Spoilers Coda: Book 1: Moments Asunder by Dayton Ward Review Thread

He really was! I tired!

 

These aren't spoilers so I'm not spoiler-coding it - I bet the prophets are presented as a solution but are wiped out in short order to show the size of the threat in the same way that the Guardian of Forever was wiped out.

Similar - I wouldn't expect DS9 to survive either.

 

Why can't the Prophets telocate to
Some other universe?

 

I don't expect Sisko to be on the board when all is said and done. I expect he'll go back to wherever he was at the end of "What You Leave Behind."

 

I admit, I'd totally forgotten until reading this thread that Ranjea shouldn't still be around in 2387. It's been nearly 5 years since I wrote Shield of the Gods, over 4 years since I proofread the galleys.

I'm reminded of Shaxs coming back in season 2 of Lower Decks. Hey, it's a time travel agency, so that sort of thing might happen a lot. The fact that Garcia showed no reaction whatsoever to the death of Ranjea, her dearest friend in all the universe, might mean he's not her Ranjea.

That would've been the Ekpyrotics.

That's amusing, given that she originated as an RPG character of mine.

I was halfway expecting something like the Arrowverse Crisis on Infinite Earths, with other Trek continuities being mined to represent different parallel universes. Like, maybe there's a scene with Ingrit Tomson and Lt. Naraht facing cosmic destruction, and another with Nancy Bryce and Konom, and maybe an STO one, etc.

The Defiant went back in time and crossed into the Mirror Universe. So there's canonical precedent.

 

Finished the audiobook. Gruesome! :-)

I have to say Wesley's death would be a more powerful event if he didn't come back just a few minutes [audiobook time] later.

I always enjoy Mr Ward's action scenes; still, in this case I felt as if the infodump on what's really going on that's crammed into the very end of the book could be more effectively served in smaller doses throughout the novel, interspersing the action.

Somehow Ezri's death barely registered for me. I was listening to the scene while walking and after a few minutes was like 'HUH? So Ezri's dead now? What will Worf say?' It's interesting that we got, as far as I can see, no reaction from Worf to this event.

I've read quite a few novels on branching realities / numerous possible worlds in recent years and the approach chosen, I hope, by the trio of the Coda authors seems to be well-thought out (not that I'm an expert :-)) I like that we're explicitly told that there are differences in, well, 'firmness' of the timelines: you might think that when a timeline splits, you just get two timelines of similar modal status; however, here we have one that's 'original' and an offshoot. That's a nontrivial idea (especially if you think that timeline splits may result from your arbitrary choices or random events, if such exist) and it seems to drive some of the larger-scale developments. (I hope :-).) I have to say the approach here is a lot better than e.g. Baxter's 'Ultima'; I won't spoil this one but at the end I was greatly disappointed [if anyone cares I can expand on this].


But honestly: I really enjoy the fact that the Novelverse timeline ends with a trio of novels about destroying timelines. Great move.

 

If you can "pluck" a similar character from a parallel universe, doesn't that diminish the impact of the Prime one's death?

 

Watch Rick and Morty for a deep dive into this

 

That kinda dovetails with a thought that occurred to me the other day that would be really cool but also probably really impractical -- sort of like the over-sized comic books of past when they hit an anniversary issue they'd get a bunch of artists in to do a a "jam" issue, have "jam" chapter or two. Like, Mike W. Barr would write the Bryce/Konom scene; Keith DeCandido would write the Gorkon scene; MJF returns for a Gilaad ben Zoma scene; Diane Duane does a scene with Naraht, Lia T. Burke, and Ael; Chris Claremont pens a scene with T'Kir in the 24th-century; DRG3 does a Crucible tie-in; etc. It expands the scope and also lets creators say goodbye to the characters.

 

Sorry, but I have no idea what you mean in details.

 

Most of the main characters have an extremely nihilistic outlook, the result of knowing they're only one of infinite copies of themselves that have lived, died and been replaced countless times. And that's before you get to the Asimov Cascade, and countless android duplicates of each of the main characters in each reality.

“Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs anywhere. Everybody's gonna die. Come watch TV”

 

I can’t get into Rick and Morty, partly because that’s a sad worldview.

 

Its kind of funny because Terry Pratchett has Vimes have this exact same revelation and someone points out, "They're not you so its a stupid view."

 

Still more up beat than Picard.

 

How is Picard depressing? I literally made a thread about it. By the end, everything is happy go lucky and the Borg even have a new home.

 

I wouldn't bother.

 

I admit, my biggest issue with Picard is I want to know MORE about everything that's going on. 26 episodes of Season 1 would have been more my taste.

 

My main issue with Picard is that a lot of things did not get a chance to breathe as much as might have liked, that we did not get to explore backstory more. A bit more with Zhaban and Laris would have been great, and I would have liked some development of the Seven/Hugh relationship that wasn't posthumous. Twelve episodes?

 

I said the show deserved to have THE NEEDS OF THE MANY basically be a two part episode. The politics of Star Trek are always interesting unlike the politics of Star Wars.

 

Finished the audiobook and it is good stuff, a little long, but worth it.