Spoilers TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic by McIntee Review Thread

[Lonemagpie]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

Spoiler: Dialogue

I especially thought the dialogue between Romulans about Sela's heritage and her feelings about her mother were unnecessary. They completely detracted from the story.

It's all about the subtext...

Spoiler: dialogue and stuff

As with Bok and his son, those bits hold up a mirror to elements of Geordi's feelings about what happened to his mother.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

very rarely have the novels managed to emulate the episodic structure of TNG, but this has done it marvellously. It was great to see a few old faces returning, and some great new characters thrown into the mix. I just love Qat'qa.

I definitely wanted to make sure it came over the way I feel the show comes over.

Glad you liked Qat'qa - I must bring her back someday...

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

David, I have a question. When Geordi and Guinan were discussing time travel methods, Guinan mentioned the giant donut and I was pretty sure I remembered reading a TNG book with that in. IIRC, it was Requiem where the donut sent Picard back to his Stargazer days. Is that the donut you were referring to?

It's so long since I read that that I don't remember whether it was the GoF or not, but I'm not so sure that it was...

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

Well, that was fun. Could have used more shippery moments with Geordi and Leah, though; that felt a little underdeveloped. Still, an enjoyable read overall.

I kind of felt that that stage of their shipping had been done in Genesis Wave, so this was more a sort of... reuniting. Maybe a wrong call, since not everyone will have read/remember Genesis Wave...

 

[Steve Roby]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

Ah. Can't say I remember much at all about the Genesis Wave books.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

David, I have a question. When Geordi and Guinan were discussing time travel methods, Guinan mentioned the giant donut and I was pretty sure I remembered reading a TNG book with that in. IIRC, it was Requiem where the donut sent Picard back to his Stargazer days. Is that the donut you were referring to?

It's so long since I read that that I don't remember whether it was the GoF or not, but I'm not so sure that it was...

No, in Requiem they encountered a large toroidal structure in space that functioned as a time portal.

 

[label]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

Glad you liked Qat'qa - I must bring her back someday...

I forgot to mention this in my review...... As much as I didn't enjoy a few of the return of a couple of the characters that came back, I loved Qat'qa. She's the best new character since Christine Vale. I'd love to read more with her in it as well.

 

[Enterpriserules]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

I have to start by saying in really enjoyed most of the story and it was good to see Geordi get some development.....But. This book was really badly written, there are so many phrases that just feel out of place in the 24th century, it feels so much more like the dialogue from a sitcom and not the language that I am use to hearing in Trek. There is also a lack of good transitions and as one of the other reviewers said, so many, "genuis", "good idea" and "guv", that it just feels wrong.

I like the story, but the way it was written just had me pulled out of it too much. I was also left feeling like it all wraps up too easily and quickly. In the end I would say average, but left me with a much better taste in my mouth than RBOE.

 

[Snaploud]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

I doubt anybody knows what phrases will be popular in the 24th century. Old phrases could make a come-back. Newer 21st century phrases could go out of style. In fact, one could argue that we should just think of all Star Trek as being put through a translator into 20th/21st century English as we would have trouble understanding real 24th century dialogue.

 

[ICW]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

*Spoilers*



I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this novel. On the one hand, I liked how the novel centered around Geordi; his character has never been taken to new heights nor has his character been very interesting in the recent "relaunch" novels. I am a little disappointed, however, that the Challenger was destoryed. I would have liked to have seen him get out of the situation with the Challenger surviving.

As it pertains to Scotty...I don't believe he is dead. I think we'll see a novel where he somehow escaped and is marooned somewhere (a planet? ship?) where he is healed and not on the brink of death.

I liked the additions of Nog, Leah, Barcaly, and Guinan; I could have lived with Ogawa, Rasmussen, Bok...it just felt like such a perfect example of small universe syndrome. The reasonings for them showing up were resonable enough but still...

I just...I don't know. It was a decent read, not my favorite but certainly not a horrific novel or even a below average novel.

I'd rate it slightly (and I mean *slightly*) above average...

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

*Spoilers*

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this novel. On the one hand, I liked how the novel centered around Geordi; his character has never been taken to new heights nor has his character been very interesting in the recent "relaunch" novels. I am a little disappointed, however, that the Challenger was destoryed. I would have liked to have seen him get out of the situation with the Challenger surviving.

As it pertains to Scotty...I don't believe he is dead. I think we'll see a novel where he somehow escaped and is marooned somewhere (a planet? ship?) where he is healed and not on the brink of death.

It's one of those things where if someone comes up with a story featuring him, then he'll have escaped and survived, and if nobody does, then he's dead...

I confess that, although I intended the latter, just before the book was commissioned, I was working on another pitch with 24th Century Scotty, which is a story I'd still love to do, so if that goes forward... The "out" for him was kind of designed with a mind to leading into that possible story should it ever happen.

But there are a bunch of other pitches I made which are ahead of it in both my mind and in arrival at S&S, so don't hold your breath.

I liked the additions of Nog, Leah, Barcaly, and Guinan; I could have lived with Ogawa, Rasmussen, Bok...it just felt like such a perfect example of small universe syndrome. The reasonings for them showing up were resonable enough but still...

I just...I don't know. It was a decent read, not my favorite but certainly not a horrific novel or even a below average novel.

I'd rate it slightly (and I mean *slightly*) above average...

Good enough for me - as long as it took your mind off the mundane for a few hours and you don't feel you wasted your money, my job is done.

 

[JonoKyle]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

Must admit I havn't read Indistinguishable from Magic yet (always takes longer to get the new releases here - and I have had to put buying some books off to deal with bills first). But hoping to get within the next couple of weeks as it is one of the Star Trek books I have been looking forward to the most.

