Its been sorta a turn-off for me the Titan books with all the alien species. Yeah, I'm for IDIC & all, but it seems it was just jammed downed our throats. I liked the Taking Wing books, but from them on it just seemed like, "OK, i get it, Titan holds the Guiness record for the most aliens on the ship"
My nitpick is that how Dino doc's body and the Hulian character, the blue skinned counselor that is suppose to be 2 feet tall, -- (I'm recalling this from memory, so I apologize if not totally accurate) are so vastly different from each other and from the humans, are their environmental suits located on every deck for emergencies? Are all the rooms capatible on the ship? What is a Hulian type character cross trains or another of the same species comes on board and is a Helmsman? Will the chair just be raised & lowered. Heck, my wife is 5 inches shorter than me (not 3 feet) and I still gripe when my pick up truck seat settings are mucked up cuz of her driving it for a day.
How about when they meet with the Captain in the ready room, is it "dinosaur accessible" so to speak for the dinosaur to sit down?
How about the control panels?? I'm sure Dino Doc's hands are different from humans to you the same PADDs???
How about the Lavena, the watergirl?? YOu think she gets uber-frustrated being in wetsuit 24/7. Heck, I've been in radiological suits in the army and find they incredibly uncomfortable. Even if they are 'modernized" to the 24th century, i think it still would suck. Imagine being underwater 24/7 and had to wear scuba suit as your room is all water. That would get old after a week, not to say months.
Perhaps I'm sounding to harsh, but sorta drives me nuts all the aliens. It just seems like Titan wants to say, "We make the aliens look even alien to the aliens" In fact, I think in the last book, there was sorta a "who's who" section in the book. I always think if you need a "who's who" in the book, they the characters aren't explained well enough in the book or there are way to many of them.
Maybe I hold it to the same standards as the Vanguard series. There are just as many characters, if not more, from the starbase crew, the Bombay, the Saggittereus, the Endeavor crew. And yep, they don't have strictly human crews, but it just comes off more believeable. And for whatever reason I haven't found a issue keeping track fo everyone.
Maybe Titan wants to come off as more World-building or pure Science Fiction, I dunno, but I'd take a Vanguard book any day over Titan.
As Titan could be compared to a US Navy aircraft carrier, the Captain doesn't say, "Hey, we need some rednecks from Kentucky to mingle with the crew, and don't forget to get someone from that tiny state of Rhode Island, cuz this ship really needs to be represented by as many states as possible" (No slur intended if you are a redneck or from Kentucky)
