Kobayashi Maru Preview & Cover Art

[Timo]

Having the Kobayashi Maru rooted in 22nd Century history is something I feel the show would've done.

The "classic" lit concept of this scenario was rather untenable: generations upon generations of cadets were supposed to be surprised by the events and the outcome, after which the instructors and analysts would pick their performances apart on psychological level. As if it wouldn't be an obvious telltale when they first heard the name Kobayashi Maru uttered, immediately exposing this scenario as the same that the previous batch of cadets had warned them about - and ruining the psychological value of the test.

The approach of this book turns it all upside down in a pleasant and far more logical fashion: everybody already knows what Kobayashi Maru is and what happened to her in reality. There is little or no surprise factor in the simulation: Saavik knows right away that she's playing the role of the late great Archer, and she just hopes against hope that she will do better than the man who botched it originally, against those famously insurmountable odds.

Of course, future Starfleet instructors will make things a bit more current and relevant - change the technological nature of the ships involved, move the action to the new Neutral Zone, and so forth. But the cadets will still come to the realization of "Waitaminnit, even though there are these differences, could it really be that they're putting me through THAT? Oh shit...".

Apart from that, yeah, I think putting the incident in the ENT timeframe is the right thing to do, and something Manny Coto would have enjoyed pulling off. I don't much appreciate some other developments in the ENT relaunch, but this one sounds like the perfect lead-in to whatever Romulan War stuff eventually gets written. Full speed ahead and damn the small universe syndrome!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[KRAD]

Cannot wait! TGTMD was one of the best Trek books, plus it is like having season 6!

So you want to bypass season 5 altogether?

Must be a tricky balance, being a trek writer - half of your readers will read this:

Spoiler: possible spoilers

which revealed that Tucker was still alive some seventy-seven year later, in 2238, and had even contributed “anonymous marginal notations” on the construction blueprints for the Constitution-class Starship Enterprise.

and think "wow cool" and the other half will think "god, not more small-universe wankery".

Welcome to my life.

 

[Kopernikus]

I'm sorry, but after the last two books my interest in the Enterprise Relaunch is almost not existent. I might get it sometime in the future, but neither the cover, the article nor the authors' track record with Enterprise novels screams read me at me. *shrug*

Same with me, the Cover is great, but imo the ENT-Relaunch-novels so far haven't been more than "Upper-Middle-Class" for me. I will surely get it one day, but it's not one of the books I'm impatiently waiting for.

 

[Reanok]

Thanks for posting the link for the Kobayashi Maru book. It will be nice to see what happens to see how the storyarc

Spoiler: Kobayashi Maru spoilers

And what will Trip be doing behind enemy lines. Especially The Romulans will be planning next

continues where The Good that Man do leaves off and how Kobayashi Maru leads into the no win Starfleet Scenario.I really like the new cover art.

 

[Andy Mangels]

Does this mean we get to meet the Enterprise's new Chief Engineer? Admittedly, though I bought TGTMD when it came out, I've not actually read it yet so correct me if we've already met him/her.

You met him already in TGTMD. Mike Burch, a new character.

 

[tenmei]

Ahhh, thanks Andy

 

[Reanok]

Andy How many months later does Kobayashi Maru take place after the events of TGTMD?

 

[foravalon]

Wait a minute, wait a minute...

this is from the trek movie article http://trekmovie.com/2008/04/02/lib...enterprise-relaunch-preview-of-kobyashi-maru/

“—imperative! This is the Kobayashi Maru, nineteen periods out of Altair Six. We have struck a gravitic mine and have lost all power! Our hull is penetrated and we have sustained many casualties—”
Despite the layers of distortion imposed by both distance and disaster, Archer immediately recognized the English-accented voice on the other end of the channel as that of Kojiro Vance, the flamboyant master of the S.S. Kobayashi Maru.
“Kobayashi Maru, this is Enterprise,” Hoshi said, her fingers entering commands at a brisk pace as she tried to isolate and enhance the tenuous subspace lifeline she had just reestablished. “Please confirm your position.”
“Enterprise, our position is Gamma Hydra, section ten. Hull penetrated. Life-support systems failing. Can you assist us, Enterprise? Can you assist us?”

