This would suggest that alien races can have multiple ethnic groups, which is one of the most absurd things I have ever heard.
Spoilers TNG: A Singular Destiny by Keith R.A. DeCandido review thread
- Thread starter Brendan Moody
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Next they'll try to tell us that these species have different languages too. Preposterous.
Aaron McGuire
KRAD - Thanks for the good read. A good set-up for what seems to be coming next in the ST universe.
Like Sonek Pran and hope we get to see more of him again. Once I read your acknowledgements in the back of the book and saw that you had originally intended to dedicate the book to Arlo Guthrie, the resemblence between him and Pran struck me. How much did you base this character on Guthrie? Or am I just imagining the similarity?
Like Sonek Pran and hope we get to see more of him again. Once I read your acknowledgements in the back of the book and saw that you had originally intended to dedicate the book to Arlo Guthrie, the resemblence between him and Pran struck me. How much did you base this character on Guthrie? Or am I just imagining the similarity?
Thanks so much!
You're not imagining anything. Pran is very much inspired, physically, philosophically, and conversationally, by Arlo, who has long been one of my heroes. (And who is also a Star Trek fan, incidentally.)
I know this is a bit late in the conversation but that doesn't surprise me. There was only one copy of ASD at the one I went to here in the Twin Cities (rosedale mall location to any fellow Minnesotans) and the amount of Trek books was small, twenty tops.
My copy of this finally arrived into the UK yesterday and I've just finished it... and what a great read! It sets the ground for the subsequent novels perfectly, I can't wait to find out what happens next, and Pran was such a great central character. It was also great to hear some more of the Aventine's adventures, and the names of the ship's shuttles was a lovely touch. Equally lovely was the appearences of a certain ancient human Admiral... when he was first hinted at I thought to myself... could it be? And I was right, fantastic! Some great touches throughout the book - not least the list of the dead - I was zipping through it thinking that there was bound to be a well-known name or two 'hidden' in here somewhere... and it makes me very curious about some of the Trek books out later this year...
Overall, a fantastic read! Now I need to get my hands on your new Farscape comic series, since I've just finished watching the whole of that series in order, and can't wait to see what happens next there...
Overall, a fantastic read! Now I need to get my hands on your new Farscape comic series, since I've just finished watching the whole of that series in order, and can't wait to see what happens next there...
Thanks so very much!
It struck me and Marco both as being 100% in character for Dax.
The first issue is sold out, but it's being reprinted on 4 February, which is also when #2 will hit the stands, so haunt your local comic shop next Wednesday....
One other thing too - what I particularly loved also (far too many things in total!) was how the 'threat' facing the Federation was in fact another alliance of species/planets. It makes it impossible for the reader to second-guess what on earth will happen next, which makes the excitement for the future books build further. In contrast, had the threat simply been those species building some sort of new superweapon, for example, the reader would guess that eventually the storyline would focus on it's destruction by the Federation (or at least their attempts to do so).
OK, maybe the new alliance will eventually build a new superweapon, which the Federation will have to destroy by firing a transphasic torpedo down its exhaust port just before it becomes operational (where have I heard a similar plan to that before...) but that simply hasn't been hinted at by the authors yet
OK, maybe the new alliance will eventually build a new superweapon, which the Federation will have to destroy by firing a transphasic torpedo down its exhaust port just before it becomes operational (where have I heard a similar plan to that before...) but that simply hasn't been hinted at by the authors yet
They did that in Stargate SG-1's 7th-season premiere. Any other story following that pattern must therefore be a ripoff of Stargate.
(Well, you find that kind of reasoning often enough on the Internet...)
This is another thing I liked about A Singular Destiny. Even though the members of the pact have often been enemies of the Federation, the book avoids portraying them and their actions as inherently bad or suspect. Which they aren't: there's nothing wrong with alliances in response to the galactic situation, as Pran points out, and the Federation doesn't have a monopoly on such things. And, dramatically speaking, the Pact will be more interesting if its members aren't aggressive mustache-twirlers. I look forward to the development of this storyline, at any rate.The Typhon Pact also isn't (necessarily) a threat. Keep in mind that they were inspired by the Federation.
