Nearly half way through. Still strange and unsatisfying.
TOS: The Folded World by Jeff Mariotte Review Thread (Spoilers!)
- Thread starter Sho
- Start date
I cannot read your review. The background is very distracting. If you were to change it to a solid color, then it would be a lot easier to read your review.
Gave up on B&N, kindle only for me.
Really? I'm sorry to hear that... quite honestly, in the entire three years I've had it up, that's the first complaint I've gotten about it, among a number of compliments. Normally I'd agree with you, but I find the white text on the muted background very easy to view... sorry that your experience was different!
^I find it a bit tricky to read myself. I have to scroll the text up to the blank area in the top half of the column in order to feel comfortable reading it. The book-spines image in the lower half does make it a bit harder to read.
I have to select the text to read the review. Perhaps on a smaller monitor it isn't so bad, but the way those book bindings line up makes it particularly hard on the eyes when using a 1920x1080 resolution.
Hmm... well, it's good to know. I've recently acquired the domain name "treklit.com" and I'd like to do more with the site than just a review blog. I'm thinking a big redesign will be a part of the process. I've enjoyed the look of it, but I think it's time for a change anyway. Thanks for all of the feedback!
Before you take the time to revamp your website, please remove the background and use a solid color. That should be very easy to do. Then we should be able to read your reviews. Thanks.
Oh, how did you get it and how much did you pay? I was interested in treklit.com a while back too for the bigger and badder version of voting site we keep discussing now and then
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Oh, how did you get it and how much did you pay? I was interested in treklit.com a while back too for the bigger and badder version of voting site we keep discussing now and then
Actually, I got it as a gift from a friend when I was complaining that "treklitreviews.com" looks too much like "Trek Litre Views"! I thought it was taken, but he surprised me with it a few weeks ago.
Nice gift, congrats! Use it well!
With great domains comes great responsibility and so on and so forth.
Just finished this book; I had to give it an "average" vote on the poll. I really enjoyed the sections with Scotty dealing with the Ixtoldians, but other than that it didn't really "wow" me at all. It wasn't really bad, but I didn't feel it was really that great, either. Of the 4 TOS novels released in 2013 so far, I'd have to rank this one as my least favorite.
I'm sorry, but I didn't enjoy this one at all. 
Spoilers may follow, but it's a spoiler thread, so you've been warned.
The characterization of all the regular characters seemed off to me, and unfortunately none of the new characters drew my interest. Tikolo at least had an interesting backstory, but the whole "love triangle" subplot was painful to read. Vandella and O'Meara were both totally bland, and were pretty much interchangeable anyway.
And when did our heroes get so bloodthirsty? I was very surprised when I found out the landing party had their phasers set to kill during the firefights with the Romulans. It just seemed out of character. And Scotty seemed quite eager to destroy the Ton'bey at one point, too. I think there was at least one other example of an increased level of aggression, but I forget what is was at the moment.
I found a lot of the dialogue cringeworthy as well. A lot of it didn't sound like how someone would actually speak. There were a lot of instances also where a given character would say something that I just couldn't imagine coming out of their mouth (this also relates back to the characterization issues). Kirk's line "Fire at will! We're Starfleet, damn it!" (p. 203) was particularly eyeroll-worthy, so much so that I considered making it my signature here at TrekBBS.
The thing is... the book had a really interesting premise. I wanted to like this one. But it was actually a struggle to get through it. I had to put it away and take a break for a couple weeks before getting up the ambition to finish it... and when I was done, I was more relieved it was over than anything else.
What about the good points? Well, that cover was a beauty! And like I said earlier, Tikolo's backstory was interesting; plus it was nice to see a focus on a non-commissioned officer. (Although how she could then resign her commission at the end is beyond me.)
And speaking of the end (again, spoilers!), so OK, Tikolo shoots and kills one of her crewmates during a firefight because of her mental state. Yes, OK, she may not be criminally responsible because of that. But then she gets to choose to resign? You'd think Starfleet would have some kind of regulation that would say she was unfit for active duty or something like that.
So all in all, I found this book severely lacking. I actually rated it a "poor" on the poll, and I cannot remember the last time I rated a book "poor". I'm actually surprised at the (relatively) high number of favourable rankings for this book. I actually consider myself a fan of TOS, but I am not a fan of this TOS novel.
After reading the book, I checked MA to see if Jeff Mariotte had written any other Star Trek books. It turns out he wrote "Deny Thy Father", which was the only entry in the original six Lost Era novels that I thought was a bad book. Perhaps Mr. Mariotte's literary style just does not mesh with styles I enjoy reading.
Spoilers may follow, but it's a spoiler thread, so you've been warned.The characterization of all the regular characters seemed off to me, and unfortunately none of the new characters drew my interest. Tikolo at least had an interesting backstory, but the whole "love triangle" subplot was painful to read. Vandella and O'Meara were both totally bland, and were pretty much interchangeable anyway.
And when did our heroes get so bloodthirsty? I was very surprised when I found out the landing party had their phasers set to kill during the firefights with the Romulans. It just seemed out of character. And Scotty seemed quite eager to destroy the Ton'bey at one point, too. I think there was at least one other example of an increased level of aggression, but I forget what is was at the moment.
I found a lot of the dialogue cringeworthy as well. A lot of it didn't sound like how someone would actually speak. There were a lot of instances also where a given character would say something that I just couldn't imagine coming out of their mouth (this also relates back to the characterization issues). Kirk's line "Fire at will! We're Starfleet, damn it!" (p. 203) was particularly eyeroll-worthy, so much so that I considered making it my signature here at TrekBBS.
The thing is... the book had a really interesting premise. I wanted to like this one. But it was actually a struggle to get through it. I had to put it away and take a break for a couple weeks before getting up the ambition to finish it... and when I was done, I was more relieved it was over than anything else.
What about the good points? Well, that cover was a beauty!
And like I said earlier, Tikolo's backstory was interesting; plus it was nice to see a focus on a non-commissioned officer. (Although how she could then resign her commission at the end is beyond me.)And speaking of the end (again, spoilers!), so OK, Tikolo shoots and kills one of her crewmates during a firefight because of her mental state. Yes, OK, she may not be criminally responsible because of that. But then she gets to choose to resign? You'd think Starfleet would have some kind of regulation that would say she was unfit for active duty or something like that.
So all in all, I found this book severely lacking. I actually rated it a "poor" on the poll, and I cannot remember the last time I rated a book "poor". I'm actually surprised at the (relatively) high number of favourable rankings for this book. I actually consider myself a fan of TOS, but I am not a fan of this TOS novel.
After reading the book, I checked MA to see if Jeff Mariotte had written any other Star Trek books. It turns out he wrote "Deny Thy Father", which was the only entry in the original six Lost Era novels that I thought was a bad book. Perhaps Mr. Mariotte's literary style just does not mesh with styles I enjoy reading.
There are problems with the dialogue and plot. There are no "away teams" in the 23d century. The previous comment about "we're Starfleet.." holds. Phasers set to kill is highly abnormal. If the environment cause a stun to be fatal that would be another matter. I have not quite finished but will see if the rest of the story will allow me to change my mind.
The use of away team in a TOS novel implies a problem with the writing or editing. I did not notice that term used in TOS or its movie spinoffs. It should be a matter of keeping straight which era book you are writing.
That term may not have been used in TOS or its movie spin-offs, but that doesn't meant it couldn't have been used in that era by someone at some time. Had to have started somewhere, right?
In the meantime, it just seems to be a very minior nitpick, if a problem at all.