ENT: Daedalus by Dave Stern Review Thread (Spoilers)

[Defcon]

Enterprise: Daedalus by Dave Stern

​

Blurb:
October 5, 2140. After a half-dozen years of research and testing, Starfleet prepares to launch its first warp 5 vessel -- Daedalus. Propelled by a radical new engine designed by Earth's most brilliant warp field theorist, Victor Brodesser, the new ship will at last put the stars within mankind's reach.
But on the eve of her maiden voyage, a maintenance engineer, Ensign Charles Tucker III -- "Trip" to his friends -- discovers a flaw in Daedalus's design. When he confronts Brodesser, the scientist -- as charismatic as he is brilliant -- eases Trip's concerns. The ship launches on schedule, and as Trip watches in horror, it explodes in a catastrophic ion cascade reaction, killing all aboard.
Thirteen years pass. Still haunted by memories of that disaster, Trip now serves as chief engineer aboard Enterprise. When a freak explosion cripples his vessel, leaving her helpless before a surprise attack, Trip is forced to abandon his ship -- and his shipmates. As he is on the verge of mounting a desperate rescue attempt, however, a shocking turn of events forces him to confront the ghosts of Daedalus one final time.

READ AN EXCERPT

______________________________________________________

My review from 2003:

A good novel.

Parts of the story aren't really new, i.E. it partly reminded me of Voyager: Fire Ship, and similar to Stern's previous Enterprise novel What Price Honor we again experience the novel from one crew members perspective, this time Trip. That way we only know what he knows/experiences. Like in What Price Honor I actually see the merit in this way of storytelling, as you get a closer connection to the main protagonist.

The novel is written very well and varied. Trip's big discovery at the end doesn't come too surprisingly for the attentive reader, but is a nice hook for the second book Daedalus' Children.

You can't say much about the characterizations of the ENterprise crew, since besides Trip and on a much smaller scale Hoshi they barely register in this novel. Trip's characterization is fitting in my opinion and the original charcters are well fleshed out.

Overall a very readable novel, creating interest in the continuation.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I can't separate this from Daedalus' Children, but I enjoyed them both a great deal.

 

[Markonian]

I've read the book last month and haven't delved into it's sequel yet. The original characters and enviroment were indeed well done. Trip sounded right to me as well.

I had been hoping that the design was the prototype of the Daedalus-class but it's a completely different ship.

 

[Enterprise1701]

I've wondered for a long time: does the Enterprise travel into a parallel quantum reality or into some kind of pocket dimension?

 

[Markonian]

I've wondered for a long time: does the Enterprise travel into a parallel quantum reality or into some kind of pocket dimension?

We'll get the answer in book two, I guess. From part one, it sounds like another parallel reality.

 

[Reanok]

I liked this book and thought the characters were well written in this book and Book 2 is good.

 

[tomswift2002]

This book was definitely a lot better than the episode "Daedalus", and a much more cohesive work than Stern's previous Enterprise book "What Price Honor?" This time I was able to make out just what was going on.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I've read the book last month and haven't delved into it's sequel yet. The original characters and enviroment were indeed well done. Trip sounded right to me as well.

I had been hoping that the design was the prototype of the Daedalus-class but it's a completely different ship.

Are we 100% certain it isn't? I don't recall the Daedalus being described at any point. I quite like the idea that the Daedalus-class was a failed CID drive experiment later outfitted with standard nacelles, much like the Excelsior of a century later.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

This book was definitely a lot better than the episode "Daedalus"

The only dud of season four (assuming you're one of those who tolerate the finale ).

I never really understood the reasoning behind the episode. Surely there should be no such thing as the Human inventor of the transporter? Surely Humans acquired that technology from the Vulcans or another race, or at least were fed the basic theories by Vulcan advisors?

 

[Christopher]

^In A Choice of Futures, I suggested that the Vulcans weren't generally in enough of a hurry to feel the need for personnel transporters. It's a crazy enough way of getting around that it seems like the sort of thing a more illogical race would invent.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

^In A Choice of Futures, I suggested that the Vulcans weren't generally in enough of a hurry to feel the need for personnel transporters.

Oh, yes, I'd forgotten that. I guess having a lifespan twice the length of a Human's changes your perspective a bit.

It's a crazy enough way of getting around that it seems like the sort of thing a more illogical race would invent.

I like that. It's always good to acknowledge that the universe you're playing in is a bit silly sometimes.

 

[Masiral]

This book was definitely a lot better than the episode "Daedalus"

The only dud of season four (assuming you're one of those who tolerate the finale ).

I never really understood the reasoning behind the episode. Surely there should be no such thing as the Human inventor of the transporter? Surely Humans acquired that technology from the Vulcans or another race, or at least were fed the basic theories by Vulcan advisors?

The Vulcans didn't even share shield technology with Humans, so I'm not surprised that they didn't teach them how to build a transporter either.

 

[Mudd]

The ship launches on schedule, and as Trip watches in horror, it explodes in a catastrophic ion cascade reaction, killing all aboard.​

And here Starfleet had thought they'd dodged a bullet by not naming it Icarus.
​

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^In A Choice of Futures, I suggested that the Vulcans weren't generally in enough of a hurry to feel the need for personnel transporters. It's a crazy enough way of getting around that it seems like the sort of thing a more illogical race would invent.

It's illogical to have another system in place to get on/off the ship in case the shuttles aren't available?

 

[Enterprise1701]

But didn't the Vulcans share some technological advances to fix Earth's environmental damage?

 

[Christopher]

But didn't the Vulcans share some technological advances to fix Earth's environmental damage?

I believe I did mention that in A Choice of Futures, yes.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

But didn't the Vulcans share some technological advances to fix Earth's environmental damage?

Not only that, I've always assumed the Vulcans flat-out helped Earth clean up and rebuild after World War III. Otherwise there's no way Earth could have recovered that quickly - the environmental damage alone would be catastrophic, and even ONE major city would take over a century (probably more like two) to rebuild. Never mind an entire planet full of them.

Add to that, the almost certain fact that Earth's technological base would be completely obliterated following a major nuclear exchange. You can't rebuild a civilization if you have nothing to rebuild WITH...

 

[Christopher]

^The exchange can't have been too major, since Earth retained enough of an industrial base to build a prototype warp vessel.

The thing is, the assumption was always that a nuclear war would pretty much destroy all civilization, but a war fought more with tactical nuclear weapons, as a more limited exchange, wouldn't be quite so apocalyptic. Especially if, as the books suggested, a lot of the strikes were aerial detonations above major cities, causing EMP that would devastate the technological infrastructure but not cause too much physical destruction.

 

[Killie]

I had to look out my review of this book which is here - http://startrekadventure.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/star-trek-enterprise-daedalus-dave-stern.html

Anyway, it was an enjoyable book although I did get a bit confused by the name and the associated Episode tbh.

 

[tomswift2002]

This book was definitely a lot better than the episode "Daedalus"

The only dud of season four (assuming you're one of those who tolerate the finale ).

The finale I don't even consider as canon, much less the entire Enterprise TV series. I always thought the books were more canonical than the show.