Spoilers PIC: Rogue Elements by John Jackson Miller Review Thread

I preordered this book. I've been looking forward to reading this story about Rios.I like John Jackson millers Star Trek books alot.

 

So far, I'm enjoying it, particularly the insights into . . .

Spoiler

. . . post-"A Piece of the Action" Iotian culture.

To be sure, not the slapstick musical farce of How Much For Just the Planet, nor the Dahl-esque "Captain Kirk Meets Willy Wonka" of Trek to Madworld, but still, it's filled with ROFLMFAO (maybe even ROFLMMFAO) level humor.

Spoiler

I could, however, see the ball bearings coming a mile off, just as surely as any Captain Kangaroo fan could predict Mr. Moose showering the captain with ping-pong balls, or Bunny Rabbit running off with the whole bunch of carrots.

 

While it's certainly not a slapstick farce, it does share one characteristic with Airplane!:
Just as it is simply impossible to catch everything in Airplane! in a single viewing, whether it's your first or your hundredth, I suspect that it is likewise impossible to catch everything in this opus in a single reading. In both cases, there is simply too much going on. I just finished it, and I'm seriously considering re-reading it immediately.

One of my vanishingly rare "Outstanding" votes.

 

I voted outstanding as well. The Picard novels have been wonderful!

 

I admit I'm having one problem despite enjoying it. The book keeps acting like the Iotians being a bunch of gangsters is profoundly weird and silly.

I'm like, "Not really? I mean, no more than any other culture in Star Trek."

I mean Rios is from EARTH. I can't think of a more ridiculous planet to be from. They don't even eat meat there.

 

Has there ever been a tie-in story about the Iotians that hasn't continued "A Piece of the Action"'s precedent of playing them for humor?

 

Its inherently humorous but it seems almost mean spirited that Rios can't take them seriously. I find that a weird attitude for a Federation citizen to have.

 

They still eat replicated meat. And/or meat grown in a bioreactor. And maybe even meat from dead animals.

Vulcans don't.

But to get back to the opus at hand, I'd say it treats Iotian culture more seriously than any prior opus, and it does so in such a way that the backstory starts to make a bizarre kind of sense (which is more than I can say for an old vignette I vaguely recall from [I think] the long-deprecated Spaceflight Chronology [or a throwaway bit I recall from ENT]).

 

True, it was a small complaint as I absolutely LOVE John Jackson Miller's work in general (was a Star Wars fan of his before I was a Trek one) and love the Iotians in particular.

When I complain I don't see why they don't "really" smoke or have prostitution, I say it with a full gleeful smile that they're in the 24th century period.

 

I really am enjoying it and am feeling bad I am not one of the first reviewers. I want to savor this book, though.

 

My book came today I hope to start reading it soon.

 

Literary Treks with John will be out on Friday! Had so much fun talking to him about this book. I have really liked the Picard books so far.

 

I started this book last night. I throughly liked Chrisiobal Rios Journey in the book his adventures to differnt worlds and the different characters have been intriguing.I like the Iotians being in the book. Ledger is a really interesting. I didn't expect to see

Spoiler: Picard spoiler

Kevis Fajo in this book it was interesting to see how he'd changed the business he was running and trying to save Romulan wildlife and historical artifacts

This is one of my favorite Star trek novels written by John Jackson Miller.

 

4.5/5

I am a huge John Jackson Miller fan from the days when he was writing the KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC comic book. He is a writer that manages to carefully walk the balance beam between high comedy and aggressively serious depressing moments. I have yet to read something by him I didn't like and was compelled to pick up this book to read what he was doing with the Picard timeline.

I'm a huge Picard fan but I can't say that Cristobal Rios was my favorite character of the series. I felt he was just too similar to so many other tramp freighter captains I've seen over the course of my decades of science fiction fandom. JJM smartly plays into this with the fact that the story has Raffi Musiker arrange for him to become one while ignoring the fact that Rios doesn't want to be. He doesn't find it to be a romantic, exciting, or entertaining pulpy adventure as seemingly everyone else does. It makes a nice difference from Han Solo and Malcolm Reynolds even as the story does become a romantic exciting entertaining adventure.

The premise is that Rios has just been kicked out of Starfleet for the crimes of his supervisor and he's lost all of his friends but one. Raffi decides to set him up with a tramp freighter and the life of a Han Solo-esque rogue but this proves to be significantly less glamorous than the movies show. I also got a huge kick out of finding out that JJM was going to make extensive use of the Iotians from "A Piece of the Action" with them being Rios' version of Jabba the Hutt. Still gangsters after a century of contact with the Federation, they are both ridiculous as well as very good at thriving in a galaxy that has largely forgotten how to deal with criminals.

Part of the book's fun is how miserable Rios is dealing with the loss of his Starfleet career, how disordered life is on a tramp freighter, and how angry he is about Starfleet's betrayal vs. the fact that he is going on a series of increasingly wild treasure hunts. Rios is a terrible businessman, fitting from an Earth Hu-Mon (to quote the Ferengi) and probably would have just given away his ship in a weak if not for new character, Ledger, forcing him to pay a debt that is obviously meant to never be repaid.

