Spoilers TF: A Ceremony of Losses by David Mack Review Thread
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In 'Paths of Disharmony' it was established that Starfleet leadership - at least - knew of the existence of the Shedai Meta-Genome, its value, and the fact that they had it.
They didn't want to use it because they considered using it 'playing god'. Meaning, they did not use it to develop defences during the ample time they had between the appearance of the borg/dominion and 'Destiny'.
Result - 65+ BILLION dead; the federation, severely weakened. In any non-fictional universe, these guys would have been court-martialed for gross negligence/incompetence/maybe even treason and would subsequently rot in prison/be executed.
I can only presume that Section 31 didn't know about the Genome beforehand. Otherwise, what fracking good are they? Andoria seceded because the Brass didn't want to give up the Genome secret. Wouldn't you say that was an existential crisis for the Federation? Sorta what 31 is built for.
But then, what if they did know about it? The question would again be asked: What good are they? If they did know about it, and they did in fact want to recruit Bashir, wouldn't you think that'd be a good way to go about it? Rather than send him on a James Bond mission?
The whole story revolving around the Genome is just way too big a Deus Ex Machina. It solves too many problems while attempting to brush aside a whole bunch of other stuff.
But then, what if they did know about it? The question would again be asked: What good are they? If they did know about it, and they did in fact want to recruit Bashir, wouldn't you think that'd be a good way to go about it? Rather than send him on a James Bond mission?
The whole story revolving around the Genome is just way too big a Deus Ex Machina. It solves too many problems while attempting to brush aside a whole bunch of other stuff.
Well no, they solved the problem in a week using the accumulated data of at least 4 years of extensive research and clinical trials by the Andorians, AND a complete database rather than the partial one that the Andorians were working from. Shar and co. were pretty close to an answer, but they were on a very tight time schedule and so it required desperate measures. Like stealing a super top secret classified file.
About Bashir&co solving the andorian reproduction problem in a week:
They solved it using a reservoir of ultimate/ancient knowledge.
This reservoir IS a deus ex machina.
On this forum, in the past, this is usually when the counterargument became ~'it's not a deus ex machina, it's a Chekhov's gun'.
Well, Chekhov putting aside a mere, limited phaser at the beginning of the episode in order to use it later is a Chekhov's gun.
~'Chekhov putting aside at the beginning of the episode/book' a weapon that can destroy the entirety of the klingon empire in seconds (the caeliar) or a device that can solve any problem (the meta-genome) in order to use it later IS a deus ex machina - regardless of any previous mention of this 'deus'.
They solved it using a reservoir of ultimate/ancient knowledge.
This reservoir IS a deus ex machina.
On this forum, in the past, this is usually when the counterargument became ~'it's not a deus ex machina, it's a Chekhov's gun'.
Well, Chekhov putting aside a mere, limited phaser at the beginning of the episode in order to use it later is a Chekhov's gun.
~'Chekhov putting aside at the beginning of the episode/book' a weapon that can destroy the entirety of the klingon empire in seconds (the caeliar) or a device that can solve any problem (the meta-genome) in order to use it later IS a deus ex machina - regardless of any previous mention of this 'deus'.
Oh wow, this is what you miss when you don't read Titan!
No these aren't mentioned in A Ceremony of Losses. Maybe thankfully!
On a side note: was this book physically more flimsy than the previous few (Crimson Shadow, for example)? Seems this comes up on occasion, then they go back to normal, and then another 'cheap' one seems to pop up. Wondering if it was the run I got, or if that was the same for everyone. And what drives that end result...
No. It is not brought up at all.
Furthermore, since it appears that the Andorian reproductive crisis is over, this seems to now be a dead-end storyline.
It's possible they might do something with it in The Poisoned Chalice next month since that seems basically be the next Titan novel and I'm sure it will still involve the changes to the Andorians.
I really hope they address it in "The Poisoned Chalice" I've been waiting a long time for my Titan fix and am really looking forward to this book.
I really enjoyed this book. It was fast paced and well written. Certainly the best of the three so far. This book went straight into the story with only one flash back at the beginning.
I noticed in my Kindle Fire version that in several places after a sentence there was a string of characters see here:http://fitzsimmonsphotography.smugmug.com/Other/My-SmugMug-Site-Files-Do-Not/n-TLzt6/i-cgJNgpR/A
Any body else see these? The string kept disappearing when I hit save so I had to post a link.
Also what Titan book cloned Andorians. I do not remember that.
I noticed in my Kindle Fire version that in several places after a sentence there was a string of characters see here:http://fitzsimmonsphotography.smugmug.com/Other/My-SmugMug-Site-Files-Do-Not/n-TLzt6/i-cgJNgpR/A
Any body else see these? The string kept disappearing when I hit save so I had to post a link.
Also what Titan book cloned Andorians. I do not remember that.
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Yup - had a few cases in my copy too (on the standard Kindle)
Same here.
A certain someone will argue it's unreadable that way, but to be honest it didn't bother me that much (IIRC there were only a handful of those errors).
I noticed that when I was reading it too, but there weren't enough occurrences for it to spoil the book. Hopefully they'll update the kindle version at some point to correct it.