The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor's Wing - Discuss (SPOILERS)

I'm at around page 188 or so.

I'm enjoying it quite enjoying it, especially the way Martin manages to tell such a far-reaching story -- about Enterprise, the UE Starfleet, the rest of Earth, Andor, Tellar, Vulcan, and the other Human worlds that have become independent of United Earth. I especially like the idea that the Enterprise and its sister ships represent the "Edsel" of the 22nd Century.

I'm noticing a lot more typos and other such errors than usual. In particular, the supporting character Haroun al-Rashid has inexplicably become Haroun el-Rashid. I'm wondering if this is the result of all the editorial upheaval during the book's writing.

There are a few things in the book that bug me. They're fairly minor, but they irritate me none the less.

- As I said before, the changing of T'Pau's office from First Minister to Administrator, with no acknowledgment of the change.
- The decision to designate the Daedalus-class ships as "U.S.S. Whatever NCC-whatever." That decision just irritated me. The NX-class ships don't follow that nomenclature, which seemed to be a Federation thing. Why would some United Earth ships get that designation but not others? And why would the Federation Starfleet use it later on?
- The decision to call Thomas Vanderbilt the "defense secretary" rather than defense minister. The inconsistent nomenclature just got on my nerve.
- This and the "U.S.S." thing are really the same complaint, but I didn't like the idea of putting the Uinted Earth Prime Minister's office in the Place de la Concorde. This probably sounds silly, arguing against fictitious ethnocentrism, but that goes too far for me in the direction of equating Earth with the Federation. It seems to me that they should have established a distinct location for the PM's office, some place that's not Federation-related, so as to establish that the Federation is not just a Human institution.

 

Clearly? How can you tell? Just because this book has a subtitle?

 

Well, not really. More like the Tucker -- a design that was ahead of its time but didn't have widespread success due to various factors. But a lot of design elements of the NX class do end up in the Constitution and other 23rd-century classes.

Well, "al-" and "el-" are both acceptable transliterations of the Arabic definite article.

You can tell because the ending of the book is, as I said, a cliffhanger on multiple levels. It's an escalation rather than a resolution. There's no question that the book is intended to be Part One of the story rather than the whole story.

 

Even if sequels are "intended", that doesn't mean we will get them for sure, does it? Have any been announced?

 

Not yet; but Enterprise books are taking a year off. That was a long book, after all.

There has to be a sequel. Otherwise the next book would just start with Archer, Trip, and T'pol going "Whew! That was a close one!" and going on another routine adventure.

 

No, but you never know anything for sure. I mean, hell, for all you know, you don't know for sure that the Canadians won't invade tomorrow and ban all Star Trek books because of all the "Mars is the new Canada" jokes in Beneath the Raptor's Wing.

But the fact that something hasn't been formally announced doesn't mean there's any reason to think it's not in the works.

 

Hmm. Well, given all the bones we've been thrown over the years and then had them yanked away again, I'm inclined to take a more realistic view: If it's not on the shelves, it doesn't exist.

 

Those bones were usually side projects or standalone novels, not the continuation of a major ongoing series.

 

^ The principle is the same. You can't count on the existence of a novel until it's actually being offered for sale. I mean, we can talk about the next Romulan War novel all we want, but until somebody says they're going to write one, they actually do write it, and most importantly, we can buy it, it is effectively meaningless.

 

"You've got to ac-cen-tuate the positive....."

 

Dude, get real. They're not going to discontinue telling a story they've already spent four books building up to that they haven't finished. And they're certainly not going to stop publishing novels based on Star Trek: Enterprise.

Will it be a while before the continuation? Probably. But there's no reason to think it's not going to happen.

 

I just finished it, and will start to reread it soon.

 

Holy crap.

Do you think they will stop publishing DS9 after the next book? Stop publishing Voyager? Stop publishing TNG? Of course not. This is one of the TV shows; they're going to keep publishing Enterprise books.

And clearly, the next Enterprise book would have to be a continuation of this one.

 

I don't doubt that. I'm sure there *will* be future ENT novels (the almost total lack of shelf space that my local Borders is devoting to Trek novels notwithstanding). I was referring to a SPECIFIC novel, or at least the idea of one.

Clearly?

The first few ENT novels weren't serialized (neither were *any* Trek novels in days of old), so there's obviously a precedent.

 

Every series except TOS & Abramsverse right now is serialized. Why would they stop doing that for Enterprise specifically if all the rest continue?

Or, reversing that, why would they stop serializing everything, when it's been going so well for 8 years?

 

Of course they weren't serialized, since they were set during the series. But the books set after the series have been highly serialized, with both of the first two being direct lead-ins to the Earth-Romulan War, and they've all been by the same author team, except without Andy Mangels on the latest one. So applying the precedent of books during the series to the post-series books makes no sense.

All that matters is how well Book 1 sells. If it does well, there will be a Book 2. And judging from its sales rank at Amazon.com (as of this writing, #52 in all science fiction, #5 in Space Opera), I'd say there's no cause for alarm.

 

I'm glad to hear the book is selling so well. I really like the way the Enterprise stories are continued from one book to the next.I'm halfway finished with this book and think it's really a well written novel.

 

I'm not talking about when they were *set*, I mean when they were *written*. If, for example, a book could come out right now that was still set during the series (I'm assuming this is not out of the question for any Trek series novel), then obviously it's not set in stone that all, or indeed any, future novel MUST pick up where TRW left off. Right?

 

Nothing is set in stone, but that doesn't mean that they're in any way likely to just abandon a story they're in the middle of telling.

 

Same difference. They were written and therefore set during the series, so it was impossible for them to have any real continuity or serialization. But every book series set after the end of the show it's based on, except TOS, has had some degree of serialization, and ENT's post-finale novels have been heavily serialized. So using pre-finale novels as a precedent is comparing apples and oranges.

Of course they could do more novels set during the series, but there's zero reason why that would prevent them from continuing the serialized post-finale storyline in progress. The publication of Hollow Men didn't prevent the post-finale DS9 books from continuing. The publication of String Theory didn't prevent the post-finale VGR books from continuing.

Again, the key factor is how well BTRW sells. If it sells well, they'll do another. That's how this business works. Any other factor is pretty much beside the point.

Anyway, why are you trying so desperately to convince yourself that there might not be a continuation? Take my advice, don't borrow trouble. There's enough in life to worry about without making up new, unjustified worries.