JJM's experience in Star Wars clearly shows as he makes the transition a bit better than other writers might. It reminds me of the old Brian Daley Han Solo novels that I felt were the best of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. JJM envisions a seedy underbelly for the galaxy that has always been there (Harry Mudd anyone?) but has never been given particularly much attention. I also appreciated the return of a TNG villain that was underused too and won't spoil the surprise of. I will say it was kind of amusing to note that this book brought them back just as they used as an inspiration for "Lower Decks" too.

While I rarely comment on this element, I also give the book's handling of romance props. Rios is a very dashing protagonist who manages to handle relationships with no less than three women in the book but somehow doesn't come off as skeezy over it. I also appreciated that one of them is with a signicantly older woman and it's not treated as the least bit weird. I actually regretted that at least one couldn't continue because, of course, he's alone at the start of Star Trek: Picard. I also regret we'll likely never see any more of the Klingon merchant lord Verengar--unless we get a sequel series to this!

So, top marks and people should really buy this! Some of the funniest most entertaining Star Trek fiction I've read in years and I've read over a hundred Star Trek novels. Hell, probably closer to two hundred. I have maybe a few minor complaints that are almost insignificant to mention like some of the goons getting away with their crimes when I felt a more final fate would have been better but forget it, Rios, it's Iotia. It's still a very solid and fun book that makes me like the Rios character a lot more.

 

Here's my more discussion-y thoughts on the book:

1. I absolutely did like the handling of Iotian culture. I was initially confused why JJM felt the need to make it less sexist than RL as I would assume Iotians would be able to piece together how prostitution and "moll" works but I got that he was making a larger point about feminism as well as how women work behind the scenes even in patriarchal sexist cultures.

I admit I am kind of sad that the book didn't canonize that at least some of the Iotians went off to become TOS fans and that by the 24th century they were wearing the old uniforms while flying around Constitution-class vessels. That might have been way too much of a Deep Cut even for the novels, though.

2. I absolutely love Ledger and weirdly had the moment where a specific actress was playing her in my head (that almost never happens). For some reason, from the very beginning, I had her as Sarah Michelle Gellar doing a fake Jersey accent, though at times it mentally drifted to Tara Strong's Harley Quinn. Also weird because the Iotians are all Chicagoean but what can you say about imagination.

I am of two minds regarding the Rios/Ledger romance at the end. I really liked at the start when Rios commented, "No, by the way, there's no belligerent sexual tension between us as has happened to me before, she just hates me." I always enjoy when novels subvert that. However, I really actually was invested in them as a couple at the end despite the fact I knew it couldn't go anywhere.

3. The use of Fajo was great and he really was an excellent noir villain. I was a bit disappointed with him saying he would get out of jail, though, Once is forgivable, twice implies the Federation's penal system is as corrupt as anyone else when dealing with the super-rich. Similarly, I was disappointed Arkko didn't end up getting polished off. I didn't find her remotely sympathetic and the loss of her fortune seemed poor retribution for all the horrible stuff she did.

Given Lisette ALSO gets away with (attempted) murder, this starts to become a pattern.

4. Kudos for use of (Admiral) Marta and her being kind of a reminder of TNG Starfleet! Basically, Rios just meeting a Starfleet officer from an idealistic and pleasant time that just rubs up against Rios' past trauma. It was a really good scene. I will also state it was nicely realistic that all of Rios' crew blamed him despite the fact he had nothing to do with it.

He was utterly scapegoated in every possible way by the Zhat Vash infiltrators.

5. One small quibble: I don't actually think Chang's reputation would be 100% mud in the Klingons as we saw him honored in the Hall of Warriors. It absolutely should be mud for treason, treachery, assassination, and working with Romulans but I tend to think this kind of hypocrisy is all too common to the Klingons.

6. As mentioned in my review, I also approve of JJM having a May-December romance for our romantic lead with Vash. It's very common in fiction for older men to hook up with younger women for a time but not as often for the reverse. I don't think the Vash twist was necessary but it wasn't unwelcome either.

7. Verengar is a great character with a fairly epic backstory about being the son of a discommendated Klingon (though I kind of think it would have worked better if his father hadn't been a General but just some random guy on Kang's vessel). It weirdly reminded me of the Outer Worlds where a major subplot is that you are not Han Solo but flying around Han Solo's vessel and constantly getting accused of murdering/stealing a hero's ship.

8. I fully believe Sto'vo'kor as depicted as just a bar is 100% true to Klingon mythology.

 

I am about half way through. I do not understand this book.

 

I was so excited to have John Jackson Miller on Literary Treks to talk about this book! I've really enjoyed every Picard book we have gotten so far!

 

I enjoyed listening to your podcast interview with John Jackson Miller it certainly helped me understand the story arcs for Rios and the other characters better. I just finished the book it was really good.