This is another thing I liked about A Singular Destiny. Even though the members of the pact have often been enemies of the Federation, the book avoids portraying them and their actions as inherently bad or suspect. Which they aren't: there's nothing wrong with alliances in response to the galactic situation, as Pran points out, and the Federation doesn't have a monopoly on such things. And, dramatically speaking, the Pact will be more interesting if its members aren't aggressive mustache-twirlers. I look forward to the development of this storyline, at any rate.The Typhon Pact also isn't (necessarily) a threat. Keep in mind that they were inspired by the Federation.
Thinking about it, I agree entirely. It really isn't necessarily a force for bad. And the Federation isn't certainly all good - look at Section 31 for example. It certainly asks the question of which of the 2 alliances is 'better', or are they really that different from one another? It's a bit like the current Battlestar, since the divide between the humans and cylons has become increasingly blurred over time.
It is also relevant with the current political system on this planet, as we have a democratic system in North America, the EU etc, but it is not perfect. I still love the phrase by Churchill (not word-for-word correct, but the general idea is correct) - 'democracy is the worst system of government, apart from all others we have tried'.
I certainly foresee that the Trek universe is going in a fascinating direction, and it is in very safe hands! (So, after all these kind comments, any further hints about the upcoming books?
)I finally got mine and will start to read it this weekend.
Not exactly. And it's Typhon (as in the monster from Greek mythology and the Typhon Expanse/Sector in ST), not Typhoon.
Cheers on both accounts and I should have known better on the spelling of Typhon but I just made a cup of tea and was thinking of that spelling although it's Typhoo and not Typhoon!
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I enjoyed the book a lot, but I caught one thing that bugged me a little. It was the way one character talked about the story of Joseph and how it used to be part of the mythology of two of Earth's biggest religions. In context both of the book and of Star Trek in general, one can infer that human religion is dead. Now I know you're in some ways confined to Gene Roddenberry's sandbox, and I know he was no friend of religion, but it's still annoying to read.
I'm religious myself. Religion of some kind or another is a huge part of the lives of literally billions of people living today. If you're thinking "yeah but humanity will outgrow their need for religion", then how is that less offensive than saying we'll outgrow our need to have black people or gay people or people who don't believe in God. It's like saying all of human diversity is welcome in the Star Trek future but my diversity.
As a disclaimer, I'm not taking a swing at KRAD here. I hardly feel marginalized or offended, and I'm probably taking a minor thing and blowing it out of proportion. I also realize Star Trek literature has been very friendly to religious themes in the past what with the "A Time to" series and the very Christian themes of Destiny. I also understand that Bajoran and Klingon religions are handled as metaphors of human religions and are given due respect by Star Trek. I appreciate all of that a lot, and besides I don't need my choices and beliefs constantly affirmed by everything I read. Still, for something like Star Trek where everyone makes this big crazy deal out of IDIC and all that, it seems odd to consign human religion to history's dustbin so cavalierly.
Other than that, A+ story!
I'm religious myself. Religion of some kind or another is a huge part of the lives of literally billions of people living today. If you're thinking "yeah but humanity will outgrow their need for religion", then how is that less offensive than saying we'll outgrow our need to have black people or gay people or people who don't believe in God. It's like saying all of human diversity is welcome in the Star Trek future but my diversity.
As a disclaimer, I'm not taking a swing at KRAD here. I hardly feel marginalized or offended, and I'm probably taking a minor thing and blowing it out of proportion. I also realize Star Trek literature has been very friendly to religious themes in the past what with the "A Time to" series and the very Christian themes of Destiny. I also understand that Bajoran and Klingon religions are handled as metaphors of human religions and are given due respect by Star Trek. I appreciate all of that a lot, and besides I don't need my choices and beliefs constantly affirmed by everything I read. Still, for something like Star Trek where everyone makes this big crazy deal out of IDIC and all that, it seems odd to consign human religion to history's dustbin so cavalierly.
Other than that, A+ story!
My copy was waiting for me when I got home this evening... am devouring it right now.
Oh, KRAD? That casualty list leading into Chapter 8? You evil bastard...
Yeah the future novels are gonna be quite interesting.
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