Destiny: Gods of Night by David Mack Review Thread (Spoilers!)

[Nardpuncher]

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

He's not saying you can't express your opinion, he's just telling us not to bother responding to you.

Zing! Good one!

I love when someone post, someone else disagrees ,then the first poster whines about some percieved violation of free speech or whatnot.


It's true what William Leisner said...that debate could trun into some silly 3 page debate about space battles nobody knows about and then McCain/Obama and the Iraq war come up.

 

[Baerbel Haddrell]

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

My last question posed is this: While not ideal, why doesn't Riker and Troi adopt a child? I know they can't implant one of Troi's eggs in someone else because they are mutated but why didn't this pop up? I know it's not the ideal solution but with such an advanced society and such, is adoption still frowned upon? Or even occur in the 24th century?

Maybe they will consider adoption later if all other options have failed. I can understand that they don`t want to give up hope yet. Even if there is really no way to tweak Deanna`s eggs so that they can be used, there is nothing wrong with Deanna`s womb. Even today, women who can`t use their eggs can have a donated egg fertilized with the huband`s sperm. I have heard of cases in which the mother donated eggs to the daughter. In the news there was a report a while ago of a woman who gave birth to her own grandchild. In that case, her daughter had viable eggs but no womb. In the Star Trek universe, there should be even more options.

Nevertheless, of course there is nothing wrong with adoptions and also couples who are natural parents also adopt. I don`t know if this is also an official adoption but in NF Captain Calhoun adopted an orphaned boy who lives with him on the ship. I don`t live in America but that adoption is frowned upon is new to me. It certainly shouldn`t.

It occurred to me later, Worf was adopted by human parents. This is another example

 

[Christopher]

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

I absolutely enjoyed this book a lot. I thought that David Mack did an absolutely fantastic job of balancing the storylines and the plot points. The characters were excellent and each one of them were written wonderfully. It opens up a lot of interesting situations and scenarios and I personally don't see them getting wrapped up within the three novels.

Which is why we have A Singular Destiny, Over a Torrent Sea, Full Circle, and Losing the Peace next year. Or, as we refer to them collectively, "Cleaning Up Dave's Mess."

 

[Trippy]

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

I'm about halfway through now, and I'm really liking the Columbia and her crew's storyline. I'll admit to not being a big fan of Titan and her crew, but I wasn't a big Riker/Troi fan when TNG was on, so that's not surprising.

I do wish I'd read Greater Than The Sum first for the TNG crew background story! I bought it last night so it's next

In all, an enjoyable read so far

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

I absolutely enjoyed this book a lot. I thought that David Mack did an absolutely fantastic job of balancing the storylines and the plot points. The characters were excellent and each one of them were written wonderfully. It opens up a lot of interesting situations and scenarios and I personally don't see them getting wrapped up within the three novels.

Which is why we have A Singular Destiny, Over a Torrent Sea, Full Circle, and Losing the Peace next year. Or, as we refer to them collectively, "Cleaning Up Dave's Mess."

Yep I can't wait to read them because frankly, this is so massive that I know I won't be disappointed if it all doesn't wrap up at the end or at least some of the minor plot points.

Are they going to have a spin off novel with the Avertine? I can't remember

 

[JD]

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

I think KRAD said the Aventine is in A Singular Desinty, but I'm not sure.

 

[DEWLine]

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

Are they going to have a spin off novel with the Avertine? I can't remember

I hope so.

 

[KRAD]

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

Which is why we have A Singular Destiny, Over a Torrent Sea, Full Circle, and Losing the Peace next year. Or, as we refer to them collectively, "Cleaning Up Dave's Mess."

Actually, I prefer "Cleaning up Mack's Mess," as alliteration is awesome....

I think KRAD said the Aventine is in A Singular Desinty, but I'm not sure.

Yes, the Aventine plays a role in ASD, as do a few other ships we've seen before.

 

[William Leisner]

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

Which is why we have A Singular Destiny, Over a Torrent Sea, Full Circle, and Losing the Peace next year. Or, as we refer to them collectively, "Cleaning Up Dave's Mess."

Actually, I prefer "Cleaning up Mack's Mess," as alliteration is awesome....

Whereas I just tend to throw in an extra descriptive gerund or two...

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

Which is why we have A Singular Destiny, Over a Torrent Sea, Full Circle, and Losing the Peace next year. Or, as we refer to them collectively, "Cleaning Up Dave's Mess."

Actually, I prefer "Cleaning up Mack's Mess," as alliteration is awesome....

I think KRAD said the Aventine is in A Singular Desinty, but I'm not sure.

Yes, the Aventine plays a role in ASD, as do a few other ships we've seen before.

But no solo book for the Aventine?

I don't know why I said Avertine

 

[ncc71877]

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

So, I just finished GoN and I don't know that I can add anything that hasn't been said up thread. I just loved this first book of the story. The story felt 'real' to me, each crew, each mission/situation they where in, even the advanced enigmatic alien race seemed 'real.' And, I don't know why but the part with the sacrifice of the Ranger at Khitomer and the Klingon Governors reaction, and then Admiral Paris at Starbase 234 had me in tears, like rolling down my face tears, and I don't usually cry reading. Then learning about Tom's family problems had me sniffling.

