Spoilers TP: Brinkmanship by Una McCormack Review Thread

[Sho]

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The historically DS9-focused Una McCormack is branching out and set to take on the TNG crew - along with with that of Captain Dax' Aventine - in Typhon Pact: Brinkmanship on the 25th of this month. However, if the blurb's mention of the Cardassians is any indication, she still won't be missing out on an opportunity to further her highly-acclaimed take on one of the 24th century's primary antagonists and most recent allies.

Blurb time:

The Venette Convention has always remained independent, but it is about to become the flashpoint for a tense military standoff between the two power blocs now dominating interstellar space—the United Federation of Planets and the recently formed Typhon Pact. The Venetan government turns to the Typhon Pact’s Tzenkethi Coalition for protection in the new order, and has agreed to allow three of their supply bases for Tzenkethi use. But these bases—if militarized—would put Tzenkethi weapons unacceptably close to Federation, Cardassian, and Ferengi space. While Captain Ezri Dax and the crew of the U.S.S. Aventine are sent to investigate exactly what is happening at one of the Venette bases, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the U.S.S. Enterprise are assigned to a diplomatic mission sent to the Venette homeworld in order to broker a mutually acceptable resolution. But the Cardassian delegates don’t seem particularly keen on using diplomacy to resolve the situation, which soon spirals out of control toward all-out war. . . .

Excerpt's sadly not up yet, but it should appear here on the Simon & Schuster page within the next few days.

 

[Mage]

And the people at S&S really couldn't be bothered with a better cover then this photoshop?

Atleast the actual novel could not be worse then the cover. I love Una's work so far (The Neverending Sacrifice was fantastic!!), so can't wait to dig into this one. And I'm actually looking forward to reading more about Ezri and her crew, even though they are the least interesting crew out there for me.

 

[WarsTrek1993]

Wow, I really want to read this! I've heard good things about Una McCormack's writing, and Captain Ezri's grown on me.

It'll be good to see Picard back in a bigger role again, since his crew were mostly guest stars in the last TP book.

I wonder if anymore DS9 crew will be involved, like Bashir, for instance?

 

[Relayer1]

This appears to be what more and more of the covers of Trek books will look like in future. May as well go for generic packaging, say black title on a white cover, like supermarket 'own brands'.

I can guarantee the contents will be better than the cover. Una's marvelous !

 

[WarsTrek1993]

I bet she is. I've heard nothing but good stuff about The Never-Ending Sacrifice!

 

[nickyboy]

Really excited about this, I hope the Aventine and her crew will be the main focus, with the Enterprise playing a smaller role as in the last 2 TP books, we are getting a TNG trilogy starting next month after all!!

 

[Patrick O'Brien]

Wow, I really want to read this! I've heard good things about Una McCormack's writing, and Captain Ezri's grown on me.

Agreed. Captian Ezri and the Aventine Crew have grown on me as well

 

[WarsTrek1993]

Really excited about this, I hope the Aventine and her crew will be the main focus, with the Enterprise playing a smaller role as in the last 2 TP books, we are getting a TNG trilogy starting next month after all!!

I'd like them to have an equal amount of screen time (page time), though I do agree that Ezri should have a big focus, she sort of took the back seat in Zero Sum Game, if I remember right.

 

[Mage]

Let's just hope Una will make Ezri less of an arrogant know-it-all. From the first relaunch novels, novel-Ezri has not been a very good character to me, even though I really liked Ezri in season 7 of DS9.

But I do agree the bigger focus should be on the Aventine, since the next three novels are TNG books.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I've been looking forward to this since it was first announcement. Everything of Una McCormack's that I've read so far has been awesome, especially when Cardassians are involved. Ever since Andrew Robinson's brilliant A Stitch in Time, I've become a huge fan of Cardassian culture and history so naturally I'm really looking forward to this aspect of the novel. Plus more Ezri is always a good thing in my book! I can't wait!

 

[Jim Gamma]

*waits (im)patiently for the Kindle version to come out*

 

[Christopher]

Let's just hope Una will make Ezri less of an arrogant know-it-all. From the first relaunch novels, novel-Ezri has not been a very good character to me, even though I really liked Ezri in season 7 of DS9.

I'm not sure "arrogant" is the right word there. To arrogate something is to assert a status or privilege to which one is not actually entitled. Dax has lived for over 300 years, done many different jobs, and been joined to a number of brilliant individuals. So any Trill who's joined to Dax is going to know, if not "it all," then certainly an exceptionally large percentage of "it." She's not just putting on airs, trying to act superior; she really is that smart, and she's just using what she's got, rather than resisting it as Ezri did in her first year as a joined Trill.

 

[Hugh Cambridge]

^agreed but with this developpement, the character has become completely flat and uninteresting.
T'ryssa's complex personality makes her charm, whereas Ezri has completely lost that for me.

 

[Enterpriserules]

I can't wait for this! I am very excited to see Ezri and Picard team up!

 

[shanejayell]

So end of the month... and probably another week to Canada. *sigh* Looking forward to it tho.

 

[Mage]

Let's just hope Una will make Ezri less of an arrogant know-it-all. From the first relaunch novels, novel-Ezri has not been a very good character to me, even though I really liked Ezri in season 7 of DS9.

I'm not sure "arrogant" is the right word there. To arrogate something is to assert a status or privilege to which one is not actually entitled. Dax has lived for over 300 years, done many different jobs, and been joined to a number of brilliant individuals. So any Trill who's joined to Dax is going to know, if not "it all," then certainly an exceptionally large percentage of "it." She's not just putting on airs, trying to act superior; she really is that smart, and she's just using what she's got, rather than resisting it as Ezri did in her first year as a joined Trill.

It's not the knowledge she has, it's the way she comes across as if everyone should agree with her, because. Perhaps that just how it comes across to me, and not how she was written. I'm just not a big fan of novel Ezri.

 

[Enterpriserules]

I am look forward to Ezri getting really spread her wings and get more development as a captain.

 

[JD]

I've enjoyed the other Una McCormack books I've read, and I'm a big fan of the Aventine crew so I'm really looking forward to this.

 

[Thestral]

It's not the knowledge she has, it's the way she comes across as if everyone should agree with her, because. Perhaps that just how it comes across to me, and not how she was written. I'm just not a big fan of novel Ezri.

I think it's mostly you to be honest; the only time she's come across poorly to me was at the start of one of This Gray Spirit, but I felt like that was just Jarman not having a handle on the character because she got better throughout the book.

I'm really excited for this book. Love Una McCormack's writing and any story with Dax and the Aventine is must-read for me!

 

[Una McCormack]

Thanks everyone for your enthusiasm about the book! Hope you enjoy it!