Spoilers TOS: The Higher Frontier, by Christopher L. Bennett - review thread

Oh. I guess I just made a mistake. I don't know how that happened -- I was sure I looked it up in the FH manuscript.

 

I started reading this book last night I like that the Aenar are in this book along with the Andorians and the mysterious aliens who are attacking telepaths ansd trying to find out why they attacked the Aenar.The stuff with The Medusans have been interesting trying to track down the technology the villains used on Andor.

 

I'm maybe halfway through and am enjoying in. I marvel at how some authors are able to mentally inhabit the characters so effectively. Anybody else catch what seems to be a veiled "Axanar" reference?

 

There is no such thing in the book.

 

That reference to "sims" involving Garth being pulled sure seemed like that to me. But we'll take your word for it.

 

Axanar did not create Garth of Izar, for Pete's sake. He's from "Whom Gods Destroy." The episode established that he was Kirk's own hero and role model, the greatest captain in Starfleet history, so it stood to reason that if there were dramatizations of Starfleet captains' adventures, Garth would've had one long before Kirk did.

 

Of course I know about WGD but the thing that made me think of Axanar was the refernece to the sims being pulled. Guess I was seeing something that wasn't there.

 

Finished the first section. Could the massacre be the reason that Aenar are not mentioned in the late 23d to 24th century?

 

^ All will be revealed by the end of the book...

 

Is that a joke, or actually true?

 

Read and find out.

 

About half way thought. Does any other Treklit modern novel have 5 year mission sims, toys, novels, games in the public sector?

 

Up to the "Interlude" division page. Things look very bleak.

 

Also, it could be that the term for this Vulcan state is a word that is only roughly translated to Protectorate or Consortium. Both are odd names (no offense!) for a militaristic autocracy. Although, they probably just imply a legal fiction that the Vulcans are merely aiding these worlds within their overall hegemony.

With any foreign name translated to English (especially alien ones), I tend to ignore and shrug at conflicting titles, just assuming that they're differences in the translation. With Star Trek in particular, you have magical universal translator technology that might not be relaying the exact words the characters are speaking (Spock and T'Pring probably speaking in Golic Vulcan, for example).

 

Nope, it's just a typo that's already been corrected. The e-book edition and future printings will now say Protectorate, though I suppose it's too late for the audiobook.

The Vulcan Protectorate exists in a timeline where Earth was never an interstellar player, so it's basically an evolution of the Vulcans' role in interstellar affairs in the Enterprise era, where they were a theoretically benevolent power that paternalistically guided and protected less advanced or powerful civilizations, but were often too strict and repressive in doing so. So the "Protectorate" name comes from that historical role, whatever it may have evolved into since then.

 

Really enjoyed this one. No one can do a massive continuity fix-up quite like Christopher; the plausibility with which this ties together basically every reference to telepathy in TOS and makes a great story out of it is quite impressive, not to mention all the other references (The Captain's Daughter, the Reliant crew, etc etc). Great stuff - epic, well-told, exemplary tie-in work that feels extremely Star Trek in how it all comes together and rests on a strong morality play in the end.

Christopher has been killing it with the TOS novels lately.

 

Yeah, I've got a graphic design background and everything I know on the subject says it's a good cover. Wouldn't've wanted to put a ship that wasn't in the story on the cover had it been my job to make it (think it should've been the 1701 instead, IMHO), but still.

 

Enjoyed the last section of Chapter 9, especially the references to the more absurd stories from (if memory serves) the Gold Key comic books.

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine any truly good ST novelist would ever reference Marshak & Culbreath's fleshing-out of the "New Human" concept introduced in the early Pocket novels (including, as I recall, the TMP novelization).

I just got past the return of the Naazh. Of course, I saw it coming a mile off, but it would be kind of hard not to.

Spoiler: Hmm. . .

They seem to be actively recruiting.

 

Gold Key, Marvel 1980, and Power Records.

Oh, Great Beebo, no, that was the last thing I intended. I'm not referencing M&C's version of New Humans, I'm offering a long-overdue alternative. My version is based purely on the TMP novelization and my own extrapolations.