^ Where did you get your copy, if I might ask? I have it pre-ordered from B&N.com and I haven't received a shipping notification yet. Very much looking forward to getting my hands on it.
While I eagerly await this opus, I don't have a worm on my tongue (you know, "baited" breath); I've still got a little under 200 pages to go reading Ben-Hur, and I've got three other books (a religious work by a friend of mine who just happens to be a truly brilliant Methodist pastor, a memoir in cartoons by Roz Chast, and Kathleen Cairns' The Case of Rose Bird) in the queue. As soon as I see that the local B&N stores have it, I'll pick it up.
^ Thanks! Appreciate that. Just found out that B&N has shipped my copy, but that it won't arrive until Saturday. At least I'll have it for the weekend.
Book finally arrived yesterday, and got started last night. Liking it so far (not that I expected to do otherwise!)
hmm looks like ebooks might be out now? Might pull the trigger. I totally had never read / heard of From History's Shadow or Elusive Salvation though so I'm kinda bummed about that.
Just opened the kindle app at work to see that the book is there and waiting! Now to actually get through work!
Judging by my calendar it looks like the e-book versions of the paperbacks are typically released on the last Tuesday of the month.
So I bought "Hearts and Minds" at midnight, read the whole thing in about two and a half hours, then went to bed. When I woke up this morning to go to work, I realized the only thing I could clearly remember was Admiral Akaar and Captain Picard discussing the consequences of "Control" at the end of the book, and now I have to go back and reread it all again. It was a good read, though, so congratulations, Mr. Ward, on a good follow-up to both "From History's Shadow" and "Elusive Salvation".
Spoiler: stuff from the ending with a vague story idea While I get this is essentially meant to be the ending of a trilogy that consists of this, From History's Shadow and Elusive Salvation, reading the epilogue I couldn't help but notice that it could serve as a springboard to a novel set in the early 22nd century. Which I would totally devour.
Initial thoughts: Really enjoyed the intro with the Enterprise's younger senior staff. The novel-crew can be wooden sometimes in other books, but they definitely felt like real people here; a lot of fun banter. I'm hoping this continues through. Of the TNG series, I've been feeling like so many words and pages have featured characters like Konya, Elfiki, and Smrhova but they've yet to really stand out as people to me the way Taurik and Chen's coverage have given them. They've tended to have really simple characterizations and motivations to me. Dygan has been a little more explored, but he also just kind of feels like 'New Age, Nice Cardassian Guy' that was pretty well covered with Dakal from Titan. And I am still patiently waiting for Faur to be more than Conn officer that also has a recurring name. Titan, overall, has done a great job fleshing out its characters that really feels like a crew... like a family. Even the Aventine crew feels like they have fun together. And in my ST, I've always felt like it is at its best when the characters are a family, and that really started for me in TNG proper. So I've been a bit saddened that the age and experience gap between the senior officers of the current Enterprise is so huge that it really just feels like just a senior staff; a bunch of people at work. The young kids do their things, the old guard do theirs.. with very few intimate character interactions between the gap aside from Chen's relationship with Picard, which isn't even that big of a deal anymore either. And I don't mean like Worf pushing Smrhova to be a better officer and to believe in herself. I mean situations like Dr. Crusher teaching Data how to tap dance.
SPOILERS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I do not know how to use the hidden tab thing. Hope I gave enough warning. I am about 40% through and I must say I am a little disappointed. The stuff set in 2386 is great but the flash backs to the 2030s and a story line about Aegis and their agents are not doing it for me. Maybe its because I just read the Khan series recently. . Also the parallel of the movie "Martian" seems too unoriginal and used just for filler. I would have expected more from Dayton Ward. I was hoping for a book decent book that focused on the crew more. All the talk of reverse engineering and people already knowing about life on other worlds kind of ruins everything that happened in Enterprise and beyond for me. Hopefully it gets better.