Spoilers Coda: Book 2: The Ashes of Tomorrow by James Swallow Review Thread

We saw him on (and in temporary command of) a sister ship of the Defiant. the Monitor, all the way back in 1996's The Return.

 

That’s the ShatnerVerse. Something we wish we saw something of in Coda.

 

The Shatnerverse was, for the most part, shit.

 

How dare you good sir.
I admit I haven’t read any of them in nearly 20 years so I don’t remember them that much

 

Ashes of Eden was interesting. The Return was okay. Everything after that was very meh.

 

That was ok - the fight scenes are still too repetitive and the bad guys still poorly drawn but some good character work in the framework that JS has to work with.

I still think this is all a little too trad - if you are going to erase the Universe go for broke.

So who is left to appear? I am guessing Janeway will fly in at a critical moment (side-bet - she will have a child due to five years since we last saw her. For some reason Trek characters all have to have children eventually). We also need an appearance from Seven I think ?

A big question that has been raised twice - where are the Q and all the higher life forms?

They could be dead but I wonder if they have actually sealed off this collection of timelines in a box and left it to collopse.

 

I dropped out of the litverse around about "Armageddon's Arrow" (nothing to do with the book, mostly a time thing), and considered trying to catch up before reading Coda but figured I'd be spoiled on the endings long before I caught up so have just dived straight in, enjoyed both books so far.

I do wonder what the point is of Jake, Keiko etc getting away just in the nick of time if they are all going to cease to exist by the end of book 3 anyway. Makes me think there are 3 likely outcomes:

1) The litverse timeline is sacrificed to save the others and ceases to exist.
2) They manage to save the timeline and the surviving characters live the rest of their lives.
3) Some sort of reset restores everything to the start of book 1 and everyone lives. Or resets everything all the way back to Nemesis, and it becomes the PIC/TV/canon timeline.

I wonder if it'll end with Picard waking up at his vineyard, with a vague recollection/dream of the other timeline that he quickly dismisses and then goes about his day?

Can't wait for book 3 either way!

It's funny the Shatnerverse was mentioned above, the first thing I thought of when everyone was on the Defiant at the end was "The Return" and everyone aboard the Monitor.

 

I've started this. Andorian cloning scandal reference!

Thank you James. All is right with the world.

 

I agree with above about the villains. I’d rather they had more of a voice. The Sphere Builders could have worked as well.

 

You need to keep the reader guessing right?

I think it would be amazing if every dies in the final book.

 

I've seen several people excited about this reference. I bowed out of the novelverse around Soul Key (with a few exceptions for the major crossover events). Could you explain the significance?

 

So there’s apparently only one Naga, all of the others are versions of the same creature (the same as with the 4 Wesleys).

What if the grand plan involves killing it at an early point in its life so all of these different versions no longer exist.

The lit verse has always had a history of these nagas. The removal of them forms the Canon (Picard) universe.

For example a Naga killed whoever went onto artificially destroy the Romulan Sun. With them removed they go and destroy it causing Picard to transfer to the Verity etc.

 

Wasn't it stated that they may have to destroy their reality to save the others? And when did the Kira and Odo relationship become so cold?

 

After Andor seceded from the Federation, there was a Titan novel where an Andorian ship, intent on retrieving the Andorian members of Titan’s crew whether they wanted to go home or not, made transporter duplicates of all the Andorians who stayed on the Titan so they could leave them and kidnap them simultaneously. Whatever dark plans existed for these duplicates went unrevealed, as this shocking twist ending cliffhanger was never followed up on, or even alluded to until now.

 

Just a minor technical note - that Picard was actually the Captain or part of the crew of the Verity is (new) Beta canon.

I am happy to be corrected but nothing on screen says that.

(Does the Verity even exist in canon?)

 

Yes you’re right. Same idea though but with “goes onto command the effort to evacuate Romulus”

 

Nope.

 

Liked it, much better style than part one. Actually stood on its own, better character beats and the deaths felt more earned and less random/gratuitous. Hooked in most of the rest of the loose ends I tried to list in the part 1 thread. Not sure I liked Riker as the antagonist, but they were running out of scut work to assign to Captains, so an extra Admiral would have been even more. See how it plays out, but could have lived without any more mirror universe, too many drinks from that well.

bring on part 3, curious to see how it wraps up

 

About half way through. Looks like Riker is losing it.
Is the fact that Spock and Saavik are not married a sign the Litverse timeline is already changed?

 

Wow. Well that ticked all the boxes. Not sure what death hit me the most

Some loose ends and strange character behaviours to tie up but based on the first two books they'll stick the landing in your finale.

A few more cameos would be awesome but spoilt already