Destiny - exceed or not?

[Ktrek]

Now that Destiny has been out and quite a few have read it did it meet or exceed your expectations and all the drama and hoopla building up to it or was it a let down?

There was so much build up about these novels prior to the release for months that I was really afraid I might be let down and disappointed but I'm happy to say that I was not. I loved the books overall. The pacing was good and the use of all the characters was good and the voicings for the known characters was spot on for the most part. Each book left you hungering for more and that is what I look for in good story telling.

As I said elsewhere on the board I was not all that impressed with Ezri Dax as captain and the Aventine crew but not to the point where it robbed my enjoyment of the series overall. Thanks David Mack for a wonderful story. I'm sure this is a series I will read many times over the years!

Kevin

 

[The Grim Ghost]

It met my expectations. It was a big war story and also a very personal story. It is tough to do both at once and I think DM succeeded.

It also actually made me care about a character from the Enterprise area which is very tough to do since I have such a strong distaste for the show. I felt that the Hernandez scenes in the 1st two books were the strongest moments in the trilogy.

I loved the Caeliar, especially Inyx. Such an interesting new race! I loved that Bacco got a few good scenes and the bits with her and Garak were priceless.

My main problems with it were Ezri's heavy involvement, because I have never cared with her. I didn't like that she was presented as being as good of a Captain as Riker and Picard. I felt Picard was off in the 3rd book and though I have heard some very good explanations for his behavior from some here I still felt that his actions were bizarre and out of character. At times it seemed like this was Ezri and Hernandez's show. Picard and Riker were just along for the ride.

One other problem I had was the whole Borg approaching Earth scenario. We saw a very similar thing play out in Before Dishonor. Some of the excitement and fear that I should have felt was taken away since we had just seen something like this happen. By this point I knew that Earth wouldn't be destroyed, so it didn't mean quite as much.

The ending was a bit too deus ex machina for me, but at that point I didn't really see any other way out so it wasn't a huge problem.

Despite my criticisms I really enjoyed Destiny. I don't think it was David Mack's best work like a lot of people here seem to, but it was a very well told and strong story and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[JD]

It met my expectations, but they were very high, so that is a good thing.

 

[RonG]

While my expectations were high, I was afraid that the then-low quality (IMO) of the overall TNG arc (I found Death in Winter, Resistance and Before Dishonor to be rather lacking for a veriaty of reasons I won't get into here) would hurt the Destiny trilogy, as it used elements from those books.

I should have known better

Destiny has become my all-time favorite Trek story, and I want to add my thanks to David Mack once more!

 

[Paris]

Like JD, my expectations were quite high, but as far as i'm concerned, David delivered. The trilogy has become one of my absolute favorite Trek stories, including all the shows and movies, and I really dig where it left the trek universe. From this point there are so many story possibilities. I can't wait for all the post-destiny books in 2009 and 2010, and this new metastory with the mysterious Typhon Pact. Trek-lit's future seems to be a bright one

 

[Claudia]

I wasn't really participating on this board before Destiny - and the only thing written by DM that I've read before was Vanguard #1 and I wasn't too impressed with it. I bought the first book because of the blurb and just went from there. The only thing I was looking forward to was the meeting of Titan and Enterprise.

I was really impressed with Gods of Night, a fantastic opener to a trilogy, setting out the plotthreads. Mere Mortals didn't impress me quite as much, except for the Hernandez-story. That was really powerful stuff - and Inyx... well, I just liked him enormously. But Enterprise and Aventine's exploration... well... I certainly could have done without the very lengthy Hirogen-battle-sequence (essentially repeated in Lost Souls with the vinculum). Sorry, but I just don't enjoy reading (and watching on TV) those scenes.

Lost Souls... hm... I really liked the conversation between Riker and Picard. For the first time I think they really met as equals, and it showed in the depth of their discussion. I liked Ezri in season 7, definitely more than I ever liked Jadzia, but in the trilogy she ressembled a bit too much Shelby from BOBW, too self-assured, too single-minded, too action-oriented without any thought/care for possible consequences - and those are qualities I just don't see in Ezri or in Dax for that matter. Dax always has been an impetuous character, granted, but not so cold-blooded as Ezri came across here. Mind you, I don't know the more recent DS9-R books, so I can only judge from the first ones up to Mission Gamma and s7.

I enjoyed the glimpses of the planets being destroyed or on the verge of being destroyed, they put a very human touch to the massive scale of the attack. I also don't agree that Picard was kind of "out of character", especially in book 3. I'd liken his "decline" to sort of what Frodo went through bearing the ring. He was just kind of consumed by his past experiences with the Borg, always hearing their voice, witnessing their single-mindedness, falling into despair confronted with the enormity of the attack. I could absolutely relate with his emotions and difficulties.

While of course exciting, the solution, i.e. the Caeliar, to both (the Borg, Deanna) problems were obvious from the start. That's perhaps the biggest point of criticism here. But then again, I guess this story wasn't so much about the solution of Destiny itself but about the shake-up to the known ST-universe. I'm really looking forward to reading future novels, and I hope to see the Caeliar again at some point.

While I wouldn't count this trilogy itself amongst my favourite ST-books, it definitely sets the pace for anything that comes afterwards - what more could I have asked for?

 

[Marie1]

I wouldn't have known about the Destiny books if not for all the talk swirling around here when I joined. But after that I more-or-less ignored everything and made my own opinion- and I enjoyed them. TBH, I think I liked the ending better than LOTR...

