Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread
So I am the type of reader/fan this book should especially appeal to?
So I am the type of reader/fan this book should especially appeal to?
Spoilers DTI: Watching the Clock by C. L. Bennett Review Thread
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Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread
^Well, there's only one way to find that out.
^Well, there's only one way to find that out.
Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread
The main characters - the people working for the Department of Temporal Investigation - do not travel through time themselves, they reject that notion. Their job is to anticipate and prevent the mess others create by thinking they can fix anything by tampering with the timeline, when doing that really causes nothing but ripples... on top of consequences... on top of trouble.
If the reason for your dislike of time-travel stories is the idea that going back in time allows you to fix anything and have an infinite number of do-overs, then the book will definitely appeal to you.
The main characters - the people working for the Department of Temporal Investigation - do not travel through time themselves, they reject that notion. Their job is to anticipate and prevent the mess others create by thinking they can fix anything by tampering with the timeline, when doing that really causes nothing but ripples... on top of consequences... on top of trouble.
Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread
That pretty much pegged me. My biggest problem with many time travel stories is the protagonists are left without consequences or memory. Since there are infinite universes, you can do no wrong, merely create a new universe. Also, like with the butterfly effect, it seems no matter what you do when you go back in time, you'll cause changes.
I'll check it out. Christopher's winky face is challenging me to find the answers.
That pretty much pegged me. My biggest problem with many time travel stories is the protagonists are left without consequences or memory. Since there are infinite universes, you can do no wrong, merely create a new universe. Also, like with the butterfly effect, it seems no matter what you do when you go back in time, you'll cause changes.
I'll check it out. Christopher's winky face is challenging me to find the answers.
Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread
And your friend has been on you for weeks to read it.
And your friend has been on you for weeks to read it.
Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread
Christopher, I thoroughly enjoyed your novel - all though I must admit I skimmed over some of the technical stuff. I also appreciated how you set up for the future. Pardon me if you have been asked this before - but are you planning on setting up a series for the DTI?
Christopher, I thoroughly enjoyed your novel - all though I must admit I skimmed over some of the technical stuff. I also appreciated how you set up for the future. Pardon me if you have been asked this before - but are you planning on setting up a series for the DTI?
Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread
Planning? No. I actually expected this to be a one-shot, so I crammed in everything I could, tried to make it sort of a series unto itself. I was, however, open to the possibility of continuations. And as it happens, my editor invited me to do a TOS/DTI novel for 2012 -- it's called Forgotten History and will involve the origins of the DTI.
Planning? No. I actually expected this to be a one-shot, so I crammed in everything I could, tried to make it sort of a series unto itself. I was, however, open to the possibility of continuations. And as it happens, my editor invited me to do a TOS/DTI novel for 2012 -- it's called Forgotten History and will involve the origins of the DTI.
Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread
Well, I like the concept alot and hope to see more.
Well, I like the concept alot and hope to see more.
Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread
Another question:
Another question:
Why does the DTI keep a vault full of time travel technology? What use could it possibly have? Shouldn't these things be destroyed, since the mission of the DTI is to prevent time travel?
Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread
Why did the government store the Ark of the Covenant at the end of Raiders? Why does Stargate Command store alien technologies in Area 51 in Stargate? Bureaucracies like to store and catalog things. Besides, secret warehouses are cool.
Seriously, I can think of several reasons for storing these technologies rather than destroying them. First, they involve powerful energies and incomprehensibly advanced technologies, so the DTI doesn't know if it can safely destroy them. Second, studying these artifacts can help the DTI understand how temporal technologies and phenomena work and thus help them devise means of detecting them and defending against them, as well as improving their general theoretical and practical knowledge of temporal physics, which can help them do their jobs better. Third, some of these artifacts may be evidence in ongoing investigations and prosecutions and thus need to be preserved. Fourth, there's pure science -- all physics is interconnected, so these artifacts could advance Federation understanding of physics in general and open the door to improvements in fields other than time travel. Fifth, the DTI knows that there will come a time when the Federation is able to manage temporal technologies responsibly, so there might be value in preserving such devices until such a time.
And sixth, there's the Godzilla Threshold. There may come a time when the timeline is so thoroughly screwed up that time travel is the only way to fix it. So it makes sense for the DTI to keep some time travel capability on hand just in case.
Seriously, I can think of several reasons for storing these technologies rather than destroying them. First, they involve powerful energies and incomprehensibly advanced technologies, so the DTI doesn't know if it can safely destroy them. Second, studying these artifacts can help the DTI understand how temporal technologies and phenomena work and thus help them devise means of detecting them and defending against them, as well as improving their general theoretical and practical knowledge of temporal physics, which can help them do their jobs better. Third, some of these artifacts may be evidence in ongoing investigations and prosecutions and thus need to be preserved. Fourth, there's pure science -- all physics is interconnected, so these artifacts could advance Federation understanding of physics in general and open the door to improvements in fields other than time travel. Fifth, the DTI knows that there will come a time when the Federation is able to manage temporal technologies responsibly, so there might be value in preserving such devices until such a time.
And sixth, there's the Godzilla Threshold. There may come a time when the timeline is so thoroughly screwed up that time travel is the only way to fix it. So it makes sense for the DTI to keep some time travel capability on hand just in case.
Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread
To be fair, the Stargate analogy's kind of a bad one, since the SGC's mission was explicitly to find and retrieve alien technology that could be reverse-engineered and adapted for the defense of the planet. It's not locked up and stored for unknown purposes that we would need to explain away, they outright tell us why all that tech is kept in Area 51, and often show us the results of having it there (The X-301, the Prometheus, etc.). 
Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread
No, it was a purposeful analogy. See reasons 2, 4, and 5 in my post above.
If you're saying I didn't justify the Vault sufficiently in the book itself, that's a valid criticism. But is it really that surprising that the Federation would rather store dangerous discoveries for careful, controlled study than simply destroy them? This is a civilization that prizes exploration and knowledge, not a police state that pre-emptively destroys everything it doesn't approve of. I didn't think it really needed to be justified.
To be fair, the Stargate analogy's kind of a bad one, since the SGC's mission was explicitly to find and retrieve alien technology that could be reverse-engineered and adapted for the defense of the planet. It's not locked up and stored for unknown purposes that we would need to explain away, they outright tell us why all that tech is kept in Area 51, and often show us the results of having it there (The X-301, the Prometheus, etc.).
No, it was a purposeful analogy. See reasons 2, 4, and 5 in my post above.
If you're saying I didn't justify the Vault sufficiently in the book itself, that's a valid criticism. But is it really that surprising that the Federation would rather store dangerous discoveries for careful, controlled study than simply destroy them? This is a civilization that prizes exploration and knowledge, not a police state that pre-emptively destroys everything it doesn't approve of. I didn't think it really needed to be justified.
Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread
Perhaps said friend should remember to deliver his copy. Said friend himself also took a few weeks to join trekbbs.
Perhaps said friend should remember to deliver his copy. Said friend himself also took a few weeks to join trekbbs.
Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread
Oh, I wasn't talking about your level of justification of the Vault at all, I was just talking about the analogy. I was just saying Area 51 in Stargate doesn't seem analogous to me to the Vault or to the warehouse in Raiders because it's explicit in Stargate, but implicit in your book and Raiders. I entirely agree with your points, and that's pretty much what I thought for the Vault too, I just meant it seemed a bad choice of analogy to use alongside Raiders because they outright explain all that stuff for Area 51.
It wasn't a criticism of the book at all, just a very, very minor one of the comparison.
To be fair, the Stargate analogy's kind of a bad one, since the SGC's mission was explicitly to find and retrieve alien technology that could be reverse-engineered and adapted for the defense of the planet. It's not locked up and stored for unknown purposes that we would need to explain away, they outright tell us why all that tech is kept in Area 51, and often show us the results of having it there (The X-301, the Prometheus, etc.).
No, it was a purposeful analogy. See reasons 2, 4, and 5 in my post above.
If you're saying I didn't justify the Vault sufficiently in the book itself, that's a valid criticism. But is it really that surprising that the Federation would rather store dangerous discoveries for careful, controlled study than simply destroy them? This is a civilization that prizes exploration and knowledge, not a police state that pre-emptively destroys everything it doesn't approve of. I didn't think it really needed to be justified.
Oh, I wasn't talking about your level of justification of the Vault at all, I was just talking about the analogy. I was just saying Area 51 in Stargate doesn't seem analogous to me to the Vault or to the warehouse in Raiders because it's explicit in Stargate, but implicit in your book and Raiders. I entirely agree with your points, and that's pretty much what I thought for the Vault too, I just meant it seemed a bad choice of analogy to use alongside Raiders because they outright explain all that stuff for Area 51.
It wasn't a criticism of the book at all, just a very, very minor one of the comparison.
Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread
Just finished (finally) & loved it. Now I finally have an answer to the question: Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?.
Just finished (finally) & loved it. Now I finally have an answer to the question: Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?.
Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread
A Thursday.
Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?.
A Thursday.
Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread
More analogous to the warehouse in Warehouse 13 I would have thought...
To be fair, the Stargate analogy's kind of a bad one, since the SGC's mission was explicitly to find and retrieve alien technology that could be reverse-engineered and adapted for the defense of the planet. It's not locked up and stored for unknown purposes that we would need to explain away, they outright tell us why all that tech is kept in Area 51, and often show us the results of having it there (The X-301, the Prometheus, etc.).
No, it was a purposeful analogy. See reasons 2, 4, and 5 in my post above.
If you're saying I didn't justify the Vault sufficiently in the book itself, that's a valid criticism. But is it really that surprising that the Federation would rather store dangerous discoveries for careful, controlled study than simply destroy them? This is a civilization that prizes exploration and knowledge, not a police state that pre-emptively destroys everything it doesn't approve of. I didn't think it really needed to be justified.
Oh, I wasn't talking about your level of justification of the Vault at all, I was just talking about the analogy. I was just saying Area 51 in Stargate doesn't seem analogous to me to the Vault or to the warehouse in Raiders because it's explicit in Stargate, but implicit in your book and Raiders. I entirely agree with your points, and that's pretty much what I thought for the Vault too, I just meant it seemed a bad choice of analogy to use alongside Raiders because they outright explain all that stuff for Area 51.
It wasn't a criticism of the book at all, just a very, very minor one of the comparison.
More analogous to the warehouse in Warehouse 13 I would have thought...
Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread
Very cool.
Look forward to reading it.
I also would like to see a book that deals with the events that are set in motion at the very end of the book.
Very cool.
Look forward to reading it.
I also would like to see a book that deals with the events that are set in motion at the very end of the book.
Re: Star Trek: DTI: Watching The Clock Review Thread
I'd call that very unlikely, since
I also would like to see a book that deals with the events that are set in motion at the very end of the book.
I'd call that very unlikely, since
those events don't pay off for a century or more. And the whole point is that they're events that unfold very, very slowly and subtly -- quiet, drab, behind-the-scenes stuff, nothing exciting or romantic or sexy or adventurous enough to attract anyone's attention. So it wouldn't make a very entertaining story.
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