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Spoilers Coda: Book 2: The Ashes of Tomorrow by James Swallow Review Thread

Rate Coda: Book 2: The Ashes of Tomorrow

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Anyone point me to the specific one where he started working on DS9 again? or did that happen between books?

Between books; in the last DS9 book, the existing security chief was promoted to XO, leaving an opening that would make sense for Odo to temporarily fill.
 
Very good - a step up from the first book. The deaths had more impact and there were more genuine character arcs. For a middle book it did a excellent job of feeling satisfying in its own right while continuing the ongoing storyline. It had to juggle a lot of characters and mainly did it well with only really Titan and the newer DS9 characters getting either no time or very little.

1 - Riker is getting a bit of a raw deal here, but even worse are Deanna, Vale & to a lesser extent Tuvok. He's acting so on the edge they really look quite weak by not actually opposing him. Hopefully we'll see them have more of an impact in the final book.
2 - The DS9 cast have really felt the brunt of this so far. Ezri was the biggest death of book 1 and now there's hardly any of them left after this one. That said they all went out well in this book, some really affecting moments.
3 - Bashir's recovery felt a bit easy and, unless I missed it, it seemed like the Prophets could have warned people earlier than they did but otherwise the plot was solid.
4 - I suppose given who is writing the last book the Mirror Universe isn't a huge surprise but I can't say I'm particularly enthused about that element having felt the books have overused it for years now. Willing to be proved wrong though.
 
It doesn't even feel that long since Book 1 came out

Digging the small Lower Decks nod.

Edit, woah al STO Reference?

Some of the others he had met at fleet functions or on operational deployments, such as the bearded, paternal Trill Jorel Quinn.

Jorel Quinn is and Admiral and the head of Starfleet (or just Earth Space Dock? I'm not 100% sure), he's usually your main contact as a Starfleet officer, and he is a Trill

edit: He even has some speaking lines, nice
 
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1 - Riker is getting a bit of a raw deal here, but even worse are Deanna, Vale & to a lesser extent Tuvok. He's acting so on the edge they really look quite weak by not actually opposing him. Hopefully we'll see them have more of an impact in the final book.

I had two competing theories in mind about what was going on here, until the conclusion Worf reached.

My first theory was that the DTI was working behind the scenes to some plan that the Admiralty was privy to but Picard was not, and, for some reason, the DTI wanted to collapse the timeline. My second theory was the "Conspiracy" aliens were back and Riker (and the Admiralty) had been taken over.

I haven't really discounted either!

2 - The DS9 cast have really felt the brunt of this so far. Ezri was the biggest death of book 1 and now there's hardly any of them left after this one. That said they all went out well in this book, some really affecting moments.

I'm still shaken by Nog's death, days after reading it. Did Nog realize that he saved Jake? Did Jake know that Nog was out there?

O'Brien's fate was completely in character for him. It's an engineering problem, and he's going to engineer it.

Ro and Quark didn't really get me.

The explosion -- I'm still speechless.

3 - Bashir's recovery felt a bit easy and, unless I missed it, it seemed like the Prophets could have warned people earlier than they did but otherwise the plot was solid.

The description of Julian as "feral" at the novel's end makes me wonder if this is "our" Julian. Yes, mirror Julian is supposed to be deceased, but I don't recall ever seeing the body...
 
Oh wow and a Discovery Tie in
The Time Crystals on Boreth
the reference is very subtle. They're not called Time Crystals, and the perspective of that scene is from someone who doesn't know what they are, only that there are sacred crystals in the depths of Boreth they need to protect.

at least so far where I am in the book, there could be later chapters there

Only people who have watched Discovery S2 will understand why they're a target of the Devidians at this point.
 
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About a quarter through. Klag was first seen in TNG? I should have expected to see Spock, but didn't. Maybe this is slowly building up to be worse than Coda 1?
 
Another Disco reference...

In his thoughts, Spock references Ni'var as the "duality of natures in a single form" or reunification. And yes, I do realize that is also a reference to a term from 1960s fandom. It can work both ways.
 
I definitely wasn’t expecting a “Brave and the Bold” callback to be a key element. Though Dayton did warn us it would seem like they’d been planting seeds for this all along…

Also, so much for Endalla. And I’d had so much hope it might be the titular Wormhole Death Can(n)on. Though I suppose there is a spare…
 
We’re at the penultimate Star Trek novel and now they introduce a Xindi character? :)
Pretty good novel. I like the DS9 crew getting back together. I also forgot that Odo got his old job back which was a nice surprise. Riker going looney was also fun to read.
Interesting to write off the Enterprise for this part. Probably saving it for the final part. Speaking of which, it looks like they are going to the Mirror universe next. Hopefully we get some Lorca. That’s the only Disco reference I want.
I noticed a potential error with Jake referring to Rebecca as his step sister. I’m pretty sure that’s his half sister. They both have the same father.
 
I noticed a potential error with Jake referring to Rebecca as his step sister. I’m pretty sure that’s his half sister. They both have the same father.
People screw up that all the time. Foster, half, step, adopted.,.
 
I wish we got more cameos from the other universes. I would love one from the ShatnerVerse and JJ, although I expect the former would be very hard to destroy. :)
 
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