, so I can kind of buy that it's not supposed to make any sense.

Still, even something as seemingly insane as climate denial here on Earth has a comprehensible motive behind it -- namely, Russia will benefit from global warming while other countries will be hurt, so Vladimir Putin is backing climate denialists around the world in order to sabotage the fight against global warming. But what reason would any Romulan faction have to condemn most of the population of Romulus? Cui bono?

 

[Damian]

Thus, no direct mentions of the Remans in the story that we can see, but in-universe their situation would’ve almost certainly come up at some point in Starfleet’s deliberations, outside of our own particular narrow “window” on the storyline.

If the Romulan government was so willing to abandon the population of Romulus and just evacuate the high-ranked people, I doubt they bothered to save the Remans at all.

I don't disagree with that...but that doesn't change the fact that I can't believe Admiral Picard wouldn't have mentioned the Remans. But perhaps it's as Leto II points out and maybe the show itself will provide more info in the future. It just seems odd Picard/Starfleet grow more concerned about Romulus but no one even mentions Remus.

Question though. Could a supernova behave like this one? Even if it was some sort of attack? What I mean is could a supernova truly destroy worlds in entirely different systems. I was finding it a bit hard to believe a planet like Nimbus III would be affected to the point it needed to be evacuated. It just seems a bit far fetched, I don't know. ---now to be clear that's not really on McCormack. The show has established that it's effects were far reaching so McCormack has to reflect that. But does that make sense to people. I tend to think even the worse supernova would only really affect the Romulan system and maybe neighboring systems if they are close enough.

 

[Christopher]

I don't disagree with that...but that doesn't change the fact that I can't believe Admiral Picard wouldn't have mentioned the Remans. But perhaps it's as Leto II points out and maybe the show itself will provide more info in the future. It just seems odd Picard/Starfleet grow more concerned about Romulus but no one even mentions Remus.

The book spans four years in only 320-odd pages, and it jumps over huge spans of time between scenes and chapters. It makes it clear that the relocation fleet has evacuated numerous worlds beyond the few featured in the narrative. So just because something doesn't happen on the page doesn't mean it didn't happen at all. There's undoubtedly a great deal of stuff that happened during this span of time that didn't get mentioned in the book.

Question though. Could a supernova behave like this one? Even if it was some sort of attack? What I mean is could a supernova truly destroy worlds in entirely different systems.

Oh, hell, yes, absolutely. The book said that worlds up to about 10 light-years would be endangered -- that would actually be a very small supernova, as one might expect if a smaller, non-supernova-prone star were artificially blown up. More realistically, a supernova would have impact for dozens of light-years around. It wouldn't "destroy" those worlds, not in the sense of physically disintegrating the actual planets, but it could certainly lethally irradiate the surfaces of worlds in a number of nearby systems and cause mass extinctions. It would be very much like the Mestiko disaster depicted in Mere Anarchy. It could even trigger climate change on worlds a hundred light-years away or more. A hypernova, like Eta Carinae will probably become sometime in the next few hundred thousand years or so, could potentially irradiate worlds for thousands of light-years around, though the radiation will most likely be concentrated in narrow jets along the magnetic poles, lucky for us.

 

[Damian]

There's undoubtedly a great deal of stuff that happened during this span of time that didn't get mentioned in the book.

Well it's something that I was curious about, but like the whole Riker thing, I'll let it rest for now. Hopefully some of those questions will be answered down the line, either in the show itself or maybe future books once more is established.

Oh, hell, yes, absolutely. The book said that worlds up to about 10 light-years would be endangered -- that would actually be a very small supernova, as one might expect if a smaller, non-supernova-prone star were artificially blown up. More realistically, a supernova would have impact for dozens of light-years around.

Ok. I wasn't sure how far its effects would be. I was thinking about the more obvious physical destruction, but yeah, now that you mention it there'd be other effects that would make nearby systems uninhabitable. Now that you mention it I do recall the book might have mentioned that at least in passing at points.

Overall, I'm having a hard time ranking this book. I have it between average and above average. I certainly don't think it's below average. It's still well written and I like how she fleshes out some of the new characters. And I can't say it's excellent. I'm pretty stingy with that ranking. Definitely average to above average. I'm not sure I care for where Picard is as far as the show. But I don't want to unfairly judge the book on those grounds. She's writing a tie in to the show and if it's the show I have a problem with it's not really fair to rate the book lower just because I wish the show was different. And I'll admit the whole litverse storyline might be coloring my perceptions a bit. And it's not fair to judge this novel on those grounds either. I am glad to see McCormack did give a nod or two to the litverse. I think I'm going to mull it over for a bit before I actually give it a rating. I want to make sure I judge the book on its own merits, and not on the things I wish that were.

 

[rfmcdpei]

If the Romulan government was so willing to abandon the population of Romulus and just evacuate the high-ranked people, I doubt they bothered to save the Remans at all. Well, maybe a small number of them to continue using as servitors and cannon fodder.

