TOS: The Weight of Worlds by Greg Cox Review Thread (Spoilers!)
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Trek works best if you look at it as examples from all the various universes. In Universe #1285 JTK has three nephews. In Universe #250 he only has one. In a similar fashion Universe #29042 we see a James Kirk with the middle initial of R. There are no continuity errors, just an infinite numer of universes, some quite similar, some remarkably different.
The run from TOS through ENT are fairly similar in their history. The 2009 movie is much more removed but still using the broad strokes.
It all fits.
Bashir: What I want to know is, out of all the stories you told me which ones were true and which ones weren't?
Garak: My dear doctor...they're all true.
Bashir: Even the continuity errors?
Garak: Especially the continuity errors.
Came down the wire this morning. Pretty good so far
I find that a very unsatisfying way to look at it, since it's basically saying episode X didn't happen to the same crew we saw in episode Y or novel Z. I prefer to see all the episodes, movies and books (excepting the ones deliberately out-of-continuity) as windows into some "real" (for lack of a much-needed better word) Trek universe. Some windows are clear, others are fogged up to varying degrees, jumbling the details a bit.
Well, look at it this way: Maybe the same stories, the same events, happen in multiple parallel timelines, but with some of the details being different. So you are basically seeing an adventure that happened to the familiar crew, you're just seeing a slightly different version than the one they experienced. That's not so different from what you're proposing -- you are seeing a slightly off-kilter version of a story the Prime crew experienced, but because a slightly different timeline was selected rather than because the details were recorded wrong.
This is basically what the Voyager novel Echoes depicts outright -- many different parallel versions of Voyager arriving at the same planet at the same time and having essentially the same experiences for the most part (though with some major differences for some of them), but with subtle differences in the details, like one Voyager having a two-person helm console instead of one-person, one Chakotay having a different tattoo, and so on. The book portrays its cross-timeline events from the perspectives of three main crews, but it's indicated that there are thousands of other parallel crews experiencing much the same adventure in much the same way. Similarly with TNG: "Parallels" -- the first few timelines Worf jumps to are essentially the same as his own, meaning the same events must have happened, but some details happened differently.
Still wasn't at the store today, and Tony Daniel's book was still on the "Hot And New Paperbacks" shelf. Hopefully it'll be in before Easter.
it finally showed up at my local B&N store. Strange thing was, they put the book in alphabetical order by author, and not in the star trek section. I almost didn't find it, until i looked in their system to find where they put it. I'm looking forward to starting it tonight before hitting the sack.
By George, I think he's got it!
Exactly right Christopher. Mirror, Mirror showed us a universe that is quite different from the one we were used to seeing but most of the same people were still there but with significant differences. There was even an identical acid stain on McCoy's work table even though McCoy was probably the most humanistic of the characters and thus most unlike his mirror counterpart.
TAS had differences for TOS in ship layout, shuttlecraft, etc but the characters were still basically the same. TNG had the Ent-D saying thatthe space beyond Deneb was unexplored and yet we had references to Denebian Slime Devils and Kirk spoke of being on Deneb IV in WNMHGB, Apparently Starfleet went as far as Deneb and no further for a century or the Deneb IV's are different. And ley's not forget the slug like Denebians from the novels. Groppler Zorn didn't look much like a slug but he could be considered as slimy at times.
The advantage to my way of looking at it is that it expands the number of universes, giving us lots of new places to fit stories as opposed to trying to fit everything into two or three universes.
Finished it at lunch today. Enjoyed it a lot
Exactly the argument I attempted to make in the Star Trek XI forum last summer when you, me, and Greg Cox were debating the differences in the universes between William Shatner's Kirk, and Chris Pine's Kirk, only then, you didn't see what I was saying.
But, on topic, nice to see the book is out, but I don't have it yet. That will change once payday occurs at the end of the week.
No, I just didn't agree that it works for that particular thing. In the movie, Spock Prime recognizes Kirk and Scotty on sight, which means that in universe, they must look the same, regardless of how different the actors portraying them look to us.
There's no reason that we have to limit ourselves to using a single explanation/rationalization for everything. Some things can be rationalized a certain way, but that rationalization may not work for a different thing. We need to be flexible, open to a variety of options.
Love the cover...I just picked it up today and the actual cover isn't as bright as this pic which is nice because the actual cover looks better.
Looking at the awesome cover makes me wish I did not get the ebook. Maybe if Greg does a book signing in NYC I can pick up a copy
My copy has appeared. I expect to start it within a week.
Weight of worlds is a fast paced novel and Kirk and Spock get their own story arcs in this book. Also Uhura it's nice to see her getting an important role in this book. Sulu and another Enterprise security crewwoman also get a piece of the action against the villians in this book.I don't want to post too many spoilers.Except to say Greg Cox has written another terrific Tos novel and that Ithink his fans will really like this book. It definitely feels like an old tv episode when you read this book. 
I just finished reading this novel.I think it was a complex story and there will probably a lot of discussion about this story. The storyline on IaItal took unexpected twists and turns that certainly surprised me.
I just finished reading this novel.I think it was a complex story and there will probably a lot of discussion about this story. The storyline on IaItal took unexpected twists and turns that certainly surprised me.
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I just picked up my copy. If there are any categories in next yea r's bet Sci-Fi novel awards for cover art, this one should win hands down. This actually looks like one that was drawn and not photoshopped.
Looking at the awesome cover makes me wish I did not get the ebook. Maybe if Greg does a book signing in NYC I can pick up a copy
No immediate plans for a NYC outing, alas, but I will definitely be at Shore Leave this year, and am trying to arrange something in Newark, Delaware.