 

[Hartzilla2007]

I though the were great though Ezri was annoying as hell in Lost Souls, and there were parts in books one and three that draged on a little.

 

[aelius]

I enjoyed them. They provide a perfect shake up, and were very well written. Unlike what seems to be the majority I like Captain Ezri Dax.
I am eagerly awaiting the follow up novels.

 

[JoeZhang]

Overall I enjoyed the books but considering the stakes, I didn't think there, given the premise, that there was very much tension - while from the first book you couldn't work quite how the story was going to be resolved, I didn't think it was that hard to make informed guesses that weren't far off the mark. In addition, thinking about it, I never once thought any important characters settings were in any serious peril. If anything, I thought we might get something a bit more radical than we did, something that would make the reader think "wow anything can happen!"

 

[Sci]

In addition, thinking about it, I never once thought any important characters settings were in any serious peril. If anything, I thought we might get something a bit more radical than we did, something that would make the reader think "wow anything can happen!"

*shrugs* I'd say that destroying ShiKahr and Vulcan's Forge, the settings for the vast majority of Vulcan-based stories, and Laibok, the setting for most Andorian-based stories, and the First City, the setting for most Klingon stories, was pretty gosh darned radical. And I firmly expected Paris and San Francisco to be in danger, even if Earth itself wasn't destroyed.

And they did, let's recall, wipe out all life on Deneva, Coridan, and Risa, all of which have been important supporting worlds in the past. Coridan, in particular, has achieved prominence in the literary world since The Good That Men Do.

 

[JoeZhang]

And they did, let's recall, wipe out all life on Deneva, Coridan, and Risa, all of which have been important supporting worlds in the past. Coridan, in particular, has achieved prominence in the literary world since The Good That Men Do.

Shrug? What about belvorta 4?

 

[BillJ]

In addition, thinking about it, I never once thought any important characters settings were in any serious peril. If anything, I thought we might get something a bit more radical than we did, something that would make the reader think "wow anything can happen!"

*shrugs* I'd say that destroying ShiKahr and Vulcan's Forge, the settings for the vast majority of Vulcan-based stories, and Laibok, the setting for most Andorian-based stories, and the First City, the setting for most Klingon stories, was pretty gosh darned radical. And I firmly expected Paris and San Francisco to be in danger, even if Earth itself wasn't destroyed.

And they did, let's recall, wipe out all life on Deneva, Coridan, and Risa, all of which have been important supporting worlds in the past. Coridan, in particular, has achieved prominence in the literary world since The Good That Men Do.

I think Joe was talking about the characters and I agree with him. When this was announced, I surely thought the end was near for some of them. I was disappointed.

 

[Corran Horn]

Coridan can't catch a break these days.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

And they did, let's recall, wipe out all life on Deneva, Coridan, and Risa, all of which have been important supporting worlds in the past. Coridan, in particular, has achieved prominence in the literary world since The Good That Men Do.

I know Deneva was turned into a cinder but I don't think there was in confermation on how bad Cordian and Risa were hit.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

And they did, let's recall, wipe out all life on Deneva, Coridan, and Risa, all of which have been important supporting worlds in the past. Coridan, in particular, has achieved prominence in the literary world since The Good That Men Do.

I know Deneva was turned into a cinder but I don't think there was in confermation on how bad Cordian and Risa were hit.

One thing's for sure - I doubt anyone's taking a vacation to Risa for a good long while.

 

[William Leisner]

Overall I enjoyed the books but considering the stakes, I didn't think there, given the premise, that there was very much tension - while from the first book you couldn't work quite how the story was going to be resolved, I didn't think it was that hard to make informed guesses that weren't far off the mark. In addition, thinking about it, I never once thought any important characters settings were in any serious peril. If anything, I thought we might get something a bit more radical than we did, something that would make the reader think "wow anything can happen!"

Remember that Deneva was the homeworld of Jasminder Choudhury. As far as she and her colleagues are concerned, the (apparent) death of her entire family was pretty radical.

 

[Elemental]

^What do you mean? They all managed to escape harm.

 

[Sci]

^What do you mean? They all managed to escape harm.

Erm, no. In fact, if I recall correctly, only a relatively few people managed to make it off Deneva. In particular, Jasminder's entire family was apparently killed, as was Tuvok's son and daughter-in-law.

 

[Elemental]

Overall I enjoyed the books but considering the stakes, I didn't think there, given the premise, that there was very much tension - while from the first book you couldn't work quite how the story was going to be resolved, I didn't think it was that hard to make informed guesses that weren't far off the mark. In addition, thinking about it, I never once thought any important characters settings were in any serious peril. If anything, I thought we might get something a bit more radical than we did, something that would make the reader think "wow anything can happen!"

I really enjoyed these novels and think David Mack did an awesome job of telling this level of epic story and I will look forward to seeing where things go from here, but I do agree with the above sentiment. As I think more about it, there really wasn't a whole lot that was unpredictable in the story. We knew there was going to be mass carnage on a scale not before seen (it was just a question of what would still be left standing), we knew the Borg were going to undergo some sort of permanent change, and it seemed clear that this would have to involve the Caeliar in some way. There was however, the mystery of the Columbia and what would happen to her crew that was satisfying even if the downed ship itself didn't have as much importance as I thought it might. The ancestry of the Borg from the Caeliar and humans was also a very intriguing idea even if you did see it coming (see, time travel does make for cool stories!). There was also some excellent character portrayals and development. I think my favorite scenes were those involving Bacco and the larger political arena.