Thank you for a really good read Mr. Mack, can't wait for Mere Mortals.

ncc71877

 

[Nardpuncher]

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

This probably came up already, but when the Columbia goes at 0.9c to a star sytem 11 light years away, shouldn't it therefore take them aout 12 or 13 years to get there? My physics ain't so great but they wouldn't feel the relativistic time effects...all the people on the outside would, wouldn't they? And it would be a lot more than 11or 12 years...maybe hundreds.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

This probably came up already, but when the Columbia goes at 0.9c to a star sytem 11 light years away, shouldn't it therefore take them aout 12 or 13 years to get there? My physics ain't so great but they wouldn't feel the relativistic time effects...all the people on the outside would, wouldn't they? And it would be a lot more than 11or 12 years...maybe hundreds.

As stated in the text, it does take them nearly 12 years (2156-2168) to cover the nearly 12 light-years to Erigol. Columbia accelerates to within one ten-thousandth of the speed of light, or better than 0.9999c, giving a time dilation factor of roughly seventy to one -- meaning that the passage of time within the ship is about 1/70th that outside the ship, so that 63 days pass for the crew while nearly 12 years pass outside.

I don't know where you're getting hundreds of years from. Time dilation means that the people in the ship experience a shorter passage of time, not a longer one. And the velocity of 0.9999c is measured from the perspective of outside observers.

 

[MHJH]

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

Jesus, that was brilliant. After feeling relatively disappointed in the last Titan and TNG books, I was a bit wary of Destiny, but any fear I had for the next two books has been completely annihilated by the quality of the first. Nearly every book I've ever read that has been part of a trilogy has felt like nothing more than a third of the story, but there was so much going on in this one, so much plot that dovetailed so perfectly with character development and world-building that it felt like a perfect chunk of story. Exactly the right amount to be digested right now, while leaving you salivating for the next bit. It's hard to believe that Mack is actually delivering on the promise he's been making for months around here, a story so huge and world shattering that a full-blown Borg invasion is actually just a portion of the story, but he's doing it brilliantly, and making it look easy.

Every portion of the story works, from Picard's recurring obsession with the Borg causing seriously off-kilter behavior, the Aventine haunted-house murder mystery, the flashback portions on the Columbia, etc. etc. Even the Riker/Troi pregnancy drama fascinated me, which I didn't think was possible. It's all perfect, every word of it. Thanks for all of your books Dave, but thanks for this book in particular.

 

[David Mack]

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

Thanks, MHJH. I'm glad you feel the first book lived up to the hype I heaped upon it. Here's to hoping that the rest of the trilogy continues to meet your new, raised expectations.

Best,
David Mack

 

[dukesman]

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

David,

My God man, what in the hell have you done?

I'm not going to bore you with a lot of detail as most of the previous reviews mirrored all that I liked about this book and then some. You have an excellent grasp of balance and interesting characterization, which is no small feat with this many crews all getting their hands dirty to varying degrees.

Can't remember now where I saw or read this, but you shouldn't be so reluctant to write starship battle scenes. Every one you've ever done has been exciting and original and that includes those few in GoN.

One question - who came up with the look for the Caeliar? They are an interesting species and full of potential. I'd love to show you some sketches I've made from reading your descriptions of them.

Bravo, David. I look forward to the rest of this trilogy!

 

[David Mack]

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

My God man, what in the hell have you done?

Funny, my defense attorney once asked me the same thing.

Can't remember now where I saw or read this, but you shouldn't be so reluctant to write starship battle scenes. Every one you've ever done has been exciting and original and that includes those few in GoN.

I was not one of those people who expressed displeasure for writing starship combat scenes, but thanks for the encouraging words.

One question - who came up with the look for the Caeliar? They are an interesting species and full of potential. I'd love to show you some sketches I've made from reading your descriptions of them.

I was actually inspired by some alien concept sketches done by a well-known artist, but I don't want to say which artist or which sketches.

Bravo, David. I look forward to the rest of this trilogy!

Thanks. I hope the rest of it lives up to your expectations.

 

[Marie1]

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

^ Thanks for your comments, Casey. As for having spurred you out of hiding, I can only hope that I haven't created a monster.

Which really means that he hopes he hasn't created another monster...those baddies in the Taurus Reach... you and Wardilmore created enough interesting creatures out there to last a lifetime.

And then let's not forget the monster lab you created at Grennokar Prison in Warpath

...

LOL!!!!

 

[KRAD]

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

My God man, what in the hell have you done?

Funny, my defense attorney once asked me the same thing.

This is a lie.

Your attorney has asked this a lot more than once.....

 

[David Mack]

Re: Star Trek: Destiny: Gods of Night - SPOILER Thread

My God man, what in the hell have you done?

Funny, my defense attorney once asked me the same thing.

This is a lie.

Your attorney has asked this a lot more than once.....

No, he only asked it of me once. All subsequent queries were phrased as, "My God, man! What have you done this time?"