...supposing this is in context, it's BS. It's already been established by the same editorial staff that "less than half a light-year from the edge of [the Tezwa] system is where the real-life Kobayashi Maru was lost."" (From a Time to Heal)

Tezwa is on the Klingon border and no where near Gamma Hydra, a real star. Both the original location of the KM and Gamma Hydra are listed in Star Charts, which I know authors aren't beholden to, but still...


​

 

[Christopher]

^^Vance's lines in that passage are verbatim from The Wrath of Khan. That movie established the Kobayashi Maru simulation as occurring near Gamma Hydra. So if either book got it wrong, A Time to Heal did, and this book is merely correcting the error.

 

[David Mack]

^^Vance's lines in that passage are verbatim from The Wrath of Khan. That movie established the Kobayashi Maru simulation as occurring near Gamma Hydra. So if either book got it wrong, A Time to Heal did, and this book is merely correcting the error.

Well, excuuuuuuuuse the fuck out of me, but I based the position of the lost Kobayashi Maru on Geoffrey Mandel's reference tome Star Charts. I was looking for a position along the UFP-Klingon border to put Tezwa's star system, and that footnote grabbed my attention, so I ran with it. If Mandel got it wrong for whatever reason, that sucks, but don't just lay the blame on me, because I'm not in the mood to put up with that bullshit. For all we know, the fucking simulation might have taken liberties with the details, or adjusted them for training purposes, and if the other writers and the editors had chosen to respect the internovel continuity from A Time to Heal, we wouldn't even be having this conversation --- but no doubt it felt "cooler" to riff on the famous lines from Wrath of Khan. But don't just waltz in and say my book "got it wrong".

 

[Csalem]

Does this mean we get to meet the Enterprise's new Chief Engineer? Admittedly, though I bought TGTMD when it came out, I've not actually read it yet so correct me if we've already met him/her.

You met him already in TGTMD. Mike Burch, a new character.

I can't remember if this was addressed in the book but how come Kelby wasn't used as chief engineer?

 

[BrotherBenny]

^^Vance's lines in that passage are verbatim from The Wrath of Khan. That movie established the Kobayashi Maru simulation as occurring near Gamma Hydra. So if either book got it wrong, A Time to Heal did, and this book is merely correcting the error.

Well, excuuuuuuuuse the fuck out of me, but I based the position of the lost Kobayashi Maru on Geoffrey Mandel's reference tome Star Charts. I was looking for a position along the UFP-Klingon border to put Tezwa's star system, and that footnote grabbed my attention, so I ran with it. If Mandel got it wrong for whatever reason, that sucks, but don't just lay the blame on me, because I'm not in the mood to put up with that bullshit. For all we know, the fucking simulation might have taken liberties with the details, or adjusted them for training purposes, and if the other writers and the editors had chosen to respect the internovel continuity from A Time to Heal, we wouldn't even be having this conversation --- but no doubt it felt "cooler" to riff on the famous lines from Wrath of Khan. But don't just waltz in and say my book "got it wrong".

Chill, Dave. I'm sure Christopher meant no offense. Besides, do we know exactly how close Tezwa is to the Klingon border? It could be one light year or twenty.

And since I'm a relative newcomer to TrekLit (late 2002/early 2003 to be precise) and knew nothing about Star Charts until I started posting on here, can someone tell me where Gamma Hydra is supposed to be in relation to the UFP-Klingon border and in relation to Tezwa?

And has anyone here considered that "Gamma Hydra" may not necessarily relate to the star itself but a region of space surrounding it, hence the "Gamma Hydra section 10"?

 

[Worf2DS9]

I'm really looking forward to reading this one, which will be my first foray into ENT lit. Love the cover too.

 

[Christopher]

Gee, Dave, I really didn't mean anything by it. I did say "if either book got it wrong," by which I meant to imply that there was no reason to say either one did, that it was just a minor difference in detail of the sort that's commonplace in series fiction and entails no harm or foul. I'm sorry if it didn't come off the way I intended.

Also, I wasn't able to find that KM notation in my survey of Star Charts, since I wasn't looking in the right place. Seeing it now, I have to wonder why Mandel chose to place it there given the Gamma Hydra reference in the movie.