- so I don't know if this book answers the following but besides Scotty (& Spock and McCoy who were mentioned in the Singular Destiny & Typhon Pact books), where are the other main TOS characters in the current (Destiny/Typhon Pact) Universe?

And is Kirk considered to be still dead as in Generations or alive as in the Shatnerverse novels (I have been wondering for a while if the Shatnerverse events were considered to be an alternate reality or not to the current Trek universe)?

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

- so I don't know if this book answers the following but besides Scotty (& Spock and McCoy who were mentioned in the Singular Destiny & Typhon Pact books), where are the other main TOS characters in the current (Destiny/Typhon Pact) Universe?

None of the others' current situations are mentioned.

And is Kirk considered to be still dead as in Generations or alive as in the Shatnerverse novels (I have been wondering for a while if the Shatnerverse events were considered to be an alternate reality or not to the current Trek universe)?

Still dead - the Shatnerverse novels are considered an alternate reality to the main Lit timeline.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

- so I don't know if this book answers the following but besides Scotty (& Spock and McCoy who were mentioned in the Singular Destiny & Typhon Pact books), where are the other main TOS characters in the current (Destiny/Typhon Pact) Universe?

Kirk is presumed dead. According to Vulcan's Soul, Uhura was running Starfleet Intelligence and Chekov was an admiral as late as 2377. Sulu's status is unknown, though there was a character in Day of Honor: Armageddon Sky (set in 2372) who was strongly implied to be Sulu.

 

[GalaxyClass1701]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

One thing that bothered me about the book was how old they make the Galaxy Class starship seem.

 

[JD]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

- so I don't know if this book answers the following but besides Scotty (& Spock and McCoy who were mentioned in the Singular Destiny & Typhon Pact books), where are the other main TOS characters in the current (Destiny/Typhon Pact) Universe?

Kirk is presumed dead. According to Vulcan's Soul, Uhura was running Starfleet Intelligence and Chekov was an admiral as late as 2377. Sulu's status is unknown, though there was a character in Day of Honor: Armageddon Sky (set in 2372) who was strongly implied to be Sulu.

Is there are specific reason that Sulu's fate has never really been dealt with? Is it just that nobody wants to accidentally give an ending to the Excelsior mission, until a specific book based around that concept is written? It just seems weird that all of the other TOS characters, have a fairly well established post-TOS life, but Sulu has never really been mentioned.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

Is there are specific reason that Sulu's fate has never really been dealt with?

I doubt it. It's not like there's ever been a systematic strategy to establish the TOS characters in the 24th century; it's just been done on a piecemeal basis when various screenwriters or novelists have taken the opportunity to get nostalgic. Sulu's omission is probably just luck of the draw.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

It felt kind of like

Spoiler: What?

old home week.

I saw a few things, including a line from Worf, that momentarily threw me out of the story.

There is one loose end that I see:

Spoiler: the loose end

Where did Scotty beam himself to, that would have been within range, and would have been worth the effort?

 

[rfmcdpei]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

I quite enjoyed Indistinguishable from Magic 8 out of 10 feels about right: there was some awkwardness towards the end of the second half, perhaps because so many characters each needing exploration were put in, but then. I did like the characters. The plot, too! Most importantly, the novel didn't try to answer everything; mysteries remain.

I do have two questions about events in the novel, though. There seems to have been more than the usual amount of breakage and near-breakage.

Spoiler: Catastrophe #1

The explosive decompilation of the Split Infinite, cosmic string and neutron star combined, has to have had a locally catastrophic effect on nearby planetary systems. How close it it to the Agni Cluster? The class-M and otherwise colonizable worlds may not be habitable, at least not without the Corps of Engineers building planetary shields or something like that.

Spoiler: Near-catastrophe #1

The description of then-Director Vellin's assassination attempt against Sela, with the Stormcrow being hijacked and propelled at accelerating speed towards a pulsar just in Federation space, reminded me a lot of the description of the Tomed incident seven decades earlier.

The biggest difference is that whereas the Tomed collided with an asteroid, Stormcrow would have collide with a neutron star. If Tomed wiped out outposts for light-years round, what would the collision of Stormcrow singularity (and the rest of the ship, too) at many multiples of the speed of light with a neutron star have done? Maybe the area was scoured by the Borg, maybe not, but the resulting destruction could surely serve as a casus belli on the Federation's part, notwithstanding its origin in Romulan politics.

Director Vellin was an associate of Rehaek, right, who was interested in having a manipulablke war-hawk Durjik restrained by a conservative Senate and the new Typhon Pact, right? (Working from memory, here.)

Spoiler: One fear

I really, really, really hope that the trans-slipstream technology introduced here won't be an object of serious research. Ordinary slipstream orks for me, barely, inasmuch as it seems limited by the availability of raw materials and is used so far to maintain contaqct between known points within the Galaxy. Trans-slipstream? It collapses everything in at least the Local Group into an indistinguishable mass. Keep trans-slipstream something glimpsed at an extreme distance and otherwise indecipherable, please.

Spoiler: One final observation.

Guinan said that the toroidal space might have been created as a weapon, or created as a by-product of a weapon, in the Q's civil war. It may well have been. The Q, though, can't be the only super-advanced civilization out there. It's a big universe ...

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

It felt kind of like

Spoiler: What?

old home week.

I saw a few things, including a line from Worf, that momentarily threw me out of the story.

There is one loose end that I see:

Spoiler: the loose end

Where did Scotty beam himself to, that would have been within range, and would have been worth the effort?

That's not so much a loose as end as a cliffhanger. Which may or may not be resolved someday.