Honestly, I didn't understand the logic of why they were slow to evacuate their homeworld because they were using the wrong figures. I mean, if it's their own star that's blowing up, then that means Romulus is toast no matter the precise figures of the supernova's wider reach. So there should've been no ambiguity about the need to evacuate the homeworld first, especially since it would be affected years before any other system (unless we assume FTL supernova effects as in Generations). But then, we're talking about a government used to rigid control over the homeworld and in deep denial, making irrational decisions, so I can kind of buy that it's not supposed to make any sense.

Still, even something as seemingly insane as climate denial here on Earth has a comprehensible motive behind it -- namely, Russia will benefit from global warming while other countries will be hurt, so Vladimir Putin is backing climate denialists around the world in order to sabotage the fight against global warming. But what reason would any Romulan faction have to condemn most of the population of Romulus? Cui bono?

One possibility is that, cynically, many Romulan politicians were opposed to an evacuation of most of the Romulan population on Romulus. Perhaps they believed that, without the centres of dissent on the homeworld, the Star Empire would be better off. I mentioned elsewhere that, in The Empty Chair, Senator Arrhae was able to convince a member of the Tricameron that the others were going to fake his sole responsibility for the use of Sunseed on Earth and try to position themselves as leaders of a post-war Romulan state based on surviving colonies. I can easily imagine monsters in power doing this.

Another might be a lack of preparation. Perhaps the Romulan state, with its authoritarianism and repression, misjudged its ability to evacuate the homeworld and the colonies to the extent that it thought it could. If it turns out the Romulans are not capable of evacuating everyone in even the fringe worlds of the core like Vejuro ...

I suppose that there might also be fear of panic if an earlier date and bigger explosion is known. If the star goes up early, you can suggest that the science was wrong. If people know the timetable is shorter, that creates tensions that they may not be able to manage.

 

[Christopher]

Another might be a lack of preparation. Perhaps the Romulan state, with its authoritarianism and repression, misjudged its ability to evacuate the homeworld and the colonies to the extent that it thought it could. If it turns out the Romulans are not capable of evacuating everyone in even the fringe worlds of the core like Vejuro ...

I think that was a large part of it -- they promised they'd evacuate everyone, but mismanaged the preparations and were afraid to admit how incapable they were of doing it, so they just kept postponing it.

I suppose that there might also be fear of panic if an earlier date and bigger explosion is known. If the star goes up early, you can suggest that the science was wrong. If people know the timetable is shorter, that creates tensions that they may not be able to manage.

Still, no matter when it is, Romulus is the planet you most need to evacuate first, the one that will be hit first and totally destroyed no matter when or how big the supernova is. So there's no sensible reason for putting it off any amount of time.

 

[Damian]

Ok, I've struggled over this long enough. I decided to go with above average. I'm not entirely thrilled with where the show starts off at, but that's on the show. McCormack does her job well enough, fleshing out the characters and setting up the story line, which is sort of her mandate I guess. That's what I'll judge the book by. I also liked that she added some complexity, even to those who opposed the Federation helping so much. The opposition grew deeper then just bigotry. It showed some cracks in the Federation, that the outlying worlds were being neglected even before the Romulan crisis. Perhaps had the Federation not neglected those worlds, they wouldn't have faced quite as much opposition.

I'm still a bit bothered by how quickly Picard brushes off those concerns when they are brought up by Clancy and even the C and C. But I guess that fed into the narrative as well because Picard is caught completely unawares by the abandonment of the project. Had he paid a bit closer attention to the concerns they were raising, he might have been better prepared going into that fateful meeting. Maybe even had a better speech prepared that might, might have changed a mind or two. So I have to admit it's possible Picard's single mindedness actually fed the plot of the story as he was completely flatfooted and unprepared for that, even though we as the readers could see it building to that fateful decision.

 

[Christopher]

^Well, to be fair to Picard, he was kinda busy.

 

[Damian]

^Well, to be fair to Picard, he was kinda busy.

Yeah, I know. But Picard usually isn't caught flat footed. He just seemed wholly unprepared for what happened, even though it was a gradual build up. Typically he's already considered the alternatives and in this case the clues were all there.

BUT, that being said, I'll grant it probably provides a lead in to the show itself. Had he been better prepared, it might not have come down to him resigning. He might have had alternatives to total withdrawal of the mission. Or something other. It's obvious he was not happy about leaving Starfleet--though he didn't regret taking a stand. But had he had time to think about it, it's conceivable he might have found some 3rd alternative that wouldn't require him to make such a stand. So on reflection it does serve the story, even if it's a bit out of character for Picard usually.

 

[Ronald Held]

For the few (by percentage) high Ranking Romulans to be sent to safety, a few years difference in the estimate would not be relevant?

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, I know. But Picard usually isn't caught flat footed.

He doesn't usually have to devote years of his life to the evacuation of 900 million people either. I don't think any of us can imagine how much that would preoccupy a person's thoughts and wear him down. I can't blame him for developing a rather narrow fixation on that task, since it's literally the only thing he's been working on for four years straight at that point.