 

[ronny]

I'm sorry, but after the last two books my interest in the Enterprise Relaunch is almost not existent. I might get it sometime in the future, but neither the cover, the article nor the authors' track record with Enterprise novels screams read me at me. *shrug*

as much as i'm liking your web site i'm not agreeing with all your reviews.

i thought last good measure was a good book, not a great book. in fact the thing i remember most about it was when it came out everyone was so hung up on the preface and epilogue i was thinking i was the only person who actually read the entire book. i liked the good that men do a lot. that was a great book. and so was forged in fire was a great book as well. so yeah, you're not looking forward to the next book because of the authors track record, i'm looking forward to it for exactly that reason.

 

[Defcon]

as much as i'm liking your web site i'm not agreeing with all your reviews.

Just to make it clear and not to steal another person's work: Unreality SF is not my website, I'm just a contributor to the site (my work for the site is limited to: writing some reviews (those with the note reviewed by Jens), occasionaly making the webmaster aware of some news, a few questions for interviews, some "PR-work" ).

i thought last good measure was a good book, not a great book. in fact the thing i remember most about it was when it came out everyone was so hung up on the preface and epilogue i was thinking i was the only person who actually read the entire book.

I have read the whole novel. FWIW in the review on my old review blog I mentioned the framing story only on the side. My main problems were with the actual story.

i liked the good that men do a lot. that was a great book. and so was forged in fire was a great book as well. so yeah, you're not looking forward to the next book because of the authors track record, i'm looking forward to it for exactly that reason.

And that's a good thing. The world would be a boring place if anybody would like the same things. I don't claim that my reviews are the epitome of wisdom or the only possible estimation of the story in question, they are just my opinion. And at the moment it's just my opinion that Mangels & Martin aren't on the top of their game right now, especially with Enterprise. I really enjoyed much of their earlier stuff and like I said in the Forged in Fire review that novel at least was a step in the right direction.

 

[ronny]

hey, just to be clear, i wasn't accusing you of having read only the prologue and epilogue for your review. those were my memories of the comments i was reading on the boards here when the book came out. my apologies if what i said came out that way, that's not what i intended.

 

[Defcon]

hey, just to be clear, i wasn't accusing you of having read only the prologue and epilogue for your review. those were my memories of the comments i was reading on the boards here when the book came out. my apologies if what i said came out that way, that's not what i intended.

I guess I was the one phrasing the response in a wrong way. I knew you were talking about the reactions to the book back then in general, I was just trying to point out that for me the pro- & epilogue weren't that important. So no need to apologize.

 

[foravalon]

Just for reference sake for the conversation, the real star Gamma Hydra is up at the top, and sites of the original KM, Tezwa and the Klingon border are down there at the bottom.

 

[foravalon]

Chill, Dave. I'm sure Christopher meant no offense. Besides, do we know exactly how close Tezwa is to the Klingon border? It could be one light year or twenty.

And since I'm a relative newcomer to TrekLit (late 2002/early 2003 to be precise) and knew nothing about Star Charts until I started posting on here, can someone tell me where Gamma Hydra is supposed to be in relation to the UFP-Klingon border and in relation to Tezwa?

And has anyone here considered that "Gamma Hydra" may not necessarily relate to the star itself but a region of space surrounding it, hence the "Gamma Hydra section 10"?

I think David was completely justified in his response, not only did that comment seem arbitrarily dickish, but coming from a fellow author it also seemed pretty unprofessional. That said, apparently christopher didn't mean anything by stating that if anyone got things wrong it was Dave, and that the new book would potentially be correcting Dave's "error". If he says he didn't mean anything by that, and he says he's sorry, then I say right on, let's take him for his word and leave it at that.

Regarding the subject matter, one only has to use their common sense to see that it's clear the KM academy test is something which not only can be reconfigurable, but, as has been shown many times, it is reconfigured all throughout trek lit. It's been shown in fact to have been altered and adjusted in minor and major ways many times for different classes, if not for every different student who has taken it; which would be sensible to any logical mind considering its perceived importance to academy students and the established fact that an individual student can take the test multiple times. Considering everything that has been already established about the test it would seem a foolish tack to take claiming the simulation we witnessed in TWoK just happened to be the historically accurate depiction.