Spoilers TTN: Fortune Of War by David Mack Review Thread

Everyone

 

I guess you could tell that I grew up watching Looney Tunes on Saturday mornings. :-)

 

The comedy of errors with the different factions chasing down the Husnock artifacts reminded me of Justified around season 3 or 4, when there would be revolving doors of major and minor criminals all going after the same jackpot.

 

Perhaps a more concise answer could be found for the question,
"Who isn't after the Husnock technology?"

Presumably the Organians, the Metrons, and the Douwd, to name three.

And I'm quite capable of skipping over any posts that appear to contain open spoilers, given the warning flag for the thread, even if it is my choice to spoler-tag any major spoilers I post, even if it's in a spoiler-tagged thread about a decade-old book. (As TV chef Graham Kerr was wont to say about using reverse-osmosis-dealcoholized wine in his final [to date] TV series, it is my choice, and I respect everybody else's choice.)

 

I've been Reading this book and like it alot. I really enjoyed listening to Trek.m interviewing David Mack on Literary Treks it was a really good interview and I hope someday MR.Mack will write another trek novel someday.

 

Just finished this one last night. Weird to think that, beyond Architects of Infinity, it'll be the last look we have at the 24th century (within the novels' continuity) for the foreseeable future.

As usual, David Mack gave us a fun and compelling Trek story. I was especially fond of the scenes from the Pakled's point of view. I imagine it was a challenging writing exercise to balance their apparent dimwittedness while conveying that maybe they're not as dumb as they seem on the surface.

 

Just finished it and I and I couldn't be more pleased! It's no secret that David Mack has some of the best action and engaging plots and this one sure didn't disappoint. Loved all the callbacks to TNG races celebrating one of my favorite random episodes of the series as well. But most of all, that ending! I love how I went from hating Sarai in her previous appearances in other books to questioning her motives to sympathizing with her misfortunes all the way to just plain loving the hell out of her by the end of this book. And the payoff on the last page was so, so satisfying. One of the best things to any good Star Trek is teamwork, compassion, and loyalty among its crew. Sarai just got upgraded from spy to family.

I am pained to know that we won't be seeing these characters or a continuation/conclusion to this story thread for quite some time (for crap's sake, maybe EVER) but I sure hope it's sooner than later.

 

After DS9 Titan would be my favorite iteration of the Trek universe.I really enjoyed this book especially the various gangs of alien scuzzballs chasing the Husnock hoard.
Riker though is unfortunately noticeable by his absence during much of the battle scenes,in a series whose main selling point was the further adventures of Captain Riker,removing him from actual command to an overall administrative role is probably a mistake.
Sarai proved to be another great character it will be interesting to see where her story goes.

And does anyone agree that perhaps Federation vessels could do with a detachment of Starfleet commandos of their own?

 

Can— that is, continuit-ize the Hazard Team! Just the first game, don't worry about the sequel (though it might make a little more sense with the novelverse if you put it on the Titan instead of the -E. Might be an interesting mod, if anybody knows someone who sounds like Jonathan Frakes to replace Picard's lines).

 

I don’t know anything about Trek online I’m afraid.

But in a Trek universe that seems to be getting darker and more dangerous all the time I would feel better having someone more capable than the glass-jawed brigade of Starfleet security at my back.

 

I finished reading this book I really liked the story being a follow up to a TNG tv episode. It was really good I hope there will be another Titan book someday.

 

Hmm. I couldn't leave the final chapters alone last night, even though it cost me some sleep.

Didn't we have another ST novel, a few years ago, in which everybody and his tribble were climbing over each other to get some new overwhelming technology?

Loved the ending, . . .

Spoiler: . . . with the . . .

. . . with the "pull-back" to reveal Riker and Vale listening on on Sarai's report.

One thing that bugged me about the whole premise was . . .

Spoiler: . . . the matter of . . .

. . . the matter of Uxbridge wiping out the whole Husnock species, but leaving all their technology sitting around, waiting to be discovered (and then doing nothing to correct that oversight). He struck me as being overcome with shame and remorse, not with stupidity.

Also liked the glimpse into Husnock society.

 

I don't think it was so much stupidity as it was his instant guilt for what he did. After going to the trouble of bursting them into screaming flames, destroying every bit of their civilization afterwards seems like it would have just been adding insult to injury. We see him regret his actions when Picard speaks with him about it, so perhaps after he wiped them out, going so far as to erasing all that they built was too far. At least with their ruins left behind, people could at least study them and they would still be alive as part of history as opposed to no one ever knowing they existed. He wasn't worried about wiping out the danger that the Husnock society posed, but rather killing them in an instant fit of rage.

In a way, after he killed all the villagers he couldn't go through with burning down the village and then salting the earth.

 

I'd always read (so to speak) his confession in the episode as a confession of having wiped the Husnock from the memory of the universe.

But my own interpretation is clearly not the only valid one. Or even necessarily the most valid one. Some might not even consider it to be a valid one.

 

/\Hey man,relax.
Everything on here is interpretation.

 

My point exactly. And I wasn't uptight about it (certainly not the way I've been uptight about other things, and certainly not the way I am uptight -- and damn proud of it -- about the "autobiographies").